francescaswords

[francescaswords]

If you enjoyed Rotting Trees (well, as much as anyone can enjoy watching Ariel Scarlet make a series of terrible decisions, bless her sweet spiky soul) and want eyes on the sequel, the No. 1 Readers' Club is the place to go for news. Membership starts from a pound, and you can enjoy a free month just by signing up to my newsletter (which is coincidentally the second best place to go for news, because social media updates are LAST). Mirrornovel is even more bizarre than Rotting Trees, and the characters will make even fewer decisions that make you like them. Rocket features heavily though!!!

How the No. 1 Readers' Club works

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Turns out that exporting an MP4 induces precisely the same feelings of nausea that pressing 'confirm pre-order' or 'publish' does so it's nice to know that's a cross-medium experience 🎬

[francescaswords]

Sir Terry Pratchett is a master of the written word but he ain’t shit for the way he trained me to accept dumb naming conventions because i got three missed calls on my phone from Scam Likely and I spent like half a day wondering who I knew named Scam. 

[francescaswords]

knives out 4 should be set in a papal conclave and every time they elect a new pope he keeps getting murdered. black smoke white smoke black smoke white smoke the crowd goes huh?? they have to make benoit blanc a cardinal to get him inside the room and he insists on bringing his husband, because they were on vacation in rome when this all started and phillip wanted to see the sistine chapel but it got closed for conclave. to use himself as bait benoit has to get elected pope. except then he catches the murderer before he can get murdered and now he's stuck as pope. gay married pope, oops! is this anything

[francescaswords]

A handful of stationery items are still on sale via Folksy, including these snail mail stickers. Also, fun fact, members of the No. 1 Readers' Club enjoy 30% off all Folksy items - the biggest discount I offer anywhere. 💌

Shop the sale / Get a free month of the No. 1 Readers' Club when you sign up to my newsletter

[francescaswords]

I genuinely think there was no greater insight into the modern Christian mindset than when the Pope said he very much hoped Hell was empty and he was absolutely hounded by both Catholics and Protestants outraged at the idea of a man who wanted a place of infinite suffering to have nobody in it.

[francescaswords]

I put a page on my website explaining how the No. 1 Readers' Club works and if you read til the end, you'll find a nice little freebie!

(it's a free month of membership on me)

(happy bank holiday)

[francescaswords]

things that happened to me when i was a woman in STEM:

an advisor humiliated me in front of an entire lab group because of a call I made in his place when he wouldn't reply to my e-mails for months

he later delegated part of my master's thesis work to a 19-year old male undergrad without my approval

a male scientist at a NASA conference looked me up and down and asked when i was graduating and if i was open to a job at his company. right before inquiring what my ethnicity was because i "looked exotic"

a random male member of the public began talking over me and my female advisor, an oceanographer with a pHD and decades of experience, saying he knew more about oceanography than us

things that have happened to me since becoming a man in STEM:

being asked consistently for advice on projects despite being completely new to a position

male colleagues approaching me to drop candid information regarding our partners / higher ups that I was not privy to before

lenience toward my work in a way I haven't experienced before. incredible understanding when I need to take time off to care for my family.

conference rooms go silent when I start talking. no side chatter. I get a baseline level of attention and focus from people that's very unfamiliar and genuinely difficult for me to wrap my head around.

like. yes some PI's will still be assholes regardless of the gender of their subordinates but, I've lived this transition. misogyny in STEM is killing women's careers, and trans men can and do experience male privilege.

[francescaswords]

A silly one today but I haven't posted in a while so eh I liked the outfit from this 'draw your oc' meme by pichikeen so I put my oc in it! I gave him some boba tea instead of the water bottle because I thought the outfit suited a sweet treat 😛

[francescaswords]

Me, on the welcome desk in the library: Good morning, how are you today?

Customer: I have welcomed Jesus into my heart and so I am well today and every day.

Me, a little unnerved: Okay then! Is there something I can help you with?

Customer, digging around in his bag and pulling out an iPhone in a box: Unfortunately, Jesus can't help me with this fucking phone, so I came to the library.

[francescaswords]

Expelled from Word, he is now trying to contact you through other programs...

[francescaswords]

This is the worst timeline. (x)

[francescaswords]

Quick reminder I've got a few old favourites listed on Folksy, and they're heavily discounted because I'm making space for new projects!

Open to UK shipping only but please get in touch if you're international and I'll see what I can do.

[francescaswords]

So on my posts about racism or transmisogyny, I often see tags that basically say “I don’t understand this but I’m going to reblog it anyway.” If you see a “social justice” type post that you want to reblog but don’t understand?

Don’t.

I know this goes against everything you’re used to hearing on this website, but listen. Reblogging posts you don’t understand is basically the equivalent of blindly repeating whatever you’re told. Even if you’re right, if you don’t understand why you’re right, you could be spouting utter bullshit and you wouldn’t even know it.

When I see “I don’t know what this means but I’m gonna reblog it anyway” it sends a lot of messages. It says that you care more about seeming right than being right. It says that you want good ally credit without any of the work of being a good ally. It says you’re on my side because I can make a post sound good, not because you actually agree with me on anything beyond the surface level.

So instead of just reblogging that post, save it for later. Like it, draft it, bookmark it, whatever. Go to the op’s blog and skim through a couple of pages, see if you can find some context. If the post is old, you could try asking for context in a non-condescending way. “Is this post referring to something specific?” is a lot better than, say, “Does this even happen? I’ve never heard of this.”

If that doesn’t help, do some more research. Google, search tumblr tags for recent posts on a subject, ask people who have EXPLICITLY stated they are willing to educate. Maybe in the process you’ll find more posts with a similar message to the original, but in easier to understand language. Maybe someone else already added a reply that adds useful information onto the op.

And maybe all of that takes a long time. Maybe, by the time you finally understand what the post was talking about, it’s months old and no longer relevant. Maybe you don’t even want to reblog it anymore. Who cares, fuck that post. You learned and grew as a person. That’s more important than looking good on a blog.

[francescaswords]

Some copies of Rotting Trees out in the wild... thank you to everyone who's tagged me! You can grab a copy (signed, ebook, library etc) via my website.

If you requested an e-ARC back in autumn, you'll be getting review reminders soon - no pressure to review on any sort of timeline, just ignore them if you're more of a mood reader.

[francescaswords]

This is the funniest headline because they used his name like we all know him😭

[francescaswords]

No. 1 Readers' Club 101 + blog refresh

Hello! I’ve had a little refresh of this space, and my stories blog, to reduce visual clutter and – hopefully – make the spaces easier to navigate. I think in times like these the world needs fewer links to click, you know? Decision fatigue is real and if I keep watching seven-minute YouTube videos with three ad breaks, I might crack and unplug the wifi router. Ironically I am here with a link…