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Verati

@verati404.bsky.social

1.9K followers 890 following 4.8K posts

Friend of spiders. Raccoon at heart. Spends too much time down research rabbit holes. Bad at hydrating & sitting in a chair. Writer and artist. T4T He/They 🏳️‍⚧️ #EchoSight #VeratiArt #SingularityHiccup Find Me Elsewhere! https://linktr.ee/verati

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · May 16

And it's LIVE on ITCH-IO! DOWNLOAD IT HERE FOR $4.99!
verati404.itch.io/echo-sight

A disabled shapeshifter tries to save a city with the one person who could undo their whole life...or free it.

#lgbt #lgbtqa+ #QueerWriters #books #💙📚 #💙🪐 #💙🌶 #booksky #EchoSight #fantasy #mystery #WritingCommunity

The cover of my novel, Echo Sight. The main character is wearing a feather cloak and holds a flame in their keft hand and a chain weapon in their right. They float above an underground lake with memories rippling in the water. Behind them, mostly obscured in the dark behind the stalagmites, is a dragon with bright, glowing eyes, watching them.

On top of this cover are blue word bubbles with what you'll find within the book: Adult main character, wise-ass funny narrator, disability and mental health rep, 400 plus page count, LGBT romance, found family, themes of environmentalism, justice, and intersectionalism, shapeshifters, fungal monsters, a near-future tech world, magical realism, and "there was only one bed."

A modern map of the alien continent where my novel takes place. It is scribbled on in red ink, with such hits as a travel checklist and some guy's phone number, a badly-proportioned spider, and the entire Sporelands scribbled out with the word "No," in all caps. The focus of the map is a circled city named Akert near the Gulf of Afredal's coast

The opening to Echo Sight:
Chapter 1 - The Senka Problem

Blood never clings to phoenix feathers. Symbolic, I guess, though mostly just convenient for me at the time. The guy at my feet was super dead.

The feather quills of my cloak dragged the concrete, so I held its hem close as I crouched beside the body. Raindrops hissed as each one pelted the exposed skin on my face and hands. In the bleak, stormy night, my halo did basically nothing that the bright harbor lights didn't.

"Fucking great," said the big man standing over me.

A dark-haired man commanding ocean waves with the movements of his hands. His expression is stern in concentration. He wears a pair of large earrings and a necklace vial containing liquid within. His black formal shirt is soaked through, and underneath him is the words "Echo Sight," the title of the novel he's from.

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Indie Book Spotlight @bookspotlight.bsky.social · 22h

📝 400+ pages
🥀 urban fantasy
🌃 set in washington state
🔥 slow burn
🤍 romance and angst
🗡️ demons and vampires
📕 first in a duology

🔖 universal link: mybook.to/D3rL5
💌 itch.io link: rebecca-crunden.itch.io/the-wish-and...
📖 goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...

Cover for The Wish and the Demon, book one in the Half Swallowed by Shadows duology, by Rebecca Crunden. Cover shows three men's silhouettes standing in the middle of a road in winter. There's dark red trees and snow on the ground. One figure is approaching the other two, surrounded by shadows.

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Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 21h

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 14h

I rather like using my own brain, thanks.

If I need ideas I can just go outside.

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 16h

Name your fave non-American film.

Well, does it count if my fave form of it is the manga (which includes the other 3/4ths of the story)?

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Jeb - SEE ME TALK AT PAX AUS @jebdarsh.bsky.social · 16h

I am incapable of not including this kind of relationship. Between Steph and Liz, and Matty and Eila, there's always one person who thinks they're straight (Liz and Matty), and one who is too gay to function (Steph and Eila), and they share a braincell.

#TPDox

🦋 Gabriel Yuriria @gabriel-yuriria.bsky.social · 17h

You know what kind of book I'd kill for? An m/f BROmance 😭

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 16h

Yep. 🫂 I'm sorry, fren.

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 16h

Many-boobed? Back in my day when kids read we called them "poly-pec"(toral)ed. They came in smaller but the lower boob offered support to the upper rack, which was used to hypnotize men into handing over their wallets. Then the church found out & started spraying babies w/holy water.

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 16h

Theso/Enaka are the genderqueer Team Rocket (Jesse & James, but romantic w/ each other) if they were Leverage bi-icon protags.

Gremlin Bird x Cat Who ❤️s Their One Fave Human.

Ride or die, & the odds aren't in their favor.

The history is complicated & plot related.

#WritingPrompt

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 20h

10/10 costume, no notes.

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Kai Zeal 🐱📘🔮 | Author of Riyati @kaizeal.aquakatpublishing.com · 21h

If you're looking for new books, why not check out this hidden gem bundle on itch, 63 DRM-free indie books for only $38!

🔗 itch.io/b/3305/under...

💙📚 🌈📚🌎 📢📚

Multiple covers cover the outer edge of the promo image. In the center, there is the following text:
Itch.io
Under-Rated Bundle
Oct 9th - 13th
Bringing attention to the best books you've never heard of"

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 23h

In most services I buy, I don't want an "ecosystem," where I sign up and get sucked into their products and other shit in perpetuity. Give me the stuff I paid for and leave me alone.

And yeah, even worse is the usage when capitalism is what's destroying the planet.

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Recuperating Dug Rusin @captainpurple.bsky.social · 1d

🧡🎃QRP your Pumpkin Art!🎃🧡

A pen and color pencil drawing of a rhinoceros with a house-shaped burden on its back. The rhino is mostly grey. The house is purple, yellow and brown with the number 20 and letter “w” and a scissor headed bird on the front. There is a long brass pole that extends out horizontally from the structure that has a orange pumpkin dangling from it

A pen drawing of a scar crow with a tormented jack o’ lantern head

A color pencil drawing of 4 pumpkins on a bench

A wood fireplace mantle with 15 tiny polymer clay jack o’ lanterns

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 23h

Thank you!!!

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

Oh! If I am one of those people, I'll just stop sharing spooky stuff. I'm sorry!

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

I am...antifa.

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

😰

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

Hell yeah, I met a bunch of friends that way! Learned lots of stuff from random folks I wouldn't otherwise know! Sold some books and shared some art!

I also get to see amazing artists and writers I never would've been exposed to, otherwise. Social media is worth it when it's not owned by evil.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

#dailyocs Enaka and I have very similar mental health & baggage, so I wouldn't even really need an adjustment period, assuming I get their powers/knowledge/etc for those 24 hours.

But also fuck yeah I get to fly & shapeshift & throw fire. Why the hell wouldn't I choose them?

Right. The plot. 🥲

Daily OC questions @dailyocs.bsky.social · 2d

If you could turn into your OC for 24 hours and could live their life for one day - which one of your OCs would you want to be and why?

#dailyocs

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

All the music in that movie was good. I really wasn't expecting that.

I have very vague memories of music-based shows or episodes from many years ago that would often be mediocre songs but in-universe would pretend to be the best shit ever, so it always surprises me when the 🎶 are great.

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

If it's just one ankle you just gotta hop at them like those specific type of Asian vampires whose name escapes me.

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Lilly Lockwood 🔥Pre-Order Broken Bells!🔔 @voicesofvalhoon.bsky.social · 1d

*unintelligible screeching*

A box full of books, specifically my book Songs of Broken Bells

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

Ooh no thank you for the nightmares I hate that. #horror

Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine if you could get a fungal infection in your teeth that causes the tooth to shatter as a fruiting body emerges

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c.e. chant/hades 💀🐊 💬 too many comics @portaltohades.bsky.social · 1d

I'll do my best to update the gfm this week but tldr;
Had hospitalization #4. Diagnosed with IIH after a lumbar puncture. Gotta do a whole other type of imaging since my colon is weird & im still bleeding & got pain and other issues. Struggling to afford transportation.

gofund.me/6c303da8f

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Jeb - SEE ME TALK AT PAX AUS @jebdarsh.bsky.social · 1d

Maddy, because I've kinda lived it already.

Everyone else is a total disaster and I don't wanna deal with all their shit

#TPDox #dailyocs

Daily OC questions @dailyocs.bsky.social · 2d

If you could turn into your OC for 24 hours and could live their life for one day - which one of your OCs would you want to be and why?

#dailyocs

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 1d

Ah, shit. I'm angry-crying again after reading that excerpt.

Before this admin, I generally didn't wish ill on anyone and generally believed in a Russeau-like "everyone, if you dig deep down enough in theor soul, is good", but now I know of a few people who would actually deserve Hell if it exists.