Andrea Shettle (she/hers)

October 7-8 all books purchased from our @solidstatebooksdc.bsky.social and @peoplesbooktakoma.com wishlists come with free delivery! With the Banned Books Week Bookdrive, a donor will cash match every book! Right now is the best time to donate to DC Books to Prisons – linktr.ee/dcbtp

Letters from the Future An Open Call for Disability Science Fiction

Imagine... the year is 2050, and disability rights are real.

Send us a letter to tell us what this future looks like.

We'll publish our five favourite entries and pay £100 for each one. The deadline is 1st November 2025.

www.disabilitydebrief.org/letters-from...

Why democracy is backsliding, faster and faster

The movement away from Democracy and Democratic processes toward autocracy is a concerning global trend across national and continental boundaries. How do we reverse this? The article at the link suggests some options. What are others?

Finch - Your New Self-Care Best Friend Finch - Your New Self-Care Best Friend

Does anyone I know or follow use the Finch self care pet app? (If you and I have interacted in social media that counts for “knowing each other” in my book!) If so, Tap the link to add me as a friend, or add my friend code WTGFVCWZXA. finch.go.link/2XWNC?adj_la...

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder and a life threatening disability. That doesn’t make it okay to starve them. Rickets is a condition CAUSED BY VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY. In other words, A SYMPTOM OF STARVATION.

So…they’re saying it’s okay to continue starving kids because they’re already starved?

Getting kind of fed up with how too many doctor's offices think it's okay or even legal to say "We don't provide that" when a deaf patient requests a sign language interpreter. It's 35 years after when the ADA was passed, catch up already!

#DisabilityRights #A11y #CommunicationAccess

To be clear, the ADA was still a huge legal advancement for its time (1990). But it has flaws in serious need of repair. Many major hospitals, at least in urbanized areas, know their obligations, but many private practice doctors still assume they’re waived when, no, they’re not.

So I just called for a doctor’s appointment and they say they don’t provide sign language interpreters. Then they called me back to cancel my appointment on me because they needed to find an interpreter. Which is illegal for them to do under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but here we are.

Supreme Court justice pauses ruling weakening Voting Rights Act

Gosh, doesn't anyone know that everyone who uses any kind of social media platform is, obviously, a teenager? Including me, who was born in 1970!

I'll be right back, I'm just taking a moment to figure out where those other 40 years went!

Happy Juneteenth!

Today we celebrate freedom hard won and honor the strength, resilience, and courage of those who fought for it. Let’s use this day to learn, reflect, and take action for true justice.

Freedom is a journey. Let’s keep moving forward together.

Because apparently hearing people can't figure out on their own that, hey, writing works as a mode of communication! Yes, for live video interaction, too, and not just when you're writing an email! They need it explained to them! 🤦

So I'm looking at FocusMate to match me to a "body double" when I'm working on something and reading the information on their "quiet mode" for people in an environment where they can't speak (eg cafe, library). The FAQ carefully explains that ppl can use text chat to communicate in quiet mode. 😐

Attention @senatedemocrats.bsky.social , @housedemocrats.bsky.social - investigate the private immigration detention centers!

Please meet thus moment!

Why Trump’s push for ‘gold-standard science’ has researchers alarmed

Vaccines are vital. Masks (n95 or p100) are community care.

And we can also clean the air! Quoted post is re hospital air. This article is re school air.

We have the tools.
Make them use them.

Contact local officials, schools, hospitals, etc. Demand health & disability justice. #CleanTheAir

This Banned Book From 1935 Is The Real Inspiration For Project 2025 “It Can’t Happen Here” By Sinclair Lewis

#booksky #bannedbooksky

This one might be a doozy. As always I post friend links to all my articles about banned books.

baos.pub/this-banned-...

Visions of borderlines.

Barbed wire
ripped through our hearts and
souls.

Young children
left
in cages,
in cold tents,
alone
at the Texas border.

Families
split up,
hearts shattered.
#poetry #TheTrumpYears #poets #booksky

IMPEACH TRUMP. AGAIN. Impeach Trump. Sign the petition NOW to defend democracy and demand accountability! He is disqualified from office, and has violated the U.S. Constitution.

I signed the petition asking for U.S. congress to impeach our current president (45/47) again. Will you join in signing? www.impeachtrumpagain.org #SaveOurDemocracy #ImpeachTrump #ProtectOurConstitution #Resist

Why Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the Jenga piece that could topple the American Experiment | Will Bunch The Trump regime lies about a Salvadoran laborer and dad because the truth of his humanity could unravel its dream of autocracy.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is everything right now

For the Trump regime, their ability to disappear the humanity of one Maryland dad is central toward a project of establishing American dictatorship

It's why we must fight for Kilmar's freedom...and our own. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/kilm...

This #Passover, some of us will remember enslaved #Uyghurs by placing #cotton balls on our #seder plates. Learn more at

www.washingtonjewishweek.com/cotton-balls...

#TikkunOlam #Uyghur #slavery #genocide #HumanRights #CivilRights #Xinjiang #EastTurkistan #EastTurkestan

#CivilRights

Photo of 11 humans and 1 dog outside the Chinese embassy's tall metal fence. The humans are holding signs saying "Stop China's Uyghur Genocide", and the dog is wearing a T-shirt that has the same message on it.

In February, we once again protested in the dark outside the Chinese embassy in #WashingtonDC, calling upon the Chinese government to end its #genocide of the #Uyghur people of #EastTurkistan (a.k.a. #Xinjiang).

#China #TikkunOlam #HumanRights

#HumanRights #China

Photo of a handsome German shepherd dog wearing a blue T-shirt that says "Stop China's Uyghur Genocide". Behind him are two signs bearing the same message. He is sitting on the red brick sidewalk that is outside the Chinese embassy in Washington DC.

Our protests outside the Chinese embassy in #WashingtonDC attract a variety of people, including this handsome young man. We appreciate his commitment to protesting against the Chinese government's ongoing #genocide of the Uyghurs in East Turkistan (a.k.a. #Xinjiang).

#dog #GSD #GermanShepherd #CCP

I don't just feel stuck on starting to write, I feel stuck on related tasks like trying to figure out outlining or character development.

Thank you for sharing. Even though I don't have edititis (at least not currently!) it helps to know I'm not alone in finding it hard.

While I hope to never match your number of abandoned projects it helps confirm for me that, yes, sometimes writing really *IS* that challenging to do and then I don't feel so bad that I've been struggling these past few weeks to get started on my current project.

- I love this cartoon, it is so perfect
- I visited your link and, I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way but I'm finding it so tremendously reassuring as a wannabe writer to know that you have 30 incomplete novels and hundreds of incomplete stories.

So, um,

What do you do when your research leads to a certain name for your character and you get used to it and really like the name because of what you learned about its meaning

But then! You later find it has additional meanings that you aren't as thrilled about?

#AuthorSky

Drat, I forgot to add the #disability hashtag to this.