Marten

30, he/him, trans, autistic. I like art, history, and weird shit. Read my novel DEMON ENGINE!! https://martennorr.carrd.co/

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

A bit late, but here's some trans book sales (& some Freebies) for Trans Rights Readathon, which started March 17th and ends March 31st. Thank you @free-queer-books for notifying me of a bunch of these!

Free:

Blaine D. Arden - Love Blooms

Eskay - Summoned to Another World! But All I'm Supposed To Do is Farm Mythic-Rarity Raid Drops

K.M. Gallagher - The Midland Throne

Kithbooks - Entire program of trans, Crip, queer & sick literature, lots of poetry

Akiva Lee - Making the Team

Vincent Lore - Lock the Last Door + Friend of the Damned - PWYW

Talli L. Morgan - Trans Rights Readathon 2026 bundle

Synth & Syntax - The Wet Boys Sale

On Sale:

Kara Buchanan - Magica Riot Trans Rights Readathon Sale 2026 - 3 books, 3 audiobooks for $30

Beau Van Dalen - Trans Rights Readathon Sale - $18 for 10 books

DarkChibiShadow - Trans Rights Readathon Sale - 4 books for $15

Airic Fenn - Trans Rights Readathon 2026 - 2 books for $2.24

Tris Husband - Trans Rights Readathon Sale - 3 books for $3.99

A.L. Lester - Taking Flight for $ 1.19

Evey Lockhart - Half off to help a gal out! - 64 books for $49.69

Franklyn Newt - Trans Rights Readathon Sale - Synthetic Sea for $2.87

Marten Norr - Demon Engine Audio and ePub - 1 book, 1 audiobook for $5

Tabitha O'Connell - All My Books - 3 books for $5

Robin Pine - Trans Rights Readathon Sale - 4 books for $4.49

tRaum Books - Read an ebook March!!! - 13 books for $25

Autumn Wolff - Bunny Goddess Bundle - 2 books for $4.98

Autumn Wolff - Transbian Werewolf Bundle - 2 books for $6.98

Autumn Wolff - The Emergency Trans Meal Fund Bundle - 19 books for $34.99

A Very Queer March - multiple creators, rep mentioned on the bundle page - 63 books for $60

[bryszket]

@martennorr 's DEMON ENGINE is on there <3

For anyone in the mood for a high-sea trans dark fantasy!!

[sourdough-seal]

“what are you doing this weekend” i am going to fantasy land. i am hiding under the covers in bed. i am making things up. i am contemplating events that didnt happen. i am talking to fake people. i am listening to my tunes. i am envisioning scenarios

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

Mary from Demon Engine is demisexual!

[gooberjam]

call your representatives to urge them to vote against further funding for ice. this is a very easy process through 5calls and it takes 2-3 minutes. you are almost guaranteed to leave a voicemail so please don’t feel nervous or stressed about it, this is something that could make a difference. all you need to do is put in your zip code and the site will provide a script and the numbers for your representatives.

[gooberjam]

the deadline is january 30th and it’s good to call frequently if you can

[zillanovikov]

It's your friendly neighbourhood Zilla, here with questions for parents. All you millenials who joined tumblr in your teens and now have kids who must never see your tumblr account, this is your time to shine.

The OG Sad Bastard Cookbook was designed for sad adults. Then our friend Rohan O'Duill, former head chef for a bunch of daycare centers, in charge nutrition for scores of kids, had a baby. He discovered that even the chillest guy will turn into a Sad Bastard when he gets zero hours of sleep raising a small poorly domesticated beast.

The Sad Bastard Cookbook For Burnt Out Parents will focus on babies and toddlers.

We need to know - what sections do you want to see?

Please reply/reblog with ideas! We will take NOTES and you will INFLUENCE THE FINAL BOOK.

Our ideas so far: - nutrition - chewability - snacks - desperation meals - how to control junk food from nana (this is one sentence long and says “you can't”) - creating a positive experience around food - you haven't failed your kid forever because she ate a chocolate bar sandwich for dinner - cool recipes that don't fit in other sections

MOAR IDEAS PLEASE TELL US WHAT'S MISSING

[bryszket]

I want to give a big old wet salty nasty barnacle-encrusted CONGRATULATIONS to @martennorr -- his novel, DEMON ENGINE, published by us earlier this year, has been nominated for five Indie Ink Awards!! <3333333 If you read and enjoyed DEMON ENGINE, it would be an incredible help if you went and voted for it in its nominated categories, as this is a vote-based award! This is a totally free way to help this book get some more visibility. ^^

How the Indie Ink Awards work: Nominated works get voted on by fans, and the top 10 books receiving the most votes in each category go on to be read by a panel who make the final call, based on their impressions of the text X the amount of votes the book has received.

DEMON ENGINE is up for the following awards: Best audio narration, Best friendship, Best setting, Writing the Future We Need: LGBTQ+ Representation, Writing the Future We Need: Trans or Nonbinary Representation

Okay, but what is it? DEMON ENGINE is a nautical t4t dark fantasy following Sally Delavega, a talented, washed-up sea-demon binder who must work together with the Navy that destroyed his life for that One Final Job. What is the hated Navy using as their carrot? The financial means to finally banish the hundreds of ghosts nonstop screaming in his head...

It's sad, it's sick, it's funny, and If you haven't had a chance to check this book out yet, it's also reduced for the rest of the month, both on our Itch and Payhip site, and the audio especially, narrated by the author himself, is fucking fantastic. If you want to review it, and/or see if you like it enough to vote for it, but don't have the cash, I am happy to send you a copy if you shoot me a DM. <3 I really hope some of you will go check out this book, and if you already have and enjoyed it, vote for it in the categories you think it is deserving. <3

Thanks, all!!

[martennorr]

here, have even more information!!!

[bryszket]

I want to give a big old wet salty nasty barnacle-encrusted CONGRATULATIONS to @martennorr -- his novel, DEMON ENGINE, published by us earlier this year, has been nominated for five Indie Ink Awards!! <3333333 If you read and enjoyed DEMON ENGINE, it would be an incredible help if you went and voted for it in its nominated categories, as this is a vote-based award! This is a totally free way to help this book get some more visibility. ^^

How the Indie Ink Awards work: Nominated works get voted on by fans, and the top 10 books receiving the most votes in each category go on to be read by a panel who make the final call, based on their impressions of the text X the amount of votes the book has received.

DEMON ENGINE is up for the following awards: Best audio narration, Best friendship, Best setting, Writing the Future We Need: LGBTQ+ Representation, Writing the Future We Need: Trans or Nonbinary Representation

Okay, but what is it? DEMON ENGINE is a nautical t4t dark fantasy following Sally Delavega, a talented, washed-up sea-demon binder who must work together with the Navy that destroyed his life for that One Final Job. What is the hated Navy using as their carrot? The financial means to finally banish the hundreds of ghosts nonstop screaming in his head...

It's sad, it's sick, it's funny: If you haven't had a chance to check this book out yet, it's reduced for the rest of the month, both on our Itch and Payhip site, and the audio especially, narrated by the author himself, is fucking fantastic. Though if you want to review it, and/or see if you like it enough to vote for it, but don't have the cash, I am happy to send you a copy if you shoot me a DM. <3 I really hope some of you will go check out this book, and if you already have and enjoyed it, vote for it in the categories you think it is deserving. <3

Thanks, all!!

[bryszket]

LATE FALL tRAUM READS

Here's a list of some of our books with a late fall vibe.

CORRUPTED VESSELS, by Briar Ripley Page, has been one of our press favorites, ever since its release. If you haven't read it yet, grab it and see why. This is literary decay at its finest!

EUSECT, by C.L. Methvin We worry about the end; EUSECT is an extreme short story horror collection that worries about what happens when it never ends. "the roadkill story will haunt me."

DARKNESSES, by Lachelle Seville. No fall collection can be complete without this unique, modern Dracula retelling where THE vampire's latest manifestation, Laura, falls in love with a cult survivor/book-seller trying to piece her life back together. [And right now, the epub is only 1$.]

READ AND THEN BURN THIS, by R. Merey It IS the 'fall' volume of four standalone novellas--this one is a short, intense read following a young male dancer in an extreme bad-faith relationship with his body. "A finely distilled jewel of psychosexual discomfit"

IT HELPS WITH THE BLUES, by Bryan Cebulski A contemplative novel following a loose constellation of Midwestern teens and the different reactions they have to a classmate's suicide. "The painful lesson awaiting the narrator is that to desire to relate to someone can be to burden them..."

All interractions / reblogs are appreciated, and as always, we publish to be read, so if price is keeping someone from checking out the book that draws them, shoot me a message and I am happy to send you an ecopy. <3

[memorian]

I love Guillermo del Toro.

[martennorr]

Mako and Raleigh's friendship was such a formative influence for me that ten years later I'm delighted to be able to compare the Demon Engine MCs' friendship to it :')

[city-of-ladies]

Female Spy Network Uncovered in Medieval Ypres, Study Finds - Medievalists.net

New research uncovers a hidden network of female spies and messengers in medieval Ypres, revealing how women played a crucial role in wartim

Read the original study here

"In total, the Ypres city accounts for 1488–1489 record 38 named women and numerous anonymous ones engaged in intelligence activities. Some, like Josine Hellebout, were highly active, receiving payments for up to eleven separate missions. Others appear only once but often undertook significant and risky journeys—on foot, unarmed, and often alone or in pairs.

A key advantage women had was their invisibility. Because they were not suspected of military or political activity, they could pass through city gates, enemy lines, and military encampments with less scrutiny than men. This phenomenon, Demets argues, was both practical and tactical: “Women could more easily move in and out of cities or around military camps, acting as trustworthy intermediaries between opposing sides.”

But these were not simply passive messengers. Many women were paid not just to carry letters, but to “to find out about the enemies’” or “ascertain the situation” in enemy-held territory. During the Siege of Ghent and subsequent campaigns in 1488, for instance, Tuenine Spepers was sent to Damme and Aardenburg to “gather news about the King of the Romans [Maximilian of Austria]” and to Diksmuide to report on the local situation. Other women, such as Crispine Sroys and Beatrice Cambiers, carried out missions directly to military commanders or towns under threat, often accompanied by unnamed female companions, possibly locals or other camp followers.

The growing professionalization of this network became particularly evident in 1489, when the war intensified. “By 1489, women increasingly emerged as professionals within the medieval intelligence service in Ypres, as records show that the same individuals were repeatedly paid a ‘salary’,” Demets explains."

[nonstickwaffleiron]

as an archivist I am begging you

put dates on everything

don’t believe digital stuff is preserved forever - if it’s really important (documents, photos, etc) print it out

name your files accurately I know it sucks but please

don’t destroy the original just bc you scanned it

rubber cement is the devil’s adhesive use photo corners and quit gluing shit

you will NOT remember write it down

if you staple things to the inside of a folder I will find you

your public library probably has equipment to digitize old media for free or can at least get you connected with somewhere that does!

[natalieironside]

You should never create anything with a wide audience in mind. The so-called "general audience" doesn't exist; it's a fiction made up by advertising executives. Most of the time, great art and literature is made with the intention of pleasing no more than 4 or 5 specific perverts of the author's acquaintance

[martennorr]

hey you 4 or 5 specific perverts, read my queer sea monster novel Demon Engine

[martennorr]

not to be presumptuous but if you like the show Black Sails you might like my novel, Demon Engine

not only is there queer anarchist pirates but ALSO ☝️ sea monsters

[astraaureus]

Welp. Google's AI horseshit has arrived. And I'm not complying. They can pry my ID out of my cold dead hands. I will simply go elsewhere. Remember folks, DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR IDs. Do not comply. Resist, fight it, use other browsers or sources beyond youtube and google controlled services. Call them. Email them. Make noise. Fight back.

[mocrlbmutwwwptth]

I've been using Google as my main mail service since 2006, and every single account or service I've ever signed up for was made with that address. For a long time I thought it'd be impossible to divorce myself from Google.

It took less than 5 minutes to switch to a ProtonMail account, less than 2 hours to download and/or offload every byte of data from my Google account, and less than 3 days to change every single account or service I've ever signed up for to the new address.

As of today, the only single one I have that's still tied to it is YouTube. It's the only thing I'd lose access to if I deleted my Google acount entirely.

They really, really want you to believe that it's a hassle to switch to a different service. But it's not. Most websites and/or services allow you to change the email address associated with it.

I've been using Google for almost 2 decades and it only took a few days to move everything. It's not a painful sacrifice; it's an easy change that, frankly, has absolutely been worth it.

[spacecasehobbit]

If you like watching youtube videos and aren't tied specifically to a youtube account, I recommend invidio.us.

It has its issues periodically, because it basically lets you watch youtube videos without actually going through youtube. But on the plus side, it lets you watch youtube videos without going through youtube, so any and all issues are still less than youtube would cause, imo.

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

Since I talk about the difference between history as a hobby and as professional research reasonably often, here are books I think you should read if you want to think more about how history is created:

Time’s Monster: How History Makes History by Priya Satia

Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-century Europe by Hayden White

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

The Past is a Foreign Country by David Lowenthal

Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense by Ann Laura Stoler

Dust: The Archive and Cultural History by Carolyn Steedman

If other people have books they would consider key, please add them. It might be good to start a longer list.

[sioltach]

I WILL BEAR MYSELF TO PEOPLE AUTHENTICALLY EVEN IF IT COULD LEAD TO EMBARRASSMENT AND POSSIBLE REJECTION FOR DEEPER MORE MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS

[sioltach]

How the soul feels when granted permission to desire

[silverfox66]

Adobe is going to spy on your projects. This is insane.

[audacityinblack]

For general graphics: use GIMP For vector graphics: use Inkscape For drawing and illustration: use Krita For print and web publishing and design: use Penpot For PDF authoring: use LibreOffice For PDF reading and form filling: use Okular

All are free, open source and cross-platform. None use AI.

[victoriadallonfan]

Reblog for everyone

[cpericardium]

friends don't let friends use GIMP. use photopea

[differentdancesfandom]

Gonna pop my favorite reference for Adobe alternatives here, lovingly compiled and updated by xDanielArt since at least 2020:

[divodevs]

lord reblogging on main bcz fuck adobe (PROUD csp user)

[valhallasoutlaw]

I SWITCHED TO LINUX A WHILE BACK

ITS WORTH THE LEARNING CURVE