iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

And frankly, the people who most understand the sheer joy and relief it is to have myself back, the ones who share it with me most fully, are my trans buddies. And that's... just nice. It's nice.

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Having just the tiniest bit of progesterone at the proper time legitimately feels like coming off hard mode. I'm sleeping properly, my ambient stress is lower, and my body stays the same temperature all day long, instead of spiking up and down without warning.

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Our hormones do so many different important things that are rarely, if ever, fully explained to us. Our resting temperature, our digestion, our emotional resilience, our TEETH and BONES. When someone says "I need this hormone, it fixes things", we should be taking that SO seriously.

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And this is an excellent lesson in how my transgender friends feel, let me tell you. I have always been of the opinion that you shouldn't need to fully understand something in order to trust that someone knows what they need. So obviously, I support trans rights 100% BUT. Now I ALSO understand.

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I have only had this progesterone for two days, but like Rosa Diaz, if anything ever happens to it, I will do unconscionable things. Basically, everything in my body is suddenly working the way that it should/used to work, before perimenopause started this heinous, unprovoked war on me.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 18/09/2026

I am convinced that this is what blurbs are actually for. We all have literary anxiety.

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I comfort myself that in many respects, this is really just part of French ✨integration✨.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 18/09/2026

I have sent the application a few times. Most recently, it was returned to me unopened, "undeliverable", despite being sent to the exact same address as Mr Atwater's application. (Opened, returned, "please try again, we will not tell you what you did wrong"). Truly, this is next level bureaucracy.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 18/09/2026

I thought getting a physical carte de sejour was going to be the hardest part of moving to France. I was wrong. Clearly, the final boss of French bureaucracy is the carte vitale.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 17/09/2026

Oh my god, that is so lovely! 😭 I hope she enjoyed it!

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 16/09/2026

So like, if you are an author who would like Rosemary & Thyme (book two in the Victorian Faerie Tales) for blurbing, please do let me know? (ARC copies are not yet available, I promise hungry ARC readers will get their hands on it very soon!)

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 16/09/2026

After all of the paperwork we did to move to France, if Canada NOW makes a deal for free movement in the EU... ...I'll still be thrilled, this is such a great development. ❤️❤️❤️

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 16/09/2026

GOOD JOB KRISTA, YOU ARE THE HERO WE NEED.

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Reposted by Olivia Atwater

Titan Books @titanbooks.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Rivalries ignite into heated romance, lost lovers seek second chances, and friendships turn to something more in these 12 stunning Romantasy stories... 💘🏹✨ THE HOPELESS ROMANTIC'S GUIDE TO ENCHANTMENT is out today! tinyurl.com/3s27u84h 💌

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@rebeccathorne.bsky.social has giant birds, espionage, and marriage, @hannahnicolemae.bsky.social wishes you'd give the boy next door a chance, I'm not sure what Olivia Atwater is doing here (something to do with Tamlin), and @lrlam.bsky.social has a sapphic lady in a tower who needs rescuing!

Warbirds, by Rebecca Thorne: Giant birds plus an arranged marriage, with a surprising twist!

Every Rose Has its Thief, by Hannah Nicole Maehrer: A magical rose by any other name would pay your debts. So would the boy next door, if you'd let him.

The Last Train from Faerie, by Olivia Atwater: AKA "Tamlin on a Train", AKA "My Friend's Younger Sister Rescues Me From a Bunch of Faeries".

Rose Bloom, Rose Bud, Rose Blood, by L.R. Lam: Get your hands off my girl/goddess, you filthy government scum!

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@kelleyarmstrong.bsky.social says "the monster's pretty nice, actually", @quicunquevult.bsky.social says "ACTUALLY, MARRY THE BEAR", @laviecestmoi.bsky.social says "what if we kissed in the library", and @julietmarillier.bsky.social says "actually, Wildwood Dancing DOES get another story"!

Double Trouble, by Kelley Armstrong: When one of the monsters you're hunting turns out to be a pretty okay guy, actually?

Unearned Luck, by Alexis Hall: Choose the bear. Marry the bear. Fall in love with the bear. (This story was hilarious.)

Speaker and Calligrapher, by Vida Cruz-Borja: Magical study sessions with the annoying guy who's totally not your crush.

The Moonlit Pathway, by Juliet Marillier: A follow-up story to Marillier's Wildwood Dancing and Cybele's Secret, set in the modern era.

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@sennydreadful.bsky.social serves up some supernatural matchmaking, Chloe Neill gives us an alliance via marriage, @greerstothers.bsky.social gives kiss/kill a new definition, and @aychao.com hit every single one of my favourite wuxia tropes with a lady martial artist disguised as a man!

'Tis Pity He's an Elf, by Jen Williams: A human and a faerie conspire at matchmaking. The job is harder than it looks.

Silver Dahlia, Golden King, by Chloe Neill: Sometimes you meet your future husband by shooting him in the leg.

Fool in Love, Ghoul in Hate, by Greer Stothers: Have you ever hated your enemy so much that you just had to kiss him? (After killing him, of course.)

The Brocade Prince, by A.Y. Chao: Martial arts! Secret identities! Rooftop fights! (And kissing.)

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It's celebration time! The Hopeless Romantic's Guide to Enchantment releases today from @titanbooks.bsky.social! This anthology contains one of my short stories, "The Last Train from Faerie", along with eleven other stories by various romantasy authors! oliviaatwater.com/book/hopeles...

A copy of The Hopeless Romantic's Guide to Enchantment, displayed on a silver platter next to pink flowers. The cover also reads: "12 magical romantasy tales. Kelley Armstrong, Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Rebecca Thorne, Alexis Hall, A.Y. Chao, L.R. Lam, and many more. Edited by Marie O'Regan & Paul Kane."

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 12/09/2026

In this, the era of highly visible, unaccountable people, readers deserve to read about real consequences. We want sexy punishment, and not even THAT kind of sexy punishment!

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I have consciously chosen other markers of success for myself, since I know I won't be attending cons or visiting bookshops. And I think, tentatively, that finding gratification in less bombastic things has actually been good for me. I hope it works that way for you eventually, as well.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 12/09/2026

I feel a lot of the same emotions you're talking about re: cons and tours and so on. I also don't actually ENJOY those things, but I feel like they're available to me and maybe I should? But I've prioritised my peace and stability instead, and my career is fine, for whatever that is worth.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 12/09/2026

One of the most difficult and most freeing revelations I have gained as I age is that we are capable of feeling two completely opposite things at once about the exact same subject. It's a little easier to make peace when you realise you're just choosing which emotion to prioritise.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 11/09/2026

Don't mind me, just wildly homesick for Montreal after Mr Atwater brought home Canadian maple syrup and Neige cider from the local grocery store. 😭😭😭 I've been listening to Je te laisserai des mots on repeat too, because I don't know when to stop.

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*pulls up a chair in W8 BEN E* I am sure this has to do with the Anthropic settlement but ALSO some of us would love to know what the IRS is constantly on about, please continue

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iPhone 15 with up-to-date iOS and Safari yields the following (no doubt maddening) layout issue

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Modern vaccines, antibiotics, and hormonal birth control are some of the greatest, most impactful inventions in all of human history, and it's humbling to remember sometimes how easily accessible they are to me.

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In most cases, I tell people that history isn't that different from the modern era. People acted with a lot of the same motivations and superstitions, cast with a slightly different veneer. Modern vaccines ARE different. They are WILD. Historical generals would have killed for them.

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Due to an awful hospital experience, I have an intense phobia of needles. No matter how much careful breathing or pep talking I give myself, there's always embarrassing tears during jabs. I still think vaccines are a miracle, mostly because I know my history. Got another one just today.

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This is one of the first things I read after waking up, and it truly took me a moment. 😂

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Can I see a picture of your cat? (I know the answer is yes, but I had to phrase in the form of a question.)

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Yes to this, but she left social media in order to avoid that exact stuff, to which I say GOOD FOR HER, I hope she is living an incredible offline life and paying zero heed either way.

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Meanwhile, authors, if I have blurbed your book, then PLEASE feel free to message me and let me know when the release date is coming up, because not a single editor has ever let me know, not once, and yours is unlikely to be the outlier. I will NOT be annoyed, I will be grateful for the reminder.

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I am just an author standing here, begging editors to tell me when a book I blurbed is going to release. Presumably, I blurbed that book because I liked it! And I would love to tell my newsletter about it! Do not rely on me magically noticing that the book now has a release date! HELP ME HELP YOU.

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But seniors are no longer guarding us from dumb baby programmer mistakes, now institutionalised in the form of vibe coding, and I swear, we are going to pay the price for that for years to come.

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I, too, once thought I was a genius junior dev, and I learned otherwise because several seniors gave me projects that could afford to withstand my dumb overconfidence, then ruthlessly tore apart my PRs.

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"Everyone is twelve now" has a programming corollary which is "everyone is a junior dev now". The rank arrogance of thinking "the AI generated this code that seems functional right now, this is genius, I'm sure it won't heinously break under pressure" drives me professionally bonkers.

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Certain people show more resistance to the effect, but it's a very strong overall pattern.

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Related research strongly supports the first one! Your brain's empathy centre becomes less effective the more powerful you perceive yourself to be. You don't even have to be actually rich; it's enough to have more Monopoly money than the other players at the table.

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That definitely means you deserve a cookie.

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Honestly, queer people were a sizable part of what made the HP community so welcoming, which makes the heel turn even more abhorrent.

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If you cannot bring yourself to do the moral calculus of not watching a single TV show, then I am going to rightly wonder whether you actually have any real moral standards at all, and I will treat you accordingly.

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I will not downplay the cultural significance and sense of community that surrounded Harry Potter. It feels important because it was important. The real and terrible things that transgender people are currently living through are so self-evidently MORE important.

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