Sara Norja
@saranorja.bsky.social
Tietokirja: Alkemian historia ☆ PhD in English ☆ Speculative fiction & poetry ☆ Historical linguistics ☆ History of alchemy ☆ Manuscript studies ☆ English/suomi ☆ Queer ☆ She/her ☆
Pinned
Sara Norja
@saranorja.bsky.social
· Nov 21
Hi hello new people! Time for a new intro I think. I'm Sara, a queer, bilingual writer and researcher! I write SFF stories and poetry in Fin & Eng as well as nonfiction in Fin, and I study the history of English (mainly through alchemical manuscript texts).
Reposted by Sara Norja
Suomalaisilta kustantamoilta siirtyi valtava määrä nimekkeitä suoratoistopalveluiden uuden tekijän, Spotifyn, katalogiin.
Lue kannanotto: kirjailijaliitto.fi/blog/ajankoh...
Lue kannanotto: kirjailijaliitto.fi/blog/ajankoh...
November 19, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Suomalaisilta kustantamoilta siirtyi valtava määrä nimekkeitä suoratoistopalveluiden uuden tekijän, Spotifyn, katalogiin.
Lue kannanotto: kirjailijaliitto.fi/blog/ajankoh...
Lue kannanotto: kirjailijaliitto.fi/blog/ajankoh...
Reposted by Sara Norja
I hear this *constantly* as an “aha! got ya!” and maybe I’ll just start handing out QR codes for this essay.
What, exactly, does this string of words mean? Why does everyone who stands to profit from selling "AI" love to repeat it? And what's the value of slogans that masquerade as history?
sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...
sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...
"The Printing Press Democratized Knowledge": When Slogans Masquerade as History — Sonja Drimmer
The phrase is said so frequently it seems, like the mechanism it celebrates, to mechanically replicate itself. It's become a favorite catchphrase among tech boosters of any sort (see my post on...
sonjadrimmer.com
November 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I hear this *constantly* as an “aha! got ya!” and maybe I’ll just start handing out QR codes for this essay.
Reposted by Sara Norja
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Blow for OpenAI in Germany as court rules song lyrics used illegally
A German court ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright on nine popular songs in a lawsuit that marked another attempt to prevent the free use of artists' content online. The Munich Regional Co...
www.yahoo.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
Reposted by Sara Norja
On August 12, 1971, 16-year-old me mailed the first story I ever wrote off on its first submission to my dream market, F&SF. My tale was quickly rejected. On July 17th, 2025, I finally sold a story to that magazine. Here's why I felt I had to withdraw that story. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
November 12, 2025 at 9:27 PM
On August 12, 1971, 16-year-old me mailed the first story I ever wrote off on its first submission to my dream market, F&SF. My tale was quickly rejected. On July 17th, 2025, I finally sold a story to that magazine. Here's why I felt I had to withdraw that story. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
Reposted by Sara Norja
Uusi TiTaRa-artikkeli on saatavilla! Yhteistyökumppanimme Peter Grund kirjoitti Sara Norjan kanssa yhteisartikkelin alkemististen käsikirjoitusten tuotannosta. Artikkeli on nyt luettavissa alkemian ja kemian historiaa käsittelevässä Ambixissa: doi.org/10.1080/0002...
#koneensäätiö @koneensaatio.fi
#koneensäätiö @koneensaatio.fi
Alchemy, the Vernacular, and Text Production in Late Medieval England: Presentation Strategies in Trinity College, Cambridge, MSS O.5.31 and R.14.37
The article studies the strategies that late-medieval scribes used to present alchemical texts to their audience. Investigating two late fifteenth-century alchemical codices – Trinity College, Camb...
doi.org
November 12, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Uusi TiTaRa-artikkeli on saatavilla! Yhteistyökumppanimme Peter Grund kirjoitti Sara Norjan kanssa yhteisartikkelin alkemististen käsikirjoitusten tuotannosta. Artikkeli on nyt luettavissa alkemian ja kemian historiaa käsittelevässä Ambixissa: doi.org/10.1080/0002...
#koneensäätiö @koneensaatio.fi
#koneensäätiö @koneensaatio.fi
Article publication yaaay! It was great to get to write this with Peter and add to our collective knowledge about attitudes towards alchemy in medieval England!
Another TiTaRa article is out online! Our collaborator Peter Grund wrote an article together with Sara Norja on alchemical manuscript production. You can now read it online in Ambix, a journal on the history of alchemy and chemistry: doi.org/10.1080/0002...
#konefoundation #titaraproject #alchemy
#konefoundation #titaraproject #alchemy
Alchemy, the Vernacular, and Text Production in Late Medieval England: Presentation Strategies in Trinity College, Cambridge, MSS O.5.31 and R.14.37
The article studies the strategies that late-medieval scribes used to present alchemical texts to their audience. Investigating two late fifteenth-century alchemical codices – Trinity College, Camb...
doi.org
November 12, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Article publication yaaay! It was great to get to write this with Peter and add to our collective knowledge about attitudes towards alchemy in medieval England!
Reposted by Sara Norja
Take LoTR. The reason evil exists in the books is because the creator is singing new creations into existence and Melkor wants to co-opt the song. It’s the reason Sauron’s armies are twisted forms of elves. The evil in LoTR CANNOT CREATE, they can go “this thing looks like this other thing”
The far right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Musk keeps posting about "hobbits" because modern scientific racism owes more to fantasy worlds and gaming systems than genetic science, and they see both as effective mediums for right-wing propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Why Elon Musk Needs Dungeons and Dragons to Be Racist
The fantastical roots of “scientific racism”
www.theatlantic.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Take LoTR. The reason evil exists in the books is because the creator is singing new creations into existence and Melkor wants to co-opt the song. It’s the reason Sauron’s armies are twisted forms of elves. The evil in LoTR CANNOT CREATE, they can go “this thing looks like this other thing”
Reposted by Sara Norja
a lil group shot of my cat loaf worry stones!! at this size are they even loafs? maybe they're cat cookies 🥹🤲
November 11, 2025 at 9:44 AM
a lil group shot of my cat loaf worry stones!! at this size are they even loafs? maybe they're cat cookies 🥹🤲
Reposted by Sara Norja
I spotted this on Mastodon and I find it horrible, not least for the speed with which this has happened.
November 4, 2025 at 9:56 AM
I spotted this on Mastodon and I find it horrible, not least for the speed with which this has happened.
Btw @mariadahvana.bsky.social 's Beowulf translation is an UTTER JOY through and through (I say this as both English hist linguist and writer)
"Bro!"
Beowulf: A New Translation, 2020
Maria Dahvana Headley 🇺🇸
Beowulf: A New Translation, 2020
Maria Dahvana Headley 🇺🇸
November 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Btw @mariadahvana.bsky.social 's Beowulf translation is an UTTER JOY through and through (I say this as both English hist linguist and writer)
Reposted by Sara Norja
I have found the perfect Bluesky account. bsky.app/profile/hwae...
bsky.app
November 9, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I have found the perfect Bluesky account. bsky.app/profile/hwae...
I've never understood those jokes because I've always loved the writing itself even when it's hard. Nothing compares to hyperfocusing on writing till you lose all track of time <333
Sometimes I wonder if our many years of jokes about writers hating writing and doing anything but writing, etc, have convinced people that the writing part is the hurdle and the goal is just to have a thing in hand. But I am here to tell you: the writing is the best part. The act is the thing.
November 9, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I've never understood those jokes because I've always loved the writing itself even when it's hard. Nothing compares to hyperfocusing on writing till you lose all track of time <333
Reposted by Sara Norja
The ceasefire continues according to virtually every media outlet. Israel is demolishing entire neighbourhoods in Gaza to make sure Palestinians never go back.
The genocide is ongoing
The genocide is ongoing
Israel razes entire neighbourhoods east of Khan Younis: Report - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israel-razes-entire-neighbourhoods-east-khan-younis-report
Israel razes entire neighbourhoods east of Khan Younis: Report
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<h2>
<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israel-razes-entire-neighbourhoods-east-khan-younis-report" rel="bookmark">
<span class="field field-title">Israel razes entire neighbourhoods east of Khan Younis: Report</span>
</a>
</h2>
<div class="content">
<div class="field field-field-text"><article data-scroll-anchor="true" data-testid="conversation-turn-110" data-turn="assistant" data-turn-id="request-6901b48e-cf20-832a-9f2e-41bb2cc7fcbc-38" dir="auto" tabindex="-1">
<p data-end="277" data-start="76">Israeli occupation forces are bulldozing large swathes of land east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, destroying what little remains of homes and infrastructure after months of relentless bombardment.</p>
<p data-end="447" data-start="279">Al Jazeera's correspondent on the ground reported that the army is conducting extensive demolition operations in the area, flattening residential blocks and farmland.</p>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</article>
www.middleeasteye.net
November 1, 2025 at 11:33 PM
The ceasefire continues according to virtually every media outlet. Israel is demolishing entire neighbourhoods in Gaza to make sure Palestinians never go back.
The genocide is ongoing
The genocide is ongoing
Reposted by Sara Norja
COMEMIERDA
Vance says it is "totally reasonable and acceptable" for people to not want to live next door to people who speak a different language than they do
October 29, 2025 at 6:08 PM
COMEMIERDA
Reposted by Sara Norja
I get the pull of AI narratives, I really do - it's a romantic concept, old as humanity, to become godlike in creating a new being. AI adds a (troubling) cleanliness to it: a person without a body. Its diseases are metaphorical. It's a fantasy rooted in the (false) dualism of reason & emotion (1/?)
October 29, 2025 at 10:13 AM
I get the pull of AI narratives, I really do - it's a romantic concept, old as humanity, to become godlike in creating a new being. AI adds a (troubling) cleanliness to it: a person without a body. Its diseases are metaphorical. It's a fantasy rooted in the (false) dualism of reason & emotion (1/?)
Reposted by Sara Norja
Violet Lichen Books (@apexmag.bsky.social's sister imprint) is open to novella queries until the witching hour on Halloween! 🖤🎃🌿
We're looking for speculative ecofiction, folk horror, Weird & New Weird, and surreal SF.
Guidelines violetlichen.com/submissions
Portal querytracker.net/query/Violet...
We're looking for speculative ecofiction, folk horror, Weird & New Weird, and surreal SF.
Guidelines violetlichen.com/submissions
Portal querytracker.net/query/Violet...
October 22, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Violet Lichen Books (@apexmag.bsky.social's sister imprint) is open to novella queries until the witching hour on Halloween! 🖤🎃🌿
We're looking for speculative ecofiction, folk horror, Weird & New Weird, and surreal SF.
Guidelines violetlichen.com/submissions
Portal querytracker.net/query/Violet...
We're looking for speculative ecofiction, folk horror, Weird & New Weird, and surreal SF.
Guidelines violetlichen.com/submissions
Portal querytracker.net/query/Violet...
Reposted by Sara Norja
Your invitation to the Otherworld awaits, just in time for Samhain and the OG Gaelic spooky season.
Just a few days before All the Stars in the Daylight Sky arrives! If you’re wondering what queer rep you can expect in this new YA romantasy, I’ve got you covered! 🫶🏻✨
Just a few days before All the Stars in the Daylight Sky arrives! If you’re wondering what queer rep you can expect in this new YA romantasy, I’ve got you covered! 🫶🏻✨
![A quote from the Publishers Weekly review of All the Stars in the Daylight Sky: “This atmospheric, otherworldly fantasy by MacGregor (The Evolving Truth of Ever-Stronger Will) deploys Scottish mythology to touch on themes of grief and trauma brought about by past experiences with mass shootings and Covid-19….[An] empathic and accessible tale of belonging.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ra5fowzg2p6xebdg72iyvxur/bafkreicjol3cac7hyagtragd5rj5cvb3tcnr25twcmxbcqhs6sj2s6ebqe@jpeg)
October 24, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Your invitation to the Otherworld awaits, just in time for Samhain and the OG Gaelic spooky season.
Just a few days before All the Stars in the Daylight Sky arrives! If you’re wondering what queer rep you can expect in this new YA romantasy, I’ve got you covered! 🫶🏻✨
Just a few days before All the Stars in the Daylight Sky arrives! If you’re wondering what queer rep you can expect in this new YA romantasy, I’ve got you covered! 🫶🏻✨
Reposted by Sara Norja
Birb story flies again 🐦⬛
Today from @reckoningmag.bsky.social #neurodivergentanthology A CHORUS, DIVERGENT is "A Taxonomy of Extinct and Extant Birds of the Twenty-First Century" by @andtatcat.bsky.social, a haunting meditation on personal loss and climate grief, and how we carry on.
reckoning.press/a-taxonomy-o...
reckoning.press/a-taxonomy-o...
A Taxonomy of Extinct and Extant Birds of the Twenty-First Century | Reckoning
(Selected from the field guide left on your nightstand) Common Raven: Your favorite bird. There was a big one that lived in the hospital courtyard and, on your good days, I’d take you out to see it.
reckoning.press
October 24, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Birb story flies again 🐦⬛
Reposted by Sara Norja
My boss rush frostpunk yuri illustrated by @pompoison.bsky.social turns 1 today !!
Thank you so much for your support; if you've been waiting to get it, it's $0.99 on ebook
📚 books2read.com/thecradleofe...
🔗 payhip.com/b/p6Ux7
✒️ ladz-merch.square.site/product/the-...
Thank you so much for your support; if you've been waiting to get it, it's $0.99 on ebook
📚 books2read.com/thecradleofe...
🔗 payhip.com/b/p6Ux7
✒️ ladz-merch.square.site/product/the-...
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
My boss rush frostpunk yuri illustrated by @pompoison.bsky.social turns 1 today !!
Thank you so much for your support; if you've been waiting to get it, it's $0.99 on ebook
📚 books2read.com/thecradleofe...
🔗 payhip.com/b/p6Ux7
✒️ ladz-merch.square.site/product/the-...
Thank you so much for your support; if you've been waiting to get it, it's $0.99 on ebook
📚 books2read.com/thecradleofe...
🔗 payhip.com/b/p6Ux7
✒️ ladz-merch.square.site/product/the-...
Reposted by Sara Norja
That’s the other thing that baffles me about AI and creative writing, actually.
The work IS the joy for me. I don’t want to be able to snap my fingers and have a completed “product.” I want to be transformed by the process. I’m an author but I do this because I enjoy the rigor of being a writer.
The work IS the joy for me. I don’t want to be able to snap my fingers and have a completed “product.” I want to be transformed by the process. I’m an author but I do this because I enjoy the rigor of being a writer.
In terms of process, I enjoy writing but revising????? Oh, that’s my real kink. A second or third draft???? A fourth???? Making tweaks on my desktop AND my phone???? *moans* I’m a WHORE for revision.
October 20, 2025 at 2:15 AM
That’s the other thing that baffles me about AI and creative writing, actually.
The work IS the joy for me. I don’t want to be able to snap my fingers and have a completed “product.” I want to be transformed by the process. I’m an author but I do this because I enjoy the rigor of being a writer.
The work IS the joy for me. I don’t want to be able to snap my fingers and have a completed “product.” I want to be transformed by the process. I’m an author but I do this because I enjoy the rigor of being a writer.
Reposted by Sara Norja
wikipedia's data shows that AI is siphoning traffic away from the site, which is a danger to its sustainability. ironically Wikipedia is more important than ever to users who want reliable information instead of slop, and to AI companies that need it for training data www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors
“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”
www.404media.co
October 17, 2025 at 1:15 AM
wikipedia's data shows that AI is siphoning traffic away from the site, which is a danger to its sustainability. ironically Wikipedia is more important than ever to users who want reliable information instead of slop, and to AI companies that need it for training data www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
Reposted by Sara Norja
Here is a Reddit threat that explains how to disable Copilot in Windows, which I've just followed:
www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHel...
www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHel...
October 16, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Here is a Reddit threat that explains how to disable Copilot in Windows, which I've just followed:
www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHel...
www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHel...
WHY. This is all so STUPID
This is the future of Windows. Microsoft wants to rewrite Windows to turn computers into AI PCs that you talk to. It's now bringing AI features to all Windows 11 PCs today, in a bid to convince you to talk to your PC and let AI control it. Full details 👇 www.theverge.com/news/799768/...
Microsoft wants you to talk to your PC and let AI control it
Copilot Voice and Vision are now rolling out.
www.theverge.com
October 16, 2025 at 7:13 PM
WHY. This is all so STUPID
Reposted by Sara Norja
Agreed. Mass market paperback first, as wide and cheap as possible so readers take a chance on a new author without shelling out a ton.
My strongest book-related belief is that the paperback should come first and then the hardback after for people who want a fancy edition.
October 16, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Agreed. Mass market paperback first, as wide and cheap as possible so readers take a chance on a new author without shelling out a ton.