Nathan Long

So next time people wanna ask about why authors don’t talk about their personal finances online to strangers let’s all remember how strangers online behave to writers.

I once saw someone on Reddit justify pirating my book as "a tax on the golden elite."

I had no other employment at that point in time, and hadn't received an advance on my book. I literally had no money.

Those words made me want to cry, and to never write another word for publication.

In front of one of 2 suspension bridges on the trail to Shifen Waterfall.

A fermented red rice vegan meatball - Jiufen specialty. It is like a giant glutinous dumpling.

Walking up to the Ai-Mei teahouse in Jiufen - very "Spirited Away" vibes with pricey teas for tourists.

So picturesque, so many narrow stairways, and amazing mountaintop views. We go to Jiufen early before loads of tourists arrived.

Today was @nathanrlong.bsky.social and my last full day in Taiwan! We went to Jiufen, a beautiful mountain town, & saw the famous Shifen waterfall. We also caught sight of several free-living Formosan Mountain Dogs (Taiwan village dogs)up in the mountains, which was a treat! 🐕⛰️

Destruction in Gaza. Via NYT

Tasneem and her family with the words: I'm Tasneem, a mother of three children. I used to live a simple life, full of love despite its simplicity - but everything changed on October 7. Our home was completely destroyed, we've been displaced more than 15 times, and now we live in daily hell. My only dream is to secure a safe life for my children outside of Gaza. Any support - even just €5 - could change their future and give them a sense of safety. Help us build a new hope for them. ❤️

NYT: "U.S. Plans Compounds to House Palestinians in Israeli-Held Half of Gaza."

As leaders discuss putting civilians into camps, the attacks continue. Gazans rely on donations to survive.

Please give to my friend Tasneem so she can feed her children. And to others. ❤️

chuffed.org/project/1587...

The comic strip Cathy, by Cathy Guisewite.

A Heathcliff comic strip by George Gately.

Cathy and Heathcliff ARE terrible.

GenAI is a fascist product. Sorry you don’t have the moral fortitude to do your own thinking, but fascists love that

got my car serviced today 🚗💨

8 year old me would be p upset to learn that I own 0 (zero) throwing stars AND 0 (zero) Transformers.

Funny how “protecting the children” always outweighs the First Amendment but never outweighs the Second Amendment.

(Hat-tip to @audryt.bsky.social)

Don’t pirate books! And if you do, stfu about it and stop pretending it’s some kind of moral or Marxist or revolutionary stance. Just be brave and own the fact that you don’t care that you are a thief who doesn’t care about artists.

postcard c1910 I shall pass through this world but once, any good thing therefore I can do, or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now, let me not defer it or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.

JOHN "GRIMJACK" GAUNT--Hard boiled, demon hunting Merc from the multi-dimensional city of Cynosure. Would've loved to had drawn his book before but it wasn't meant to be.

Pencils on 6.5 x 10.5.

Young man in a red tunic bearing a sword surrounded by armed glassy-eyed monsters

A red robed horseman with a skull face and stag's antlers rides through the forest, the horse rearing back, a shaft of light falling onto the scene

A red haired woman in a red dress and a boy in a blue doublet stand in front of a huge black cauldron. In the foreground, three cackling hags.

A boy in a blue tunic with a dagger tries to get a sword away from a giant orange cat

I have said before and will say again that it is such a loss that we no longer get covers of this caliber for fantasy books.

This art is by Jean-Léon Huens. These covers are for the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. They lit my imagination on fire as a kid.

a cat happily perched on the head of a Buddha statue

Good morning

There’s something wrong when getting a rejection email for a job rather than simply being ghosted feels like a win.

This is just how we sing it now.

Viola Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, has died. She was 111.

"I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot," she told Congress in 2021.

Geoff Bennett has more.

At night, this view of the docks near us always reminds me of WW2 movie allies rowing towards their target (Tangiers? Calais?) in their little rafts under cover of darkness.
There’s most likely a doomed wisecracking Bowery man and a vengeful Frenchman in the group.

The union is calling, Starbucks! Pick up the phone!

PITTSBURGH'S Public Source Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh journalists return to their jobs at the Post-Gazette after three years on strike After a court ruling in their favor, long-striking journalists declared victory and returned to a pivotal Southwestern Pennsylvania newsroom. They return as union organizing continues throughout the region. Stephanie Strasburg November 24, 2025

Natalie Duleba, local secretary of the guild, hugs Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild Communications of America, as she hands him the mic. "The first day of this strike, our folks went over across the street and they sat down at a table, and they started talking about that they were going to take care of each other," said Schleuss, acknowledging the guild could not have known how long the path back to work would be. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh's Public Source)

This is so incredible. You have to see the photos. These workers held the line for THREE YEARS www.publicsource.org/post-gazette...

The sign of an Italian restaurant called Pasta Bar in Taipei.

I wanted to be a lawyer, but I couldn't...

Always amazing.

I once landed onto German public broadcaster ARD while channel flipping and there was Udo Kier on daytime TV making seafood linguine

They looked amazing

Y'all, It's TODAY!

Imani Perry and Tananarive Due discuss a titan of Afrofuturist fiction, Octavie E. Butler, and her masterwork,

"Lilith’s Brood: The Xenogenesis Trilogy". #Lit #SciFi #BookSky 🌱

Mon, Nov 24 from 6- 7pm EST
Online, Free

www.eventbrite.com/e/the-radica...

#Lit #OctaviaEButler

General Strike 100

National museums, libraries, archives, community groups, and individuals across the UK are marking the centenary of the 1926 General Strike.

All the details here: generalstrike100.com #GeneralStrike100

Young Udo Kier

Udo Kier in 2025.

#RIP Udo Kier. One of those utterly unique actors who turned the act of ageing itself into a work of art.

A sign on a toilet showing a tall male figure and a small male figure and some Chinese text.

The interior of a father and son toilet stall, with an adult sized toilet on the left, and a tiny, child sized toilet on the right.

Father and son toilet stall in a mall in Taipei.

A toy making factory in Shanghai run by the Commercial Press (primarily a printer and bookstore operator), c.1925, by Paul Hutchinson. Many of these toys were for export.

Just a friendly reminder as we go into the holidays:

Folks don't have to explain to you why they don't drink.

If you offer them a drink and they decline, don't ask them why. It's not your business.

Just offer them something without alcohol to drink instead. And move on.

Ink drawing, architectural mashup inspired by nyc’s upper east side

upper east side mashup