Applications are open until January 14 for disabled artists/writers/musicians/etc in Canada for a Knowledge & Mentorship Initiative. https://redefinearts.ca/blog/kimi-mentor-roster #disabled #canada #mentorship

Without vultures, we are screwed. https://www.aaha.org/trends-magazine/publications/roughly-70-dead-vultures-found-in-ohio-test-positive-for-bird-flu/ #birdflu #keystonespecies #H5N1 #vultures

Without vultures, we are screwed. https://www.aaha.org/trends-magazine/publications/roughly-70-dead-vultures-found-in-ohio-test-positive-for-bird-flu/ #birdflu #keystonespecies #H5N1 #vultures

Leaether Strip is raising money for an animal shelter/rescue centre with this cover of Covenant's "Call The Ships to Port." You can also download it for free if you can't donate right now. https://leaetherstrip.bandcamp.com/album/call-the-ships-to-port-covenant-cover-version #IndustrialMusic […]

I just gave notice at the gym I've attended for the past few years. The scheduling conflicts have been too rough. Starting up at a new private gym with great equipment, few people, and 24/7 availability. I'll miss my coaches.

Oh god. Oh man. https://youtu.be/i3fqR0yuWoU?si=CiIl3Fe2-vsdLv6Q

I spent most of today sending stories off to various lit mags, and now I'm working on a story about a demon-possessed vibrator. #amwriting

Not sure how it happened, but two publications I was in last year have the exact same cover art. https://a.co/d/7SApflZ and https://a.co/d/dRX4c5U #publishing #bookstodon #writingcommunity

#wordweavers 1 Jan 2026: What are your wildest (writing-related) dreams for this year? To procure the services of a great literary agent, to sell at least one of my full-length manuscripts, and to complete writing two novellas and a new collection of short stories. Maybe I'll even win a prize […]

I made a new blog post about health, publications, and a good new short story. https://shanmonster.dreamwidth.org/1031845.html #blog #writing #publishing #health #recovery

Today is the 27th anniversary of the first time I smoked a doob.

Happy New Year's Day from me and birthday boy. He turns six tomorrow. #chinchilla

Today is your last chance to download free anthologies and other goodies from Strong Women Strange Worlds' grab bag. I cowrote a scifi tale in Round Robin Stories. https://books.bookfunnel.com/2025swagbag/8cpw1ru1qj #anthology #speculativefiction #scifi #bookstodon #writingcommunity #books

My poem "-ocide" is now available to read and/or listen to on Eavesdrop Magazine. https://www.eavesdropmagazine.ca #poetry #poetrycommunity #ecopoetry #writersofmastodon @indigenousauthors

I gave my roommate some veggies for their guinea pig, and when they went to give them to her, she was dead. I don't know what happened, but everyone is sad. That was a sweet little guinea pig.

YOUR CLAM YEAR IN REVIEW - There are over ten thousand known species of clams and tens of thousands more undescribed. Please do your part and find a few species next year. - Cultured bivalves alone help remove over 49,000 tons of nitrogen from our waterways every year, along with other […]

So far this month, I've sent off 47 writing submissions, had 50 rejections, and one acceptance. Next year, I plan on recording submissions/rejections/acceptances every month. This is as close to a New Year's resolution as I'm likely to make. #writingcommunity #publishing

My credit card got canceled by the bank a week before Xmas because it was compromised, and I still don't have my replace. It's been helluva inconvenient. Also, bad form doing it right before Xmas, isn't it?

Since BoP & I are watching the #PercyJackson show & the kids are discussing using the strategy of Odysseus in their adventures, it seems only reasonable to remind them: 📷 :https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryMemes/comments/kouvib/whats_an_odyssey/ #DisneyPlus […] [Original post on universeodon.com]

Spending a year in a classroom with hungry children really changes your perspective on things. It goes from, yeah, no one should have to go hungry, to we MUST end hunger. This shouldn't even be an option in our society. https://beige.party/@mayintoronto/115799645837143594

Another free music sampler with industrial, goth, and electropop. Nab it! https://artoffactrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-state-of-canada #music #bandcamp #industrial #goth #Electro

I had a short story accepted by a publishing press a while back, but the company has imploded. The editors who chose my story have gone on to start their own publishing company. They negotiated a brand new contract that's 14 pages long and filled with things that give me pause. They want […]

Bummer. https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/the-cure-guitarist-keyboard-player-perry-bamonte-dies-aged-65

We are now in the taint of the year: the holiday choda which is a holiday and isn't a holiday. A period not unlike lockdown in that few know what day of the week it is, and time loses meaning.

A swimming sea anemone is a wondrous thing. https://youtu.be/rYqjoiG9UIw

About a week before Christmas, I got notification that my credit card was compromised. The bank canceled my card & is issuing a new one. However, I still haven't received it & now a few subscriptions are vanishing because I don't have a credit card. Some of those subscriptions are for meds.

I was at the sold-out Fredericton premier of Braveheart. It was a brutally hot day & the AC was busted. Popcorn stuck to sweaty skin & sweaty skin stuck to chairs. The torture scene was going on & on & finally I shouted, "Kill him already so we can go home!" The audience erupted in laughter […]

#wordweavers Dec 26: If you had a personal muse, what would they be like? I don't have a muse, but I do have a chinchilla who's with me most times I write. He's basically the coauthor of the essays, books, short stories, and poems I wrote over the past five years.

#scribesandmakers December 26: What animal appears most often in your creative work? Dogs, wolves, and ravens, I think. I also have goats, chickens, horses, whales, caribou, salmon, cod, squirrels, moose, and bears in my stories and visual art. I haven't written much about chinchillas, but […]

I managed a comics/games shop in the 90s. One day, a kid I'd never seen before came in & started preaching to me about how I was going to burn in hell because I sold satanic things like D&D. When he was through his screed, he handed me his resume & asked if I was hiring. #satanicpanic […]

Set the precedent https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c14vdpyj1vjo

Made this today. Old-school. #ham #xmasdinner

I just watched Rare Exports, which is one of the strangest Christmas movies I've ever seen. It's filled with bad daddies. Also, that ending hurts my brains. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Exports:_A_Christmas_Tale #movies #ChristmasMovie #horrormovies

I've just finished the first draft of a fun story about Armageddon. I've tentatively called it "Rich-People Houses" and it's inspired by my childhood as a Jehovah's Witness kid preaching from door to door. #amwriting #Armageddon #shortstory

I keep seeing people mention it's a slow news week, and my brain does not comprehend. How can it be a slow news week when genocide is ongoing and the Doomsday Glacier is preparing to raise sea levels by a couple feet? Not enough celebrity gossip, is that it? […]

"AI" has lost all meaning. It's been used interchangeably with LLMs so much that it's often impossible to know what is actually being referenced.

I dreamed I told Robert Evans from Behind the Bastards about the time my Dad inadvertently flashed the Queen of England. #dream #dreamlog

I had cancer over a decade ago, and in that time, aside from my partner, people basically dropped me. No one checked in on me from my friend groups. No one from the gym or my larp. In fact, when I tried to play my larp online to stay connected with something, the organizers decided I wasn't […]

Got rid of the blonde today.

I used to be a latenight radio DJ, & after my shift I cabbed home. Several cabbies listened to my show & preferred taking me home to driving the drunks home from bars. I miss that. The cabbies & I had the best chats about music, philosophy, & more.

If you're looking for a fun, generative writing workshop, I recommend The Fairytale Sessions with Saraswathi Sukumar. I've been doing these for about four years. This one runs December 28 […]

Got a clean bill of health for my shitty, industrially-poisoned lungs. They're doing as well as they can, which is great. Too bad my fantastic lung doctor is being forced into retirement. He's not allowed to work fulltime or just at the lung clinic. He must also work in emergency, which has […]

One of my best friends shared this with me years ago. I share it now in her memory.

My copy arrived in the mail today and I devoured it in one sitting. https://bloodlettermag.com/blog/trans-voices-in-horror/ #trans #poetry #queerbooks #horror

I found my first published piece of fiction. I wrote this when I was 11 or 12, and it was published in a collection of stuff written by school kids. This is what happens when you grow up watching Old Yeller and reading Black Beauty. #writing #writingcommunity #fiction

One of my best friends shared this with me years ago. I share it now in her memory.

Gonna be busy this winter. I got into an advanced course on writing/collating short story collections and will also be workshopping a novella that should be, but isn't, finished yet. There are other projects in there, too. I hope my creativity and energy are up to the challenge.

I managed to get myself to the gym today only to discover the coach was sick and not wearing a mask. I sprayed my throat and nose with antivirals and propolis before I got there, as usual. I did my workout wearing a respirator, which is brutal. I sprayed again upon leaving. I hope it's enough […]

I'm hoping to move to Corner Brook, Newfoundland for next spring-autumn. I'm having a hard time finding places online, but would like a furnished house with at least 2 bedrooms that will allow my two chinchillas. Could folks share so I might get some leads? Thanks! #cornerbrook #Newfoundland […]

I've been interviewed by Andy N on his New Spoken Label podcast about writing, art, chinchillas, growing up in an apocalyptic cult, and more. You can find it in video or audible format. http://onewriterandhispc.blogspot.com/2025/12/new-spoken-label-podcast-shan-powell.html