iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Serena Malyon 🌞🌛 @serenamalyon.bsky.social · 9h

Disciplined Duelist - for Magic: The Gathering's Streets of New Capenna AD: Sarah Wassell The first painting I completed for Magic and still one of my favourites.

A man strides across a dimly lit hallway, brandishing magical gauntlets. He rolls up a sleeve in anticipation of a fight to come. The shapes of the composition are angular and art-deco-inspired.

9508113

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Luke Ontario @coolhand.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I have no idea if this is true but the collage kills me

A black lemur in a leafy tree with its mouth open as if singing, beside an inset photo of Pavarotti striking a similar pose. Text reads: “New research shows lemurs use operatic techniques when they sing, to reach high notes.” Classic FM.

341274255

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Patch Zircher @patrickzircher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Meiko Kaji (star of Lady Snowblood) struttin' through the subway in the 1970s.

81135230

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A friend sent me HPMOR about ten years back. The first couple chapters were a fun skim (little Harry having the least-10-year-old freakout ever about silver, gold & exchange rates was cute) before the accumulated curdled funk of the debate-club shut-in really got to me.

5261

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I think more than I should about what a person is really saying when they claim "a person sufficiently smarter than me could make me do anything"

2221

Reposted by Max Gladstone

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 29/09/2026

Today in "absolutely not"

25804134

Reposted by Max Gladstone

robert j bennett, ceo, results omega @robertjbennett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I react very poorly when any proposed policy or plan is met with "but what if someone like Trump gets hold of it?? then it would be not good, but very bad" because there really is no law or institution that can work when a population is willing to elect the stupidest, worst asshole alive

1676578

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Thomas Ha @thomasha.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i should clarify, when i write people doing bad things, it's because i am bad. they are me. more importantly, when you read about those bad things, they also become you. that's how story works. in fact, you are going to think about murder before this skeet ends. how's that feel, sicko.

1760922306

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Ryan Van Loan @ryanvanloan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Motherfucker, the rural blue collar workers here can't AFFORD to stay at home. Both parents work, they lose a huge chunk of one paycheck to daycare, but the small remainder keeps them floating from paycheck to paycheck. Get out of your fucking bubble. Honestly.

14110

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I have read this and it is excellent

0152

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Solaris Books @solarisbooks.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We're so excited to see that @rebeccaroanhorse.bsky.social 's Hugo Award-winning BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY trilogy - an indigenous epic inspired by the pre-Colombian Americas -has an RPG launching soon from @montecookgames.com ! Buy the Books: geni.us/betweeneands Click the link below to learn more!

backerkit.com

Between Earth and Sky: the Roleplaying Game

Get notified when Between Earth and Sky: the Roleplaying Game launches on BackerKit!

0137

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Surrealist existentialist comedy / romance starring Tybalt and Mercutio -> “R+J Are Dead” (is this anything)

7305

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Finally forced myself to read the last 30 pages of A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY, dammit I thought I went into this with eyes open, "don't get attached to these beautiful passionate murdery kids, they're gonna get their heads chopped off," but NO, here I am, choked up thinking about Camille's son

2101

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I do think a lot of the SV fear / overwhelm response to AI comes down to "they've built a machine that's very good at eating their jobs *specifically*"

310212

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Jeff Drake @hatethedrake.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I slept on this book for TOO LONG. It is SO GOOD! Beautifully written and intricate like a puzzle box. @amalelmohtar.com & @maxgladstone.bsky.social knocked it out of the park with this one.

1823825

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

what’s a mob to a king what’s a king to a god what’s a god to an

2225

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Hey @maxgladstone.bsky.social an idea for your next project came to me in the shower. Ready for this? THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE MIME WAR

10363

Reposted by Max Gladstone

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ 📚⚡️ Fan of: - Fantasy worlds with modern problems - Frenemies - Corporate espionage - Chinatown 🎬 - Resource management Try @maxgladstone.bsky.social's Two Serpents Rise maxgladstone.com/writing/two-... A risk manager discovers problematic irregularities in a water company merger

Cover of Max Gladstone's Two Serpents Rise
A man wearing a tie and coat holds a deck of cards, performing an overhand shuffle with a face card of clubs exposed. He stands on a balcony lit from behind by sunlight through hazy air. A high tech pyramid building, not unlike Blade Runner's Tyrell Building, is visible in the background.
Cover text reads
Max Gladstone
Two Serpents Rise
A Novel Of The Craft Sequence
"This has so many of my favorite things: an intriguing world, fun characters, a puzzle of a story that manages to be both funky fantasy and legal thriller."
-Carrie Vaughn

1297

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Smilner, Renowned Actor @smilner.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Somehow, Magic: Fallen Empires returned

0293

Reposted by Max Gladstone

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22/09/2026

whenever i hear some variation on "but what if trump does X or Y or Z" i think of this ulysses s. grant remark to a subordinate during the wilderness campaign.

884018698

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Pokemon Company has printed so much 30th Anniversary that the scalpers are crashing out, prices are collapsing, kids are actually opening good cards! And there is Joy! Sweet Joy! Joy in Parent Town!

1356689

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

*waits* *waits* *sigh* *with a vast reluctance:* “Yo dawg, I heard you like AI, so I put an AI in your AI, so you can—“ *tackled from off-screen by my security team for my own safety*

1334

Reposted by Max Gladstone

videogame history @vghistory.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

excerpt, computer gaming world, magazine (2002) www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/is...

a pixelated person, wearing a red top, black belt, black pants, high white boots, holding a shield, is walking from left to right in an area of grey stone.
text above:
as in any creative field, there are bound to be those who revere the simplicity of the "good ole days," an instinct no doubt motivated in some part by nostalgia.

731864

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Imagining the voice actor’s joy when she opens her script to find the line: “Impossible!! My crystal style has never been defeated!”

0321

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Artificial Intelligence and Creative Writing: A Policy of Sorts. I've posted versions before, but I update this each term following conversations with students. Here's my Fall '26 edition. In no way definitive! Learning as I go.

ABBREVIATED FOR ALT TEXT
This is a course for those interested in writing not as means to an end but as an end in itself. Recently... I read a story in New York magazine titled, “Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College,” by James D. Walsh....
I didn’t think AI would be a temptation for creative writing students. “Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College” persuaded me that for many students of all sorts it’s not a temptation but a condition. You sleep in a bed, you wear clothes, you don’t scream at teachers. Just the way it is. Maybe AI is becoming that, too, part of “just the way it is.” Maybe it is that already.
My mind raced through ideas about how to “beat” AI. The article dismantled them. Then I thought, “That’s not my job.” I’m a writer and a teacher. I’m not a cop. If you want to work with me on writing, we can do that. If you want to cheat, you have the ability to do that, too, and the truth is, I probably can’t stop you.... Per Dartmouth’s policy: “Students may not use GenAI tools for submitted coursework unless expressly permitted.” I do not permit it....
I’m interested in working with students for whom writing feels, somehow, good. Even if sometimes it’s painful. Who seek that feeling anyway. A feeling of being, of alertness. Of purpose; of intention. Of practice.
This is a course for those who are interested in using writing to experience some variation of this feeling. Sometimes it comes in a moment of clarity, sometimes in the making of a lyrical juxtaposition. There are so many more emotional, intellectual, and spiritual possibilities that arise from the act of shaping language... There is no paycheck, or even a finished book held in hand for the first time, that has ever brought me as much complicated pleasure as the arrangement of words. Maybe you’re like this, too. Or maybe you want to be. If so, I designed this course with someone like you in mind.

315734

Reposted by Max Gladstone

mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 20/09/2026

everyone always wanna get van helsing when draculas are about but here’s the thing: dracula was killed by a cowboy…if you’re a transylvanian peasant your ass needs to get to the rodeo

14857154

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Ralph Bakshi @ralphbakshi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Boromir's final moments A three cel setup. Now listed: ebay.io/m/nIgPgt

222640

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I’m 🎶on my way to the pen show 🎶on my way to the pen show 🎶on my way to the pen shooow 🎶singin’ a pen show song

5281

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yeah, GNOMON is… I can barely even say what I think about that book, except that I think about it CONSTANTLY.

1284

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

truly THIS time I wear the shoes I’ve been trying to break in for the last three months will be the time it works

3301

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"No, it will take too long. Let me sum up:"

59318

Reposted by Max Gladstone

The Hidden Schools @hiddenschools.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A new service offered by Dreamspinner

A screenshot of several reddit posts in r/Dreams referencing getting ads in their dreams

181

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Chris Roberson @chrisroberson.net · 17/09/2026

I'm trying and failing to compose a coherent response to politicians who say they "oppose transgender ideology in schools," when the only trans "ideology" that matters to me is that trans people exist, trans rights are human rights, and that these assholes should leave trans kids the fuck alone.

39621

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

look i’m just saying, we could all buy dr who

57611

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Jonathan W. Gray @elmcitytree.blacksky.app · 17/09/2026

Alan Moore knew where all of this was headed back when Thatcher and Reagan were running things!

The seven panel layout in the 1985 V for Vendetta comic where the fascist leader Adam Susan confesses his love to the supercomputer Fate. He confesses that "I worship her, I am her slave. No freedom ever was so sweet."

318250

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Godzilla and Queen Ghidorah love A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD!! Now you can pre-order the book that everybody is rrrroaring about on Monster Island. (Thanks to @beeragon.bsky.social for the incredible documentary film.) us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

29320

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Katherine Crighton @katherinecrighton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Seen in the wild (aka random whiteboard at a polytechnic), @amalelmohtar.com @maxgladstone.bsky.social

Photograph of a whiteboard at WPI in Massachusetts. In the middle of a broad white expanse, someone has written in black dry-erase: "This is how you lose the time war."

11039

Reposted by Max Gladstone

vortex_egg @vortexegg.com · 16/09/2026

The smart phone and the personal digital assistant not as liberatory devices, but as an ankle monitor for your mind.

315931

Reposted by Max Gladstone

huck mason @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

rip annie dillard

One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.

1134051130

Reposted by Max Gladstone

Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 14/09/2026

Hi folks - we need to get our power bill paid tomorrow, as well as some additional money to our landlord so he stops threatening to kick us out. Literally anything helps. Thank you for all your help so far. ❤️ PayPal.me/MaeGodHaveMercy Cash.app/$MaeGodHaveMercy Venmo.com/u/MaeGodHaveMercy

paypal.me

Pay Real Life Comics using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/maegodhavemercy and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

24259

Max Gladstone @maxgladstone.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I really like this point & Scalzi's earlier on Hitchhiker's Guide. It's not universal—I was always the kid grubbing around in the discount record bin and the used bookstore & I bet those kids are still there—outside of Robert Jordan, PTerry, Adams my taste was very old school

1539

Reposted by Max Gladstone

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 14/09/2026

It's 30+ years later and there are still people mystified about this. I love me some Heinlein, said the guy who won the Heinlein Award a couple years back, and also, I wouldn't be recommending him as a way to get people into the genre in 2026. He's in the "historical perspective" tier now.

6687952