Christa (she/her)
@wordrascal.bsky.social
Author: #journalism, #essays, #fiction. Survivor of corporate life, self employment, & CPTSD, not necessarily in that order; n00b #civilservant exploring #emergencymanagement. Introverted ADHD'er. I stan #raccoons.
Pinned
I wish I could say the obscure pieces of #fiction I wrote at the end of last decade hadn't contributed to all the predictions of where we are, but it's hard not to.🧵
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/five-years-a...
#dystopianfiction #indieauthor #supportindieauthors #booksky
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/five-years-a...
#dystopianfiction #indieauthor #supportindieauthors #booksky
Five Years After My Dystopian Fiction Was Published, I’m Afraid It Might Actually Be Coming True
What I never expected in writing to process my layoffs as well as my privilege
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io
Also I feel shitty trying to sell books when so much is going so wrong. Feels like scummy opportunism. But... in late 2020 when my novella collection was published, I didn't promote it. Was too busy trying to make it through a failing marriage, then divorce, still the pandemic...
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
It’s not enough to simply thank our veterans for their service.
Millions of them rely on SNAP and the ACA.
Many struggle with PTSD and worry about access to mental health services.
Today, on Veterans Day, let’s renew our commitment to keep fighting for those who fought for us.
Millions of them rely on SNAP and the ACA.
Many struggle with PTSD and worry about access to mental health services.
Today, on Veterans Day, let’s renew our commitment to keep fighting for those who fought for us.
November 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM
It’s not enough to simply thank our veterans for their service.
Millions of them rely on SNAP and the ACA.
Many struggle with PTSD and worry about access to mental health services.
Today, on Veterans Day, let’s renew our commitment to keep fighting for those who fought for us.
Millions of them rely on SNAP and the ACA.
Many struggle with PTSD and worry about access to mental health services.
Today, on Veterans Day, let’s renew our commitment to keep fighting for those who fought for us.
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
It can further stigmatize these communities and make advocacy and awareness much more difficult. It also can start crossing the line between "protecting the kids" and censorship REAL quickly.
Can't help thinking of the communities that sprang up from young ppl sharing their experiences being autistic, ADHD, AuDHD as well as with mental health & yes, abuse (all interconnected). Limiting online speech = preventing these communities from forming = isolating young ppl = enabling abuse.
It’s disturbing and discomforting to examine but there are several anti-phone and anti-social media initiatives weaponizing murders and suicides of teens, leveraging grieving parents, and exaggerating or inventing causation to try and limit speech online and restrict tech freedoms
November 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
It can further stigmatize these communities and make advocacy and awareness much more difficult. It also can start crossing the line between "protecting the kids" and censorship REAL quickly.
Can't help thinking of the communities that sprang up from young ppl sharing their experiences being autistic, ADHD, AuDHD as well as with mental health & yes, abuse (all interconnected). Limiting online speech = preventing these communities from forming = isolating young ppl = enabling abuse.
It’s disturbing and discomforting to examine but there are several anti-phone and anti-social media initiatives weaponizing murders and suicides of teens, leveraging grieving parents, and exaggerating or inventing causation to try and limit speech online and restrict tech freedoms
November 11, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Can't help thinking of the communities that sprang up from young ppl sharing their experiences being autistic, ADHD, AuDHD as well as with mental health & yes, abuse (all interconnected). Limiting online speech = preventing these communities from forming = isolating young ppl = enabling abuse.
Convincing you to read my (collection of interrelated novellas) by the first sentence. Share yours if you want!
Here's how "Sodom & Gomorrah on a Saturday Night" begins:
Here's how "Sodom & Gomorrah on a Saturday Night" begins:
November 11, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Convincing you to read my (collection of interrelated novellas) by the first sentence. Share yours if you want!
Here's how "Sodom & Gomorrah on a Saturday Night" begins:
Here's how "Sodom & Gomorrah on a Saturday Night" begins:
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
if you are food insecure for both the humans and pets in your household there is a tool called Pet Help Finder that can help locate pet food banks nearby and other free or reduced price assistance and supplies for pets.
no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, should have to give up their pet bc of this.
no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, should have to give up their pet bc of this.
November 8, 2025 at 6:35 PM
if you are food insecure for both the humans and pets in your household there is a tool called Pet Help Finder that can help locate pet food banks nearby and other free or reduced price assistance and supplies for pets.
no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, should have to give up their pet bc of this.
no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, should have to give up their pet bc of this.
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
To me among the most infuriating parts about the healthcare debate and ACA credits is this would not be an issue if we were like every developed country on Earth and GUARANTEED HEALTHCARE AS A HUMAN RIGHT.
We'd pay half per capita what we're paying now, have more coverage, & longer life expectancy.
We'd pay half per capita what we're paying now, have more coverage, & longer life expectancy.
November 10, 2025 at 1:54 AM
To me among the most infuriating parts about the healthcare debate and ACA credits is this would not be an issue if we were like every developed country on Earth and GUARANTEED HEALTHCARE AS A HUMAN RIGHT.
We'd pay half per capita what we're paying now, have more coverage, & longer life expectancy.
We'd pay half per capita what we're paying now, have more coverage, & longer life expectancy.
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
Me: *has been in Maine since Thursday*
Me: Maybe I'll see what's happening in the world
Me: *opens Bluesky for the first time since late afternoon Friday*
Me: Nope nope nope abort retreat nopeity nope nope
Me: Maybe I'll see what's happening in the world
Me: *opens Bluesky for the first time since late afternoon Friday*
Me: Nope nope nope abort retreat nopeity nope nope
November 10, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Me: *has been in Maine since Thursday*
Me: Maybe I'll see what's happening in the world
Me: *opens Bluesky for the first time since late afternoon Friday*
Me: Nope nope nope abort retreat nopeity nope nope
Me: Maybe I'll see what's happening in the world
Me: *opens Bluesky for the first time since late afternoon Friday*
Me: Nope nope nope abort retreat nopeity nope nope
Yeah. That was me. Not the reason I'm no longer self employed, but I could see the writing on the wall.
@brotherjack.bsky.social on Bluesky
One of my biggest issues with the elimination of ACA subsidies is many people who were laid off tried self-employment, knowing they could get reasonable health insurance, or even quit their job to start a business. They're having the rug pulled out from under them.
bsky.app
November 8, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Yeah. That was me. Not the reason I'm no longer self employed, but I could see the writing on the wall.
Boosting for possibly my longest time # writing friend, whose #booklaunch deserves all the love bc it's so good (& no not just bc he's my friend)!
#scifi #booksky #bookstodon #indieauthor # lgbtqfiction
mefi.social/@lhauser/115...
#scifi #booksky #bookstodon #indieauthor # lgbtqfiction
mefi.social/@lhauser/115...
Lee Hauser: "The world had an expiration date, and Samantha We…" - mefi.social
Attached: 1 image
The world had an expiration date, and Samantha Wen planned to die before it came. She just needed a little help.
---
The first line of chapter one of "The Immortal Remains" has grabbed the attention of more than one reader, and it can grab yours as well. It's available tomorrow on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and just about everywhere online where fine ebooks and even paperbacks are sold.
#Author #Authors #IndieAuthor #IndieBooks #AmWriting #Writerdons #Writers #Writer #Writing #WritingCommunity #Writinglife #WritersOfMastodon #Bookstodon
mefi.social
November 7, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Boosting for possibly my longest time # writing friend, whose #booklaunch deserves all the love bc it's so good (& no not just bc he's my friend)!
#scifi #booksky #bookstodon #indieauthor # lgbtqfiction
mefi.social/@lhauser/115...
#scifi #booksky #bookstodon #indieauthor # lgbtqfiction
mefi.social/@lhauser/115...
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
THIS IS AMAZING. ALSO WHAT, IF ANYTHING, DID WE FORGET TO RUIN?
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
🧵
🧵
November 6, 2025 at 9:19 PM
THIS IS AMAZING. ALSO WHAT, IF ANYTHING, DID WE FORGET TO RUIN?
“The robots are people too."
🫠
🫠
Well that’s one way to think about intellectual property…
Common Crawl’s Rich Skrenta: “You shouldn’t have put your content on the internet if you didn’t want it to be on the internet.”
Must-read Alex Reisner:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Common Crawl’s Rich Skrenta: “You shouldn’t have put your content on the internet if you didn’t want it to be on the internet.”
Must-read Alex Reisner:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The Company Quietly Funneling Paywalled Articles to AI Developers
“You shouldn’t have put your content on the internet if you didn’t want it to be on the internet,” Common Crawl’s executive director says.
www.theatlantic.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:43 PM
“The robots are people too."
🫠
🫠
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
the fact that USDA tells grocers that they cannot give SNAP recipients discounts in times when people are starving is a whole different kind of cruelty. People will die from this, and none of them had to.
November 3, 2025 at 4:26 PM
the fact that USDA tells grocers that they cannot give SNAP recipients discounts in times when people are starving is a whole different kind of cruelty. People will die from this, and none of them had to.
More than learning to embrace my inner impostor, it's fairer to say I'm motivated by the emergencies I've dealt with, the disasters I've lived through (a pandemic, two hurricanes, an assortment of winter storms), and (1/2)
November 4, 2025 at 2:02 AM
More than learning to embrace my inner impostor, it's fairer to say I'm motivated by the emergencies I've dealt with, the disasters I've lived through (a pandemic, two hurricanes, an assortment of winter storms), and (1/2)
Rewatching the movie Unstoppable & noticing 2 things:
1) how I'm able to contextualize at least a little of the FEMA training I've taken on #emergencymanagement incident command & decision making
1) how I'm able to contextualize at least a little of the FEMA training I've taken on #emergencymanagement incident command & decision making
November 3, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Rewatching the movie Unstoppable & noticing 2 things:
1) how I'm able to contextualize at least a little of the FEMA training I've taken on #emergencymanagement incident command & decision making
1) how I'm able to contextualize at least a little of the FEMA training I've taken on #emergencymanagement incident command & decision making
As a food-sensitivity-haver, this has been on my mind a lot since Helene last year. Mass care isn't set up for people on autoimmune diets, & yet, if I expect to function (during #disaster recovery no less), most staples are out of the question.
Boosting! This would be a great nonprofit or social entrepreneurship idea for someone.
(Allergens and special diets are also an issue for food relief programs. It’s complicated!)
(Allergens and special diets are also an issue for food relief programs. It’s complicated!)
i really wish there were meal kits that catered to people with allergies. All the ones i’ve checked don’t have gluten free or dairy free, or only have one when i need both. i can’t have seafood either.
November 2, 2025 at 11:42 PM
As a food-sensitivity-haver, this has been on my mind a lot since Helene last year. Mass care isn't set up for people on autoimmune diets, & yet, if I expect to function (during #disaster recovery no less), most staples are out of the question.
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
As SNAP hangs in the balance for nearly 42 million people, misinformation is rampant. Myths of laziness and fraud persist when we should be talking about too low wages for workers, income inequality, and our threadbare social safety net.
In this guest post, Adam Chandler sorts fact from fiction:
In this guest post, Adam Chandler sorts fact from fiction:
SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more
Journalist and author Adam Chandler explains what so much of the conversation about them gets wrong.
www.thehandbasket.co
November 1, 2025 at 1:57 PM
As SNAP hangs in the balance for nearly 42 million people, misinformation is rampant. Myths of laziness and fraud persist when we should be talking about too low wages for workers, income inequality, and our threadbare social safety net.
In this guest post, Adam Chandler sorts fact from fiction:
In this guest post, Adam Chandler sorts fact from fiction:
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
Resources for those needing food! If you've got the ability to help, this can also show you some good places to start for donating food, toiletries, etc.
#Food #FoodFinder #FoodPantry #FoodResouces
For those affected by SNAP being cut off or anyone needing food, here are some resources that can help you!
Pls repost/share !!
links:
findhelp.org
foodpantries.org
foodfinder.us
fridgefinder.app
littlefreepantry.org
feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...
For those affected by SNAP being cut off or anyone needing food, here are some resources that can help you!
Pls repost/share !!
links:
findhelp.org
foodpantries.org
foodfinder.us
fridgefinder.app
littlefreepantry.org
feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...
findhelp.org by findhelp - Search and Connect to Social Care
Search and connect to support. Find financial assistance, food pantries, medical care, and other free or reduced-cost help in your area, anywhere in the US.
findhelp.org
October 31, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Resources for those needing food! If you've got the ability to help, this can also show you some good places to start for donating food, toiletries, etc.
"Rather than move to a new platform, what if we focused our efforts on making decentralized experiences more user-friendly? Coming up with solutions to help people build audiences and find content that's meaningful to them—solutions that are based in their needs...."
#ghost #decentralization
#ghost #decentralization
“Centralized, proprietary platforms beholden to venture capital and to shareholders are bad for the internet and for society. They're bad for us. They offer short term benefits at long term loss.” @leahreich.com o t mf’n m www.leahreich.com/feeds-and-fo...
Feeds and Fodder
If you are not chronically online (congratulations, please take me with you), you probably missed yesterday's big news in the newsletter world: Anne Helen Petersen, one of Substack's biggest success s...
www.leahreich.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:30 PM
"Rather than move to a new platform, what if we focused our efforts on making decentralized experiences more user-friendly? Coming up with solutions to help people build audiences and find content that's meaningful to them—solutions that are based in their needs...."
#ghost #decentralization
#ghost #decentralization
Also I feel shitty trying to sell books when so much is going so wrong. Feels like scummy opportunism. But... in late 2020 when my novella collection was published, I didn't promote it. Was too busy trying to make it through a failing marriage, then divorce, still the pandemic...
I wish I could say the obscure pieces of #fiction I wrote at the end of last decade hadn't contributed to all the predictions of where we are, but it's hard not to.🧵
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/five-years-a...
#dystopianfiction #indieauthor #supportindieauthors #booksky
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/five-years-a...
#dystopianfiction #indieauthor #supportindieauthors #booksky
Five Years After My Dystopian Fiction Was Published, I’m Afraid It Might Actually Be Coming True
What I never expected in writing to process my layoffs as well as my privilege
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io
October 31, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Also I feel shitty trying to sell books when so much is going so wrong. Feels like scummy opportunism. But... in late 2020 when my novella collection was published, I didn't promote it. Was too busy trying to make it through a failing marriage, then divorce, still the pandemic...
I wish I could say the obscure pieces of #fiction I wrote at the end of last decade hadn't contributed to all the predictions of where we are, but it's hard not to.🧵
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/five-years-a...
#dystopianfiction #indieauthor #supportindieauthors #booksky
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/five-years-a...
#dystopianfiction #indieauthor #supportindieauthors #booksky
Five Years After My Dystopian Fiction Was Published, I’m Afraid It Might Actually Be Coming True
What I never expected in writing to process my layoffs as well as my privilege
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io
October 31, 2025 at 3:17 PM
I wish I could say the obscure pieces of #fiction I wrote at the end of last decade hadn't contributed to all the predictions of where we are, but it's hard not to.🧵
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/five-years-a...
#dystopianfiction #indieauthor #supportindieauthors #booksky
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/five-years-a...
#dystopianfiction #indieauthor #supportindieauthors #booksky
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
"Hurricane scientists have long been frustrated by the constraints and shortcomings of the Saffir-Simpson scale as a communications tool for the general public, and many are searching for a different metric that would be as easy for people to understand..."
Is It Time to Classify Hurricanes as Category 6?
Hurricane Melissa’s powerful winds and drenching rains devastated Jamaica. But is its wrath a sign that we need a new designation for monster storms?
www.scientificamerican.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:33 PM
"Hurricane scientists have long been frustrated by the constraints and shortcomings of the Saffir-Simpson scale as a communications tool for the general public, and many are searching for a different metric that would be as easy for people to understand..."
Sickening. I'm not an expert on community care networks by any means, but the little bit I've read suggests 1) they could offer a critical backfill & 2) they're still too dispersed to do so, reliant on likewise struggling ppl & overall inconsistent. & this doesn't even consider e.g. natural disaster
The disruption the Trump administration has wrought on this critical public safety and public health infrastructure is unprecedented, threatening a framework built over a half-century.
Without the federal government, almost no money exists to fight domestic violence
Work to prevent intimate partner violence, feed families in shelters fleeing abuse or help survivors file for legal protection would not exist on the scale it does today if the federal government step...
19thnews.org
October 31, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Sickening. I'm not an expert on community care networks by any means, but the little bit I've read suggests 1) they could offer a critical backfill & 2) they're still too dispersed to do so, reliant on likewise struggling ppl & overall inconsistent. & this doesn't even consider e.g. natural disaster
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
🧵*10/29/2025 noncooperation thread*
A daily-ish thread of acts of noncompliance & defiance by individuals, communities, & institutions.
*
Middle-class-&-up ppl often don't grasp that, w/o SNAP, some folks will literally have *nothing* to eat.
Today's thread focuses on the ppl getting folks fed.
A daily-ish thread of acts of noncompliance & defiance by individuals, communities, & institutions.
*
Middle-class-&-up ppl often don't grasp that, w/o SNAP, some folks will literally have *nothing* to eat.
Today's thread focuses on the ppl getting folks fed.
Lots of lovely folks want to cook for neighbors, fill community fridges during SNAP shutdown but are intimidated. A mutual aid group in Flatbush, Brooklyn has been feeding 80+ people every single week for a year and a half or so now. Nobody is born knowing how to cook for 80, so here's our guide!
October 29, 2025 at 3:30 PM
🧵*10/29/2025 noncooperation thread*
A daily-ish thread of acts of noncompliance & defiance by individuals, communities, & institutions.
*
Middle-class-&-up ppl often don't grasp that, w/o SNAP, some folks will literally have *nothing* to eat.
Today's thread focuses on the ppl getting folks fed.
A daily-ish thread of acts of noncompliance & defiance by individuals, communities, & institutions.
*
Middle-class-&-up ppl often don't grasp that, w/o SNAP, some folks will literally have *nothing* to eat.
Today's thread focuses on the ppl getting folks fed.
I feel this so hard. Divorce has meant learning to adult on my own for the first time in my entire life. It's... been a lot. But also the reason I'm planning to pursue a degree in trauma informed emergency management.
Part of the reason that it's hard to "adult" right now is that most of what you're expected to do in "adulting" is activity to set up a stable future.
But most of us have felt for a long time that stability is a lie being told to us with enough "one in a lifetime" disasters every 6 months...
But most of us have felt for a long time that stability is a lie being told to us with enough "one in a lifetime" disasters every 6 months...
October 28, 2025 at 7:25 PM
I feel this so hard. Divorce has meant learning to adult on my own for the first time in my entire life. It's... been a lot. But also the reason I'm planning to pursue a degree in trauma informed emergency management.
I'll take "dystopian hellscape" for $200, Alex
Or maybe "WTAF" for $400
Or maybe "WTAF" for $400
Add Cincinnati to the rapidly expanding list of cities where homeless students sleep in parking lots because their families can't afford a place to live.
www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2...
www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2...
October 27, 2025 at 8:27 PM
I'll take "dystopian hellscape" for $200, Alex
Or maybe "WTAF" for $400
Or maybe "WTAF" for $400