iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Some art through the years of my canine crew. Currently it’s just the two Australian Shepherds.

Acrylic painting of five golden retrievers. Made several years ago.

Acrylic paintings of two Australian Shepherds. Made in 2024.

Ceramic paintings on Christmas ornaments. Two Australian Shepherds and one golden retriever. Gifts for my family last Christmas.

A watercolor of a golden retriever I did in high school. This golden retriever is also on the Christmas ornaments.

010

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

So I'm thinking about coming back to Bluesky to start sharing artists who will be eligible for next year's Hugo Best Pro Artist...

061

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

I have finished the giant cityscape portfolio piece! The first image is the full picture, and the other three are detail shots. Countless hours, research into ancient Roman boats, and some shifting around of geography, and I'm very happy with the results.

A Roman inspired city nestled on a rise between two hills, looking down at a harbor.

Close up of the harbor area and some of the main forum.

Close up of the lighthouse in the foreground.

53111

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

The work on my giant fantasy city piece continues! Since this is a personal one for my portfolio, I can show you bits and pieces as I work on it. I've got the vast majority of the line art done and most of the colors blocked in. At the moment, I'm mostly focusing on shading.

A WIP of an amphitheater set into the side of a rocky cliff.

A snippet of a Roman-inspired fantasy city as seen from a bird's eye view.

A snippet of a Roman-inspired fantasy city as seen from a bird's eye view, focusing on a temple.

4113

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Jenny with a Green Ribbon Around Her Neck @readingtheend.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

screaming this line into the void: "Entirely too many writers—and a fair amount of readers—think that all you need is two-finger prep, a 'good girl' and a 'you take me so well' and you’re all set."

614123

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

My parents had golden retrievers since before I was born, five total, although not all at the same time. The last of the goldens lived fifteen years. For a golden, she was a bit of a grouch, but she was a good girl. And she really loved her tennis balls.

A golden retriever with a tennis ball on top of her head.

040

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I'm working on a new portfolio piece -- a Roman-inspired fantasy city. My goal is for this one to be as much cityscape as map.

Red roofed buildings with a Roman design influence.

691

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Maureen @elvenjaneite.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Another blog post this morning! This time, I have a short list of recently published books with creepy houses: bysinginglight.wordpress.com/2026/04/28/b...

Cover of "Cinder House" by Freya Marske.

Cover of "Rose/House" by Arkady Martine.

Cover of "Not Quite a Ghost" by Anne Ursu.

Cover of "The Last Resort" by Erin Entrada Kelly.

086

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Reactor Magazine @reactorsff.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

"It’s gory and generous, wry and expansive, a monster story that asks the reader to live with multiple conflicting truths, consenting to cut ourselves on their ragged edges." If you ask @readingtheend.bsky.social, everyone should read Hache Pueyo's Cabaret in Flames:

reactormag.com

Hache Pueyo's Cabaret in Flames Absolutely Whips - Reactor

Jenny Hamilton reviews "a quietly astonishing book, one of those books that improves in your estimation the more you think about it"

0147

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Happy #PortfolioDay! My name is Sarah, and I'm an illustrator specializing in maps. I work primarily with authors and publishers, and my maps span contemporary small towns to fantasy worlds. 🌐: theillustratedpage.net/design/portf... ✉️: sarahwaitestx @ gmail

13112

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Christina Kraus @elbenherzart.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

📖 Magus of the Library 📖 Painted for Magic: The Gathering - Secrets of Strixhaven AD: Sarah Wassel Yay, I have finally new art to show. This certainly was an usual card for me to paint. Loved the challenge tho!❤️

311389273

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I made a new profile picture for myself to use on various social media sites! I wanted something in the same flat color style that I've been using the last few years. This is actually the same method across both my maps and the oracle card deck I'm working on -- the maps just have line art!

A portrait depicting a white woman wearing glasses. It's illustrated in a flat color style.

180

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Joseph Fink, we're going to win @planetoffinks.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

"Earthsea was better" sure, but if Ursula Le Guin was alive and funding Nazis then you would need to boycott her too, whether they're good books is beside the point

457288

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

I don’t usually campaign for awards, but this year I’ve decided to go for broke for a Fan Writer Hugo Award. Yay me! 1/

313561

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Heather Rose Jones @heatherrosejones.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

I love when creative people boost others in their field, so I’ll pick up the baton and note that Sarah is also eligible in Best Pro Artist. Check out the fabulous cover she did for my story collection (released 2025). books2read.com/u/bMMqp8

Book cover for Skin-Singer, showing a dark-haired woman with a raven in the foreground.

263

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Hugo noms are open, and I want to talk about Best Pro Artist! I was making a thread of some never-before-nominated artists... but I quit after three because it's taking an eon to research which pieces were published in 2025. So maybe just share eligible artists here? Here's the three I found!

173

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Are there any threads going around of artists eligible for the Hugo's Best Professional artist? Or should I make one? (if I make one, it will not be today... I've got my own art pieces I've got deadlines for)

010

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

A map I created for the Dungeons & Donuts Kickstarter campaign! Embervale is a city a bit obsessed with dragons... I lost track of how many dragons I drew in here. Some are pretty easy to spot, but I also did little dragon roof gargoyles and wall murals!

An isometric city map titled "Embervale Realm."

000

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Kameron Hurley @kameronhurley.com · 11/11/2025

Convincing you to read my novel by the first sentence. Share yours if you want. (Here's the opening of "God's War". Still my most iconic)

Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, on the edge of the desert. Drunk, but no longer bleeding, she pushed into a smoky cantina just after dark and ordered a pinch of morphine and a whiskey chaser. She bet all of her money on a boxer named Jaks, and lost it two rounds later when Jaks hit the floor like an antique harem girl. Nyx lost every coin, a wad of opium, and the wine she’d gotten from the butchers as a bonus for her womb. But she did get Jaks into bed, and—loser or not—in the desert after dark, that was something. “What are you after?” Jaks murmured in her good ear.

96911

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Here's a town map I did for Luna Ryder's current cozy fantasy Kickstarter, The Wheel Deal! The "Old Briarhaven" area is inhabited by centaurs, hence the ramps instead of stairs.

A map of a fantasy town titled "Briarhaven." It has colorful buildings, cottages, a market, and surrounding farms.

2124

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Jenny with a Green Ribbon Around Her Neck @readingtheend.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

ICYMI: I wrote about the corporate-IP-ification of fanfic, and how heavily normative biases inflect what's being plucked out of fandom for big fancy book deals.

4359

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Reactor Magazine @reactorsff.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

"Feed fanfic into capitalism, and it comes out shaped like capitalism." @readingtheend.bsky.social dissects the trend pulling fanfiction through the traditional publishing pipeline (and what it means for fandom): reactormag.com/with-the-ser...

reactormag.com

With the Serial Numbers Filed Off: The Problem with Trad Pub Fanfic - Reactor

Jenny Hamilton looks closer at three Dramione fics-turned-novels publishing this year.

7298146

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Today would have been @thez.bsky.social’s 29th birthday. Happy birthday Zoe. I miss you every day.

000

Reposted by Sarah Waites

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 12/09/2025

My advice to people, as it has been since the USENET days, is simply this: Everything that can be made public on the Internet one day will be made public. Say what you want and what you feel is necessary, and remember it will be found.

461321201

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

It’s an absolute shame that DC fired Gretchen Felker- Martin for exercising free speech and then @bsky.app suspended her account. Every writer here should be decrying this because we have to stand up for each other! This is ridiculous.

15195112796

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Chuck Tingle @chucktingle.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

YOU HAVE ENTERED THE TINGLEVERSE. THIS IS A NO GATEKEEPING ZONE

cover of NOT POUNDED BY THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF BISEXUAL GATEKEEPING BECAUSE ITS SUPER GROSS AND IF YOU DO IT YOURE NOT THE HERO YOU THINK YOU ARE YOURE ACTUALLY JUST A JERK featuring ladybuck on the right in a cool outfit with striped shirt and a hat she is in a forest and there is a glow next to her where a large sentient gate floats

NOT POUNDED BY THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF SOMEONE ELSES DOUBT IN MY PLACE ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM BECAUSE DENYING SOMEONES PERSONAL JOURNEY AND IDENTITY LIKE THAT IS INCREDIBLY RUDE SO NO THANKS featuring a handsome buckaroo in a suit and next to him is a floating questing mark with a very skeptical look

ABSOLUTELY NO THOUGHTS OF POUNDING DURING MY FUN DAY WITH THIS KIND T-REX BECAUSE IM AROMANTIC AND SEXUAL AND THATS A WONDERFULLY VALID WAY TO PROVE LOVE IS REAL featuring ladybuck in black dress with purple hair and a redhead t-rex standing in a vineyard

NOT POUNDED BY BI ERASURE BECAUSE MY CURRENT HETERO-PRESENTING RELATIONSHIP DOES NOT INVALIDATE MY QUEERNESS featuring ladybuck in red suit that is super dang cool and next to her is a floating sentient eraser that looks very upset

14596160

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Annalee @flowerhorne.com · 07/09/2025

A phrase I strongly recommend everyone add to their lexicon: "I haven't read widely in ___." It's factual, doesn't make a judgement about the genre, doesn't pass off an opinion as an objective assessment, and acknowledges that genres overlap and labels are subjective.

36410

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Lyndsie Manusos @lmanusos.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

100% this. One of THE most important things you will learn or ought to learn as a bookseller (OR writer OR reviewer OR avid reader) is that all genres are valid, there is groundbreaking work happening right now in Every Single Genre, and to STFU on reductive, condescending takes.

412620

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Maureen @elvenjaneite.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

In the last year or so, I've read several fantasy books that are 1) by & about queer people and 2) set in Appalachia (more or less explicitly). Here they are!

1178

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Maureen @elvenjaneite.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

There are traditions and conversations within every genre and literature tradition that go unseen and unacknowledged by people who think that Dune defines sci-fi.

1175

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Jenny with a Green Ribbon Around Her Neck @readingtheend.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

I just! would love to retire the idea that criticism is inherently a destructive force. it can be, and we can all think of cases like that (ahem ahem Star Wars fandom), but thoughtful criticism is highly CONstructive. important part of a creative ecosystem! in my opinion! end of thread! 14/14

1424

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Jenny with a Green Ribbon Around Her Neck @readingtheend.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

I feel so frustrated any time a post goes around suggesting that it's mean to criticize art because art is hard to make. there are two ways to read the word "criticism" here, and whichever one this most recent post means, I ardently disagree with it. 1/

17322

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Liz Bourke @hawkwinglb.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

So many publicity emails for romantasy are all, "She's a scrappy working-class underdog with traumatic backstory! He's the heir to the throne, a power-hungry force of savage destruction! He's the embodiment of everything she loathes and cannot trust, but he's SOOO hot and can't stay away from her!"

7747

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

A second cityscape study. I'm trying to get textures of brick and stone across with few brush strokes. This one was also about two hours.

0100

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Today's study... a cityscape. I think I'll focus on urban scenes for a bit. This took me two hours, and I want to get that time down.

1113

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

I'm trying to get back into digital painting studies. Here's a landscape painting I spent 40 minutes on. I want to practice some more landscapes, cityscapes, and different textures. Also, I'm experimenting with Rebelle, a new-to-me painting software.

020

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Kristina Gehrmann @kristinagehrmann.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

The Hallowed Grove For the boardgame expansion pack "Minos: Dawn of Faith" I was asked to imagine what religious ceremonies in ancient Minoan culture could have looked like. This is one of 4 illustrations I made for them on this topic, a kind of harvest ritual. Client: Board&Dice #art

A religious ceremony in ancient Minoan culture: a young female priest, dressed in white, under an olive tree. In the background, two more women doing some kind of dance and strewing red petals on the ground. The scene is full of dappled sunlight.

11780166

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Claire SUN 🌻 @lilblueorchid.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Overgrown 🌱

Illustration of a slightly top view of two legs standing in a spot of light in a field of wild grass with white small white flowers. The flowers are growing over the legs, climbing around the white tight and tearing it in some place, scratching the skin underneath in some places.

61650561

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Reiko Murakami @reikomurakami.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

This one is done for @thebrokennbinding , cover art for Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

238680

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Weyodi OldBear- The Root and The Seed is available. @weyodi.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Next year's WorldCon is in Los Angeles, and the theme appears to be Westward Expansion or possibly Manifest Destiny. The guests are referred to as Pioneers and the venue as The Frontier. This year the awards were swept by Indigenous writers. The choice is stunning in its ugliness.

1181695378

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Two maps for lesbian romance author Sacha Black's new dark academia, Architecti! These two maps (Finis's campus and the cutaway of the inverted tower at the center) are two of the most detailed and complicated maps I've ever drawn.

Finis Academy: Societas Mortis Architecti. A map of a college campus with a central tower.

Finis Tower. A map of a cutaway inverted tower.

061

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Christina Orlando @cxorlando.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

I don't know how it got to be the end of summer but... Hi! I'm the book content editor for Reactor Mag and I'm looking for 2026 sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and crossover speculative books! If you've got an adult or YA SFFH book publishing next year please share the link/info here!

77277183

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Laura Zats @lzats.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

I've been seeing a huge uptick in fantasy queries where only the oldest, purest bloodlines have powerful magic, or where the MC is a super special but super illegal "half-breed" and folks, it's 2025. Can we please be more careful with how we engage with eugenics/blood quantum/bloodline purity? Thx.

1435970

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Jenny with a Green Ribbon Around Her Neck @readingtheend.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

good morning! my latest at Reactor: H.E. Edgmon's We Can Never Leave is about a group of teens whose magic cult family suddenly all disappear at once -- and the teens are left trying to figure out what to do next.

166

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Fonda Lee @fondalee.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

I'm thrilled to share that the Green Bone Saga is being adapted into a TTRPG by @evilhat.bsky.social. Yes, now you too can be a jade warrior prowling the streets of Janloon. More info & sign up to playtest at the link below 👇

2231596

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

I've counted up, and I think I'm at 120 maps made for clients? If I was keeping track all along, I would have celebrated reaching 100!

050

Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

My first ever illustrated book cover! I've been contemplating going back to cover design with illustration -- thank you Heather for working with me!

191