The OG Wu-can't-make-tea truther

Stock photos. My covers are largely stock photos.

So I hire a graphic designer to do the covers for my novels. I do have the skills to do it in theory, but because (as previously stated) I'm using covers mostly created from stock photos it is ironically cheaper to pay someone who gets those images at bulk rates to do one to two hours of work than for me to do it myself. I often add my own touches afterwards (like Mia's tattoos on the books that feature that character) so they're consistent across the covers.

The designer I hired for The Witch and the Rose selected the model for Mia, but that's the only cover where I didn't pick the "hero" shot myself. It's why she's not a perfect match for the character description -- but I grew up reading fantasy and scifi novels where characters never quite looked right on the covers so I'm just sort of going with the vibe. I've kept the same model for Mia because of it, but instead I've been picking out the stock photos myself and sending them with my brief to the designer.

That model is Jessica Truscott, an Australian photographer who does a lot of fantasy and genre themed stock images under the name "Faestock." She has been on a lot of book covers if you start digging. There are book covers where she's been used for images of Mara Jade, Claire Fraser, and Jessica Jones... so why not Mia Graves too.

(Fun fact: Since the Sarah covers have the character facing away from the camera... it's actually Truscott on those ones too. And yeah, she doesn't quite match Sarah's description either... but I was caring more about vibes than accuracy)

I usually start going through stock photo websites when I've finished my first draft and know what kind of vibe I need for the book. I'm not going to hire the designer for a bit. Since I already know what model I'm using, I just find a photo with a good pose that matches the book vibe. I then bookmark it so I can send it to the graphic designer when I get to that step.

My goal with the covers is to get the vibe. I usually include a setting in my description along with any details (like fire for instance). I pick the background photos too sometimes if I'm looking for something specific.

That's it. That's the process. Find some stock photos and pay a guy.

[image credit]

That's right - it's glacier mice. One of my favorite things maybe on the entire planet. Let's talk about these freaky fuzzy little rats!!

Glacier mice are balls of moss that live in large herds like this in a few select glaciers. They are moss all the way through, with a center consisting of dead moss matter, implying that they begin as small growths of moss and simply accumulate over time, like snowballs. However, their outside surface is alive and well on all sides. Glacier mice have been observed, through tagging and tracking, to roll across the glacier like a majestic herd of wildebeest, exposing all of their sides to the sunlight. They trundle along at a pace of about 2.5 cm per day. That's 30 feet in a year! They're really schmovin'! Certainly further than most mosses can claim to travel.

What's really exciting, though, is that they all move in the same direction, and we're not sure why or how. Scientists experimented to try and attribute their coordinated behavior to wind, sunlight, and the direction that their grazing ground slopes, but to no avail. They speed up, slow down, and change direction in unison, based on some mysterious moss code that we haven't cracked yet.

Cross-section of a glacier mouse. Note the dead moss matter inside, and the short gametophytes on the outside, adapted to harsh winds and sunlight. [image credit]

We have figured out how they roll, though - while the moss ball sits on the ice, it insulates the ice directly underneath it, protecting it from melting. This forms a little pillar of ice that the moss eventually rolls off of. The insulating power of glacier mice also gives it the wonderful ability to host all kinds of microorganisms that otherwise wouldn't survive the glacier's harsh conditions, and their ability to move makes it possible for microorganisms to spread from one habitable spot to another. They're like a bunch of little tardigrade passenger ships, braving the dangerous glacier to go where no water bear has gone before!!

Glacier mice have been found to consist of several moss species, most of which must reproduce asexually in order to survive in the dry climate. They've been observed to live for at least six years, but are projected to live much, much longer. I love them. So much. I hope they know that I love them!! I LOVE THEM!!!!

100% agree homeless people should just starve and dumpster dive till le epic revolution happens!

with that said, I think it is necessary to understand policing of online public space as a dimension of the policing of public space more broadly. there is no ''just go outside'' solution to these issues, because ''outside'' is policed as well.

for example, the way that sex workers have been ruthlessly and structurally targeted for social death online is completely in line with how they are treated offline as well. these things work in conjunction. if you make sure someone cannot find and vet clients online, they must do so offline. if you make sure they cannot meet clients indoors, they have to meet them on the street. if they have to meet them on the street, police have more access to these workers (to harass, assault, sexually violate, abduct, and kill them). the whole system works together. every prediction I heard from sex workers in 2016 is the reality today.

so when transfeminized people are talking about being relentlessly harassed off of every social media platform, that is not just an "online" issue. it is happening alongside their being driven out of all public space, online or offline (e.g. with bathroom policing, denial from employment, housing, and shelters, etc.)

when people from the global south are being labeled as "scammers" or "foreign bots" and getting their accounts banned repeatedly, it is part of the exact same ideological justification for border policing, detention, and deportations--it is the constant reinforcement of the idea that these people are "criminal" and here to "take what's yours" and "might appear to be someone struggling but they're not really human."

when images of people with racialized features, fat bodies, facial and skin differences, visible disabilities, intersex and transsexual sexed traits, etc., are repeatedly hidden by algorithms, marked "mature," and censored, this indicates a resurgence of "ugly laws" as part of the broader ascendant eugenics movement. this cannot be divorced from the stigmatization, defunding, dismantling, and criminalization of healthcare for "undesirable" populations.