We’re thrilled to share that starting this August, all our future panels – formerly Patreon exclusive – will be free and available to everyone and streamed through our Book Lover’s Discord Server.
How do the Duck Prints Press panels? Simple!
Panels are held on the third Saturday of every month, with the specific time determined 4 to 6 weeks ahead.
Dates and times are announced on our public Discord server as Events.
The day before the panel, I post an agenda (also on Discord) that gives an idea of the specific questions we’ll be addressing; additional questions can be submitted ahead of time by backers of our Patreon (who also may request specific panel topics!).
We get together a group of our creators and we have a live-streamed chat about the topic at hand on our public Discord server.
Each panel is one hour long, with approximately 15 minutes after that hour to take questions from attendees.
The panel is recorded; after the panel, Patrons at the $7/month level and higher can access the recording whenever they’d like. (there are 23 past panel recordings already available to our backers!)
The panels themselves are similar to those held at literary conventions, if folks have been to a litcon, and if not, it’s pretty much a directed conversation about the panel topic. And the August panel topic? Well…
Panel Topic: Character Building
Description: It’s a no-brainer that (nearly all) stories need characters, and there are lots of how-tos on character building. In this panel, we’ll have a robust conversation with our panelists on how we build characters, what resources we’ve found helpful, what advice worked for us (and what advice didn’t!), our personal approaches to developing and growing our characters, and more!
Likely Panelists: J. D. Rivers, Sage Mooreland, Rascal Hartley, Anima NM, YF Ollwell, and Dei Walker
I hope y’all will join us! Turning on your camera and sound not required.
just watched a star trek episode about a planet that relied so heavily on it's computer system that they all forgot the basics of their own knowledge. and that allowed them to miss the fact that they were being posioned with radiation and nearly ending their civilization. because they couldn't use their own knowledge to figure things out. i bring this up for no reason in particular
taking the threshold of adulthood as 18, you are likely to spend at least 52 years as a fully grown adult
at the age of 30 you have lived less than one quarter of your adult life (12/52 years)
'middle age' is typically considered to be between 45-65
it is extremely common to switch careers, start new relationships, emigrate, go to college for the first or second time, or make other life-changing decisions in middle age
it's wild that I even have to spell it out, but older adults (60+) still have social lives and hobbies and interests.
you can still date when you get old. you can still fuck. you can still learn new skills, be fashionable, be competitive. you can still gossip, you can still travel, you can still read. you can still transition. you can still come out.
young doesn't mean peaked. you're inexperienced in your 20s! you're still learning and practicing! you're developing social skills and muscle memory that will last decades!
there are a million things to do in the world, and they don't vanish overnight because an imaginary number gets too big
When we talk about the autonomy of suicide, it's almost always discussed from the side of the right to die — which is definitely important and does need to be accepted by more of society. But there's also the side of the right to live. Until society stops punishing people for their existence and depriving them of what they need, the autonomy of suicide for everyone cannot be reached. Because when people are killing themselves because of changeable, societal structures, that is not a completely autonomous decision. It is one that has been forced upon them.
Suicidal people will always exist and people who will always be suicidal exist and that is not inherently an issue that needs to be solved. But it becomes an issue when people are forced into it. Currently, suicide prevention involves institutionalizing suicidal people, telling them that they must survive, by any means possible, but so many of them have been told the opposite for their entire lives, implicitly or otherwise. Suicide prevention should involve working to improve society, making it a livable and survivable place for all people. Only then will the autonomy of suicide be achieved. Otherwise, so much of it is social murder.
In short, "Don't kill yourself 🥺" isn't enough — solving the why behind it is.
Have you ever been writing some historical fiction and wondered "hey, I wonder if my characters would have been able to pop an ibuprofen in 1977?" Well, you're in luck, because this post is all about when common medications became available:
Acetaminophen: 1950
Albuterol: 1969 (UK) 1982 (US)
Allopurinol: 1966
Alprazolam: 1981
Amitriptyline: 1961
Amlodipine: 1990
Amoxicilin: 1972
Amphetamine/Dextroamphetamine (together as Adderall): 1996
Apixiban: 2012
Aripiprazole: 2002
Aspirin (first NSAID): 1899
Azidothymidine (first antiviral): 1987
Barbital (first barbiturate): 1903
Bupropion: 1985
Buspirone: 1986
Calcium Carbonate (TUMS): 1930
Captopril (first ACE inhibitor): 1981
Chlordiazepoxide (first benzodiazepine): 1960
Chlorothiazide (first thiazide diuretic): 1957
Chlorpromazine (first antipsychotic): 1952
Cyclobenzeprine: 1977
Diphenhydramine: 1946
Furosemide: 1959
Fluoxetine (first SSRI): 1988
Gabapentin: 1993
Glipizide: 1984
Hydrochlorothiazide: 1959
Ibuprofen: 1969 (UK) 1974 (US)
Insulin: 1923 (though many types of insulins would become available over the next century)
Imipramine (first tricyclic antidepressant): 1959
Iproniazid (first antidepressant (MAOI)): 1952
Levothyroxine: 1927 (though desiccated pork thyroid was used for the same reasons as early as 1890)
Lisinopril: 1987
Lithium: 1949
Losartan (first ARB): 1995
Lovastatin (first statin): 1987
Naproxen: 1976 (Rx) 1990 (OTC)
Nitrogen Mustard (first chemotherapy agent): early 1940's
Listen, movie Stratt and Grace were on a whole new level with whatever the fuck “weird secret third thing” they had going on between them, but let’s not pretend book!Stratt was normal about Grace. There was ZERO reason for him to be in the courtroom for the copyright suit. It had NOTHING to do with any “secret tertiary specialist” stuff. He arguably COULD have been much more useful in the lab. He sat there and said nothing and looked pretty for that entire scene. She dragged his ass on a plane just to sit there and he didn’t say a word in court. If that doesn’t say “this is my emotional support science loser” I don’t know what does.
Transphobia is being signed into law in the UK. Let's fight it together.
I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the rescheduled Mass Lobby at Parliament, now on Wed Sept 9th, 1pm-5pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.
The law around trans equality is fundamentally broken. Government inaction is hanging trans people and organisations out to dry - with a con
The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It became statutory guidance in the UK on August 5th, 2026.
Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.
A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Our demands have changed. Ask your MP to:
Write to Ministers and Prime Minister Andy Burnham to say they are profoundly concerned by the rolling back of trans rights, and that they believe that it is time for Parliament to legislate to protect equality for trans people.
Ask parliamentary questions focused on protecting trans people’s rights and defending trans people’s abilities to live safe and dignified lives.
Speak up both inside and outside Parliament in defence of trans people’s rights.
Meet regularly with trans constituents to understand their lived realities.
Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.
I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.
We have already had some wins because we took action. The 2026 EHRC guidance has already rolled back its most harmful elements because of mass campaigning by individuals like us, and groups like The Good Law Project. This summer, 166 MPs signed the Early Day Motion 240 to reject the EHRC Code of Practice, because of our campaigning. That is 1 in 4 MPs.
It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:
Worried about what to say?
Bring your personal worries about transphobia being signed into law, and trans friends being excluded from public spaces. You are a living person who deserves dignity. Remind your MP of that. On the day, you'll get guidance and brochures from Trans Solidarity Alliance that outlines our demands. This is mine from last year.
Here is an online briefing for lobbyists (10 mins read for essential info, 20 mins for details)
Money issues?
Trans Solidarity Alliance provides a travel bursary that you can sign up for via the link.
Got a refusal or no response from your MP?
Come anyway! You can request a same-day appointment with your MP through a process called greencarding. They will come and see you if they’re already in Parliament. Even if they don’t, they’re made acutely aware of your cause because you showed up in person. This is my greencard from last year.
Here is the EHRC Code of Practice in full. It's a tough read, but some highlights are:
Organisations can’t provide trans-inclusive, single-sex services, or they risk being sued for discrimination. e.g. domestic violence support for women including trans women, men’s rugby group including trans men (12.68).
Trans people will have nowhere safe to pee. If you’re a trans man, businesses can't allow you to pee in the men's, and you can also be ejected from women’s bathrooms if you’re perceived as a man. Vice versa for trans women. EHRC suggests a ‘third space’ bathroom, which is discriminatory and unworkable for most businesses. (13.130-133)
Sports organisations must exclude trans people from single-sex competitions (13.73). A women’s only sports competition must exclude trans women because of their biological advantage or face potential lawsuits (13.74), but a trans man who has undergone testosterone treatment can also be excluded based on fairness rules (13.81).
Trans women are stripped of the legal definition of ‘lesbian’, and therefore no longer have legal protections if they’re discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. (2.50, 2.92).
Here is the Good Law Project's better explanation of the EHRC Code.
Sign up for the mass lobby and email your MP here, or click the main link above.
If you are not in the UK but want to support the case, please donate to The Good Law Project.
Save the date and book off work!! I will see you there :))
the first computer programmer — born a century before computers existed
let me tell you about ada lovelace, because she saw the future before anyone else even knew it was coming.
ada was born augusta ada byron in london in 1815. yes, byron — her father was lord byron, the famous romantic poet. but ada never really knew him. her parents separated weeks after her birth, and byron left england and never returned. he died when she was eight. her mother, annabella milbanke, was terrified that ada would inherit her father's wild temperament, so she did something unusual for the time — she had her daughter rigorously educated in mathematics and science, subjects she believed would discipline the mind and keep poetic madness at bay.
it did not exactly work as planned. ada became brilliant at mathematics, yes. but she also had her father's imagination. she called her approach "poetical science" — the idea that creativity and logic were not opposites but partners. she wanted to explore what mathematics could do, not just what it was. and that combination of vision and precision is exactly what made her extraordinary.
in 1833, at the age of seventeen, ada met charles babbage at a party. babbage was a mathematician and inventor who had designed a mechanical calculating machine called the difference engine. most people who saw his work thought it was a clever curiosity. ada looked at it and saw something more. she and babbage became lifelong friends and collaborators.
years later, babbage designed a far more ambitious machine called the analytical engine — a mechanical general-purpose computer that was never actually built in his lifetime. when an italian mathematician wrote a paper describing the engine, ada was asked to translate it from french. she did, but she also added her own notes. those notes ended up being three times longer than the original paper.
in those notes, ada wrote what is now considered the first computer program — an algorithm designed to calculate bernoulli numbers on the analytical engine. but she went even further than that. she theorised that the machine could go beyond mere calculation. she suggested it could manipulate symbols, compose music, and produce graphics, if given the right instructions. in the 1840s, she was describing what we now call general-purpose computing. charles babbage was building a calculator. ada lovelace saw a computer.
almost nobody understood what she was talking about.
she also wrote something remarkably clear-sighted that still resonates today. she cautioned that the machine could not originate anything on its own — it could only do what it was instructed to do. this is now known as "lady lovelace's objection," and people still debate it in the context of artificial intelligence nearly two centuries later.
ada struggled with poor health for much of her life. she died of cancer in 1852, at just 36 years old. her contributions were largely forgotten for over a century. it was not until the mid-twentieth century, when real computers were finally being built, that historians looked back and realised that a woman in the victorian era had already understood what these machines could become.
in 1980, the united states department of defense named a programming language "ada" in her honour. every second tuesday of october is now ada lovelace day, celebrating women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
she lived in an era of corsets and candlelight, and she imagined the digital age. she was a poet's daughter who wrote in the language of logic. and she saw a future that would not arrive for another hundred years.
remember ada lovelace. not just as the first programmer, but as the woman who understood that machines could be more than machines — before a single one had ever been built.
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