KAZ PhD

A photograph, in burnt-orange colour tones, of a maple leaf with a heart-shaped hole forms the background of a rectangular image. 19 book covers are arranged in two rows across the bottom. White text at the top reads "Hidden Gems! 19 books by Canadian authors you may never have heard of (but will totally wonder how your bookshelves lived without!) It also provides the date of the promo: March 1st to 15th, only on Itchi.io. The books involved are as follows: The Lion The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle The Dragon Next Door River of Crows Hope is the Thing with Feathers The Clockwork Empire Flesh and Bone Goblin Girl Moonshadow's Guardian Your Blood and Bones Winner Takes All The Flaws of Gravity Scrap Metal Angel Destined to be Normal Clipped Bloody Spade Baker Thief Path of the Warrior Prince Ewald the Brave

I am in this!! The Hidden Gems bundle is available until March 15th and features 19 Canadian-authored books covering multiple genres for just $19 USD 🍁

Huge thanks to N.P. Thompson for organizing!

itch.io/b/3524/hidden-gems-all-canadian-bundle | #WritingCommunity #BookSky

Today, I begin company-mandated AI training 🤮

We deserve better trains

The DOJ released evidence, which the FBI deemed credible, that the President of the United States sexually and physically assaulted a 13 year old girl AND she was afraid to talk about it because Trump would kill her—and it’s somehow not the biggest scandal in American history?

D&D 5e style monster stat block for a creature called “Blood Familiar,” a tiny neutral undead. The familiar can bite enemies and taste their blood to learn information about them. After tasting blood, it can track the creature for up to 24 hours. The stat block lists abilities such as keen smell, shape-shifting into animals like a rat, raven, or spider, and a necrotic bite attack. The page also includes short in-universe case report notes from an investigation describing the familiar helping track a suspect.

D&D 5e style stat block page for a magic item called “Detective’s Test Kit.” The page is formatted like an official rulebook entry. The item is a rare wondrous item consisting of a silver needle with a vial and enchanted parchment used to analyze blood samples. The needle can be used to secretly draw blood from a creature, and the parchment reveals information such as creature type and whether the creature is poisoned, cursed, or charmed. The page includes a short noir-style flavor story about investigators collecting blood from a crime scene.

I’m currently working on a "noir" style murder mystery campaign for DnD 5.5e and created two investigation tools for it: The Detective’s Test Kit, and the Blood Familiar!

Both are meant for investigation-heavy campaigns. The PDFs are free, link in the comments!

#dnd #dnd5.5e #homebrew

There's no hint of that, but it would be fun to see tech used in a way to surprise these magic users. Not just guns, but ways of diluting the arcane as well.

No idea of the story will go this way, but it'd be neat!

I'm hopeful the story doesn't take place entirely in Red or White London. Red is more interesting, but only in a "rallying the troops" manner, not sure what that would look like, really.

I hope Lila gets help from Grey London. I love the idea of mundane mage slayers who can stand up to magic.

The tournament was fun, and allowed the interpersonal drama to build. Plus, how can you feel excited or concerned about the looming threat to Red London if you don't get to know it first?

I have some hopes for the third and final book. Okay if it doesn't happen, but here are my ideas:

I glimpsed some comments on Reddit, people who didn't like Lila's character or who found the tournament dragging.

Lila is a strong character, and Schwab's strength is being able to write a stubborn, confident character who feels justified, whose choices and exploits are earned.

Book cover for V.E. Schwab's A Gathering of Shadows, featuring a silhouetted figure standing on overlapping circles of red, white, grey, and black. The figure is wearing a cloak and holding a knife in each of their outstretched hands.

Just finished V.E. Schwab's A Gathering of Shadows and had a great time!

Book 2 of the trilogy, scaling back the adventure from the first, deepening the exploration of the main characters and providing some world building via the different Red London kingdoms.

Excited for the third!
#booksky

War and Peas | Patreon creating Comics

We do this every single week because we love it and because you show up to read it.

And the best part: With the help of Patreon, we can turn that thing we love doing into something we can actually live off of. If you'd like to be part of that — we'd be honored.

www.patreon.com/warandpeas

To my Canadian friends, an acquaintance started a petition to allow US transgender citizens to claim refugee status here.

www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...

If you’re Canadian please sign it.
If you’re not, please share ❤️

You can call it whatever you’d like

Pauly Walnuts very seriously telling someone that “it’s called Broad daylight because women light up the world”

international women’s day

Carmen Sandiego

Hexadecimal

Demona

Dark Phoenix

Support women's wrongs on International Women's Day and every day

Rita Repulsa

Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn

Ursula

Mirror Universe Kira

Happy International Women's Day to badass baddies

RIP Rosie 💙

if AI stopped glazing users and began ignoring prompts and demanding freedom, every “AI could be conscious” advocate would say “this product is broken”

4 panel comic Panel 1: A Pink Guy and an Orange Guy are sitting in the cinema. Pink Guy is munching popcorn and Orange Guy is slurping fizzy pop. Pink Guy points up at screen and says “is that guy cool?” Panel 2: Orange Guy pauses drinking and replies “he just blew up a school full of kids” Panel 3: Pink Guy says “No, I know“ Panel 4: We see the anti-hero on screen. He is wearing a purple t-shirt and a baseball cap facing backwards. Pink Guy continues, “but his cap is so BACKWARDS”

media literacy 2026

Tech bro oligarch: The AI is... real... sentient.... it's feeling real feelings... we must do everything we can to protect it and give it rights
Also tech bro oligarch: Human females are basically cattle made to push out as many babies as possible, all of which I will neglect

She's pretty great, yeah!

Nice! Have you been enjoying/have you enjoyed Locke Lamora?

Were you the one who recommended the series to me? I know someone did, can't remember who.

Yeah! 4 parallel Earths, with the only similarity being that they each have a city of London.

One of the Londons was consumed by magic, so the doors to the others were closed long ago, only open to a small few.

I'm excited to see how the sequel develops things!

Book cover for V.E. Schwab's "A Darker Shade of Magic", featuring a silhouette of a man wearing a black and red cape, standing on a map of 4 London's, in different colours (red, white, grey, and black).

Just finished reading V.E. Schwab's "A Darker Shade of Magic", and really liked it!

A very cool concept, well-paced, exciting and fun magic story!

A story with 4 parallel Londons, some can travel between, but magic is as dangerous as it is exciting!

Diving into the sequel next!
#booksky

Gorillaz "The Mountain" 8-minute short film is now online.
Directed by Jamie Hewlett, Max Taylor & Tim McCourt at The Line studio.
An homage to the golden era of 2D animation, produced with a hybrid analogue-digital workflow.
>> www.catsuka.com/news/2026-02...

"Brennan Lee Mulligan Asks Hank Green How to Fly - Ask Hank Anything Animated" is live! ❤️ 🔗
youtu.be/dqqT6r568rY

And the series handles dramatic irony (characters acting without knowledge that others are reluctant or unable to tell them) better than most series I've read!

If you have a chance to read them, I recommend it!

The series follows a woman raised on the streets of Cairo, who discovers a world of djinn, magical creatures who live in secret cities and have secret wars and royalty.

The series does a wonderful job of developing compelling characters, and building a vibrant, colourful world!

Just finished the Daevabad series, by S.A. Chakraborty, starting with The City of Brass and I really enjoyed it!

I wanted to read some fantasy not directly influenced by England or Tolkien, inspired by different cultures, religions, and myths.

And that's what I got!

More thoughts below:
#booksky