#The Open Book Project

[dolls-self-ships]

doodle dump bc I drew SO MUCH today and I can’t wait to finalize my ideas and post them so you all get to see the drafts before they’re complete ✨

some of these will become comics and some are just gonna get finalized <3

[bixels]

Every day I feel the vicious urge to start working on a fake opening title sequence to The Grand Galloping 20s' first story, The Witch From Ponyville, as a proof of concept. I've been watching old Disney movie openings.

[murderbot-real]

I'm so normal about murderbot and ART. I'm so normal about it, you don't even know. ART cleaning the ship and yelling at its crew to put their laundry away bc Mensah is coming aboard does not make me want to roll around on the floor shrieking. I did not almost die when murderbot said it wanted to keep being with ART. not even a little. I'm so so so so so so so normal about all of it. so normal

[laurajunekirsch]

Last month I curated my first show for Greenpoint Open Studios and it was so much fun! Featuring work from LPX, Miles Shelton, Russ Rubin, Mary Shah and work from my book Romantic Lowlife Fantasies. Big thanks to Bechdel Project for hosting us - all pics by me (Laura June Kirsch). 

Keychains, prints and books up for sale on my site - buy here!

[ratfest]

HI I QUIT MY JOB… and i have ko-fi commissions open again!!

This time they’re fully open so you can grab whatever you want from me… i can finally draw now so please let me draw for u 🥺

here’s the link to the fundraiser I’ll be donating too, I have donation receipt options available too that you can read more about in the document!

[the-nothing-maker]

do you have a waitlist for commissions by any chance?

Hi, thanks for asking! I don't usually open waitlists for comms, I open them very sporadically and they take a long time to complete, I always feel a little ashamed asking people to wait for an indefinite amount of time...

Me and @luposlipaphobya are currently working on our next big project with a tentative release in November (and I'm working on smaller booklets of my own 👀) so I don't think I'll be able to take on commissions until December! I'll post something about it once it's there though :D Thanks for the interest!

[amethystpath-writes]

To Traitors

NOT A PR0MPT

******

"The general wants to send me to your homeland."

"For war?"

Villain hummed. "We knew it was coming."

"Of course." Hero shook her head and pushed a shirt further into the bucket of water. She bent it and twisted it and shoved it again. "How did she react when you told her 'no'?"

That was the thing; Villain didn't deny the general. No one denied the general.

Hero picked up on the silence. She always did. “Where does that leave us?”

A choice.

War?

Or her?

“You know this decision is not mine.”

"Sure, it is. I always wanted to travel- try camping."

Camping. Hero knew rejecting orders would be considered traitorous. She would rather be homeless and shunned than to standby while her homeland was being attacked.

"Hero..."

"Is that something you are not willing to do?" Her movements became rushed, like she was trying to maintain a calm, but the only way to do so was to move along with the emotions. She grabbed a shirt, dunked it, rung it, tossed it. Grab, dunk, ring. Grab, dunk, ring. They weren't even becoming clean, and the water needed changed. "My family is there. Where are they meant to go?"

"Even if I did tell the general no, I cannot stop an entire army from marching. The war will happen with or without me."

A sigh veiled the tension in the room. Villain's weight creaked beneath him as he stepped towards his lover. He took a linen shirt, wet and soaked, from her hands, and dropped it in the brown water. He found her hands next, then tugged her up slightly. She took the cue and stood, let herself be held.

"I love you," Villain said.

Hero didn't like crying. This is why Villain began rubbing her back as he pulled her into an embrace. She buried her face into his chest and sniffed once, twice...wiped a face full of tears, sniffed again...stopped, then began sobbing. No amount of squeezing could console the thought of her family being innocently slaughtered.

"You would hide them, wouldn't you? If you found them, you would save them?"

His grip loosened. He whispered, “Of course I would.” Did Hero know it might have been a lie? Even Villain wasn't sure what he would do when the time came that he marched onto her homeland.

"When do you leave?"

"Tomorrow."

"Then I'm leaving now." She attempted to pull away from Villain's chest, but he held her firmly. Her muscles tensed beneath him, but Villain knew she knew better than to try again.

"Hero, be level-headed.

"I want to warn them," she whispered, so quietly that Villain only knew what she said because of how well he knew her. He knew her every thought before she even had it herself. It wasn't magic; just love.

"And you think you will outrun an entire army overnight?"

"I know I won't!" her tone had changed, and this time when she pulled away, she didn't stop until Villain let her go. "But who am I to not try at all? Who would I be, Villain?" Her face was red and swollen, glistening with sad, then angry tears.

For a moment, she stopped. She took a breath. then swallowed as if she needed to stop herself from asking what obviously came to her mind. Alas, she said it. "How long have you known?" Her voice cracked, and Villain could see she already knew the answer: longer than he should have known before telling her.

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't ask for an apology." Her eyes refused to meet his. Villain was almost glad for it. He couldn't bear her anger, not when it was directed at him. "I asked how long you have known."

"Hero..."

"Clean your own damn clothes. I'll pay the Baker family back when I return."

"Pay them back? For w-" No. "You're not taking their horse." Hero was already scrounging around, first grabbing a raggedy sack, then stuffing one random item after another in. "Hero, stop. Hero-" She was going to take the neighbor's horse just to get caught up in the war herself. "Stop!"

She fell to her knees in the next moment. Broke down as if his voice took out the last support beam keeping the house together. hero cried, screamed, and wailed. "No. No. No. No. No," she repeated, and her voice broke time and time again as she screamed.

Tears sprung into Villain's eyes. What did he do?

"I'll send a bird. It will arrive before our army does, and when they receive it, they will know to leave."

Hero's head lifted, and her puffy eyes finally met Villain's glistening ones. "I will prepare beds. We have pelts; I can throw something together, and my brother can take-"

One blow after another, each and every passing moment. Just when Villain thought all might be well, the both of them realized there was no saving anyone. The war was an ambush, and Hero's brother would be expected to take a stand, to protect his own homeland.

"I won't-" Villain swallowed. "I won't harm your family. I will send the bird, and I will pray with every moment of travel that they receive it and leave. I will not draw my sword until I find their home empty, until I am sure they have left."

"You would be a traitor to your own kingdom."

"Better it this kingdom than you."

[flashhwing]

hate when i have multiple things to do so instead of doing any of them my brain refuses to pick one and does none of them

I need to finish a training module for volunteer work, clean my apartment, and prepare for dnd all by saturday. so of course i'm doing none of those things

also i am in the middle of one book but just received another one that i'm itching to read. so instead of reading either of them i am watching a show

[umbralstars]

We got food?????!!!!!

[nyctophobiart]

Fellas from books I’ve read this year <3

Ryland Grace,Haymitch Abernathy, Kaladin Stormblessed

[laurellynnleake]

WORKSHOPS 4 GAZA

Workshops4Gaza is a collective of writers, artists and educators organizing online/in-person workshops, classes, poetry readings, and book sales to support Palestinians. Funds go to the Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led group providing direct aid — food, water, medical — to hundreds per day. I've attended a virtual reading and was blown away by the love and incredible poetry shared.

But since the so-called "ceasefire", donations and workshop sign-ups have plummeted...Both groups will have to shut down if that doesn't change, so spread the word.

Shout-out to How to Talk to Kids About Palestine (Sat, 3/15/2025 12-1:30 PM) featuring illustrator Nathi Ngubane and his coloring book From The River To The Sea.

If you heard about the recent "Israeli" raid on the Palestinian bookstore Educational Books in Jerusalem, THIS is the very book the IOF stole, claiming "incitement to terrorism". And you can support the Sameer Project by buying a copy &/or grabbing a seat at the author's workshop! W4G also collabs with the Seattle bookstore Open Books to sell poetry, prose, and nonfiction books and comics online by the creators featured in their workshops! They've got a ton of Palestinian authors (I recommend Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories From Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine, ed by Refaat Araleer), plus gift-cards.

W4G is a fantastic resource for learning about Palestinian art and history while directly supporting Palestinians, so go check out their selection and TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

(most alt text thanks to my partner @earnestattempts <3)

[themelodyofspring]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge

May 26 - Black and White

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

*flicks through the 42 open tabs on my laptop trying to remember which of the 8 open google docs tabs is the writing project I just sat down to work on and which ones of the others are the research tabs relevant to this project and not any of the others*

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: ALWAYS COMING HOME by Ursula K. Le Guin.

The people have Spoken, so I'll be reading this 618-page brick next! The cover page credits the author, an artist, a composer, a geomancer (??), and the author of the intro, so. I suspect I'm in for a Ride™. I am both Excited and Intimidated--will report back on how this goes!

[counterintuitivecomics]

Sketches I did at the Workshops4Gaza VIRTUAL POETRY READING FOR GAZA III last Friday. Thank you so much to all the poets & organizers & everyone who came & supported The Sameer Project - we raised over $2000 to bring medical care to Palestinians!

Portrait #1: George Abraham, editor of Mizna art journal, co-editor of HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE US: Palestinian Poetry (proceeds go to TSP)

#2: Cindy Juyoung Ok, wrote Ward Towards & House Work

#3 Sarah Ghazal Ali, ed for West Branch Mag, wrote Theophanies

And this one is what everything looks like without the added green tint...just mechanical pencil & finger smudges on computer paper. Check out all the amazing upcoming Workshops4Gaza workshops, events, and reading groups, browse the Open Books online W4G shop, but most importantly, keep supporting The Sameer Project!

[ranvwoop]

i misread a post but Man I love children's literature . I can be trusted to behave in conversations about children's literature. I do not have a long list of scholastic published books I would have killed for.