2025 will be known as the year of “I thought it was an article from The Onion”

I am late to the acrylic marker party and I’m so ashamed. It’s all the things I love about acrylic and none of the things I hate??

A while back I bought this zine titled “Art is Hard.” It was portraits of all these famous artists from history with quotes of them talking about how difficult it is to create, or that their art sucks. #Creativity is to never be satisfied, to be constantly learning. It is a double edged sword.

"There was so much to learn about women, and so little time." 🪐Terra Flux🪐 A mechanical lesbian sci-fi novella about the exploration of planets & women 🤖Robofuckers need apply 🤖 MURDERBOT X THE MACHINE MANDATE X PSALM FOR THE WILD BUILT danifinn.itch.io/terra-flux books2read.com/b/boQL2L

I am making anti-holiday cards and #neurodivergent / #mentalHealth / #chronicIllness bookmarks because why the hell not at this point. 2025 was a pre-apocalyptic shite show and I'm coming to terms with my own issues with emotional blindness and lack of body awareness. www.etsy.com/shop/ruesparks

Listened to the #WritingExcuses episode on “show don’t tell” & it made me realize why I have issue with the over abundance of this advice. It was originally coined for silent film, where blocks of text were frustrating for viewers. So you were encouraged to show with visuals, not tell via text.-

FREE COLORING PAGES! If you find yourself having to entertain bored kiddies today, you can download a set of 3 free coloring pages including this turkey fellow! (Or you can download for you? Do kids even color anymore? Do adults? I don't know anymore😂) whistberry.itch.io/bird-colorin...

No one: Me in my copyright page: So fun fact, the Luddites weren’t really anti ALL technology. They were pro workers rights and evaluating technology based on whether it increased the quality of the product and made workers jobs easier. Funny, huh? I wonder why that would be relevant right now…

“What kind of #neurospicy are you?” Me: *researching the evolution of European helmets on a random Sunday*

Copyright page train. 🖋️📖💰 I like mine from "Even If We're Broken" because I felt like I should state the archaeology sites were fake so folks don't go looking for em 😂 I need to update its language to include the clause about genAI that I started adding to my later books.

Treatment for my hearing loss failed. It’s permanent. The constant ringing in my ear is likely due to my brain looking for auditory input that isn’t there. It’s may or may not eventually fade. Sometimes I think about how so much of growing older is learning how to lose. #artProcess #HearingLoss

Today I found out the sudden hearing loss in right ear, which is also likely a factor in my 24/7 tinnitus, is unlikely to recover. The treatment failed. At this point I’m just hoping I don’t continue to lose more. Music is to integral to my day to day. IDEK anymore

My favorites stories I started without characters, setting, or plot. Inspo: There are biologically immortal jellyfish how cool is that?! Result: Story about a scientist trying to avert the death of his husband and all the ethical and moral dilemmas involved but also ✨JELLYFISH✨

You can pretty much guarantee whatever story I’m working on they’re in some way fighting✨TRAUMA✨

I f0cking love weird ass #sci-fi and #fantasybooks I’ve written shorts where: - MC is followed by a literal tiny rain cloud and just kind of accepts it - A couple try to reset the universe using black holes after the apocalypse - Companies find a way to create new colors but CAPITALISM

Plus we’re in a transitory stage of marketing. A lot of social platforms are in their death throes, generative AI is saturating the market, infrastructure for local communication took a hit with COVID, and US tariffs raised production/shipping costs. Many authors I know are just writing right now.

Speculative fiction as a way to indirectly process trauma, grief, and marginalization. Art Therapy is an incredibly underutilized modality. Most creatives already do it, we just don’t name it as such.

PSA that has nothing to do with current events whatsoever I “promise.” 🙃 Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from people judging you for your toxic opinions. You can think and say what you want. I’m free to think you’re an asshole.

Define your music taste with 8 artists: Garbage Worlds First Cinema Neoni Bastille Linkin Park My Chemical Romance MISSIO Florence + the Machine (This is too hard I’m polyjamorous y’all…)

The Great Unboxing of 2025. One of these fabulous copies of Wildforged by @cryptid-crafted.bsky.social could be all yours. #Wildforged #Fiction #Fantasy #Book #NewBook #Unboxing #LGBTQIA #Bookish #Story #Magic

With everything going on I want to remind everyone & myself in relation to #communityOrganizing: You don’t need permission to start something. You don’t need to wait for someone else to say it’s a good idea. It’s better to start imperfect & perfect it as you get input than always be waiting.-

Libraries before 🏴‍☠️ PSA: For those of us in rural areas I was at an adjacent library & mentioned our ebook catalog is small. The librarian gave me a list of local library systems to add that cooperate to expand their patrons #Libby & #Hoopla catalogs. Check and see-

Facts about Wildforged! Links in bio. #Fantasy #Flyer #Books #NewRelease #LGBTQIA #WheretoFind #Summary #Author

Reminder to fellow #indieAuthor agonizing over bad reviews: I am looking at books for research and am absolutely getting some because of the content in their negative reviews. Sometimes reviews mentioning a Thing a reader didn’t like is a green flag for people who do like the Thing #bookSky

Yesterday was Indigenous People's Day, but Indigiqueer reads can be enjoyed all year long. I have recommended quite a few queer books by Indigenous authors in the past, but this week's recs are fresh and full of good stories.

More #characterArt for #Wildforged with @mementoviverepress.bsky.social Artists are always chasing the feeling where we get so immersed in the process, ie “flow.” Working on this #illustration everything just… clicked. Like it was something I’d already made and I was retracing the shape of.

Word of mouth is so important for books. If you’ve read something you like, shout it out, leave a review somewhere, ask your library to carry it.

Almost every writer secretly (or not so secretly) has a playlist that inspires their words. Music can enhance books and give you a peek into an author's head while they are writing a MOOD. Stream the Wildforged playlist by @cryptid-crafted.bsky.social. #LinkinBio #Music #Fantasy #Wildforged #LGBTQIA

New post on creating.care - staying informed without staying inflamed creating.care/p/staying-in...

To all my #Illustration #graphicDesign #VideoEditing #Animation people- What are we using instead of the clusterf0ck that is Adobe? After two decades I’ve cancelled my subscription. Whats next? Specifically looking at affordability and functionality rather than learning curve.

My current series is inspired by the “monomyth” aka #HerosJourney as written by #JosephCampbell The monomyth was an OBSERVATION of the commonalities of myth, not necessarily a guideline for stories. But it’s become this shorthand many authors use as a rule book. I want to break it. #indieauthor

I had been fighting with KDP since April on and off for the interior formatting of my art/poetry/short story print version. Images needed to be full bleed. It SHOULD have been simple. This was literally my JOB. Figured out today KDP needed it set up in the most nonsensical way. WTF. #IndieAuthor

I’m done hosting content on platforms. Time to go back to the early 00s self hosted sites, blogs, and mailing lists. At some point we became so used to the idea that distribution platforms mean legitimacy that we ignored as they become more and more corrupted.

I had the honor of working on a couple character #illustrations for #Wildforged with @mementoviverepress.bsky.social Here’s a process breakdown! Every once in a while you get a project that just hits different. Something about this book, these characters, this moment helped my own art grow ❤️‍🔥

For the BOLD READERS who like a little snark in their fantasy books. We have something forged in fire and freedom for you. #NewRelease #YoungandWild #Fantasy #LGBTQIA #OneHourRead #Wolf #Wilderness #Magic #StayTuned

CW #Death #Grief #Widow 16 years since we said “I do” under a lighthouse. 20 hours from home on an unfamiliar beach, removed from the vagaries of college, family, health. Uncertain of where we were going but certain of each other. 8 years since I said my last goodbye, though she never heard it.-

Just a reminder as the world burns: There is stress that is useful to us, eustress. It allows us to keep pushing, to focus, to have a fire under our asses. Then there’s distress. The point where it impedes our ability to function and manage a problem, fight/flight/freeze. If we spend every day-

Just a little reminder as things get more heated: Gallows humor has existed before the gallows. Humor has long been used to diffuse tension and fear, as well as to undermine the perceived strength of authoritarian regimes and dictators. It isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok.-

WIP #animation based off World’s First Cinema song “The Underneath.” I’m relearning animation in new software after 6 years of being so physically restricted I couldn’t manage it. #artist #illustration #mentalhealth #depression

#Animation test for Love Story of a Hero and Villain. I was inspired by how charcoal discs look when you light them, a line of spark runs through it. This #book dissects tropes, so the character is both a Shadow Walker and associated with fire. Can’t get ashes without some fire first 🙃

ICYMI, here's the breakdown of my goals for Love Story of a Hero and Villain, the first #epistolary novel in the Arche//TYPE series. "I want to take all the stereotypes and tropes we prescribe for each of these roles and throw them in a wood chipper." #Patreon www.patreon.com/posts/136059...

Most beautiful thing in the world: When two neurodivergent people discover where the ven diagram of their special interests intersect. If we could store that energy somehow we could give clean energy to the whole world from their excitement alone.

List 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep: 1. Storytelling. Myths, heroes journey, tropes, archetypes, perception’s influence on stories and writtten history (whoops there I go…) 2. Our brains on creativity 3. Grief. Because we’re best enemies at this point TBH

Video on my FYP re current situation: We all need to decide what we’re willing to die for me. Me: …okay but can I have my coffee first? Cuz tired me would probably ‘select all.’ My amygdala hasn’t met its caffeine quota yet.

📌 + + + Canvas of Scars is a collection of dark poetry, short prose, and art by a trans masc author with themes of PTSD, psychosis, and other dark subjects. It's my first art/poetry collection, and it's my own story of what I survived and the art that helped me cope 🖤 #transpoetry 🌈📚 ♿♾️📚

It’s kind of sad that when I (eventually) get to promoting my trope tastic book, the fact that it is NOT queerbaiting OR bury your gays is a feature. Why is this still a Thing in 2025? (That was rhetorical, FYI.) #bookSky #writingSky #authorSky

Something I struggle with talking about is how much my brain has changed from the #Chiari Permanently changed. A lot of times in relation to these things patients talk about the pain, sensory problems, systemic physical symptoms that have a quantifiable bodily manifestation. Maybe even brain fog-

Writing the most meta series that ever meta’d. First is “Love Story of a Hero & a Villain,” dissecting modern hero & villain tropes and the classical templates they originate from. Basically I’m trying to fit every hero/villain/enemies to lovers trope I can in one book. Also: GAY #WeeknightWriters

Me: I need to sit down and write. I’m not getting anything done. *Opens Notes app and sees a voice to text scene I wrote in a parking lot 2 days ago* “….Consider that your penicillin is my arsenic, and that our bodies can sometimes metabolize the poison or neutralize the cure.” Me: …Oh. Right.