176,002 words later, the (very) ROUGH draft of my YA (I think) dark magitech fantasy novel is done! Don't worry, only 137,790 words are in the story. The rest are in the "cut content" section, which means I have 104 single-spaced pages of stuff I ditched basically the second I finished typing it.

Update: After three days of working with Paradox tech support, we finally got the game running! After all that, it turns out, I just needed to move it from the HDD to the SDD. I guess I need to get around to updating all my hard drives to SDDs. It looks like that's the standard for games now.

I am so sad. I just bought AoW 4 today, to remind me of the good times. My best friend and I used to play Age of Wonders 3 together. We always talked about how to make it better and what we'd like 4 to be. He died during COVID. It won't launch. Hangs forever on the logo screen. Can't fix it.

“Libraries generate $3.75 for every dollar invested.” So many public goods are like this. Housing. Education. The arts. However much tax money you invest, you get MORE tax money back. All of these pay for themselves. The only conclusion is, govts would rather make less money than have more good.

It's probably going to be *Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.*

My favorite part about the discussion my GF and I had this morning about Geralt getting isekai'd into Spider-Man's body isn't necessarily the part where Spider-Man now has Two Big Swords. My favorite part is the required prologue crossover between Geralt and Truck-Kun. "??? ...fuck."

Jette is a trans noble teenager whose parents have just been murdered. She's hiding in a school that's secretly teaching commoners magic (gasp!). It's run by an evil(?) cult, but nobody knows that yet. She's naive, trusting, and believes rules keep everyone safe. Lots of rules here in magic school!

RAWR starts tomorrow! A two-month writing challenge with a standard goal of 50,000 words, but that's infinitely customizable using Trackbear. Check out Rogue Writers and join the Trackbear leaderboard! roguewriters.net/rawr/ #RAWR #RogueWriters

The #rapture happened! Millions of people all over the world are confirming it! ...you just weren't picked. Sorry. Better luck next time!

Seeing the Bill Watterson originals full of pencil lines of stuff that didn’t work, scuffs the eraser didn’t pick up, white out galore and more was something I needed to see to remind myself that nothing is perfect the first go and tweaks need to be made and you’re allowed to try again.

I have finally posted my review of Gabriella Buba's *Saints of Storm and Sorrow* over on the Rogue Writers website. Sorry about the delay! TLDR: S-Tier, 9/10 (The review contains no spoilers.) #saintsofstormandsorrow #booksky #gabriellabuba

"Elon's Death-Note-flavored sex tulpa" may be the best thing I've read in years, and I edit books for a living.

Philadelphia would get long much better for much longer without the mayor than they will without sanitation workers. Maybe the mayor should go on strike and see how long it takes anyone to notice.

A guy showed up in my discover feed with dogwater takes on how the LA protestors ought to change. Ex: Their flags make their fight for survival unpalatable to mildly racist middle-class folks. Not sure what this guy's deal was, I clicked on his bio. "Staff writer at The Atlantic." Mystery solved.

You know that feeling when you've been writing pretty consistently your whole life, then burn out and stop writing for like six months, which causes you to believe that you no longer count as a writer, and now saying "I'm a writer" makes you feel like a liar and a fraud? ...oh. That's just me, huh?

People may lose their jobs over this, but this live stream is important and will run all the way to the start of hurricane season. Support our scientists, drop in on the live stream, hit the subscribe button and maybe stick around a bit. Lots of ninteresting stuff! www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcWR...

Sometimes, academic publishing IS interesting. (This is not one I edited, but I kind of wish I had.) biomedgrid.com/fulltext/vol...

TANK vs TESLA "We've crushed fascism before and we'll crush it again" - ⁠WW2 veteran Ken, 98, in the tank

Bigotry is damage and people will route around it (gift article) www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/u...

Editing scientific papers is fascinating and educational, but it gets SUPER boring after a while. What I wouldn't do for a paying fiction project about now.

Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education, sent Harvard a letter. They graded it. Bwahahaha.

Movie you’ve seen more than six times, no Star Wars or Trek or LOTR. I will never stop extolling the virtues of this movie.

In the #nanowrimo farewell video, Kilby says that donations through the website have been shut down now that Nano is dissolving. As usual, Kilby is full of shit. The site let me get all the way to entering my CC number, where I decided I didn't want to spend $5 to go from 95% sure to 100% sure.

After thinking super hard about this, I've decided that JKR thinks the ace community are YET MORE "secretly straight men lying about their sexuality to sneak into women's spaces and commit rape." The "-phobic" suffix has never in history been more aptly applied any other human's thought process.

#Gumroad users: The CEO of Gumroad is now working for #DOGE (for free, on the backs of creatives who use his platform). He's fired all of his staff and replaced them with AI, and has said that's also what he wants to do at the VA, which he's helping to dismantle right now.

This is somehow even WORSE than the chart I used on a joke election poster during my LARP character's campaign for the in-game town mayor position.

My first blog post with Rogue Writers is out now! This post discusses those omnipresent "10 tips to improve your writing by a billion percent" lists. Using the one I've been most recently exposed to as a typical example, I break it down point-by-point and explain why most of it is nonsense.

In the early years I loved the atmosphere of #NaNoWriMo and it helped me get a lot of writing done, but given what it turned into over the last few years, I can't say I feel any particular sadness over its demise.

Well, it finally happened. The #NaNoWriMo organization is being formally shut down, as per a mass email from Executive Director and professional org-demolisher Kim "Kilby Blades" Palacios. And, BONUS!, they linked a 30min video about how it's everyone else's fault. The back half is some prime salt.

Tag yourself. I'm Ezra the Scribe.

Ok, so, I originally made this account for author/editor things and to sort of try to brand. My brand has apparently become "Really, really angry about the state of the USA right now." Look, I had no idea all this was going to happen, or that it would intersect with all of my most important values.

I'm a couple days late, because of some stuff going on (like writing my next masterpiece), BUT! Boreal: An Anthology of Taiga Horror is now available! My story, plus a lot of other great stories, are in it! Everyone should buy a copy! www.katherinesilvaauthor.com/shop/boreal-...

Today, the House GOP censured me for speaking out for the American people against @POTUS’s plan to cut Medicaid. I accept the consequences of my actions, but I refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. #WeShallOvercome x.com/repalgreen/s...

👏 THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE. USADF employees block DOGE employees from accessing the building. wapo.st/3FjdEeP

What this press release from "bookstore" The Maple Staple doesn't mention: the authors it's taking to the fair paid a premium to be included, on top of fees they already paid (TMS is a real brick & mortar store, but only carries books whose authors have paid to be there) www.wjbf.com/business/pre...

President Musk addresses his cabinet while Mr. Trump catches a quick nap, as photographed by the official White House photographer:

I have exactly 0 reach, but I'm not seeing this anywhere on my Discover feed, and someone needs to say something. So here. This is the red line everyone's been allegedly waiting for before doing anything "big."

So tired of the news using verbs like "Slammed," "Demanded," "Condemned," and "Criticized" in reference to the actions of Democrats. I'm ready to read verb constructions like "Chained themselves to the door of a federal building." Along with nouns like "Civil disobedience."

I went to a 1950s-themed diner tonight, and I started wondering if, back in the 1960s, there was a whole genre of restaurants themed after some very specific 1890s aesthetic. That would be about equivalent. It seems like a lot of our culture is stuck on romanticizing Boomers' childhood memories.

most journalists today can be divided into two groups: dedicated, impoverished people who mostly write for publications you've never heard of that started eighteen months ago or JP Random House The First, who writes columns for the New York Times about which ethnic groups it should be OK to hunt

It is perfectly legal to know your rights and to educate others about them, too. EVERYONE in the United States, citizen or not, has rights. I will not allow this administration to intimidate us from helping you know about them. Here’s our shareable guide ⬇️: (pt. 1/2)

And just to add to yesterday's post, here's Tarja Turunen doing a cover of a Within Temptation song. For balance.

For some less doomery fare, here's one of my all-time favorite vocalists (Sharon den Adel) doing a cover of a song by one of my OTHER all-time favorite vocalists (Tarja Turunen). She picked a hell of a song to tackle, and she makes it look easy.

Never buy anything from #Costway. I spent $200 on a computer chair two weeks ago, and the gas cylinder has already failed. Best part is, THEY WON'T LET ME RETURN IT. 1/2

Our next story teaser is from @brianedits.bsky.social and his delightfully malevolent story, "Desecrations." This one is sure to get under your skin. Make sure you've pre-ordered your copy of BOREAL: An Anthology of Taiga Horror so you can read it! Links in our profile.

This is not a meme. I did not steal this from somewhere. This is a literal screenshot from MY monitor after legitimately performing this search through Bing, just now. This is why I'm not afraid of AI taking my job any time soon.

Until President Musk is no longer embedded in the Treasury Department's systems, I will be revising my W-2 so that my tax withholding is $0. That money will go into a money market account. I will hand over just enough to avoid an underpayment penalty; otherwise, I'm keeping it out of his pockets.