I got on the @gnomestew.bsky.social mics with @orikes.bsky.social and @soless.bsky.social to talk about how to teach new rules to players. We cover quite a bit, and have some fun stories to tell along the way. gnomestew.com/gnomecast-23...

Right. Because we all know video games cause gun violence and rap music causes anti-police behavior and novels cause Victorian women to get the vapors.

Real Life can interrupt your #ttrpg sessions, slow down the progress of your story, and sometimes even halt campaigns. Over at @gnomestew.bsky.social, I got together with @orikes.bsky.social and @soless.bsky.social on the mics to talk about what all this entails. gnomestew.com/gnomecast-23...

to the many folks mentioning the brutalizing of student protesters in 2023-2024 — yes, I covered this extremely closely at the time:

looks like this lil guy from "the temptation of saint anthony," by a follower of pieter bruegel the elder (ca 1550 or 1575)

one of the funny truths you learn if you write in the cross-genre romance space is that people who don't like the sex will hallucinate massive amounts of it in your book, and people who wanted more sex will be able to estimate an exact sex word count within like 75 words. They'll both be mad tho.

If you know someone who is really great at running an RPG, you have got to hold on to them, you know? Carpe DM, friends!

It’s always a good day when I get to record with these two!

Went to Bangkok to see some friends and found a @tkingfisher.com book on the self!

It's not just a heist. It's a rescue mission. On 10 February 2026, Relooted arrives at a museum (and store page, we guess) near you. #indiegame

Today's my birthday! And I'm launching a new thing, which is a bit scary and I need your help to spread the word. So! Today THE THIRTEENTH GOD, my new military progression fantasy magitech Mad Max x Final Fantasy x Gurren Lagann serial starts over at Royal Road! www.royalroad.com/fiction/1472...

Working on this project was one of the highlights of my (Very Rough™️) year. It was an honor, a pleasure, and a point of pride to put out each and every one of these essays. (And getting to add some of my art to vol 3 on top of everything else was a dream come true.)

Some reflections on my first year of publishing Love Letters: Reasons to Be Alive. What an incredible year it has been. How very, very lucky I am. (Unsurprisingly, content notes here for frank discussions of grief and suicidality.)

At the end of each year I publish a community roundup of awards-eligible work for folks to check out! Go add your information so I can put you on the list for 2026.

Coming out of my cage And I'm doing not great I was just in a cage (I was just in a cage)

COVER REVEAL: My next book is a standalone science fiction cyberpunk thriller starring aging corporate samurai. The Last Contract of Isako will be out on May 5, 2026 from @orbitbooks.bsky.social. Can't wait to share it with you. Thank you to @tommypocket.bsky.social for this kickass cover ⚔️

She hath risen.

I hope you all read this from me.

Also important this week: A trustworthy guide to childhood vaccine schedules, from actual pediatricians (many of whom saw these diseases before they could be vaccinated against). * pin it & share it * Ps: no, pediatricians are not pharma shills, don’t @ me www.healthychildren.org/English/safe...

I hope you joined us for @joshrountree.bsky.social's book release today, and if you didn't, well, there's tomorrow and the next day, too. A story of melancholy, regret, and pain. But one of love, too.

Run enough #ttrpg campaigns over a long enough time and all of the different systems start to mix into a weird mechanical stew…

Some people are struggling now that Pathfinder has removed alignment; We have provided a solution. Subscribe to Pathfinder: https://buff.ly/2kVyf0e

My "Year in Review" essay is up on the Locus Magazine aka @locusmag.bsky.social site! locusmag.com/2025/02/the-...

My players call this “Starbursting” and they do it ALL THE TIME. You know what, though? I sorta love it. In this episode, we give solid advice for running split parties and easy tips for making sure the spotlight gets shared.

Every program everywhere: command+K? What link would you want to embed? Slack: Search? Search?! SEARCH!!!!!!!!! S̶̰͍̦̫̮̆̉̎͆́̌͊͛͆E̶͈͉̗͍̥͇͇̹̺̩͎͚͚͙̳̊̔̃̈́̉̔̊̈́́̍̔̐͘̚͠A̶͚̺̲̞̹̼̩͛́̓̿̊͛͛̅̈̌̚̕R̴̮̎͐̑̔̎̄C̴̨̧̧̡̯̮͓̥̮̱͓͆͊̅͆͗̄̽̍͌͝ͅH̶̢̼͉̗̗̲̾̽̄̑̍̌̆

When talking about book bans, the acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights said, “The department [of education] adheres to the deeply rooted American principle that local control over public education best allows parents and teachers alike to assess the educational needs of their children..."

Starting in February, I'll be running a Trans Reading Group that's open to everyone but centres trans-authored books in a variety of genres. It occurred to me that, if anyone was interested, maybe I could host a virtual session each month as well (probably on Discord). Would anyone be interested?

Getting lost in the stacks at @pegasusbookexchange is my safe space. I always find something I didn’t know I was looking for. #ReadFreely @authorsagainstbookbans @americanbooksellers @abfefreeexpression

Over-the-top melodramatic sword fights? Yes please. Sword Opera www.kickstarter.com/projects/myt... #ttrpg

One of the things we should be prepared to see more of? Parents being robbed of their choices for their own children, under the argument that if they were going to choose access to LGBTQ+ content/inclusion they weren't fit to make those choices at all. That's the argument one lib board makes here.

We are about to enter an era of extreme and dangerous culture war in the United States. How do we protect our communities and work toward a cultural ceasefire? In this piece I wrote a couple months ago, I offer one possible path. wapo.st/40q1BDn

Today, I translated four poems by Sophia Parnok, an out, horny Russian lesbian poet who lived and loved through a revolution, a civil war, and the rise of a repressive dictator. In style. buttondown.com/theswordandt...

if you see this post, your actions are: - if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this - if you don't have a spare buck, just repost your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive

Great news for Arkansas. The law that would mean jail time for librarians has been struck down: www.cbsnews.com/news/arkansa... #bookbans #censorship

After nearly three decades, a Minnesota summer camp for kids with HIV/AIDS is closing and up for sale... because retroviral drugs are so effective that there aren't enough campers. Science works, y'all. www.startribune.com/closure-of-n...

Ok, folks. Buckle up, because I'm about to give you a very long thread of guidance about internet privacy and safety in an evolving landscape. I am a security architect with more than twenty years of experience in this maelstrom, so hold on tight. 🧵 Odin is as tired as we are.

As I wrap up 2024, I think it's time to revisit the Stories About Stories interview series I published this year! If you missed it, now's your chance to check out all seven long-form interviews with the teams behind some truly incredible books. stone-soup.ghost.io/stories-abou...

I collect library cards. One of my favorites is the Queer Liberation Library: An entirely digital collection and anyone can sign up for a membership. They have a really good Libby collection, and are adding all the time. #booksky 🌈📚 💙📚 www.queerliberationlibrary.org/members

A few important things about the Texas lawsuit against a New York abortion provider: 1) Ken Paxton appears to be lying about the patient suffering "serious complications" that "required medical intervention." 2) We need to talk about how Paxton found out about this abortion

“Man is the wettest place to hide” is one hell of a tagline, good lord.

More specifically, Stylish But Illegal Monkey Day is also the day gay marriage was legalized in Washington State. Three years before it became legal nationwide. Gay marriage has been legal in the United States for less than a decade. It’s newer than this monkey meme. Sit with that a spell.