iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 23/09/2026

NEW RELEASE FOR SAPPHIC SEPTEMBER. Want to know what boxes this urban fantasy novella checks? It's a lot! Age Gap, Butch/Femme, Quick Read, Murder Sapphics, 2026 Release, and Indie Author!

Leah can offer Catty everything she needs to leave her day job and become an author. All it will Cost is 40 Years of Her life.
But Leah Falls for her New pet, Now, she will do Anything to End the bargain and Save Catty's Life.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 23/09/2026

I wish I could exchange it for "working body and not fucked up brain"

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 23/09/2026

I'm probably going to do it anyway. With how things are now, I'm just getting more and more uncomfortable showing my face on the internet. Not even getting into the whole "people using pfp to make Ai generated revenge p*rn" thing (which is something I do not put past one of my exes)

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 23/09/2026

And I've seen *so* many people say that unless an author shows their full, real face on socmed, they will assume the author is actually AI. It does not matter that the author, like in my case, might have been writing & publishingfor half a decade before Ai even came on the scene.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 23/09/2026

I never leave my home without a kn-95 so like the flock cams et al aren't really getting full pics of me, but they are also scraping social media. Im worried tho. I want to, for my privacy and safely, basically become an author who uses an illustration as their profile Pic, aka "faceless author"

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 23/09/2026

I don't like how quickly facial rec tech is accelerating (badly) while increasingly being relied on as evidence even with its clear the person the facial rec identified is not the one shown. Like multiple people have spent time in jail because cops thought this tech was infallible.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 23/09/2026

The 2 photos of me that I use most often as avs/profile pics are about a decade old. Don't worry, I still look the same b/c i struck a fae bargain for eternal youth & all it cost me was my good health. But regardless, I'm thinking of doing removing photos of me, esp my face, from the internet.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 22/09/2026

Want a fairy tale retelling to round out your Sapphic September? My sapphic Swan Lake retelling is available in paperback, hardcover, ebook, and even audiobook! I kinda can't believe I released this book NINE years ago. What is time? Mods? Hello?

Sapphic September Book Bingo. Indie Author. Quick Read. Tasking with decieving the princess to keep her prisoner, Katya is only supposed to pretend to get close to the captured royal... Not actually fall in love with her.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 22/09/2026

One day, I will find the funds to pay someone to make a map, but I think I did a pretty good job on my own for this. But uhhh, we're definitely leaving the visible map in the next book.

A map for Ahnlisen, the fiction world of Scions and shaodws. It had rivers, cliffs, mountains, snowy north and sandy south with islands. My Self made map for the Scions and Shadows series. But in upcoming books, we're going to be exploring some places not shown here.

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Reposted by Dax, sapphic fantasy author

Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 21/09/2026

We got 10 more days in Sapphic September and if you need checking at least 6 boxes at once, I have a book for you.

A Bargain More Fair than Love or War Sapphic September Bingo. Butch / Femme. 2026 Release. Quick Read. Murder Saphics. Indie Author. Age Gap. Leah can offer catty everything she neesd to leave her day job and become an author. all that it will cost her is 40 years of her life. But Leah falls for her new pet and now she will do anything to end the barain and save Catty's life.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 21/09/2026

Me: I'm just gonna put a little dissociation in here... write what you know! Reviewers: wow, great dissociation rep. Me; excuse me??? how dare!

"Murray creates perfect descriptions of emotional dissociation during trauma and scatters stunning wisdom through the beautifully crafted dialogue." KT Bowes 5 Star Review from Readers' Favorite.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 21/09/2026

We got 10 more days in Sapphic September and if you need checking at least 6 boxes at once, I have a book for you.

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Reposted by Dax, sapphic fantasy author

🏳️‍⚧️Dr. TS_Eliot 🇵🇷 ($20/$300) @ts-eliot.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

So my roommate moved out on me suddenly and now I'm stuck without enough to pay rent, a car that's got like 1/4 tank, and I need money for food and to keep the credit card below maxed. Car registration is coming due too. Still no work on the horizon. Anything helps. 💸💕🏳️‍⚧️ #mutualaid #boost #helpsky

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Claudie - Buy Nerezia While I Vacation ;) @clh2oars.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The Chronicles of Nerezia (Disc One: Fragments) is complete! Hop onto a magical Wagon to traverse the land in this epic episodic-style series of novellas with a mushy friendship, games, and human connections heart First: buy.bookfunnel.com/1fbixxop4u Series: claudiearseneault.com/nerezia/

The chronicles of Nerezia. A spread of nine novella covers, with information on the right. It has pride flags for aro, ace, and non-binary, as well as "a found family queer road trip across a series of novellas" and displays a wide array of retailers (Amazon is notably absent). A small text says “perfect bite sized stories!”

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 21/09/2026

The HUGO AWARDING WINNING artist, Laya Rose, is the one responsible for the covers for my short story, The Magic Surrendered, and my first novel, A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams. Human made art <3 Both of these came out in 2017; hard to believe it's been almost ten year.

Artist: Lay Rose. A framed illustrations shows the artists self portrait. The two covers shown; top: two women holding hands back to back. bottom: three people stand in dark woods holding hands while magic swirls around them and swans fly over head.

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Reposted by Dax, sapphic fantasy author

Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

My favorite fantasy tropes; for legal purposes i do need to clarify that these are my favorite FICTIONAL tropes. As in, things I like to read about in fictional books.

Favorite Tropes. Touch her and die. Be gay, do murder. Be gay, do war crime. The fall of capitalism being swift and without mercy. Billionaires getting what they deserve. Only one bed. Abusers suffering. She falls first, she falls harder.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

Sorry, I promise I will eventually stop talking about my most recent release. It's been out a week! Have you picked up my leannán sídhe / struggling author lesbian urban fantasy novella yet?

Cover of the book A BARGAIN MORE FAIR THAN LOVE OR WAR, a fae woman holds a lamp while overlooking the Potomac River toward Rosslyn, Virginia

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

sorry for coding out loud on main lol

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

I need to find a higher rest itchio logo but

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

This is what the output of that UBL links function basically does. It doesn't match my branding, so i don't want it on my main page, but for universal book links, it works.

screenshot from a universal book link landing page associated with the previously discussed code. It shows a grid of retailer logos that act as links, each squares with rounded border corner.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

I think I can just refactor my purchase_links section to pull from the ubllinks instead, just not using the retailer logos.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

basically, I just grab each item in the array based on its position to construct the retailer logo as a link, complete w alt and hover text. Please note if you aren't familiar with coding, the first item in an array is array item #0. I know. But this is why so many coding issues are off-by-1 errors.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

YAML file first, this is basically what it looks like for each book. I've sorted it into different arrays for different formats, and instead of it being an array of hashes, it's an array of arrays, each with four items (retailer name, retailer link, alt / hover text for image, and image file).

YAML file showing mutliple UBL arrays, each with tons of nested arrays.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

I like this for my main pages because it's uniform and matches my branding. I don't want to change how the main book pages on my site looks, but I'm basically duplicating YAML structures now with how I've set up the UBL YAML and erb iterations

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

this is what that basically outputs right now on the main book pages. standard buttons in my brand colors with the names of the retailers.

screenshot from dax murray dot com showing a dark purple background with neon pink buttons, each button shows the name of a retailer. all are aligned in a grid.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

So this is basically what the YAML for each book looks like when it comes to my current way of iterating over purchase links. Array of key/value pairs basically. (sorry, I use a shortener with analytics so I can track which store fronts and retailers get the most clicks more easily)

YAML file showing an array called "purchase links" and nested in that are key value pairs with the key being the retailer name and the paired value being the link for that retailer

embeded ruby code showing an if loop over the array of purchase links, for each item in the array, it grabs the keys and values and created links with a css class titled 'purchase button'

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

Smoke and Steel set up and I fixed some of the CSS for mobile. www.daxmurray.com/ubl/smoke-an...

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

Me, thinking: yes, epistemology is a verdant field of study, and Locke was onto something, but I think Hume's rebuttal... My heart: uhhhh hmmmm so like... I should beat? At a steady rhythm....? What about spinning? Is that a cool trick? 160... That's a nice number, right....?

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

I don't really think yaml was intended to have such deep iteration over an array of arrays but YOLO.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

for the ubl links is a bit more elegant as I'm using an array instead of a k/v hash

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

I'm still messing with the CSS so it's not perfect on mobile yet. This is probably gonna lead to a reactor of my erb partials for links on the main book pages (ex: daxmurray.com/stars-and-soil) as I do prefer my main pages to just have text buttons rather than icons, but the ruby iteration logic

daxmurray.com

Dax Murray - Sapphic Author of Revolutionary Fantasy and Speculative Fiction

Dax Murray - Queer fantasy, science fiction, and horror author of award-winning novel 'A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams' and the on-going Scions and Shadows series.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

And I have also set it up so my free newsletter sign up novellas just show the email sign up form instead of links, ex: www.daxmurray.com/ubl/shrouded-sight

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

Shades and Silver now has its own UBL set up www.daxmurray.com/ubl/shades-and-silver

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

heck yessss let's goooo i got a ton of my works on Saphly now!

Read for free with Saphly Plus: Stars and Soil, A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams, A Bargain More Fair Than Love or War, Smoke and Steel. Now on Saphly!

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

My favorite fantasy tropes; for legal purposes i do need to clarify that these are my favorite FICTIONAL tropes. As in, things I like to read about in fictional books.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

My backlist is slowly appearing on Saphly! Join Saphly Plus and you can read A LAKE OF FEATHERS AND MOONBEAMS (and a whole lot more sapphic fiction) for free!

A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams Now on Saphly! Ready for Free with Saphly Plus!

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

heck yessss let's goooo i got a ton of my works on Saphly now!

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

Most of my websites (daxmurray.com, dax.ink) are built using YAML data structures w/ Ruby config & ERB templating. I really, really think I'm doing way more w/ YAML than intended but it WORKS and it's FAST and I don't have to pay for server space since it's just a static site after the Ruby compiles

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

I got upset that I couldn't add icons for Itch, Campfire, & now Saphly to the bookfunnel pages I use as universal book links so what did I do? Handcrafted my own. I'm doing things w/ YAML I don't think you're supposed to do. I'm updating book by book, but for now www.daxmurray.com/ubl/stars-and-soil

daxmurray.com

Dax Murray - Sapphic Author of Revolutionary Fantasy and Speculative Fiction

Dax Murray - Sapphic fantasy, science fiction, and horror author of award-winning novel 'A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams' and the on-going Scions and Shadows series.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

Do it!! I really like the tagging and categories system. It's a mix of BISAC and tropes and genres. Great content warning system, too.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

I've been doing it chapter by chapter 😔

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 20/09/2026

I don't have a problem with corsets and bodices; I have *solutions* with corsets and bodices.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 19/09/2026

Wooohoooo!! A BARGAIN MORE FAIR THAN LOVE AND WAR is now available on SAPHLY BOOKS! Saphly is home to tons of sapphic fiction! You can buy books individually, or read books as part of their Saphly Plus subscription! NO AI! I'm gonna be spending some time getting more of my books on there now!

A Bargain More Fair Than Love or War read for free with Saphly Plus. Now Available on Saphly.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 19/09/2026

Throwback Saturday to that time Stormy had to help me pick out my ren fest attire.

An orange tabby cat sits on a bed amidst a pile of corsets, bodices, and other accoutrements for a completely anachronistic ren festival.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 19/09/2026

🎊 Congratulations 🎊 100000% deserved!

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