Dei Walker

@criticalrole.bsky.social spotted at ACMI!

@aliettedebodard.com Found you! (Amplify Books in Melbourne, AUS)

Ich koude wynne a gold medal at the olympics yf ther was an olympic sport called worryinge about everyethinge all the tyme

We made it safe & sound to Australia last night and are tucked away in a nice little place in the CBD for the next few days. I have plans to see a writing buddy on Tuesday & an old Pern RP friend from *forever* ago on Wednesday.

Also a ridiculous amount of Pokemon Go.

I hope you enjoy it! I loved it when it first came out, and then found there was more tucked away when I did a reread, like taking a second glance at museum exhibit.

Dark blue background with medieval style embellishments in shades of blue and purple. Font is in a medieval style with embellished capitals. To the right is art of a princess holding a handkerchief as her favor. Share your knight art! Quote this post with your work & we'll share it. Sword Cross'd: An original knights zine. Interest Check open until Feb 16th.

⚔️Knight Share⚔️

Our fair maiden awaits a hero—gain her favor by quoting this post with your knight art or stories!

We'll share everything we're quoted in until Feb 8.

The interest check for our knights themed zine is open until Feb 16. 🔗 below!

#ArtShare #KnightShare #KnightArt #knights

It only gets better on a reread. The characterization is strong, and the voice of the narrator is fantastic; the whole thing feels like a guide through a museum (as it should!), especially as I've just been through a somewhat similar display. I keep coming back to this to savor the language & story.

Thirteen Swords That Made a Prince: Highlights from the Arms & Armory Collection This exhibition presents pieces from our permanent collection that are rarely displayed together, in order to illuminate the life of one of our most celebrated early rulers, Nizararuddin Zafer Abu …

@sharangbiswas.bsky.social 's story strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi... has haunted my brain for a while, but I couldn't remember the title and had to go beg a hand finding again. I absolutely love the structure of it and the way the story is perfectly integrated into it

Your regular reminder that publishing is a business (and that @victoriastrauss.com is a gem)

RUN. RUN FAR AWAY FROM THIS CONTEST.

Ten(ish) of the Best African Speculative Short Fiction Stories of 2025 - Reactor Here are some of the speculative fiction gems that may have flown under the radar in 2025...

2025 was another great year for African short fiction! Author @wtalabi.com recommends 10 highlights across science fiction, fantasy, and horror, from "magic-for-wealth schemes" to an unsettling religious organization (in space). And if there's some ties in there...? We're not complaining.

Unfortunately they are blocking all erotica from distribution. Very sad to see a champion for indie bookstores take such a restrictive stance on fiction.

Why don't they say anything?

Well, because when it happens to YOU, if you say something, that's frequently the ballgame. You get driven out of your community; you get to see what the people you thought loved you look like with the masks off. And way, way too many of them are monsters.

Just finished Shen Tao's The Poet Empress last night, and about to start Swordcrossed by Freya Marske.

it came up on the @othersidespec.bsky.social server so I'm going to throw it out here to the wider bluesky world:

what's some of your favorite worldbuilding advice for writing? and do you have a favorite short story (under 7.5k!) for worldbuilding awesomeness to recommend?

I was a Bennington girl! ... until my mother failed to do financial aid paperwork. 😩 It was a good run while it lasted.

Fascism wants you to believe that you are alone. That you are isolated. That the feelings you have are yours and nobody else has them because everybody is too afraid to speak.

But love is stronger than fascism. Community is stronger than fascism.

I don't see people feteing small press/independent authors with the same level of marketing/attention leveled at trad folk. Nothing against trad folk - but if your circle of friends only read trad sff, you are extremely limited in your scope.

one thing the trump era has made clear, i think, is that the american people themselves are far more committed to the values of our founding documents than our elites

We had to go into Device Manager and fight with it a bit but everyone's talking again. I did *not* enjoy trying to mod servers AND write AND catch up on a show on a 12" laptop monitor yesterday. Great lesson in prioritization though.

I'm always super cognizant of folks who dismiss the culture of some diasporic group as less valid than the people still in their motherland. I think it says a LOT about you if you think cultures can only be valid and develop on native soil, rather than being something people carry away and adapt.

WHICH REMINDS ME*, I saw my first-ever real-life Hawaiian quilt today!!!

LOOK AT THAT APPLIQUÉ

LOOK AT THAT QUILTING

*I did a long thread on Polynesian art a while back because I had to put my rage about Gauguin somewhere

If you're looking for some sword & sorcery, and in the mood for a Norse flavor of it, I have a short story that was published last year in Swords & Sorcery magazine run by @curtissandsm.bsky.social - you can find Jórunn and Halla at swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/blood-for-a-... .

Melbourne + Ballarat next week, *aaahhhh*. I already have books at hold at a local bookshop and plans to see people I've known online for decades in some cases, and then all the touristy things to see & do. If anyone has recs, please let me know! We have penguins, ACMI, parks, and more on the list.

I am so excited to see the new people that come on board. There's always a small percentage that write and that's it, but I think every anthology there are definitely some new folks who stick around and take advantage (positively) of what the press has to offer, and I love seeing it grow.

Waking up this morning to discover my external monitor no longer being acknowledged by my laptop was not on my list today, and this puts a distinct kink (and not the fun kind) in my plans.

Hoping #Meme #Monday finds everyone safe and warm.

if you decide to play the actual SM "game" (run on Ravelry), let me know! otherwise yes, definitely, cast on sock, knit well and prosper! (this is my...siiixth? SM? and it steals my soul March-April and then I'm usually out by May).

2/2 with a loop where I didn't initially expect it to be. I was so grateful for that placement because it gave a familiar (and loved) pattern a new twist and made it feel fresh, and this whole post seems like sock knitting puns now? Anyway. Read LOOPED. Great prose, characters, and story. Enjoy!

Looped Looped by Nadia Radovich

Happy Feb 2, and due to the felicity of it both being (a) Sock Madness signups, and (b) US Groundhog Day, I want to rec @nadiaradovich.bsky.social 's story LOOPED www.heartlines-spec.com/looped-by-na... . We have knitting, my dearly beloved, AND a great time loop story 1/2