iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 30/09/2026

I always stop to read this whenever it crosses my feed, no matter what else I'm doing. And it makes me weep for being seen every time. Every. Time. Shared it with my son tonight and it prompted an "Awwwwwwwww" from him. So yeah, I'll just be over here blubbering! 🙏🏻🥹🥺😭🫶🏻

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 30/09/2026

Heehee! Thanks! A feral D&D inflected riff on the Redwall/Wind in the Willows anthropomorphic forest critters trope *would* be pretty fun to write!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 29/09/2026

Source images! Raccoon: bsky.app/profile/good... Fox: bsky.app/profile/good... Possum: bsky.app/profile/mc20...

A trailcam image of a raccoon standing looking at the camera with glowing eyes.

A trailcam image of a young fox, with its eyes squinted shut.

A tailcam image of a possum eating an apple slice.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 29/09/2026

Here's my submission! My first time drawing in digital instead of traditional, all done on my phone! This was super fun! Still can't get over how feral and stabby the possum rogue is! On the trail of adventure!

A raccoon on two legs, with a cloak and a sword, a fox in a hat holding a lantern, and an possum with two daggers and a fierce look on its face!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 29/09/2026

Literally every major crisis our planet and society are facing right now could be addressed by launching these assholes into the sun.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 28/09/2026

Still looking for an authenticity reader for my fictional trans-affirming magical girl anime!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

If I have multiple qualified readers I will give preference to a trans/queer candidate. I've consistently sought out queer and trans folks to work on this project, because it matters to me that my work uplifts and centers other folks like me as much as possible. Trying to be transparent as possible.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

HMU if this sounds like your area of expertise/experience, or if you know someone with experience as a sensitivity/authenticity reader with Japanese experience. I've done a LOT of homework, but I want to make certain I haven't made any grievous or harmful errors in the anime sections of the book.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

I am hiring an authenticity reader for The Egg Prime Directive: specifically for the sections set in Japan in the early 2000s. I'm looking for someone with lived experience of Japanese language/culture & specific domain knowledge about anime/manga, Japanese LGBTQ+ experiences, & Japanese folklore.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

So, I'm both relieved and grateful that we have gotten this medicine for him! But I'm also furious at everyone who has conspired to politicize his medical care and deny him access to the simplest, safest, and most proven treatments. I will never forgive these monsters. I will never forget.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

But in some ways what he's going through is even crueler than the incomprehensible pain of the wrong puberty that I experienced—not understanding that there was an alternative. Because he KNOWS what he needs. Knows, & STILL is denied it because fucking neo Nazis get off on tormenting trans kids.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

I had dreamed that he would be spared the trauma of experiencing his body turning against him. I'd imagined that it might be better for him than it was for me. And in some ways it is: he is affirmed and supported by the people around him, & he knows himself in ways I was unable to know myself at 11.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

And look...I get that blockers are the compromise position. You'd better believe that the moment my son is ready for T that I'm going to move heaven and earth to get it for him. But he's needed blockers since he turned 10. He's not ready for ANY puberty, especially not for an estrogenic one.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

I had doctors who lied to me about the medicine, rather than admit that their refusal to treat my child was motivated by political fear. It wasn't sufficient for them to deny my son lifesaving necessary care: they justified it by claiming blockers required specialized expertise that they lacked.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

Trans people are moving to Illinois specifically to protect their families from the genocidal policies of Republican majority states, but even here the hospitals are too cowardly to stand up for trans youth. I talked to a lot of people who tried to gaslight me about the medical science of blockers.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

A year is an eternity to wait for relief when you're a young kid whose unwanted puberty is rapidly making your body a hostile place to inhabit. My son shouldn't have reached the point where he has to wear a binder constantly just to function—he shouldn't have had to go through a full year like this.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 26/09/2026

At long last we have obtained and administered puberty blockers for our trans son!! It took almost 12 months since he realized how badly he needed them to get to this point! It was a JOURNEY to get access to these, but QueerMed—the folks who eventually came through for us—forever have my gratitude!

Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

For example: bsky.app/profile/moth...

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

I love these parts of my LIFE, although they definitely complicate things in narratively interesting ways for all parties involved! 😜 (I guess I know why I go to this well so often in my writing!)🤣

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

This shit got tangled so much in the Egg Prime Directive that I kinda got carried away making it make sense!

The massive Egg Prime Directive polycule diagram, showing the different relationships between the many characters in the book.

The massive Egg Prime Directive character timeline, showing major milestones in their transitions and also explaining how/when/where the characters know each other from.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

Yeah, same! Any time you have to maintain a giant tracking doc of the different relationships and inter-connections just to write the next scene is a good time as far as I'm concerned!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

Without looking at tropes dotcom or whatnot, what's something in your book/comic that *isn't* an established trope, but you treat like one? (e.g. you always have this theme, situation, character, archetype): Neurospicy T4T polycules. oh, also: Euphemisms for transfeminine lady parts!!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

Yeah, and his cultures all feel complex and nuanced and lived-in...not just a grab-bag of stereotypes. The characters get to be informed by their cultural background, without being defined by it.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

Right!? And the emotional stakes are so dense and real from page one! I'm already weepy about these two sad boys! I just want to hug them and tell them it'll be okay! I've always had immense respect for how Foz writes trauma, but this really is fantastic!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

Still reading my ARC of this, but fuck damn I'm enjoying it! The texture of the world, the sense of history imbuing everything, the genuinely fresh cosmology and magic system...and that's just the *backdrop* for two EXTREMELY compelling viewpoint characters and a page-turner plot!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

YES! It's so good!! Foz has outdone himself with this world, and it just keeps getting better!! (I'm about 30% through it right now!)

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 24/09/2026

I feel like I'm finding my style with the digital sketching. Really quite pleased with the mood of this one!

A digital illustration of a Valkyrie Necromancer, in black line art.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 23/09/2026

The nice thing about these edits, tho, is that I get to revisit the sections of the book that give me Big Feels™️ and—despite having *written* the damn thing and knowing it inside and out—I still get choked up in those scenes. I honestly don't know how to be "normal" about this story!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 23/09/2026

This is for the novel, so it's lots of formatting fuckery (like...some chapters just rock failed to retain the italicization when I imported them), dialogue punctuation inconsistencies, wonky capitalization, and wacky layout stuff.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 23/09/2026

(predictably, the universe has rewarded me for my hubris by surfacing more major issues with the InDesign file. In accordance with prophecy.)

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 23/09/2026

The big consistency edit is a humbling reckoning with how much of a chaos gremlin Past Tess was, even *after* multiple copyediting passes through the book. But fuck damn it feels good to feel like I'm running out of issues to fix!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 22/09/2026

Not the same aesthetic, but one of my current illustration projects is essentially "tiny person with her cat" explores wild-ass mysterious landscapes. www.behance.net/gallery/2455...

behance.net

Imaginary Architectures - Theresa Jean Tanenbaum

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 22/09/2026

This is the weird shit I made back in 2022-23 to soothe my angry nervous system. It's a lot of different genres and textures all smooshed together, and I still kinda love it (even though I think my new stuff is better)! moth-mother.bandcamp.com/album/emotio...

moth-mother.bandcamp.com

Emotional Regulation, by Moth Mother

9 track album

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 21/09/2026

Copyedits on the Egg Prime Directive are done (huge thanks to @drtanenbaumii.bsky.social and @catblackard.bsky.social !) Initial layout in InDesign is done!! Final page count is likely going to fluctuate a bit as I tweak things, but it's at 359 currently! It's really real! It's really a book!

static.klipy.com

Kermit the Frog Dances - The Muppet Show Tribute

Alt: Kermit the Frog flails excitedly in front of a red velvet curtain!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 20/09/2026

Make friends with nice lesbians who have goats, and you can have an afternoon that is the Greatest Of All Time!

Tess, holding a goat, surrounded by goats, and smiling the biggest smile ever!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 20/09/2026

I've had enough people ask me "when did you get top surgery?" this summer that I guess it's time to accept that my breast growth is real and not just a figment of my hopeful imagination. Y'all, I don't think I should be trusted with this kind of power...it's highly unlikely I'll use it responsibly.

Selfie of Tess, in a very dyke-y outfit: hiking boots, blue shorts, punk belt, green tank top, and an ankh necklace.

Tess, in a very dyke-y outfit: hiking boots, blue shorts, punk belt, green tank top, and an ankh necklace. She is bent over, and her boobs a boobing mightily.

Tess, in a very dyke-y outfit: hiking boots, blue shorts, punk belt, green tank top, and an ankh necklace. She's looking down at the camera with one hand on her hip, and an expression on her face that says: "Hello, bottom."

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 19/09/2026

Oooh! I've been cursed to be a shaman for a long time, but now you're telling me that I'm a saint...gonna have to sit with that one for a while. (Raven Kaldera would absolutely include mental illness under shamanism, tho, so maybe it's just shamans all the way down?)

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 17/09/2026

Oooof, that's so real! I'm just glad I have a new book to work on while I wait for feedback from sensitivity readers and blurbs and whatnot on the one I'm wrapping up. I'm almost to the point where it's out of my hands, even if there's a gap before it is properly in the world.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 17/09/2026

This one really resonated with me! I'm in the last copyediting pass after doing two more line-editing passes on the book than I'd anticipated needing. I've grudgingly pushed back publication until next spring specifically to give it some extra room to breath and get ARCs out to select folks. 😬🥺😭

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 17/09/2026

You can tell Karen has been on this journey with me because she has totally gotten inside the head of this trans woman we've created together. She's proof that cis people CAN write good trans characters, if they take us seriously and do the research, because DAAAYUUUM! This scene is fire!🔥🔥🔥

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 17/09/2026

@drtanenbaumii.bsky.social is currently writing a scene for our new book where the MC—a trans academic—encounters a dude at a conference who critiques her on an overreliance on her "husband's" research only she has no husband, just older papers published under her deadname & it's SO BRUTAL Y'ALL!

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 17/09/2026

LLMs obscure the very world science seeks to illuminate. They have no place in our knowledge work practices. Anyone who insists they are the "future" of scientific papers is either a charlatan, an ignoramus, or a saboteur, and should be treated with the same contempt they show to scholarship.

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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 17/09/2026

They're actively harmful to our attempts to collectively advance our knowledge as a species. Relying on an LLM to organize & present information is like asking a preschooler to explain quantum physics to a corporate lawyer, who decides what to tell you about what the child said. You can't cite that!

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