V.C. Willow 📚 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸

One of the really funny things about portrayals of the Medieval period that have every peasant wearing brown and black is those colors were actually really expensive compared to blues, reds, and yellows

femme is when a girl is girly

butch is when a girl is not girly

-people who only think in black and white

I've always struggled with the butch/femme dynamic in the lesbian/bi community. I never felt I fit into either of those categories, and the narrowing of definitions just boxes us into a faux binary that can never contain us.

Not to be too Monty Python but

we're all individuals.

I'm not!

For academic friends researching fantasy and mythic/folkloric literature:

The cover of They Are Still Here (Mae Nhw Yma O Hyd). The image is of the sorceror, Gwydion, surrounded by wild animals (wolf, boar, deer) in a Celtic knotwork frame. Gwydion's hat is crowned with antlers. He carries an axe in his right hand and an oak twig in his left. Art by Josh Arklin.

Submissions are open for our Welsh folklore anthology, They Are Still Here: wizardstowerpress.co...

Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza have left thousands wounded and disabled, including many children, with minimal access to care or rehabilitation.

I'm sure my followers know this, but I'll say it just in case it breaks containment.

When the topic is disability; listen to disabled people.

Trans rights? Listen to trans people.

Racism/ xenophobia? Listen to BIPOC.

Women's issue? Listen to women.

Marginalised people KNOW what's best for US.

If you haven't already arranged gift giving with your nearest & dearest this holiday season, why not pick an indie, LGBTQ, migrant or BIPOC #authors book & ask for it as a gift

Book sales fuel authors and keep the pennies rolling in

Please think about supporting a #writer this Christmas

#WriteSky

It's hard not to get cold sweats of terror, but you should be so proud of yourself!

Congratulations! Putting your writing out for others to see is mad scary - I've only done it on closed online groups and in person writing groups. You should be super proud of yourself for taking that step.

Well done! 🎉🥳🎊

Screenshot says: Duolingo 2025 year in review I'm a goal crusher! I'm in the top 2% of global learners

The French lessons have gone pretty well this year, but oh Mon dieu, have I got a long way to go.

I will say, despite this fluff of vain flattery. Learning another language has given me targets to aim for and created a daily habit which has kept me motivated and focused.

Allons y 2026!

Yr Hen Iaith part 75 – The earliest Welsh-American literature Jerry Hunter The first Welsh-language American book was published more than half a century before the birth of the United States. Its author, Ellis Pugh, was one of a number of Welsh Quakers who immig...

From @yrheniaith.bsky.social podcast

Early Welsh language literature from the Americas includes a poem from 1596 imagining a dolphin carrying a message from a ship in the Caribbean home to Wales

Benjamin Franklin (yes, that one) printed a Welsh language book in 1730!

nation.cymru/feature/yr-h...

SSDD.

How do people not see that the entire OU essay thing is just an attempt by this girl and the Turning Point chapter to turn her into another Riley Gaines grifting on trying to push trans people out of society?

Dearest, gentle reader.

I did not get up in time for the early lane swim this morning. I'll have to go later and catch the lunchtime lane swim.

Do not let me get distracted.

Brain: (whispers) You need to buy a chess set

Me: 🤦‍♀️

The British state is addicted to secrecy - we need to fight back Our politicians and officials are using public money to keep citizens in the dark, says Heather Brooke

Britain has a secrecy problem.

In 2024, the govt answered just 29% of Freedom of Information requests - the lowest rate since FOI began.

Secrecy fuels corruption, bad governance, scandals covered-up to protect elites. Ministers don't answer questions in parliament.

Sham democracy.

Watching the clock strike 2.25am. I feel this post deeply as I need to be up early at 6am for my morning swim

My head however, does not want to stop thinking. They're all very pleasant thoughts, but I need my brain to shut up now. Please?

Brain: Nope, let me run though this very pleasing scenario

Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.

Sir/Madam, your "child" is now a university student over the age of majority and one of the points of university is a child becoming independent and being self reliant and resilient. Parents have to let their kids fly through nest.

The kids are alright. It's the parents that're the problem.

kermit the frog is dancing on a stage in front of a red curtain and saying `` progress '' . Alt: kermit the frog is dancing on a stage in front of a red curtain and saying `` progress '' .

This weekend has been two bad dates and lunch with a friend who made me proper belly laugh which the dates didn't do.

I'm not even sad about it. For the first time, in a long time I put myself out there. Not only that, I felt comfortable saying I wasn't feeling the vibes and setting boundaries

There's a lot of ways to write antagonists. Delving into people's self-justifications for petty bigoted behavior can be engaging even if it doesn't remotely put them in the right, and the ways they clash with protagonists can reveal a lot about the assumptions of the characters and their society.

leave part of the context unsaid)

Ultimately "good" writing is all about execution and figuring out which tropes, writing techniques and lexical fields work out for the specific setting you have in mind. Figuring that part out is always a tricky process but it has to start with appealing to you to

Alternatively the villain can be as pathetic as the protagonist is, or a lot cooler, or anything really, as long as it serves some purpose within the story (which doesn't necessarily has to be explicit to the reader by the way, it's perfectly viable to write them to appeal to your own tastes and

the hardest part of writing politically charged fiction is that a good villain needs to be complex, cool and about as right as the protagonist; while evil people in real life are lame, cruel, childish morons motivated by greed or not wanting to look at minorities

Not all antagonists are equal. It's possible to create villains who are just plain wrong or to #Write more nuanced villains who challenge the morally grey and use ideologically different approaches. Both are valid and can work, but as always they need to be written well.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity

The new UN report...draws attention to the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand”, noting the age of criminal responsibility imposed by Israel is 12, and that children younger than 12 have also been detained." 🤢🤬

I'm so tired of saying this, but once again for those hard of understanding

PAY CREATIVES FOR THEIR WORK

This applies to the Torygraph & private citizens. Writers & artists deserve payment for their talent & work

Secondly, stop playing the fricking generation game. Each new gen keeps a work alive

If there's no option but to incur debt as an investment in the hope it will pay off, it's not a choice. Many professions/jobs require an undergraduate degree to access the further training to meet licensing rules to practise. It's not irrelevant that record levels of debt are forced on young people.

I can feel my eye twitching at the mention of a quote from Terry Pratchett's Discworld being Ai analysed.

AI knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

#TerryPratchett #Discworld