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K.V. Johansen

@kvjohansen.bsky.social
2.4K followers 826 following 7.7K posts

Author. Epic fantasy: Blackdog, The Leopard, The Lady, Gods of Nabban, & The Last Road (Pyr). High fantasy: The Wolf and the Wild King (Mystique). Spring 2026: Breath and Bone, new sword & sorcery from Candlemark & Gleam. Cdn, Bay of Fundy. www.kvj.ca

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Reposted by K.V. Johansen
maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 22h
We should treat genAI in publishing the way you’d treat a vampire trying to enter your home. You never give it permission to enter. It doesn’t matter if it‘s polite or makes generous offers or it’s *only* going to take the ones *you* don’t care about. It’s here for your blood. Don’t let it in.
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 19h
Got tickets for a series of early music concerts this weekend!
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Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 21h
Exciting to see in the new Sutton Hoo Ship's Company newsletter quite how much progress has now been made. And that they are making plans to reconstruct the Snape ship now too! Anglo-Saxon boat races... saxonship.org/newsletter/
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Darth Putin @darthputinkgb.bsky.social · 21h
OTD in 1938 Nazi Germany started occupying the Sudetenland. The west tried to appease Hitler by giving him bits of someone else's country without asking the owners. It didnt work & led to a terrible war. Imagine it happening today....
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Melissa Caruso @melissacaruso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Discoverability for new SFF books seems way down these days, especially outside of bestsellers and certain subgenres. I'm noticing this as both a reader and a writer. Great stuff is in danger of sinking without a trace. Please post about new/recent books you love or are excited for!!! I'll start:
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SeaWindowCraster @seawindowcraster.bsky.social · 21h
Offered at a special price in support of @newcastlefoodbank.org www.mickoxley.com/product/orig...
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Dr Tiffani Angus @tiffaniangus.bsky.social · 21h
RIGHT? I mean, doesn’t this ruling undermine the basic establishment of copyright? ©️ means copyright, and it shouldn’t matter whether it’s US or UK when all the materials were stripped from a pirate site that stole them all in the first place. It’s a bad look for the UK govt to let this fester.
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Dr Tiffani Angus @tiffaniangus.bsky.social · 21h
Remember, folks: for every author you see on here describing how they’ve filled out forms to get *some* compensation from the Anthropic AI case there are dozens, hundreds, hell THOUSANDS of us who get 0 because our books weren’t registered with the US copyright office yet have UK copyright!
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Always keep learning ...
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Pots on a left-handed guitar ... apparently a vexed and thorny issue. Now I am pdf-ing a number of articles on pots to read at leisure. And possibly going to have to replace pots &rewire all the pre-wired stuff on that guitar, to get rid of the horrid noise and make the volume work properly.
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
For the morning people:
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Does anyone have thoughts on whether putting something like a Boss NS-1X in reduction mode between an extra-noisy strat and a combo amp will do anything useful? (More shielding and replacing the volume pot are also planned. Grounding seems okay, so the noise is a puzzle, and annoying.)
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Abilu Tangwa. @abilutangwa.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We have enough food, technology, and money to save the planet. We just have a system where destroying it is more profitable. That's not a climate problem. That's a greed problem. #ClimateJustice
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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The snails They destroyed their cage Yes YES The snails are out
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Irina Dumitrescu @irinadumitrescu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Medievalist friends, can anyone point me to sources on the hunting of dolphins in the early Middle Ages? How was it done? Could one man hunt a dolphin alone? Were dolphins ever beached, and if so, were they edible?
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Tamir Buchshtav @tamir-buchshtav.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The question here is that with Microsoft shoving Copilot down our throats, and with Google shoving Gemini into everything they offer, how long will it be until anything we right down in a Word or Google Docs file will also be targetted?
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The obvious conclusion (to me): if you have proprietary research & you upload it into the Plagiarism Nexus, it's not YOUR proprietary research anymore. Behave accordingly.
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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I just read a third or possibly fourth news article where the reality of an 'AI has discovered something marvellous!' story turns out to be GenAI somehow accessed material it had no permissions for, which was the outcome of an expert's years of work, and presented it without attribution. GenAI lies.
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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Tonight's purchase: Philippe Guillet's new edition of L'Anathomia de Richardus Anglicus: Un traité d'anatomie physiologique de la fin du XIIe siècle. Good old-fashioned philology combined w/ real Digital Humanities smarts brings a woefully understudied text into the light. #histmed
The cover of Philippe Guillet, L'Anathomia de Richardus Anglicus: Un traité d'anatomie physiologique de la fin du XIIe siècle (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2026). The title translates to "The Anatomy of Richard the Englishman: A Treatise of Physiological Anatomy from the End of the 12th Century."
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Doctor Science ❌👑 @doctorscience.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If you want to learn more in an Ana-like way, poke around @monicamedhist.bsky.social 's plague bibliography (continuously updated): "The Mother of All Pandemics" docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
The Mother of All Pandemics The State of Black Death Research in the Era of Covid-19 - Bibliography 05152020 - migrated 03032021.docx
This is a comprehensive bibliography on the science and history of the 2nd Plague Pandemic, focusing on scholarship of the past 20 years or so. It is regularly updated. An appendix covers the 1st Plag...
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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 28/09/2026
Any time we hear "AI did this and this", it's not proof programs are becoming sentient, but that the humans deploying said AI did this (which is generally failing to deploy proper sandboxing measures to prevent an AI from going against security) It's not the AI that's rogue, it's the company
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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The half-timbered early 16th century ‘Pitchmarket’ at Cerne Abbas in Dorset. The name derives from the market which was once held outside the house, where millers would ‘pitch’ for corn. 📸 My own. #MedievalMonday #CerneAbbey #Dorset
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James Alistair Henry @jamesbluecat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I'm so sorry, it was @nndroid.bsky.social who gave the shoutout, who I think also recommended the excellent @warringtonruncorn.com and their 'Public Works and Utilities album a while ago, so there's a great feedback loop going on somewhere. open.spotify.com/album/2TkXEf...
open.spotify.com
Public Works and Utilities - Album by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan | Spotify
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan · album · 2025 · 6 songs
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Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is such a sorry & infuriating tale. Via @davidpetts1.bsky.social from another place. www.sarsen.org/2026/09/hist...
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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I've talked to a few journal editors who are concerned about similar problems re: anonymous reviewers. If a peer reviewer wants a little help & feeds your unpublished submission into an AI system, they've just shared your proprietary work & broken confidentiality. A nightmare to think about
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Utterly mad how most of society just bumbles along, ignoring the monstrous future realities being locked in place, day in day out.
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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This week over on ‘All Old Strange Things’ I take a look at ‘Astercote’ (1970), the first of Penelope Lively’s remarkable novels for children about the past returning to haunt the present 📚 drfrancisyoung.substack.com/p/return-to-...
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Black shadow floats rapidly upwards past the window. A crow is up to no good on the roof. (I have no evidence of malfeasance. I just assume cheerful wickedness on principle, where crows on involved.)
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Build strong, on stolen work, stolen incomes, stolen careers & lives, to create a generation that is not only barely functionally literate but can't even put their own thoughts together. Or you could fund training for what we actually need: the trades, medicine, the arts, humanities, & real science.
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'Nathan Burgoine (he/him) @nathanburgoine.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Every damn time Carney lowers the bar. "Hey kids go learn how to use plagiarism theftware that totally stole art from Canada's creatives because my business cronies promise me they can squeeze a few more dimes for their shareholders and their own pockets if you do that rather than learning skills!"
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Canadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sunset in the Swamp Yvonne McKague Housser n.d.
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A.I. and corporate lingo are dragging language ynto drugged realmes of vague, airy, plastic nothingnesse: glitz and hyperbole wythout meaning. Language must have fur and clawes, make the floorboardes creake and leave wet dirtye footprintes. Wordes are rayne and fyre and stone. Wielde them. Save us.
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candlemarkandgleam.bsky.social @candlemarkandgleam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Breath & Bone is another of @kvjohansen.bsky.social 's elegant, complicated fantasies featuring characters living with the consequences of their own actions. (Link to us but available at all the usual suspects.) www.candlemarkandgleam.com/shop/breath-...
Book cover: in a blue-toned forest, a dark-haired woman is just drawing a sword while at her side a shorter woman carrying a harp looks intently out of the image. Breath and Bone, K.V. Johansen. A long-retired swordswoman, savior of godlings and killer of emperors, takes to the road again with her shapeshifting companion and the ghost of her brother. A desperate girl needs their help to rescue her own lost brother — and the witch who holds him in thrall is their old enemy. “A wonderful tale of rescue and redemption.” — Tom Lloyd. “This fairytale-like stry has both teeth and heart.” — KD Edwards
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A 5,000 year-old arrow has emerged from melting mountain ice in Norway, offering a glimpse into prehistoric hunting in the high mountains 🏹❄️ archaeologymag.com/2026/09/5000...
archaeologymag.com
5,000-year-old arrow emerges as Norway’s melting mountain ice reveals older archaeological finds | Archaeology News Online Magazine
A 5,000-year-old arrow is among 48 prehistoric finds recovered as melting ice reveals older archaeology in Norway’s Jotunheimen mountains.
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N.P. Thompson 🍁 @nptwrites.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Missed this one when it came out. This country never 🤬learns. Every time we sell off our assets to the private sector it ends up costing us dearly. Harper sold off our only vaccine lab, and then we had a pandemic and thought "oops". This won't be any different. thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...
thetyee.ca
Carney Is Selling Off Canada’s Publicly Owned Tech Gem. Why? | The Tyee
Leading the charge is Build Canada and a broligarchy of AI boosters. Second in a series.
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Medievalist.net @medievalists.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A new online course coming January: Old High German Literature - sign up at medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/german #OldHighGerman
medievalstudies.thinkific.com
Old High German Literature
This course examines the emergence of writing in historical German, various cultures of monastic textual and literary production, and the religious and political circumstances that shaped Old High…
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The lane outside Grandma's had a stream running down the middle of it and plenty of mud. They held hands and slithered along together. Illustration by children's author Shirley Hughes, born in West Kirby.
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RJ BaHarker @rjbarker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Then on the 3rd of November - PRIDE OF THE WILD BLACK. and the 1st of December -- LOST IN THE WILD BLACK And on the 5th of January a paper omnibus of all three.
This time it's a bear in the space suit. Who doesn't love a bear?And in the final one a cleaver little rook.
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RJ BaHarker @rjbarker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Like CATS? Like SPACE? Like MECHS? Like SHOOTING STUFF. Like QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ETHICS OF CONSENT IN UPLIFTING ANIMALS AND ALSO THE HEALING OF TRAUMA THROUGH KINDNESS Then, my friend, put the 6TH OF OCTOBER in your diary. Audio and EBOOK release of BEASTS OF THE WILD BLACK. (Tell everyone.)
A cat is looking out of a human space suit at you. That's what we call in the trade, a visual metaphor. Now comes the blurb.

Years ago, Deep Strike cadet Min Law was left behind during what was meant to be a routine operation. Though he survived, the resulting trauma almost ended his career. Now, as captain of the DST Thunberg, he is preparing to take his crew on a similar journey to a seemingly quiet world following a garbled distress signal. The mission is simple on paper: find the source of the call, offer aid, return home.

But nothing is simple in the Wild Black at the edges of the unexplored universe. As the crew of the Thunberg searches for the signal’s source, they find strange ships and corpses that shouldn’t be there. The mysteries begin to pile up. What happened out here? And why does some of the technology look horribly familiar?

Fortunately, Min’s team of animal counterparts is prepared for anything. The bear, Sitka Pete, is eight hundred pounds of loyal muscle. The rooks are quick and coordinated, perfect for reconnaissance. And the cats, Oz and Hinder, well, they’re just cats. But together they’re more than up for whatever the Wild Black can throw at them—even if this region isn’t quite so unexplored after all . . .
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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The whole point of humans as a sociable, tribal species is we should eject people like this, so they starve in the wilderness alone. There are consequences to sociopathic behaviour. Somehow the abstract idea of money has short circuited our basic evolutionary safeguards.
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A grey morning. Crows are up to mischief on the lawn. What sort of mischief? I can't tell. But they've got their heads together and every so often bounce around and let off raucous shrieks of corvine laughter. Plotting something, I suspect.
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Frode #Fella @frodehommedal.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
– Food supplies to the town of Oleshky, in the occupied part of the southern Kherson region, have been cut off since May. Efforts by Kyiv to negotiate the evacuation of civilians with Moscow have been largely unsuccessful. Since May. So many will die when snow arrives unless we intervene.
amp.dw.com
Famine threatens Ukrainian town of Oleshky as Russia's war cuts residents off from food and supplies
Food supplies to the town of Oleshky, in the occupied part of the southern Kherson region, have been cut off since May. Efforts by Kyiv to negotiate the evacuation of civilians with Moscow have been l...
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Frode #Fella @frodehommedal.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
– And yet here we are: Ukraine's Holodomor Museum, dedicated to preserving the memory of millions of Ukrainians starved to death by Joseph Stalin from 1932-1933, is sounding the alarm about another man-made famine, this one taking place in 2026. And yet, here we are…
kyivindependent.com
Editorial: The world must force Russia to end mass starvation in occupied Oleshky
Some 6,000 people — 200 of them children — are right now starving to death in a humanitarian catastrophe orchestrated by Vladimir Putin's Russia. The town of Oleshky and its surrounding district in t...
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Orchard Notes @orchardnotes.com · 27/09/2026
The Apples and People project, on @museumofcider.bsky.social's heritage orchards in Breinton. "Varieties have been collected and grafted from trees across Herefordshire, the West Midlands and South-West ... All varieties are being genetically tested to help confirm their identity."
applesandpeople.org.uk
Savouring Old Apple Varieties
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 27/09/2026
#OnThisDay in AD 1066, William the Conqueror's troops set sail to England, beginning the Norman conquest. The Welsh hillfort of Dinas Powys was thought to have been built to defend against them, but dating found it pre-dates the conquest by 300 years! 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology
Laser scan of an earthwork monument, made up of multiple ridges.
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Pet Shop Boys @handle.invalid · 27/09/2026
Five days ahead of its official release, Pet Shop Boys' "A man from the future" will be made available to hear in full during two BBC global radio broadcasts on Sunday, 4th October.
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B.S.W. Barootes @barootes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
And yet I was only allowed to access a 1955 B.Litt. thesis, the only lengthy study on Robert Braybrooke, in person and take notes (no photos). I had to sign a register of those who had ever accessed the thesis.
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K.V. Johansen @kvjohansen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Watched Mystic Pizza again. It's a very good movie.
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Ness 🎃🇨🇦 @vriccithode.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Pls send us nice emails. Literally all of us have our inboxes crammed daily with slop-written scam emails. 💀
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