Rest of the thread here - there was a terrible typo in the very first post...

This here, a proud and upstanding member of His Majesty's Royal Navy, is Pollyanna the reindeer. And for the avoidance of doubt, she's the one on the right of the photograph. 🧵

A spilled ink phoenix for #ArtAdventCalendar day 24! Made with polymer clay, an empty fountain pen ink bottle, and chameleon powder to make the feathers shimmer in the light.

This here, a proud and upsetting member of His Majesty's Royal Navy, is Pollyanna the reindeer. And for the avoidance of doubt, she's the one on the right of the photograph.

Oak and Holly.

(r.e. question about how characters would acquire money if they were low on funds) So one of the things that Archer as a character started off as was a wee bit of a Holmes pastiche, and there're still a few nods to that floating around if you know where to look (see also his rooms in Tanner Street)

These are adult books with sexual scenes, swearing, violence, and lots of other fun things. Check my website for content warnings if in doubt, or send me a DM if you have any questions: www.trudieskies.com/the-cruel-go...

All of my Cruel Gods books are currently on sale for 0.99 each! Yes, even the big one that's thick enough to kill a man! mybook.to/TheCruelGods The Cruel Gods trilogy is an adult gaslamp fantasy featuring magical portals, gothic cosmic deities, quaint Britishisms, and steampunk vibes.

Hey, so, my baby cat had an unexpected trip to the vets. The vet said it's nothing to worry about, but she's still poorly and seeing the vet cost money. If you've ever wondered about buying my books, it would be a wonderful gift for me and the small girl. www.smashwords.com/profile/view...

Some books have portions that are like walking through a dark room and stubbing your toe on every piece of furniture to get a map of where you need to be. And the only thing worse than doing that is...not doing it.

The act of writing is *thinking*. If you do not allow yourself to think thoughts that feel wrong, you will never get a feel for what feels *right*.

The suffering (and my god, writing crap SUCKS) is not without its silver lining. I sat doing dishes, knowing what was coming next, and I was like "oh holy shit, this is going to be GOOD."

The point of writing crap is not that you should barf out anything. It's that you should be aware as you are writing it what the flaws are, and you need to get through it the first time, because the act of doing so informs you what is wrong.

My response to anything over the next two weeks

Okay, so at the request of the lovely @trance.bsky.social , I'm going to tell a story about what happens when a shitty person is "just joking", and then discovers there are consequences. AKA That Time Kat Started An Antifascist Hallway Riot In The Third Grade. Grab your beverage of choice.

Hello, please repost for visibility. Are you in or near Bury St. Edmunds this week? Are you willing and able to do a favour for an internet person? I'd really appreciate photos of the TK Maxx car park, whether during the day, or after dark (4pm lmao) to contest a parking invoice.

Do Not Separate... unless you really fancy cleaning up a *lot* of blood and bodies. (Art by the wonderful @illustratedjai.bsky.social )

It is about this: because so many people do not give a shit about romance, shit gets tried in romance first. You should pay attention to romance publishing news and care about it, because they will try that shit here first.

So I am going to say something about romance as a genre. A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>. This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.

#WIPSnips | goblet That I don't have, but expanding out to other drinkware gets us 'beaker' or 'cup' and that in turn gets us a longer snippet (sorry!) as Verist explains some magical theory that's suddenly *very* relevant ( saranadosfiction.com/2023/02/11/s... )

It's Widdershins Wednesday! An early Christmas present for Ben. www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/decemb... #comics #webcomics

I am attacked theonion.com/exhausted-fr...

#AwesomeCharacters Archer: Try and sell a monograph, take on more consulting detective/research magician work for the Watch Sabbat: Go pickpocketing or housebreaking Viola: Ask Amelia/Amelia's parents Fest: Write home to his parents Mortimer: Ask for extra shifts at the university library

Tomorrow evening it’ll be my annual duty to vaguely shepherd the activity on the #duvetknowitschristmas hashtag and urge people to give small sums to charity. 7.30pm? Something like that?

Today in 'unexpectedly nostalgic finds unearthed from my old room': my rehearsal script for Mephistopheles (Doctor Faustus, school play, back in 2007), complete with separate highlighter colours for speech and stage directions, as well as a whole cornucopia of notes on tone/gestures/business.

Still wintery ❄️ #kidlitart

Righto, we're off to hibernate for a bit, will be asleep until Jan 3rd 🫡 Reminder we exist over on Bookshop dot org, and they take National Book Tokens AND they now do ebooks! So please do pop over there if you're in need before we wake up again ❤️ Much love all uk.bookshop.org/shop/portalb...

Do Not Separate... unless you really fancy cleaning up a *lot* of blood and bodies. (Art by the wonderful @illustratedjai.bsky.social )

Every artist, get more self indulgent NOW! Draw your ships kissing, draw your blorbos, draw that idea you’ve been putting off (you’re good enough to do it!!!), redraw that old art, draw yourself wearing a cool outfit, draw a better world- just draw!!!

Source: Marina Montesano, Cross-Dressing in the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2025), p131-32. The medieval book is called Tristan de Nanteuil.

She answers yes and "became a real man, because God sent her all the nature of a man . . . the [woman's] name Blanchandine will stop right here, for from now on he will be called Blanchandin [man's name], which better suits him. When he saw himself transformed, he praised Jesus Christ."

There's a subgenre of medieval lit that features god turning women into men. The result is incredible passages like this from the 14th century: "Jesus, who made the world, now asks you which you prefer – speak honestly: to remain a woman, as he created you, or to become a man? The choice is yours".

How great is this - added fun & jollity to the fabulous tradition & cause that is #DuvetKnowItsChristmas with this bingo card. 🛌🎄

Thing I've realised I need: two copies of Enquire Within Upon Everything - a copy of the original Victorian edition, for research/inspiration, a copy of one of the 1980s/1990s editions, because a whole lot of the information in there is still legitimately useful (or at least a good place to start)

Trans lives matter, and public bodies need to be held accountable ✊ 6/6

Bridget Phillipson MP, Minister for Women and Equalities We’ve asked the Minister what steps the Government is taking to ensure public bodies, including public service broadcasters, comply with equality law and do not contribute to discriminatory harm. 5/6

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport We’ve written to the Secretary of State to raise concerns about oversight of the BBC as a publicly funded broadcaster. 4/6

Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) We’ve asked the Committee to scrutinise whether national media practices — particularly by the BBC — are undermining equality protections under the Equality Act 2010. This falls within the WEC’s remit to examine how equality law operates in practice. 3/6

BBC Board & Editors We’ve lodged a formal complaint over repeated failures to meet the BBC’s own editorial standards when reporting on trans people, and their repeated use of language the BBC style guide explicitly warns against. 2/6

We’ve today formally written to multiple public bodies about BBC reporting on transgender people. Here’s who we’ve contacted and why. 1/6

Main Character: [sigh] my life sucks. Writer: look, I see you. I hear you. I get it... but I'm going to need you to stop sighing so much about it.

I think the answer for half of mine is 'better painkillers' and for the other half is 'a break' (the crew are having a Time, okay?)

My notifications suddenly picked up on this, so thanks to whoever reposted! If you have any suggestions on what indie ebook sources I should taste test next (including indie press sites and direct-from-author), please let me know! #booksky

Last month, @outsidemag.bsky.social sent me to spend 14 hours in a suburban ice rink, learning the stories of everyone I met. Why do they skate? I asked. To feel free, they told me. To feel God. To forget, for a minute, what they've done.

The thing about living with some condition or other for years and years is that it becomes your normality and if you never actually looked into it as something to diagnose you forget that what you’re going through maybe isn’t the same thing EVERYONE is going through It’s just Normal

It's time for the annual Adorkastock mega pack! Grab this pack to grab (almost) every pose ref pack from this year for JUST $42+. That's 700+ references! Makes an amazing gift, too... Just sayin! ko-fi.com/s/4e9ad86d40 #PoseRef #Pose

#Smutcember 23: Unpublished stuff? Partners and some friends. Published? Anyone who's been reading along with Argentum on my site (which I know includes several friends because they send me reactions to chapters, but if anyone in my family's been reading along with it then they've not told me yet)

Holiday festivities in medieval and Tudor England included a celebration of social chaos and misrule, a tradition now honored in vestigial form for the next ~30 hours at supermarkets

my personal 'favorite' is, "this isn't actually a new feature but Investor #3 really wants to see AI in the product and this feature used some hacked-together vintage 2012 ML implementation and he's never gonna know"

It's a small and niche event, but it's also a paid opportunity. Does anyone have any suggestions on who to contact, or indeed think they themselves could be willing to hear more?