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verati404.bsky.social
Verati
@verati404.bsky.social
2K followers 950 following 5.8K posts
Friend of spiders. Raccoon at heart. Spends too much time down research rabbit holes. Bad at hydrating & sitting in a chair.
Writer and artist.
T4T He/They 🏳️‍⚧️

#EchoSight #VeratiArt #SingularityHiccup

Find Me Elsewhere!
https://linktr.ee/verati
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verati404.bsky.social
Verati @verati404.bsky.social · May 16
And it's LIVE on ITCH-IO! DOWNLOAD IT HERE FOR $4.99!
verati404.itch.io/echo-sight

A disabled shapeshifter tries to save a city with the one person who could undo their whole life...or free it.

#lgbt #lgbtqa+ #QueerWriters #books #💙📚 #💙🪐 #💙🌶 #booksky #EchoSight #fantasy #mystery #WritingCommunity
The cover of my novel, Echo Sight. The main character is wearing a feather cloak and holds a flame in their keft hand and a chain weapon in their right. They float above an underground lake with memories rippling in the water. Behind them, mostly obscured in the dark behind the stalagmites, is a dragon with bright, glowing eyes, watching them. On top of this cover are blue word bubbles with what you'll find within the book: Adult main character, wise-ass funny narrator, disability and mental health rep, 400 plus page count, LGBT romance, found family, themes of environmentalism, justice, and intersectionalism, shapeshifters, fungal monsters, a near-future tech world, magical realism, and "there was only one bed." A modern map of the alien continent where my novel takes place. It is scribbled on in red ink, with such hits as a travel checklist and some guy's phone number, a badly-proportioned spider, and the entire Sporelands scribbled out with the word "No," in all caps. The focus of the map is a circled city named Akert near the Gulf of Afredal's coast The opening to Echo Sight: Chapter 1 - The Senka Problem Blood never clings to phoenix feathers. Symbolic, I guess, though mostly just convenient for me at the time. The guy at my feet was super dead. The feather quills of my cloak dragged the concrete, so I held its hem close as I crouched beside the body. Raindrops hissed as each one pelted the exposed skin on my face and hands. In the bleak, stormy night, my halo did basically nothing that the bright harbor lights didn't. "Fucking great," said the big man standing over me. A dark-haired man commanding ocean waves with the movements of his hands. His expression is stern in concentration. He wears a pair of large earrings and a necklace vial containing liquid within. His black formal shirt is soaked through, and underneath him is the words "Echo Sight," the title of the novel he's from.
verati404.bsky.social
#AllHandsOnDeck

#SingularityHiccup
Noel, the ship's doc, thinks he can run the ship better than Seryn. And when she lets him, he realizes how unprepared for crisis outside of his expertise he really is.

In #TaintedFaculties, Etha needed to figure out how to save the world & the price was too high.
zprospero.bsky.social Zed Prospero @zprospero.bsky.social · 1d
#AllHandsOnDeck

We're matching up our work to the Minor Arcana Tarot Cards. Tell us how your characters (or places, things, or events) match up!

Today's card is: TEN OF WANDS

Who or what from your writing does it fit?

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity
#WritingPrompts
#AllHandsOnDeck What image would you put on this card from your writing? What would it mean if it was upright or reversed? 10 OF WANDS Upright: Burden, Duty, Stress Reversed: Collapse, Breakdown, Too Much Responsibility
February 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM
verati404.bsky.social
I'm SO amused by this super tiny tarot deck I found at the mall. LOOK AT IT. (Glasses for scale.)
The smallest Waite tarot deck next to a pair of eye glasses.
February 7, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Verati
whistberry.bsky.social
Happy #FebruArty and #Caturday... for the theme of #feline, here's one of my earliest pet portraits!
A predominantly white cat with red and black tabby markings around the top of the head and ears and soft green eyes. The cat is lying among willow leaves with yellow blossoms and rowan leaves with red berries. The cat has a sweet face, pink nose and pink toe beans.
February 7, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Verati
mcburnellauthor.bsky.social
#SFFChat 4
Bc I love winter and snow, the descriptions are more usually flattering, but my story starts in this disgusting dump of a temporary town built around an extraction industry, and even the snow and ice here is nasty
Once he had bundled up in layers of cold weather gear, he stuck his breakfast in a pocket of his coat and let himself out. What lay beyond looked first like a town, but the resemblance broke down the longer one observed. There weren’t roads, let alone pavement. There were too few buildings, and the buildings were too big. Too plain, relative to their size. There was trash absolutely everywhere, ambiguous, complicated equipment lying piled in heaps, and crumpled pieces of paper blowing down the icy tramped-down mud they had in place of streets, frozen in fantastical marzipan-spikes that tripped the feet. Pherul walked hastily, head down, in the direction he had seen lights and movement the prior night. It was cold enough to chip the enamel on his teeth, but at least it wasn’t windy. Today. This minute. The light had a strange vitreous quality so it was difficult to tell if the sky was cloudy or how bright the sunshine was. He didn’t care enough to take his eyes off his feet and look around. There wasn’t anything to see: a cluster of buildings, distant snow, here and there the intimation of a shallow hill. Other people who were guaranteed to be uninteresting because they were stuck here like him.
February 6, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Verati
ddwardiswriting.bsky.social
I think we need to start reassessing morality around two questions...
1. Does it cause harm?
2. Does it violate consent?

If the only *harm* you can think of is that children might learn a thing exists, then there is no harm. You're just a bigot.
February 5, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Verati
voicesofvalhoon.bsky.social
I'm getting top surgery this summer!I need to save up to cover the out of pocket portion, so I'm opening map commissions!
Great for TTRPGs, your upcoming book, or just because
ko-fi.com/lillylockwoo...
Donate directly: ko-fi.com/lillylockwoo...
Or buy my books! lillylockwood.carrd.co#voicesofvalh...
February 4, 2026 at 11:09 PM
verati404.bsky.social
#FebruaryWorldbuilders
Whether we're talking about my space serial, #SingularityHiccup, or #TaintedFaculties, there are both hot & cold deserts! A notable one Enaka has visited is the Qéras, a rather small, high desert (chilly, rocky, elevated) just south of the Losel Steppe.
A map of the fictional continent, Cateroph, for my Tainted Faculties series. In the southern half of the map is the country Adet, mostly taken up by highlands and the Losel Steppe. Just south-west of that where Enaka has drawn a big, red spider is the desert I refer to in my post.
February 5, 2026 at 3:33 PM
verati404.bsky.social
How is it both February 5th and the 300th day of January?
February 5, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Verati
portaltohades.bsky.social
Um. So. Hospital stay #5 cuz i can't breathe & nearly blind in right eye. Gotta talk w/ a neurologist and do further testing and may or may not be getting a shunt to treat my IIH. So uhhhh if you want a book....yeah. Im sorry. I know this is ridiculous.
portaltohades.bsky.social c.e. chant/hades 💀🐊 💬 too many comics @portaltohades.bsky.social · May 20
I have an art book for #tyreecomic ! It's 62 pages at $10! Not only does it have art but I have some brief guides into my page process as well. There is even stuff I havent released publicly in it! It's a great way to support me currently and get a glimpse into my obsession

ko-fi.com/s/f5c5cebbd6
February 1, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by Verati
joyousjoyness.com
One of my early cat paintings, "Grumpy Cat"! I thought a monochromatic grumpy cat with neon #clouds would be a fun combo!

#grumpycat #art #cat #painting #catart #BlueSkyArtShow #caturday
Painting of a grumpy purple cat with neon clouds above. The artist's signature and @joyousjoyfuljoyness watermark are at the bottom.
January 31, 2026 at 4:13 PM
verati404.bsky.social
Show me how you draw armor ⚔️🛡
A warrior crouching against her backpack with a battleaxe in her hand. She's smiling at the camera.
January 31, 2026 at 4:31 PM
verati404.bsky.social
#WritingPrompt

A slight spoiler, but: Dreran in my Book 2 WIP. Dreran was the antagonist in Echo Sight, but we barely got to see or know them other than some broad strokes and through others. In Book 2, however, that wet cat of a personality is so fun to stick next to Enaka. They both hate it, lol.
cometkins.bsky.social Ian Haramaki 🏳️‍⚧️✨ @cometkins.bsky.social · 7d
Who’s a character in your book/wip that you’ve come to enjoy more than you’d expect? What’s so fun about them? #WritingPrompt
January 31, 2026 at 4:27 PM
verati404.bsky.social
Brain like the sound of grinding teeth & the slippery patchiness of remelted snow.

Emotions like a dual-bladed kitchen knife.

Holes in the floor patched over but not reinforced. Particle board over empty space. Jump & fall through the sinkhole yawning beneath.

A demon's portal. But no demon.
January 31, 2026 at 1:24 AM
verati404.bsky.social
omg we don't need Triple 2X Mega sized goods. It makes the paper towles such a pain in the ass to store. Things could be normal sizes! It's fine! It doesn't have to be SUPER MEGA PLUSSSSSSSSS

(Brought to you by someone in the house grabbing the giant paper towels that are impossible to store well.)
January 30, 2026 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Verati
tishamark.com
Hello Friday!

Tisha Mark ©2025, To Dream by the Sea No. 2508, oil on gessobord, 8"x8"

Original is available:
tishamark.com/product/to-d...

#scape #painting #art #bsnm #SciArt #TraditionalArt #BlueSkyArt
Original seascape oil painting by Tisha Mark, "To Dream by the Sea No. 2508" 8"x8" oil on Ampersand Gessobord (2025). An atmospheric textured seascape with white cloud formations over a dark blue sea with a rocky shore.
January 30, 2026 at 3:28 PM
verati404.bsky.social
Dammit, dammit, dammit!

Even further diet adjustments didn't improve. Numbers somehow even worse than before?! For CUTTING sugar more?! (Progressive genetic disorders suck ass.) I don't. Want. To go. On insulin! I crashed out like four times when I attempted needles years ago! I can't do it!
January 30, 2026 at 3:03 PM
verati404.bsky.social
Heh, literally lived a movie moment last night.

Was dreaming. That dreaming turned lucid and was then of my bedroom. I snapped awake with nothing to trigger it, staring at my door.

Immediately after, my 7yo opened my door and said she had a nightmare.

(My walls/door is thick. No noise, lol.)
January 30, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Verati
voicesofvalhoon.bsky.social
#SFFChat

Conn’s special interest is healing magic (and trying to beat his own personal record of different species healed lmao)
He reached behind and scribbled something into a notebook. Aila quirked her head. “I keep track of every species and how many of that type I’ve healed,” he said, flipping the notebook closed. “That’s a bit odd.” “I know.” They stood in silence, staring at each other for far too long. Conn blinked. “Sorry, was there a reason you came up here?” “You said I could come talk to you?” He blinked again. “Saints, you’re right. Sorry. I’ve been doing this for damn near thirty-five years. You’d think I’d have better bedside manner by now.” He gestured for Aila to sit. “What’s troubling you?”
January 30, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by Verati
arobertswrites.com
In the first chapter of Monk WIP, Tadc experiences cognitive and sensory overload due to his new environment and disruption of his routine. He is mostly nonspeaking and struggles to communicate with his brothers. And although it's not shown in this excerpt, he stims by tugging at his hair. #SFFChat
Tadc, a short, heavy, brown-haired monk, neither moved nor spoke nor looked at Domnall. He could speak, sometimes, but not here, in these unfamiliar surroundings, and not now, overwhelmed by cold wind, colder water, and the pungent smells of tar, wet leather, and fish. Even at home in Cell Ethne, he preferred to communicate by writing on the tablet he carried at his belt.
January 30, 2026 at 1:06 AM
Reposted by Verati
arobertswrites.com
It would flatter my ego and help support the magazine as well as other authors if you spent your $7 on this issue of LCRW.
arobertswrites.com Praise-Abby Barebone @arobertswrites.com · 9d
As before, my story “A Grumble of Goddesses,” about Minoan snake goddesses being mean girls to each other, is available in LCRW No. 51.
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 51 | Small Beer Press
At least 24 Hours from Tulsa as the zine flies.
smallbeerpress.com
January 30, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Verati
kiraofthewind.com
#SFFChat Q4

From my short story "Better the Devil You Know" where Steffa is the MC and she's going through her first day at Five Saints Academy.
Varesh arrives with the wheelchair and brings it as close to the seats as he can. There’s no ramp up to our level. I could mention that to the Principatus since he did ask me to report any accessibility issues I encounter, but I imagine most people who are in wheelchairs stay on the bottom level. How many Godbloods get overblooded while sitting up here? Well, it couldn’t hurt to at least mention it to him… “I can come pick you up if you can’t get down here,” Varesh offers. Hecate waves a hand. “No need! I can move her with telekinesis.” She looks at me and I can tell she’s trying to send a telepathic message, but I do not receive it out of fear that opening my mental state could also hurt my legs. When it becomes obvious I won’t listen to her telepathically, she whispers, “Come on, you don’t want an adult man carrying you.”
January 30, 2026 at 1:34 AM
Reposted by Verati
mcburnellauthor.bsky.social
#SFFChat Q4

I never talk about this series, so here's Isador again. Explaining to his human apprentice why he's shaky and cold and doesn't have much appetite
“In order that we speak with his voice, we have to be at least a little bit his equals. That can’t be the case if we’re bound by fate, led one step to the next by his will. To separate an elf from our god, though, that is not easily done. There is only one thing that can set us free, and that is a betrayal.” “You betray him?” “He betrays us. We give everything to him—” Her face was alight with discovery. “And he accepts. That’s the treason. You offer to give up your place at his side, and he says yes.” His dathan’s quick wit was pleasing to him, and he smiled. “What is it called again? The halla—” “Haldra garaithbec.” “What does it mean?” He frowned as he sought a translation that conveyed the idea adequately. There were some things humans just didn’t have words for. “Pain emancipation, I suppose. Freedom through suffering?”
January 30, 2026 at 2:52 AM
Reposted by Verati
zprospero.bsky.social
#SFFChat

Got a perfect one for this, actually, used it on a WIP Snips a day or so ago.

Virgil experiencing executive dysfunction/ It's not something you can "power through" but Virgil here is, basically, giving himself a panic attack to get the adrenaline to go through with it.

#WriteSky
January 30, 2026 at 3:28 AM
verati404.bsky.social
Tag yourself.

Me: "I'm carrying dangerous goods."
pdfmerchant.bsky.social Old Sam @pdfmerchant.bsky.social · 9d
tag yourself i’m I AM MANOEUVRING WITH DIFFICULTY
January 30, 2026 at 7:38 AM
verati404.bsky.social
Agh, got interrupted from the SFFChat tonight bc I went to see Markiplier's movie, Iron Lung, with my spouse. We had a good time. It didn't feel nearly as long as it was.

He did quite a lot with the budget he had. Closed room, basically one-man movie. Would see it again.
January 30, 2026 at 7:36 AM