leebrontide

[leebrontide]

Having experienced a lot of it in my 20s, I think some of the worst, pettiest, most straight up this-is-just-bullying-you're-passing-off-as-praxis incidences of Queer Infighting endemic to young people can be best understood as attempts to exercise power by people with very little power.

Like you're 22, you're queer, you've just become a Marxist, the scope of World Suck is overwhelming and you have $30 in your bank account. What can you do to feel like you have any power? Well, you can try to get your frenemy cancelled for cosplaying a character from a problematic show. You can write a public callout post over someone's obviously friendly use of a slur you don't think they technically have the right to reclaim. Doing this stuff can make you feel like you have power and your actions have an impact. Unfortunately the impact in question is a negative impact on other marginalized people. But that often takes some maturity and self-reflection to notice.

[leebrontide]

Hello!

I'm Lee (any pronouns), a middle aged queer writer from the midwest of the US. It's been a bit, so I'm doing another writeblr intro, to find more potential writeblr folks to chat with!

What I write:

- Mostly scifi! I have a bit of fantasy brewing in a collab project, but mostly, scifi.

- Queer stuff. Lots of different types of queerness.

- Community. Both in the group-hugs-and-support variety and the extreme-mess/everybodies-traumas-keep-smashing-into-each-other variety. I have training as a family therapist and am endlessly fascinated by interpersonal dynamics. This is the meat of my work.

- Grounded worldbuilding. My main project right now is near future scifi that diverges from our timeline around 2001. I'm enjoying the hell out of playing the US I know with some very key tweaks that changed society. I know a lot about medical systems, criminal justice systems, and legal systems and like using fantasy and scifi elements to show them as I know them. But like, in a way that should appeal to people who give 0 shits about US institutions.

- Disability stuff. Not that after-school-special shit. I am just tired of characters being generic pretty dolls whose physical attributes don't impact how they move through the world. That means not only writing a variety of different disabilities, but also different bodies. My characters aren't "inspiration porn" or just waiting around for less disabled characters to come save them. They are messy, with a wide array of relationships to their limitations and the things they use to cope with those limitations.

- YA into new adult. Not exclusively, but mostly. I really like taking characters from YA into early adulthood. Not just a standard coming-of-age arc, but the actually moving from a self-concept of a dependent teen into someone with legal responsibility for themselves, jobs, college, etc. Especially when combined with all of the above. I love a nice long character arc with lots of sub-arcs along the way.

What I have out, now.

- I have two books out so far, Secondhand Origin Stories and Names in Their Blood. I'm working on book 3 in that planned 5 book series now, which is currently titled Brittle Idols.

- I have a free monthly newsletter called Shed Letters where I talk about psychology, tech, queerness, storytelling, and the creative process, plus whatever random topic I've been researching for my books recently. Also contains pictures of my three very photogenic cats.

- Newsletter subscribers also have access to a novella I wrote that goes between Secondhand Origin Stories and Names in Their Blood, that's about an fictional AI (the only kind I like) trying to decide on a body for themself.

- I also draw and animate, with my first and still in-progress animation project being a "trailer" for Secondhand Origin Stories.

What I'm looking for

- writeblrs - especially writeblrs that aren't JUST writeblrs. I want to feel like I'm meeting people, at least in some manner, rather than just hearing about a product in process. That doesn't have to mean deep confessions or private information, but honestly I'm not likely to remember you for your writing project alone. Sorry. Please show me what else you care about!

- Bonus points for queer or disabled scifi or fantasy writers.

- I am white for most intents and purposes but I always want to find more AOC who write sci fi.

- Also always excited to meet more YA authors- especially the currently kinda sidelined YA scifi.

- People who care about where society is going but aren't posting that everything is doomed and pointless. I mean you post whatever you want but I don't need that on my dash. That shit is not helping me help.

I sometimes do ask games? It's fun when I have the time. It'd be fun to have more folks to do them with, provided those folks are patient.

Please interact if this has piqued your interest!

[leebrontide]

I should do another writeblr intro while the current draft of Brittle Idols sits in the proving cupboard to rise for a while. I think it's been a couple years?

Also there are like over 7000 of you for some reason, and I know that people follow me for my life observations (????) and not my writing but I do want people to at least KNOW that I'm a scifi writer.

[leebrontide]

whyyyyyy did I have to see this literally 2 hours after sending my reformatted novels to print???

I made my debut YA fantasy book dyslexia friendly! This is part 1 of explaining how I typeset it, if you want to read the first three chapters completely for free, you can sign up for my mailing list here!

Part 2!

[leebrontide]

[leebrontide]

Wow it really does say that.

United Healthcare getting sued by its investors, because it didn't warn them that the CEO getting murdered (by the tendrils of their unmitigated greed) was going to lead to them approving more claims (for covered services that they had no right to deny) is a cartoonish example of exactly why their CEO got murdered.

Their argument is essentially "You promised us a specific profit margin that is not possible to achieve under this increased public scrutiny of your unethical practices. We only agreed to invest because of those unethical practices. So we demand compensation because you didn't warn us that you'd be behaving more ethically"

And idk. Satire isn't just dead. We've pissed on its corpse and now it's dissolving in lye.

[leebrontide]

I'm literally pleading with you- when you see a horrible bill up for consideration, after you contact your reps PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HAPPENS TO THAT BILL.

A staggering number of people seem not to realize how many of these actually do fail or get shot down.

So it feels like every terrible thing that's suggested actually happens.

There is enough real bad shit going on. But if you don't follow up to find out how many of the bad things you object to ACTUALLY get stopped, you are going to feel overwhelmed.

Public outcry works a lot more than people realize it does.

Please, feel emboldened, feel in community with others who are resisting. The things you do, in collection with the things we all do together, do make a difference.

[leebrontide]

i don’t know how to explain to you people that no matter what a country’s government is like i do not and will not support the US indiscriminately bombing that country’s civilians and i don’t know why that’s a controversial take tbh

[leebrontide]

If you're in NYC and you haven't voted yet I'm gonna need you to go tomorrow and rank Zohran Mamdani #1. Tomorrow is the last day for early voting and then you won't get a chance again until Tuesday. It's extremely important that we elect Zohran.

His platform centers the following:

Affordable housing

Freezing the rent

Fast and free busses

Department of Community safety

No cost childcare

City owned grocery stores

Taxing corporations and the wealthy to pay for all of this

Here is a direct link to the platform with more details.

DO NOT RANK CUOMO.

Andrew Cuomo is a rapist. He's a Zionist who is literally on Netanyahu's defense team against the ICC. And his primary interest is upholding the status quo. He's backed by billionaires and landlords. NYC cannot afford a mayor like this.

If you are registered to vote in NYC I'm begging you to do so. We have a real chance here

[leebrontide]

OC GIVEAWAY

What's that? You liked Women of Xal I and want your character to cameo in Women of Xal II? Haven't played the first, but the art is real pretty and you want your OC in the pretty visual novel? BOTH ARE VALID, and no purchase necessary!

To qualify, you just need to, and brace yourselves:

CLICK "Notify Me On Launch" on our Kickstarter Preview Page

REBLOG A screenshot saying you have followed WoXII's page!

FOLLOW this blog as we'll be announcing winners here!

WAIT Until July 31st for us to pick our first winner!

Winner Receives:

An in-game visual novel "Sprite" of your character

A special illustration in the style of WoXII's KS CGs

A sketch of your character the two artists (Cat and ssam_reptile) will base the aforementioned designs off of.

Examples as Followed:

Notes:

Winner is chosen randomly

If you've already followed the KS page, just go to step 2!

Unfollowing or deleting your reblog disqualifies your entry

You can choose between an in-game cameo or just the art for general use

For in-game cameos, OCs must fit Women of Xal lore:

Xulians: Dark-skinned, can’t lie Accelians: Humans, Elf-like, catfolk, foxfolk, etc. Humans: You know these ones

[leebrontide]

Respect your biome! You are in your ecosystem!

i've been reading a lot of books about urban naturalism recently, and the one big thing they all talk about is how you HAVE to stop seeing nature as something that happens somewhere else. nature is not just charismatic megafauna and state parks and mountain ranges. nature is that abandoned lot that's growing native milkweed in it. nature is the murder of crows that lives in your block. nature is the moss growing on your roof and the dandelions growing in the sidewalk cracks and the song birds at your neighbor's birdfeeder. and you should care about it! you should notice it! that's YOUR nature!

[leebrontide]

for no reason whatsoever here’s a reminder that if you consider yourself a leftist/punk/abolitionist/anarchist/radical in any sort of way and get called into jury duty, you are to become the most square person on earth during the jury questionnaire!!!

don’t be that guy who says fuck the police in the jury questionnaire! that just gets you sent home! if you want to generate change, interact with the case and use your jury vote for good! ESPECIALLY if it’s a high profile case!

[leebrontide]

As a writer, I think it's helpful to read "wow that was good I wish I wrote like that" books AND "wow that was good, but I have no desire to write like that" books. And to know and appreciate the difference.

Like you can steal from both types. That's valid. But it doesn't have to be sad that some books are great and also not at all a thing you'd write. Those are still good and valuable reads.

[leebrontide]

ALSO, this addresses the CONTINUING issue of changing tables only being in women's bathrooms, which honestly in 2025 is just fucking embarrassing.

Sharing space is nothing new. Sharing bathrooms is nothing new. The reactionary outrage is so manufactured.

[leebrontide]

imagine if they gendered you from birth and then assigned you a list of interests and personality traits even if that felt horrifically untrue for you and you hated when people did that for as long as you could remember but every time you complained about it people got confused

[leebrontide]

i hope luigi mangione is proven innocent & gets to sue a ton of companies for slander and win & i hope he gets enough money to rebuild his life and get any help for his chronic pain that he needs & i hope he’s able to disappear from the public eye entirely if that’s what he wants

[leebrontide]

Was gonna comment that Maomao seems to disproportionately attract stand-in moms and then realized...yeah I'd probably try to mother that kid to, if I met her. And I even have a kid already.

Thinking about the relationships of childless mothers and motherless children in the Apothecary Diaries.

Ah duo and Lishu

Lihua and Maomao

Pairin and Maomao