Happy "holy shit, Can*Con is this week!" day to all who celebrate.

Green and yellow; red and orange and yellow and green; refill your colour meters while you can!

WAIT. The gendered readership thing was Ross Barkan?! The guy who got (the white dude, gentle version of being) canned for plagiarism? Oh, FFS, moving on...

had some fun mail over the weekend! my @storyenginedeck.bsky.social character dynamics set arrived! I’ve been using the PDFs up to now, but now I have the fun physicals! To celebrate, and to give you a taster, here are some pulls you can play with—

I've been thinking about this overnight, and I'm not 100% sure, but I'm fairly certain this was around the time I discovered Dar Williams, so... Dar Williams.

When I Was a Boy

YouTube video by Dar Williams - Topic

youtu.be

Sophia_Nyx 🐰@sophianyx.bsky.social · 19h ago

Name your fav band/artist when you were 18.

Sidenote: you have no idea how hard it is every year not to do a little video pointing at a calendar and how Canadian Thanksgiving is now, so that's NOT an error in Faux Ho Ho, actually, thank you, American readership.

Goddamn it. Anthropic just sent me another e-mail saying I need to fill in a new form. Tomorrow. I just... can't.

He. Co-starred. With. George. Takei. I just. COME ON.

Joe Flynn@chinajoeflynn.bsky.social · 2d ago

Apparently William Shatner went on Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes' podcast and talked about the 2025 gay romantic film PILLION. @imnotahrhitter.bsky.social @brendelbored.bsky.social

people keep making movies where the premise is "it's kind of like a man but it looks like a monstrous freak but it's nice and sexy and doesn't abuse the woman so it's basically the most romantic thing ever" and men keep not getting it.

kate bush’s husband@airbagged.bsky.social · yesterday

Is this supposed to discourage me from seeing the movie?

Well, i did it. I bought digital copies of "Car Wars" counters, gonna get them printed, and then teach 9 year old Sparkplug to play so we can have an Autoduel event at the @extralife4kids.bsky.social gameathon Nov.7. We game for CHEO, donations welcome. dd.extra-life.org/participants...

Extra Life | Make Big Change For All Kids

I'm raising funds with #EXTRALIFE for kids treated at my Children's Miracle Network hospital! I need your help to reach my fundraising goal. Please donate today to Make Big Change For All Kids.

dd.extra-life.org

Filling my colour battery as much as I can before winter.

Psst, word-loving gamer friends...

Word Dungeon Two

More wordy adventures in the Word Dungeon universe. Three brand new maps: Rumpledonk's Ruins, Dragon's Castle and A Day at the Zoo.

kickstarter.com

FFS — the absolute gall of calling this shit “Authors First.” More like Authors First Scab, Authors First Theft of Anyone Else…

AK Faulkner ➡️ NYCC@ravenswordpress.com · yesterday

This is news to some people, so I present to you: authorsfirst.com Peter F. Hamilton. Conn Iggulden. David W. Ball. R. A. Salvatore. All people who made a good living from writing.

It's #NationalComingOutDay, and as always, my message is this: have a back-up plan, and if you don't have one, your safety is more important. You're no less valid or important if you can't be out. Your first, most important task is to survive. We'll wait for you. You matter more than a day.

Following this man is like a daily reminder it's possible to just... not suck. To create things that are better. (Next up: trial periods that don't automatically subscribe you when they run out, please.)

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · yesterday

Cancelling a subscription shouldn't be this hard. If you can sign up with a click, you must be able to cancel with one. Head to nyc.gov/click-to-cancel to file a complaint against any business that makes it hard to cancel a subscription.

Age yourself with a childhood crush. Pretty sure Sam was a fundamental "Wait. Oh. Oh no. OH NO." moment for me.

Scott Bakula's Intense Quantum Leap Moment

Alt: Scott Bakula, in an episode of Quantum Leap, strips off his undershirt and wipes his face with it and somewhere in the past, a young 'Nathan realizes oh. Oh no. OH NO.

static.klipy.com

Jeffrey Ricker (he/him)@jeffreyricker.bsky.social · 2d ago

Age yourself with a childhood crush. (To be fair, I had a crush on him starting with the Man from Atlantis when I was five years old, but this scene is relevant. He could *get it*.)

Begging—absolutely begging—authors not to motivate their dude characters by introducing a love interest only to kill her so he's angry and thus does all the things. Fridging has been a known thing that sucks since '99.

It's #StarTrekAdventures Saturday, and my trek through TOS-era episodes for scenario seeds for @modiphius.bsky.social's wonderful Trek-based #TTRPG. This week? "Wolf in the Fold." "Wolf" has a... unique?... set-up. But once you get past that, it's got some great fodder for the gaming table.

STA Saturday — “Wolf in the Fold”

Hey all! It’s Saturday, and I’ve been revisiting TOS-era episodes of Star Trek every week in search of a scenario seed or two or three for Star Trek Adventures as put out by Modiphius, with the hop…

apostrophen.wordpress.com

Today on the blog I chat with actress and writer Callie Schuttera about her new film The Exit State (debuted at ScreamFest LA this week), her acting and writing processes, and more. www.anthonycardno.com/blog/2026/10...

Interview: Callie Schuttera — ANTHONY R. CARDNO

Today is a special “weekend edition” of “Writer Wednesday” with actress and writer Callie Schuttera.

anthonycardno.com

Also, I forgot to post the link to ny Writer Wednesday interview with the great @zzclaybourne.bsky.social ! It's a fantastic chat about influences, process, Afrofuturism, and more. www.anthonycardno.com/blog/2026/10...

Writer Wednesday: Zig Zag Claybourne — ANTHONY R. CARDNO

Today, Writer Wednesday welcomes the great Zig Zag Claybourne. I had the pleasure of meeting Zig in person a few years ago at ReaderCon, where we both participated in a play test of C.S.E. Cooney and ...

anthonycardno.com

A reminder that oil and gas represents less than 5% of Canada's GDP. Education actually represents a more significant chunk of our GDP. "O&G is the most significant part of the Canadian economy" is just PR spin from lobbyists that people have swallowed whole.

John Woodside@woodsideful.bsky.social · 3d ago

Everyone can see new oil and gas projects are getting the lion's share of Ottawa's time and resources, but put that next to the latest emissions estimates that show electrification efforts are stalling too and Carney's sales pitch really starts to unravel.

Here is my pitch for anyone who has worries about rail: I think that building out rail is a necessary (but not sufficient) step in transforming American cities from totally car dependent to slightly walkable, in a way that no other form of transit is.

Courtney Milan@courtneymilan.com · 3d ago

I GOT TO VOTE FOR TRAINS! Fuck yeah Front Range Passenger Rail!

In light of some magazines pulling scummy things on creators lately, I’m doing a little thread on short story rights. I don't want anybody getting taken advantage of. Also, if you're new, this stuff can be confusing!

It's #StarTrekAdventures Saturday, and my trek through TOS-era episodes for scenario seeds for @modiphius.bsky.social's wonderful Trek-based #TTRPG. This week? "Wolf in the Fold." "Wolf" has a... unique?... set-up. But once you get past that, it's got some great fodder for the gaming table.

STA Saturday — “Wolf in the Fold”

Hey all! It’s Saturday, and I’ve been revisiting TOS-era episodes of Star Trek every week in search of a scenario seed or two or three for Star Trek Adventures as put out by Modiphius, with the hop…

apostrophen.wordpress.com

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon

Husband is home and Max has completely reverted to his usual, hyper, happy self. I'm obviously really pleased. This is, absolutely, the best result. It's 100% what I was hoping for. (It's also annoying as fuck on another level, because REALLY DOG? *twitch*)

This week's #FridayFling prompt is "attract," and my offering is from Tikka Chance on Me. My award-winning 2018 not-really-a-biker-romance novella, it was written on a whim and became my most popular story. Trucker and Pinky still bring me joy. #romancelandia Buy links: books2read.com/u/mKKrNv

❗Attention, union supporters ❗ We're asking Wizards and Hasbro to voluntarily recognize our union—and you can help! Sign our petition today and show our leadership that you want change in the gaming industry. actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcp...

#BookSky alert!

Claudie@clh2oars.bsky.social · 3d ago

FRAGMENTED (The Chronicles of Nerezia #9) is out now! A climactic conclusion to this found family's long travel across a haunted fantasy world. 💜 Aromantic, asexual, nonbinary MCs ✨High stakes, cozy moments 🔥 Friendship Book 9: buy.bookfunnel.com/1qrmihljix Series bundle: itch.io/s/200863/fra...

NEW: Staff at HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette told @adamm0rgan.bsky.social AI is infiltrating their workplaces, from generating cover art and back cover copy, to publicity materials, to rejection emails, as execs tell junior staff to "champion" the tech. www.wired.com/story/book-p...

Book Publishers Are Quietly Using More AI. Staff Are Revolting

Workers at three major publishing houses tell WIRED that LLMs are being used for publicity, cover art, back cover copy, and emails, as some execs push junior staff to champion the tech.

wired.com