Intentionally adding friction into my life has helped me feel more human, grounded. I keep an analogue agenda and a dumb phone. Let me tell you, you really think about texts on a T9 setup. We're always trying to cram more in, but being forced to slow down has helped me be more present.

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

Some dude just yelled at my back, "I want to give you a compliment." I ignored him and stepped behind a pole. He chased me down and said it again. I said, "No, thank you," and he acted like I'd popped his birthday balloon instead of giving him a cookie. Man, just leave me alone.

I couldn't help it. The new ones with hair are just too weird. I needed this precious gremlin in my life. Her name is Reina 👑 Also, she is technically not a labubu, but a mokoko, so I have still never bought a labubu 😉

I taught middle schoolers how to make Twine games with the @clarionwest.bsky.social program hosted at @hugohouse.bsky.social. I declared them to be Official Game Developers when we were done and you should have seen them LIGHT UP. That will buoy me for the rest of the week 👾💜🎮

There are two technologies I particularly resent the intrusion of into contemporary storytelling. The first is smart phones. Looking at my writing prior to about 2012, I just prefer that world and its sandbox. Second is genAI, which now colors everything smart phones color and more.

Time to write some hot sad fiction.

not saying anything new, but if these folks actually believed in genAI writing, they'd disclose it, tout it, and build their own audiences elsewhere and leave others be. hiding and sneaking it to markets who want no part of it doesn't prove you're good at writing. just proves you're good at fraud.

Renesmee is doing a coffee shop writing session today. She pulls in $10k a month writing dark romance books for Kindle Unlimited that are completely unhinged. Living the dream, girl. Living the dream.

Having recently lived this, cutting loose five studios to find their own funding in this environment is...not great. It's better than everyone being on their ass day 1, but the accumulation of psychic damage each day that you go without securing anything is no joke. Please watch out for yourselves 💔

We are warning residents and visitors not to harvest or eat recreational shellfish from Hood Canal after laboratory testing detected lethal levels of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxin in shellfish samples collected this week near Hoodsport and surrounding areas.

Cyberpunk from its roots in the early 80s was a genre vehicle for speculative fiction writers to move into the paranoid urban explorations of film noir. Central to all great cyberpunk is the aesthetic response to questions such as "Who am I?" "How do I know what I know?" and "What do I do to cope?"

PeteXN@petexn.bsky.social · last mo.

There is a discourse going on about how cyberpunk 2077 not offering up revolutionary politics and discourse is somehow a failing of the writing and pondsmith and I struggle to think of anything constructive to say about how people are so performatively woke they lost the ability to understand art

This is my life right now.

igor.sarzynski@srznsk.bsky.social · last mo.

btw

Should writers use unfamiliar or uncommon words? Yes, of course. Grow the fuck up.

Let's get started.

✨️Whitney✨️@brightwhitney.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I donno, getting fed up with things. Might start a branch of philosophy about post-civilization matriarchy.

Wore my CDPR team member varsity jacket while running errands today. Very much not doing that again. (Dudes cannot be normal.)

How are ya'll feeling about Daggerheart these days?

"I want to be wanted by a human. I want to be in relation with other humans. That’s what I believe I am on this earth to experience. I think we all feel that way in the end, even if it takes us our whole lives to realize it." Read this essay on art by Zadie Smith.

Art for Our Sakes | Zadie Smith

I wasn’t going to come today. Partly because the act of coming here—to America, as a non-American—is now a fraught, stressful, and even dangerous

nybooks.com

Today is a momentous day for the workers of Arena! After months of planning, waiting and organizing, our dream is finally a reality; the votes have been counted, and our union of UWOTC-CWA has been officially elected. From this day forward, we have a union!

I have discovered how to make my own tiny screen prints. No power in the verse can stop me.

Today Dr: Can I have AI take notes? Me: No. Dr: 🤨 Me: 🤨 I wonder how long they'll deign to even continue asking. As if my complicated, rare medical stuff won't get absolutely trounced by the loudest pattern machine.

NarraScope 2026 talks are online, free to view, in record time! Here's the playlist, starting with the second keynote speech from @sharangbiswas.bsky.social. The other keynote was given by @meredithgran.com. I'll add thoughts on my favorite talks after I get a chance to view the ones I missed.

NarraScope 2026 Keynote: Speculation by Design

YouTube video by Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation

youtube.com

@lizziestark.bsky.social and my vaudeville audition game, Crabbing the Turn, is ready for playtesting. It's a 5-6 player, 2-3 hour larp. Probably a little funny, a little sad, a little intense. Just reading the sides will be a delight. If you have a group and are interested please send me a message!

Commodified fantasy takes no risks: it invents nothing, but imitates and trivializes. It proceeds by depriving the old stories of their intellectual and ethical complexity, turning their truth-telling to sentimental platitude.

I feel like y'all are still sleeping on the fact that there's a genuinely good-looking Barbie horse game coming out this month and that I got to consult for them on horse accuracy and game design. Where's the Barbie Horse Adventures girlies at?

If you have ever emailed a writer to let them know you enjoyed something they wrote, you are among the noblest and best and most saintly in this entire world, and I hope you sleep really well tonight.

I know some people who follow me might fit this role. jobs.ashbyhq.com/arenanet/b70...

Contract Senior Story Designer (Unannounced Project)

At ArenaNet, we’ve always believed that games are art. They have the power to communicate ideas and tell stories. They can change the way we think, reflect our cultures, and move us. As the developer ...

jobs.ashbyhq.com

I donno, getting fed up with things. Might start a branch of philosophy about post-civilization matriarchy.

I want to show appreciation for The Submission Grinder. I wouldn't have gotten many of my short works published without it. As a marginalized writer, who in the beginning didn't have access to a lot of industry information, this service means everything to me.