Yeah, looks like Night Shade did not. My books are in the set pirated by Anthropic, but I won't see any compensation thanks to that. Ah, publishing. What a trash fire of an industry.

Made it through my mastectomy surgery! Took 11 hours but of course I was happily asleep the whole time. Now for the nail biting wait for pathology & the long recovery.They have me on the good drugs so for now there isn't pain. But the checks on the reconstructed area every hour do make sleeping hard

State of the Schafer: in which there is more cancer, but also more mountains courtney-schafer.blogspot.com/2025/08/stat...

And of course, it's not the Sierra without some roaring cascades of whitewater

It's past peak wildflower season, but I still saw some lovely flower displays along the trail (N Fork of Big Pine Creek).

Started off my Sierra adventures with an acclimatization hike to one of the most beautiful lakes easily accessible from east side. It has a boring name (Second Lake) but an incredible view.

After many years, I have returned to the Sierra Nevada for a few adventures. Eastern Sierra and Owens Valley are just as majestic as I remember. God I love these mountains.

State of the Schafer: Another Big Catch-up, in which I share what I've been up to in the past months courtney-schafer.blogspot.com/2025/05/stat...

So Wired Magazine did a profile of me! www.wired.com/story/murder...

State of the Schafer: in which I am busy, but not too busy to vote courtney-schafer.blogspot.com/2024/11/stat...

State of the Schafer: a mixed bag of news and a whole lot of pics (from Aoraki Mt Cook National Park, Japan, Wellington, and local adventures) courtney-schafer.blogspot.com/2024/06/stat...

At long last I have seen the aurora australis! Every other time it's been strong, either sky was too cloudy or I was too tired. Tonight was epic. Red & green beams visible to naked eye

Really good read 👇🏻 (I have an intense love for the Eastern Sierra corridor of California that stretches from Ridgecrest up to the Nevada border so this was doubly interesting)

New Year’s Eve ONLY — THE WATER OUTLAWS ebook is $2.99!!!! 🗡 Genderdiverse bandits. 🌟 A female protagonist in her 40s. 🏮 Like a Hong Kong martial arts movie, but super, duper queer. us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Looking back at the latter half of 2023, which was certainly a better experience for me than the first: courtney-schafer.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-...

Summer is off to a good start with a lovely day out on the Skyline Ridge track, ascending Roy's Peak and Mt Alpha.

Been silent for a while because I was visiting family in the US (first time seeing them since pre-pandemic!). On the long journey home to NZ, when the plane flew over the Sierra I got treated to a pretty neat view of Half Dome.

After a week of wild weather, I'm feeling very appreciative of this glorious spring sunshine

Since I'm new here and seeing new faces, I thought I'd introduce you to my pandemic books, which didn't do well, b/c pandemic. If you like stories with found families and LGBTQ+ families kicking Nazis to the curb, you might like these:

Happiness is a new T. Kingfisher book! After a kinda rough week (nothing serious, just a bunch of smaller stresses, but they added up fast), I'm sooooo looking forward to diving into this.

I haven't posted much here (scrolling SM is a struggle with my disability), but I would love for you to pick up my new science fiction novel, MERU. It's got space travel, genetics, and posthumans with solar wings. The ebook is on sale this week at Amazon for only $2.49. Get it cheap while you can!

This week only 8/7 - 8/13 FURIOUS HEAVEN is on ebook sale (on Amazon USA) for $2.99 as part of a Kindle Big Deal promotion. A fantastic price for hours and HOURS of space opera reading enjoyment.

The pupster makes a great giraffe

I always tell young writers, “Not everyone has to like your work. Some people hate artichokes. That doesn’t make them a bad vegetable.”

Enjoyed my first ski day of the season. Our local area is still really hurting for snow, so not many runs open, but I didn't care, it was just great to be up there.

All done with yet another surgery! But this is the last one. As of now, I am done with all things breast cancer related (at least until follow-up scans at 6 month mark). Soooooo excited to get back to outdoor adventures again. And more regular writing! Some women write on thru, but that wasn't me.

Ugh, why is it so much harder to make good gluten free cookies compared to GF cake or scones? Maybe I need to try making my own flour blend. (Not a lot of choices available here for premade GF flour.)

Not much snow so far this winter (apparently Australia is getting it all!) but we have had some lovely calm days

I may be enjoying Bluesky so far, but Comet is not impressed (he wants his walk.)

Coming up for air after a long few months of treatment for early-stage breast cancer. Very successful treatment! All is well, I feel so fortunate that it was caught early. (Get your screenings, friends!) Still, it was an isolating experience, so now I've resolved to connect more, both online & IRL.