“She’s too fond of books & it’s turned her brain.”

“ They didn’t know it was the last time they would all be together, or they might have lingered. ”

Never mention a possible pregnancy/abortion to anyone, especially not through a social media app messaging service such as messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, Snapchat, etc.

Delete all period tracking apps and to start tracking using a planner or physical calendar

Book appointments for a form of birth control if possible, or to always carry condoms for yourself and other

Look into sterilization options if that is the route you want to go down (here is a list of 1000 doctors willing to sterilize you without a fight)

Protect your fellow person, protect the women in your life, the queer people, the disabled people, everyone will be affected by this

“They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.

The Wobblies used to say don't mourn, organize, but you can do both at once and you don't have to organize right away in this moment of furious mourning. You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots and call someone who's upset and check your equipment for going onward.

A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones.

you:

build community & involve yourself locally

learn self sustainability skills

choose kindness

protect others & yourself

join or build a mutual aid group and/or network

Rescue Mahmoud's Family: A Call to Escape Gaza's Devastation @mahmoodeltibi - vetted by el-shab-hussein, family of 15. €10,261 raised of €60,000 goal

Standing with a Family Escaping the Horrors of War in Gaza. Help Tamer get his family of 4 out of Gaza @tameraldeeb - Vetted by ibtisams, 90-ghost, el-shab-hussein, as well as being #191 on the vetted fundraisers google doc. €17,887 raised of €40,000 goal

Help Dina and her children survive through the war. Dina is a widowed mother with a 7 year old, a 5 year old and a newborn trying to reach safety. @dina179 - vetted by ibtisams. $4,146 CAD raised of $20,000 goal

Yousef Hussein is trying to get his nieces out of gaza after the death of their mother and father. boosted by 90-ghost. $8,412 raised of $50,000 goal

her name was Sonya Massey. she was a human being who deserved to live. say her fucking name. Sonya Massey.

What’s even more painful is that my daughters and sons are no longer able to go to school, as schools have been destroyed and education has completely stopped in Gaza. We are now trying to flee to a safe country to escape the war and to be able to enroll our children in schools and restore their right to learn.

For the past 9 months, they have learned nothing, losing their right to education. Can you help us with this?

GoFundMe link ♥️ 🔗

—

Anything by NK Jemisin. She is the best speculative fiction writer of her generation and probably the best speculative fiction writer alive. She is easily one of the best writers working right now, across all genres. That’s not hyperbole. She deserves all the hype.

Anything by Octavia Butler. She needs no introduction. Her short fiction is incredible; “Bloodchild” is one of the pieces that inspired me to write.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Excellent. Just read it.

The Radiant Emperor duology by Shelley P. Chan. It broke my heart and it'll break yours.

Babel by RF Kuang. You’ve probably already heard of this book because Harper Voyager marketed the shit out of it and was right to do so. It’s very, very good. Kuang writes a compulsively readable story, that’s for sure.

The Unbroken by CL Clark. An exploration of what happens when conscription blurs the line between colonizer and colonized.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo.

So Long Been Dreaming: Post-Colonial Science Fiction and Fantasy (anthology) edited by Nalo Hopkinson.

Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (anthology) edited by Sheree Renée Thomas.

Severely underhyped books of assorted speculative genres:

The Blood Trials by NE Davenport. Given the chokehold romantasy currently has on the public it’s insane to me that this book hasn’t sold a billion copies.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. It’ll change you.

The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera.

The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull.

Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun. Ignore the marketing, this book is YA (maybe NA) and you’ll appreciate it more if you approach it as such.

Read widely. Read diversely. People of the Caucasian persuasion need to stop getting pissy when the story doesn’t immediately center them and they don’t automatically relate to everything the character says and does and is. Just let yourself get swept up in the story—even if it touches on (gasp!) racism—and maybe, just maybe, it’ll reveal something to you.

Or maybe not! Marginalized sff authors do not have to and should not have to educate their readers. But if I see one more white person complain about how Black characters are fundamentally annoying because they complain too much I’m going to fling myself into the sun