I am occasionally reminded that less-Silicon-valley folks may not be aware of the Effective Altruist nonsense underlying - or informing and twisting psyches of the powerbrokers behind - much of the current AI surreality. www.todayintabs.com/p/over-lever... and its outgoing links may be of interest.

Over Leveraged

The inside story of Peter Thiel's MKUltra by someone who thinks it was kind of good, actually.

todayintabs.com

another newsletter going out? another newsletter going out indeed!!

Macey Levington@macey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

first newsletter going out later today! buttondown.com/macey if you wanted to get in on that 😁

look at all these lovely books hanging out on the new fiction hardcover display together 😍 🍜🦄🐉 @johnchu.bsky.social @wiswell.bsky.social

YES! It is my author copies of A DUBIOUS CLAMOR! Dreadfully hot humid day but WHO CARES I HAVE MY BOOK

edits are more fun than drafting. there I said it. I have to speak my truth!!! edits are puzzle-boxes, they are logic problems made of art, they are graspable! drafting is the cosmic horror of gazing unto the infinite and pinky-promising you'll take notes if it consents to wink back in morse code 😭

sunday book (& fabric) haul! w/ thanks to @erikgrove.com for recs 😁 now, where to start?

oh boy, someone dropped an absolute motherlode of beads at the ReCreative in Greenwood... makes me wish I had the slightest ability to work with these but seriously @hernibsen.bsky.social @peripateticmeg.bsky.social look at all the pretties 😍

okay book industry friends, do I know anyone who knows anyone on the PHYSICAL book construction side of the industry On Here? because I just keep having questions. so many questions. for example: what on earth is going on with this perfect binding. who are NYRB using and what are they DOING.

there is one correct answer and that answer is Attenborough 🤷🏻‍♀️

Nanoraptor@nanoraptor.danamania.com · 2w ago

You suddenly get a narrator describing your life and there’s no way to turn it off - everyone can hear it. While shopping, at work, at home, with friends - the voice narrating your every move goes on. Who do you hope is the voice of this narrator?

conceptually, or the way a bog is faithful? in patience, knowing all things die? soft timbers, after all, make the best sort of morticultures- hollow mycelial caverns, homes to mysteries: owl eggs and three-headed skeletons, insects with too many joints. would her laughter chitter in the dark?

Girls Running From Houses@girlfleeshouse.bsky.social · 2w ago

If they could make a girl out of strangely soft timbers, she would be faithful.

well okay but #2 is fascinating, though you want 'bound in human skin' - printing on leather is a horrible idea, stick to stretching it over board for embossment purposes (also consider reading us.macmillan.com/books/978125... to learn more, the Victorians have a lot to answer for as ever)

Dark Archives

On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those b...

us.macmillan.com

ered@ered.bsky.social · 2w ago

Seen some talk of unethical fiction, so here’s my take

<coughs in Certain Recent Pen-Name Changes>

Freya Marske@freyamarske.bsky.social · 2w ago

hot tip: also works for deciding what your nom de plume's surname will be, when you have to make a snap decision after your first short story sale! (I didn't open a map so much as pester my genealogist mother for some good names of towns inhabited by Various Ancestors, but it worked regardless)

As we come ever closer to the end of the Hugo Awards voting period, a reminder: no matter which work you believe deserves to win the Best Poem category, just casting your vote sends a strong message for the value of the category.

Brandon O’Brien@therisingtithes.bsky.social · 4w ago

Hugo Awards voting is still open until August 8th! Whether you're already deep in the voter packet or haven't even glanced at the nominees yet, please read and vote for the works in the Best Poem category and support speculative poetry as a core element of genre! www.lacon.org/hugofinalists/

what are folks' standout standalones you've read in the last year? older works that grabbed you fangs-first like The Library at Mount Char or The City & The City, or recent bangers like Leech or The Starving Saints? ...clearly I'm on a darkfic kick, but I'll read most vibe-heavy speculative gems!

I made a thing! it is very smol! it has peacocks on the inside!! more importantly however, @marissalingen.bsky.social made a thing, ie, the actual words wot went inside. they are delightful & important & full of bashing fascism in the wotsits with swordfuls of skepticism. also there's a musical!

Marissa Lingen@marissalingen.bsky.social · 3w ago

Look look LOOK what @macey.bsky.social made for me with the ARC of A DUBIOUS CLAMOR! It's so special and tiny and perfect. You can't have one like this, but you can have the book inside it: hornedlarkpress.com/product/a-du...

chased the sunset all the way home from #readercon - or at least halfway across the continent. surreally beautiful timing of a flight! safe on the ground in Seattle after an invigorating & thought-provoking first experience of the con. I may well return...

landed! the mountain was being very photogenic on the way out of Seattle, too 😂🗻💙

I have packed Several home made tiny books >:D we will have ample things to entertain y'all with, above and beyond the sestorial double-act :D

Marissa Lingen@marissalingen.bsky.social · 4w ago

If you're going to be at Readercon this weekend, my Saturday noon kaffeeklatsch is now a double act! You get to hang out with not just me but also @macey.bsky.social ! Two sestras for the price of one, such a bargain, come see us demonstrate why she is the murder one and I am the science one.

about to take my third (& then fourth) transit train because SEA-TAC is playing gate tag with me, but, #readercon I am on my way!!

dilemma: which Delightful Light Nonfiction paperback will make my rowmates on the flight to Boston respect and fear me enough to let me read in peace, but NOT weird out the cabin crew so much that they might confiscate my snacks 🤔

anyway so does it count as murder if the person you kill gets gruesomely resurrected again w/in minutes? ...if they consent 🗡️🩸🤔? book two is going great why are you looking at me like that here have a placeholder cover for book one. could a procrastinating author do THAT. i think not. czech mate!

hanging out, sewing chapbooks, getting hype for #readercon next weekend :D who am I gonna see there? any fun panels to hit up?

hanging out, sewing chapbooks, getting hype for #readercon next weekend :D who am I gonna see there? any fun panels to hit up?

👇🏻

Claire Willett@clairewillett.bsky.social · last mo.

and I just think Leo went “yeah no fuck this, they had their chances, there’s no compromising with these people,” and I think the reason this is all so satisfying even to non-Catholics is that we all want to see people like this actually removed from their access to power but it happens so rarely

this cover makes me froth at the mouth, just LOOK at it 😱

Nino Cipri@ninocipri.bsky.social · last mo.

If you need something to read over the long, gross weekend, my next novel is now up on Edelweiss (for librarians/booksellers) and NetGalley (for everyone else). Edelweiss: www.edelweiss.plus?sku=12507915... NetGalley: www.netgalley.com/catalog/book...

possibly my only bone to pick with Dungeon Crawler Carl was that I picked it up this morning, and by 4pm (with errands!!) I'd gulped down the whole thing 😂 this book knows exactly what it's doing, where it's going, & how to have fun while getting there. now to pick what format to get the rest in...

so okay. how to explain @shelleyparkerchan.bsky.social's SWBtS. grab a handful of genderweird disasters in a war zone, give 'em Trauma + the worst decision-making skills imaginable, & strap 'em to rocket-boots labeled 'Destiny.' doomed gay yearning! ghosts! siege warfare! maiming!! delightful >:D

okay but this cover SLAPS

Elsa Sjunneson, Order of the Bat@snarkbat.bsky.social · last mo.

Coming on October 6th 2026 is my new nonfiction title DEAR BLIND LADY from @sasquatchbooks.bsky.social I’m so excited to share this snarky but helpful guide to how to be better humans to one another. Preorder anywhere you buy books, and check out snarkbat.com for more!

so there's this YouTuber comedian who has this bit where she finds stupidly expensive designer bustier tops with about enough space for a lychee in each cup and then cackles at them in F cup. and. well. my fancy new reading journal from Archer & Olive just arrived. it has space for 32 books.

so there's this YouTuber comedian who has this bit where she finds stupidly expensive designer bustier tops with about enough space for a lychee in each cup and then cackles at them in F cup. and. well. my fancy new reading journal from Archer & Olive just arrived. it has space for 32 books.