Charles R. Saunders, father of "Sword and Soul", was an author & journalist whose work established him as a pioneer of Black specfic. TriCon is proud to present readings from winners of NS's Charles R. Saunders Prize, as well as a lecture on Saunders from his biographer, Jon Tattrie!

My editor kind of found me? @mollyrookwood.bsky.social and I have friends in common and either she commented on a skeet of mine or vice versa. We started talking and I realized she's a fellow Jew who writes romance, but also edits. She did a sample edit for me and I hired her.

Friendly reminder that dishwashers made after 1995 or so are so water and energy efficient that even if you ran them twice fully loaded it would still use less water than handwashing the same load. So many "green" things feel like sacrifices. Dishwashers are not one of them.

First little dusting of snow this morning! It's not going to stick, but there's something so magical about the first snow of the year. ❄️

Another night of all of Canada getting auroras and Nova Scotia being firmly covered in clouds 😩

Really enjoying the costuming in Frankenstein, particularly the way all of Elizabeth's clothes are absolutely arsenic green.

there's a moment in PARADISE LOST where Satan arrives in Eden and realizes Hell isn't a place; it's a thing he carries within him and it'll follow him wherever he goes. and i think about that when i see these awful rich men whose monstrous wealth has enriched them not at all

Ok ok Northanger Abbey is a masterpiece. I have abandoned my previous condescension towards this novel. I was a sad little shatter-brained creature before but now I have had a change of feelings and spirits and am in perfect felicity.

I have my students co-develop class policies, and they pretty much unanimously chose to ban AI in the class. There were a few questions about using Grammarly, but those were the only real exceptions any students expressed (and even then, we talked about alternatives to that and they were open to it)

we're still shipping all over Canada for only $5 and we now have a tugboat to help us spread the word! how do we do it? that's really none of your business

Belting Golden in the car because I'm late for chorus and need a vocal warmup that hits a high A 🎶

What kind of programming will you find at TriCon? All kinds of stuff, like the Blue Pencil Cafe! Sign up for a 1-on-1 session with an editor! Spaces are limited, & sign-ups open December 22nd! Featuring @englelaird.bsky.social, @mythaxis.bsky.social, and @heartlines-spec.com, with more to come!

What is ‘artificial intelligence,’ anyway? The confusion is the point Morning File by me

a great article from the UK outlining the human cost of amazon orders

As we read about Sodom in this week's Torah portion, a brief reminder that according to Jewish tradition the sin of Sodom had nothing to do with sexuality, it was that they criminalized helping the poor and the visitor.

I love that Mary Shelley's masterpiece is being recreated closer than ever to her original vision by one of the most compelling directors in cinema at the same moment that Percy Shelley's masterpiece is being spontaneously reimagined as every shitpost meme on the internet. #RelationshipGoals

Enjoyable list of unscary films: some undeniable greats, a deserved number one and many films I now want to see. But I think Stuart Heritage has forgotten the Vietnam reminiscence scene in The Straight Story and the various allusions to people burning to death www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

Vendor applications are now open for TriCon 2026! We are looking for vendors showcasing anything that writers might love!Applications will be open until February 1st. PLEASE READ our policies before applying. We have separate opportunities for Indie Authors! tricon-halifax.com/vendors/

hi! maybe you remember me from the menu i made for my cat, which hit surprisingly big a little while ago. i made some menus for other people's pets in exchange for donations to pro-trans organisations. now i'm doing it again, but for food banks. please share! more info downthread!

Season 2 of Nobody Wants This: Nobody Did in Fact, Want This.

Hey #WriteSky, have you heard about @tricon-hfx.bsky.social? The Trident Conference for Speculative Fiction Kjipuktuk | Halifax May 15-17, 2026 GOHs Amal El-Mohtar, Kurestin Armada & Carl Engle-Laird tricon-halifax.com 🌍📚💙 #WritingLife #SpecLit #DiverseBooksky 📚🪐⚔️🩸🌈📚

PSA: don’t do that weird thumb licky page turn thing in a bookstore

“The Purdue student newspaper owns its own presses” is the sound of engines revving

Bonus points not just for correct usage of long-s (it never goes at the end of a word) but for using the correct glyph ('ſ')& not just going the lazy route of using 'f' instead.

" @miriamudel.bsky.social's abun­dant gifts as an author, her exhaus­tive research, and ele­gant writ­ing ele­vate her book above its sub­ject matter.” Read the full review of Modern Jewish Worldmaking for @jewishbookcouncil.bsky.social here: www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/modern-...

I'm so bored of the "Will AI ruin literature?" question. People who care about good writing will still do real writing. People who read good books will still read real books. We don't need to catastrophise about the future of the book industry again (at least not for this particular reason).

Just spent an hour excitedly putting together a conference presentation pitch with @brennabaileybooks.bsky.social only to realise that our idea didn't remotely fit with the conference theme. 😑

it’s spooky book season

Spontaneously wound up at Lord of the Rings trivia and am beyond proud to report that we won with a grand total of 45 out of 43 possible points 🧙‍♂️

Pretty sure I say this every Columbus Day, but getting hauled back to Spain for excessive brutality in 1500, just as the Inquisition was really getting fired up, is some genuinely Evil Guys Hall of Infamy material

“Copyright growing pains” is one hell of a euphemism for the biggest IP theft in history

PSA for Nova Scotia folks, the Covid booster/flu shot booking page is now up for the fall! Available for everyone over six months who hasn't had one this fall. novascotia.flow.canimmunize.ca/en/booking/c... #HaliSky

whenever i encounter people who say they can't understand shakespeare verses I always send them this clip from the 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing

Canadians: The federal government is seeking public input on how AI should be developed and used in business, research, and the military. If this scares the shit out of you, please let them know:

It cannot be made clearer. If you continue to support the Harry Potter franchise in any way, you are directly funding the removal of trans people's human rights in the UK.

The owner of this Korean restaurant just commented "perfect eating" because I finished my soup, and this is the sort of affirmation I think we all need more of right now.

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day? Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

this isn’t ours but i really wish it was

Unlike Jesus, I have returned.

#yeg PARENTS. How's it going? Do you need a little coffee break? Bring the kiddos down to Audreys 10am-12pm weekdays. We're reading stories. Because we care about parents, kids and especially our teachers. #storytimewithaudreys #booksky

I'm seeing a lot of this in the romantasy space! there are books with minimal story apart from the romance, so you end up with an iterative structure where the leads go to a series of locations or make a series of small advances on their MacGuffin quest, as set dressing for their escalating intimacy

Pondering how (and whether) to tell students that addressing someone as "Mrs" in an academic email is usually not a great plan. (Technically it's accurate and "Dr" isn't, but they don't know that.)

I have to include an AI section in my lecture for the honours thesis students on Tuesday, and having reviewed the university's PPT resource on generative AI, I'm absolutely stuck on my slide for how students can ethically use AI in some way. My answer? You absolutely can't.

The heated floors in our house are something I never would have sought out intentionally, but now that we're having 6° mornings, I cannot tell you how nice it is to be able to walk around the house with cozy toes.

One of my favourite things about Kol Nidre is all the little kids in their High Holiday formalwear running around the sanctuary, making noise and being alive in a way that nobody minds, a way that I think feels central to making a congregation feel like a community.

Don’t mind me, I’m just ugly crying at this performance from the cast of The Sound of Music at the Library of Congress.

G'mar chatimah tovah, friends. I wish you a meaningful and reflective Yom Kippur and, if applicable, a safe and easy fast. As always, a reminder that if fasting is not safe for you due to mental health, drug requirements, etc, it is a mitzvah to eat and care for yourself, tomorrow and all days 💙

May this Yom Kippur bring us closer to a world where all of us live with freedom, safety, and peace.