Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

@chiefwritesbook.bsky.social

2.6K followers 440 following 980 posts

I write and do art things, just your average local gay | he/she/they | 🚫 AI/NFT 🚫 | don't steal my stuff I'm watching my socials (and comms info): https://tcsmith.carrd.co/ I wrote a sequel: https://books2read.com/scarsoftheraven

tcsmith.carrd.co

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open! @chiefwritesbook.bsky.social · 1d

We all like indie books here yeah? Good news! We have a mega bundle of relatively unknown indie books that deserve more readers! You can get the whole thing for just $38:

itch.io/b/3305/under...

#BookSky 🩵📚 📢📚 📦📚

A graphic featuring some of the books in the under-rated books bundle, surrounding some text in the middle. Text reads: "itch.io under-rated bundle. oct 9th to 13th. bringing attention to the best books you've never heard of." two rows of five stars can be seen above and below the text.

13 12

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

key-lime pie @keymonster.bsky.social · 16h

No, I am not currently down at this protest, but I’ve been watching streams regularly. It has not escaped me that my protest animals seem to be in line with how my city has decided to respond to current events. I love my city.

A digital drawing of an opossum holding a sign that says “abolish ice”

A digital drawing of a raccoon holding a sign that says “become ungovernable”

1 58 240

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Jan Falk (ThistleArts) @thistlearts.bsky.social · 8h

An old watercolour portrait study"

#art #portrait #traditional #watercolor

2 31 150

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

qdbuckwheat.bsky.social @qdbuckwheat.bsky.social · 4d

Sharing a helpful link, has other numbers and call scripts to use.
stop-paypros.neocities.org

Stop payment processors from censoring games!

stop-paypros.neocities.org

61 82

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Gilbert #NewDeal4Animation @discord12395.bsky.social · 3d

In addition to paypros problems, everyone also needs to be aware of the dangerous censorship bills that are on the table. Each of them threatens our freedom of speech, privacy, and business. Call your reps and tell them to OPPOSE each of these bills. R or D, get LOUD and spread the word! #SaveSpeech

Dieselbrain @dieselbrain.bsky.social · 18d

#SaveSpeech

Ive updated this infographic with additional bill info, issues, etc

Find your federal and state reps below and make your voices heard!

www.congress.gov/members/find...

www.usa.gov/elected-offi...

54 62

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Gilbert #NewDeal4Animation @discord12395.bsky.social · 8d

This is a warning to every artists and clients using PayPal: Leave the note blank or send invoices. Apparently even saying "commission" makes them trigger happy. #SaveSpeech #StopPaypros

And continue the pressure by calling PayPal. Helpful link here: anti-censorship-campaign.carrd.co#phonescript

@Inker_comics: I JUST GOT FUCKED UP REAL BAD [shared a screenshot of his suspension from PayPal]

@MrQuessos: [quote tweeting @Inker_comics] If you are going to pay an artist via PayPal, please DO NOT include ANYTHING related to commission or nsfw in the payment description. Whether out of ignorance or innocence, you could screw up someone's job.

Mastercard

Phone (US): 1-800-627-8372
1-800-307-7309
US option selection: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1
Phone (outside US): 1-636-722-7111
Aus: +61 1800 120 113
UK: 0-800-96-4767
All region numbers here (and here )

Stripe

California: 888-926-2289
US: 877-887-7815
France: +33 805-11-19-67

Paypal

Phone (US): 1-888-221-1161
Phone (outside US): 1-402-935-2050
UK: +44 (0203)-901-7000

Visa

Phone (US): 1-800-847-2911
US option selection: 1, 1, 2 or 1, 1, 3
Headquarters: +1 (650)-432-3200
Aus: +61 1800 125 440
Phone (outside US): click here

37 4.4K 4.4K

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

🍊 tsu @tsurudraws.art · 11h

Rephrasing for clarity, but please do not use F&F (even blank ones) for commission payments; this is and ALWAYS HAS BEEN against ToS.

If you're getting paid for a service, use invoices.

F&F has no protections in place, especially for buyers, and using it to bypass fees is, again, against site ToS.

Gilbert #NewDeal4Animation @discord12395.bsky.social · 8d

2 170 240

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Jan Falk (ThistleArts) @thistlearts.bsky.social · 11h

A little teaser of my artwork that will be featured in #hardcover2025

A cropped preview of a digtal artwork in retro style
A young blond man in a luxurious white shirt layes on a black sofa. He has a golden ring with a blue gem on his finger
Behind them there's a man who presses him down on a sofa with his arm. The man has dark hair with a slick cut.

5 11 95

Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open! @chiefwritesbook.bsky.social · 4h

yeah I'm not looking for one atm

1 1

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Pixies a/k/a Map Nerd @mcburnellauthor.bsky.social · 5h

#Caturday This is the first time I've seen them actually sleep whilst this close to one another. Fiona can't resist the urge to bite her brother's tail or put him in a headlock while she grooms his ears.

2 kitties sleeping on a bed. The tiny tortie faces the camera, sprawled on her side, tail curled around one leg. The ginger is angled away, sleeping in a tidy log on his tummy with one hip just touching her back.

1 2 12

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

LoS Draws 🔞 @monsterfucker.bsky.social · 6h

Hey! I'm LoS! And unfortunately, feeling a bit under the weather this week. I will be here for a bit, but partner will be making me go rest after I get a little bit of artshare in my veins

Not a lot of new stuff, alas, so we're doing a random assortment of reruns

Nyss, climbing a rope ladder and looking intense

Luka taking some massive starfish monster cock

49 58 150

Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open! @chiefwritesbook.bsky.social · 5h

my current WIP is epic fantasy & my other (currently benched) series is urban fantasy c:

1 1

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Cheyenne Brammah | Iron Dragon @akairondragon.ca · 2d

Preorder the ebook, paperback, or hardback of The First Sin!
ubl.akairondragon.ca/tfs

✨ SWAG ALERT ✨
Preorder to receive free swag! Just provide a copy of your proof of purchase in the form below. Open to readers worldwide.
ubl.akairondragon.ca/tfs-swag

📚🩵 🪐📚 #bsnm #scifi #scifinovels #indieauthor

A mockup of The First Sin by Cheyenne Brammah.

In the sweeping expanse of the Årdrakin Empire, the people fight and die for honor as elite warriors of the galaxy. But long ago, a prophecy was spoken that presaged the apocalypse. Everyone knows and fears the truth: one day, the empire will fall.

Tårik is a guard for small, independent Clan Tsinna. Instead of pondering the end of his civilization, Tårik’s greatest concern is maintaining his honor while escorting a group of impertinent dignitaries across the treacherous Barren Gale. When the Mother Goddess speaks a passage from the prophecy to him, he has the good sense to be frightened, but he doesn’t heed the significance of Her visit.

Then disaster strikes, and Tårik is branded as an exile, leaving him with no home, no honor, and no future. Forced into a desperate struggle for survival, all Tårik can focus on is living just one more day until luck—or maybe fate—gives him the opportunity to join a new clan. But even this is fraught with danger and uncertainty, and it takes him to an inhospitable world far from the empire where survival seems all but impossible.

Faced with new challenges, including trying to navigate first contact with the low-tech locals, Tårik believes the prophecy can’t reach him. Yet it continues to loom, signaling that his fate and the fate of the empire are irrevocably entwined.

1 5 12

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Septimus Brown @septimusbrown.com · 17h

True story

Artists all day: depressed, smoking
Artists at 3am: chipper, coffee in hand

4 17 110

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Lee Burton - Author | Editor @leeburton.bsky.social · 20h

Marketing is hard. #Book marketing is super hard. Getting reviews for those books is harder still. Here we have a #collection of #SFF books that seem to largely fall between the cracks of easily defined genres, deserving of some attention.

Maybe check 'em out.

itch.io/b/3305/under...

#sale 🧡🚀📚

Graphic for the "underrated book bundle" on Itch, depicting a number of books surrounding the text graphic. The text reads: "Bringing attention to the best books you've never heard of."

9 14

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Elise (they/them)🇦🇺 @eliseswritings.bsky.social · Sep 11

If we had polls here, I'd be asking ebook readers;

A. Are you still willing to buy from Itch?

B. Are you not buying books at all at the moment?

C. Do you buy direct from authors when that's an option?

D. Do you buy from Kobo?

E. Other online stores?

Ah well, type a reply if you like!

49 31 67

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

CAP Toons @captoons.bsky.social · 19h

Death!!

#characterart #cartoon #britishartist #illustration #pussinbootsthelastwish

1 11 49

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Pompom Notes @pompomnotes.bsky.social · 19h

I don't know, man... 👻❔
#originalcharacter #oc #digitalart #cute

1 11 52

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Reyniki @reyniki.bsky.social · 6d

Let the nightmare begin~

#Hollowknight #Grimm #art

An illustration of Grimm from the game Hollow Knight, standing with his back facing the viewer but his head tilted up and back to see you. He smiles with bug-like mandables open as he appears to be announcing the start of a show. He has a spotlight on him and three of his crimson flaming bats swirling around him.

5 46 180

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 17h

I keep seeing AI-generated videos of kittens and it's like ... you stupid motherfucker why would you fake a kitten, what is the point of you, there is no light in your eyes

5 79 320

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

SH (COMISSIONS R OPEN) @shwhitedog.bsky.social · 2d

ANNOUCEMENT: I’m running low on cash now, so I’m opening commissions! Feel free to comment or DM me if you’re interested!

#commissions #artist #Pokemon #cartoon #Commissionsheet

12 20

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Nikkolas Smith @4nikkolas.bsky.social · 23h

after millions of views and shares of my Portland Frog art. (thank you all🙏🏾) I got requests to highlight priests, and chickens, and Chicagoans, and T-Rexes, and more… all of us who refuse to bend the knee. so this is for US.
𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚕.
𝚆𝚎 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗.

240 6.4K 19K

Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open! @chiefwritesbook.bsky.social · 17h

for sure 😅

when I'm done with book 3 I think I'm gonna sit & draft all of my other series first haha

1 2

Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open! @chiefwritesbook.bsky.social · 17h

One a year if I'm lucky lol

Don't write as you're publishing guys this is the express lane to burn-out land 😂

1 1

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Elise (they/them)🇦🇺 @eliseswritings.bsky.social · 1d

Authors, in the interest of helping readers spot gen ai 'authored' books, how many novels do you publish a year?

I publish one 80-100k+ word (epic fantasy) novel, and I can only do that because I drafted 8 novels before I started publishing any. 📚💙

55 12 70

Reposted by Chief (T.C. Smith) || comms open!

Professor Mitchell @professormitchell.bsky.social · 1d

The sins of the fathers...

...are now in paperback. ;)

The Elefae Champion, Book Two of Heirs of Hyarch, is now available in physical form through Barnes & Noble! Coming to other storefronts soon!

www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-elefae...

#fantasy #writing #book

The Elefae Champion (Heirs of Hyarch, #2)|Paperback

www.barnesandnoble.com

3 2