A guy asking ChatGPT to review a series of fart sound effects and getting a serious kiss ass response that calls it atmospheric

I can't stop laughing at this post. It's perfect.

I'm also in the bar now if you're still around?

Anyway, Dragonriders of Pern gave me my first fandom feels, and lives deep in the back of my brain, so please talk to me about dragons!! Love you all, and cheers again to Anne McCaffrey for blowing my mind with time travel & putting sci-fi in her fantasy world!! (13/13)

Yet, in the Harper Hall's trilogy, we've got a much less thoughtful disabled character in the background, who is very much there to show us that Menolly and Piemur and Sebell are good eggs, because they treat him well when others at the hall don't. (12/?)

For instance, in The Ship Who Sang, she means to write about disability. The opening line says of the disabled main character, who later becomes a ship, "She was born a thing." It's a gutpunch of a book that builds towards Helva reclaiming agency over her body. (11/?)

One of my main takeaways from this discussion is I think McCaffrey was excellent at making socio-political points when that's what she was trying to do. When she wasn't worrying about issues, a lot of background problematic stuff seeped in to her stories. (10/?)

I wish the panel had more time to discuss McCaffrey as a business woman, after @julietemckenna.bsky.social recalled some excellent business advice Anne gave at a writing event, including always reading your contracts, making sure you understand them & double checking your royalty statements. (9/?)

On McCaffrey's enduring impact, @emilytesh.net shared that @annleckie.com hadn't actually read The Ship Who Sang before writing Ancillary Justice, which blew my mind. A true legacy is when your ideas permeate the genre enough for that. This is why SFF is sometimes called a 'Long Conversation' (8/?)

Returning to the panel, I loved @emilytesh.net's point that the romance in Dragonflight was unusual for the time as F'lar & Lessa's relationship starts with sex & builds up to trust. It's a trope we see in fic a lot & in fellow panelist @everinamaxwell.bsky.social's great debut Winter's Orbit. (7/?)

Once, several years into drafting a novel I was pitching as a steampunk Day of the Triffids, it occurred to me that I had accidentally come up with a story where the baddie was, in fact, Threadfall.
What can i say, it's an amazing environmental conflict. (6/?)

The french editions of the Pern books had the opening lines on the cover. I still remember "Lessa s'éveilla. Elle avait froid, d'un froid plus profond que la fraîcheur suintante des murailles de pierre."

Also Dragonquest had a picture of Lessa with her buns out on the covet because France. (5/?)

I very distinctly remember that the French paperback had a blurb on the back saying Anne McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo and a Nebula Award in the same year for the short story Dragonflight. It was the first I'd ever heard of the Hugo Awards. (4/?)

Some of my thoughts on McCaffrey, which I didn't share in the panel because they weren't a brief question:

I found her work when I was 12-13 and my mum took Dragonflight out from the library, read it, loved it and then handed it to me, saying "You'll love this!". I was hooked from them on. (3/?)

Huge thanks to @emilytesh.net, @everinamaxwell.bsky.social, @julietemckenna.bsky.social, @sjgroenewegen.co.uk & Peter Ellis for a fantastic panel!!
Now I want to go home and reread a whole bunch of McCaffrey. I've never read the Crystal Singer books, should I give those a go in 2026? 2/?

Day two of #Eastercon started with a very insightful panel on Anne McCaffrey and her works. A lot of fondness for all the best bits that kept us coming back, some fascinating contextualisation of the time & atmosphere she wrote in, as well as her influence on current writing, fandom etc... 1/?

Nine Worlds used to have panels of mini talks on a given topic. One I remember loving had a bunch of speakers each get 10 minutes to monologue about why they love their favourite tropes & convince the audience it's the best. They're were powerpoints and puppets involved.

Alanis Morisette: "It's a no smoking sign on your cigareeeeette break"

Ilya Rozanov: Yes.

"You'll be back" out of context is one hundred per cent a song from a cat to its human.

Photo of Claire Rousseau, wearing a maroon shirt, convention lanyard and shiny fish necklace.

Eastercon friends, come find me and my shiny fish!! #Eastercon

Turns out Rail Replacement Buses are much more pleasant when it's a train replacement service on a quiet day than when it's a tube replacement on a weekday in London. Still wish I didn't to take 3 different train/buses instead of a direct service but it honestly wasn't that bad.

Ohhh, I love your setup! I've only got a small grow light propagator thingy myself, currently full with carefully tetrised pepper and tomato starts.

Ohh yes, I was hoping you'd be around! I'm on the cursèd rail replacement bus now but it's not nearly as bad when it's train replacement instead of tube replacement.

Whelp, I'm trying to buy train tickets to get to Birmingham for Eastercon & apparently there's often a ton of planned engineering works on Easter weekend...
Send good vibes to me, I DO NOT WANT to get stuck with taking a damn Rail Replacement Bus.

harry potter is wearing glasses and a tie and looking at the camera . Alt: Long time trans ally Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, delivering the eye rolliest eye-roll known to child acting.

Ah yes because Gilead also famously didn't take its stance on gender from Jesus Christ.

harry potter is wearing glasses and a tie and looking at the camera . Alt: Long time trans ally Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, delivering the eye rolliest eye-roll known to child acting.

Ah yes because Gilead also famously didn't take its stance on gender from Jesus Christ.

Trans people are just people who just want to go use the loo in peace and not get murdered.

I promise when you don't spend every day turning over every rock to find problems caused by teams people, you will not find any problems caused by trans people.

Also, from what little I know about that book I haven't read, I don't think Jesus would be thrilled about all this oppressing a marginalised group you TERF assholes are doing.

As usual, TERFs out there saying the quiet part out loud. Here's a reminder that not everybody takes their stance on everything from Jesus Christ. There are other religions and ideologies in the world.

The two Courier Z covers by Lender Shell - first one showing her smugly flying towards the camera with the caption "How it started". Second one showing her drowning in crime junk with the caption "How it's going".

Grid of square cover image of all my comic projects - SoulD / Courier Z / Death of a Necromancer FairyFare / StoneCop / Moonframe The Little Deaths of Watson Tower / And It Snowed / The Catalyst

Courier Z v1-2 available on Kickstarter now, and you can also buy my previous comics from the same campaign. Separately or all together! Digital or PDF!

Necromancers opening shops! Kids turning into grim reapers! Many genres, but the same fun-yet-sad vibe.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/nic...

Sparkly space-themed nails: a blue-purple cat eye nail polish with some white stars on three accent nails, and a glitter top coat.

I got sparkly space nails for Eastercon!!