Time’s Ashes — The Hellions Book One lands on November 14, 2023

Far too long delayed, and thank you for your patience!

Cover for Time’s Ashes – a pocket watch on fire on a black background

The war for Galantier was not as simple as a successful siege. Now a year and a half into Cazerien’s reign, her people are reckoning with new and old scars and crimes. The corruption that almost broke the nation must be excised if Galantier can heal.

For Lisel, her role in the Courtesans’ Guild brings satisfaction and doubt. The women she is charged to protect grow ever more vulnerable as Cimenarum rebuilds, and their needs expose a flaw in the Guild’s foundation.

The Rebellion let Vaish build himself a family for the first time since his relatives stole everyone and everything he loved. But his duties leading the New Metropolitans came with walls, and long-buried conflicts have surfaced.

Mai came to the city to finish law school amongst her mentors and friends, and because she loves Harli. She knew it would be tough, but a farm girl from the North couldn’t anticipate all of the challenges her two great loves will bring her.

The Lethians nearly killed Harli at Tiwendar. Galantier’s Healers managed to put him back together… mostly. But Healing can’t fix trauma, and the Ministry of Women and Children need him. And he needs Mai.

Four friends — a found family — and a city in dire need of the restitution the Rebellion promised must reckon with the rot that caused the war.

A preview of The Hellions is now available.

Team #FeedBabies: Breast-feeding & Formula Thread

July 9, 2018: A twitter thread With minor edits to fix typos or phrasing that 280 characters made unclear.
(2022 note: I use moms, women, and breastfeeding in this piece because the majority of existing legislation and proposed legislation is based on biological determinism and does not recognize non-binary and trans parents who have given birth. I see you, I recognize you, you are valuable.)

Trigger Warning: A thread on the commodification and conscription of women’s bodies. You’ve been warned. Exploring relationships between childbearing, work, coercive control, breast feeding, formula, gig economies, capitalist exploitation, colonialism and colonialist paternalism…

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Luxuries Bought With Others’ Lives: NPCs, Dehumanization, and Pandemic Ethics

Opening monologue:

This is Free City.
Look at this guy. He’s one of the sunglasses people.
And the people who wear sunglasses? Are heroes.
They have a devil-may-care attitude and they run this town.
Bombshell:You are so hot.
Revenjamin Buttons, dropping into driver’s seat: Oh, I know.
See? That’s not even his car. Or his wife.
For the sunglasses people, they get to do anything they want.
They go on all sorts of missions, they got cool hair, cool clothes.
I mean, laws aren’t really laws to them.They’re more like mild suggestions.
Like, I don’t think he’s gonna return that car.
Or that nice lady.
See what I mean? Hero.

A still from the movie Free Guy, featuring Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer. Image copyright (©) 20th Century Studios or related entities. Used for publicity and promotional purposes.

Thus begins Free Guy. 105 words of thesis statement.

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Foundations of the #MoneyLaundry – A Twitter Seminar

Originally a Twitter thread. January 4, 2020

I note here: there will be homework, because seriously, you’ve gotta have basics.
Do the reading. I’m not sending you at books, just articles. I’ll screenshot if it comes from a high word count source.

Money laundering is the process of
evading taxation
and/or
legal obligations such as payroll taxes
and/or
Obscuring the documentation of income from illegal actions or sources. It’s a crime of its own, but money laundering is what makes crime pay.

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After the Shaking Stops – a compiled twitter thread

Original Twitter Thread: https://twitter.com/czedwards/status/1325257381257879555?s=21
November 7, 2020

Hey all —
At the end of trauma (or when you know the trauma will be ending) everything feels incredibly shaky.
You’ve gotten used to the feeling of the earth shaking, and when it stops, it takes a minute for your emotional equilibrium to catch up.
It’s normal.
It’s OK.
You’re OK.

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Recycled Satanic Panic 3: Displaced Anxiety and Role Playing

Twitter thread found here This was also an extemporaneous thread, rather than pre-composed, so this post will correct any egregious lack of clarity. Twitter is my first draft.

Another way conspiracy displaces real anxiety

Oregon’s fires have a LOT to do with power lines. But it’s easier to blame (and try to shoot) Others.

Social media disinformation on US west coast blazes ‘spreading faster than fire’ | Oregon | The Guardian

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Recycled Satanic Panic 2: The myth of Stranger Danger & (white, child) Trafficking

Twitter thread, found here (minor grammatical fixes included for clarity. The twitter thread was an off-the-cuff first draft, not polished.)

Trafficking?
1) It applies WAY more to the guys at Home Depot you hire for $30/day to tear out the weeds, not children.
2) And the women who sew all the cheap crap you wear.
3) And the people who pick your vegetables.
4) And teens thrown out of their parents’ home & forced into sex work to eat.

An anonymized NextDoor thread spreading fear that children shouldn’t be outside, lest they be abducted.
Continue reading “Recycled Satanic Panic 2: The myth of Stranger Danger & (white, child) Trafficking”