Ms Chatelaine
@theelaineg.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1.1K following 1.8K posts
She/her: Writer, Greens councillor, trans person, living with fibromyalgia My novella, Unexploded Remnants, is available wherever you can buy Tor.com books
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
theelaineg.bsky.social
I should start a commonplace book and put things like this into it.
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
johnrogers.bsky.social
Thread, and related to a conversation with an old friend (and one of the best execs of the cable era) who said "These streaming bosses don't understand, there's no formula to a hit show, but there is a recipe."
maryrobinettekowal.com
My hot take is that none of these are structure. These are all recipes that describe structure.

Structure is the Salt, Fat, Acid Heat of writing.

3-Act/Hero's Journey etc are recipes.

You can make great meals without using a recipe if you understand the principles of structure.
ddwardiswriting.bsky.social
So #WritingCommunity how do we feel about structure?

Do you use the 3 act structure? The 5 act?

Hero's Journey? Save the Cat? Super Structure Method? Story Genius Method?

Something else?

What have you got?
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
johnrogers.bsky.social
“No Kings” is great , but we really don't get a functioning democracy back until we internalize, bone deep, the instinctive response to this and every other statement like it: “I don’t care what that rich guy thinks.”

Make it your morning affirmation. Say it ten times at the top of every hour.
the-independent.com
Elon Musk calls for US troops to be sent to San Francisco for war on drugs: ‘It’s the only solution’
Musk demands US troops be sent to San Francisco for war on drugs
www.independent.co.uk
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
mc00.bsky.social
Really important NYT investigation finds that the ADF has been working with Reform, 'courting the party since at least 2024' and that the British arm 'orchestrated Mr Farage’s appearance in Congress, reaching out to ask if he would like to give evidence on censorship'
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...
They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
tristangrayford.scot
It's important to recognise the far-right's failures as much as its successes.

They're not inevitable. They're not unbeatable. Our Governments should be learning from the examples of the states across Europe beating them back.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Portugal’s far-right Chega falls well short of expectations in local elections
Party hoped to take 30 municipalities but secured three after share of vote halved from parliamentary elections
www.theguardian.com
theelaineg.bsky.social
The backup diesel generators on their own will take it straight into the same environmental permitting regime as a power station, not to mention the impact on water environment. The environmental impact assessment will absolutely have to be done at some point
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
tristangrayford.scot
One single data centre. The combined energy draw of both of our largest cities.

Utterly unreasonable that this could be signed off without an environmental check. What about the impact on our energy prices?

The investors should have to fund the clean energy needed.

inews.co.uk/news/data-ce...
Giant data centre could use as much power as every home in Glasgow and Edinburgh
Edinburgh Council has said the developer will not have to submit an environmental impact assessment, sparking concerns data centres are avoiding scrutiny from planners
inews.co.uk
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
tristangrayford.scot
It should be obvious to everyone that if Bridget Phillipson wins the deputy leadership contest it will be used as a platform to double down on the anti-trans crusade being waged by the Labour Party, and she's hiding that because she knows it's unpopular with their shrinking membership
mimmymum.bsky.social
Bridget Philipson is trying to get grab even more power, but her ‘gender critical’ transphobic supporters and the trans-hostile media are lobbying HARD to get anti-trans legislation in place ASAP, as they can’t bear to wait a moment longer to exclude trans people! 😖

👉 archive.ph/gaCN4
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
remotecore.bsky.social
Frog Costumes and Faraday Pouches & Other Stories #AndOtherStories
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
cameronjohnston.bsky.social
I spotting this delightful information plaque in Glasgow Botanic Gardens this morning.
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
aliettedebodard.com
“Father, forgive the ones who do not know what they are doing. Have mercy on the souls of those who know exactly what they're doing."
That is. Wow. A *reference*, as one says.
(It's what Jesus said to the people who crucified him. This is like nuclear levels of burn)
richraho.bsky.social
Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
rahaeli.bsky.social
For any Catholic, the sight of a Eucharistic Procession being turned away at the gates of the destination is the embodiment of Jesus being denied entrance. You don't have to be Catholic to get the symbolism in that!
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)
For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary.

Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from). 

The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe.

Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky. Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat?

This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight:
* Waste of public resources on military theatrics.
* Fraud in the name of “public safety.”
* Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect.

Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation. 
Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here.

When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness.

Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy. 
A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control.

Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard.

Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
chrisdonia.bsky.social
Near earth orbit should be treated like Antarctica.
patricksamphire.bsky.social
One of the questions is why we allow private corporations to fill the sky with junk?
drspacejunk.bsky.social
Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
aliettedebodard.com
Yeah
Here to stay but I totally get why people would leave. Esp marginalized folks who don't get as much support (I remain convinced the industry loves its marginalized debuts but hasn't scaled up to supporting long term careers)
ingloriousgigi.bsky.social
You should be concerned about the rate of authors leaving publishing. Especially from marginalized communities. This year I have seen so many authors just pack it up and go. And it's only getting worse.
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
indiawilloughby.bsky.social
This is Graham Linehan, who UKLabour, WesStreeting and every columnist in the country rushed to defend when he was arrested by police, after inciting online violence and smashed a trans girl’s phone. They are even changing the law specifically to protect him. “Just a joke” @mrjamesob.bsky.social
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
tristangrayford.scot
McSweeney isn't doing this purely out of cold political calculus. He openly hates the Labour left so much that that alone could drive him through most decisions.

Political centrist commentators line up behind it because pandering to racists maintains the status quo more than challenging power does.
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
halduncan.com
this is a beautiful exercise in turning the glibness of gobshites like Morgan into a trap, one snide wee comment he thinks he can toss off and move on from, and then suddenly every attempt at that shallow dismissivenes is just a trigger for Polanski to ratchet him deeper into the woodchipper
boldpolitics.bsky.social
Solidarity with all trans and intersex people having their existence debated every time a tv host hasn't done their prep and can't think of any more questions
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
dieworkwear.bsky.social
in 2011, the president of antifa hired me to give fashion consultancy to the organization. i recommended everyone wear navy suits with tan shoes, dress sneakers, and golf polos with slim chinos. if you arrested everyone today wearing these things, you'd destroy antifa
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
Reposted by Ms Chatelaine
chrisdonia.bsky.social
What makes this so bizarre is that it was Theresa May, in most ways a pretty extreme Conservative, who was pushing for improved trans rights. And now every party except the Greens and SNP have become outright transphobes.
esqueer.net
This article is spot on about the UK's descent into anti-trans hysteria. In 8 years, they went from the conservatives trying to make it easier for trans folks to self attest gender to a liberal government implementing a bathroom ban by fiat.

www.liberalcurrents.com/britains-bat...
Britain’s Bathroom Ban
The UK has gone from a bathroom ban being unthinkable to a Labour government implementing an extraordinarily authoritarian one—without a vote.
www.liberalcurrents.com