Starting to worry about what’s going to happen when we don’t have our emotional support astronauts to go check in on every day.

And today the Forest Service announced they’re closing every single research station except for one. 🫠

That's the goal!

Graphics Creation Guide for Non-Artists | Katy L. Wood A guide for emergency managers, wildland fire personnel, and others on how to create outreach art and graphics even without an art background.

There is sadly an extreme lack of training available for wildland fire and emergency management workers who want to create graphics for outreach & education, so last year I made a 25 page guide to design basics for people in those fields! It also goes into why good graphics matter. Free to download!

A poster that looks like a game board with 49 numbered squares. On the squares is an isometric forested neighborhood. There are a variety of houses along several streets, surrounded by various trees. Some of the houses are connected by yellow fences that go across multiple squares. There are also wind gusts that go across multiple squares. The game is half played with four pieces that look like little fires having left a blackened trail across the board. At the top of the poster and above the board is the heading, "Don't play games with mitigation." Below the board is the game title "Winds & Embers" along with the rules of the game, which are the same rules as "Chutes & Ladders." Below that is a short blurb about wildland fire mitigation and why it is important. There is also an illustration of a game spinner on the bottom right of the poster. Everything is in a flat, simple style.

Recently I was struck by a visual of wildland fire mitigation but make it Chutes & Ladders. It seemed like a potentially good educational aid, so I decided to make a poster!

You can download the poster for free, including a playable version, from my payhip: payhip.com/KatyLWood. #WildlandFire

When I was a kid my dad told me “That’s Leonardo DiCaprio,” but little me did not realize he meant the ACTOR, who I had not heard of, but instead thought it was an actual famous artist (because to little me that sure SOUNDED like the name of an artist) and that artist had really died on the Titanic.

A mockup of a box of Novel Navigation Notecards on a desk. The cards are coming out of the brown box to show each of the card types, all in pastel colors. To the right are the words "Novel Navigation Notecards." Below that is a box with the words "A writing tool by a neurodiverse author for neurodiverse authors."

My new @kickstarter.com campaign has launched! If you're an author with ADHD, this one's for you: www.kickstarter.com/projects/kat...

This plotting tool is designed to be flexible, tactile, and adaptable to your writing style.

Agreed!

Right??? It’s such a neat collection!

It’s so fun sometimes too! I reached out about a paper on pre-Smokey Bear fire posters and the author also sent me a PowerPoint of other art that didn’t make it into the paper. One was so old it told people not to throw cigarettes out of their CARRIAGE.

Yikes. Good luck. 🫠

Well that…sure is something to wake up to.

‘The perfect storm’: Trump has left the US less prepared for natural disasters, experts say Emergency managers say the US president has presided over a dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Regional FEMA offices slashed by DOGE face further cuts; disaster response may suffer | Cascadia Daily News Federal aid already hampered by Trump administration cuts before NW WA flooding

www.cascadiadaily.com/2026/jan/04/...

Having a long transitional period can alleviate some of the loss. Posting on both with constant reminders of the move, mentions of why you did it, mentions of any benefits the new platform offers, etc.

Holy shit...

I pulled mine two months after their supposed deadline to respond, and no response to my inquiries. Then a month after it was published in another journal the first one finally got back to me saying they did want to publish it. Reminded them I pulled it and I haven’t heard from them since.

The TikTok algorithm knows me well enough to suggest lots of disaster videos, but it does not understand disaster videos well enough not to suggest I save them as places I want to travel. Like, yes, this was posted from a very pretty country, but in this video it is in fact underwater.

A mockup of a sticker featuring a vintage scientific style illustration of key pieces of wildland fire gear including gloves, a drip torch, a pulaski, a hardhat, and a wildland fire pack. Below the illustration are the words "GEAR UP".

A mockup of a sticker featuring topography. A line of the topography extends above the others and forms a path where three silhouetted wildland firefighters hike towards a fire burning on a cliff. Along the top are the words "until the work is done".

I also have a bunch of new wildland fire related stickers in my shop, if you want to check those out too!

www.aspenandcopper.com/shop

Use code "WINTER25" for free shipping on orders over $25.

A mockup of a sticker design which is an infinity symbol along which you can see the cycle of wildfire in a pine forest.

A mockup of a sticker featuring the word "REGROW". In each letter is a different stage of the natural cycle of wildfires in forests. Below the word "REGROW" and in plain text is the phrase "Beauty changed isn't beauty lost."

A mockup of a sticker featuring a single engine air tanker dropping retardant on a wildfire in a pine forest.

A mockup of a sticker featuring the silhouette of a feminine wildland firefighter talking on a radio and holding a pulaski over her shoulder. The silhouette is done in a double-exposure style showing a mountain landscape at night, with a wildfire burning down the mountainside.

I also have a bunch of new wildland fire related stickers in my shop, if you want to check those out too!

www.aspenandcopper.com/shop

Use code "WINTER25" for free shipping on orders over $25.

A graphic featuring a mockup of the paperback of the novel "Camp Daze" on the left side, and text about the novel on the right side, with three queer pride flags below the text. The first flag is the queer pride flag, the second is half the aromantic flag and half the asexual flag, and the third is the lesbian flag. The text reads as follows: Camp Daze Adult | Survival | Summer Camp A helpful take on the apocalypse. Conifer was raised to survive the end of the world, any end of the world. Except this one. When the bombs drop, she finds herself stranded in the mountains with over a hundred young campers and only a handful of other young counselors to help her.

A graphic featuring a mockup of the paperback of the novel "Lie Down in the Ashes" on the left side, and text about the novel on the right side, with three queer pride flags below the text. The first flag is the queer pride flag, the second is the trans flag, and the third is the lesbian flag. The text reads as follows: Lie Down in the Ashes Young Adult | Survival | Thriller Short Book | Epistolary Five teens go out for one last camping trip before school starts, only for one of them to accidentally start a wildfire that risks all of their lives, and the lives of many others. Their only hope is an old friend who dropped out of school to work at the local mine, in a truck he stole.

A graphic featuring a mockup of the paperback of the novel "Poison in the Blood" on the left side, and text about the novel on the right side, with three queer pride flags below the text. The first flag is the queer pride flag, the second is the asexual flag, and the third is the bisexual flag. The text reads as follows: Poison in the Blood Adult | Fantasy | Adventure Post-Post Apoc. | Characters you love to hate Ten years ago, Dustin Lockwood's little sister Shae went missing as their family fled across the desolate abandoned portions of North America to escape the coven that wanted them dead. He would do anything to find her, even now. Shae Lockwood, living it up as a rare human actress, would do anything not to be found.

A graphic featuring a mockup of the paperback of the novel "The Pits" on the left side, and text about the novel on the right side, with three queer pride flags below the text. The first flag is the queer pride flag, the second is the gender fluid flag, and the third is the lesbian flag. The text reads as follows: The Pits Adult | Adventure | Fantasy Weird Western | Illustrated When Clarabella's girlfriend goes missing, she seeks out the only person who might be able to help: her outlaw older sibling Royal, who she hasn't seen in years. Royal knows more about the strange magic of their world than anyone. More than they should. More than the magic wants them to know.

Pssst! All my books are 15% off in my shop right now, including special editions! And you can get free shipping on orders over $25 with code "WINTER25" too! (Sadly only shipping within the US right now due all the nonsense, but ebooks are available everywhere!)

www.aspenandcopper.com/shop

Oh do tell?

Washington post: fema head resigns

I’m surprised the IAEM conference hasn’t broken out in cheers.

🎉🎉🎉🎉

Exactly the right reaction.

👇👇

This is very, uh, not great. Just fyi. Especially for those of us in the direct path of a major tsunami from Alaska. 🙃

🧵 on how the dismantling of USAID may affect the US search and rescue teams deployed to Jamaica.

This is actually part of what I want to do my dissertation on! Why do almost all of our fictional portrayals of disaster not show recovery?

Also, have you read “The Titanic Survivors Book Club”? Delightful fictional look at how some people who missed the boat tried to cope.

I think all sub sites are redirecting to the main ones from what I’ve seen.

Uggggh. Stickers are so easy and cheap to get professionally done these days. Yet people still do this.