Monday, Monday, MONDAY! My short story "The Price of a Promise" will be out in Last Girls' Club's Fall issue! This issue is chock full of delicious monkey's paw/answered prayer stories. It's important, though, to be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it... www.lastgirlsclub.com

Oxford has fallen. Repeat: Oxford has fallen… 🤖 #HigherEducation #academia

We made the pay bump for short stories, but the month's not over yet! Care to help with a little more cushion? Also, not so fun fact I learned yesterday: that annual discount is apparently taken out of the creator's side of the equation, so if you can afford to go monthly, please do!

I think it's becoming clear that if you like indie creators, you're going to need to support them any way you can. And that doesn't mean money, just spreading worth of mouth can be powerful as well.

New #WriterBeware blog post: Gen AI-driven Nigerian writing scams have arrived recently & spun up fast. Two new ones: book club impersonations (charge a "spot fee" for appearance) & fake private book review communities (reviewers are "tipped" w/ a minimum buy) writerbeware.blog/2025/09/19/r...

We are about $15 away from being able to give authors a pay boost, *and* - and here's the extra awesome part - if you join the Patreon now, there's a chance for voting on the next anthology! They're all great ideas and whatever the patrons pick will be our next general imprint anthology topic!

I am delighted to announce that in the 12/25 edition of Dirty Magick Magazine, I will have a short story (THE EXILE'S PYRE) where Jórunn makes her first appearance! There are two more sword-and-norsery stories with her on submission now, but @cdbrown.bsky.social will have the first one!

We make it through the next few months and we'll be rewarded with bufflehead ❤️🪶

to my mind the woman who dies of sepsis because of antiabortion laws, or the person who dies because they can't afford insulin -- these are just as much victims of political violence as the man shot through the throat while making a racist speech

Some weeks it's really frustrating to have a job where you're putting yourself out there only to get told "no, you're not good enough" time after time after time. (this has been a multiple R week and it's draining. looking for the little wins.)

We are so close to that pay bump for creators - $15 away! That's 5 people at the $3/month, 3 at the $5, or (because silly math), 2 at the $10! At $10, you get panels, 4 stories a month(!), and high-res digital art. And best of all, at ANY level, you're helping get more queer works into the world.

We're currently $29/month in backing from my being able to give our authors and artists a raise on pieces they make for Patreon. That's only 10 people backing at the $3/month level, or 6 at the $5, or 3 at the $10. That's like. hardly any people at all! So please help by sharing this. <3

OUR INDUSTRY WILL DIE IF WE CAN'T STEAL YOUR WORK BUT EACH OF YOU INDIVIDUALLY CREATED NOTHING OF VALUE I mean idk if it was me I might have workshopped that one for a little longer.

They're not wrong, it's an amazing book. Beees! It was my first Caitlin Starling and now I'm mainlining everything (The Luminous Dead is SO GOOD - it's a masterclass in driving tension and just how much you can do with only two people. confined spaces, confined storytelling, claustrophobia, SO GOOD)

Google's search engine was the greatest information retrieval tool I'd ever experienced in my life. So many mysteries unraveled under the scrutiny of a few keystrokes. They lobotomized it *for this*.

This press has been the one to get me, and a bunch of others, started with original projects. While pay for short stories is still token, it's a LOT better than a lot of other token markets out there ($40 at the moment), and one of the most supportive editorial experiences for the anthologies and 1/

*crab-walked

It's Sept 1 and I'm slowly, *finally*, clawing my life back into shape. Sept has fewer writing deadlines/market calls on my calendar so I'm going to take this time to catch up on everything and prep for the avalanche of October. Also remembering how to breathe again. Summer was ridiculously busy.

Hot Girl Sumer is here again

These are possibly some of the most delicious fries I have ever had: french fries with salted duck egg yolk grated over them. Not an idea I've had but now 100% on board for it.

Day 2 of jet lag recovery: woke up at 4am... And given that there are days at which I wake up at 4am even adjusted to time zone, I'll count this a win.

We have made it to Seoul! Or at least Incheon. Two hours late, but that's better than not at all (and still loads of time for our connection). Home soon! In my own bed!

And today we nyoom back across the globe for home! the trip back has been... well, a trip, but I'm looking forward to my bed, my pillow, knowing where everything is in the kitchen. Til (maybe) next July!

He has kept among us in times of peace Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution & unacknowledged by our laws.

I really wish WorldCon ran a little earlier in Aug, if only so I'd have a shot at attending. We fly home this weekend or I'd've tried for WA. Next year, we're maybe staying longer to attend a wedding - and it's the weekend after we leave.😩I'm jealous: always the traveler, never the attendee.

no sim-subs rules are antiquated and anti-writer, especially when so many markets are open for five minutes during the apex of the quarter moon biannually. most magazines can accept less than 1% of stories submitted, and yet they expect the other 99% of authors to tie up their work for months? gtfo.

You're not BETTER because you have money, an AI machine to do it for you or because you have a large following on TikTok. And you're certainly not entitled to readers and 5⭐s, or going viral with your book just because you think you're owed that. That's not how it works. Online or in real life.

WE DID IT!!! Thank you to everyone who backed, quoted, shared, and helped make this happen.

first suitcase packed: 19kg, and mostly books. does this surprise anyone? no! but looking over this second suitcase and what's half-packed, I'm laughing. sunscreen! nail polish! an empty squeezy ketchup bottle, to help us deal with the 3 KILO CAN of ketchup my husband bought in CN before we left.

2 hours and under $500 from our second stretch goal - stickers, and authors get another pay bump. Will it happen?? www.kickstarter.com/projects/duc...

The packing has begun; we fly home on the 15th, and it's a daunting prospect to fit everything into 4x 23-kg bags. What will end up staying is anyone's guess. There will inevitably be stuff that doesn't fit. And it's always things we probably could get at home, but never see until after the fact. 😅

7 hours left and we're a bit over $1k from the second stretch goal, are you for real?? www.kickstarter.com/projects/duc...

We're in the home stretch on our crowdfunding campaign! Learn more about the crowdfunding campaign for "Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories" now: www.kickstarter.com/projects/duc... Alternative: signal boost this and be my hero. <3 🌈📚 📚💙

Heyo! We did it - THANK YOU! 😍🥰🥰Cool art, double pay, and it helps make sure more queer art and stories get into the world. There's still time to back, and every extra bit helps the press as a whole keep growing and making new projects, too.

Under $250 now! It's not just doubling author pay, it's also digital art for backers! Pretty please with sugar (and cozy queer academia) on top? (think about that cover as a desktop background...)

$450 away!

Just under 3 days left on www.kickstarter.com/projects/duc... ! If you were thinking about backing, now's the time - we're about $600 away from doubling author pay as a stretch goal.

well, the laptop drama continues - kind of. setting up a new one because repairs on the other one *might* be done on the 13th - after business hours. we fly out the 15th. too close for comfort, so new system acquired!

Dealing with law enforcement can be stressful, so it’s important to know your rights before you’re face-to-face with ICE agents. While there’s never any guarantee that law enforcement officers will follow the law, here’s what they can and can’t legally do to you and what you can legally demand. ⬇️

My thought: well at least it's not fluoride that it recommended (but seriously bromide!!!?)

Let's not use "hallucinate" or "lie" when we talk about ChatGPT. It can't make decisions, it doesn't have a conscious thought, it's not having a conversation with you. It's regurgitating false information based on stolen content without context or nuance.

Today I learned not finishing a book is gatekeeping. Since I didn't finish ACOTAR, you know what that means! It means read what you like. I'm not the literary police. Nobody is. People are allowed to have opinions. Doesn't mean they're gatekeeping. What the fuck is wrong with people?

Who just signed a contract? Meeeee! New story coming in the future, I will share details closer to the date as I can! 😁

Last week, hundreds of current and former NASA employees released “The Voyager Declaration,” a letter protesting a 25% percent budget cut to the agency and the shutdown of several of its science missions. buff.ly/Dk6ZyjJ

If you're using AI to write essays, eulogies, a text to your wife, I do think less of you as a person. Ceding your mental and creative abilities to a machine is an embarrassing thing and people should be ashamed to admit doing it in public.

Ah yes, the laptop - which I need for work - has a power issue. I can't use it not plugged in. Can we get it repaired before we get back to China? Who knows! 🙃

By Crabthar's hammer...

Magpie Dragon It was my first attempt to imitate traditional Korean painting style 🐉 www.instagram.com/p/C8EcrDXvQD...

We are so close ($1.2k) from funding! www.kickstarter.com/projects/duc... A whole book full of cozy queer academia stories, and to get it to print we just need you! (and if you really want to make our day, help us toward that milestone of 2x author pay). Also, add-on stickers. So many stickers!