Words-ish Katamari
@cyballard.bsky.social
CY Ballard. Speculative fiction writer with stories in Lightspeed and City in a Wild Garden, vol 2. Collector of cosmic mysteries over at www.cosmicmystery.club
(Also video games, weaving, and things I find on the ground)
(Also video games, weaving, and things I find on the ground)
“Sorry, I don’t actually work here.”
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"Sadly, not aliens."
"Sadly, not aliens."
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"It's not designed to work that way"
"It's not designed to work that way"
February 7, 2026 at 7:33 PM
“Sorry, I don’t actually work here.”
The overwhelming urge to set aside my Story About The Fascism to rewrite ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ and set it in the snowed-in Bass Pro Shop Pyramid
January 27, 2026 at 10:40 PM
The overwhelming urge to set aside my Story About The Fascism to rewrite ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ and set it in the snowed-in Bass Pro Shop Pyramid
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
Nature valentines. This comic is now available as a set of 6 Valentines cards: topatoco.com/collections/...
January 15, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Nature valentines. This comic is now available as a set of 6 Valentines cards: topatoco.com/collections/...
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
Reminder for everyone operating at situationally-diminished capacity.
January 3, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Reminder for everyone operating at situationally-diminished capacity.
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
This green flower dress (the most often re-used dress in #StarTrek history) was originally created for Alsia, played by K Callan in #StarTrekDS9's "Rivals". Look how much fun she has wearing it! 😊
I'm going to list all the re-uses of this dress here, including weird appearances and bloopers.🧵 1/11
I'm going to list all the re-uses of this dress here, including weird appearances and bloopers.🧵 1/11
January 2, 2026 at 6:00 PM
This green flower dress (the most often re-used dress in #StarTrek history) was originally created for Alsia, played by K Callan in #StarTrekDS9's "Rivals". Look how much fun she has wearing it! 😊
I'm going to list all the re-uses of this dress here, including weird appearances and bloopers.🧵 1/11
I'm going to list all the re-uses of this dress here, including weird appearances and bloopers.🧵 1/11
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
The survey is open to non-members (I am not one) and to readers (who here is not &c.) so I encourage you to share your feelings on the matter. Don't assume that everyone already understands that AI is bad or why! I mean, people *should*, but you could say that about a lot of things.
SFWA members and general SFF community:
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to office@sfwa.org to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to office@sfwa.org to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
December 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
The survey is open to non-members (I am not one) and to readers (who here is not &c.) so I encourage you to share your feelings on the matter. Don't assume that everyone already understands that AI is bad or why! I mean, people *should*, but you could say that about a lot of things.
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
Would love to try this out here in the Sonoran
Happy Winter Solstice!
Beer can, pinhole camera photos of the Summer to Winter Solstice (2024) and the Winter to Summer Solstice (2025).
You never know quite what you're going to get with these photos, set the beer can pointing towards the sun at hopefully the correct angle and wait 6 months!
Beer can, pinhole camera photos of the Summer to Winter Solstice (2024) and the Winter to Summer Solstice (2025).
You never know quite what you're going to get with these photos, set the beer can pointing towards the sun at hopefully the correct angle and wait 6 months!
December 21, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Would love to try this out here in the Sonoran
This week I wrote a little about how Paradise Killer’s art direction puts players in the mind of the sleuth in Kaizen Game Works’ 2020 murder mystery game. Featuring hard questions from fish ghosts, getting lost in paradise, and various Knives:
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/love-dies-...
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/love-dies-...
Love Dies in Empty Paradise
"The day starts with a warm sun enveloping our lives in hope before bleaching the world clean under its scorching gaze."
www.cosmicmystery.club
December 21, 2025 at 5:59 PM
This week I wrote a little about how Paradise Killer’s art direction puts players in the mind of the sleuth in Kaizen Game Works’ 2020 murder mystery game. Featuring hard questions from fish ghosts, getting lost in paradise, and various Knives:
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/love-dies-...
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/love-dies-...
FATHER JUD will return in CONCLAVE: THE NEXT GENERATION
December 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
FATHER JUD will return in CONCLAVE: THE NEXT GENERATION
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
I've seen some people saying that the new SFWA rule on "AI" in the Nebulas will prevent people from being transparent about their LLM use. Newsflash: They wouldn't have been anyway. It would cost them readers. It would cost them votes. It would potentially cost them opportunities with publishers.
December 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I've seen some people saying that the new SFWA rule on "AI" in the Nebulas will prevent people from being transparent about their LLM use. Newsflash: They wouldn't have been anyway. It would cost them readers. It would cost them votes. It would potentially cost them opportunities with publishers.
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
this is so incredibly 10000/10 niche I am howling
December 18, 2025 at 8:10 PM
this is so incredibly 10000/10 niche I am howling
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
December 16, 2025 at 10:03 PM
“Do not open before December 25th” ??? ?????????
December 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM
“Do not open before December 25th” ??? ?????????
All the good jokes about the US have already been made so. Gray-white in 2026? The bane of minimum viable apt remodels for the past decade?
Pantone’s 2026 color of the year is technically not a color at all — meet Cloud Dancer, the first-ever white shade to receive the designation from the world’s color authority.
Pantone makes a surprising choice for its 2026 color of the year
We did not see that coming.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
All the good jokes about the US have already been made so. Gray-white in 2026? The bane of minimum viable apt remodels for the past decade?
It’s officially citrus season
November 29, 2025 at 5:06 PM
It’s officially citrus season
I went to see Wake Up Dead Man the one day this extended holiday weekend I don’t have to be at a movie theater and yeah worth it
November 28, 2025 at 5:12 AM
I went to see Wake Up Dead Man the one day this extended holiday weekend I don’t have to be at a movie theater and yeah worth it
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
This is why Kentucky Route Zero and 1000xResist are the goats
There should be more games inspired by avant-garde stage design.
November 26, 2025 at 7:24 PM
This is why Kentucky Route Zero and 1000xResist are the goats
People doing acoustic Letterboxd in my neighborhood
November 24, 2025 at 8:10 PM
People doing acoustic Letterboxd in my neighborhood
First cozy-cold Saturday of the year and that means Ball x Pit in bed before work
November 22, 2025 at 6:10 PM
First cozy-cold Saturday of the year and that means Ball x Pit in bed before work
Last week I wrote a little about Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, T. Kingfisher's The Hollow Places, Ocarina of Time randomizers, tamarisks, and writing character interiority at the intersection of mystery and cosmic horror:
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/willows-re...
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/willows-re...
Willows + Revisitations
“...a host of beings from another plane of life, another evolution altogether, perhaps, all discussing a mystery known only to themselves.”
www.cosmicmystery.club
November 18, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Last week I wrote a little about Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, T. Kingfisher's The Hollow Places, Ocarina of Time randomizers, tamarisks, and writing character interiority at the intersection of mystery and cosmic horror:
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/willows-re...
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/willows-re...
I first played FFIX when I was fifteen. Different characters and parts of the story have reflected my own life back to me as I’ve aged, and I still play it every few years to see what I see differently, what stays the same. (Also, some seriously cool fantasy library/archive designs.)
Happy Birthday, Final Fantasy IX! Released in North America 25 years ago today on November 14th, 2000!
A return to the high fantasy of older Final Fantasy games, giving us some of the most beloved characters in the franchise and, uh, an infamous PlayOnline guide book, aha.
Much love for FF9. 💜
A return to the high fantasy of older Final Fantasy games, giving us some of the most beloved characters in the franchise and, uh, an infamous PlayOnline guide book, aha.
Much love for FF9. 💜
November 14, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I first played FFIX when I was fifteen. Different characters and parts of the story have reflected my own life back to me as I’ve aged, and I still play it every few years to see what I see differently, what stays the same. (Also, some seriously cool fantasy library/archive designs.)
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
"I long to read more in the book of you."
Beloved Moomins creator Tove Jansson's almost unbearably beautiful love letters to the love of her life (who inspired her wisest Moomin character) www.themarginalian.org/2020/06/12/t...
Beloved Moomins creator Tove Jansson's almost unbearably beautiful love letters to the love of her life (who inspired her wisest Moomin character) www.themarginalian.org/2020/06/12/t...
I Long to Read More in the Book of You: Moomins Creator Tove Jansson’s Tender and Passionate Letters to the Love of Her Life
“I’m so unused to being happy that I haven’t really come to terms with what it involves… I feel like a garden that’s finally been watered, so my flowers can bloom.”
www.themarginalian.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:02 PM
"I long to read more in the book of you."
Beloved Moomins creator Tove Jansson's almost unbearably beautiful love letters to the love of her life (who inspired her wisest Moomin character) www.themarginalian.org/2020/06/12/t...
Beloved Moomins creator Tove Jansson's almost unbearably beautiful love letters to the love of her life (who inspired her wisest Moomin character) www.themarginalian.org/2020/06/12/t...