..and we have 🔥 close enough to necessitate evacuating to parents' place in town. we are safe, the cats are safe (if anxious), and with luck the house will _stay_ safe but not taking chances. #fireseason #Australia

Ah, Australia in summer. The sky is a washed-out, ashy grey, and the air smells of smoke. Humidity is near 60% after yesterday's thunderstorm, and fire-engine sirens wail in the distance. The closest front is 6km away, but the wind is blowing away from us for now. #currentlysafe #Australiangothic

places with stories in them <3

Online age verification isn't like showing ID at a bar. It's more invasive, affects far more transactions, and poses serious privacy, security, and free speech risks that in-person checks never do. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

For all my Australian friends & family annoyed by the new age verification popups on your social media, i can recommend proton.me 's vpn. endorsed by the EFF, easy to use, non US based company

visited the local book exchange on Friday, may have achieved nothing (well, 320 pages, a philosophical discussion, and - unrelated - made cheesecake, but no writing) since then. not sad about it though, I'm loving Singer From The Sea

“Just think: right now the new Santa is flexing his ovipositor so he can leave eggs inside every chimney”

I started writing a book on lions. It turned out to be quite tricky and, frankly, damn dangerous, so I went back to regular paper. #WritingCommunity #BookSky #WriteSky

Buy a book. Any book, it doesn't matter which. The one you've been looking forward to, the one with the title that made you laugh, the weighty award-winner you've been meaning to get to. Whatever. Treat yourself. Step away from it all. In this time of gross ignorance & madness, read something.

heh. we've all had this thought while writing.

Just cat things :)

Brad is trying to sober Steve up before work....

be careful out there, friends. self-publishing can be very effective, as can traditional publishing, but the world is full of scammers these days

Some people are very good at writing sex and some people are good at believing that they are good at writing sex, the first is a tremendously impressive skill and the second is what makes for deeply uncomfortable author presentations at science fiction conventions

In a way, reality has become much more like a horror movie lately. Everyone is on edge, no one really knows how things are going to go in the future and of course, the werewolves.

If folks haven't read it, I recommend @annaleen.bsky.social's Stories are Weapons, which is unfortunately more and more relevant during this administration. When I started it, I thought, "yeah yeah, I know this." But each chapter was 🤯; well researched analysis of these tactics, recent & historical.

Here's an excellent article that was just shared with me about the latest scams aimed at writers. Read on, "great author"... #aspiringwriter #authorlife #amwriting #writingcommunity #writerscommunity annerallen.com/2025/11/update...

Here is a picture of a baby otter for no good reason.

Algorithmic face scans are “dangerous, whether used to estimate our age, our name, or other demographics,” EFF’s Adam Schwartz told @PCMag.com. EFF favors “a ban on government use of this technology, and strict regulation… for corporate use.” www.pcmag.com/explainers/...

I'll never forget my dad's last words: "It's way past Halloween. Why's this caution tape still on the elevator?"

"Conference" aka the incredibly poor taste Great Gatsby themed party showcasing conspicuous consumption while SNAP benefits for thousands of underpriveleged Americans were cancelled? Bet our tax dollars paid for her ticket, too :( Hanson's actions, words, and opinions do not represent Australia.

kitties appreciating Dali. Or at least appreciating the first warm summer day, in front of artwork :)

ok, i should really be telling everyone i know to go support my Cats of Ulthar campaign on kickstarter (please do! it's gonna be awesome) but i just found this on backerkit and it looks like so much fun, it would be a real shame if it didn't make its funding goal: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/d...

A fuzzy paw to start Friday.

Sunset over the Chittering Valley after a gloriously rainy spring day <3

at the #festivaloffiction2025 today, just attended a really interesting talk about story pacing by Sasha Wasley sashawasley.substack.com/about

Sounds like eldritch horror to me... but this is real. friend of mine is in recovery right now from full-on AI psychosis, and is quietly struggling with it. This shit isn't good for us.

I really believe generative AI is a cognitohazard to an entire column of humanity. I don't know, there's a something it fucking does to people that displaces their own entirely-capable cognition and independence, further they seemingly cannot perceive the deficits of. This is not a moral argument.

Me: comic-book villains are not very believable *2024 happens* Me: okay, fine. But no one believes that a hero will dress up as an animal like a bat or a spider or a, I dunno, a frog, and face down the bad guys. *2025 happens*

And I'm off to Melbourne for PAX AU! Well. In a couple've hours, given my plane's delayed :) But tonight!

summertime is here :)

just cat things

Time spent scritching animals is not deducted from your lifespan

The richest man on earth owns X. The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok. The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post. See the problem here?

#author #indieauthor #amwriting #writingcommunity #authorsky

the kimmel thing is bad but as long as they arent rounding people up indiscriminately based on race, building concentration camps and talking about eradicating those they deem sexual deviants, i think we’ll be ok

😅 A house isn’t a home without muddy paw prints. Double-tap if this is true for you! 🐕 #CatsAndDogs #FurryFriends

For those in Australia, here's a petition to make our gov charge fossil fuel companies for the damage they're causing. Pls read & consider signing :) nb.australiainstitute.org.au/climatedisas...

Strange days. Strange skies.

Tokyo, Japan. Winter. #blueskyphotocollection #nowpostedinrandomorder #placeswithstoriesinthem

Opened up one of those multi-soda dispensing machines at the movie theater to see how it worked. There was a goblin inside. Tubes connected to its numerous nipples. It likes to be milked. It wants to be milked.

Cats are and always have been cyberpunks

#photo #photography #photographers #art #picture #artwork #artists #designers #design #pics #photos #cats #books

🙂

Himeji Castle, Japan. Winter. #backwardspostedphotocollection #nowpostedinrandomorder #placeswithstoriesinthem