Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 8h

We did, however, get greeted by a very soft cat who was probably the better friend in the long run.

Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 8h

Trying to meet people in a new city chronicles:

It's amazing how many groups who say they're open to new members make zero effort to interact with or even acknowledge people trying to get involved.

I know I'm weird & neurodivergent but I'd keep an eye out for potential new people hovering, y'know?

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Jeremy Ghost Shipp @jeremycshipp.bsky.social · 14h

As always, today is a good day to support artists, writers, creators. If you have the means, maybe consider signing up for a Patreon. Buy a book, a game, a painting. Commission a new piece. Tell a creator what they mean to you. Signal boost their work.

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Reposted by Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️

S.S. Julian @octopolis.bsky.social · 16h

Happy World Octopus Day! To celebrate, here’s the first piece in my series of Octopolis tarot cards: The Fool!
#octopolis #worldoctopusday #octopus #tarot

$A digital illustration within a tarot card frame titled ‘The Fool’. The images is of a mimic octopus bursting through the surface of the ocean into a sunlit day. The octopus is covered in many colored stripes. It holds one arm up through which light refracts. In another arm it holds a bundle of kelp. Beneath the water is a yellow cuttlefish looking very happy.$

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 15h

Whenever there's Taylor Swift discourse I find myself drawn to listen to Self Esteem's latest. Now *that's* a (Rebecca) Taylor with lyrical chops.

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So Mayer @suchmayer.bsky.social · 17h

We need to use AI as a wake-up call to look at the pernicious profit structures that already direct liveable lives *away* from makers and workers, not settle for them as the best alternate. AI should make us want more for ourselves & less for the bosses & investors.

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 19h

But I always knew that would be the case (save for going into academia or heritage). I wanted to spend a few years doing something I actually enjoyed and was interested in. I would have been a lot more miserable if I hadn't studied what I did and met the people I did through it.

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 19h

My degrees in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic made me who I am (for better and worse) and I have no regrets.

But since then I've been in admin and office management. The degree is mostly for story fuel and spouting trivia at interested parties.

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 19h

Also going to update this with a posh white woman audibly changing how she talked to me on the phone when I gave her my female name, and a two-doors-down black neighbour who knocked just now to introduce himself, saw a clocky trans woman in a cardigan, and cheerfully yelled "alright darlin'!".

Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 1d

As a trans woman who recently moved to North London, I can confidently say I get less weirdness on Tottenham High Road than in the City. And the only place cars have actually slowed down as they passed me to stare was the Cotswolds.

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 1d

And now it looks like the one explicitly queer-friendly writers group I could feasibly get to has just... disappeared 😭

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 1d

Anyone have experience in printing booklets in LibreOffice? For some reason it's happy to print to PDF in a nice little foldable format but as soon as an actual printer connects the alignments go all over the place. Literally.

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Jeremy Ghost Shipp @jeremycshipp.bsky.social · 1d

There is no Prime Day sale over at my tiny shop. But you can buy a hand-sewn little guy that took me many hours to create.

jeremycreature.bigcartel.com

Jeremy Ghost Shipp @jeremycshipp.bsky.social · Jul 9

Hi Bluesky! I just launched my Big Cartel fabric art shop, and I was wondering if you could help spread the word?

All of my creations are designed, hand-sewn, and hand-embroidered by me. Any sales are colossally appreciated.

jeremycreature.bigcartel.com

Here's a lovely photo of a plethora of hand-sewn fabric art creatures. There's a watermelon creature with a red face, eight black seed-like eyes, and a wide mouth with five sharp teeth. There's a white ghost trinket bag covered with purple embroidered flowers. She has a gray face, sparkly black eyes and a little frown. There's a strawberry creature with three bulbous green eyes. There's a watermelon ghost, a strawberry ghost bag, and a black creature with sharp teeth. There's a white egg with yellow embroidered flowers and purple eyeshadow and purple lips. All the creatures are sitting on green fur and there's a galaxy print fabric in the background. The watermelon creature and the watermelon ghost are sitting on metal doll chairs.

Here's a lovely photo of the cosmic ghost bag. She's a black ghost with various stars and planets embroidered on her body. There are little white stars, larger white stars, yellow stars, purple stars, a dark purple planet, a light purple planet, a red planet with a yellow ring. She has a gray moon-like face with large sparkly black eyes and a little frown. She's wearing a black fabric witch hat. She's resting on my palm and there's green fur in the background of the pic.

Here's a lovely photo of three fabric art eggs watching the tiny witch homunculus balancing on one foot on a small broom. The eggs are purple, pink and white, and they're covered with embroidered flowers. The eggs have mouths with lip colors that match their flowers. They have two flat teeth poking out of their mouths. The pink egg is wearing a small sun hat. The tiny witch homunculus is green with large sparkly red eyes and a little frown. There's green fur in the background of the photo.

Here's a photo of fabric art creatures with a white fabric background. There's a cute and creepy mothman with a black body and a gray face with twinkly red eyes and sharp teeth. There's a green Kentucky goblin with a lighter green face and large pointy ears. He has twinkly yellow eyes and he's wearing a black party hat covered with red googly eyes and a big red poof at the top. There's also a red death worm with nine cream-colored eyes and sharp teeth. The tiny homunculus witch is sitting on the worm's head. She's very small, with large twinkly red eyes and a green body. She's wearing a small version of the party hat the goblin's wearing.

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Ashley Lynch ✂️🎞️ @ashleylynch.bsky.social · 1d

Any trans person who begins their transition today is exhibiting more courage than most people will in their entire lives.

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Matt Mason - One Chaotic Author @chaoticauthor.online · 1d

I don't normally do this, but I've been burning the candle at both ends.

Other half had a major op earlier this year and now I'm in hospital for an investigation.

Regardless of what's wrong, I need rest, but I've had little work this year.

I'd appreciate if anyone is able to help out.

Support Matt Mason ❤️

Become a supporter of Matt Mason today!

ko-fi.com

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 1d

I'm retelling the least sexist Norse Maiden King saga I know of, Thorn deserves to take centre gender-ambiguous stage

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 1d

I think the main character was *meant* to be Shortcloak of the Tall Tales but he's threatening to be replaced by Thorn the Maiden King

#FirstDraftFall

Weeknight Writers @weeknightwriters.bsky.social · 1d

#WeeknightWriters #FirstDraftFall Who's the main character of your #FirstDraftFall story?

These questions are from our First Draft Fall worksheets! For the full worksheets, join our membership program at ko-fi.com/weeknightw...

Fall forest scene overlaid with the words “#FirstDraftFall - October - Planning
Who is the main character of your #FirstDraftFall story?

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 1d

Insert symbol might have something suitable somewhere? Or there might be fonts you can download?

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Helen @helenm40.bsky.social · 1d

Let's be blunt. There is no overdiagnosis of mental ill health and neurodivergence. It's a convenient myth that has been comprehensively disproven by NHS data.

Streeting is just paying off a crank to give him the answer he wants.

See also Cass and Appleby.

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · Sep 3

Fiends & Phantoms 3

Gothic and horror tales of religion gone wrong

- vampire priests
- Frankensteined saints
- an ill-advised ladder to Heaven
- tormented monks
- an even more tormented priest, pursued by the owner of his precious relic...

#booksky 📚💙

Fiends & Phantoms III - Lawrence Harding's Ko-fi Shop

Lawrence Harding presents six eerie tales of religion going wrong: A bishop building a ladder to heaven A priest fleeing a dark secret A monk more s...

ko-fi.com

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · Sep 3

Fiends & Phantoms 2

More horror for fans of Victorian Weird

- fey porridge-makers
- haunted Gospel Books
- mad-scientist sculptors
- an antiquarian with a mysterious guest

#booksky 📚💙

Fiends and Phantoms II - Lawrence Harding's Ko-fi Shop

Lawrence Harding presents 6 more tales of the weird and occult. Featuring: A gospel book with a mind of its own An antiquarian with a mysterious gues...

ko-fi.com

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Reposted by Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️

Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · Sep 3

Fiends & Phantoms

6 tales of horror for fans of M R James and E F Benson

Featuring:
- academics delving too deep into the dark
- folk horror slug gods in the Bavarian hills
- vengeful saints
- Judiciary Mediums with regrets
- ironic fates for bodysnatchers

#booksky 📚💙

Fiends and Phantoms - Lawrence Harding's Ko-fi Shop

Lawrence Harding presents six tales of the Victorian weird, including: An occultist paying his dues A dark entity among the bookstacks An ancient h...

ko-fi.com

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · Sep 2

Did you know that I have a Ko-Fi Shop? Where you can buy all my self-published collections, novelettes and novellas?

Well, now you do!

Horror short stories, dark fantasies, medieval shenanigans and more!

#booksky 📚💙

Visit Lawrence Harding's Shop!

I've opened a shop. Come take a look!

ko-fi.com

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Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️ @lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 1d

Been on a Stephen Cognetti binge these last few days but tonight there's a new season of Dragula: Titans on Shudder so I plan to sink my teeth into that

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Jeremy Ghost Shipp @jeremycshipp.bsky.social · 2d

As always, today is a good day to support artists, writers, creators. If you have the means, maybe consider signing up for a Patreon. Buy a book, a game, a painting. Commission a new piece. Tell a creator what they mean to you. Signal boost their work.

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Reposted by Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️

Ayloss @infinitedreamscape.bsky.social · 1d

4) To break this silence, we need to open up a space where we're going to get criticized as well. Some bad choices in the past might be unearthed. We might have to admit we had bad takes on some stuff for long. When we truly care about community, we do this to get better collectively.

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