Update on the #mystery plants! One of them got munched a bit (presumably by a rabbit), but the other one to my surprise, has actual buds! We might get some flowers (and an easy way to confirm whether or not these are, indeed, variegated phlox, which is the current best guess). #gardening

"Whew, it's been so hot in the Twin Cities this week, I wish it was just a few degrees colder." *monkey's paw curls*

A warning for authors with pen names: I got the weirdest snail mail solicitation yesterday. I didn't save a picture, but it was from some "data" outfit, claiming that they could do my Assumed Name Annual Renewal for me. I'd just have to send along the $65 fee. The truth: there is no fee (in MN).

Meanwhile, another #book I've read lately: Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care & Feeding of British Dragons. (Whew!) A very cute 19th century tale of "oops, it's a dragon!" with a middle-aged protagonist. #amreading #fantasy #booksky 💙📚🪐

There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, but also I have leftover root beer flavored ice cream from Nelson's, so it's not all bad.

Sell your book in five words "Magic cloak annoys new wizard" (Or, I could use the actual title, which is conveniently five words...)

Hm... depends on which one. Middle School Science Teacher: I've taught a little before (college level physics), so assuming I get his lesson plans, I might be able to wing it as a substitute. Medical Software Technical Support: This would end badly.

This is true. Our public health department is legitimately the best at tracing this stuff. Apparently they're known among other state health departments as "Team Diarrhea" (complimentary)

I've got two heirloom roses in my garden, of different varieties. While there are some visually obvious differences, the key one when weeding around them is: "Mind the thorns, love" vs "Touch me and I will CUT YOU." The latter has poked me through gardening gloves a time or two...

Apparently at some libraries you can also check out cake pans in fun shapes???

<looks around at world> Okay, so, I guess I'm just going to work on writing this scene where the protagonist is getting told off by the village elder for being out of town so much [murdering the worthless gods one at a time].

For some reason, I've been pondering C. S. Lewis' "Out of the Silent Planet." The allegory is obvious; yet, the first time I read it, I completely misunderstood who Earth-associated higher being was supposed to be. Anybody else have a book that you wildly misinterpreted the first time you read it?

Let's take a minute to celebrate the storied career of C.J. Cherryh, who recently announced her retirement– @barb.bsky.social recalls what first drew her to Cherryh's work, and the elements that make her writing and worldbuilding so compelling

Fellow authors: without any context, what's the first line of your current WIP? "The cabbages pushed me over the edge."

You can pry my incredibly heavy and difficult to move library from my cold dead hands

Re-upping for the evening crowd. (...or did you come through a wormhole to get here?)

New #blog post up today! I have a very petty complaint about portrayals of wormholes in fiction, and now you can read about my silly complaints: rznicolet.com/2026/07/05/w... #scifi #wormholes

All right, is this the time when we say "We really needed this rain"?

Useful comic for folks in Tornado Alley (and perhaps also folks who missed their awoo this week): xkcd.com/3267/

Story time! I grew up in Richland, WA, which is as close as you can live to the Hanford Nuclear Waste Site and its WWII leftovers. There are a number of quirks to the location. I once asked my dad (chemical engineer) what would kill you first if you went swimming in one of the tanks.

I've been having a fun time with a new(ish) computer game: Tactical Breach Wizards. Key qualities: 1. Shadowrun-flavored urban fantasy 2. Elegant, simple graphics 3. Fun puzzle-solving gameplay 4. Your team includes a navy seer and a necromedic 5. You get to defenestrate fascists

*listens to rain and thunder* I'll just postpone weeding until tomorrow, shall I...

#WordWeavers July 1: If your MC wore T-shirts, what would be on their favorite one? For the book that *exists*, I actually included it: a blue T-shirt reading "I'm A Doctor, Not A Magician." (She's a wizard with an MD.) #amwriting

Current status on the #WIP: * About 70k words (out of planned ~104k) * 4/6 Worthless Gods have met justified ends * One Concerned Village Matriarch (causing some heartburn for our protagonist) The real question: can I crank out the rest of this manuscript while on vacation this week?

If I could completely erase a species from existence, it would be mosquitos. (Yes, I know there's more than one species. I'm happing to limit this to all varieties that bite humans.)

Okay, I finally got around to reading Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir). It's fun -- I'm a sucker for both science puzzles and making friends with weird aliens. I have science quibbles (even taking the astrophage as an acceptable deviation from reality)... #book #amreading #scifi 💙📚🪐

Hey, I heard that Bookshop has a sale going -- free shipping today! So if you'd like to support independent bookstores _and_ get my book about a magic cloak's adventures with a new wizard (or somebody else's book, that's okay, too), now's a good time... bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

Today I Learned: Apparently Veronica is a flower name (alongside Lily and Daisy and whatnot), and it's a whole genus of flowers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronic... I'm shocked. I thought it was just a name! (I even used it for that wizard in that book I wrote...) #til #gardening #flower

Same, same. Novels completed before the published one: 1. Horrible high school novel (that no longer exists, I hope) 2. SF first contact, hope to rewrite some day 3. Angry dark-for-me fantasy 4. Cool Aliens, No Humans 5. Fantasy Democracy 4+5 may still have a shot, but it's 6 that actually exists.

I just finished writing up a blog post about portrayals of wormholes in fiction, and now I want to rewatch Farscape...

Re-posting for the evening crowd.

This morning, I've got a #blog post up about the demographics of a naturally evolved hive mind: rznicolet.com/2026/06/19/f... #aliens #scifi

Line from the #WIP I'm currently rather proud of: "The scribes and clerics — whose expensive black clothes were a poor fit for the weather — were scattered among the more ordinary people like weevils in bad flour."

Just received this - the Art of @alexries.com from @ironcircuscomics.bsky.social - just absolutely blown away by so much beautiful art. I got it as a KS reward but it's available commercially now - for example www.waterstones.com/book/other-w...

There's an "explain your handle" going around, and I've got a particularly weird one, so: rr = My real name's initials (so far, so good) 4 = "for" (also pretty normal) idic = Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, the Vulcan philosophy from Star Trek (that got nerdy fast...)

Since it's already been done for Star Trek... ... perhaps Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot. I loved that cartoon and was so mad that it only lasted a single season _and_ ended with an unresolved cliffhanger...

I'm not sure whether I've posted about this before, but I've been enjoying Vantage quite a lot. It's a cooperative board game. It's got puzzles and absolutely gorgeous art. (Also, the box is _heavy_ because it's full of cards.) Anybody else got a favorite cooperative game? #scifi #boardgame

Okay, current status on the #WIP: * 60k words out of ~104k planned * 3/6 useless gods eliminated * 1 big harvest festival * An unknown, but large, number of people turned into chickens (they got better)

The Mariners are the only MLB team that has never even _appeared_ in the World Series, ever. So. That one.

Look what came in the mail yesterday! We finally got the hard copy of @alexries.com 's gorgeous art book Other Worlds, and I'm looking forward to going through the whole thing before deciding where to put it in the bookshelf.

I wrote a rather cranky blog post about that author's guild survey that's been going around: rznicolet.com/2026/06/10/y... TLDR, implying "nobody's buying books because libraries, and now authors are poor" is ridiculous, not least because there's a complete lack of longitudinal data. #libraries

Well, this is absurd. Aside from all the obvious wrongness, I'm reasonably certain that I can pick apart their stats (to the extent that they share them 🙄) and may take a crack at it if I get the time...

PSA - the entire Twin Cities metro area got a giant heavy-metal style stadium show from the sky at 3 AM last night, and now an entire metropolitan area is staggering around like new parents after a bad night.

Given the quality of T. Kingfisher's other work that I've enjoyed, I'm 100% sure that this horror novel is amazing. I'm also 100% sure that: 1. It is not for me (pure horror on this scale is way too much for me) 2. I should not (and will not) look up _any_ screwworm pictures

A recent #book for me: If Wishes Were Retail, by Auston Habershaw. Quick, clever, doesn't overstay its welcome. Loved the gnomes. (I have questions about the gnomes.) Has the expected warm fuzzy ending, though... #amreading #fantasy #urbanfantasy 💙📚🪐

Re-posting for the evening crowd.

Speaking of movies (and #blog posts): I talk a bit about why I don't like horror much... and some exceptions: rznicolet.com/2026/06/05/i...

What's your favorite movie from each decade of your life? 80s: The Princess Bride 90s: Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country 00s: WALL-E (tough call, Pixar was on a roll) 10s: How To Train Your Dragon 20s: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Look, I get being tired and wanting take-out, but this is a bit silly. #squirrel #pizza

A Skeptical Guide to UFO Cases and Claims With Steven Spielberg’s new blockbuster film "Disclosure Day" about to debut, scientists and educators will face a new barrage of student and public questions about UFOs (or, as they have been rebranded, UAPs). 🧪 👽️