Para 🌵
@paracactus.bsky.social
Sci-fi & fantasy reader. Antelope appreciator. Also posting a lot about my many and varied crafting WIPs. She/her (or they/them) 🏳️🌈
Filter topics: #booksky (reviews) | #NamibiaCam
📍🇸🇮
otherworldsreviews.wordpress.com
goodreads.com/parawanderer
Filter topics: #booksky (reviews) | #NamibiaCam
📍🇸🇮
otherworldsreviews.wordpress.com
goodreads.com/parawanderer
Pinned
Para 🌵
@paracactus.bsky.social
· Nov 10
To Other Worlds
SFF book reviews, recommendations, and more
otherworldsreviews.wordpress.com
I keep forgetting we can do pinned posts now
Hi! Call me Para. I'm into:
- SFF books (esp. queer)
- cross stitch (+ knitting, crochet...it alternates)
- Namib desert livestream, with a focus on antelopes & zebras
- enamel pins
- cheap fountain pens & unusual colour ink
I review books on my blog:
Hi! Call me Para. I'm into:
- SFF books (esp. queer)
- cross stitch (+ knitting, crochet...it alternates)
- Namib desert livestream, with a focus on antelopes & zebras
- enamel pins
- cheap fountain pens & unusual colour ink
I review books on my blog:
Reposted by Para 🌵
This set of observations is produced by my scrolling Reddit and otherwise listening to people talk about "how to write."
A) there is no requirement that any of your characters has any sort of "arc" let alone a redemption.
B) there is also no requirement that your fiction has a plot.
A) there is no requirement that any of your characters has any sort of "arc" let alone a redemption.
B) there is also no requirement that your fiction has a plot.
December 31, 2025 at 4:47 PM
This set of observations is produced by my scrolling Reddit and otherwise listening to people talk about "how to write."
A) there is no requirement that any of your characters has any sort of "arc" let alone a redemption.
B) there is also no requirement that your fiction has a plot.
A) there is no requirement that any of your characters has any sort of "arc" let alone a redemption.
B) there is also no requirement that your fiction has a plot.
Reposted by Para 🌵
FINALLY
January 1, 2026 at 5:35 PM
FINALLY
Reposted by Para 🌵
Sitting a stewing in frustration isn't nearly as cathartic as just designing a poster. Let's see how often I remember that in 2026.
December 31, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Sitting a stewing in frustration isn't nearly as cathartic as just designing a poster. Let's see how often I remember that in 2026.
Reposted by Para 🌵
Reposted by Para 🌵
every time I start to feel depressed I go back to my CBT workbooks out of desperation and they're always like "stop thinking bad thoughts" and I'm like not thinking bad thoughts though?? I just want to sleep 16 hours a day and have lost the capacity to feel hope/enthusiasm/excitement haha
December 31, 2025 at 4:29 AM
every time I start to feel depressed I go back to my CBT workbooks out of desperation and they're always like "stop thinking bad thoughts" and I'm like not thinking bad thoughts though?? I just want to sleep 16 hours a day and have lost the capacity to feel hope/enthusiasm/excitement haha
Reposted by Para 🌵
As someone who has a little bit of experience in crisis PR/comms, this is exactly right and it’s a playbook used in the higher ed and nonprofit world as well.
In the world of politics, such surveys, unscientific and with randos inserting themselves, are a way to deflect taking responsibility for an issue, or to use said survey to support whatever those in control wanted to do in the first place, before it became controversial. 4/?
December 31, 2025 at 2:58 AM
As someone who has a little bit of experience in crisis PR/comms, this is exactly right and it’s a playbook used in the higher ed and nonprofit world as well.
And they sort of look like a thylacine in tiny antelope form :D
Animal lovers, have you ever heard of the zebra duiker? This small ungulate can be found in parts of West Africa. Adults typically weigh ~44 lbs (20 kg)—no larger than a medium-sized dog! They are rarely seen in the wild.
Photo: Kispál Attila, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Kispál Attila, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
December 31, 2025 at 1:58 AM
And they sort of look like a thylacine in tiny antelope form :D
Been playing Skyrim again the last couple days and ahhh it's still as easy to get lost in as ever 🥰
December 30, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Been playing Skyrim again the last couple days and ahhh it's still as easy to get lost in as ever 🥰
Reposted by Para 🌵
Quick roan stretch to keep you limber this afternoon 🙆♂️
December 30, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Quick roan stretch to keep you limber this afternoon 🙆♂️
Reposted by Para 🌵
Reposted by Para 🌵
I read that a well-stocked library is like a well-stocked wine cellar. You don't have to drink them all for them to be worth having.
December 30, 2025 at 1:20 AM
I read that a well-stocked library is like a well-stocked wine cellar. You don't have to drink them all for them to be worth having.
Reposted by Para 🌵
Reposted by Para 🌵
I used to manage wine programs for movie theaters and I am in the extremely unique position to say with professional certainty that the answer here is a crisp Albariño.
asking the sommelier which wine pairs best with swedish fish
December 29, 2025 at 4:53 AM
I used to manage wine programs for movie theaters and I am in the extremely unique position to say with professional certainty that the answer here is a crisp Albariño.
Reposted by Para 🌵
you’re so right, comic from 1925
December 29, 2025 at 3:18 PM
you’re so right, comic from 1925
Eep! Took a bit due to logistical issues but I have a Hugo finalist pin! 🤩
(r/Fantasy Bingo team, Best Related Work)
(r/Fantasy Bingo team, Best Related Work)
December 29, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Eep! Took a bit due to logistical issues but I have a Hugo finalist pin! 🤩
(r/Fantasy Bingo team, Best Related Work)
(r/Fantasy Bingo team, Best Related Work)
Reposted by Para 🌵
I keep thinking about the Underwood essay in File770, and the Nebula award embracing, and then unembracing, awards for slop. I'm really angry. I'm angry that some people are telling other people to engage in earnest dialogue with something which was written with ChatGPT to defend genAI (of course)
December 29, 2025 at 12:17 AM
I keep thinking about the Underwood essay in File770, and the Nebula award embracing, and then unembracing, awards for slop. I'm really angry. I'm angry that some people are telling other people to engage in earnest dialogue with something which was written with ChatGPT to defend genAI (of course)
Reposted by Para 🌵
This may not be the wildlife art many of you are used to seeing, but I really want to make more fantasy-esque animal and creature art like this!
#art #digitalart #illustration #artist #fantasy #drawing #fantasyart
#art #digitalart #illustration #artist #fantasy #drawing #fantasyart
May 8, 2025 at 4:52 AM
This may not be the wildlife art many of you are used to seeing, but I really want to make more fantasy-esque animal and creature art like this!
#art #digitalart #illustration #artist #fantasy #drawing #fantasyart
#art #digitalart #illustration #artist #fantasy #drawing #fantasyart
Reposted by Para 🌵
Video: Young cheetah Lulu enjoying the good scratchies from a zookeeper and purring like an idling diesel engine.
[via Cincinnati Zoo]
[via Cincinnati Zoo]
December 27, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Video: Young cheetah Lulu enjoying the good scratchies from a zookeeper and purring like an idling diesel engine.
[via Cincinnati Zoo]
[via Cincinnati Zoo]
Reposted by Para 🌵
That time of year again!
December 26, 2025 at 8:09 PM
That time of year again!
Reposted by Para 🌵
Reposted by Para 🌵
inks WIP! (still need to add pearline and grace)
December 26, 2025 at 11:48 PM
inks WIP! (still need to add pearline and grace)
Reposted by Para 🌵
☕️📖 Nothing like spending a cozy morning curled up under a blanket with a cup of tea and a book on my lap to keep me company while I endlessly scroll my phone
December 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
☕️📖 Nothing like spending a cozy morning curled up under a blanket with a cup of tea and a book on my lap to keep me company while I endlessly scroll my phone
Reposted by Para 🌵
My true Christmas wish - the thing I hold most hopeful in my heart - is that each and every one of you has a better 2026 than you had in 2025. May the fates be generous and kind and you all receive the blessings you all so richly deserve. Merry Christmas and much love to you all.
December 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
My true Christmas wish - the thing I hold most hopeful in my heart - is that each and every one of you has a better 2026 than you had in 2025. May the fates be generous and kind and you all receive the blessings you all so richly deserve. Merry Christmas and much love to you all.