Gin

Subscribed! Been meaning to for a while, finally got my act together.

That's about what my Medicare premiums went up. Between the baseline premium and the add-on coverage, up about 30% with slightly reduced coverage (I'll be paying for my dental visits instead of paying for the basics via Flex card).

Is there a clinicaltrials.gov listing? I couldn't find it.

Scripps Research scientists launch new digital clinical trial to test repurposed drug for long COVID symptom relief

We've just launched the first large, site-less (home, direct to participant) randomized trial for treatment of #LongCovid, testing tirzepatide (a GLP-1 drug) vs placebo. Please help spread the word
www.scripps.edu/news-and-eve...

Thank you! Getting enough red prints took literal decades!

SFWA's Frequently Asked Questions about the Anthropic Settlement #2 on filing simple claims in now available. www.sfwa.org/anthropic-faq/

15 million Americans are going to lose their health care.

Thank you! I really like how it came out, even if it took so long (all those little triangles!) that I put it away and forgot about it for ten years! Really glad I committed to finishing all my UFO quilts this summer/fall!

The Anthropic Class Action Settlement: What You Need to Know Right Now - Writer Beware One of the most urgent issues confronting writers and other creators right now is the use of copyrighted material for generative AI training. The large language models that power chatbots like OpenAI’...

New #WriterBeware blog post: an explainer on the huge Anthropic class action copyright settlement: what it is, how it happened, how writers with eligible infringed works may benefit financially, and what eligible writers should do next writerbeware.blog/2025/10/31/t...

Thou marble-hearted fiend

www.mangopublishinggroup.com An Open Letter from Christopher McKenney Founder of Mango Publishing Group, Inc. October 30, 2025 Dear Partners and Friends, I hope you and your families are well. I write to you with some very difficult news. Mango Publishing Group is in the process of going out of business and will be winding down all operations shortly. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, Mango had to take on substantial high-interest bank loans. The team has spent the last four years working very, very hard to navigate supply chain disruptions, high print price inflation, book market downsizing, losses from uncollectible accounts receivable, and more recently, even tariffs, while servicing the bank and other debts. Conditions like these have made it extraordinarily difficult to operate as an independent publisher like Mango. The bank is in the process of liquidating Mango for their benefit and winding down all operations as well as laying off all staff. At this time, Mango has exhausted all cash and cannot service any debts to any parties. A group of consultants is managing the last steps of this shutdown process. In an effort to soften the landing as much as possible, I’ve been reaching out to many authors to help evaluate options, including making recommendations to new publishers. I hope that, in working with a new publisher, Mango authors and their books may continue to succeed in making positive impacts with readers all over the world. I am very sorry for this story’s ending and will always appreciate the privilege of working with you. Very best wishes for the future, Chris Christopher McKenney Founder Mango Publishing Group, Inc.

You may have seen the news that Mango Publishing has closed. Below is the letter sent to authors and others by Christopher McKenney, Mango's founder. Writer Beware has heard from Mango authors who are owed $$--including some who say they have _never_ been paid.

Thousands of you shared heartbreaking and maddening stories with me about rising health care costs. But the fight is far from over.

If you're willing to record your story, we can make sure GOP lawmakers see and hear the direct impact of their policy failures: wintheera.myctbl.com/share-your-s...

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Huge (80" x90" approx) red and white quilt, using North Wind blocks and a wide variety of red prints. Blocks are made of a large red triangle in one corner, large white triangle in opposite corner, and red and 5 small triangles in each of red and white in between the large triangles. When set solid, but alternating which corner is red, they form interesting secondary patterns. Quilt also has a wide red paisley border.

Back of quilt pieced in three rows, each with two to four large rectangular chunks of (mostly) different red prints left over from making the front. You can also see the paisley print used in the binding, which sort of clashes with some of the prints and disappears against others.

I can't believe I finally finished the last (and biggest) UFO quilt! Okay, so I've started new ones recently, & there are now 2 tops in my UFO pile, but it doesn't count if they're less than a month old! Second pic is the quilt back. Couldn't find a print I liked for a one-print back. #QuiltSky

It’s a wonderful kind of day to support @wgbh.org 💛

Together, we can help GBH, home of beloved programs like @arthurpbs.bsky.social, fund the future!

gbh.org/FundTheFuture

The Fund the Future campaign aims to:

🧵 1/3

That's got to be scary, living with that risk, even tho it's a really low chance.

Lots of possible reasons for high alk phos, most of them harmless. I've had high alk phos all my life, as part of a bone metabolism disorder. I don't really understand why it's even part of the basic panel; it's pretty useless for diagnostics unless something is already suspected.

A Review of Grokipedia, Using Myself as Test Subject What? You didn’t know that Grokipedia exists? Well, it does, and it’s Elon Musk’s attempt to run Wikipedia out of town on a rail: An “AI”-generated compendium of infor…

Over on Whatever, I offer some thoughts on the new "Grokipedia," through the lens of the article it has up about... me.

(Spoiler, it's not great, for the reasons you probably suspect)

whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/30/a...

I figured it wasn't quite right, but thought it was worth making sure you knew about it. I know nothing about tarot, just know about it because I know Deb through a writers' group.

Also, #3DPrinting crowd! Thanks to @moryan.bsky.social I have a link where you can sign up to send whistles to Chicago. They're trying to get up to 5,000 a week, so plenty are needed. There are two links to STLs on here (including the micro whistles I've been doing!) and a spreadsheet sign-up!

Everyday Witch Tarot Everyday Witch Tarot [Blake, Deborah, Alba, Elisabeth] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Everyday Witch Tarot

A friend has a tarot set. (Deb also writes cozy mysteries.) There are some pointy hats and gowns, but also a witch on a motorcycle in leggings, so at least some are less medieval. www.amazon.com/Everyday-Wit...

The Next 'Murderbot' Novel Finally Has a Release Date Alexander Skarsgård's Apple TV series based on Martha Wells' hit 'Murderbot Diaries' books also has a second season on the way.

Gizmodo article on next Murderbot novel Platform Decay: gizmodo.com/murderbot-pl...

Scammers are too good w/ their fake reviewer pitches. Just got one that included ALL the things I would love a real review to say, exactly what I hope readers would love about my stories/characters. I knew it was a scam, but they pushed all the right buttons to make me WANT to believe. #BookSky

Missing the days when, if a scary masked man approached us on the street, WE pepper sprayed HIM, not the other way around.

YouTube video by Indivisible Tutorial: How to cancel your Spotify subscription

FYI if you have a Spotify membership, Indivisible is asking people to cancel until they stop running ICE recruitment ads. Instructions on how to do it here: www.youtube.com/shorts/TKp7c...

(around the Spotify logo) GET ICE OUT OF SPOTIFY ICE DOESN’T NEED A PLAYLIST. IT NEEDS ACCOUNTABILITY. • Cancel your Spotify Premium subscription until Spotify removes all ICE ads • Demand Spotify immediately terminate all ICE and DHS advertising contracts. • Urge artists and podcasters to speak out.

Spotify is running recruitment ads for ICE.

A platform built to connect creators and listeners is helping an authoritarian regime build up its secret police force.

But we’re not going to idly accept that. We’re going to make Spotify listen: indivisible.org/cancel-spoti... #CancelSpotify

What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food?

Thank you!

It took literal decades to finish because I kept setting it aside! For more ideas, look up Nancy j Martin's book, Two Color Quilts. Your library might have it. Red/white and blue/white

Thank you. That's my favorite part of making a scrappy quilt -- figuring out which blocks go where!