Jen Desmarais Author

She/her, 41 yo, mother, wife, geek, disabled, queer, AuDHD author. No AI! I post mostly about my books, art (not mine!), and writing (both mine and other people's). An occasional political post will pop up (I'm an extremely left-leaning Canadian). Feel free to AMA! My books are available https://www.jeneric-designs.ca/books-and-timeline/universal-book-links/ Book covers and header art by @pinkpiggy93

[edhelwen1]

BEST YOUNG ADULT (YA) NOVEL

Breath of the Dragon, Shannon Lee @therealshannonlee & Fonda Lee @fonda.lee , Wednesday Books

Fireboy, Edward Willett @edwardwillettauthor , Shadowpaw Press

A Lion’s Head, D.M. De Alwis @dmdealwis , Ahasae Tharu Publications

Minotaur, Jamieson Wolf @jamieson.wolf , Rebel Satori Press

One Morning Sun, Avi Silver @screambeansnav , Molewhale Press

Winging It, Jen Desmarais @jendesmaraisauthor, Renaissance Press

To get the digital works of all the finalists, not just the YA category, join the CSFFA for $10. (You must be Canadian) Voting is open June 6-12, 2026.

Note that the cover art for Winging It is by @pinkpiggy93

[sutured-infection]

Cellulose nitrate was used to make dice from the late 1860s until the middle of the twentieth century, and the material remains stable for decades. Then, in a flash, they can dramatically decompose. Nitric acid is released in a process called outgassing. The dice cleave, crumble, and then implode.

From Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck by Ricky Jay and Rosamond Purcell, 2002.

[jesus-lizard-journal]

hello beautiful

[rederiswrites]

Just watched Adam Conover (of Adam Ruins Everything) make such a solid point that I think we should spread far and wide. Yes, having AI write your emails is lazy, sure, but people love being lazy. We need to really emphasize that sending AI emails (or using AI responses on social media, or publishing AI flyers, or or or) is rude.

It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.

It's rude.

[memegetter]

happy pride month.

in new zealand, our evil government are trying to legislate definitions of women and men, in ways that are legally incoherent but clearly trying to pave the way for more horrifically transphobic legislation. we have an election in a few months but our main opposition party, and all our mainstream news media, are so spineless and cooked that there's a good chance the ghouls will win reelection.

it took 2 whole months for local terf group 'speak up for women' to get 2,000 signatures on the petition that led to this new bill in our parliament.

it's taken five days for this pro-trans 'they don't speak for us' petition to get 17,000 signatures.

this is a show of support that is really heartening for a lot of trans people in our corner of the world.

cis/ish women, if you're from here but haven't signed yet, please do. and if you're not from here and you know any new zealanders, could you send them this petition? a full fifth of our population lives overseas, and there's a good chance they don't follow the news.

LINK

[weepingwidar]

Anthony Hurd (American, 1975) - You Have This Hold Over Me (2025)

[auroranoraart]

Hold still! Caine is drawing you ❤️

[notreallyx78]

AWWWW

[socialistexan]

Babe wake up, new all time great image just dropped

[socialistexan]

Babe wake up, new all time great image just dropped

[bark-barkley]

I WANT TO LOOK AT THINGS MADE BY HUMAN BEINGS

[softwetmoss]

And also occasionally by pufferfish

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

[queertility]

(image descriptions are available in tumblr ALT text)

⬇️More detailed infographics about...

★ An introduction to Queer Fertility

★ Egg Retrieval/Freezing

★ Intrauterine Insemination (aka IUI)

★ In Vitro Fertilization (aka IVF)

❓ FAQ

*You can also check out @gonkey for my personal journey as an agender person trying to achieve pregnancy!

[feminist-space]

The above is a video shared by smrchildsadness on Twitter, showing a person participating in a pride parade exchanging a pride flag with a person standing on his (am using his pronoun based on the TikToks/Tweets of what happened) doorway who had a Portuguese flag. There are sounds of cheers and crying and the two people hug each other as they exchange the flags. The man at the doorway then waved kisses to the crowd within the pride parade.

The Tweet says: "NO YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HE WAS WAVING THE PORTUGUESE FLAG BECAUSE HE DIDN'T HAVE A PRIDE FLAG AND THEY TRADED FLAGS AND HE'S SO EMOTIONAL TO GET HIS OWN PRIDE FLAG I'M EMOTIONALLY RUINED"

For context, apparently they were worried that maybe he's a nationalist because he was waving the Portuguese flag and some nationalists opposing the pride march were waving that flag. But upon interacting with him, it turns out he didn't have have a pride flag and he wanted to wave *a* flag in support of the pride march. So they had an exchange and now he has his own pride flag 😭🥹.

The image above is a Tweet by kunwara_ladkaa that says "I'm crying so much right now (Image taken by Manuel Fernando Araújo/Lusa)". The image shows the same man from the pride parade crying as he hugs his new pride flag.

The above image is a Tweet by dudz_zZzz that says "ainda não parei de pensar nele," which according to Google translate from Portuguese to English is "I still haven't stopped thinking about him." The image is a drawing of the person from the pride parade, crying as he hugs his new pride flag.

Posts were made on July 1, 2024.

[feminist-space]

One of the most joyful moments of 2024 during a Pride Parade in Portugal.

[foldingfittedsheets]

When I worked at the place selling oils and vinegars I’d sometimes get asked about food. I was, and remain, wildly unqualified to ask about food, but thankfully it was pretty rare. Usually our shoppers were fully aware they knew more than me and they were content to ignore me.

One day a woman in her fifties came in. She looked at the pretty amphora displays and the sample cups before she turned to me. “What would go well with steak?”

“Oh, some of the fruit vinegars would be a nice finisher,” I said, talking out my ass. Like, I’d eat that but whether it’s conventionally accepted to douse a steak in mango vinegar is up for debate.

“I’ve been a vegetarian for forty years, but my doctor suggested I might need more red meat. So I thought I’d get a steak tonight and I don’t know much about preparing it.”

I stared at this woman. This fully adult human woman. Who had just spoken to a doctor. And I said, “Do not buy a steak tonight.”

“What? Why?”

“You’ve been a vegetarian for forty years?”

“Yes?”

“Then your body has no idea how to process meat. You will get so sick.” It was pure luck that I knew this. I had a few hardcore vegetarian friends who had been exposed to meat at potluck dishes and told me about the ensuing horrors as their gentle veggie gut biome was overrun with flesh. And how consequently their toilet overfloweth.

“Really?!”

“Yes,” I said, emphatically. “If you want to try to incorporate meat I would start with a tiny portion of fish, and slowly work your way up, but your insides will not know what to do with steak.”

“Wow! I’m so glad I mentioned that to you.”

I was likewise glad, and ended up selling her a light vinegar that would go nicely with fish. I don’t know if she didn’t have any other vegetarian friends or if her doctor hadn’t said anything to prep her for a radical diet change but it still blows my mind that she didn’t know she couldn’t just cook up and enjoy a steak.

[sleepymccoy]

I know it's hard to quantify this cos of the good old ignorance doesn't know itself thing so I'm gonna give a few vibes but also feel free to free-form your answer and tell me cos I don't know you and I don't know your experiences

Using this as a baseline

how much do you know about dementia?

know nothing zone - it's normal aging, never met someone with dementia, scary!

early wisdom - have dispelled some myths, not much experience tho

late wisdom - understanding of multiple dementia types, experience caring

specific knowledge of one person but no broader experience of other dementias

dementia savant

I know absolutely nothing

a specific mix of knowledge that isn't represented here

Remaining time: 4 days 16 hours

Also let me know if your knowledge is more experiential (eg, my grandma is living with Alzheimer's disease and I'm comfortable with her and the other folks at the care home but I've never looked up further info) or educational (I did a course on in it as part of my study and can drop some stats but I've never spent more than five minutes with someone living with dementia and wouldn't really know how to help if they needed it)

To self check where you might stand, here are some common myths I've seen:

Everyone gets dementia when they get old (no! Age is a contributing factor but loads of people live to remarkable ages without developing cognitive decline)

Alzheimer's and dementia are the same thing (no! Alzheimer's is a type of dementia, like lung cancer is a type of cancer. Lewy bodies, fronto temporal, vascular dementia, there's hundreds of types with different disease progressions)

Dementia only causes memory loss (it does cause memory loss, but it does a bunch of other cognitive stuff too. Like behaviour, lowering inhibition, impacting vision, weakening swallowing. It also is fatal, as in it is a cause of death not just a memory loss til you die)

People living with dementia need to be reminded of the real world to help them get better (you are not going to make them better, they have significant brain damage. Just be kind, pick the kindest thing to say in every interaction)

Only old people get dementia (no. Alzheimer's is more common in the elderly, but for under 65s fronto temporal dementia is the most common dementia type. But also you can be born with dementia. People born with dementia usually die by the time they're teenagers)

I won't get dementia (I'm sorry but you don't know that)

Oh and here's a link back to the master post that links to other dementia questions

[edhelwen1]

My Grannie had Alzheimer's specifically. She was given 6 months and continued on for 6? years. She loved people, so she never got upset about me visiting, even though she had no idea who I was. It was sweet; I got to tell her that I got engaged like... 5 times in one visit and she got excited every time. And after the wedding, I brought pictures for a long time. She loved weddings, so those were always fun visits.

But I don't know much about the non -degenerative types and would like to know more.

[sleepymccoy]

I've been to a dementia conference this week (it was a real downer actually) and I'm motivated to try and see how things can change

A lot of the presentations were about how we have all this research but little action and impact. So I have some brainstorming questions to ask you, person on tumblr, cos I wanna try and come up with something

Okay i started writing questions and they got too detailed so I'm gonna make this a master post and link to polls and questions and posts from here. Please interact with me lol

[blumineck]

Inspired by my recent love of the Raven Thrower (it looks like a corvid that you chuck at things!)

Also obligatory reminder that it’s the final week on my Bluminarmour fundraiser. If you want to see me test dumb stuff in proper historical armour please consider pitching in and/or sharing!

The Bluminarmour Project

Blumineck is trying to fun a video series doing fun and serious historical and fantasy testing in fitted plate armour.

[ripplespate]

I don't have ms paint but just pretend it is bc no one knows paintbrush for mac but i can assure you it was just as hellish if not worse since theres technically no brushes other than a pixel round brush and the worst looking freaking spray paint

[unsound-satyr]

SCROLL BACK!!

IT'S A PAINTING!!!