Lili Saintcrow

I write books.

Black sheep of the von Schtupp clan. May be a pterodactyl. A crow for a fetch, I'm your huckleberry.

Public Key

npub1vlc9e5hvtawwxqadudvhdy8zcdynxxgqxqe452dyktzre54v7whqvpu5dt

NIP-05 Address

lilithsaintcrow_at_raggedfeathers.com@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsx0uzu6tk97h8rqwk7xktkjr3vxjfnryqrqv669xjt93pu62k08tspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qz4nhwden5te0wfjkccte9ehx7um5wghxyctwvshkuur4vgck56p5w96nyee4v56rjumewfmksv3exdcnsufexpux26mvwej8sdphwphx5dtk093kzvn5ddkx5etyxqu82uesvd6x5dntj37dfx

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

relay.nostr.band/npub1jh4qu2g5e49syrwh293q8q90xeklvdx47pnj5vyca2tkljed08us0ctj6k

Author Public Key

npub1vlc9e5hvtawwxqadudvhdy8zcdynxxgqxqe452dyktzre54v7whqvpu5dt

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Last Notes

2025-04-05 20:55:05

It's great that some funding/grants etc. are being "reinstated", but one must realize that's only temporary. There will be *repeated* attempts to kill all government programs save those which enrich Musk & Trump. They'll keep doing this until they're stopped.

2025-03-29 18:37:50

"One of the most important lessons of adult life is understanding people like this for what they are and learning to identify them as quickly as possible; keeping people like this away from those you care about is, in no small part, the work of being an adult."
https://defector.com/kingdom-of-the-biters

2025-01-14 15:41:23

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Stop using the ecology-wrecking plagiarism vomiter, for fucksake. Just STOP.

2025-01-06 15:41:57

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In which the chainsaws are juggled, proofs are slain, and I shall go with my boots on.

2025-01-06 15:40:33

Different Universes At Once
https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/2025/01/different-universes-at-once/

2025-01-02 14:37:22

Year of Protecting My Peace
https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/2025/01/year-of-protecting-my-peace/

2024-12-21 23:46:45

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@nprofile…ly3k Saved MY week, I can tell you. A great time was had by all!

2024-12-21 23:46:22

Really I've had a dreadful, scrambling, exhausting week and nearly bowed out of D&D, but signing in to see the custom Spectral Wedgie spell (not to mention the homebrew Sacred Headbutt for our paladin) pretty much saved it. I cannot express how much good it did.
Now I go collapse before dinner.

2024-12-21 23:34:46

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@nprofile…ly3k It was a special request, one the DM absolutely rose to the challenge of. (The FBI agents listening to our games no doubt get a chuckle.)

2024-12-21 23:30:34

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There were scones! Recognition from a short story! Celestial headbutt action! A custom-made SPECTRAL WEDGIE spell! Bareknuckle brawling! Haggling the price of a rowboat down! Interrupted mugging! No casualties!
Honestly it was almost worth having an awful week, to end it with such a good session.

2024-12-21 23:28:16

That was #ItsDnDTime! The bard got to bake and sing *without* nefarious stuff, the paladin got her goat statue AND a fight club session, the rogue won a bet and got free entertainment, the druid found out deinonychus is an option, and the cleric got to play hopscotch with a half-orc lady lumberjack.

2024-12-19 15:12:53

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@nprofile…q5wq Now you see the wisdom of my hiding in a bunker.

2024-12-10 17:04:10

The older I get, the more I think the basic division in human beings is, “I suffered, therefore I want nobody else to suffer” vs “I suffered, so I want EVERYONE else to suffer”.

2024-12-02 18:31:26

“The EFJ is the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, representing over 295,000 journalists in 44 countries has announced that it will stop posting content on X." https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/european-federation-of-journalists-to-stop-posting-content-on-x-386598/

2024-11-17 18:10:56

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Generally I leave a lot of growing things alone on the principle that they know what they're doing without my interference, but I feel like I ought to at least know what this *is*.

2024-11-17 18:09:48

So this thing is growing in the backyard, it's as big as the shed now, and I have no idea what it is. Should I be worried? #botany
https://cdn.masto.host/raggedfeathers/media_attachments/files/113/499/634/840/654/520/original/108ad5a128c27a77.jpeg

2024-11-14 15:55:34

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@nprofile…uzy8 I’ve had several people concur. I guess it’s nice to know I’m not wrong, but why my brain retains this instead of something useful I will never understand.

2024-11-14 15:49:00

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I have arrived at mitosis as the most likely answer. Either that or mycelium-adjacent fruiting.
However, Smurfette being lab-created (is that canon? Childhood memory says that’s canon…) gives my theorizing some trouble.

2024-11-14 15:44:08

I have spent altogether too much of my life wondering about Smurf biology. Including their reproductive cycle.

2024-08-05 12:28:56

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@npub13n4…3h2h Caffeine and natural light, stat!

2024-08-04 17:09:30

And now, rumblings of strange hokey-pokey over at SFWA.
Is it just me, or is publishing getting even *stranger*? Like, the industry has always been packed with WTFery, but it feels like we're accelerating to a seismic disaster lately.

2024-08-03 02:38:54

"But here’s where I’ll lose them. Because here is where I want to return to 1657 and the Flushing Remonstrance." https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2024/08/01/without-religious-pluralism-you-cant-be-evangelical/

2024-08-02 16:15:04

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@npub13n4…3h2h Part of me wants to say “it can’t be that simple” but the rest of me is grimly unsurprised.

2024-07-30 23:34:14

"But what Nieder says his research suggests is that, in the 320 million years since birds and primates split, each has developed different brain structures, but those differently composed brains have developed similar cognitive capabilities." https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-crows-are-so-smart-they-re-challenging-what-we-know-about-evolution

2024-06-19 17:11:40

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Google cannot be trusted. With anything.

2024-06-19 16:39:01

Haha Google “Analytics” trying to weasel its way onto my website with “special offers”.
Not falling for that bullshit, nope.

2024-04-29 18:18:27

"But as someone who watched the whole thing end to end, I can say one thing with certainty: the only civil unrest came from the cops. " https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/cops-college-presidents-rioters

2024-04-25 21:09:28

I kind of want to take the rest of this rainy afternoon and watch RETURN TO OZ again. Don't think I've ever seen it in entirety, just half-hour chunks when I had cable years ago.

2024-02-22 18:05:09

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@npub1typ…c8hh I thought that was just “weekday”.

2024-02-01 22:59:18

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@npub1psd…9sr7 And let's not even talk about the royalty terms they would offer—not even vaguely comparable to, let alone better than, trad! And significantly worse than even the most heinous vanity press terms. It would've been funny if it hadn't been so nakedly, grimly greedy and thoughtless. @npub19v5…zwwn

2024-02-01 22:39:45

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I'd be willing to say that even when the dominant model is rotten, doesn't serve, and is propped up by inertia or capture, the “move fast and break things" is mostly just looking to set up another rotten, ill-serving, inertial model if it can just grift hard enough to gain primacy. @npub1a4t…q9yj

2024-02-01 22:29:37

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@npub1psd…9sr7 It doesn't help that "move fast and break shit" is simply code for “exploit, grift, steal, and escape before regulations or lawsuits can get underway”. @npub1a4t…q9yj

2024-02-01 22:03:09

“Many of the people looking to “fix” things couldn’t actually articulate what was broken—whether through their failure to see the real problems facing the industry (namely, Amazon’s stranglehold), or their insistence that books are not particularly enjoyable as a medium.” https://lithub.com/against-disruption-on-the-bulletpointization-of-books

2024-01-28 21:30:29

Just read someone on Tumblr noting the similarities between “AI”-written fics and the novel-spinning machines Julia works on in 1984 and I’m mad I never realised it before, it makes so much goddamn sense.

2024-01-16 22:46:48

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@npub1psd…9sr7 It sounds like an Adult Swim skit.

2024-01-09 18:59:45

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@npub1psd…9sr7 Meat first, then pudding!

2024-01-09 18:21:18

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@npub1psd…9sr7 FRICKIN LASER BEAMS? Sign my silly self up!

2024-01-09 17:09:29

My daughter: “If you WERE a supervillain, you’d be the one to give your henchpeople healthcare and PTO.”
Me: “That’s just good business practice though!”

2024-01-08 15:36:37

“‘Impossible’ to create AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material, OpenAI says.”
Then fucking pay for it honestly or fucking perish, you fucking grifters.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/08/ai-tools-chatgpt-copyrighted-material-openai

2023-12-11 21:34:21

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I call it "Amazon's 4chan" publicly now, in front of gods and everyone. It's that bad.
Really it's a marketing scam, but trad publishing has bought in so hard for so long they're still sitting at the casino table, getting further in with each roulette spin. Sunk costs fallacy on an entire-industry scale.

2023-12-11 21:31:01

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@npub1psd…9sr7 Del Rey just announced on birdsite that her book is no longer on the 2024 roster.
Which, whew. Wow. Wooooow.
And yes, you're right about it being racism. @npub1dsf…a697 on Bsky also pointed out the roots this kind of thing has in the YA writing/reviewing world, too. The bad behavior and strategies morph across genres, and always seem to find congenial conditions on Goodreads, go figure.

2023-12-11 21:00:18

This week, in Authors Behaving Badly…
Given how hard it is to keep track of one's own actual socials, why on earth would anyone want to sockpuppet? Just a whole lotta wasted time/effort that would be better spent ACTUALLY WRITING.
https://www.themarysue.com/cait-corrain-goodreads-controversy-explained/

2023-12-01 22:21:35

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Also, it bears repeating: USPS is a public service, not a for-profit one. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO FUCKING MAKE MONEY, like the ghouls who want to strip-mine it and get rid of mail-in voting keep insisting.

2023-12-01 22:20:13

This holiday season, please remember that Louis DeJoy has STILL not been removed from the head of USPS, and is STILL fucking things up for his corporate shitmaster friends. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/29/2208661/-USPS-Prioritizes-Amazon-Over-Mail

2023-11-21 16:18:51

“The message isn’t positive – “porn creates shame”, “shame fuels porn usage” – but the effect is unavoidable: if porn wasn’t on your mind before you visited Covenant Eyes (unlikely), it sure will be after." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/21/mike-johnson-covenant-eyes-anti-porn-app

2023-11-06 16:57:53

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@npub1m7v…h7x4 The publisher was like, “what do you think?” And I was all, “ACRES OF MANTITTY!”

2023-11-06 15:22:35

Double-Barreled Today https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/2023/11/double-barreled-today/

2023-11-03 21:07:00

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@npub1psd…9sr7 All the first person is a single character (because Peter Beagle I am definitely not), and the thirds are very limited instead of omniscient. I’m going for a mosaic effect in some places, tapestry in others.

2023-11-03 20:52:42

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@npub1psd…9sr7 Great minds…
I'm not sure if I can pull this off but by gum and garters, I'm gonna try.

2023-11-03 20:47:17

So when I started this book I did not realize it wanted to be told partly in first person, partly in tight third segments.
This is going to be fun.

2023-10-05 19:31:01

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@npub1ul2…5sjq OMG I love the blep, SUCH ADORABLE BLEP.

2023-10-03 22:08:49

“People oftentimes think, ‘Why is your book $28? I can get it on Amazon for $14 ...’ It’s not because we overprice things, it’s because Amazon underprices everything. So many bookstores have closed because of that strategy, that business strategy by Jeff Bezos.” https://www.masslive.com/business/2023/10/the-andover-bookstore-is-not-only-the-oldest-in-mass-its-the-oldest-in-the-us.html

2023-09-13 21:41:38

The only Trek character I fear is Scotty. He kept the ship running, drank aliens under the table on the regular, and survived for years wearing a red shirt.
Dude's probably an unkillable demigod just hanging out on the Enterprise because it's fun.

2023-09-01 18:07:49

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@npub1psd…9sr7 100% accurate

2023-09-01 18:01:56

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@npub1psd…9sr7 Ah, I see the Muse hath been with you! In size she is small, like the agate on the thumb of an alderman, and she sets up shit three books down the line without telling thee…

2023-08-26 15:45:02

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I wouldn't wait. I say go stabby on Aslan early. You can, after all, bring him back to stab him again as many times as you want. It’s canon!

2023-08-26 15:38:03

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@npub1psd…9sr7 At least there's no shortage of snark material in any Narnia book. That's a gift in its own way.

2023-08-26 15:14:42

It's Saturday, there's coffee, I just figured out the shape of the last half of this book, and I have decided to pull the plug on a few things that only bring me stress.
How are you?

2023-08-15 23:50:07

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The...interesting…thing is that this survey is the first one to test the absorbency of "feminine hygiene" products with something similar to the actual substance they're supposed to be absorbing.
The first one. Ever. It's taken until 2023.

2023-08-15 23:48:52

“Manufacturers have traditionally used saline or water to estimate the absorption of their products, even though menstrual blood is more viscous and includes blood cells, secretions and tissue from the shed endometrial lining, all of which affect how it is absorbed.” https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/08/menstrual-discs-may-be-better-for-heavy-periods-than-pads-or-tampons-study

2023-08-07 16:40:10

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@npub1ddp…2tax Same thing that happens when any other corporation goes greedy. We shift again. *shrug*

2023-08-07 14:32:58

So, looks like Zoom is going to use your calls to train its AI. (In other words, steal your data and transcripts of your calls, which may or may not include proprietary or sensitive information.) I like Whereby instead. https://whereby.com

2023-08-03 14:41:08

And it appears Patreon has fucked up their payment processing, which has ended up in deleting several patrons from a wide swathe of creators. True to form, Patreon is pretending the problem doesn't exist and probably won’t issue any explanation until public outcry reaches volcanic levels.
This is fine.
https://cdn.masto.host/raggedfeathers/media_attachments/files/110/826/203/640/824/027/original/1898a925853929dc.mp4

2023-07-29 02:48:27

This makes me think of cannibalism, and data prions:
“It suggests that a training diet of AI-generated text, even in small quantities, eventually becomes “poisonous” to the model being trained. Currently there are few obvious antidotes."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-generated-data-can-poison-future-ai-models/

2023-07-28 23:06:52

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@npub1ul2…5sjq The whole thing makes me nauseous. Every day I have the "should I leave publishing now?" conversation with myself.

2023-07-28 22:35:58

I'm hearing chatter that Grammarly has just admitted to using its users' work to train an AI--without consent. That means it's been stealing/scraping your work and writing, without compensation.
If you use that particular service, you might want to look into that. #publishing #writing