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MTH

@megt.bsky.social

1.5K followers 1.6K following 1.7K posts

SFF author. PhD in mass comm, anthro/archaeo, folklore, environment. Freelance writer/editor. Grantmaking and public policy. Operator at defunct farm. Cheesehead 🧀 Badger alum. Reposts not necessarily an endorsement. web: https://oaklandhillsfarm.com

oaklandhillsfarm.com

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · Aug 17

A #book is the perfect escape! Want a portal to other worlds? BLACK RIVER can transport you. Like nobledark #fantasy trilogies full of political intrigue, desperate battles and epic journeys? Check out The Enchanter's Web! oaklandhillsfarm.com/novel (Alt txt for deets) #writingcommunity #sff 📚🪐 📚💙

For more info: oaklandhillsfarm.com/novel
4 covers. BLACK RIVER, pub'd by Mystique Press: moonlit waters flanked by pine forest with scudding clouds on the horizon. Cover design: M. Turville Heitz & David Dodd. What if Uncle Rupert’s fanciful stories of world-hopping wizards scavenging exotic animals, magic stones, and weapons of mass destruction were real?
Praise for BR: “Is it science fiction? Fantasy? Or... well, I don't care, I just know it was a wild ride and I was sorry when it was over.” LS
EW 1: SPECTERS FROM A DREAM. Cover by Ingrid Kallick: a burning barn, a figure silhouetted in the flames and flaming arrows. Smoke coils up and away. They thought their dreams guided them. What if they were wrong? An epic fantasy of intrigue and sorcery, EW 1 finds our heroes trying to manage powers beyond their control in a desperate war against stronger forces with a mission to destroy the world.
Praise for EW1: “A rousing high fantasy novel. This kept me up reading for several nights. This is an intricate, well-developed world and characters readers of fantasy will love. I can't wait to read the next in the series.” ESR
EW2: DREAD WARRIOR. Ingrid's cover shows a giant wave crashing over a small overturned sailboat with a sword-bearing warrior clinging to the hull of the vessel as a storm rages overhead. What could go wrong when a peaceful land plans a war? In EW2 our heroes must face tribal rivalries and class divisions to somehow unite Shande and her allies to save themselves.
EW3: THE RISING OF KEDTAIR. Ingrid's cover shows dragon-like conjurations sent to attack a white-clad, dagger-wielding figure. When all the pieces come together, what if it was always to another’s plan? EW3 finds our heroes desperately gathering armies in an occupied land controlled by a better-armed, better-trained enemy. They must meet an impossible timeline. They count on many pieces falling into place. They didn’t count on the Enchanter’s web.

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 23h

It's warming up but the mornings have been hovering close to frost territory

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 23h

And my barn cats all want on the nice warm porch.

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 1d

Pumpkin & Pookie: meow, meow, meow! (transl.: open window!)
Me: it's 40F out. Don't be ridiculous.
Cats, in unison: meow, meow, meow! (Translation: we have the hooman's attention! Open it! OPEN IT!)
Me, opening the damned window
Cats: um, it's cold out there, no thanks.
Happy #Caturday!

A black cat and an orange tabby stand in an open window, looking at the their human with disappointment.

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 1d

On my desktop, I set my Google search preferences to the "web" (not "all"). It makes a huge difference in what shows up in my searches. When I search on my phone, I get so much AI and AI summary, I can't find the source material.

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/generative-a...

Generative AI and news report 2025: How people think about AI’s role in journalism and society

Our survey explores how people use generative AI in their everyday lives, what they think its impact will be on different areas of society, and what they think about its use in news and journalism spe...

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 1d

Stuck in limbo ... and promises broken.

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

“I Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore”: They Tried to Self-Deport, Then Got Stranded in Trump’s America

Venezuelan immigrants signed up for a Trump-promoted app called CBP Home, which promised a safe and easy way to leave the country, and prepared to leave on their given departure dates. Those dates hav...

www.propublica.org

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 1d

Well there you go ... not a perfect tradeoff, but still

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 2d

Hope they were tasty 😉

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Reposted by MTH

Anton Hur @antonhur.com · 2d

Did their parents not teach them that if you can't take care of a pet for life, you don't deserve to have it in the first place?

Shuttered Canadian Marine Park Warns It May Euthanize 30 Beluga Whales, Prompting a Global Outcry - Inside Climate News

The uncertain future of 30 beluga whales still living in tanks at Marineland—a shuttered aquarium and amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario—has drawn global outcry from animal rights activists this...

insideclimatenews.org

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 2d

Did he even write this? There are big words in there.

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 2d

Gift article. A walk through historical precedent in the US.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

Opinion | How to Save the American Experiment

www.nytimes.com

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 2d

Doing 2 readings and a panel on SFF world building at a new free #writer's fest Oct. 11 starting at 1 pm in Fort Atkinson, #Wisconsin. 😍 a small town getting behind the #humanities! It's a collab between the local farm market and chamber. Great idea w/sales spaces in the market #WritingCommunity 📚💙

A graphic from a FB event for readers, writers and learners ...

Reposted by MTH

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 2d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Reposted by MTH

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 3d

New blog post up on health and mental health impacts of #ClimateChange, includes some thoughts on self-care. Follow my weird narrative journey and let me know what you think. #SciComm 🌎 🌿⚕️

oaklandhillsfarm.com/health-grief...

Health, Grief, and Climate Uncertainty (Part 3) - M Turville Heitz

Earth is killing us. Not on purpose, mind you (though who would blame it?). While death is part of the natural order, this isn't natural.

oaklandhillsfarm.com

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Reposted by MTH

Snack Queen @auntiebaecc.blacksky.app · 4d

😭😭😭😭😭😭

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 3d

Health, Grief, and Climate Uncertainty (Part 3) - M Turville Heitz

Earth is killing us. Not on purpose, mind you (though who would blame it?). While death is part of the natural order, this isn't natural.

oaklandhillsfarm.com

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 5d

Snapshot Wisconsin bobcat ... since I missed caturday. 🐈🌿

A bobcat looks off into the distance in a pine forest.

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 6d

Maybe he noticed there's no one working in the fields and processing plants and car washes and hotels and restaurants when they've deported them -- legally here or not -- and now they desperately think they're going to find mythical able-bodied shirkers to milk cows and pick veggies.

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Reposted by MTH

American Meteorological Society @ametsoc.org · 6d

Newly published research indicates that poor water quality can drastically affect air quality—an observation with important implications for global waterways.

Read more about how pollution in the Tijuana River impacts nearby communities: https://bit.ly/3KuchfZ

University of California, San Diego Research and Development Engineer Greg Sandstrom takes measurements with a Coriolis air sampler at the river hotspot. Photo credit: Beatriz Klimeck/UC San Diego.

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 6d

Chickens all came inside because their butts were acting like sails.

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 6d

And boy is it windy!

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 6d

The Sopranos. Lots of others. Don't have Netflix, HBO, AppleTV, etc. Also failed to read some books that became famous movies that I never saw either. Totally not a cool kid.

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 6d

Interesting take on #HigherEd censorship. Apologies, it didn't all fit in alt text and I had to cut 1800 characters. Key rhetorical question he asks: is it cowardice to not write the column he wanted to write. It highlights the weird times we live in. #edsky

"Here's the column I didn't write as a UW professor" 2 long 2 alt w/o editing.
"I am not going to b that professor who posts on social media & is promptly pilloried 4 expressing an opinion.
Like many academics these days, I [want] 2 weigh in on recent crises...[in] the news cycle. [That] hardly seems wise. Scores of profs & teachers have been fired or suspended after making posts laced w/ political content, according 2 the NYTimes. Gls...issued by the AAUP recommend that faculty take precautions “2 protect yourself in the current climate” when posting on sm.
So instead of writing that article & committing 2 any beliefs or view, I will simply explain what [I'd say] were I not writing in America in 2025.
[Here] I would express a political opinion. Next comes the bit where I would trot out my academic credentials, certifying myself as an authority...of a charged topic that is on everyone’s minds.
But I know enough not 2 paint myself into a corner. Here, as a prof. of Amer lit, I would pause 2 make a literary allusion both 2 (a) showcase expert knowledge & (b) hide behind the words of some great but now dead author...I would [then] want 2 spend at least 2 clause-burdened sentences signaling my virtue...
The next paragraph would b devoted 2 trying 2 indoctrinate readers w/ some outlandish ideology. Many of my colleagues have [tried] 2 indoctrinate students 4 decades w/o much success....I am well enough aware of the limits of my own charisma 2 know that I can’t compete with YouTube or Insta. & besides, this semester I am concentrating on indoctrinating my students to...not rely on generative AI.
[Next], readers would be ready for some trademark academic subtlety...
[Then], I would wonder if I was being clever enough. & in the next, I would worry that I was being too clever.
[In] conclusion, [I] would wrap things up w/ an urgent call or a dire warning... [N]ow—& not in some hypothetical never-written essay—I might wonder if I have been a coward.
Russ Castronovo-UW-Madison.

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 6d

Good luck! Hope you have a great audience!

MTH @megt.bsky.social · 6d

Disastrous wildfires are 4x more likely than in the 80s due to climate change and people closer to wildlands, a new study in Science finds. It measured economic and human damage rather than acreage and ID'd a “climate-linked escalation" of disastrous wildfires. 🌎 🌿 apnews.com/article/cali...

Study says climate change made conditions that fed California wildfires more likely, more intense

A quick scientific study finds that human-caused climate change increased the likelihood and intensity of the hot, dry and windy conditions that fanned the flames of the recent devastating Southern Ca...

apnews.com

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 6d

I'm doing three panels (two readings and writing workshop) at an inaugural writing festival next weekend. I'm not optimistic ... I'll be so happy if anyone attends.

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