pssst....

We survived GenCon Writers Symposium 2026, y’all (and that’s saying something considering the occasional tornado). I was so busy running around I barely got to enjoy it. Luckily, my interns and friends made sure to slow me down to experience what we were curating.

Heads up, artists 🚨 There’s a massive scam wave hitting DeviantArt right now DO NOT CLICK IT. If you have artist friends on DA, please boost this. I’d hate to see someone lose their account or payment info over something this stupid 🖤 { #DeviantArt #ArtistBeware #ScamAlert }

And now the storms are coming through. There are weather alerts west and south of us... so we will see what happens next and if we need to duck in the basement or not.

Welp Spiderman was pretty damn awesome.

Welp the theme of today is... itchy. Thursday we did a trail ride for our lesson and like always I got mosquito bites. Then with stings yesterday and everything itches! Le sigh. Hopefully someday my body will freak out less to all the things. (Venting only, it's a PITA, but I'm fine.)

Welp, we were clearing sour hay from the pallets and sometime in the last week or so a nest of yellow jackets moved in. I get stung on the ankle, then my belly and one got stuck in my shirt. Fun times. One of the staff got stung on her hand. So that task didn't get done!

Best of days, horse riding day! Today we will endevor to not have my stirrups too short again.

This month's Stardust Dispatch is out! Wherein I show off my sick new tattoo, squee about some books I've read recently, and pay the appropriate pet tax for your time. Oh and also my pre-order campaign for The Heresy of Thieves has begun! stardustnews.magicrobotcarnival.com/stardust-dis...

Stardust Dispatch #10: Pre-Order THE HERESY OF THIEVES

Plus: my California Zephyr adventure, some book recs, and pet pics

stardustnews.magicrobotcarnival.com

Want to hear my dulcet tones as I read a chapter of Ex Partum? Of course you do. Plus you get even more authors doing even better readings. Nab your ticket for 4 Sept, and settle in whilst we read you our #ScienceFiction, #Fantasy, & #Horror. #SWSWQR www.eventbrite.com/e/first-frid...

First Friday - Third Thursday QuickRead

6 authors * 8 minutes each - come find your next favorite read with us!

eventbrite.com

Aged gouda, with the little crystals that crunch when you eat it because it takes me back to the canal tour in Amsterdam and sharing cheese and wines with my husband and everything being gorgeous.

Tom & Lorenzo@tomandlorenzo.bsky.social · last wk.

People on Bluesky sigh and talk about The Discourse as if it were something required of them instead of something they opt to partake in, day in and day out. You really don't have to. Post about your favorite cheese

Welp, in the last 26 hours I cut three t tunics out, sewed those 3 (except for one gore when my machine decided it wasn't working any more), constructed another that was cut (except for one gore because no sewing after 10 pm and I put it in backwards), and added gores to a 5th tunic. Speed sewing!

Queen of Sewing

Alt: A blond white woman wearing a pink fabric crown is waving and displaying the crown on her head with the text "I dub myself the Queen of sewing."

static.klipy.com

Sleevils living up to their name....

Off from the last adventure of the summer, the family reunion trip. And catching up on all the things... and flopping. Much flopping. 6 hours of car trip in 36 hours is a lot.

Publishers, if you work with Lightning Source or are distributed through Ingram, take note that Ingram is offering an opt-out if you don't want your books sold to AI companies buying them to scan for AI training. ⬇️

Hey everyone, apparently Ingram is sending physical books to be scanned for AI by default (😡😡😡) so please make sure you opt out: www.ingramcontent.com/page/ai-opt-...

As a creator who uses music in their writing I was very interested in this video. As I watched it I was hanging on every word! @confusionmi.bsky.social knocks it outta' the park again! #indie #writing #literature #author #ConFusionSF

ConFusion Michigan@confusionmi.bsky.social · 2w ago

The 7th episode of ConFusion Still ConFusing is live! This month we have Clyf Flint Gabrielle Byrne and T K Rex discussing the use of songs in fiction. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeRa...

You can tell how busy my life is getting when my inbox goes out of control... getting it in better shape now... and catching up on all the things tonight while the kids are camping. We are so close to school restarting...

The 7th episode of ConFusion Still ConFusing is live! This month we have Clyf Flint Gabrielle Byrne and T K Rex discussing the use of songs in fiction. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeRa...

ConFusion Still Confusing - Episode Seven

YouTube video by ConFusion Michigan

youtube.com

It is the best of days, after the holiday weekend break and weather cancelations it is riding lesson day at last!

I’m so tired… #fuckai

Randee Dawn@randeedawn.com · 2w ago

Ingram has a link where you can opt out of letting your books be knowingly sold to AI companies for “training” (or lord knows what else). Story below followed by opt out link. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/... Opt out: www.ingramcontent.com/page/ai-opt-... Anyone know more about this?

We are down to the last weeks of summer... which means empty house. And for once I don't have a million volunteer obligations all hitting in August-October. I might actually have time to work on my projects!

My husband is helping me rehab my back... today we started with a few weight machines that focus on my core and shoulders. The goal, 1) be less sore after riding/barn work 2) get back to lifting the large buckets of water again at the barn. Go go gadget health?

They're cold, alone, and terrified. This year, won't you give a small press debut a warm space on your shelf? Or if you can, adopt 2 or more, as small press debut books are social creatures and do better in a multi-book home. #booksky 📚💙 #indiebooks

Also we saw racoons as I was dropping child the elder off at practice, and one of the three was melanistic and looked all black... read into those portents as you will.

We got a little rain... which is nice. And now a million things to do before I crash.

I think the storms are all forming east and south of us... and I wanted a nice storm to roll through again and clear the air out. Alas... I think no more storm chances until the weekend now.

Here have this gem I just found from my archives of links. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7R...

Disturbed "The Sound Of Silence" 03/28/16 | CONAN on TBS

YouTube video by Team Coco

youtube.com

I use my tumblr mainly as an archive of useful links and I'm going back to find some things now and I highly recomend looking back as I found many things that brought me joy...

This week I am not at horse camp... and wow am I a million times more tired. But after 3 weeks of bad weather (and the holiday week) I should be up on a horse this week, so if I can get the rest of my stuff done, it should be a good week.