I don't think @siren-events-uk is super active on Tumblr these days, so I'm yelling about this thing myself because I'm excited.
Online weekend convention! Schedule that works for both UST and America time! Queer authors chatting about a variety of topics and then ending in a nerdy little pyjama party (pyjamas not obligatory)!
They've got an early bird sale on until the end of July - prices are shown in GBP, but if you click through to the buying page, it'll come up in your local currency.
There are nine panels announced so far, on everything from Edwardian settings to finding an agent, and all of them look banging. It's a well-curated list which means that even if the guests end up being authors I haven't read, I'm still looking forward to a good time.
Yelling about this thing because I reckon at least a few of my mutuals are the sort of homos who're still a bit regretful that they never got to stay overnight in the library.
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It lets people access scientific articles for free. This is dangerous. It helps the free flow of knowledge and reduces the competitive edge of all the people who worked really hard to have been born into a wealth.
Like, it’s literally a website where you can type in the DOI of an article and read it, without ever having to pay the publisher who exploited the author.
So, again, do not, under any circumstance, use Sci-Hub. I mean, can you imagine a world where knowledge is free and easily accessible to everyone? Even, y'know, poor people?
Libgen also has many books online, including textbooks, searchable by name, author, and ISBN. Can you imagine textbook companies not getting their hard-earned income from poor college students? Here is the link just so you make sure that you never accidentally stumble across this horrible, unethical website.
Oh, and while we’re talking about books, if you’ve managed to stay clear from Libgen, definitely don’t go to zlibrary, where you can also find a lot of textbooks, but unfortunately they’re completely free.
Another inside tip from academia: Those papers in really expensive journals that are effectively inaccessible to anyone not in a university network? Depending on the discipline it’s very likely that same paper is on a “preprint” server somewhere, with no access restrictions.
Like if you want to read basically any physics, math, or CS paper, arXiv.org will have you covered, because everyone uploads their papers there before submitting to a journal (and generally updates it after peer review). I know all of my papers are on there. This is such common practice that journals have it baked into their licensing agreements that authors retain the right to upload their work to these places.
So the next time you get hit with that paywall, you may not even need sci-hub, just click the arxiv link on google scholar instead.
if for some reason none of this works, the old “send a email nicely asking for the paper to the author” is always a good trick. remember most scientists hate the commercialisation of scientific knowledge
Many authors of papers are on ResearchGate! You can ask for papers there, if they don’t just post a copy to download. If they’re associated with a college, you can usually find their email addresses in the department directory, also.
I just learned about this recently from a Viking reenactor! Indigo dye isn't blue until it oxidizes, so when you dye with indigo your cloth or thread doesn't come out of the water blue, it comes out and then reacts with the oxygen in the air and seems to spontaneously turn blue in front of your eyes. It's a really cool process to witness.
bluesky's doing some weird age verification shit so just to check: the only other place where your art is would be either substar or patreon, right? just wanna make sure since i am Not sending in my ssn/credit card to bluesky
yeah unfortunately bluesky is the current last bastion of uncensored, publicly posted art. i don't want to go back to twitter.
that said i've heard you can get around the age verification by switching to a different AT protocol, like witchsky. you use the same login. i haven't had to try it myself though
could I ask for sci-fi book reccs with/featuring gay characters? all the project hail mary attention has reminded me to 1) finish the murderbot books and 2) how don't care much for andy weir
HELLO I have so many queer sci-fi recs... I tried to focus on gay characters here but a lot of these are also going to be trans/ gender queer gay. anyway:
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - Kel our protagonist is a lesbian (she might be more broadly queer but I remember it that way) and Jedao was for sure bisexual. this is battle type space opera with wildly complex world building
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon - this is a modern classic !!! in the generation ship space sci-fi genre and for sure lesbian protagonist. also very dark and intense
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer - this is maybe the closest to andy weir type sci-fi on this list (guys sent in to space to save humanity) and I am also obsessed with the gay romance in it!! should mention it is YA
The Iron Garden Sutra by A.D. Sui - gay death monk investigating a creeeppyy space ship. also has gay romance
Redsight by Meredith Mooring - blind author writing about blind lesbian space priestessss lesbian romance also
Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis - very fun spaceship hotel book with lots of POVs I believe two of which were lesbians
Landlocked in a Foreign Skin by Drew Huff - important addition to the lesbian alien creature in space genre
Toward Eternity by Anton Hur - more literary far future multiple POV style sci-fi that I really liked and some of the POVs were gay
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz - this is a real engineers hope punk style sci-fi, more of a thought experiment about the future than it is narrative fiction, but ! I remember there was gay sex
Empire of the Feast by Bendi Barrett - you can read this novella in a sitting and It is real out there sexy funky space opera. its more queer than gay cause peoples genders keep changing but I would still sell it as gay
The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis - more lesbian space opera now with more of a handmaid's tale situation
These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs - this was a big deal for the evil lesbian cat and mouse space opera community
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - lesbian cave diving in space!
Countess by Suzan Palumbo - lesbian space opera retelling of the count of monte cristo, though much much shorter than actual count
This World Is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa - very messy polyamory stuff on a space colony primarily focused on one lesbian couple
Local Heavens by K.M. Fajardo - not set in space but gay retelling of the great gatsby with sci-fi future setting and I ate it UP
anyway the actual point of fandom is to inspire each other. reading each other's fics and admiring each other's art and saying wow i love this and i feel something and i want to invoke this in other people, i want to write a sentence that feels like a meteor shower, i want to paint a kiss with such tenderness it makes you ache, i want to create something that someone else somewhere will see it and think oh, i need to do that too, right now. i am embracing being a corny cunt on main to say inspiring each other is one of the things humanity is best at and one of the things fandom is built for and i think that's beautiful
Please blow up the public comment (included below): BREAKING NEWS (7/15) — The administration wants to destroy Chaco Canyon without consulting Tribal Nations. It’s an irreplaceable historic & cultural site with 4,700 archeological sites that could be lost to the bulldozers of oil & gas development
— Kelly Lynne D’Angelo ✨ (@kellylynnedang.bsky.social) July 15, 2026 at 7:29 PM
Here is the link to comment! Say something unique about what matters to you! The historicity of the site, the ecological impacts of mining, the preservation and protection of National Parks and public resources, tourism and travel, Indigenous rights! But say *something*
The Bureau of Land Management National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Register allows you to review and comment on plans and project docum
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