Jules

@julesanew.bsky.social

Scientist, teacher, writer, Dodgers fan, parent, music lover. Mostly bookposting, baseball posting, a smattering of science and politics. Gender? That's a question I don't have an answer to.

I am begging you not to believe gazillionaire baseball owners when they tell you Skubal going to the Dodgers means we need a salary cap. Competitive balance is not the reason they want a salary cap. They just want to spend less, and with more predictability, on total payroll. That is all.

People who scolded that we need to allow more and more fascist-friendly Republican ideas in order to win do not have the same energy for actual progressives who actually win. Movement to the right during a time of open fascism? Hey gotta have a big tent. Movement to the left? GET OUT OF OUR TENT.

Let’s be clear here, when scientists say mistakes were made at the start of the pandemic, we DO NOT mean that we did too much. We mean not socially distancing quickly enough, not making tests widely available, and not acknowledging COVID is airborne and distributing N95 masks to everyone.

My wife and I are currently staying at a B&B that is also a used book store. We have full access to the store the entire time we stay, no matter what time it is. Please, please help us not bankrupt ourselves. Check out my book, buy my book, so I can buy my wife a book. She deserves it. Trust me.

Jevin Darke: Transgender Fluteblade Assassin, Season One Omnibus by Joanna Masters

Six missions. Six appointments with death.

joanna-masters.itch.io

THE SHADOWS (WIP in 3rd Draft) #W #F #A #QuestPit A middle-aged shopkeeper & retired magical con artist takes one last job to save store & family. She could end the corrupt power of the Skyborn mages. She could end up losing herself, her magic & all she holds dear. Talk about a midlife crisis.

Moodboard for The Shadows WIP. Upper left: Illustration of a crowded, cramped city alley. Upper mid: Four black-clad people with face masks in a warehouse. Upper right: Shadowed cobblestone alley with someone at the mouth sweeping. Mid left. Two memes. "A niche character trope I like is the person who is nice, a good person and acts well-adjusted, then they do something where it's like oh you're secretly a little bit insane actually. Middle: A shadowed portrait of a woman with sparks coming out of her hands. Mid right: A meme: Original poster: "80% exhaustion 10% sarcasm %20 don't care" Reply poster: "that's 110 percent". OP: "20% of me doesn't care." RP: "should've seen that coming." Bottom left: Warmly lit storefront doorway on a cobblestone street. Bottom mid: Painting of fancy buildings on islands floating well above the ground. Bottom right: Cramped thrift store with shopkeeper.The Shadows: The Pitch

The worst day of Ania’s life was when her beloved cousin Piren was dragged off to the floating towers of the Above to serve as a source to the Skyborn mages. The second worst day was when he was returned. Discarded. Drained of his magic and broken in spirit.

Ania left behind her rebellious past to support her cousin as he once 
supported her. In a city where any display of magic makes you a target 
of the Skyborn, keeping your head down and your magic a secret, taking care of your friends, your family and your neighborhood is the only safe way to survive. 

But now, everything she’s built over twenty years of safe, carefully
constructed life is falling apart. To recover what she’s lost, Ania takes on one last dangerous heist that strikes at the heart of the Skyborn’s power. She may end up losing herself. She may just bring the entire system crashing down.The Shadows: Comp Titles
MA Carrick: Mask of Mirrors. Con artist MC out to save her family (and maybe the world).
Shannon Chakraborty: Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. I'm retired. Really. Okay, fine, one last job.
Robert Jackson Bennett: Foundryside. Magical technology, a corrupt ruling class and problematic heists.
Fonda Lee: Last Contract of Isako. I'm too old for this shit but no one else can do it.“Except you can help me without bringing the bluejackets and their hunters down on my head!” Ania yelled, throwing her arms in the air. “All I’m asking you for is money. You’re asking me to risk my life! My family’s life!” She glared at him, grinding out her words through clenched teeth. “You want me to dust off magic I haven’t used in twenty years! How is that fair?” She spat the last word.
“It’s not fair!” Verasi spat back at her. “None of this is fair!” He flung a hand out. “Our people, our friends and family, our neighbors, are ripped from their homes in the middle of the night. They’re enslaved, ridden so hard they break. Maybe it takes a year. Maybe it takes five. Maybe it only takes a couple of months.” He continued in a harsh whisper. “We live in constant fear that it’ll be one of us. If not one of us, someone we know. Someone we love. Their propaganda machine is turning our own people against us. You know they’re not even testing people to see if they have any magical talent now? They’re just rounding people up at random and carting them off Above. None of them come home, not the same way they left.”

THE EARTHLINGS! BODY SNATCHERS x THE RUNAWAYS When a 2nd generation alien sleeper cell is ordered to abduct her human friend, she saves her and goes rogue. Now her fellow operatives must track her down, but should they help her to sabotage the coming invasion instead? 📖 #Questpit #Q #YA #SF

The Earthlings Cover with 4 teens under a UFO on top of a giant alien headA group of second generation aliens sleeper cells have spent their entire lives assimilating to human culture and gathering intelligence for the home world. To them, the eventual overthrow of farth has always been a distant goal meant for future generations.
Now, when ordered to abduct and replace a human girl they have befriended, one of the alien operatives realizes that they have grown to care more for their found home and family than they do for their own people. She sabotages the abduction and goes on the run with the human girl.
Her friends are ordered to track her down, but now questioning their own mission, they find themselves wondering if the entire invasion is a mistake and if they have more in common with these Earthlings than they ever thought...

🐛Creepy Crawlies 🦋Fey-Folk Curses 🎃Halloween Horrors When Lewis vanishes after being tricked by the Name Thief it's up to Esther & Crickets to find him before her deadly game on Halloween night Watch your step, be careful who you trust,& whatever you do..Don’t Give Them Your Name #QuestPit #Q #MG #H

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SHE IS KING sequel in development ‼️ Called on to track down and kill whoever is stirring up conflict between pantheons, Kolby Scott will suffer insult and betrayal until she is forged into something wholly new. 🏙️ urban fantasy ⚔️ monster hunting 🧨 Holy Sexual Tension, Batman #QuestPit #WIP #F #NA

introductory guide to Project: SHE IS WAR, an urban fantasy sequel in developmentour heroine: kolby scott, war goddess' vesseltropes and themes: aimless heroine called to adventure; meddling deities and their egos; slow burn romance between lover boy and hater girlinspiration/comps: secrets of the immortal nicholas flamel series and silver in the bone

What if trauma became coded runes on your skin? And an authoritarian regime hunted the marked, harvesting your grief to fuel its power? JESSICA JONES × ARCANE They call her SCARella. She’s the only one who gives a damn about post-Collapse Manhattan’s disappearing girls. 🧵 #QuestPit #A #SFF

Cyberpunk fantasy poster featuring the vigilante SCARell standing in a flooded tunnel, gripping a flaming machete. A glowing sigil appears on her chest and along her arm. Title reads SCARELLA: THE MACHETE MARAUDERESS with the tagline: “Some things don’t just break you. They remake you.”

Comic, locked-room #mystery. A juggernaut of Gen-X women—all named Jennifer—escape to NC woods to relive their youth. Someone is murdered (spoiler: it’s a Jennifer). Trapped by a flooded bridge, POV must control narrative, calm her campers, and hand police a suspect. #QuestPit #Q

Murder board with all suspects Jennifers