Ellen Kushner

That or our deepest sympathy and some excellent hot chocolate with marshmallows to comfort them.

Magician First Class: Urban Fantasy With Heart Sparks & Recreation: a new series about magic, community, and doing your best from award-winning author Kate (Karen) Healey

I just backed it. Karen's a great writer: "New York's newest neighborhood: When the Cataclysm brought magic roaring back to the world in the late 60s, one of the results was this strip of land heaving out of the Hudson River. Real estate developers rushed in. Now, in the post-Faerie Accords era...."

what

Oh dear

Oh sorry! It’s some dead tulips in a vase. I’ll try to do better.

My passion for still life which in French is called “dead life” perfectly convenes in one of my favorite photographic subjects

I wish also to be a guest on this cruise. I am very witty, plus full of ancient wisdom, and I sing a lot.

Fifty percent off all books and ebooks from PM Press with the code GIFT pmpress.org/index.php?l=... includes Marge Piercy, Terry Bisson, Nicola Griffith, John Kessel, Nancy Kress, Vandana Singh, etc and Ann Vandermeer's brilliant SF anthology Sisters of the Revolution pmpress.org/index.php?l=...

We Will Rise Again From genre luminaries, esteemed organizers, and exciting new voices in fiction, an anthology of stories, essays, and interviews that offer transfor...

we are just over a week out from publication of WE WILL RISE AGAIN, the anthology of speculative fiction, essays, and interviews about collective action I co-edited with @annaleen.bsky.social and @drkarenlord.bsky.social which means THERE'S STILL TIME TO PREORDER!

Inspired by someone elsewhere, I hereby vow to try to avoid the terms "content" and "content creator," unless I *must* talk about work across so many fields that a generic term is the only one that will suffice. Let's not reduce art, criticism, journalism, etc. to an undifferentiated smear of Stuff.

Art. Subway style map to go with The Lord of the Rings, showing the different pathways of various parties throughout the book. The title reads: "Lord of the Rings Transit Map: One Does Not Simply Walk Ino Mordor When One Can Ride." The map takes up the middle part of the page, and there are two keys. The one on the left is titles "Standard Service Lines, and has color keys matched to the subway lines on the map. Lines are named: "Shire-Bree Commuter Line Old Forrest Crescent Wildland Scenic Line Fellowship Line Gollum / Sméagol Line Uruk Hai Express Three Hunters Line Fangorn Slow Service Rohan to Gondor Business Line Black Ships Ferry Service Oliphant Direct Line Army of the West Line Gandalf Express A smaller key on the right side of the map is labeled: "Limited Service Lines" and has color keys matched to the following names lines: "Eagle Express Paths of the Dead Line Nazgûl Search & Resuce Valinor Ltd." A note at the bottom reads: "* Mount Doom station only accepts Rings of Power in payment. Plan accordingly."

Art. Subway-style map of the itinerary in The Hobbit. The main journey is show in three different lines: red (Hobbiton to Goblin Town); green (Goblin Town to the Elvenking's Halls); and blue (Elvenking's Halls to Erebor). There are multiple stops on these lines. There is a yellow line going back from Erebor to Hobbiton, making stops at Beorn's Hall, Rivendell, and the Troll's Lair. There is an orange line directly from the Iron Hills on the map's right side to Erebor, and a purple line from Gundabad directly to Erebor. The map's title reads: "Hobbit Transit Map" and there are directions for both There and Back Again listing the lines and transfer points. Between them, in the middle of the page, is a dragon drawn to resemble the dragon on Thror's Map from The Hobbit. A key shows the names of each colored line: Red: Western Lands Line Green: Mountains and Forests Line Blue: Barrel Line Yellow: Gandalf Express Orange: Iron Hills Business Line Purple: Orc and Goblin Reserve Line Text at the bottom right reads Surprised Eel Maps, 2025

We're at the Middle Earth map.
We're at the subway map.
We're at the combination Middle Earth and Subway map!

And you could be too! These maps and more are for sale on my Etsy page! They make great presents for yourself and others!
#LOTR #maps #subway

www.etsy.com/shop/Surpris...

If you're buying gifts for the holidays, maybe consider supporting artists, writers, creators. Gift someone a Patreon, commission an art piece, buy a book, purchase handmade jewelry, etc. Your support means everything.

A fascinating human, a tremendous indie comics talent—and a writer so good you won’t be sorry to read the updates:

An orange pig says: "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, PUNISHABLE BY DEATH!" with the words: THE CORNERED PIGGY SQUEALS THE LOUDEST.

He knows it's all falling apart. This is a clear reaction to that. He's going to be lashing out more and more as things get worse and worse for him. As I said in a previous post, it's called an 'extinction burst'...and it's happening now in real time.

Higgledy-Piggledy worship!!!

Oh goody!!!

Yeah, it’s rough for camel drivers.

Quiet, Piggy He's their hero, riding angry waves Of hatred every great white father rides. They love him cause it's only he who saves Their vileness with the cover he provides. They're waiting for their coming chance to cheer When after 'piggy' he completes the riddle And says the thing they really want to hear: Another word with two gees in the middle. Misogynist and racist, they are loud In saying worse than so far he will say. That's who they've always been, and they are proud To vote for him in hopes they'll get their way. They haven't changed, and won't change moving on. There won't be any difference when he's gone. .by Marcus Bales

“Quiet, piggy”
a Sonnet
by @marcusbales.bsky.social

I approve this message.
I’ve decided my mission this year is to get more people to accept that singing is our natural heritage.

"No longer 'socially acceptable' to carry around a cool rock & show it to people you meet."

🤨

Ha! The Talmud says it’s the husband who has to satisfy the wife! Yes, sexually.

WORD

This woman’s endless struggle just breaks my heart! Nickels & dimes every month to survive… Could 10 people just throw $5 at her right now, please?

Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad

I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.

A fascinating human, a tremendous indie comics talent—and a writer so good you won’t be sorry to read the updates:

Losing it at women reporters is definitely the way to tamp down accusations of abusing girls.

The “Piggy” incident did something different - it showed an out-of-control Trump, a man who actually “snapped” in front of everyone.

I don’t think the reporter needed defending, honestly. She cracked him, he lost it and the entire world saw him for the cornered rat he is. She didn’t even flinch.

This woman’s endless struggle just breaks my heart! Nickels & dimes every month to survive… Could 10 people just throw $5 at her right now, please?

Opinion | Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events.

I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.

He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...