Laura

Big news! The groundhog is back at my sister's and she gave him a plum

We have got to collectively help people understand that of course the local* cops are acting as an arm of the machine. That is their purpose.

People need to grow their minds & grieve what they've been conditioned to believe about cops being there to help/serve/protect.

(*wherever you are)

This is beautiful!

A Native woman wears the Hope Floats Silk Scarf as a head wrap.

A Native woman is standing profiled against a floral background wearing the Hope Floats silk scarf as a head wrap.

A Native woman stares at the camera while holding out the Hope Floats Silk Scarf.

The Hope Floats silk scarf was my way to speak up for our lupus warriors. Bold purples, bright yellow, and butterflies honor the strength it takes to live with lupus, especially in Native communities where we are diagnosed younger and face higher risks.

eighthgeneration.com/collections/...

idiot guy: i'm like the wolf i'm stalking my prey alone through the forest and being raw as fuck even if i'm in a group i'm the alpha
actual wolf: i love my friends so much!!! i love to romp and kiss my bros and work together as a family <3 awooo etc etc have you seen the puppies oh my god come see

If you have ever thought that my journalism or my first book were net positives for the world, understand that they probably would not exist if I did not have a spouse who paid the mortgage. If I'd been a solo earner/parent, I likely would have left criticism, journalism or book writing long ago.

This is another reality that is difficult for people to comprehend. But it's true. One reason that the big publishers are MEDIA COMPANIES is that they need other ways to bring in money, the publishing side is not enough.

If you ever wonder why people say "slippery as an eel" I can confirm that one time we had to hold an eel for a vet to do a blood draw and that eel ended up on the floor 47 times out of 48 attempts

Also! There are these things called "book publishers" that determine whether or not they're going to publish a book based on this thing called "sales," and if your books don't sell (perhaps because people can simply download them off some sketchy site?) they will not continue to publish you

There are a lot of people who seem to believe that any Social Capital you get for being an author is the same as Financial Capital and nobody is sorrier than me to report that it is not.

To pull the curtain back a bit: I got a *$3k* advance for my current book. Now, that's an absurdly low amount, and the advances I'm looking at for other projects are low six figures. But those payments are split into threes, so basically I have to write a whole book for (sometimes far under) $20k

I got a Twitter DM from the publisher of a book by Jeffrey Haas (Fred Hampton's lawyer) that I'd recommended in a thread that went viral, thanking me for the unexpected spike in sales. I'm sure we're talking dozens, not hundreds, but they were like doing highkey internet sleuthing to figure it out!

Making it impossible for an author to sell their next book doesn’t just kill that book. It makes it far less likely the author will continue writing at all. They have to make a living somehow and they were already earning pennies an hour for their bonkers fragile and emotionally demanding work.

Most publishers (there are always exceptions) decide whether or not to buy a second book (or a third etc) based on how the previous book did. So when you pirate a book in most cases it’s less about the money you just stole from both author and publisher it’s about the future book you just killed.

10 years as an indie bookseller, indeed three copies is the correct number

Merry, bright & gay ornaments ✨🌈🎄

[ #cuteart #artshop ]

Definitely!

There's a Palestinian bakery near me that has chocolate baklava, and it's so good!

Quite a pair. One was arrested. For journalism. One shot in the face with a less lethal munition for ... journalism.

The rest of the country would know far less about Chicago's Operation Midway Blitz and the Border Patrol without them.

If you can, pls throw @unraveledpress.com bucks to keep going.

I want AI shit gone but it's going to be so bad when it all collapses. And the people responsible for it all will be just fine.

I'm worried about how terrible the economy is going to be over the next few years. Worse than it's been.

Wow, this is so fucked-up!!

This is an incredibly important thread. @penamerica.bsky.social's prison writing program is riddled with problems that stem from disrespect toward incarcerated writers. (Full disclosure, I still volunteer there because I similarly got paired with a writer that I love working with before realizing.)

Let me remind you that PEN is a multimillion dollar lit org that is taking credit for the work of tiny nonprofit newsrooms such as @prismreports.org. PEN offered not a dollar or an ounce of support for the work we've published by incarcerated writers. This is disgusting & honestly, mad disrespectful

If you work at somewhere that publishes incarcerated writers, I recommend you check out @penamerica.bsky.social's list of stories it claims to have helped facilitate. If it's a false claim, as it was with all of @prismreports.org's reporting, I suggest you ask that they remove your work.

This is infuriating for many reasons--in large part because @penamerica.bsky.social has now made a practice of taking credit for the work of incarcerated writers that it had no hand in helping to produce.

A screenshot of the US store, showing the zines Clipart Crypt, PALS, and Surprisingly OK, the book Crossdresser/Accept Yourself or Die, and pink stickers reading "DIY" and "I Heart Zines and Gay Sex"

I started a US satellite store for Sheer Spite, shipping from Everett, WA! Folks in the US can benefit from affordable shipping and no tariffs. Launching with just these 6 items but more to come.
sheerspite.bigcartel.com

My books do pretty well, but the backbone of my income is from film and television criticism on my Patreon, so I'm a full-time writer, but I'm doing two separate careers.

my income is only books and another similar art in a different field, but definitely no day job, so this does not apply to me, but i think my trot is to acknowledge that this is very very rare and that while talent and persistence matter the most important factor of me being here is luck

I’ve had one traditionally published book. No advance. First batch of royalties lasted abt 4 months. I live on a disability pension that covers my rent and a little for utilities. Food is scarce. I get a grant now and then, and when I don’t, it’s very rough.

Meta stole the book to train its LLM.