Helen DeWitt on turning down a $175k Windham-Campbell Prize because she wasn't able to handle the prize's mandatory publicity requirements. Imo a moving, deeply relatable, and darkly funny story about money, obligation, mental health, & executive dysfunction paperpools.blogspot.com/2026/04/we-l...

Woke up early for no good reason, so finished the second half of @tkingfisher.com's newest book Wolf Worm 1. I can see why Shep made The Face 2. That was skincrawlingly gnarly 3. How do you so consistently manage to write such horrific things that are also strangely cozy? (/baffled + complimentary)

It is a good night to have both cats be in a super lovey mood Fluffernutters pressed up against me all cozy-like is super nice and soothing and lovely More editing to be done tomorrow, and more of the admin work associated with getting a book out the door, but that is tomorrow, and cattos are now

low blood sugar & dehydration make everything ten times worse which doesn't seem possible but there it is

I followed Hades ages ago because of their art, & how his thoughtfulness + vision combine into such vivid, expressive wholes He's been fighting extensive health fuckery + years of shitty/neglectful & had many '26 ER trips. They're *finally* on track for proper treatment + existing, but need help

Hot take, but I think the moon joy is less about space, and more about what it feels like to look at experts in exploration doing that exploration with no other shared objective than the betterment of the human race. It's easy to feel joy and hope watching something that exists to make us better.

"'Beep beep' goes the electric sheep" A silly little phrase I picked up from a friend in college, and has far outlasted the friendship It still makes me smile every time I think about it, hear it, or say it "'Beep beep' goes the electric sheep"

“Copy Moon joy” #Artemis

Heard through the ceiling of my apartment tonight: (cat wailing) Person: No!! (cat wails some more) Person: You do not want that! Spit it out! (even louder wailing) Person: That is a potato! You are an obligate carnivore!! #ahcats #lifeinapartments

Update: Hilarity is ensuing, more info later But know that it's definitely proven worth the $5 this cost to tack onto an order I already had to make

So for the last hour of Trans Day of Visibility... I may or may not have been placing googly eyes all over to catch my housemate for April Fools' <.<

If you want a fun April Fool’s prank, here’s a good one: get a big package of stick-on googly eyes and stick them to things around your home or office for others to enjoy

Finally getting the lead out writing-wise I had an exceptionally sluggish week, but then I figured out what was wrong My brain was full of too many mental notes-to-self for initial Book 2 edits to let me focus on Book 1 final edit pass (plus the allergic-to-life flare didn't help)

Pharmacy switched to having an AI agent a while ago, replacing their normal phone tree I've barely-tolerated it I generally have to talk to a human cuz schedule II meds + checking on prior auth stuff, and the 1-2min autoscroller sucks But today it's failed to hand off call to the pharmacy. Thrice

Still adjusting to the increased dose of clonidine The dry mouth is no worse than before (where, by 'dry mouth', I mean it feels like I've been snacking on cotton balls), but passing out asleep for ~3‐4hrs after taking my morning meds has been a little much <.< But my body *is* adjusting

hey i heard about sora dying. love to my friends in the kingdom heart fandom

Tried the Just Noticable Difference thing going around I turned my phone's blue light filtration off for this; I nailed the blues every single time, but had lost red-end discernment by the end for sure www.keithcirkel.co.uk/whats-my-jnd...

Finally home as of ~9 hrs ago (I basically got in the door, was mugged by the fluffernutters, then passed the fuck out, only waking up to eat dinner then fall back asleep) (I might have been a wee bit exhausted)

TIL that if a mast cell flare kicks into high gear during the way-less-severe periods I get while on clonidine? Endo symptoms kick back in, full force, pretty much out of nowhere So now I get to figure out how to smother this immune system barnfire-in-the-making with what meds I have on hand

Doc appointment went well yesterday, btw! BP is trending in the right direction, and we're titrating clonidine dosage upwards My doc also nerded out with me over the endo/mast cell linkage So with this info, and sans diagnostic surgery, he's on board with definitively saying I have endo

Project Hail Mary (the movie) is a banger If you enjoyed The Martian and/or Arrival, you'll definitely have a blast Knee-jerk rating is 9/10 (it *was* 9.5/10, but I'm docking half a point for a centrifuge that was criminally misloaded; we don't fuck around with poorly-loaded centrifuges)

Heading out of town for doc appointment + visiting parents for about a week Got luggage out ~48hrs in advance, suitcase packed ~48hrs ago Packed small 'health things' duffel yesterday The cats are now alternating between anxious orbiting, sulking, blocking my path, and begging me not to go T.T

My plush collection came up in a convo yesterday So now I've got a decent pic of the portion residing on my bookshelves! ("Overflow crew" - those residing in my office - to come Later:tm: after I head upstairs at some point) Plush list in alt text, with bonus book list

In the moment, I powered through, but as the evening went on and I got home, I realized more and more how upset I was. So I guess my point is, when someone gets punched, they don't always feel the pain right away. The adrenaline keeps them moving forward. Watch out for your friends.

Okay, despite my face feeling like it got hit like a truck, I need to do writing things Specifically, the big read-aloud pass that'll both let me screen for residual jank before finalizing my manuscript, plus give me a rough sense for how long the audiobook version will be

The plants are getting horny, and my face is death Note to future self: time to up both the loratadine and cetirizine On the upside, I *might* be slightly more heat tolerant now thanks to clonidine; I fell asleep at 70F the other night, and was able to exist in 73F with no rxn this weekend

I think most people are pretty okay if you own a house. maybe it's when you own all the houses that we start to raise some mild objections

I have very few games I'd consider a 10 out of 10 But Pokopia is shaping up to be one This is the most fun I've had playing Pokemon since Legends Arceus, and is the best kind of low key vibe to kick back with in the midst of *gestures at everything*

America, come on, it's a little on the nose to have DST steal an hour from everyone's morning and thus make International Women's Day the shortest day of the year.

Time change (DST) sucks But plants are also starting to shit out pollen And I got a bit dehydrated (forgot to drink water for ~6ish hrs yesterday, still catching up) So now it's sinus headache + skin-shrink-wrapped-to-skull headache, plus whatever I did to piss off my neck sleeping last night >.<

this is like the thesis statement of our times

I assume that nothing is secure because if I'm sending it to another human there are now two points of potential human error and oh my god are there so many ways humans can error. if there's more than two, just assume it will be read in court some day.

I do not think the police have ever raided the Quakers and been on the correct side of history

After thinking on it for a while, this is the list I'm coming up with atm re: my top 9 formative video games my9games.com

A frigate with a crew of fewer than 200 is barely a "warship". The vast majority of that crew were cooks, deckhands, engineers to keep the turbines going. And to leave wounded survivors floating in open water violates the actual and moral law of the sea. You at least call for help for them.

Hi y'all! If you want *just* writing/publishing/concrete book updates, you're looking for @ktbardwrites.bsky.social Otherwise, this is the account of the extraordinary dunderbutt behind the pen name K.T. Bard! I can't count, can probably math, and might even be half-decent at writing sometimes!

So it appears some jagoff has been broadcasting illegally over emergency channels in the Pittsburgh area And, of course, it's a whole bunch of pro-nazi and antisemetic horseshit Also features threats against [at least] the mayor

I don't know what the hell I did yesterday But *something* pissed off my body And now I just kinda feel like death So I am going to lay in bed while Pharoah luxuriates in being little spoon and see if rest helps at all

100 pages into edits on Book 1 (that is, Chunk 1 sorted) Chunk 2 will be tomorrow (and most of that is minor sorts of edits) Chunk 3 needs a little resculpting in spots, but not a lottle Once these edits are done, I'll do a read aloud pass to make sure nothing's janky, then that's a manuscript!

Y'all have taught me an incredibly important thing over time When the news is terrible, the vibes are rancid, and you can't stop scrolling + looking for more info... Pick a small thing and do it. Do something that makes your life, and/or the lives of those around you, better Do it

The millions killed by US/European sanctions alone in recent decades—I mean not even counting the wars and the bombings—aren't usually counted as the death toll of a great war. In fact, they don't even rise to the level of "distraction." Mass death is just the background noise of late capitalism.

I think once I'm done drafting (and maybe do first pass edits on) Book 2, I'm gonna need to make some time to read more for a bit Last year, I read oodles of books, right up until around when I started writing And then it kinda trailed off

i know people are intentionally lumping things like spell check in with AI to make opposition feel ridiculous but honestly don't push me. i'd strangle clippy with my bare hands if it meant getting rid of AI

Holy crap, Book 2's draft crossed the 65k word mark I think my early estimate of ~95k is gonna be about right, and it's definitely gonna be longer than Book 1 (~85k) <.< It's gonna be a massacre when I start editing Book 2, isn't it? XD

Every time I receive a progress update on Book 1's cover, I end up squawking with joy Book 1 edits are due back by the end of this week, and Book 2's draft has seriously come together this week The next batch of scenes is settling into place, too, and are almost ready to fall onto the page

Woke up hungover from nightmares That incredibly hard-to-shake miasma of wrung-out, too-raw emotions meets sleep-not-restful meets dehydrated It's incredibly rude So I'm being a bed slug and curling up with my cattos for a while as meds kick in, then I'll see what I can salvage of my day

Finally drafted a set of scenes for Book 2 that I've been itching to write for months And it's kinda funny how fast words go by when they really get flowing; hit ~18k mostly-good words this week But now I'm going to soak in a bath then be a slug and cuddle my cattos before gaming with friends

Gonna have a lot of “Lord, I see what you do for others…” in the timeline today but just remember that God helps those who help themselves so let’s hippity-hop to the chippity-chop.

This story is *excellent* And like ten different flavors of making the world brighter