Catherine Winters
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catherinewinters.com
Catherine Winters
@catherinewinters.com
2.6K followers 1.4K following 6.1K posts
She/her, SFF writer, narrative video game designer/developer. Not AI.

📖 Querying my queer science fiction heist novel.
🎮 Making After Work, a game about rummaging around in your coworkers' desks: https://cornonthecob.games

https://catherinewinters.com
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Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 11d
F/NB WAYFARERS x MURDERBOT

Ship's cook Tai is horrified to discover their new crewmate is a terrifying alien: an ordinary human woman. Now Tai's stuck with bickering crewmates, sinister criminals, explosions, and worse, a human who wants to be friends. #QuestPit #Q #SF #A #R #LGBT
Mood board/Agent's guide for my novel CARGO - a queer SF/heist/romance - 113,000 words "Did you hear? There's a human on board." A graphic of the wall of a spaceship with sticky notes and polaroid photos taped up. There are twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling. alien ship's cook (fussy, anxious) + terrifying monster (ordinary human) PITCH: Tai’s terrified of humans. Everyone is. Violent pack hunters, humans are notorious for their strength, sharp teeth, and carnivorous appetites. But the ship’s cook is safe among the multispecies crew of the cargo hauler Coreward Baker: everyone knows the warrior species rarely leave their own space. Then Captain Raz hires Clarke, a human horticulturist. Even after Tai overcomes their fear, they can’t stand Clarke. She’s bossy. Annoying. Useless in the galley, bad in a space suit. She might as well be cargo. Worse, she’s intent on befriending Tai—and why can’t they stop thinking about her, anyway? That’s when things go wrong. As Tai starts to realize their feelings for Clarke, they’re horrified to learn that nobody on their crew of dropouts and runaways is quite who they seem, least of all Clarke. And it’s no coincidence. Raz reveals they’ve each been handpicked for a heist he’s spent years planning—and no one’s allowed to say no. PRIORITIES: make dinner remain cozy haul cargo go for drinks pull off one last score try not to fall in love FIRST PAGE: “Did you hear? There’s a Human on board.” I choked on my noodles and turned to stare at the diners at the next table. Like most of the restaurant’s patrons, the pair had hidden their profiles, a halfhearted attempt at anonymity. “Gross,” the speaker’s crewmate said, oblivious to my alarm. “I hope it leaves soon.” “Don’t let it hear you say that,” the first worker laughed. She made a show of looking for Humans, her eyes darting from table to table. It. I frowned. I knew the workers’ language distinguished between people and things, and ‘it’ was an unkind choice of words at best. The second worker shuddered. “I don’t know why we let them come here.” The first laughed. “Are you going to stop them?” COMPS: Murderbot by Martha Wells Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers TROPES: Non-binary narrator masking anxiety with sarcasm lying to themselves non-human perspective (afraid of humans) neurodivergent main characters metaphorically disabled protagonist slow-burn friends-to-lovers and enemies to lovers in the same relationship disabilitynorm and queernorm setting found family loveable pet/terrifying monster
Reposted by Catherine Winters
daxaeterna.ink
The thing that gets me about this attitude is that it's so... Self-centered...? Selfish?

Other authors are not competitors. This is not Survivor.

Other authors are colleagues. Friends. Collaborators. Human beings worth being in community with.
daxaeterna.ink Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 1d
<< “If I can generate a book in a day, and you need six months to write a book, who’s going to win the race?” Hart told the NYT. >>

Honey. You assume we are racing. I am not in this race. I don't want to be in a race. I am creating art.
iainaire.bsky.social Iain Aire @iainaire.bsky.social · 1d
The article describes a ‘smut’ writer producing a book in 45 mins with AI, and generates a six figure income from her writing. We are racing to the bottom. Are readers really that gullible? I guess so. futurism.com/artificial-i... #Author #Writer #Writing #WritingCommunity #BlueSky #BookSky #AI
February 11, 2026 at 5:09 AM
catherinewinters.com
Me, angrily watching Anton Chekhov's new play: "WTF WHY IS THAT GUN THERE"
zoewithasword.bsky.social Zoe Tunnell @zoewithasword.bsky.social · 14h
It is truly so funny to me that there were people on here when the season started going OH THEY'RE DOING AN AI PLOTLINE AND A PRISON PLOT AND ETC AND NOT DOING ANY CRITIQUE OF ANYTHING

Just the most ridiculous, media illiterate knee jerk outrage postin
February 11, 2026 at 5:31 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
diannalgunn.bsky.social
Have you ever wanted to die... in fiction?

Or perhaps commit a (fictional) murder of a billionaire?

Well I've got good news: MURDER COMMISSIONS ARE BACK!!!

Hire me to write you a custom death scene - or a billionaire murder scene - today!

1/3
Murder Commissions are BAAAAACK!
Dianna Gunn published a post on Ko-fi
ko-fi.com
January 21, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
carsandguitars.bsky.social
This was my experience too. The sting never really went away.
faineg.bsky.social Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 17h
Those who weren’t resigned to the Math Idiot Garbage Bin as kids may not grasp how much “if you’re bad at math, you’ll die in a ditch and all will be better off for it” sentiment was floating around in the 90s and 2000s, but it sure felt real to me.

(my parents are great! It didn’t come from them!)
February 11, 2026 at 2:20 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
commandersterling.bsky.social
In the wake of a massive confirmation that the tech industry’s run by deranged pedophiles, not a single tech platform should have the balls to start demanding ID and enacting invasive policies.

Yet they continue. They’re the ones being outed as dangerous and we’re the ones being regulated.
February 11, 2026 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
xavierck.com
I think this is probably the first time in two years where I've actively enjoyed making something

I'm going to have so much fun doing all the writing for this silly stuff
A faux ad with a picture of a big sphere on eight shock absorbers. A cutaway reveals a padded interior with a car seat, a fire extinguisher, and a piece of luggage. Text below says "Safety isn't a fad." (Two columns of lorem ipsum text) A stylized logo that says ROKO, and a tagline below that says "Safety, forever."
February 11, 2026 at 2:48 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
kim-hu.com
remember back when we all doodled the current thing for warmups? we could bring that back, maybe, that was fun
doodle of the rat purse eating a coin ___ #kimgakaku
February 3, 2026 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
authorwinifred.blacksky.app
Who else is putting articles from "Placenta" on your skyline?

NO ONE THAT'S WHO

I'm more an advocate for people wjo make art with them or participate in some cultural practice.

We iterally grow and discard an ENTIRE ORGAN that makes people, which is very strange *to me.*
February 10, 2026 at 9:40 PM
catherinewinters.com
I'm looking forward to finding out if the pilots' ejection seats stop working when the US turns off our F-35s in the middle of a dogfight.
February 10, 2026 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
beanjammin.bsky.social
This is just plain stupid. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
Canada discreetly puts money down on 14 additional F-35s | CBC News
Ottawa has started to make payments for key components for 14 additional U.S.-built F-35s, even as the Carney government has been reviewing future fighter-jet purchases in the context of trade tension...
www.cbc.ca
February 10, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
kattenbarge.bsky.social
And we don’t have to guess what they mean, because we can read Project 2025 ourselves and see that “pornography” is shorthand for LGBTQ people existing publicly. That’s what they’re working to ban, censor, and restrict online under the guise of “protecting” kids from porn
February 10, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
kattenbarge.bsky.social
When a sitting representative refers to the Super Bowl halftime show as “pornography,” people should use that to reflect on how they and other representatives are simultaneously working to ban, censor, and restrict “pornography” and what that actually means
February 10, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
daff.space
I confronted a 20 something couple in a sushi restauraunt dressed in gruffindor robes. I asked them, "did you know that JK Rowling has spent her fortunes earned from sales of things like those robes lobbying the government in this country to restrict access to medication for people like me?"
therealmichaellee.bsky.social TRML - (he/him) Elder Millennial Goth 🌟 🦇 @therealmichaellee.bsky.social · 1d
I still legit don't understand how there is still a market for Harry Potter stuff. Like, I get people trying to separate the art from the artist, but she's still alive and profiting from all this AND she was in with Epstein, so now we know she's an even BIGGER monster than we already thought.
February 10, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
esqueer.net
What, did you think they were going to stop with trans people?

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/u...
Pride Flag Is Taken Down From Stonewall Monument
www.nytimes.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
vriccithode.bsky.social
Lusi can see ghosts. And that’s only the beginning of her problems. In this queer MG fantasy novel, she joins her sister, a ghost girl and some dragons on an adventure halfway across the world to learn about her unusual magic. 🌈📚
books2read.com/u/b6J2E0
vriccithode.itch.io/the-young-ne...
the cover art of my book the young necromancer's guide to ghosts on a black baground with tropey tag things that read: she sees dead people, family woes, queer kids, bestie is a ghost, spooky magic, sisters stick together, dragon friends!, finding community. Nebula Award winner logo on the top right.
February 10, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
weeknightwriters.bsky.social
Good morning! In times like these, it's easy to fall into the trap of feeling like your art doesn't matter

But your art has NEVER been more important than it is right now
Close-up of snow-covered tree branches with a night sky backdrop, overlaid with the words "Good morning! In times like these, it's easy to fall into the trap of feeling like your art doesn't matter But your art has NEVER been more important than it is right now"
February 10, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
weeknightwriters.bsky.social
The Weeknight Writers Pro Community is on Discord.

It is not an age-restricted server, so we don't imagine Discord's new policy requiring ID will impact our server.

However, we are appalled by the introduction of this policy & the continued expansion of surveillance and censorship online

1/2
February 9, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
mizokaya.stream
KEEP FIGHTING

KEEP CANCELLING

MAKE THEM HURT AND NEVER CONSIDER THIS AGAIN

Traumatise their budget so bad they cant even think about this again.

Bring them to their knees.
legendofnerd.bsky.social Brian M @legendofnerd.bsky.social · 1d
Discord is already starting to walk things back a little, so people should keep doing what they're doing (cancel Nitro, leave feedback/criticism, direct contact through support tickets/phone/email/etc)
Tl;dr: The vast majority of adults will never have to interact with our age assurance systems and their experience won't change, because we know Discord and how people use it, so we're designing to respect privacy and deliver a safer experience while minimizing friction for adults. Hey folks – I’ve been on Discord since very early 2016 and actually joined the company in 2017. Safety is one of my areas, so today’s announcement on our blog is something I’ve been pretty involved with. I’ve always cared about Discord's approach to privacy (E2EE for A/V was another of my projects here), so I figured I’d add some more context to today's news. I can say confidently that the vast majority of people will never see age verification. I say this because we launched age assurance in the UK and Australia in 2025, and we have some pretty good data on this now. The idea here is that we can pre-identify most adults based on what we already know (not including your messages!), and that looks to get us pretty far here. No face scans, no IDs, for the vast majority of adults. And if you are one of the smaller subset of folks that we can't definitively pre-identify, then still, you only have to do it if you're accessing age-restricted servers or channels, or changing certain settings. That's really not most users. (Altho... might be more Redditors, tbh.) Last, I know that there is concern about privacy and data leaks. That's a real concern. The selfie system is built purely client-side, it never leaves your device, and we did that intentionally. That'll work for a bunch of users who aren't pre-identified as adults. But if you do end up in the ID bucket, then yeah, you're right that has some risk. We're doing what we can to minimize this by working with our range of partners (who are different partners than the data leak you read about), and if it's any help, we learned a lot internally from the last issue. But I get if that doesn't necessarily inspire more confidence. Anyway, we’ll be sharing more next month as we get closer to the global roll out about the system, including the technology behind it in March. I honestly wouldn't be happy if we didn't build something good and I am excited about what we’re launching, but please let us know what you think when we share more details. And I really appreciate everybody's feedback here today. We’re definitely reading it!
February 10, 2026 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
humblebundle.com
A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic–with very unexpected results in Lessons in Magic and Disaster.

The Charlie Jane Anders & Annalee Newiitz book bundle supports TGIJP.
Charlie Jane Anders & Annalee Newiitz by TOR | Humble Book Bundle
www.humblebundle.com
February 7, 2026 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
legendofnerd.bsky.social
Discord is already starting to walk things back a little, so people should keep doing what they're doing (cancel Nitro, leave feedback/criticism, direct contact through support tickets/phone/email/etc)
Tl;dr: The vast majority of adults will never have to interact with our age assurance systems and their experience won't change, because we know Discord and how people use it, so we're designing to respect privacy and deliver a safer experience while minimizing friction for adults. Hey folks – I’ve been on Discord since very early 2016 and actually joined the company in 2017. Safety is one of my areas, so today’s announcement on our blog is something I’ve been pretty involved with. I’ve always cared about Discord's approach to privacy (E2EE for A/V was another of my projects here), so I figured I’d add some more context to today's news. I can say confidently that the vast majority of people will never see age verification. I say this because we launched age assurance in the UK and Australia in 2025, and we have some pretty good data on this now. The idea here is that we can pre-identify most adults based on what we already know (not including your messages!), and that looks to get us pretty far here. No face scans, no IDs, for the vast majority of adults. And if you are one of the smaller subset of folks that we can't definitively pre-identify, then still, you only have to do it if you're accessing age-restricted servers or channels, or changing certain settings. That's really not most users. (Altho... might be more Redditors, tbh.) Last, I know that there is concern about privacy and data leaks. That's a real concern. The selfie system is built purely client-side, it never leaves your device, and we did that intentionally. That'll work for a bunch of users who aren't pre-identified as adults. But if you do end up in the ID bucket, then yeah, you're right that has some risk. We're doing what we can to minimize this by working with our range of partners (who are different partners than the data leak you read about), and if it's any help, we learned a lot internally from the last issue. But I get if that doesn't necessarily inspire more confidence. Anyway, we’ll be sharing more next month as we get closer to the global roll out about the system, including the technology behind it in March. I honestly wouldn't be happy if we didn't build something good and I am excited about what we’re launching, but please let us know what you think when we share more details. And I really appreciate everybody's feedback here today. We’re definitely reading it!
February 10, 2026 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
oplopanax.ca
Millions of Americans are eligible for automatic Canadian citizenship. JIK you're considering.
sharonk.bsky.social Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d
FYI Americans: if you had Canadian grandparents/parents: you may be Canadian
What does the new law say? Bill C-3, which came into force on December 15, 2025, reinstates citizenship by descent beyond the first generation. In 2009, the Conservative government had restricted access to citizenship. Canadians born abroad could therefore only pass on their Canadian citizenship if their child was born in Canada. The law was ruled unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Now, to be eligible for Canadian citizenship by descent, a person born abroad before the coming into force of Bill C-3 must have an ancestor who became a Canadian citizen on or after January 1, 1947 (the date the status of Canadian citizenship was created). The new law also specifies that a person can become a citizen if one of their deceased parents or grandparents had obtained citizenship status upon the law's entry into force.
February 10, 2026 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
avilewis.ca
We should immediately follow Mexico’s lead and condemn this act of economic warfare. And we should step up with humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, as NDP MP @alexboulerice.bsky.social calls for in this excellent parliamentary petition: www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...
Petition e-7082 - Petitions
www.ourcommons.ca
February 9, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
lalegault.bsky.social
Please sign. The Cubans 🇨🇺 are our friends, many of us have people we care about on the island. They don’t deserve this.
avilewis.ca Avi Lewis @avilewis.ca · 1d
We should immediately follow Mexico’s lead and condemn this act of economic warfare. And we should step up with humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, as NDP MP @alexboulerice.bsky.social calls for in this excellent parliamentary petition: www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...
Petition e-7082 - Petitions
www.ourcommons.ca
February 9, 2026 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Catherine Winters
docseuss.bsky.social
I know anyone who can get me in touch with ron perlman?
February 9, 2026 at 10:28 PM