Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
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vriccithode.bsky.social
Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
@vriccithode.bsky.social
5.1K followers 460 following 19K posts
aka Vanessa Ricci-Thode. Nebula Award-winning trashbag & queer SFF writer. SFWA & TWUC. Chiefest and greatest of calamities. Dogs, gardening and Canadian rage. she/they 💙💜🩷

I'm only here for the food

thodestool.ca
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vriccithode.bsky.social
Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus @vriccithode.bsky.social · Dec 17
Hi! Intro to me in the quoted thread. FYI I’m hibernating until spring while I take care of my mental health and reassess this whole publishing thing. I’m blocking this site on my laptop and restricting access on my phone. If you know where to get in touch with me elsewhere, feel free to do that 1/3
a purple starry night sky with pine tree silhouettes at the bottom and a full moon at the top. white text reads: on hiatus. in hibernation/power-saving mode to recharge. see you in the spring!
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
chuckwendig.bsky.social
Agreed one thousand percent. Best format ever.
cxorlando.bsky.social Christina Orlando @cxorlando.bsky.social · 1h
hello this is the official petition to bring back mass market paperbacks!! mmpbs are good actually and everyone should do them!! i think esp romantasy readers would really love that shit! and you can still spray those edges!!! bring back mass market paperbacks thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 10, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
mfolson.bsky.social
Or -hear me out- if we want to do horror IP we adapt one of the many, many excellent stories written by NOT straight white dudes and NEVER ADAPTED ONCE
culturecrave.co Culture Crave 🍿 @culturecrave.co · 2h
Mike Flanagan will write and direct a new film adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ for Warner Bros

It follows a group of people locked in a grocery store after a mysterious fog emerges that hides deadly creatures
February 10, 2026 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
cheriepriest.com
Bonus:
Same dog as above, same scene - but now she’s chomping at a sunbeam…I means trying to grab a piece of pop tart crust.
February 10, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
cheriepriest.com
goooood morning it is brisk and bright and the neighborhood loop was uneventful - but there were pop tarts for sharing and crows who followed all the way, so yes: Lucy Loved That Walk
Big fluffy black and tan husky mix with bright blue eyes and a happy smile, sitting in the sun.
February 10, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
weratedogs.com
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
February 10, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
seleneheidlman.bsky.social
This one is so heccing delightful, and a great starting point for exploring the Fireborn world! As “kids’ books” go, I love how this one both gives Lusi agency while also a realistic set of supports for kids, a high adventure that feels like it could have been me and my cousins long ago. I love it!
vriccithode.bsky.social Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus @vriccithode.bsky.social · 4h
Lusi can see ghosts. And that’s only the beginning of her problems. In this queer MG fantasy novel, she joins her sister, a ghost girl and some dragons on an adventure halfway across the world to learn about her unusual magic. 🌈📚
books2read.com/u/b6J2E0
vriccithode.itch.io/the-young-ne...
the cover art of my book the young necromancer's guide to ghosts on a black baground with tropey tag things that read: she sees dead people, family woes, queer kids, bestie is a ghost, spooky magic, sisters stick together, dragon friends!, finding community. Nebula Award winner logo on the top right.
February 10, 2026 at 6:05 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
somehow dog o'clock returned
a golden retriever in a rainbow paw bowtie.
February 10, 2026 at 7:15 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
it's always a great fuckin day to read my FREE short story about ✨a plague that kills billionaires✨
Escape Pod 1003: Billionaire’s Tears
I wake up to the sound of screaming, and know I’m going to die. I shoot out of bed, calling for my mother. First thing I’ve spoken clearly in two days. “Maria!” My mother bursts into my room. “Baby…
escapepod.org
February 10, 2026 at 7:02 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
the LIs are grey and holly, who are basically jack and sally with the serial numbers filed off. vesper the MC meets them after she falls through an open grave on halloween and ends up in a spooky new world 😂
#FantasyIndiesFebruary
#FantasyIndiesFebruary 1. intro you and your WIP 2. Romance in WIP 3. Does your MC believe in soulmates? 4. "Bittersweet" flash fiction 5. Do your characters have any of your personality traits? 6. Free Friday or fuck, kill, marry with your characters 7. Saturday snippet 8. favourite tropes 9. What would your MC like to be known for? 10. WIP love interest. 11. Heartbreak in WIP 12. What are your favourite comfort reads? 13. Free Friday or love song recs 14. Saturday snippet 15. romantic movie and book recs 16. what expectations are put on your characters? 17. Your preferred book spiciness level? 18. MC's favourite dessert 19. Is your MC self-aware? 20. Free Friday or your preference: candies or chocolates? 21. Saturday snippet. 22. How does your MC handle romantic feelings? 23. Secret identities in your WIP 24. WIP themes? 27. Free Friday or WIP status (drafting, editing, etc) 28. Monthly wrap-up.
February 10, 2026 at 6:02 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
Lusi can see ghosts. And that’s only the beginning of her problems. In this queer MG fantasy novel, she joins her sister, a ghost girl and some dragons on an adventure halfway across the world to learn about her unusual magic. 🌈📚
books2read.com/u/b6J2E0
vriccithode.itch.io/the-young-ne...
the cover art of my book the young necromancer's guide to ghosts on a black baground with tropey tag things that read: she sees dead people, family woes, queer kids, bestie is a ghost, spooky magic, sisters stick together, dragon friends!, finding community. Nebula Award winner logo on the top right.
February 10, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
cindyphanauthor.com
I’m having pizza for breakfast and she’s doesn’t care—doesn’t care AT ALL—if I don’t give her any, can’t you tell?
A fuzzy black standard poodle siting in front of a stainless steel stove. Her eye is rolled back and to the side and her lips are poodle-pursed as she desperately tries to show me how it would be no big deal if I gave her some of my pizza actually (don’t worry, I gave her some).
February 10, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
blueheronfarm.bsky.social
I hope you have an antler to chew, and all day to chew it
Scruffy Schnauzer mix pup lying on a dog bed and chewing on an antler
February 10, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
ormakal.bsky.social
Planning a bundle of queer books next month. Sign up form will be open only till the 19th.

📚💙💕🌈📚🖤♿📚🌈📚🪐📚🌈♠️ 📚📦

forms.gle/yvQpWNFzhhaL...
forms.gle
February 10, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
thegoldenratio4.bsky.social
Nugget at the vet! This is the 4th visit because…she's weird. She is restless / anxious we haven't been able to fix it. She's getting some tests today to try to figure out what's up. Please vote on what you think it is. Haunted by Ghost Voods is my guess
February 9, 2026 at 4:59 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
Another night of shit sleep. It would be great to not be exhausted all the time
February 10, 2026 at 3:39 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
that stupid kissy heart holiday is coming up! whether you're a lover or hater, kobo's sale has something for you! and you can snag the dragon next door for only $2.99! #booksky
see all the books here! www.kobo.com/ca/en/p/love...
or grab the important one here 🤣 www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/...
just more really bad graphic design. i'm not even sorry. bad graphics will continue until morale and sales improve. text reads: Kobo's lovers vs haters. February 6-16. on sale! $2.99 with the kobo logo and the cover for The Dragon Next Door.
February 10, 2026 at 3:30 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
it's dog o'clock
three large fluffy dogs in bowties.
February 10, 2026 at 2:17 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
valentine's day is just around the corner! grab yourself 29 fabulous romance books for only $25! 👀 #booksky
itch.io/b/3515/valen...
Valentine's Day romance book bundle. 29 books for $25! fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, and more! February 9-14 only on itch.io. 29 books for only $25! Feb. 9-14 | only on itch.io! titles: Because You Asked by A.E. Bennett; The Exile and His Fool by Jeremy Rayne; The Wolf and His Witch by Elis Madsen; Javawocky by Lou Ella Stone; The Hand That Feeds by Sass Everett; The Dragon Next Door by Vanessa Ricci-Thode; Have it All by Beverly Anne Michel; Vietato by Bailey Elizabeth; Changes in the Wind by Niranjan; Devil Deal by Janina Franck; A Different Life: What If? by Joyce Reynolds-Ward; Love in the Liner Notes by Katta Kis; Sweet & Wild by Alex Larkspur; The Salt in the Sea by J. D. Rivers; This Is How Immortals Die by Nicole Hidalgo; Song of the Wolf by T.C. Smith; Pirates and Poise by Zack Prince; Lust and Found by Sylvie Helstaff; The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q by Felicia Davin; Anthologies of Ullord: A Thief in the Night by Nikki Flynn; Frenzied Overlords by scarlet lee winters; Return the Rose by Joachim Heijndermans; Gift of Air by C.L. Carhart; Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin by Tabitha O'Connell; Silver Blood; Between You, Me, and the Moonlit Sea by Jinn Silver; Emergence by A.M. Weald; The Fine Line Between Us by Ruth Miranda; The Cradle of Eternal Night by Ladz. Valentine's Day. Romance Book Bundle. Fantasy and Genre Romance. titles: Sweet & Wild by Alex Larkspur; The Dragon Next Door by Vanessa Ricci-Thode; The Salt in the Sea by J. D. Rivers; Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin by Tabitha O'Connell; Because You Asked by A.E. Bennett; Emergence by A.M. Weald; The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q by Felicia Davin; The Hand That Feeds by Sass Everett; Changes in the Wind by Niranjan; The Wolf and His Witch by Elis Madsen; The Exile and His Fool by Jeremy Rayne; Anthologies of Ullord: A Thief in the Night by Nikki Flynn; A Different Life: What If? by Joyce Reynolds-Ward; Lust and Found by Sylvie Helstaff; Gift of Air by C.L. Carhart; The Cradle of Eternal Night by Ladz.
February 10, 2026 at 2:02 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
Really tired of these peri-induced mood swings 🚮 but 4 weeks exactly till I see a specialist and hopefully start HRT. of course I have to be a special fucking snowflake on 2 different hormone-related drugs Rx'd by 2 different specialists already or my GP would've taken care of this in August 🫠
February 10, 2026 at 4:49 AM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
wiswell.bsky.social
How do you explain gay?

Well, how did you explain straight?
amybrown.xyz amy brown @amybrown.xyz · 18h
always so funny to me when people are like “how am I supposed to explain Gay to my kids?” my kid asks me way harder shit all the time. “why did they build the road this way? why are some people bad?” I don’t know. please ask me about Gay
February 10, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
shanmonster.bsky.social
I have two poems in this.
February 10, 2026 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
diannalgunn.bsky.social
Fuck this lukewarm bullshit statement, make them walk the whole damn thing back
legendofnerd.bsky.social Brian M @legendofnerd.bsky.social · 19h
Discord is already starting to walk things back a little, so people should keep doing what they're doing (cancel Nitro, leave feedback/criticism, direct contact through support tickets/phone/email/etc)
Tl;dr: The vast majority of adults will never have to interact with our age assurance systems and their experience won't change, because we know Discord and how people use it, so we're designing to respect privacy and deliver a safer experience while minimizing friction for adults. Hey folks – I’ve been on Discord since very early 2016 and actually joined the company in 2017. Safety is one of my areas, so today’s announcement on our blog is something I’ve been pretty involved with. I’ve always cared about Discord's approach to privacy (E2EE for A/V was another of my projects here), so I figured I’d add some more context to today's news. I can say confidently that the vast majority of people will never see age verification. I say this because we launched age assurance in the UK and Australia in 2025, and we have some pretty good data on this now. The idea here is that we can pre-identify most adults based on what we already know (not including your messages!), and that looks to get us pretty far here. No face scans, no IDs, for the vast majority of adults. And if you are one of the smaller subset of folks that we can't definitively pre-identify, then still, you only have to do it if you're accessing age-restricted servers or channels, or changing certain settings. That's really not most users. (Altho... might be more Redditors, tbh.) Last, I know that there is concern about privacy and data leaks. That's a real concern. The selfie system is built purely client-side, it never leaves your device, and we did that intentionally. That'll work for a bunch of users who aren't pre-identified as adults. But if you do end up in the ID bucket, then yeah, you're right that has some risk. We're doing what we can to minimize this by working with our range of partners (who are different partners than the data leak you read about), and if it's any help, we learned a lot internally from the last issue. But I get if that doesn't necessarily inspire more confidence. Anyway, we’ll be sharing more next month as we get closer to the global roll out about the system, including the technology behind it in March. I honestly wouldn't be happy if we didn't build something good and I am excited about what we’re launching, but please let us know what you think when we share more details. And I really appreciate everybody's feedback here today. We’re definitely reading it!
February 10, 2026 at 4:12 AM
vriccithode.bsky.social
little miss snoozybutt says goodnight.
a giant fluffy white dog lying in a grey dog bed.
February 10, 2026 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
thegoldenratio4.bsky.social
Happy Sunday from the squad!
February 8, 2026 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
jolantru.bsky.social
Fire Heart is available on Bookshop.org.

bookshop.org/p/books/fire...
Fire Heart
Check out Fire Heart - <p>A <strong>coming-of-age</strong> <strong>fantasy </strong>story, set in the City of Swords. </p><p><br></p><p>Wehia t'Doniyat, the eldest daughter of a knifesmith's holding t...
bookshop.org
February 10, 2026 at 2:37 AM