screaming this line into the void: "Entirely too many writers—and a fair amount of readers—think that all you need is two-finger prep, a 'good girl' and a 'you take me so well' and you’re all set."

My parents had golden retrievers since before I was born, five total, although not all at the same time. The last of the goldens lived fifteen years. For a golden, she was a bit of a grouch, but she was a good girl. And she really loved her tennis balls.

I'm working on a new portfolio piece -- a Roman-inspired fantasy city. My goal is for this one to be as much cityscape as map.

Another blog post this morning! This time, I have a short list of recently published books with creepy houses: bysinginglight.wordpress.com/2026/04/28/b...

There’s a new issue of Intergalactic Mixtape! 50 issues already! 🥳 🪐📚

"It’s gory and generous, wry and expansive, a monster story that asks the reader to live with multiple conflicting truths, consenting to cut ourselves on their ragged edges." If you ask @readingtheend.bsky.social, everyone should read Hache Pueyo's Cabaret in Flames:

Happy #PortfolioDay! My name is Sarah, and I'm an illustrator specializing in maps. I work primarily with authors and publishers, and my maps span contemporary small towns to fantasy worlds. 🌐: theillustratedpage.net/design/portf... ✉️: sarahwaitestx @ gmail

📖 Magus of the Library 📖 Painted for Magic: The Gathering - Secrets of Strixhaven AD: Sarah Wassel Yay, I have finally new art to show. This certainly was an usual card for me to paint. Loved the challenge tho!❤️

a frustrated review of a book (not a romance, despite what the design choices and jacket copy might suggest!) that I also found really frustrating: ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/2026/04/06/e...

I made a new profile picture for myself to use on various social media sites! I wanted something in the same flat color style that I've been using the last few years. This is actually the same method across both my maps and the oracle card deck I'm working on -- the maps just have line art!

"Earthsea was better" sure, but if Ursula Le Guin was alive and funding Nazis then you would need to boycott her too, whether they're good books is beside the point

I don’t usually campaign for awards, but this year I’ve decided to go for broke for a Fan Writer Hugo Award. Yay me! 1/

I love when creative people boost others in their field, so I’ll pick up the baton and note that Sarah is also eligible in Best Pro Artist. Check out the fabulous cover she did for my story collection (released 2025). books2read.com/u/bMMqp8

Hugo noms are open, and I want to talk about Best Pro Artist! I was making a thread of some never-before-nominated artists... but I quit after three because it's taking an eon to research which pieces were published in 2025. So maybe just share eligible artists here? Here's the three I found!

Are there any threads going around of artists eligible for the Hugo's Best Professional artist? Or should I make one? (if I make one, it will not be today... I've got my own art pieces I've got deadlines for)

A map I created for the Dungeons & Donuts Kickstarter campaign! Embervale is a city a bit obsessed with dragons... I lost track of how many dragons I drew in here. Some are pretty easy to spot, but I also did little dragon roof gargoyles and wall murals!

good morning, I have noticed that some of the critical responses to the Crave show Heated Rivalry have been, let's say, incomplete sex scenes are craft! goddammit!

Convincing you to read my novel by the first sentence. Share yours if you want. (Here's the opening of "God's War". Still my most iconic)

Here's a town map I did for Luna Ryder's current cozy fantasy Kickstarter, The Wheel Deal! The "Old Briarhaven" area is inhabited by centaurs, hence the ramps instead of stairs.

ICYMI: I wrote about the corporate-IP-ification of fanfic, and how heavily normative biases inflect what's being plucked out of fandom for big fancy book deals.

"Feed fanfic into capitalism, and it comes out shaped like capitalism." @readingtheend.bsky.social dissects the trend pulling fanfiction through the traditional publishing pipeline (and what it means for fandom): reactormag.com/with-the-ser...

Today would have been @thez.bsky.social’s 29th birthday. Happy birthday Zoe. I miss you every day.

My advice to people, as it has been since the USENET days, is simply this: Everything that can be made public on the Internet one day will be made public. Say what you want and what you feel is necessary, and remember it will be found.

It’s an absolute shame that DC fired Gretchen Felker- Martin for exercising free speech and then @bsky.app suspended her account. Every writer here should be decrying this because we have to stand up for each other! This is ridiculous.

YOU HAVE ENTERED THE TINGLEVERSE. THIS IS A NO GATEKEEPING ZONE

A phrase I strongly recommend everyone add to their lexicon: "I haven't read widely in ___." It's factual, doesn't make a judgement about the genre, doesn't pass off an opinion as an objective assessment, and acknowledges that genres overlap and labels are subjective.

100% this. One of THE most important things you will learn or ought to learn as a bookseller (OR writer OR reviewer OR avid reader) is that all genres are valid, there is groundbreaking work happening right now in Every Single Genre, and to STFU on reductive, condescending takes.

In the last year or so, I've read several fantasy books that are 1) by & about queer people and 2) set in Appalachia (more or less explicitly). Here they are!

There are traditions and conversations within every genre and literature tradition that go unseen and unacknowledged by people who think that Dune defines sci-fi.

I just! would love to retire the idea that criticism is inherently a destructive force. it can be, and we can all think of cases like that (ahem ahem Star Wars fandom), but thoughtful criticism is highly CONstructive. important part of a creative ecosystem! in my opinion! end of thread! 14/14

I feel so frustrated any time a post goes around suggesting that it's mean to criticize art because art is hard to make. there are two ways to read the word "criticism" here, and whichever one this most recent post means, I ardently disagree with it. 1/

So many publicity emails for romantasy are all, "She's a scrappy working-class underdog with traumatic backstory! He's the heir to the throne, a power-hungry force of savage destruction! He's the embodiment of everything she loathes and cannot trust, but he's SOOO hot and can't stay away from her!"

A second cityscape study. I'm trying to get textures of brick and stone across with few brush strokes. This one was also about two hours.

Today's study... a cityscape. I think I'll focus on urban scenes for a bit. This took me two hours, and I want to get that time down.

I'm trying to get back into digital painting studies. Here's a landscape painting I spent 40 minutes on. I want to practice some more landscapes, cityscapes, and different textures. Also, I'm experimenting with Rebelle, a new-to-me painting software.

The Hallowed Grove For the boardgame expansion pack "Minos: Dawn of Faith" I was asked to imagine what religious ceremonies in ancient Minoan culture could have looked like. This is one of 4 illustrations I made for them on this topic, a kind of harvest ritual. Client: Board&Dice #art

Overgrown 🌱

This one is done for @thebrokennbinding , cover art for Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Next year's WorldCon is in Los Angeles, and the theme appears to be Westward Expansion or possibly Manifest Destiny. The guests are referred to as Pioneers and the venue as The Frontier. This year the awards were swept by Indigenous writers. The choice is stunning in its ugliness.

Two maps for lesbian romance author Sacha Black's new dark academia, Architecti! These two maps (Finis's campus and the cutaway of the inverted tower at the center) are two of the most detailed and complicated maps I've ever drawn.

I don't know how it got to be the end of summer but... Hi! I'm the book content editor for Reactor Mag and I'm looking for 2026 sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and crossover speculative books! If you've got an adult or YA SFFH book publishing next year please share the link/info here!

I've been seeing a huge uptick in fantasy queries where only the oldest, purest bloodlines have powerful magic, or where the MC is a super special but super illegal "half-breed" and folks, it's 2025. Can we please be more careful with how we engage with eugenics/blood quantum/bloodline purity? Thx.

good morning! my latest at Reactor: H.E. Edgmon's We Can Never Leave is about a group of teens whose magic cult family suddenly all disappear at once -- and the teens are left trying to figure out what to do next.

I'm thrilled to share that the Green Bone Saga is being adapted into a TTRPG by @evilhat.bsky.social. Yes, now you too can be a jade warrior prowling the streets of Janloon. More info & sign up to playtest at the link below 👇

I've counted up, and I think I'm at 120 maps made for clients? If I was keeping track all along, I would have celebrated reaching 100!

My first ever illustrated book cover! I've been contemplating going back to cover design with illustration -- thank you Heather for working with me!

To investors: we can spot talent a mile away. We make STRATEGIC investments that shape the LANDSCAPE of publishing. To the DOJ: i am but a smol bean throwing darts at a board full of manuscripts. I don’t even know what’s in them. In fact, I can’t even read.

okay it is now Monday morning, which means I am less of a hater. if you are a genre girlie who would care for some litfic recs, please tell me one or two assigned reading books you actually enjoyed in school, plus one or two recent books of any genre that you loved.

Here's a map I just shared to my Instagram! A small town for author Tara Lush's Crescent Moon Mysteries series. Can you spot the ghost?

can we pleeeeeeease I am begging you PLEASE retire the trope that literary fiction is all/mostly about professors having sex with their students please I am begging I'm just a genre girlie standing in front of a bunch of other genre girlies (gender-neutral) begging them to get a new talking point