My hair was so puffy with the sudden heat that I accidentally knocked a spider out of her web with it. I moved her somewhere safe but she was a bit disgruntled.

I filled my zebra notebook. I started taking panel notes for Glasgow Worldcon, so that's a lot of pages of notes. Moving on to my new rainbow notebook for today.

Doing my librarian thing on Goodreads as they don't seem to have noticed I'm still one yet. Wereconifer has a very basic page (release date is not set in stone): www.goodreads.com/book/show/25...

Out now! Tender, raw, and as sweet as honeyed roadkill: "Vulture bees transfigure the man I tried to be" by @mimulus.bsky.social is a lush portrait of queer transformation 🐝 (Also, our team is obsessed with vulture bees now.) Read it here: othersidespec.com/pieces/vultu...

I have got more of their favourite pellet food for the wild birds, and not those seed balls that they turned their beaks up at, because we all know who is in charge around here.

A lot of us, when we say we're at a convention, are sitting at home drinking tea. Some cons are entirely virtual (WisCon this year) or have virtual programming (WorldCon). I'm seeing more people who didn't know this, so throwing that out there. You don't have to be able to travel.

Watched the readings by Premee and Darcie. Now going to sort food and then I'll figure out the timings for tomorrow's panels and stuff.

Today will be a big cooking day, as I want to cook and freeze enough food to cover WisCon. I got some salad and fruit today as well.

What is the weirdest speculative fiction book, adult or YA, you've read in the last 10 years or so?

Making a few bits for Sci-Fi Con in Second Life. I also have WisCon this week (but the events don't clash like last year... I was running two opening ceremonies at once last year).

It's interesting to discover I was more rigorous in checking my flash fiction collection citations than people have been for non-fiction. (All the papers were ones I'd read and a family member checked for mistakes.)

It's taking a lot not to end the Wereconifer description with "What could possibly go wrong?"

Guys, guys. The water slug I designed for Subnautica 2.

Fwiw I'm looking for commission work, prioritizing cover art and internal book illustrations in color or b&w line art. All hand-drawn digital, trad, mixed. Early bookings required, more info:- • Bookings forms.gle/xbdSuuQRwwfA... • Portfolio bydhiyanah.carrd.co #SupportArtists #SupportHumanArtists

The moral: rely on AI, and an eight-year-old will absolutely smoke you at writing Stardust the Super Wizard

Moths love that I run websites in light mode and not dark mode.

It's time for a writing update and it's good news. D2D has moved my payment date later in the year, so that's doable now and I can focus on other things.

In good news, Embodied Exegesis continues to sell well! Word of mouth has really helped this anthology of weird transfem cyberpunk reach those who need it. Thank you so much to everyone who has read it, or shared it with others!!!

We had storms! Then the little birds came by for some seed. The suet feeder got emptied fast this time, so refilled it now.

Fantasy Faire is now wrapping up. This is my writing work holiday of the year, where I hang out with friends, buy virtual cute things, watch live performances and go to DJ sets. I've had plot thoughts, so ready to get back into it.

Due to life ever changing, I *will* be able to do the 2026 queer SFF books list after all (yay!), but it won't be until after August (boo!). While y'all wait, check out last year's :)

Branding doesn't mean having to talk like a CEO. It's stuff like your profile picture, books covers, bios, website layout and colours, and anything else that represents you and your work. Writing is a creative industry, so those things can be fun!

Some good flower news. The wild cornflowers in the garden have started growing after a few years of struggling. Also some big daisies growing out on the verges.

I went and voted earlier with my shiny new passport. I don't know if I'll ever be able to travel with it, but it's useful for stuff like this.

I've never been bitten by a spider!

The supermarket was selling food toys to raise money for fruit/veg in schools, and I don't really know the details of that, but I now have another cuddly mushroom.

I appreciate that Amazon thinks "The Works of Vermin" is a similar book to "Werecockroach" as though the algorithm went, "Eh, they've both got invertebrates, how different could they be?"

Do me a favor. Respond or quote this with the most recent piece of media (book, short story, album, painting, statue, game, anything) by a *trans creator* that you loved. Drop a link. Boost their signal.

When I asked what animals folks wanted me to draw for #TransArtMay, one kept coming up again and again, so here is an octopus for all you cephalopod fans because sometimes you have to just high-five yourself 🐙

every mushroom foraging guidebook: This is Woodland Pot Roast, a tasty little mushroom that adds a delightful flavour to soups and stews. Note that it is often mistaken for Satan’s Fistula, a mushroom that erases the last 9 generations of your family from God’s ledgers.

Suddenly raining buckets! I heard it through my headphones.

Noted today that one of my roles in the family is cleaning up their meshes in Blender. I also make the tea. Not in Blender.

I enjoyed reading Rainbow Lights by Polenth Blake. @polenth.bsky.social It's a collection of speculative fiction and poetry that'll take you into all sorts of wild circumstances. I super loved Midnight Ice Cream, The Dragonfly People and Through the Hoops. www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/...

This handsome bumblebee is actually a parasitic fly that spends its childhood consuming its host from the inside out. #bugsky

I got the email saying my passport was printed at 5am. Do they employ nocturnal people at the passport office? I had not considered passport printer as a career option.

It took three goes, but finally, I have a D2D answer. If the balance doesn't cover the fee, but your verified royalties will cover it when they clear... that money can be used to reinstate the account and relist the books.

My passport renewal was approved, so the new one will hopefully get here before the next local election.

All four of my books have been submitted direct to Kobo now. Two are up and two are processing. I'm updating my website as they clear.

Had an excitement with the travelator at the supermarket. The trolley wheels locked up, so it wouldn't roll off the end. I brute forced it off the end, which tipped it over. It was empty fortunately. Anyway, I survived.

My story hunt at Fantasy Faire is now live. "Conversations Overheard By Bus Active Safety Features" is a new story, hidden in bus tickets around the shop. maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/F... #SecondLife

Who wants free shipping from Bookshop dot org today? Here I have some associate links for my most recent books: bookshop.org/a/14302/9781... Song of Spores bookshop.org/a/14302/9781... Power to Yield and Other Stories bookshop.org/a/14302/9781... Rosalind's Siblings (anthology I edited)

Getting there with my story hunt for Fantasy Faire. The story is all written and packed in the hunt items. Just need them to fix the asset server so I can finish the gifts.

The thing about articles on weird and cozy fiction, they often imagine an overly simple world. When I write a gentle story, I'm a fascist who has never had anything bad happen to me. When I write horror, I'm good, virtuous, and obviously marginalised. I shouldn't have to explain why that's weird.

𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀! 😍🪄💫 The Fairelands have returned from the Mists: twenty fantasy worlds forming a circle of lands, a chain of people across the many realms. Welcome home, Fairelanders! fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/w... #secondlife #fantasyfairesl

Guest editing an issue on Aliens for Eye to the Telescope! If you have any extraterrestrial-related poetry, here's your chance to sub! eyetothetelescope.com/submit.html

I'm mostly ready for Fantasy Faire and I have snacks. My books have started reappearing on Kobo. Still no reply from D2D.

Out now: THE LAST DRAGONERS OF BOWBAZAR, my uncategorisable novella out about Ru, a 'boy from nowhere' growing up in 90s/00s Calcutta, facing the impossibility that his family may be migrants from another reality, & Alice, a neighbour from Chinatown who is pulled close to their secrets. Links below:

Our Romani friends in Bulgaria have had their homes demolished. Some have been rehoused in derelict housing, others not. I'm making a bundle to raise funds for housing, wheelchairs, clothes, boots, toys for the kids etc. Please join the jam to join the bundle and help us out? itch.io/jam/sky-and-...

I still haven't heard back from Draft2Digital. My fee date is May, so I didn't have enough notice to hold back the money in my balance. I have enough pending sales to cover it, but they probably won't clear until after the payment date. I have no credit card.

A little birdy told us that Premee Mohamed and Darcie Little Badger are going to be speaking at a feminist science fiction and fantasy convention...The bird is us! WisCon is the convention. Memorial Day Weekend, May 21-25 2026. Online. Exciting! @littlebadger.bsky.social @premeemohamed.com #WisCon