Tessera

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 8m ago

#AwesomeCharacters Depends. You know Pherul is mad bc he's thinking 'I am mad' instead of expressing that to the people around him. Letherdon becomes *less* openly hostile. Lagbethu is shouting, and also, he's always mad, so you didn't really need confirmation. Rithu? Someone is dead

🌱🫜 Charlie (Chelizabeth) Delta 🦊🪻@charliedeltawrites.bsky.social · 2h ago

Tell me more about your #AwesomeCharacters Technical question! What's your favorite way to indicate anger in a character? Do they yell? Or go silent? Tense their shoulders? Grind their teeth? Does it vary for different characters? #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 12m ago

I made nachos and am Very Tired

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 35m ago

#CartAugust Neither the Rimsvala nor the Hatal are navigable by other than the smallest, shallow-drafted craft. It probably won't shock anyone that the Thangul is the most important water-feature in Dhashere. The Vaskal Inlet is lined by tall, sheer, threatening cliffs for much of its length, but

Hand-drawn map of a landmass called Dhashere. CEntrally, there is an inland sea connected by a large thin length of water to the open ocean to the west. There are 2 long rivers running from the mountains at teh map's far east into the inner sea; on the western coast, several more rivers empty into the ocean.

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd@mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 19h ago

#CartAugust Still talking about the features of the terrain. Today: water! Where is it, and can we use it to get around! Is it fresh and life-giving or poisonous? If you don't have water, talk to me about navigable ways

#CartAugust: a prompt game for map nerds! by mcburnellauthor.bsky.com
Natural features: Day 5, Waterways
Rivers, lakes, or oceans. What's the most noteworthy stretch of water here? Is it a navigable way or a death wish?

Xavion @xavion251.bsky.social · 2h ago

I knowingly spit upon basic hydrology by having all my rivers diverge rather than converge. Typically with giant rivers flowing out of mountain-lakes and "splitting" at hard patches of underground rock. ...Mostly just because I think different rivers coming from a single source is cool.

Map snippet showing the "Fountain of Seven Rivers" diverging into two rivers, and each of those two splits again.

("Seven" is counting the original super-river, the two branches of it, and the four "final" rivers all separately to reach a total of seven)

Map snippet showing the "Godfount" lake originating from the "Mountain of Glory", and ultimately branching into four rivers - the "Muras", "Yoshem", "Perkel", and "Hidat" rivers.

Map Snippet showing the "High River" coming from the "Lake of Tears" flowing from the "Mountain of Tears". The High River then diverges into the "Blue River" and "Angle River".

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 19h ago

#CartAugust Still talking about the features of the terrain. Today: water! Where is it, and can we use it to get around! Is it fresh and life-giving or poisonous? If you don't have water, talk to me about navigable ways

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 20h ago

Should we resolve all the tricky plots that came to a crux at the end of the last book? Or screw everything up that much more disastrously? 💙📚🪐📚🌈 buy.bookfunnel.com/mbkbesm8eg

The cover of a book called A Mirror with an Edge by MC Burnell, a young man and woman, each with a sword, stare at a distant fortress. Text reads: I’M SORRY, Vol. 4 of The Tipping World. They blew up the old system, but the war didn't come to an end.

An arid grassland beneath a washed-out sky. Big block quote: “They had elected foolish or arrogant or ineffectual leaders. Leaders keen to cling to what struck her as the founding ethos of this place, far more so than the Code or their oaths: their obsession with the fact that they were different. Not just different, special. Their conviction that they were better than everyone else, and it put a target on them.”

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 21h ago

Person of Interest has aged well, in spite of everything

Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · yesterday

If SCREEN were to pass, you'd be required to scan your face and upload an ID to access this site because it allows "harmful" material. This affects you even if you don't care about sex work or porn.

404 Media@404media.co · yesterday

Mike Lee's SCREEN Act, which heads to Senate Commerce Committee for markup on Wednesday, would expand age verification requirements to a nearly limitless scope of websites, and is supported by the architects of Project 2025.

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 21h ago

The bad guys are bad, but some of them are a little bit interesting. (some of them are also just clownish goons bc it turns out a lot of villains really are 2-dimensional buffoons. who knew?) books2read.com/book-Erosion mcburnell.itch.io/erosion

A block of text reads: She didn’t bother to ask why he had contacted her, as if admitting she had questions meant ceding something in a contest. Just looked a demand. This woman’s eyes were more imperious than his entire body could manage.
The cover of a book called Erosion by MC Burnell. A bespectacled man in heavy winter clothes walks amid dirty snow and garbage. Behind him, a fabulous city in pink erupts out of the aurora.

High Priestess, Low Patience @cheriepriest.com · 22h ago

Screenshot of an onion article, I think? It’s a white man about 30 staring into the middle distance, beneath the headline GUY WHO SUCKS AT BEING A PERSON SEES HUGE POTENTIAL IN AI

Holly Lyn Walrath@hollylynwalrath.bsky.social · 24h ago

There is a lengthy pro-AI screed in the latest HWA newsletter and it is . . . a mood.

The real enemy isn’t your buddy who is using AI to make a book cover; the enemy is the Powers-That-Be who thrive on dividing everyone, especially in the United States. Look at how divided everyone in the US got over politics over the past ten years, and it’s now trickled to other countries. No more, are you a fellow human? Nope, it’s who did you vote for? Well, then you must be a hateful asshole. Instant block.

But who’s the asshole?

Every week, the gatekeepers of horror writers have some new witch hunt. Sometimes it’s a good thing to suss out shitty publishers, editors, and agents. Yet, not ALL shitty ones are sussed out because, you know, there are consequences to getting all the shitty people shut down. Some people still like the opportunities to get published or represented even if it means going with the most despicable people because the gatekeepers didn’t get them shut down, or sometimes, don’t even notice. It all depends on who is buttering the toast.

Nnedi Okorafor, PhD @nnedi.bsky.social · 21h ago

Honestly, no matter how many times I come to the Grand Canyon, it never gets old. Probably because it’s already old AF. 🏜️😊

G.L. Walker HATES summer @glwalkerauthor.bsky.social · 24h ago

The gap between Yopa and Holom (1st map) isn't FAR but it's a sheer cliff that you can't sail between without travelling days out of the way to find an accessible port. Northern Yopa is similar going into Zipan. Map 2 has the Fjords of Kabra that butt up to mountains. I love my fjords #CartAugust

map close up showing a bridge over a body of water that connects a piece of land in the south to forested land to the north

map showing a continent with mountains, hills and a lot of fjords to the east

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd@mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 2d ago

You shall not pass! Hey #CartAugust crew, time to dive in and really start looking at your maps. Today, we're talking elevation: highs, lows, and if you have neither, barriers to movement. Tell me about the geology, the history, famous explorers who lost their lives there... What do I need to know?

#CartAugust: a prompt game for map nerds by @mcburnellauthor.bsky.com
Natural features: Day 4, Barriers.
Talk to me about elevation changes in your world. Mountains, canyons, caves. Which is most interesting and why?

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 22h ago

I get why people are annoyed by this douche disrespecting Pratchett, but he's demonstrably incurious, ignorant, and unwilling to confront new perspectives. So what I can't fathom is why everyone's so keen to signal-boost him as if we still want this to be twitter

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · yesterday

Random doesn't like the crinkly noise the cellophane on library books makes. He reacts to this by carefully easing the bookmark out of the book and biting it.

S. Morgan Burbank | Project Tasman BackerKit Coming August 3 @anotherindiewriter.com · yesterday

Next person to back the campaign is #50! Nothing special happens. I just think it's neat

S. Morgan Burbank | Project Tasman BackerKit Coming August 3@anotherindiewriter.com · 2d ago

Project Tasman’s crowdfunding is LIVE! Want to get your hands on a sapphic dystopian thriller novel where a woman has to choose who close to her lives and dies? Back now to get the book, exclusive rewards, and support my work as an indie author! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · yesterday

☕: 1 🍞: 5 🥩: 2

😎Tim🏳️‍🌈🤯@mister67.bsky.social · yesterday

☕️: 2 🍞: 3 🥩: 3 ( 2 is ok )

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · yesterday

#WIPSnips 'box' lying to people who can sense deception is tricky (Bells Begin to Ring, The Tipping World vol 8)

He took a deep breath and answered, “I am convinced that there is something here I need to find, because it will be of assistance to me.”
Praise be to whatever power you might name that they’d been rehearsing this stupid fight since he got back, because she snarled, “Yeah, correct my choice of words, that’s what matters.”
He let it make him mad because that was safer than dwelling on the question she had asked. “I haven’t lost sight of what’s important.”
“You made me run hundreds of miles out of our way when we don’t even know how the battle went!”
“We’ll contact him as soon as I have what I need. Tell him what happened and ask for more instructions. I’m not trying to run from it.”
“You know there’s people here I don’t want to see.”
Again, he drew a deep breath, fixating on his words, on the utter, undeniable truth of them. “There are people here I don’t want to see, too. Anyway, what I need is in City Hall.”
“Oh. Okay.” She seemed to be reassured, and in a more innocent day, he would have been tempted to laugh. Nothing was funny to him now.
It was another mile on to the hulking box that was City Hall. Its pale stone caught the last light of the dying day, flying that borderline-treasonous flag from its height in defiance of the capital. The sight of it moved him, and he felt a swelling sensation in his chest, as if the city were making a promise to him. “We’ll want to go in through the back,” he said.

✨#WIPSnips✨ A Daily Writing Share Tag@wipsnips.bsky.social · 2d ago

The #WIPSnips word for August 4th is "box" #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

WIPSnips a bluesky writing community tag
August 4 - box
Share a line from your WIP with the daily word for inspiration
Use #WIPSnips. Don't forget Alt Text for graphics
Synonyms, variation and vibes are fine.
Support others on the #WIPSnips tag!
Hosted by rosie-j-potter.bsky.social

The image behind the text is a border that is dark blue with gold stars with a black background with neon blue border. An illustrated caticorn holding a pencil and writing in a book with a rose behind one ear is in the lower right corner. A different version of the same illustrated caticorn is curled up writing in the lower left corner

Jin @talesbyjin.bsky.social · yesterday

#CartAugust 4 While the Grand Peaks are nice and all, I'm rather fond of the Ramaal Ridge. This very sharp, steep, tall, and practically impassible mountain range is responsible for blocking eastward winds, creating the Arden Forest to its west and the Tihamal Desert to the east. 🧵1/2

Map of the Eastern Continent, cropped to show only Gratia and Samsara

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd@mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 2d ago

You shall not pass! Hey #CartAugust crew, time to dive in and really start looking at your maps. Today, we're talking elevation: highs, lows, and if you have neither, barriers to movement. Tell me about the geology, the history, famous explorers who lost their lives there... What do I need to know?

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · yesterday

this just in: humidity blows

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · yesterday

#CartAugust Plenty of mountains in Dhashere, none of them impassable. The Na'Vontala are the largest but do have a highway through them granting Dhashereen merchants access to the Supanai and their resources. The monastery in the park at the center of the Na'Shasa is where the protag grew up! The

B&W image of a landmass called Dhashere. At its center is a large inland sea, open ocean to the west. There are 4 ranges of mountains: to the east, hemming the territory in along a north-south margin, the Na'Vontala. To the south and east, a massif within Dhashere's borders called the Na'Shasa. Centrally, just north and west of the inland sea, the Na'Sishasa. North and west of them, stretching from Dhashere across a large island-filled bay to a significant isthmus, the Na'Karr.

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd@mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 2d ago

You shall not pass! Hey #CartAugust crew, time to dive in and really start looking at your maps. Today, we're talking elevation: highs, lows, and if you have neither, barriers to movement. Tell me about the geology, the history, famous explorers who lost their lives there... What do I need to know?

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 2d ago

You shall not pass! Hey #CartAugust crew, time to dive in and really start looking at your maps. Today, we're talking elevation: highs, lows, and if you have neither, barriers to movement. Tell me about the geology, the history, famous explorers who lost their lives there... What do I need to know?

Indie Book Spotlight @bookspotlight.bsky.social · 2d ago

Dear Ryan Atwood, you were awesome when I was a teenager and now you’re even cooler 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️ variety.com/2026/film/ne...

“I felt very strongly that the only way to make this movie correctly was to do it completely independently and to finance it myself, which I frankly have the privilege of doing because of money I’ve made in television,” McKenzie says. “I did not realize it was going to be quite this expensive or take quite this long. The old saying about independent movies is that they are never finished. You just run out of money. And that is definitely true here.”

McKenzie first got interested in cryptocurrency during COVID lockdown when one of his friends walked him through the bitcoin economy in an effort to get him to invest. Though he had made his living as a performer, McKenzie was an economics major in college and something about the pitch didn’t sit right. So McKenzie started researching the business, growing more and more alarmed. Because crypto wasn’t heavily regulated, people could use it to launder money or pay for illegal activity, and retail investors were frequently getting fleeced, he found. Ultimately, his investigation led to the 2023 book, “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud,” which was written with journalist Jacob Silverman. That, in turn, led to the documentary.

“Celebrities have always shilled for products,” he says. “There’s nothing wrong with that. But these were not consumer goods. These were not soap or fast food. This was an investment vehicle. Not to presume too much, but I don’t think they know much of anything about crypto. You’re not supposed to offer people financial advice if you’re not a licensed financial adviser, and you’re specifically not supposed to sell them on what I believe cryptocurrencies to be, which are unregulated, unlicensed securities.”

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 2d ago

Climax of the first act. Glorious bad business. Everyone who managed to hang on to their old life and who they used to be is about to be cut loose buy.bookfunnel.com/2e1v420iws

The cover of a book called The King of Ill-Omens by MC Burnell, a woman with a sword walking through a garden dead for the winter looks over her shoulder. Text reads: DARK NIGHT TIME, The Tipping World Vol. 3. The entire concept of a scapegoat is meaningless without the sacrifice so the question is how many are coming out of this alive.

A total eclipse in a black sky. A big block quote: “They had arrived at a state of Every Mage for Themself. They weren’t going to risk their necks to reassure him now they felt the hemp brushing their napes. It wasn’t safe to have opinions or be seen to do anything remotely irregular.”

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 2d ago

They've got healthcare, eldercare, bitching mass transit, and actual magic. But it turns out they could use our help books2read.com/book-Erosion mcburnell.itch.io/erosion

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Erosion by M.C. Burnell

books2read.com

Adam Bassett @adamcbassett.com · 2d ago

This map I illustrated of The Old Town is from my ongoing post-apocalyptic fantasy series, Copper & Ash. In book 1, the world has been consumed by deadly mists, kept at by by machines along the walls. The people who live are doing well all things considered. Just don't touch the mists #Cartaugust 🪐📚

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd@mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 5d ago

Hey hey everyone, welcome to our awesome new map game! We're here to celebrate our love for fictional maps all month long! Before we start poring over details, let's start with the basics: tell us who you are and a little bit about your world. And don't forget to share your map! #Cartaugust 🪐 📚️

The background is an image of maps on a rack heavily colored by sepia.
#Cartaugust
a prompt game for map nerds! by @mcburnellauthor.bsky.com
Intro: Da1, Say Hello
Introduce us to yourself and your world. Don't be shy, share your map! What's it called? Who created the art?
**Don't forget the alt text. I know it's hard to know what to inlcide with images that are really info-dense, but do your best.

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 2d ago

Climax of the first act. Glorious bad business. Everyone who managed to hang on to their old life and who they used to be is about to be cut loose buy.bookfunnel.com/2e1v420iws

Sean McKnight @ynot1989.bsky.social · 2d ago

I'm Sean McKnight, an alternate cartographer and occasional writer. And these are just some of the maps from the #SecondRenaissance worldbuilding project. A hard #scifi series about the early 22nd century.

https://www.deviantart.com/ynot1989/art/Endgame-in-Eurasia-542955960

https://www.deviantart.com/ynot1989/art/Alo-YBP1194-c-967729298

https://www.deviantart.com/ynot1989/art/Lunae-Palus-1156447086

https://www.deviantart.com/ynot1989/art/Le-ma-Tau-Ceti-f-947750955

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd@mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 5d ago

Hey hey everyone, welcome to our awesome new map game! We're here to celebrate our love for fictional maps all month long! Before we start poring over details, let's start with the basics: tell us who you are and a little bit about your world. And don't forget to share your map! #Cartaugust 🪐 📚️

Zeke Caliban @zekecaliban.bsky.social · 2d ago

#Cartaugust Hi! I’m Zeke, this is very much a WIP, but here’s my map for my pirate story “Blow Me Down.” The map is based off the “Spanish Main” and a map of what the world would look like after a 70 meter sea rise. My world is Age of Sail after a magical apocalypse. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

A roughly sketched and colored map of the Gulf of Mexico in my post apocalyptic world of “Blow Me Down”

All the continents are bone white deserts and large swaths of are underwater versus IRL present day.

An enormous wooden structure floats between where Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama are no longer, and a heavily flooded a bone white desert of Colombia and Venezuela.

Florida is gone, except for 5 small islands. Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic are broken into 5 larger islands. A much smaller Jamaica and Puerto Rico remain.

7 tiny islands are all the are left of the Lesser Antilles.

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd@mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 5d ago

Hey hey everyone, welcome to our awesome new map game! We're here to celebrate our love for fictional maps all month long! Before we start poring over details, let's start with the basics: tell us who you are and a little bit about your world. And don't forget to share your map! #Cartaugust 🪐 📚️

🌌Sia is a numinous nebula atm🌌@raenbowpunk.bsky.social · 2d ago

This Must-Have Monday I have FIFTEEN new books to feature! Including 🛣️ sapphic alien roadtrips with @carmenloup.com! 🍷 an enby fairy sommelier from @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social! 🍃 queer post-WW2 historical fantasy by @celialake.bsky.social!

Must-Have Monday #299

Sapphic alien roadtrips, queer vampires, and F/F fairy-chess!

buff.ly

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 2d ago

#CartAugust Taking as given that the ephemera relating to my heroes' travels wouldn't be there on a before OR after, no. If we could see the region 50 years after events of the story, it might be a very different picture.

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd@mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 3d ago

#G'day #CartAugust crew! Today, we're living dangerously, brushing up close against the demon Spoilers. The question: if you made two maps, a prologue and an epilogue, would they be the same? And if not, how have the events of the story changed this world?

#CartAugust: a prompt game for map nerds by @mcburnell.bsky.com
Intro: Day 3, A world in flux.
If you were to make two maps, one true to the first chapter of your story, one true to the last, would they be different? In what ways?
(how to treat potential spoilers is entirely up to you)
** Don't forget alt text. I know it's hard to know what to inlcude in images that are really info-dense, but do your best.