Employee appreciation lunch features cheapest food possible
SFF writer and Swordplay instructor || Founder of Ottawa Swordplay || Lapsed TTRPG writer || AuDHD Currently seeking representation for my third novel and working on my fourth.
1,310 followers 947 following 2,134 posts
view profile on Bluesky
Employee appreciation lunch features cheapest food possible
Over 350 games, all for $8, and the proceeds are going to UNWRA! Check it out here! 🍉🍉 itch.io/b/2979/play-...
White House reminds press pool that lots of presidents smell like they’ve been decomposing for 5 days
BREAKING: D.C. area man not currently dead, has definitely never been dead during past week
I wish I believed in hell, so I could celebrate him going there.
Limited runs of my smash-hit show are coming soon to Toronto & Ottawa. Grab those tickets quick! www.parryriposte.ca
is the sci-fi genre dead? i don't know. but i do have a very much sci-fi, very much alive book up on Netgalley right now that you should request 👀 comes with classic sci-fi tropes such as: big ship doesn't like you, passive aggressive men, and cool religious fashion.
Mark Carney celebrates Labour Day by ordering labourers back to work
The problems with Substack are substantial and well documented, and heaven knows they try to make it difficult to leave. But it can be done—there are better alternatives—and kudos to all these people in demonstrating how!
This statement applies equally to the series I am currently listening to with my spouse, the one I am currently listening to while driving, and a few others!
Science Fiction has never been as mainstream popular and widely available as it is right now. If SF books aren't selling as well as they once did, it's only because it is so easily accessible in other forms.
Explaining a joke makes it funnier.
(this is extra funny because NITCH is the other one that sends me)
I have a few favourite audiobooks that I always find jarring when the narrator says foyER. I know this is a niche complaint but maybe other Canadians get what I am saying.
Eepy beepy after moving Need a lil sleeby Play Dieselpunk 1921 www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...
Frog and Toad were sad for a while.
Oh.... Hey! I have a story in this! 🥰 Thanks so much to @takahemagazine.bsky.social for taking such great care of my work. ❤️
“Good,” said Toad.
As always, I agree with Kate.
I'm really glad for the rain and impressed with how it held off to the exact day I have to help people move.
"But I am a hater, and I will not be polite. The machine is disgusting and we should break it. The people who build it are vapid shit-eating cannibals glorifying ignorance. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself."
Holy smokes, @bitterkarella.bsky.social , you made it, they put you in @midnightpals.bsky.social !
Not gonna lie, I wish I had just taken people's word that it was awful and not dug any deeper.
Jesus fucking Christ. You do not have to read these chilling details of how ChatGPT encouraged and guided this poor kid's suicide. Assume all the content warnings here.
It is so fucking awful.
Is this good? I guess we'll see.
Shipping update for our U.S. customers.
Sounds like you need to do some sword fighting.
Happy release day to the very special Orbit Gold edition of the trilogy of my heart. 💚 Thank you @orbitbooks.bsky.social and @tommyarnoldart.com (Last day to take advantage of the 20% preorder discount! Link below.)
jesus fucking christ, you weaponised melons, it's autocorrect with garnish on it no it can't fucking suffer stop anthropomorphising the random sentence plagiarism engine
Can't even build death star anymore, because of ewok
An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.
I wonder if @hornedlarkpress.com would like to be added?
Okay, so I think I made a small starter pack of small & indie #sff publishers ... let's see if this worked. go.bsky.app/SHETn45
This is how I found out Jeff VanderMeer is secretly bigfoot.
i have read all 5 of the published ones and will undoubtedly read this new thing and they are great. cee is great. you should read these books. omg
Fair enough! I definitely wanted to enjoy Dark Sun more than I did (I like post-apocalyptic settings, though). The early adventures put the PCs in the background of the novels, which was dumb, imo. I just frequently hear people reminisce about it, or say they wish WotC would do something with it.
World Central Kitchen got fired on in Gaza by Israel, had members killed, and went back anyway because people shouldn't have to starve to death. This is an amazing humble bundle.
Dark Sun could have been something too, but they dropped the ball imo.
Today's the day! See you at Stories and Sweets #booklovers! 📚💙 📚⚔️ 📚🪐
There are many ethical considerations in game design, from the choices presented to a player to how the world itself is modeled. What are some thoughtful ways game designers can encode ethics and present difficult situations to players? youtu.be/aspMNHItLlw
Martha Wells Humblebundle in support of World Central Kitchen. Highly recommend. www.humblebundle.com/books/martha...
Time to admit that this has become a Butlerian Jihad stan account.
I keep thinking about this skeet. Cutting out creativity in the name of "efficiency" tracks perfectly with the priorities of modern America, but that doesn't make it any less diabolical.
Solidarity!
I’m a disabled author and artist, and I don’t use generative AI to create my works. Where are my people? Let’s show up to dispel the argument that we need generative AI! (This is not the same as assistive technology, for those who don’t know this.)
When we were planning our wedding, my wife and I found out that was a thing people do, and it immediately went on our "no fucking way" list.
No, I found most of it on Query Tracker and Instagram.
I have been informed again that this is a highly subjective industry.
It looks like a few agents have joined the agency recently, and Arthur Young has been there for a while (that's who I queried before), although he is also now their operations manager.
I am genuinely happy and surprised to see a change and an apology. www.lacon.org/2025/08/21/s...
RT if you also wish ill upon JK Rowling.
Thanks, and that's good to hear!
It absolutely makes sense, it just tickles my brain!
Canada petition of the day: I like to call this the "stop fuckin' lyin'" petition. basically a stand against mis/disinformation by holding Members of Parliament to a standard of not fuckin' lyin'. I'll sign that! Pass it on, Canada! www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...
The paradox here is delicious.
I beg of @montrealworldcon27.bsky.social (and @edmontonin2030.bsky.social should they win their bid) to NOT participate in the now annual WorldCon "Stepping on a Rake" competition. Please do the con and our country proud by making no absolutely obtuse decisions and avoiding unforced errors #WorldCon
absolutely disgusting if the writing community could last like, five minutes without diving facefirst into unprompted colonizer bullshit that would be neat
...the cataclysmic event that many mortals fear is that the gods might wake up one day, upending society and the institutions humans have built, and returning the world to the way it was before the gods fell asleep.
There is no Armageddon/Ragnarok equivalent world-ending prophecy, most mortals don't ever consider the possibility of a world-ending event. That said, people understand how devastating the god war was, and how much better life is without the direct and conscious interference of the gods. So...
When Paizo unionized, I got a raise amounting to thousands of dollars. I also get a higher cost of living salary increase every year in addition to my seniority salary increase. I have incredible job security. I have advocates if I have grievances. Unionizing is hard and scary but so worth it.
Am I not delusional enough, or too delusional, that's the burning question!
Apparently I cosplay Scalzi on the daily.
Hey that's great! Congratulations! One question, if I have previously queried another agent at your agency and not heard back, how long should I wait before querying you? Or is it a "no from one is no from all" situation?
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/b...
📣Announcing #PreDV and #DVParty!📣 Excited to bring back #PreDV & #DVParty leading up to #DVPit! Practice your pitches during #PreDV on Mon, Sept 29, 2025! Get to know your fellow participants during #DVParty from Oct 2-Oct 7! Follow this account or dvpit.carrd.co for all official announcements!
Please, just leave them their em dashes!
who wants a cathartic trip into a better future where a plague wipes out the billionaires? 👀✨ #WriteStuff escapepod.org/2025/07/24/e...
— Gwi-Ma Shwi-Ma... This is fine. 🔥🔥🔥 #art | #KpopDemonHunters | #KPDH | #fanart
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
AI promised a path to convincing shareholders infinite growth was still possible. But it’s not, and it never has been. And there was never a chance this half-baked grift of a technology was going to change that.
I can't say the things I wish on my worst enemies, I'll get banned from Bluesky.
speaking as someone who has been to many picket lines that were deemed illegal by governments that want to crush workers' rights (UCP, primarily): Coffee and donuts are often welcome and celebrated if brought to picket lines. you will make friends if you do this. I recommend doing it.
There is a brand of Canadian on here that is like "now is not the time to support workers' rights because we have to fight the fascists with our Economy" and I suggest those people read a little history and have a little think. Maybe lay off the AI Trump memes for a bit and talk to some organizers.
“AI is the drinking mercury of our time.” — @sunsinegrrrl.bsky.social
Absolutely fuck Air Canada, solidarity with everyone on strike, this is such an appalling state of affairs. I thought I had a working understanding of the grievances & demands but it’s so much worse than I thought.
Bruce Fanjoy wins Battle River-Crowfoot by-election
(Right, I should probably mention that I find 99.9 percent of human parts physically disgusting. I’m also less than thrilled with my own human parts.)
I'm really not defending their population model, I'm just not criticizing this one thing about it!
I am curious about the context for that. I've read the series several times, and I remember a few instances of non-Earthers (and possibly wealthy/elite Earthers) saying stuff like that, I just never took it as in-setting factual. It's a "poor people have kids to get more welfare" statement.
So, if these measures are so effective, why is the population still growing? Mainly because the setting requires it.
...it was the only way they could afford a child, and they are well off (not on basic). The Mormons built their generation ship to get away from the restrictions. Pregnancy is rare enough that there's a specialized sex trade involving illegally pregnant women. There are more examples.
I've been thinking about it more, and honestly it's really weird. But I suspect that the line you're thinking of is actually Martian propaganda/misrepresentation. The reason it's really weird is that Earth as depicted as having really effective birth restrictions. Holden has 8 parents because...
I'll admit that my enjoyment of the series benefits from not understanding the mechanisms I have been told exist that will eventually slow or stop human population growth, beyond the fact that at some point the planet won't be able to sustain us. Which supports your main point.
But the overcrowded Earth is mostly (imo) a justification for including the classic colonization of Mars and the belt, and is used to set up cultural conflict and misunderstandings. I don't think there's any more explanation for it than "Earth's population keeps growing, why wouldn't it?"
I don't disagree that they handwaved massive population, but I don't read basic support as the causal justification. If anything, I'd say it's the reverse. They also have mentioned (outside the books) that the basic support presented in the books is explicitly not UBI, it's a terrible alternative.
So, I was editing one of my novels today, it turns out that I start a lot of sentences with conjunctions. And I edited most of them to make them the first sentence of a new paragraph.
And it seems lots of people think it's bad to start a sentence with a conjunction. But I don't care. Because I'm going to do it anyway.
It's over - The Polari Prize has been halted for 2025. Sunk by the decision to longlist a proudly anti-trans author. Credit to the other longlisted authors who were willing to sacrifice award nomination to instead stand in solidarity with their community. This really meant something.
Also, the car I'll be driving is stolen from the other runners.
I want to win the Boston marathon but I have no stamina, stopping me from driving the race and using that as my time is wrong
CUPE has a message for Mark Carney, Patty Hajdu and the Liberal government: You have seriously understimated our strength, our determination. You have picked a fight with the wrong union, the wrong workers, and you have definitely picked a fight with the wrong women. #unfairCanada #UnpaidWorkWontFly
If Air Canada wants planes in the air, it should pay the flight attendants who staff them fairly. Good on the union for keeping up the pressure.
Have now reached the point in Today’s Discourse where not only do I not care if Game of Thrones gets finished, I hope GRRM is lighting stogies with hundred dollar bills with the names of individual fanboys inscribed on them in purple ink.
I still wasn’t used to things that were unfair to me being a major point of consideration for humans.
He absolutely could do it, but has also said that he absolutely wouldn't.
I will also be hanging out with the amazing Can*Con folks for the panel. Whether I manage other bits of the party depends on my state after the trip home 😅