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
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
It'd be cool if fucking conservatives would stop gutting healthcare cuz it would have been rad to not have to wait seven fucking months for a fucking appointment
February 10, 2026 at 4:51 AM
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 · 14h
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 · 15h
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
vriccithode.bsky.social
Want to support me without spending a dime? Request my books at your library! The library pays for their copy so I still get paid and you get to read it for free! Best part, others can enjoy it after you! 🌈📚 #booksky
The covers for six of my books: The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts, Dragon Whisperer, Trueflame, Fireborn, Firebound, After the Dragon Raid. Text across the middle reads: Request them at your library! Dark grey text on a beige background that reads: Get it at the library! Did you know you can ask your library to purchase books? Free for you! Authors still get paid! Others get to read it as well! Support libraries! With a print mockup of The Dragon Next Door on a wooden shelf. #NessPromo
February 10, 2026 at 2:35 AM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
lchanwrites.bsky.social
Spaniel getting ready to launch
February 10, 2026 at 1:14 AM
vriccithode.bsky.social
California, you know what to do ✨️
And someone made it a tad easier
bsky.app/profile/theb...
theblindarcher.bsky.social The Blind Archer (Commission Waitlist Open) @theblindarcher.bsky.social · 1d
It could be really bad for Discord if Californians contact the office of the Attorney General to report the potential violations of CCPA and CALOPPA citing the recent breach from a few months back where 1.5tb of user data and millions of IDs were leaked, but who can say for sure?
theverge.com The Verge @theverge.com · 1d
Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month
February 10, 2026 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
ivacheung.com
I think this move has more to do with persuading some civil servants to quit so that the government can downsize their workforce.
lukelebrun.ca Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 17h
"Bruce Fanjoy, the Liberal MP for Carleton, has broken ranks with his party to criticize the federal government's latest return-to-office (RTO) mandate" ...

"There is little to no evidence that a one-size-fits-all RTO policy will improve productivity or service to Canadians," he wrote.
Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy criticizes government's latest return-to-office order | CBC News
Bruce Fanjoy, the Liberal MP for Carleton, has broken ranks with his party to criticize the federal government's latest return-to-office (RTO) mandate.
www.cbc.ca
February 10, 2026 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
lasrina.bsky.social
Tragically, this dog has nowhere to sleep except the dirty old rug next to the hardware basket.
A corgi sleeping with his face on a crumpled rug next to a basket of old door handles. A zoomed-out image where the dog crate his butt is pressed up against, with a fleece liner, and a soft green dog bed can both be seen.
February 9, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
waterloompp.bsky.social
Region of Waterloo will debate Coun Gowing's motion to create a "Bluebelt" to better protect our aquifers & groundwater recharge areas, as proposed by @csgw_wr. See Appendix B pub-regionofwaterloo.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.a.... Meeting on Tues Feb 10 at 12:30pm. Your support is needed. #onpoli
February 9, 2026 at 6:32 PM
vriccithode.bsky.social
I'm not big into romance, but this looks like horror
February 9, 2026 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
effies.bsky.social
Enjoying a sunny day
#DailyDoggo
Dachshund mix is standing on a gray porch in the sunshine, basking
February 9, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Ness 🎃🇨🇦 on semi-hiatus
laworldcon.bsky.social
Get ready to nominate!

Our latest newsletter went out a few days ago with the info that the Hugo Award nominations will open sometime soon (later this week).
Image of a metal rocket and the words Hugo Award.
February 9, 2026 at 10:29 PM