Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Cat Rector @catrector.com · 1d

There can be exceptions to everything. But even a person who has 20 books ready to publish would have to slow down at some point because the backlog runs out and they'd be writing from first draft again.

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 1d

Some people are able to rapid release a book every 3 months. I feel like at that point I'm definitely questioning the quality of the piece. One every month or two leaves me questioning how it's possible, and certainly anything faster than that is an automatic AI alarm bell for me.

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 2d

"here for art and literature, not politics"

boy have I got news for you

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 2d

I can't tell if it's because of the change of the seasons or if it's because I started taking estrogen and progesterone, but this week I've been dead tired and apathetic

A week from edits being due is *not* the ideal time for this

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 4d

I'm thrilled to help celebrate the cover reveal for @jessiethomasauthor.bsky.social's new book This Hideous Heart! After devouring her other title A Ransom In Blood, I'm stoked to read more of her work! Give her a follow and hop onto Goodreads to add the book to your TBR!

A pink image featuring the cover for Jessie Thomas' This Hideous Heart, and the text "A sapphic clairvoyant and her wife perform seances, exorcise a haunted house, and investigate a serial killer who has seemingly returned from the grave in 1880s Buffalo, NY"

A pink background, the cover of the book, and the text "a saphhic, gothic reimagining of Poe's most famous works, coming this winter"

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Reposted by Cat Rector

Jessie Thomas @jessiethomasauthor.bsky.social · 4d

🕯️🫀COVER REVEAL 🕯️🫀

A big thank you to Fay Lane for creating a beautifully gothic cover for THIS HIDEOUS HEART that evokes a haunted Victorian séance parlor! The details are absolutely stunning — I can’t get enough of them.

THIS HIDEOUS HEART will be releasing this winter.

A darkly gothic pink and black book cover. The pink background has a subtle damask pattern. The design features an elegant black frame adorned with black candles dripping wax, ravens, and an anatomical heart framed by skeleton keys. THIS HIDEOUS HEART is at the center in a Victorian style font. The surrounding graphic with the blurred cover as the background reads, “ Step into the parlor. Montresor House awaits…” with “Coming this winter” at the bottom.

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 4d

Security is a must for creation. Yes, my work explores dark themes born out of past trials, but I didn't create a career DURING those trials. I was able to create when I had the safety to take time off, go to therapy, and start feeling safe. Financially secure artists will give you better art

Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 4d

It’s really hard to describe to people who are not artists how survival mode does *not* inspire creativity, as the myth would have us believe. It suppresses creativity as you try to limit every possible risk – and the opportunities that come with them.

Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 4d

It turns out building habits and stuff actually requires not being in survival mode, who knew?!
(Yeah yeah I did)

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 4d

Listening to two straight white men critique Wayward badly had angered me

That show was a subtle and masterful display of generational trauma in the style of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

Reposted by Cat Rector

Arden Powell 🍂🍁 @ardenpowell.bsky.social · 4d

LRT: If Canada followed Ireland's lead with a UBI for artists, it would completely change my life. With a guaranteed weekly or monthly income I could actually focus on writing books instead of scraping by looking for extra work to make ends meet.

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Reposted by Cat Rector

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 4d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Reposted by Cat Rector

Aubrey 💖🏳️‍🌈 @clericofthevoid.bsky.social · 4d

This past month was so busy I’ve been neglecting my book promos, so how about a little sale?

🌸✨Name Her Holy ebook for $1✨🌸 only on my kofi from now through Friday!

Get yourself a slowburn sapphic space fantasy novel for your weekend read 🍂☕️

ko-fi.com/s/748ece637a

Cover for Name Her Holy by Aubrey Ennis, a crown of dusty mauve and earthy flowers surround a black swirling void. Behind the cover is a split image of a red haired woman in armor and a woman with dark short hair covering her face.

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 4d

Reading this headline made me tear up and my asthma and allergies aren't even "that bad"

As a kid i was allergic to so much stuff I could even have toys in my room for a while. Getting that vaccine would heal something in my heart I think

Maybe I could have a pet 😭

gilberts1950.bsky.social @gilberts1950.bsky.social · 7d

There might even be a vaccine for asthma to come out of all this.

Scientists Are Working on an Mrna Vaccine To Wipe Out Allergies www.vice.com/en/article/s...

Scientists Are Working on an Mrna Vaccine To Wipe Out Allergies

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania may have developed a vaccine for seasonal allergies and food allergies.

www.vice.com

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Reposted by Cat Rector

Jessie Thomas @jessiethomasauthor.bsky.social · 4d

🐦‍⬛TOMORROW🐦‍⬛

Here’s a sneak peek at the cover reveal for THIS HIDEOUS HEART, my sapphic, gothic horror romance reimagining of Poe’s most famous works 🕯️🫀

Coming this winter! You can add it to your Goodreads TBR: www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...

A stylized hot pink graphic with a subtle damask pattern. The mockup of the cover includes a sliver of the actual cover. It’s surrounded by a gothic looking frame and cobwebs with a dangling spider. It says COVER REVEAL at the top and TOMORROW at the bottom, with two silhouettes of crows standing guard.

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Reposted by Cat Rector

Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 5d

Discord confirms that government IDs used for age-verification were compromised in a hack with a vendor.

Who could have predicted?

Oh, right.

Discord users suffer the first high-profile age-verification hack – and it's unlikely to be the last

Critics of age verification laws warned this was inevitable

www.tomsguide.com

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Reposted by Cat Rector

AK Faulkner @ NYCC @poopraven.bsky.social · 7d

It's a lovely morning on the internet and you are a horrible queer!

Drop your links to queer books! Yours, someone else's, tradpub, indie, share ALL THE QUEER BOOKS to make a fash shit themselves.

Go!!!

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 6d

"What cultural things did you miss out on—"

From age 13 to 16 we were trapped in an isolated rural community with no car, no money for cable, internet, or a PC, no cell service. If not for my public library with Bill Gates PCs, the cultural zeitgeist wouldn't have existed for me at all

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Reposted by Cat Rector

Vesper Doom 🧡🤍🩷 @vesperdoom.com · 6d

I'm looking for ARC readers/reviewers for METROPOLIS DOWN!

Coming 03 March 2026, METROPOLIS DOWN is an adult space horror novel about grief and trauma.

ARCs will go out in two batches: November for eARCs, and January for physical ones (limited to 10).

Link below!!

Large white text on a starry black background.

The text says: ARC READERS WANTED!
SCIFI HORROR ROMANCE

White text on a starry background says:

SCIFI HORROR
M/M SECOND-CHANCE ROMANCE
STAR TREK X EVENT HORIZON
BRAINS X BRAWN
AUTISTIC X PTSD
COSMIC AND SENSORY HORRORS
FIRST IN A SERIES

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 6d

HUNDREDS OF QUEER BOOKS RIGHT HERE, COME GET EM

AK Faulkner @ NYCC @poopraven.bsky.social · 7d

It's a lovely morning on the internet and you are a horrible queer!

Drop your links to queer books! Yours, someone else's, tradpub, indie, share ALL THE QUEER BOOKS to make a fash shit themselves.

Go!!!

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 6d

I'm dead tired from not sleeping last night so naturally what had to happen tonight was that my stomach starts to cramp and I need to lie with a hot water bottle on my gut like I'm trying to ward off the birth of a xenomorph

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 7d

I have 11 days to turn in edits so naturally I slept like shit last night

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 7d

The Goddess of Nothing At All and Coal Gets In Your Veins are both 99 cents right now! I've got so much queer Loki and queer vampire action for readers, and my upcoming book is open for ARC readers! So many bi characters with poly horizons 👀

catrector.carrd.co

forms.gle/Rx9Fsa479x9F...

The cover for the queer dark fantasy Norse myth retelling, The Goddess of Nothing At All by Cat Rector. A woman stands holding a wooden bowl, part of her face in shadow. The bowl is covered in glowing runes. The woman whose name is Sigyn, has long brown hair, with one section braided and running over her shoulder. Her skin is light brown. A long gray fur sits on her shoulders, accenting a long sleeved old Norse style dress. The dress is a dark green with silver embroidery around the collar and brown accents in a beaded necklace and belt. Behind her is a snowy landscape and the sky is filled with the northern lights. The art is by Grace Zhu. The first three chapters are available for free at Catrector.com.

The cover to the queer dark fantasy/horror vampire novel, Coal Gets In Your Veins by Cat Rector. Two characters lie on a dark, rocky background dotted by fireflies. The title of the book is in shape red font between them. On the bottom, Spencer looks up at Laurel, who looks down at him. Spencer is an effeminate man with pale skin and short, messy blonde hair and red eyes. He wears a white blouse with the chest open and a web of silver strands of jewellery spans across the opening. Laurel is a woman with long brown hair and brown eyes. She has white skin and wears a dark green t-shirt under black suspenders. The pinprick points of a vampire bite sit on her throat. The art is by scherville.

The cover of Learning to Bleed by Cat Rector, the sequel to Coal Gets In Your Veins. The cover is in the style of a classical painting, with a blush-grey background. In the foreground are two characters locked in a dipping embrace. Spencer, a pale man in a dark blue turtleneck sweater and jeans, with blonde bed-head hair, is holding up another character as she loses control and seems to be falling. His expression is lost and loving as he looks down at her. Laurel is leaning back in his arms, her long brown hair in waves over her back, her face up to the sky as her expression of uncontrolled rage stares upward. Her eyes are red and her mouth is wide open, showing her vampire fangs. A pool of blood soaks into the shoulder of Spencer’s sweater, coming from Laurel’s hand as it hangs above his shoulder. Laurel wears a tank top and red and black plaid. A red mist obscures their legs, making room for the title and author text. The cover artist is Scherville.

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 7d

I'm not sure who was talking about my books today but SOMEONE was and I appreciate you very much.

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 7d

I love a playlist. First saw that move from Twilight as a teen, and I use it for my own work. There are specific songs I've emotionally tied to scenes and every time I need to get into the groove of writing, I play those songs. Works every time.

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 7d

This is true for books currently coming to Canada via UPS. I don't know if it's just a UPS thing but don't fucking use UPS

Adam Rose @adamrose.bsky.social · 7d

How bad are tariffs going?

I paid for $32 of shaving cream from Canada. Unique stuff I’ve used for years, nothing like it in US. Small family business.

UPS guy came to my door today with box and said I have to pay additional $120 before he can hand it to me.

That makes it 5x more expensive!!! 🤯

Screenshot of message from UPS:

Hi Adam,
All import fees must be paid prior to delivery.
Save time - prepay online for your FREIGHTCOM shipment. If import fees are not paid before delivery, an additional surcharge will be applied.
Total Amount Due
119.20 USD
Additional charges may have been applied based on recent tariff policy changes.
Pay Now ›

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Cat Rector @catrector.com · 7d

Oh hey, you can find Coal Gets In Your Veins and a ton of other amazing vampire book recs here!

Queer Liberation Library @queerliblib.bsky.social · 8d

QUEER VAMPIRE BOOKS

Queer Liberation Library has over 70 queer vampire books we’re highlighting this month: libbyapp.com/library/quee....
go on, sink your teeth in 🧛

Libby

All over the world, local libraries offer millions of ebooks and audiobooks. You can borrow them — for free, instantly — with a library card and Libby: the award-winning, much-loved app for libraries.

libbyapp.com

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