@maetang.myatproto.social
She/her. Writer. Chinese Singaporean immigrant to the UK. Bi. This is my writing account Books: - 1st book. Shortlisted for Hachette Children’s Novel Awards 2025 - Epic fantasy duology - Westmarch. Fantasy & gay romance - Heist. Fantasy. M/M & M/F romance
This is interesting to me. I wrote Anne in Heist as very musical. She plays violin as well as the pianoforte. (The violin would have been less common for women then, but I wanted her to play it.) I listen to this & I like baroque tuning more. It's warmer. I feel like it'd be a good match for Anne.
The chamber pot with Napoleon's bust in it though! 😂
Tennessee grandmother spent nearly six months in jail after AI facial recognition mistakenly linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud case
What are your favorite recent speculative short stories OR books about monsters/monstrosity? Please interpret this question as broadly as you would like, and please do not hesitate to recommend your own work! (Bonus points for recs that are interested in queerness or gender in some way.)
Good luck!
... some reprehensible behaviour. [Not unlike the current Duke of York!] So in the end I bookmarked half a dozen websites to remind myself he gets a special mode of address when referred to politely.
And then I eventually wrote him one of the bloodier deaths I could devise. Take that, your Grace!)
(This thread brought to you by my having exactly one Duke in Heist, who I was very tempted to downgrade to a Marquess, once I realised how irritating it would be to go through the entire book giving him a singular mode of address. But he's the big villain, and his rank allows him to get away with...
Especially if the character who is speaking is a tedious stick-in-the-mud type, who has spent most of the book getting hot under the collar about doing things the "correct" way, it feels odd that he might casually get that wrong in speech, to other characters who would know better.
... the order of precedence for the ranks of the English aristocracy. That listed modes of address, because even when people were *living* through those times, this was tedious to have to get right!
But anyway, if your character says, "His Lordship the duke", that should be, "His Grace, the duke."
I know. It's tedious. I literally had to bookmark different websites, with terms of address on them, that I kept referring to, over and over again, because my brain did not want to retain this information.
And even back in the actual Regency era, some printed pocket books included a section on...
This is knowledge I wish I hadn't had to acquire, but if you're writing an English historical romance, and you have a duke in it, the correct mode of address for him will be slightly different than for, say, a marquess, an earl, a viscount, etc.
Dukes are "Your Grace". Not "Your Lordship".
Whoah
AI = African Intelligence
(Seems familiar to the Meta moderation workforce, but worse)
Read the whole thing
Congratulations!
Our volunteer collective of whistle printers is up past 1.2 million whistles shipped. It's happening very quietly, because we've basically settled into a groove, but we are still here for all your whistle needs.
linktr.ee/3Dwhistles
I have the same feeling about people who are attracted to nativism, race science and gender essentialism, because all of that gives them a "frisson of transgression".
Stay well clear of those people in real life. Nothing good can come from being around folks who are excited by violent death/cruelty
Online dating site, OkCupid, used to do a quiz with various statements. You agreed or disagreed with each statement. They matched you with other people accordingly. One of the statements was, "In a certain light, wouldn't nuclear war be exciting?"
I remember thinking of it as a sociopathy screener.
When using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, don't just make text bigger and bolder to make it a heading. That will work for sighted users, but screen reader users will miss that and just hear it as normal paragraph text. Use actual heading styles, like level 1 through 6.
Up to page 102 in my 2nd editing pass over Westmarch. Gabe and Hal are about to head off to the sacred grove at Westmarch Hall, where all kinds of things will happen to them, both magical, and deeply and embarrassingly personal. 😂
Job opportunity for Deaf kid lit illustrators (including the full spectrum of deafness/HoH)!
A popular Deaf activist is writing some children’s books and would like to hire deaf artists to work with. Share to support disabled artists!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
You're welcome! Everything @kjcharleswriter.com writes is grounded in character. I think her sex scenes are great because they're always expressing and revealing something specific about the characters. You can't go wrong with any of her books, and fortunately there's a big back catalogue to enjoy!
Amazing. Amazon is forcing employees to use its AI tools to speed up work and it’s slowing them down www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
Zack on stage at wembley.
Trans rights are human rights.
Thank you, Wembley.
🏳️⚧️
"It’s particularly horrendous to me when you have someone from within our own community who demonises a minority group. I don’t know what’s going on in Wes Streeting’s head, but what I do know is it’s terrifying for trans people,” he said.
www.attitude.co.uk/news/zack-po...
A traditional watercolor work in progress, showing two Black men sitting in a bathtub in the royal baths of the Alhambra. They both have cloths around their waists and are peering at each other, about to kiss. One has a cane and burn scars on his leg. The watercolor is somehow shaded so well that the shape of their body and the way light from above falls on it is all clear! It’s just a little pale for their final skin tone (as it’s only one layer of pigment).
Another WIP picture from when I was painting my piece for @taplingzines.bsky.social !
I have no idea how I managed to make their skin look so realistic in just one layer of watercolor honestly ✨
P.S. Find my Muslim gays and a bunch of other queer art here! www.kickstarter.com/projects/tap...
Jennifer Weiner 8h • Hey everyone! The owner of @blythebooks_pgh in Pittsburgh gave an interview to local media about her activism (which includes raising money for Pittsburgh's PBS station and Minneapolis immigrant aid, handing out free whistles, to alert people to ICE's presence, and urging people to check in their neighbors). Fox News picked up the story, and the store's now getting hate-mailed and review bombed. I thought we could show them some support. Put your name in the comments, and we'll pick 20 winners and cover their tab for up to $25 worth of whatever books, stickers, pins or classes they'd like to buy. Good luck! LET'S SUPPORT THIS BOOKSTORE! THE OWNER IS BEING TARGETED FOR ANTI-ICE ACTIVISM
nice—this is how to use your platform if you’ve got one!
i haven’t read jennifer’s latest stuff, but really enjoyed some of her books in my 20’s 😊 📚
Definitely going to try to get to Pittsburgh’s Blythe Books this weekend 💜 @blythebookspgh.bsky.social
Please listen to folk who ACTUALLY know. Puberty blockers are reversible. This info is not hard to find out.
"The bill punishes "acts against nature", a term used to signify same-sex relations, by five to 10 years' imprisonment, compared with one to five years previously.
It also provides for three to seven years in prison for anyone who engages in advocacy for same-sex relations."
Yeah. It's a pity. It would make me wonder about the reliability of the data, its interpretation, and the recommendations based on it.
We warned you about putting fundamentally leaky and insecure "AI" systems into the research and education environment, bro! We fucken told you bro!
I'm getting questions about why there are trans characters in my Fantasy novel.
There's a simple answer: trans people don't need to justify existing.
Glad to clear that up!