iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 07/10/2026

Anti-Prime Day continues: free shipping on all books ordered till midnight, which makes this a great day to fill out your collection: bookshop.org/lists/city-o...

Vol. 1, “Wake up…” A bright red fire hydrant thrusts up from a striated sidewalk, and behind it, along the diagonal of the curb, a bright yellow no-parking stripe. Scattered about in remarkable profusion are hundred if not thousands of tiny pink flowers, fallen some time ago, pasted to macadam and concrete and rust-flecked municipal paint by long-since rains and unknown steps, but still with some glory left to spend.

Vol. 2, The Dazzle of Day. The sun rises bright but indistinct behind icy clouds over a fog-bound river, girdered bridgework crossing it to the right there, to lose itself in the haze before reaching the other side, and tiny trees lining this side, weirdly sharp against the water gelid and still. Low riverfront buildings below, a hotel, perhaps, some old brick-walled offices, all still bluely dimmed despite the rising brightness.

Vol. 3, In the Reign of Good Queen Dick. High above downtown, towers of white stone and red brick rising above the cars parked on the roof of a grey concrete garage, the glass belvedere atop a bunker of a department store, the treetops lining the streets between and among them, all lit by watery afternoon light, and the darkening rainbow, falling from the blue-grey clouds above.

Vol. 4, —or Betty Martin. The wall of a building, painted with simple flower-shapes in blue on blue, angled away among flat roofs and other buildings in an industrial district under the rising sun. Set between and among the windows along the wall are polished aluminum pots, each with a small green tree planted inside, a tidy vertical copse.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 06/10/2026

I'm gonna reach for Russ, again, on the Wearing Out of Genre Materials: www.jstor.org/stable/375521

I would like to suggest that there is a way out of this dilemma, that writers take it, and that their taking it accounts for the phenomenon of genre material wearing out (maybe all fictional narrative eventually wearing out). Not only that, the way out of the dilemma accounts for the way scenes or plots do in fact wear out; that is, not all at once but in three distinct stages. I have named these Innocence, Plausibility, and Decadence; they might just as well be called Primitivism, Realism, and Decadence (though "Realism" here has nothing to do with realism as a style or historical period).

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 23/09/2026

48KB of RAM, y'all. www.trs-80.com/sub-models-m...

A desktop computer with keyboard, two floppy disk drives, and a small black-and-white CRT monitor, all enclosed in one buff grey plastic shell: the TRS-80 Model III, baby.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 08/09/2026

Noting that I’ll be putting through the pre-orders in a couple of weeks, to ensure folks will get their copies by if not slightly before the official release date of 10/13. There’s still time! thecityofroses.com/books/-wake-... #FantasyLit #CityOfRoses #Booksky #Twentieth

A hand holds up a copy of the 20th anniversary hardcover edition of volume 1 of the City of Roses: a vibrant yellow dust jacket with an abstract rose printed over the simple title, Volume 1—all terribly austerely elegant.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 03/09/2026

Out in October, pre-orders gladly taken, the 20th anniversary hardcover edition of the first volume of the epic: thecityofroses.com/books/-wake-... (Also, paperbacks and ebooks and zines...) thecityofroses.com/books

A portion of a printing proof for a dust jacket, a field of canary yellow with the stark rose icon printed in a blue that's almost black over the words Volume 1, and the flap copy reads as follows:

City of Roses
Vol. 1
“Wake up…”

“…like a rich, dark brocade embroidered with gold thread and rare gems.”
—Web Fiction Guide
“City of Roses is an absorbing read that many fantasy fans will enjoy immensely.”
—the Guardian
Jo Maguire, a highly strung, underemployed telemarketer, meets Ysabel, a princess of unspecified pedigree, and rather unexpectedly becomes her guardian and caretaker. Now Jo must make her way through the strange new world of Ysabel’s decidedly odd family and friends (which involves rather more swordplay than she’s used to)—while Ysabel must adjust to a diet of frozen pizza and a job that requires her to call strangers on the phone and ask them how satisfied they are with their banks.
“Wake up…”, volume one of
City of Roses, collects the first eleven novelettes of the critically acclaimed ’zine serial.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 25/08/2026

Don't cheat; your last photo of the sky.

Sunrise over Sandy Boulevard, but it's from earlier this month, 19 days ago, the sky is a featureless pall of brown, a haze of woodsmoke from the fires to the east, off that way, and the sun is a tiny dot of pink that can just be made out with the naked eye.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 24/08/2026

It's not so well known that the so-called "white people" used to be gaudily painted and covered in cheap gold trim—over time that has all faded and worn away, leaving only the white stone that gave them their name.

A reproduction of Augustus of Primaporta, a statue dating to roughly 20 BCE, painted in the pleasantly garish reds and blues suggested by traces of pigment found on the original; the most disconcerting colors are the auburn hair atop the pale-as-snow face, and the most kissable red lips, my goodness.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 08/08/2026

It is International Cat Day, isn't it.

A bedroom, the bed neatly made, three windows, the two to either side curtained with gauzy red, the middle with gauzy white, and four cats: a brown tabby dozing on the sill of that middle window, in a bit of morning light, and a blue tabby sat on a corner of the foot of the bed, and beside him a black cat playing the role of a cat-shaped void, and closer to the pillows, in a divot she's made for herself, a white kitten with smokey dark ears and tail and mask.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 06/07/2026

Well this was a helluva serve from the timeline.

Two posts, one after another: the first is the viral woman-and-puppet clip, "We're just normal men / We're just innocent men," from a bot that posts that clip; the second, from kottke.org, features a screenshot of Scarlett Johansson against a featureless black backdrop, and says, "I love this short little video montage of actresses during Charlie Rose interviews. No dialogue, just quiet reactions. Musical accompaniment by Laurie Anderson (O Superman)."

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 30/06/2026

A picture, which captures an essence.

A balding, male-presenting figure with an enormous bushy beard more salt than pepper looks down at you with a mien not so much of disdain, no, he seems perhaps too kind and too generous for that, but he's not so much in a kind or generous mood at the moment, perhaps, and his jacket is dark and blue and within the thicket of that beard can just be made out a tie of bright blue paisley, and his spectacles have round lenses rimmed in clear plastic and tortoiseshell arms.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 14/06/2026

Post a logo, emblem, or title (with its original font) that remains as perfect today as when it was new.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 06/06/2026

So dinner last night was pretty good.

A small plate rests on the wide flat wooden arm of a knockoff Mission-style couch, and on the plate a sandwich, two pillowy-thick slices of milk bread, an enormous chicken cutlet, breaded and fried in peanut oil to a dark gold perfection, and some hand-cut slaw of purple cabbage, and you can't see the Kewpie mayonnaise or the Bull Dog tonkatsu sauce, but they're there, trust. Out of focus behind, the pumpkin-colored wall of our upstairs library, an indistinct print in an elaborately painted framed leaned against it, a doorframe painted pale green, and beyond a little garret office, painted in pinks and purples.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 05/06/2026

www.longstoryshortpier.com/2003/09/23/c...

Donald J. Trump @realDonald Trump

On Wednesday, June 24th, at 7 P.M., in magnificent Washington, D.C., now totally beautified, and one of the Safest Cities anywhere in the World, and in celebration of our Country's 250 Year History, we will be bringing you, LIVE, the Greatest Rally, EVER! It will be special at every level — A Rally to end all Rallies! We don't want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep, we've told them all to stay home. All we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years! We will have the fabulous Lee Greenwood introducing me with what has turned out to be one of the Greatest Hits of All Time, GOD BLESS THE U.S.A., and the amazing Christopher Macchio, who will sing Nessun Dorma, Hallelujah, Ave Maria, God Bless America, and others - Not since the legendary Luciano Pavarotti has there been such a voice! The Rally will also be featuring the wonderful U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own" and Armed Forces Choir, and "The President's Own" Unites States Marine Band, with the Joint Armed Forces Chorus, all of your favorite Hits, PLUS a fine and highly dignified gentleman known as, President DONALD J. TRUMP! 18 ReTruths 65 Likes

Jun 04, 2026, 2:45 PM

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 15/05/2026

Though you really should have one of the best Penguin covers ever done to accompany the text.

The cover of Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, which is an image of the green spines of multiple copies of the slim book as if arrayed in bulk on a bookstore shelf.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 10/05/2026

Get you a cat who makes biscuits in your beard. Oh, and a beard, I suppose.

A man sat in a desk chair, headphones over his bald head and small round spectacles, an enormous shaggy white beard lopping over his chest, he's looking down with some concern at the tabby cat perched there, the back of the cat's head, he's intent, the cat, on that beard, though it can't quite be made out what he's doing so intently.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 14/04/2026

So: I write a fantasy serial—a mix of gonzo noir and urban pastoral set here in Portland, published as zines, paperbacks, and online, for free: right now, of the books below, you'll find all of the yellow, the blue, and the pink, and we've just started the orange: thecityofroses.com/contents/

Four fat paperback books on a featureless white field, stacked one atop the other with their spines facing you, and the one on the bottom is yellow, vol. 1, “Wake up…”, and then the next one is blue, vol. 2, The Dazzle of Day, and the third is pink, vol. 3, In the Reign of Good Queen Dick, and the one on top is orange, vol. 4, —or Betty Martin.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 14/04/2026

Quote with a snap of yourself bespectacled.

A masculine presenting figure in a bulky wool sweater, sat before a computer, perhaps, his head bald, his face subsumed by an enormous grey beard that is in turn overwhelmed by the brown tabby cat leaned up over his belly and chest, paws gripping his shoulder, head rubbing in an ecstasy of skritches against the tortoiseshell arms of his glasses, the rims of them blue and horned, and the screen of his computer just visible, reflected in the glass, he's writing, perhaps, and behind him a welter of various hats hung on hooks.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 03/04/2026

No, private equity debt-leveraged financial shenanigans drove Red Lobster to bankruptcy. Shrimp had not a God damn thing to do with it.

Bloomberg headline reading: Red Lobster Set to Bring Back Endless Shrimp That Drove It to Bankruptcy

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 31/03/2026

I've got the secret beating heart of all of comics safe in my office, just so's y'all know.

Black-and-white art from Scott McCloud's classic text: this page explains the importance of juxtaposition and gutters to the art of comics with odd panels—a fork, a gunshot, a dissolve into abstraction, an upside-down Nancy, a group of penguins, a Lincoln singing about fish—irrupting but adding to the flow, the pacing, the point.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 13/03/2026

I am a wealthy and famous author. The only thing impeding my wealth is that no one is buying my books. I am staggeringly successful should you all do that.

The Strait of Hormuz is open for transit, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. "The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping," he said. "It is open for transit should Iran not do that."

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 25/02/2026

(Just figured out who Newsom reminds me of.)

It's the recent Waratah Championships winner, Ken Railings, as played by John Hannan in Baz Luhrman's Strictly Ballroom, a tall, floridly ruddy man with a long skull and a seductively sincere mien and a head of perfectly coiffed platinum hair, and his shirt is open to the waist, and there's a thick gold chain.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 24/02/2026

“Diane, 11:30 a.m., February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks.”

A shot of Pee-wee Herman riding his iconic red bike, feet insouciantly kicked up to rest on the handlebars, crossed at the ankles, his peerless grey suit and that smile on his face, not a care in the damn fine world.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 15/02/2026

I picked poor Robin clean Picked poor Robin clean I picked his head, I picked his feet (I would've picked his body but it wasn't fit to eat!) Picked poor Robin clean I picked poor Robin clean And I'll be satisfied Having a family!

Elon Musk
@elonmusk. 4h
For a country to survive, there has to be a common culture.
Nobody dies to defend a "multicultural economic zone"!
American culture, with its English-Scotts-Irish origin, is great and worth fighting for.
Some may not realize it, but that's why people come here.
X

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 13/02/2026

I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O L I A P A R E I D O

OPINION

INTERESTING TIMES

Anthropics Chief on A.I.: 'We Don't Know if the Models Are Conscious' Dario Amodei shares his utopian — and dystopian — predictions in the near term for artificial intelligence.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 24/01/2026

Seeing Stephen Miller [ spit ] baselessly libel the man ICE just executed as a domestic terrorist who intended to assassinate federal agents puts me in mind of what became of Ishido, at the end of Shōgun. This is why we say Nuremberg trials and Truth and Reconciliation are the moderate options.

Three days later Ishido was captured alive and Toranaga genially reminded him of the prophecy and sent him in chains to Osaka for public viewing, ordering the eta to plant the General Lord Ishido’s feet firm in the earth, with only his head outside the earth, and to invite passersby to saw at the most famous neck in the realm with a bamboo saw. Ishido lingered three days and died very old.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 21/01/2026

(But this—though I swear I've turned the Duck's AI off, more than once—still, this popping up as I bopped around had me laughing up both sleeves.)

Friscalating is a unique and beautiful word often used in creative contexts, such as literature and film, to evoke a sense of wonder or enchantment. It has been cited in various works, adding a whimsical touch to descriptions. —But at least it also offers citations to Pinterest and Wiktionary.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 12/01/2026

Now that's a goddamn lasagna. (This one's with the charred vegetable ragù, in case you're keeping track.)

A lasagna Bolognese, in a Pyrex glass baking dish, the top of it lovingly browned, with the cheese and the béchamel, the multiple thirty-some-odd layers of thin-rolled noodle and ragù and béchamel and cheese, peccorino and parmagiano, anyway, dang. It's gonna be good.

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Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 06/01/2026

City of Roses: urban fantasy epic serial firmly set in Portland, Oregon, and both the regular ebook volumes: www.kobo.com/us/en/series... and the omnibus ebooks that collect the seasons: www.kobo.com/us/en/series... are available on Kobo and Kobo Plus, so have at it!

A stack of fat paperbacks on a white background, the volumes of City of Roses: vol. 1, “Wake up…”, in yellow, at the bottom; vol. 2, The Dazzle of Day, in blue; vol. 3, In the Reign of Good Queen Dick, in pink; and vol. 4, –or Betty Martin, in orange: 44 novelettes (so far), over 660,000 words, we're halfway done.

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