Pemry Janes
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Pemry Janes
@pemryjanes.com
310 followers 86 following 2.2K posts
Author of the Living Sword series, an unpaid intern of History, He/Him.
www.pemryjanes.com
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Pemry Janes @pemryjanes.com · Apr 8
With three books published, the Living Sword series is my only series so far.

It has action, humor, and a talking sword very particular about their appearance and with a love of storytelling.

books2read.com/u/4EkM03
books2read.com/u/mBgRvN
books2read.com/u/bOJ8RQ
The cover of The Living Sword by Pemry Janes A snarling demonic creature, with a screaming chest, stares at you. A sword is hidden by the title. Cover of The Living Sword 2 - The Road Ahead by Pemry Janes. Cover of The Living Sword 3 - The Burden of Legacy by Pemry Janes
Reposted by Pemry Janes
darrylayo.bsky.social
Libraries purchase books. When you see a book at the library, it isn’t “free”

the library bought it.

which in turn means that the community bought it.

In other words, library books are not lost sales for authors and publishers; they’re positive sales. Active sales. Those are bought.
November 15, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
joschuaknuppe.bsky.social
Here the result of the Seaham Formation #paleostream, maybe the most relaxing formation stream we will ever have! This Carboniferous tundra wasn't chosen because of it's fossils, but because of its setting.
November 16, 2025 at 4:31 AM
pemryjanes.com
We shouldn't just assume when interpreting the past.

I love a good story, especially when based on the facts, but modern fashion and standards are just that. Modern.

We have a kinship with our ancestors, but the past remains a foreign country.
fakehistoryhunter.net The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 1d
I've always been annoyed by the assumptions people made about the victims at Pompeii based on where they were found, their position or connection to others.
Making up relationships, assuming genders, etc.
Nice to see that dealt with by science;
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Pompeii victims aren't who we thought they were, DNA analysis reveals
An ancient-DNA analysis of victims in Pompeii who died in Mount Vesuvius' eruption reveals some unusual relations between the people who died together.
www.livescience.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
bretdevereaux.bsky.social
This week on the blog: Hoplites! We're taking a crack at explaining the long-running debate over the nature and significance of the ancient Greek heavy infantryman, the hoplite, and the phalanx in which he (mostly) fought.

acoup.blog/2025/11/14/c...
Collections: Hoplite Wars, Part I: The Othismos over Othismos
This week (and next) we’re looking at hoplites, the heavy infantry of the ancient Greek poleis in the (early? mid? late?) Archaic and Classical periods, into the Hellenistic. In particular, I…
acoup.blog
November 15, 2025 at 3:09 PM
pemryjanes.com
It's so obvious when you put it like that.

Still can't get over the fact that a judge in the USA came to a different conclusion.
November 15, 2025 at 7:16 PM
pemryjanes.com
It's a beautiful artifact, which I had the good fortune to see at an exhibition in the RMO last year.

The cape was apparently further decorated with textile and hundreds of amber beads. Here's a photo where you can see a bit of the inside of it.

In the same exhibit was this golden hat.🗃️
This cape was found in northern Wales and apparently has signs that it was used often. 'Vuur in de Bronstijd' exhibit at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, photo by me. The hat might look like it's from the same area, but it was actually found in Germany. Three of its type have been found there, one in France. The gold has been hammered till it was paper thin, so the hat is more delicate than you might think. 'Vuur in de Bronstijd' exhibit at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, photo by me.
November 14, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
winterbranford.bsky.social
Bored and need a new fantasy, romance, or scifi book? Check out this group giveaway, which includes 2 of my books! #paranormalromance #darkromance #romantasy #fantasybooks #urbanfantasy #highfantasy #scifibooks #sciencefiction #writersky #authorsky #writingcommunity storyoriginapp.com/to/cjSMnmg
FREE Fantasy and Science Fiction for November 2025
Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Speculative
storyoriginapp.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:11 PM
pemryjanes.com
And this is just what it costs to run the current model. Training the new one, adds even more costs.

If anybody wonders what it looks like when a bubble swallows up a significant portion of a nation's GDP. Look at the South Sea Company.
edzitron.com Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 4d
Exclusive: Based on documents viewed by this newsletter, OpenAI spent over $12.4 billion on inference from 2024 to September 2025. As part of its Microsoft revenue share, it sent $493.8m in 2024/$865.8m Jan-Sep 2025, implying lower revenues than previously reported.
www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/
Exclusive: Here's How Much OpenAI Spends On Inference and Its Revenue Share With Microsoft
As with my Anthropic exclusive from a few weeks ago, though this feels like a natural premium piece, I decided it was better to publish on my free one so that you could all enjoy it. If you liked or f...
www.wheresyoured.at
November 14, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
drtobydriver.bsky.social
Such an imaginative lead for heritage in Scotland. I saw similar graphic novel artists used to illustrate the Ad Gefrin Anglo Saxon museum in Northumberland in May. A hugely effective new way to communicate archaeology 👏👏

www.digitscotland.com/archaeologis...
Archaeologists and Game Designers Collaborate to Create “Basically the Best Book on the Picts Ever Written” - Dig It!
Carved in Stone: A Storyteller’s Guide to the Picts is an illustrated and comprehensive book for anyone interested in Scotland’s past, including those who play tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). Fol...
www.digitscotland.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
bettyjiang.bsky.social
I had the honor of making this painting for Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein.
November 13, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
tylerkeillor.bsky.social
Any paleo folks in the Chicagoland area- this afternoon is our final Open House of 2025 - come see what we’ve been working on at the Fossil Lab, 5437 S. Wabash (just West of UChicago main campus). We’ll continue hosting our monthly Open Houses in the spring of 2026! 🦕🦖
November 13, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
greenleejw.bsky.social
Eel smuggling is a major problem today. But it's not new!

In 1463, London city officials arrested 9 Zeeland merchants who tried to slip 97 barrels of salted eels past customs at Billingsgate. They wanted to avoid import fees, but wound up facing a £40 fine.
🗃️🧪
Meme. Medieval drawing of a cooper, putting the lid on a barrel with a hammer, while surrounded by other barrels. The man -- we'll call him Ædwallow-- is wearing a pink shirt and blue leggings, as if he's planning on going to gender reveal party later and he wants to cover all his bases. He's wearing a somewhat shapeless red hat that might -- or might not -- keep his ears warm. He has a white apron tied around his waist. He is clean-shaven, and his face looks young. His expression is terribly intense, and it doesn't take much imagination to believe that he is sealing his rival in this barrel. Perhaps this was a man named Flord whom Ædwallow had called a friend in his youth, until he had ran off with Ædwallow's mother to live a life of crime together as petty toast thieves in Malta. Ævence spent years tracking them down, & now's he's caught them and stuffed them in barrels to ship back home, for reasons only he knows. Meme text reads: "Staring down the barrel of a too-eelaborate plan"
November 13, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
poulsens.bsky.social
And here is my previous one, from back in 2024.
Silk (Cindy Moon) and Ghost-Spider (Gwen Stacy), in a minimalist style. They are both jumping through the air, but Gwen is under Cindy, and upside down.
November 12, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
hannahbooth.bsky.social
Utrecht's Domtoren — always a good reminder of the importance of looking up now and then
November 12, 2025 at 5:03 PM
pemryjanes.com
Elderberry sauce, perhaps?
greenleejw.bsky.social Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 4d
Are you looking for an expression to deliver at the end of a truly cutting remark? A new clunchfist?

The 1632 play "The Rival Friends" has you covered. Wrapping up a line of insults, one character concludes with this hammer stroke: "There's sauce for your eels!"

Devastation.
🗃️🧪
Meme. Medieval painting of a man hitting a woman over the head with an axe. The man on the right (we'll call him Estabalm) is wearing a pink tunic with blue tights & a blue hood. His short, forked beard is blond like his curly hair, & his torso is too long for his legs. He's swinging his axe at the women sitting in front of him. Estabalm is looking at you with some guilt; clearly you've walked into an intimate moment & he's trying to figure out which lie to tell. The woman in front of him we'll call Fyntinaula. She's wearing a blue tunic, with rusty red tights and hood. She is sitting on the ground, with feet tucked under her & hands on her knees. She's looking down with a serene look on her face, which is surprising because Foclax's axe is crashing into her skull. There is blood all over her head. A bandaid won't help here. There are silent but judgmental trees on either side. "Axes for thee, not me." they whisper. Meme text reads: "When you're hit with the eel of last retort"
November 12, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
jkass99.bsky.social
The American government removed 2 monuments to Black American Soldiers in the Netherlands. Now the *Dutch* government is demanding they be returned.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
A Dutch war cemetery added displays showing black US soldiers. Then they were quietly removed
Relatives fear the move is part of ‘the same virus affecting the US’, as historians and politicians say it coincided with Trump’s DEI purge
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:14 PM
pemryjanes.com
Reposted with alt text, go give the original post a like.
A Nautilus by Palaeonavix.
November 11, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
greenleejw.bsky.social
It's Tuesday. It's November. And it's been awhile. So lets tell the story about the eel, the scheming wife who ate it, and the talking magpie that ratted her out!

That's right! It's time for the eel tale from the 1370s blockbuster hit, "The Book of the Knight of the Tower." 1/5
🗃️🧪
Meme. Medieval painting of a man talking to three women. They are standing in front of a pink castle, or possible beyond the city walls. Behind them, next to the walls, is a dense forrest. The man, dressed in a baggy red cloak to cover his gut, is facing the women and holding out his left hand. He is pointing with his right hand, but it's not clear what he's pointing at. His expression is sour, and he may be asking which of them painted his castle pink while he was away on a boys-only weekend in the city. The women, for their part, are standing shoulder to shoulder, facing him and looking unimpressed. They are each wearing different colored dressed and hats, with their hair in Princess Leia buns. The one in the middle -- we'll call her Amerilla -- looks esp. dismissive of the man and his possible scoldings. He can suck it; she'll paint the castle whatever damned color she wants. Wait until he sees the living room. Meme text reads: "Which one of you lucky ladies wants to eat my eel?"
November 11, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
fakehistoryhunter.net
The finale of the great TV comedy show Blackadder goes Forth.
Back then I didn't expect one of the funniest programmes ever to end with a scene that makes me cry every time I see it.
Every single time.
November 11, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
dorukgolcu.bsky.social
Hit exactly 8K followers this morning! Let's do an Artshare before the bots unfollow and I fall below 🤪

Share and like each others' art
No AI
No NFT
Werewolves fighting in snow Creepy woman surrounded by ghostly animals Vampire with sword with bats swarming around him Woman with sword with butterflies surrounding her
November 4, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
flintdibble.bsky.social
I sat down for an in-depth discussion with anthropologist Dr Chris Kavanagh @ckava.bsky.social to discuss the phenomenon of modern, secular gurus and their influence on our world

cc: @guruspod.bsky.social

youtu.be/j4S--I7mx0g
Decoding the Modern Guru Phenomenon with Dr Chris Kavanagh
YouTube video by Archaeology with Flint Dibble
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
murderbotbot.bsky.social
I could play it back to listen in on the whole conversation but I could also punch myself in the head with a sampling drill and I was not going to do that, either.
November 10, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #AncientSiteSunday the #Hellenistic theatre at Pergamon, #Türkiye, built in the 3rd century BC, alterations were made in the #Roman period. It's one of the steepest known ancient theatres. The capacity was about 10,000 spectators.

📷 C. Bredfeldt

🏺 AncientBluesky #archaeology
A full shot of the ruins of an ancient theatre, located on a hillside. The theatre's steep tiered seating structure is clearly visible, constructed of light gray stone blocks, weathering evident in various tones. The hillside surrounding the theatre s covered with grass, creating a contrast between the man-made stone structures and the natural landscape. Sections of crumbling stone walls and foundations are scattered throughout the grassy slopes.
November 9, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
rooklafetra.bsky.social
Here's an interactive project I'm working on right now!

It's an epistolary novel with accompanying illustrations by our narrator as she travels across a fantasy world, writing to a boy who is too ill to go on adventures himself but can pay her to adventure for him.

#LettersfromÁine
A cartoon illustration of rats on a rat-sized wooden boardwalk outside of rat-sized wattle and daub buildings. Two of the rats are using a tiny saw to divide up a plump turnip, while a young rat behind them uses a tiny broom to sweep the stoop of a cozy little shop. Golden light streams out of the windows to the shop, illuminating blackberries on a table outside and a pile of acorns. Dappled autumn light filters through the bowing thyme plants above the rats as one of the rats looks up towards a little moth flitting through the plants. Let me tell you of where I came from. I don't know how I would spell my family's name for our village, because they speak no language you know. My friend Onri, who taught me to speak like you, said to simply call it Baile Beag or Little Town to outsiders. I could tell you exactly where it is, even draw you a map, but you would never be able to find Baile Beag. How Onri found it in the first place, I don’t know. I asked him once and he merely smiled. Our little village is on a rocky peninsula, too rough and small for farming with no good harbors for fishing boats. Over the years the trees have wound their roots in between the rocks, cracking them apart to make space for life. That’s how my parents and their parents before them lived, worming into the little cracks where no one else could go. They can garden and they can tend their orchards, but there is no plow strong enough to work this land. That they were able to grow enough food to feed me and not starve themselves while I was growing astounds me. When the big folk try to find Little Town, they get turned around. They walk the same path over and over, which seems to turn back on itself. They look up through the trees for the sun, but cannot find it. The sound of the sea is everywhere and also miles away, so they cannot follow it to shore. If they take a bit of twine to mark their way and stay straight and true until they reach the very end of the peninsula, somehow they still never find the village. That’s a bit of magic I’m told that all the feral folk have, which only grows stronger the more of them there are, and our little village has nearly five hundred villagers. Five hundred! I imagine you crying out. What sort of little village could that be? How could that many people simply be invisible on a peninsula, which only has one way in and out? But you see, it’s the people who are small, not the number of them. I know my skin has no fur and I stand as tall as any other young woman you’ve met, but I was born to rats. Rats, the vermin I’m told your people kill on sight. That’s why feral folk magic is so important, so that outsiders struggle to focus their eyes on the them if they don’t want to be seen. Don’t confuse my rats with their wild kin, for they are as clever and industrious as anyone in your grand cities. Their gardens are richer in life than your sterile fields and they love to tinker and build. You would think their lack of thumbs would be a hindrance, but I told you they were clever and industrious. They build themselves gauntlets to strap to their wrists, which have a little false thumb to help them grasp and hold onto things. They’re also less shy about using their teeth as tools than you might be. At this time of year, they gather the acorns to blanch in the stream and roast alongside chestnuts. They dig up fresh roots like turnips and carrots for immediate eating and, because they’re unable to make root cellars deep enough for storage, they pile up all the grasses they can atop their gardens to insulate what remains through winter. Blackberry season is dwindling now and it’s getting too cool to dry them effectively, so what remains must be eaten before it turns to mold and mush. I can never have enough of them, loving them with all my heart but knowing my size and appetite could make others go hungry. They keep no livestock, though maintain friendly relations with the bees and butterflies. They don’t have much capacity for working iron at their size, so must take bits from the big folk for their tools. They don’t think of stealing the way that you do, because they don’t think of ownership the way that you do. Their tools are what they need and use. If they do not need it or use it, someone else can. There is so much that the big folk cast aside or ignore or forget about that little clever paws can find use for. It was not my first time venturing into a big folks’ village when we met, but nearly so. I told you then that my family could no longer feed me, but I was literate and could make myself of use. There was no lie in anything I said. My own garden had to be ten times the size of my family’s and I had grown too big to safely walk the streets of Baile Beag, which are only slightly wider than my feet. I can write to you of wonders that you have never seen in exchange for your generosity. Your patronage will allow me to live and my family to prosper. Yours Faithfully, Áine
November 8, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by Pemry Janes
drannaclark.bsky.social
Winter landscape with skaters, painted c. 1665 by Aert van der Neer, Dutch Golden Age artist who worked in and around Amsterdam, known for lively winter scenes on frozen rivers; died #OTD 1670.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
November 9, 2025 at 6:15 AM