The lesson of history is that tyrants cannot be appeased. Appeasement only feeds their insatiable hunger for power. Tyrants prey on people who feel unsafe and vulnerable. But without mass submission, a tyrant is powerless. Remember this.

You GOTTA stop being so desperately afraid of the audience. Look at me. Look in my eyeballs. Stop being so desperate for approval. Stop writing for the whiny babies in your audience and start writing for the freaks who like cool fucked up shit

1 like = 1 Lore drop This is a fun idea! :D I like gushing about my lore. I could talk about Sigil and the Serpent, the WIP I'm currently editing, but also Deadbeat and other things I'm working on are fair game too!

succinct

What do we want? DRAGONS! When do we want 'em? NOW! Where do we want 'em? IN TODAY'S BLOG! buff.ly/Q3YzyqH

relevant to the PLR discussion, request my book at your local library! especially helpful if you're in a major canadian city like halifax, montreal, ottawa, toronto, winnipeg, regina, edmonton, calgary, vancouver or victoria! (but also if you're not, libraries are rad)

You there. I want you to say, aloud, at some point today "I'm really glad I'm good at..." And then you're gonna say something you think you do pretty well. If you don't think you do anything pretty well, I want you to say "one little thing that makes me unique is..." And if you can't do either?

plus we've literally seen the same process happen in real time in our lifetimes. like, we know that everything that's happening right now is bad, it's just the people saying that are ignored by the people doing it and the people who support them. same as it ever was, i guess.

the thing about "inalienable human rights" is they do have to apply to everyone or else they're no longer "inalienable human rights"

I am 64 years old and FOR MOST OF MY LIFE two things were true: - fascists were trying to take over the USA - we were beating them Those creeps are beatable. We beat them for decades. In the 30s they tried a form of MAGA and US beat them. The 50s? McCarthy purges. US beat them. Do. Not. Doom.

What a decade, huh? #Undertale

If you want or need SNAP benefits, literally the only barrier should be...signing up. "But what about fraud?" My sibling in red, white, and blue, THE PENTAGON HASN'T PASSED AN AUDIT IN YEARS AND MONEY IS FAKE. I don't care if too many people have food assistance.

This whole thread. “Oh no, someone might eat food!” Good. That’s good. “They might buy something they like.” Cool. “They might get a treat!” Also cool.

A side effect of that is we live in denial about the complex systemic reality of why harm happens. We are terrified of admitting we've done harm, because that would mean we're "bad," or our loved ones are. And thus we remain unhealed and stuck in the same cycles. We are hiding from ourselves

Republicans cheering children going hungry is never going to leave my memory, and it shouldn't leave yours, either. Shunning works. And people with plenty denying children anything deserve shunning.

Citing a Trump executive order banning "gender ideology," the VA is withholding coverage and treatment for male veterans with breast cancer, an increasing condition among veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during service. 100 male veterans a year are diagnosed with breast cancer.

If judges can refuse to officiate gay weddings, gay defendants should be able to refuse to be heard by those judges. If they can’t be compelled to perform the most heteronormative of functions, why would anyone believe they are capable of putting their biases aside for something with higher stakes?

"everyone is twelve now" theory actually makes a ton of sense when you think about your young adulthood and education process as an opportunity to move beyond grievances you felt when you were younger and did not understand the cause/effect of situations, power relationships, or your own emotions

Pipe Dream: I wanna make a big ol' crossover game like Smash Bros or something, except instead of being characters from videogames, it's characters from fantasy novels. Dunno what genre it'd be. Maybe like... co-op action RPG, with each player choosing their favorite character?

Fucking hell, I feel like I've been scammed. I was trying to find *some* place to buy Dead Hand Rule that isn't Amazon, and Barnes and Noble said that it's provided without DRM... And then I learn that I can't download it and put it on my offline kindle. So it's utterly useless to me.

I will repeat myself until my throat is raw: we do not abandon trans people. Doesn't matter how Newsom claps back at the right, he will not push trans people out of Democratic party.

It’s so cool that there’s a big chunk of people to whom the term “capitalism” just means “trade” and if you try to explain any actual academic or historical definition of the term, even ones accepted amongst academics who think it’s a great system, they become furious and reject it.

reading slaughterhouse 5 for the first time and i was absolutely knocked senseless by this passage, which is so true and relevant that it feels like it was pulled from a history book

Recently finished the Realm of the Elderlings series! Really fantastic books, with some of the best characterization I've ever read. Some of the most hateable villains, and lovable heroes that you want to strangle for their bad-yet-inevitable choices. A non-flashy magic system with lots of depth!

#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev The lost places of the world are where the foundations of reality have eroded, and horrific entities bubble through the cracks. They do not kill you. In this game, you cannot die. You can only fall into a worse world. And there is always further to fall.

it is darkly funny that "trillion dollar computer oracle that will never work" is good and inevitable technology and "inexpensive hormonal treatments which completely transform the human body" is bad technology to be banished like witchcraft

#LateNightWrite I don't have anything to promote this time, except to say that my WIP is nearing the end of its second beta reading period, and I'm planning on having a demo of my horror game ready for Halloween! Wish me luck!

#LateNightWrite Funnily enough, I actually got character art appropriate for this very idea once! Art by @altermentality.bsky.social!

#LateNightWrite Not at present... but maybe this would be a good time to contemplate that I haven't thought of any festivals or holidays for my worldbuilding XD

#LateNightWrite Oho, yes, definitely! The first serious things I wrote were actually horror short stories, and I'm working on a horror game right now! Whenever I need something to be particularly tense or horrifying, I've got a deep well to draw on :D Love existential stuff, especially.

Hey there #LateNightWrite! I'm Shard, and I'm a writer and gamedev! My current WIP is The Sigil and the Serpent, a YA Fantasy where the son of a dragonslayer is transformed into what he hates most.

I saw somebody the other day suggesting that "main character death is too dark for YA" and I can't stop thinking about it. both because I have YA stories where protagonists die and also because when I was a teenager I had to attend the funerals of several friends, including my first boyfriend

📕 AUDIOBOOK ANNOUNCEMENT 🎙️ I'm ecstatic to announce the #audiobook version of Distilled Magic: A Cozy Fantasy Novel by Alex Peachy, narrated and produced by yours truly! Follow Trinx, a neurodiverse transgender goblin, as she learns to navigate her new life and finds true family along the way ❤️

People act like all the men are gone. The men are attending protests. The men are putting together scooters for their kids. The men are getting a set of turntables for the first time. The men are buying Nikes. The men are getting super into noir. They're not Nazis and they're fine. Keep your freaks.

I will repost this forever.

What’s the most unusual element in your fictional world? In the world of my WIP, the current understanding of astronomy is that while many stars in the sky move, a vast majority of them are absolutely still, century after century. They don't know why. #writingq #WritingCommunity

This. Transphobia is a moral panic that has been heavily funded and weaponized by a lot of powerful & wealthy people over the last decade, and it's scary but NOT inevitable - and *certainly* not the fault of their victims.

all fascism is just insecure dudes resorting to the stupidest shit you ever heard to try to scientifically prove that people ought to be respecting them instead of just doing the smart thing and becoming a respectable person

The more I see AI stuff, the more I can't help but feel secure in my conviction that it all peaked with AI Dungeon.

right wing bigots have admitted - the “trans women in bathrooms” issue - the “trans women in sports” issue and - the “trans kids getting surgery” issue were all MADE UP TO TAKE OUR RIGHTS AWAY are you paying attention?

😀 (<- life flashing before my eyes)

A free book. Because we were moved to make it. A confederacy of weirdos. An homage to Ligotti. An encrimsoning.

I have a bit of an odd approach to this! First I start with a premise I find fun (What if magic could turn you into a dragon?), then from that comes a character that'd be interesting with that premise (What if that happened to someone who really, REALLY didn't like it?), and then...

I know we all love this man, but make sure to genuinely carry his message in your heart: you can always reject a false premise. There are almost always more than two choices.

I wonder how long it’s gonna take before scammers are pretending to be helpful AI to computer illiterate old people so they can plunder everything they own.

I think it should remain

very scary quote from a proponent of three-cueing: "The purpose is not to learn words...the purpose is to make sense." That idea prioritizes looking like you understand versus actually understanding. It's the same idea behind corporate buzzwords. This is teaching children buzzwords, not English.

Happy Indigenous People's Day