raye (they/them)
@snek.bsky.social
profile pic: art of the vampire armand by yupipuf: a Desi man with a solemn face ringed by a fiery glow & burning eyes
banner description: roman mosaic of romulus and remus with their wolf mom.
Pinned
raye (they/them)
@snek.bsky.social
· Feb 20
screaming, screaming,
ev'rybody loves to scream!
buy yourself a Screaming Tube
and life will be a dream!
- snek, circa 2014
ev'rybody loves to scream!
buy yourself a Screaming Tube
and life will be a dream!
- snek, circa 2014
Reposted by raye (they/them)
UK writers - I have a pitch about the 'protection of women' in the context of the fascists we've been dealing with up here for the last six months but I don't know where would be open to publishing it. Things have changed a lot since I was last writing properly.
February 8, 2026 at 8:28 PM
UK writers - I have a pitch about the 'protection of women' in the context of the fascists we've been dealing with up here for the last six months but I don't know where would be open to publishing it. Things have changed a lot since I was last writing properly.
while protecting the fake names she uses for scamming
I’m not reading the article, but it kinda seems like the NYT profiled a scammer without calling her a scammer?
February 8, 2026 at 7:56 PM
while protecting the fake names she uses for scamming
also that they should have to accept whatever their parents say without access to any nasty 'social contagions' that might encourage them to think they should have bodily autonomy, genuine political representation etc
I think the idea is that they embrace grind culture and start working on their side hustles
Kids can't hang out in parks. They can't hang out at the mall. They don't have 3rd spaces because no one wants kids around and then we are surprised when they rely on SM for connection.
If you take that away, what do they have left?
If you take that away, what do they have left?
February 8, 2026 at 7:13 PM
also that they should have to accept whatever their parents say without access to any nasty 'social contagions' that might encourage them to think they should have bodily autonomy, genuine political representation etc
Reposted by raye (they/them)
Actually Amelia Gentleman, I don’t in fact want to see women having a seat at the paedophile table. I’d rather there wasn’t a paedophile table at all.
Sex and snacks, but no seat at the table: the role of women in Epstein’s sordid men’s club
Sex and snacks, but no seat at the table: the role of women in Epstein’s sordid men’s club
Files reveal a world of flattery and fratboy tones, where rich men are cultivated and women provide services
www.theguardian.com
February 8, 2026 at 10:44 AM
Actually Amelia Gentleman, I don’t in fact want to see women having a seat at the paedophile table. I’d rather there wasn’t a paedophile table at all.
Reposted by raye (they/them)
The system is working as intended.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
The impacts of locking under 16 yos from their social media networks are now beginning to bite for those young people who relied on them for social connection
The impacts of locking under 16 yos from their social media networks are now beginning to bite for those young people who relied on them for social connection
‘I’ve lost my friends’: advocacy groups warn Australia’s social media ban risks isolating kids with disabilities
Despite the ban’s aim to protect young people, experts are concerned that those in marginalised communities or living with disabilities could lose vital support networks
www.theguardian.com
February 8, 2026 at 11:43 AM
The system is working as intended.
Reposted by raye (they/them)
just seen the green candidate in gorton saying that if she wins she'll make people stop posting about the labour party on bluesky and it'll return to trans women posting their tits and neurodiverse 37 year olds talking about their new criterion collection blu-rays. starmer is fucked.
February 8, 2026 at 12:13 PM
just seen the green candidate in gorton saying that if she wins she'll make people stop posting about the labour party on bluesky and it'll return to trans women posting their tits and neurodiverse 37 year olds talking about their new criterion collection blu-rays. starmer is fucked.
Reposted by raye (they/them)
Just a heads up to any fellow parents, the formula recall has expanded to Aptamil and Cow and Gate now, as well as Nestle and Danone, please do check if you use formula at all on case you need to stop:
Full list of Aptamil and Cow & Gate baby formulas recalled over toxin poisoning fears
The Food Standards Agency confirmed this week that dozens of children suffered symptoms of toxin poisoning
www.independent.co.uk
February 8, 2026 at 2:02 PM
Just a heads up to any fellow parents, the formula recall has expanded to Aptamil and Cow and Gate now, as well as Nestle and Danone, please do check if you use formula at all on case you need to stop:
one of the most beloved romance series i know is by an author with 6 books to her name - charlie adhara. and theyre a wonderful balancing act of psychological believability and careful urban fantasy worldbuilding. i see them recced again and again bc ppl actually read & enjoy & remember them
To counter AI slop writers, we need louder celebrations of the oddball writers of two weird books that each took 20 years to write, the hermits refusing to publish except via mimeographed zines, the typewriter poets, playwrights for dollhouses, short story writers who sew words into vegan vellum...
February 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM
one of the most beloved romance series i know is by an author with 6 books to her name - charlie adhara. and theyre a wonderful balancing act of psychological believability and careful urban fantasy worldbuilding. i see them recced again and again bc ppl actually read & enjoy & remember them
Reposted by raye (they/them)
The spur for this is the Terminally Ill Adults (Assisted Dying) bill, by means of which a government too cowardly to own the policy has offered tacit support to a peer & an MP to do something that deserved care, resources & proper public consultation on the cheap, causing fear among disabled people.
"Wholesale reform" you say? Maybe it's time for something a little more radical, like abolition, but that would raise questions about the wider political system, so perhaps more tinkering would be for the best.
observer.co.uk/news/politic...
observer.co.uk/news/politic...
Lords reform to be tackled by new group of MPs
After The Observer raised the alarm, a new group aims to address filibustering and how to strip disgraced peers of their titles more quickly
observer.co.uk
February 8, 2026 at 4:52 PM
The spur for this is the Terminally Ill Adults (Assisted Dying) bill, by means of which a government too cowardly to own the policy has offered tacit support to a peer & an MP to do something that deserved care, resources & proper public consultation on the cheap, causing fear among disabled people.
thatll turn things around for sure!
NEW: Hearing that Starmer is considering making Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson, Morgan McSweeney's deputies, his joint chiefs of staff.
February 8, 2026 at 6:54 PM
thatll turn things around for sure!
i do love when the romance brigade gets up in arms against grifting assholes hehe
February 8, 2026 at 6:52 PM
i do love when the romance brigade gets up in arms against grifting assholes hehe
Reposted by raye (they/them)
Four excerpts I found of particular interest, whether it’s because they’re alarming, ironic, or absurd.
I am currently deciding if I want to comment on them specifically by threading from this, or if I’m just gonna post this and leave it.
I am currently deciding if I want to comment on them specifically by threading from this, or if I’m just gonna post this and leave it.
February 8, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Four excerpts I found of particular interest, whether it’s because they’re alarming, ironic, or absurd.
I am currently deciding if I want to comment on them specifically by threading from this, or if I’m just gonna post this and leave it.
I am currently deciding if I want to comment on them specifically by threading from this, or if I’m just gonna post this and leave it.
Reposted by raye (they/them)
What is fascinating is how this article is going over in r/RomanceBooks. Sleuths have already identified her other pseudonyms, and are unequivocal that what this AI evangelist "author" is doing is not writing, and its not producing romance books
February 8, 2026 at 5:22 PM
What is fascinating is how this article is going over in r/RomanceBooks. Sleuths have already identified her other pseudonyms, and are unequivocal that what this AI evangelist "author" is doing is not writing, and its not producing romance books
Reposted by raye (they/them)
You know that saying about gold rushes, and how the people making the big money are the pick-and-shovel sellers, not the miners?
This sloptimist woman is not really selling AI romance novels. She's doing some for proof of concept, but her real business is selling AI Author Sloptimist Seminars.
This sloptimist woman is not really selling AI romance novels. She's doing some for proof of concept, but her real business is selling AI Author Sloptimist Seminars.
February 8, 2026 at 3:55 PM
You know that saying about gold rushes, and how the people making the big money are the pick-and-shovel sellers, not the miners?
This sloptimist woman is not really selling AI romance novels. She's doing some for proof of concept, but her real business is selling AI Author Sloptimist Seminars.
This sloptimist woman is not really selling AI romance novels. She's doing some for proof of concept, but her real business is selling AI Author Sloptimist Seminars.
Reposted by raye (they/them)
Hi, everyone! I'm launching a newsletter geared towards writers called Don't Stop Writing, meant to explore ideas at the intersection of art, craft, and mindset (and, obviously, keep you writing).
The first one should go out in March:
preview.mailerlite.io/forms/201818...
The first one should go out in March:
preview.mailerlite.io/forms/201818...
Don't Stop Writing Signup
preview.mailerlite.io
February 8, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Hi, everyone! I'm launching a newsletter geared towards writers called Don't Stop Writing, meant to explore ideas at the intersection of art, craft, and mindset (and, obviously, keep you writing).
The first one should go out in March:
preview.mailerlite.io/forms/201818...
The first one should go out in March:
preview.mailerlite.io/forms/201818...
how ai book slop makes money - in ku, someone starting a book and ditching it counts towards page reads & thats what ku gives you money for - and bear in mind reading the first 10-20 pages is nothing to the devouring ants that are romance readers, we tend to be reading constantly
so bare minimum, a good reporter would have explained that and asked this "author" to give more detail about how much each book made, when readers stopped reading, etc.
AND ALSO, how much money this "author" spent on sponsored ads to make the books appear in search results.
AND ALSO, how much money this "author" spent on sponsored ads to make the books appear in search results.
February 8, 2026 at 4:52 PM
how ai book slop makes money - in ku, someone starting a book and ditching it counts towards page reads & thats what ku gives you money for - and bear in mind reading the first 10-20 pages is nothing to the devouring ants that are romance readers, we tend to be reading constantly
Reposted by raye (they/them)
fuck this lady, fuck the nyt reporter, fuck all of this. fuck amazon for introducing the KU page read model that makes this possible, fuck our tech overlords.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
The New Fabio Is Claude
www.nytimes.com
February 8, 2026 at 1:35 PM
fuck this lady, fuck the nyt reporter, fuck all of this. fuck amazon for introducing the KU page read model that makes this possible, fuck our tech overlords.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
Reposted by raye (they/them)
in order to understand this particular grift, you really have to understand how KU works, everyone. And for as long as KU has been around, people have been figuring out how to grift the money out of it.
February 8, 2026 at 2:08 PM
in order to understand this particular grift, you really have to understand how KU works, everyone. And for as long as KU has been around, people have been figuring out how to grift the money out of it.
Reposted by raye (they/them)
I don't really want to bother, but these numbers? this is just a war of attrition. Each book made $500 in the KU trenches. She expended zero effort writing them, and readers DIDN'T READ THEM.
February 8, 2026 at 1:48 PM
I don't really want to bother, but these numbers? this is just a war of attrition. Each book made $500 in the KU trenches. She expended zero effort writing them, and readers DIDN'T READ THEM.
Reposted by raye (they/them)
And here is Joan Hassall's 1973 wood engraving illustration to Austen's "Love and Freindship"--presumably picturing Laura and Sophia, as they faint alternately on the sofa
February 8, 2026 at 1:55 AM
And here is Joan Hassall's 1973 wood engraving illustration to Austen's "Love and Freindship"--presumably picturing Laura and Sophia, as they faint alternately on the sofa
Reposted by raye (they/them)
One of the things that keeps me going is how badly the worst people want everyone else to like them and how firmly they keep telling them, "No."
It's really funny that The All-American Halftime Show was announced months ago when elites were banking on a real right wing sea change, only now moms are hurling abuse at ICE, and folks are brushing up their duolingo so they can sing along with whatever Bad Bunny performs on the real halftime show.
February 7, 2026 at 3:27 PM
One of the things that keeps me going is how badly the worst people want everyone else to like them and how firmly they keep telling them, "No."
any time ppl try to make a Reading Hierarchy based on reading purely for pleasure being bad i wanna know who gets to define the Allowable Pleasures of reading, or are we supposed to read only what we hate, in which case i challenge them to throw out every book that ever gave them any joy
February 8, 2026 at 12:46 AM
any time ppl try to make a Reading Hierarchy based on reading purely for pleasure being bad i wanna know who gets to define the Allowable Pleasures of reading, or are we supposed to read only what we hate, in which case i challenge them to throw out every book that ever gave them any joy
yess this its so basic ugh
but also just... the conversation outside Romancelandia is NEVER as interesting as what we're talking about
they're all still stuck on "is it bad when books are about happiness?" and always will be
they're all still stuck on "is it bad when books are about happiness?" and always will be
February 8, 2026 at 12:44 AM
yess this its so basic ugh
Reposted by raye (they/them)
It's important to look at how The Times is framing the protegé of a deeply corrupt friend of a pedophile, who boasts about undermining British democracy as a victim and decent man.
And remember they'd never be anywhere close to this sympathetic to a genuine victim who was left wing.
And remember they'd never be anywhere close to this sympathetic to a genuine victim who was left wing.
Morgan McSweeney is on the brink of resigning "on his own terms," according to the Sunday Times www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
February 7, 2026 at 11:41 PM
It's important to look at how The Times is framing the protegé of a deeply corrupt friend of a pedophile, who boasts about undermining British democracy as a victim and decent man.
And remember they'd never be anywhere close to this sympathetic to a genuine victim who was left wing.
And remember they'd never be anywhere close to this sympathetic to a genuine victim who was left wing.
felt rly rough all day, no clue why ughh
February 7, 2026 at 6:49 PM
felt rly rough all day, no clue why ughh