Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm)
@eqreader.bsky.social
Fast reader, slow writer, ethical tech and education, stealth introvert, openly grouchy.
Words in The Magazine of F&SF, Fantasy, khoreo, Lightspeed, and others..
Reviews and rambles at www.equalopportunityreader.com
Words in The Magazine of F&SF, Fantasy, khoreo, Lightspeed, and others..
Reviews and rambles at www.equalopportunityreader.com
Pinned
My name is Mel. I write fiction very slowly, and read everything I can through a happy Black American lady lens. I've spent most of my life outside of the US, & I used to be one of those woke professors the right wing warned y'all about.
I also keep a running thread of every book I read. Enjoy.
I also keep a running thread of every book I read. Enjoy.
I'm here all weekend!
(I have got to get better at this promotions thing.)
(I have got to get better at this promotions thing.)
You can still register for WisCon! Panels, workshops and readings all weekend. Pay-what-you-can. wiscon2025.sched.com
Coming up on FRIDAY (5/23):
-Asexual representation in SFF
-Moving beyond Western structures of storytelling
-Author reading at 4pm CDT
And more! Register via the link above ^
Coming up on FRIDAY (5/23):
-Asexual representation in SFF
-Moving beyond Western structures of storytelling
-Author reading at 4pm CDT
And more! Register via the link above ^
WisCon 2025 Schedule
Check out the schedule for WisCon 2025
wiscon2025.sched.com
May 24, 2025 at 1:05 AM
I'm here all weekend!
(I have got to get better at this promotions thing.)
(I have got to get better at this promotions thing.)
I keep forgetting to check this app. *waves* What's going on?
May 22, 2025 at 3:39 PM
I keep forgetting to check this app. *waves* What's going on?
It's so strange, as a Black person, to go to events about our culture in non-Black spaces.
I'm at this thing about Wu-Tang Clan and when the speaker(also Black) brought up the 36 Chambers not ONE person hollered "Wu-TANG!".
I'm not sure if I'd be more offended if they had. 😂
I'm at this thing about Wu-Tang Clan and when the speaker(also Black) brought up the 36 Chambers not ONE person hollered "Wu-TANG!".
I'm not sure if I'd be more offended if they had. 😂
March 24, 2025 at 7:31 PM
It's so strange, as a Black person, to go to events about our culture in non-Black spaces.
I'm at this thing about Wu-Tang Clan and when the speaker(also Black) brought up the 36 Chambers not ONE person hollered "Wu-TANG!".
I'm not sure if I'd be more offended if they had. 😂
I'm at this thing about Wu-Tang Clan and when the speaker(also Black) brought up the 36 Chambers not ONE person hollered "Wu-TANG!".
I'm not sure if I'd be more offended if they had. 😂
I will never enjoy those posts that are like "hi, I'm (xyz ethnicity), can I do this (Black cultural thing)?"
OMG go make a friend.
OMG go make a friend.
March 17, 2025 at 9:53 PM
I will never enjoy those posts that are like "hi, I'm (xyz ethnicity), can I do this (Black cultural thing)?"
OMG go make a friend.
OMG go make a friend.
I'm not a "putting this in the universe" kind of person but I would really love to write a limited streaming series about Bill Pickett sometime in the next 5 years.
March 12, 2025 at 7:05 PM
I'm not a "putting this in the universe" kind of person but I would really love to write a limited streaming series about Bill Pickett sometime in the next 5 years.
It tickles me that the village in Kimberly Lemming's Mead Mishaps series is called Boohail. They be hailing the hell out of some boos, for sure.
March 1, 2025 at 7:23 PM
It tickles me that the village in Kimberly Lemming's Mead Mishaps series is called Boohail. They be hailing the hell out of some boos, for sure.
Reposted by Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm)
SO MANY REJECTIONS LATELY. SO MANY FOLLOWUP SUBMISSIONS.
And yet I continue to write.
If this behavior were transported to any other part of my life, it would probably be considered a kink.
And yet I continue to write.
If this behavior were transported to any other part of my life, it would probably be considered a kink.
March 1, 2025 at 5:59 PM
SO MANY REJECTIONS LATELY. SO MANY FOLLOWUP SUBMISSIONS.
And yet I continue to write.
If this behavior were transported to any other part of my life, it would probably be considered a kink.
And yet I continue to write.
If this behavior were transported to any other part of my life, it would probably be considered a kink.
Me, staring at a crunchy filthy draft covered in notes and wrong verb tenses, hoping it'll become a well-wrought story someday...
a drag queen is speaking into a microphone and says filth is my life .
ALT: a drag queen is speaking into a microphone and says filth is my life .
media.tenor.com
February 26, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Me, staring at a crunchy filthy draft covered in notes and wrong verb tenses, hoping it'll become a well-wrought story someday...
"America likes its angry Black women best when we are poor and husband-less and mourning. I’m simply angry and Black. I apologize if that is not enough."
Nicole Chulick WROTE this. Thank you for the words.
www.midnightandindigo.com/police-offic...
Nicole Chulick WROTE this. Thank you for the words.
www.midnightandindigo.com/police-offic...
There is a Police Officer in My Foyer | Nicole Chulick
This essay by Black woman writer Nicole Chulick is an apology, a lament, a plea for understanding as she grasps hold of the anger that always slips from her fingers. Exploring, in a whisper, the compu...
www.midnightandindigo.com
February 25, 2025 at 1:44 PM
"America likes its angry Black women best when we are poor and husband-less and mourning. I’m simply angry and Black. I apologize if that is not enough."
Nicole Chulick WROTE this. Thank you for the words.
www.midnightandindigo.com/police-offic...
Nicole Chulick WROTE this. Thank you for the words.
www.midnightandindigo.com/police-offic...
I don't know how I stumbled on this essay, but I love it.
"My dad hated work before hating work was cool. His first job in the United States was as a clerk at the San Jose Department of Motor Vehicles on Alma Street. It was 1975 and the position paid $6 an hour."
"My dad hated work before hating work was cool. His first job in the United States was as a clerk at the San Jose Department of Motor Vehicles on Alma Street. It was 1975 and the position paid $6 an hour."
Work Search Requirements – Apogee Journal
apogeejournal.org
February 14, 2025 at 1:14 AM
I don't know how I stumbled on this essay, but I love it.
"My dad hated work before hating work was cool. His first job in the United States was as a clerk at the San Jose Department of Motor Vehicles on Alma Street. It was 1975 and the position paid $6 an hour."
"My dad hated work before hating work was cool. His first job in the United States was as a clerk at the San Jose Department of Motor Vehicles on Alma Street. It was 1975 and the position paid $6 an hour."
Reposted by Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm)
Here’s what we did today
February 7, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Here’s what we did today
Leontyne Price is still living, and today is her 97th birthday.
If you don't know the name, pause your day and look her up now.
If you don't know the name, pause your day and look her up now.
February 10, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Leontyne Price is still living, and today is her 97th birthday.
If you don't know the name, pause your day and look her up now.
If you don't know the name, pause your day and look her up now.
In 2002-ish, I started writing interconnected short stories about different ways of resistance in a future America that had become a fearful wasteland of company towns controlled by religious fascists.
February 9, 2025 at 3:08 AM
In 2002-ish, I started writing interconnected short stories about different ways of resistance in a future America that had become a fearful wasteland of company towns controlled by religious fascists.
Reposted by Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm)
Might be a good time to donate to Wikipedia. Gift article (The Atlantic): www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Elon Musk Wants What He Can’t Have: Wikipedia
Musk and other right-wing tech figures have been on a campaign to delegitimize the digital encyclopedia. What happens if they succeed?
www.theatlantic.com
February 5, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Might be a good time to donate to Wikipedia. Gift article (The Atlantic): www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
I just found out that Joseph Heller wrote a sequel to Catch-22. It's called Closing Time, and it's still in print. It's also set in the 90s, while Catch-22 takes place in WWII.
Not really in the mood to read war satire right now but will keep an eye out for it.
Not really in the mood to read war satire right now but will keep an eye out for it.
February 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
I just found out that Joseph Heller wrote a sequel to Catch-22. It's called Closing Time, and it's still in print. It's also set in the 90s, while Catch-22 takes place in WWII.
Not really in the mood to read war satire right now but will keep an eye out for it.
Not really in the mood to read war satire right now but will keep an eye out for it.
If I had a dollar for every time in the past 6 months I read a really good story in Lightspeed that explored the idea of being a temporary, uncomfortable vessel for the gods...
I'd have two dollars, but it's cool that it's happened twice.
The stories in question...
I'd have two dollars, but it's cool that it's happened twice.
The stories in question...
February 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
If I had a dollar for every time in the past 6 months I read a really good story in Lightspeed that explored the idea of being a temporary, uncomfortable vessel for the gods...
I'd have two dollars, but it's cool that it's happened twice.
The stories in question...
I'd have two dollars, but it's cool that it's happened twice.
The stories in question...
I've been telling other Americans for years that a country's government is not a business. Now we have a bad businessman running the US. I'd be frustrated if all my years of being Black and smart and qualified hadn't prepared me to deal with perpetual top down incompetence and fallout consequences.
January 29, 2025 at 1:33 PM
I've been telling other Americans for years that a country's government is not a business. Now we have a bad businessman running the US. I'd be frustrated if all my years of being Black and smart and qualified hadn't prepared me to deal with perpetual top down incompetence and fallout consequences.
Re:US politics at present-- I have cycled past horror, disbelief, rage, grief and an attempt at practical hope and am now at "Look I have too much shit to *do* for it to be a dystopia right now."
January 27, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Re:US politics at present-- I have cycled past horror, disbelief, rage, grief and an attempt at practical hope and am now at "Look I have too much shit to *do* for it to be a dystopia right now."
Reposted by Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm)
GEORGE LUCAS IN 1999: a trade embargo is going to spark the galactic reckoning and collapse
ME IN 2025: ah, okay
ME IN 2025: ah, okay
January 26, 2025 at 10:14 PM
GEORGE LUCAS IN 1999: a trade embargo is going to spark the galactic reckoning and collapse
ME IN 2025: ah, okay
ME IN 2025: ah, okay
I have been trying to get through Emilia Perez for like 36 hours and while it's not *bad* exactly, it feels like something that should be seen in a cramped basement room at the Edinburgh festival, not on a Netflix screen.
January 26, 2025 at 1:21 AM
I have been trying to get through Emilia Perez for like 36 hours and while it's not *bad* exactly, it feels like something that should be seen in a cramped basement room at the Edinburgh festival, not on a Netflix screen.
This is what I like to see.
The Inspectors General refuse to leave until the action is taken legally, which they do not believe it was, and neither do senators like Chuck Grassley. This is what not backing down looks like.
static.politico.com/b3/3e/5baf92...
static.politico.com/b3/3e/5baf92...
January 26, 2025 at 12:13 AM
This is what I like to see.
@5calls.org is a GREAT app if you want a guide for contacting your local US legislators.
January 26, 2025 at 12:11 AM
@5calls.org is a GREAT app if you want a guide for contacting your local US legislators.
1st--post in forums and personally annoy every British person you know trying to find a very old children's story *you* read as a kid.
2nd-- just frickin' Google "old kids story about conkers" and find out it's by Enid Blyton, it's very well known, and the internet isn't dead after all.
*sheesh*
2nd-- just frickin' Google "old kids story about conkers" and find out it's by Enid Blyton, it's very well known, and the internet isn't dead after all.
*sheesh*
January 24, 2025 at 6:50 PM
1st--post in forums and personally annoy every British person you know trying to find a very old children's story *you* read as a kid.
2nd-- just frickin' Google "old kids story about conkers" and find out it's by Enid Blyton, it's very well known, and the internet isn't dead after all.
*sheesh*
2nd-- just frickin' Google "old kids story about conkers" and find out it's by Enid Blyton, it's very well known, and the internet isn't dead after all.
*sheesh*
Oooh look what just arrived...
January 24, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Oooh look what just arrived...