Jeff

TOP: Black text on a pale teal background: 2025 Semiprozine for Award Consideration. MIDDLE: White text on a dark teal background: Shadowrun: Augment, Issues 1-4, Jennifer Brozek, John Helfers, Kathleen Hardy. BOTTOM: Four colorful images of Augment magazine's front covers on a pale teal background.

CGL is allowing me to give the first issue of Augment Magazine away for free for awards consideration. Please enjoy and consider nominating Augment Magazine for Best Semiprozine.
Note: Dropbox link. www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/vny8d...

Publishers are “stepping back” from LGBTQ+ books amid bans & the current GOP president - LGBTQ Nation "In the face of so many book bans and so much concern about decreasing school library sales of queer content" publishers are "passing" on LGBTQ+ books.

Depressing news reported at @lgbtqnation.com:
Publishers are “stepping back” from LGBTQ+ books amid bans & the current GOP president

www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/publ...

#kidlit #queerkidlit #lgbtq #booksky

I would socialize, but it gets in the way of just being at home and doing what I want.

Needed a quiet day today.
#selfcare

It is a wooden dining room table. In the far background is a green cat blanket. In the middle is a pink and grey cat blanket with a silver and white, black-spotted cat with gold eyes. The cat, Freya, lounges, looking like the pampered pet she is (and deserves to be). In the foreground is a book. This is Valdemar's Smoke and Mirrors anthology, edited by Mercedes Lackey. (Marie Bilodeau and I have a story in this anthology called "Lady Affra's Curse.")

Freya being pretty next to the latest Valdemar anthology I'm in (with @mariebilodeau.bsky.social).

Trans Rights Tesla Sticker by sevenishmagpies | Redbubble Do you have a Tesla because you got it before everyone realized that Elon wasn't just a terrible rich person he was the most terrible rich person and you don't want people to vandalize your car? Atone...

Do you have a TESLA but you don't want people to vandalize it? Atone for your sins by supporting trans rights aka giving this trans woman here like a hundred bucks so she can pay her rent via purchasing a bumper sticker that says "I paid a trans woman $100 for this bumper sticker plz no vandalize".

A dear friend is Sbux union leader through Workers United and she clued me into 3 things.

Starbucks has not signed a contract with the workers for 4 years.

Starbucks has more union violations than any other company in the US.

Shareholders are demanding they settle.

Keep boycotting.

Which one of them? Several of their songs are catchy. :)

Snurched from J.R. Cason, whom I do not know, but it provides a handy way to say that there are only 19 reviews of SUPERNATURAL CRIMES UNIT: NYPD Book 1 on Amazon and it would be REALLY FABULOUS if there were 31 more to hit that 50-review threshold.

Thank you!

www.amazon.com/Supernatural...

A flight path in the shape of the Grinch

Amazing work from whoever was up in N6914W over Ohio … www.flightaware.com/live/flight/...

Trump's approval ratings are tanking. He's flailing on the economy. Epstein haunts him. Republicans are beginning to revolt against him.

He's not all powerful.

A tyrant can exercise tyranny only insofar as the objects of his tyranny continue to allow it.

Remember this.

It’s always DM can I roll for investigation and never DM can I tell you how beautiful you look right now? Absolutely, stunning sitting behind your DM screen plotting away at our collective demise.

Hey, if you’re a Seattle/WA author with a book coming out next year and you have a firm pub date, please let me know for potential inclusion in the Seattle Times’s 2026 book preview. (Space is limited but I’ll do my best.)

Drop a link either in replies or at my email: thisispaulconstant@gmail.com.

This update includes information you may find upsetting. Please take care when reading. From today, it is with a heavy heart that we announce trans girls will no longer be able to join Girlguiding. This is a decision we would have preferred not to make, and we know that this may be upsetting for members of our community. There will be no immediate changes for current young members, but more information will be shared soon. Most adult roles - including unit helpers, district helpers and administrative support - are already open to all, so we are confident that no volunteers will have to leave the organisation. Girlguiding believes strongly in inclusion, and we will continue to support young people and adults in marginalised groups. Over the next few months, we will explore opportunities to champion this value and actively support young people who need us. We stand in solidarity with trans girls and women.

i hope every single person who still buys harry potter merch or engages with that franchise is happy that they're literally making girl guides cry

girl guides uk have been forced very much against their will to exclude trans girls. full statement is here: www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-...

A silver cat yawning and looking cute.

Sooo close to finishing my first quarter un grad school. My kitty, Freya, would like me to play, and failing that, sleep now.

Okay, the crowd going nuts like someone just scored a touchdown at the Super Bowl all *through* the KDH performance is a hell of a thing to see hear/see:

This is brilliant! Please share. So many people are afraid and need help. Libraries have the answers.
#library #libraries #askforhelp #answers #books #reading #read #booksky #answers #knowledge #knowledgeispower 📚

We can do away with it without a new Supreme Court. Nor do we need a constitutional amendment. There’s a far simpler way to get rid of Citizens United. Let me explain. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-to-get-rid-of-citizens-united

Update November 22. We’ve updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail’s smart features. The settings themselves aren’t new, but the way Google recently rewrote and surfaced them led a lot of people (including us) to believe Gmail content might be used to train Google’s AI models, and that users were being opted in automatically. After taking a closer look at Google’s documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Gmail does scan email content to power its own “smart features,” such as spam filtering, categorisation, and writing suggestions. But this is part of how Gmail normally works and isn’t the same as training Google’s generative AI models. Google also maintains that these feature settings are opt-in rather than opt-out, although users’ experiences seem to vary depending on when and how the new wording appeared. It’s easy to see where the confusion came from. Google’s updated language around “smart features” is vague, and the term “smart” often implies AI—especially at a time when Gemini is being integrated into other parts of Google’s products. When the new wording started appearing for some users without much explanation, many assumed it signalled a broader shift. We’ve revised this article to reflect what we can confirm from Google’s documentation, as it’s always been our aim to give readers accurate, helpful guidance.

If you have been sharing that Malwarebytes article on the Gmail thing, you should note the giant correction up top.

www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

Ah, President Screwb indeed.

A pair of cats in a cat pile in a floating corner cat condo

Timeline cleanse for #twocatstuesday

Wonder why this scene looks so familiar...
#WildlifeWednesday 🐦🐕

Did we just set all our clocks to "fall back" right now in the middle of the afternoon? Hell yes. I hate changing of the clock time of the year and having to re-calibrate. It's unnecessary in this day and age-along with so many other things like, you know, masked thugs arresting US citizens.

A portion of every dollar spent on Harry Potter merchandise goes to anti-transgender campaigns.

And Jen gets the star for identifying the facility.

Gothic architecture reading room.

Gothic architecture large reading room.

Suzallo library quiet reading room, no id required. Gorgeous space.

As you cancel streaming services, here is a casual reminder that only 16% of Americans read for pleasure anymore, and your local library has hundreds or thousands of books you haven't read.

They would love to see you stop by and renew your library card.

Good to know.

Couldn't we just name our favorite timbits flavor and talk about Gretzky? Party time, excellent!?

A comic of two foxes, one of whom is blue, the other is green. In this one, the foxes are shown in an assortment of different situations, with Green narrating each scene. In the first one, Green is changing sheets. Green, narrating: I want to change your bedsheets because I love you. Next, Blue and Green are sitting at a table, with big ice cream dishes in front of them. The one in front of Blue has two decorative cookie sticks and a cherry on top, whereas Green's ice cream only has one cookie stick and no cherry. Green, narrating: I want you to have the nicer one because I love you. Then, the foxes are out shopping, carrying bags. Green, narrating: I want to buy you nice things because I love you. Then, in the final scene, Green sneaks up on Blue and licks the back of Blue's neck. Blue is wide-eyed and startled by this. Green: Narrating: I want to bug and annoy you forever because I love you.

Libraries are very important to me. They hold a place of honor in helping me become the person I am. They taught me about the Earth, people, animals, plants, the cosmos, and the Craft. I will always fight for libraries. I 💙 Libraries.