iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

WERECONIFER is the sequel to WERECOCKROACH. Some months after the first book, Rin and their friends are asked to help find a missing shapeshifting tree. Generally gentle with a queer found family and also aliens. #AroAce #QueerBookSky More information: www.polenthblake.com/words/weretr...

The cover of WERECONIFER by Polenth Blake is at an angle on a brown background. The cover has hand drawn letters and a Scots pine tree with multicoloured round decorations (lights) drawn with felt tip pens. Captions surround the cover in a childish messy font with arrows pointing at things.

Captions pointing at the tree: pine needles, festive lights, tree.

Captions for the book: aliens wearing socks, book two, queerplatonic, also cockroaches, bonus cats, this is a sequel, i drew this, rainy winter, multiple aspec characters.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I got a reasonable picture of my desk despite it being overcast today. As you can see, I've expanded the cuddly toy storage. Also the rainbow notebook is my new panel notes one.

A tidy black desk with a computer monitor in the middle. A rainbow notebook is in the front centre. Multiple cuddly toys (mushrooms, birds, octopus, and others) are to the left. A steampunk lamp, pink salt crystal, and various pots of stuff are to the right. A pink fabric mushroom hangs on the wall.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I wore a binder to help with sensory stress. There was also a quiet space, which I assume was the area through the door with the notice. This was about as liminal as you'd expect from my town. No word yet if everyone returned from the quiet space.

The quiet space. A liminal tunnel with a concrete floor, painted walls, and strings of light bulbs zigzagging the ceiling. The end has steps leading up to daylight.

A disused tunnel down a flight of concrete stairs runs off the quiet space. Rubbish litters the stairs. The roof has a mosaic of colourful broken glass pieces and the walls are white brick. The tunnel at the bottom is mostly dark, but there's a hint of light at the end.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

I'm in a bundle of speculative fiction friendship books! "Werecockroach" is about three people getting to know each other when aliens arrive. There are lots of other genres and themes in the bundle, all with friends. #BSNM #BookSky itch.io/b/3486/frien...

Promo graphic with a photo and text surrounded by book covers. The text reads: Friendship Centred SFF Book Bundle, 37 Books, Feb 1st-15th, Photo by Helena Lopes, itch.io. The photo shows four friends with their backs to the camera and arms around each other.

Covers:
The Unidentified
Champagne Charlie and the Amazing Gladys
Walking the Knife's Edge
Bonkpocalypse
Bad Grains
A Spark in Space
The Damsel
An Uncommon Curse
Courage Is the Price
Puppetry
Duckett & Dyer, Dicks For Hire
The Old Goat and the Alien
Spirits of the Relentless
Without Wings
Clipped
Sing In Me, Holy One, and Through Me
The Lucky Machine
The Lost Star Chart
Werecockroach
Rescue from the Orc Fortress
Riyati Ripple
Wherever the Stars Call
The Crows
Woodspell
Common Accord
Awakenings
River of Crows
A Study on Magic and Crystals
Once Upon A Wave of Witches
Fortitude Waters
Dust & Lightning
The Re-Emergence

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

There is already a game that'll play the game for you: Everything. Though there it's a philosophy thing about nothing in the universe being more important than anything else, including the player. You wander around becoming everything and listening to Alan Watts.

A screenshot from the indie game "Everything". The player is a herd of low polygon unicorns rolling across a purple planet (they don't have animations, they just roll along). A giant bacteriophage virus is next to the unicorns. Various alien trees are in the distance.

"Everything" generates thoughts by combining other thoughts. This block of flats is thinking, "Is ludicrous to go on forever, but sometimes we make them short. Remember that happens."

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

The Narratess Indie Sale is now happening (until August 25th). Werecockroach is $0.99 most places and is part of the science fiction itchio bundle: itch.io/b/3241/narra... The full list of books with sales links is here: indiebook.sale #BookSky #BSNM #SFF

A graphic with 16 covers with text "Narratess Indie Book Sale August 2025. Sci-Fi Bundle"

Wasteland Heart by Al Hess
Secrets of PEACE by T. A. Hernandez
Debunked: Volume One of the Terravenum Chronicles by Dito Abbott
Walking the Knife’s Edge by Elise Carlson
Werecockroach by Polenth Blake
The Warm Machine by Aimee Cozza
Unburnt by A.M. Weald
Cat/Mouse: An Allied Space novella by Eliza Mares
Moral Laundry by Conrad Altmann
The Edge of a World by JD Rivers
Mechanical Heart by Beverly Anne Michel
Kotov Syndrome by S. Morgan Burbank
Bridges of Smoke by Julie March
In Spite of the Inevitable by Morgan Biscup
Ancient as the Stars by Maya Darjani
A Spark in Space by Janina Franck

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Fantasy! The last two photos were a map of an imaginary place (Discworld) and a troll with a bridge. I printed out an internet troll, who is stalking a My Little Pony.

Part of an unfolded paper map of the Discworld.

My Little Pony ornament with a pony crossing a bridge. A paper trollface meme is under the bridge.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Worldcon! I had to find Hugo finalists (item and person) and a Seattle volunteer hiding under a table. Kidnapping volunteers is illegal, so I drew one and hid them under the kitchen table. This was accepted as good enough!

The DVD box of Source Code (2012 Hugo finalist) showing Jake Gyllenhaal pushing through weird shiny code squares.

A photo of Nnedi Okorafor on the dust jacket flap of a hardback book.

Hand drawn Seattle volunteer picture stuck under a wooden kitchen table (they're also getting some volunteer time at What Could Possibly Go Wrong Con, so they're hiding with the bunny mascot). The picture is simple and messy with black pen lines and a rainbow t-shirt.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

It's me! Someone wearing grunge is my cosplay for the con. These aren't my clothes and I don't play the guitar. Went for a 90s feel with the look and lighting. Someone (me again) with glitter on my face. It's edible glitter, but I liked how it didn't cover up skin texture. And me playing Monopoly!

A person holds an electric guitar and is dressed in grunge fashion with a flannel shirt, ace pride unicorn shirt, woolly hat, and purple scarf over their face. Their greying hair is messy wavy curls, in the true grunge fashion of trying to look like hair brushes are for other people.

The top half of someone's face with eyes closed and shiny colour (red/green) and glitter.

A game of Monopoly. My hand is holding a Monopoly chance card advancing me to Marylebone Station. I'm the old metal boot sitting on the chance square.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Book interiors! Sometimes I didn't have the thing, but I did have a book about that. The hammering man refers to art sculptures, but I had a poem that matched the prompt. The volcano is from a Sim City manual. The glacier is one of my ecology books. And the monorail is an old park booklet.

Pages showing Edward Lear poems, focusing on an image where a man hits another man with a hammer. The limerick reads:

There was an Old Person of Buda,
Whose conduct grew ruder and ruder;
Till at last, with a hammer, they silenced his clamour,
By smashing that Person of Buda.

A pixelated greyscale volcano and fire from the Sim City 4 paper manual.

A map of glaciers in Glacier Bay from an ecology textbook.

Monorail picture in an old theme park brochure. This is Chessington World of Adventures. The monorail train is yellow with Kodak branding, as they sponsored it.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Book covers! I didn't have some things around, but I did have a book with them on the cover. Jetplanes, a whole salmon, and murder! (We were not allowed to commit actual crimes to do the hunt.)

The book cover of Captain Eco and the Fate of the Earth. An angry superhero with Earth for a head points at pollution. Children look on. On the Earth model thing by them, various climate disasters are shown and there are planes. I placed a rubber band around one of them.

The cover of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie. A salmon flies through the air in front of a basketball hoop. A rubber band marks the salmon.

A hardback of The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie for the murder prompt. The cover is red with gold writing.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Out and about in Hastings! The batter is a bronze statue called "The Spirit of Cricket" and Bronze Rachel's relative is a winkle statue with a slot for collecting money (Rachel is a piggy bank statue in Seattle).

The top of a bronze statue showing a person dressed for cricket holding a cricket bat up, as though just after hitting the ball. An ice cream van and a shopping centre can be seen behind the statue.

A statue with a mirror finish shows a winkle shell (sea snail) held up by fish. A slot in the shell opening collects money for the Hastings Winkle Club. The scene is reflected by the statue, including showing the photographer (me).

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

It's important to eat and drink! I don't drink coffee, so I stole someone else's to-go cup. I did eat the scone. The salad (something you toss) and the gin and tonic were taken at the supermarket. Another customer was eyeing me with the gin thing, like it was an odd thing to do. #Food

A maroon hot drink takeaway cup for Costa Coffee. It sits on a tray with a blurred street behind it.

A plain scone contains cream and red jam.

A bag of Tesco beetroot salad sits in a wire shopping trolley with a tile floor below. The salad contains green leaves and shredded beetroot. This is "something you toss" in the hunt.

Gordon's gin and tonic in a can on a supermarket shelf. The green basic cans are shown as well as the silver diet tonic version.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Seattle! Local residents might want to put down beverages before looking at these appreciations of Seattle culture. I was not in Seattle, so I had to get creative. Here is the gum wall, something mid-century modern, "the mountain is out" and the Space Needle (made from things).

A wall made by stacking gum pieces like bricks. They're stuck together with icing. A gum container for Wrigley's Extra Refreshers is behind the wall.

An old storage box made of dark hardwood sits on an armchair. This was made by a family member during the mid-century modern era and seemed near enough.

Space Needle made of things! The top is a juicer. A deli pot with people drawn on it sits on the juicer, with a hole in the middle so the top of the juicer shows. A cherry with a cocktail stick sits on the top of the juicer. The base is a curved plastic drink thing with a straw in the middle.

Light makes the cocktail stick glow and casts a slotted shadow through the juicer. The model is on a green with mushrooms blanket and a sparkly purple cloth makes up the sky.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Science fiction loves technology! "Microsoft anything" was my old student Office disk. Admire the very 2000s room with the colourful accent wall (those were all the rage for a bit... you were allowed colour, but only on one wall). Also my iPad, landline phone and television.

The disk case and booklet for Microsoft Office, Student and Teacher Edition 2003. The case has a very 2000s office with wood floor, beige walls, and one bright yellow accent wall. The computer monitor is an old CTR monitor. The booklet shows a more casual sofa office, also with a bright yellow accent wall.

A modern landline phone handset sitting in the base unit. It sits in a dark corner.

A flat television glows in a dark room. The screen shows the blue PlayStation 4 opening screen.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Starting easy with objects from around the house! The stone is a rose quartz candle holder. The glass art is a magnifier and letter knife. The toy money is from Monopoly. And the pipe is the mouth pipe on my bass recorder (most people did utility pipes).

A rough pink stone (rose quartz) candle holder with a lit candle on a purple background.

A metal letter opener and magnifying glass with glass art handles. The handles are different colours of glass swirled together. They rest on a rainbow cloth.

Toy money made from coloured paper sitting on an old Monopoly box lid.

The top of a bass recorder showing the metal pipe. It comes out at the top of the instrument, then bends down, and then bends again so it faces the player. A plastic mouthpiece is fixed to the end of the pipe.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

WERECOCKROACH has an aroace agender lead, aliens and gentle vibes. Friendship focused. www.polenthblake.com/words/cockro... EVERYDAY ALIENS is a flash fiction collection about weird aliens. Often experimental. www.polenthblake.com/words/aliens... #PrideBookFair #QueerBookSky #BookSky #Pride

The cover of WERECOCKROACH by Polenth Blake is at an angle on a green background. The cover has hand drawn letters and a hissing cockroach drawn in brown and black wax crayon. Captions surround the cover in a childish messy font with arrows pointing at things.

Captions pointing at the cockroach: wiggly antennae, cute face, little feets, tough outside, squishy soft inside, danger attack spikes, more little feets.

Captions pointing at the title: i love wax crayons, beautiful hand drawn letters.

Captions for the book: friendship, this book is ace, aliens wearing hats, gentle, full of yay, sarcastic, buy this book (trust me i'm a professional).

The cover of EVERYDAY ALIENS by Polenth Blake is on a black background. The cover has a complex doodle of alien life in rainbow colours on black, drawn by the author. The title and author are in a black box in the centre, with an alien worm separating the two. Captions surround the cover in the same rainbow font.

Captions pointing at the book cover read: Xenofiction, Weird, Flash Fiction, Citations, Speculative Biology, Slice-of-(Alien)Life, Poetry, Starfish Aliens and Very Alien Aliens.

A caption points across the cover to the worm which reads: Fred.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

EVERYDAY ALIENS is a novella-length collection of flash fiction and poetry, exploring the everyday lives of aliens. Humanoid aliens fade into the background as the truly alien aliens take the stage to tell their own stories. #FlashFiction #Xenofiction #SFF www.polenthblake.com/words/aliens...

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

I've mostly cleared up, apart from the glitter, which will be with us until the end of time. Have a photograph of gingerbread unicorns!

Four gingerbread unicorns. They're light brown and decorated with sweets and glitter icing. They have side symbols (sweets) like My Little Pony. Everything is dusted with silver powder glitter. They're clearly homemade and each one is a bit different.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

I make my own cover art. My short story collection "Rainbow Lights" has a chalk pastel and charcoal squid. "Sunstruck" is a combo of hand drawn lines, photo textures and digital editing. books2read.com/ap/nA70Oy/Po...

Two book covers. Left is a colourful squid drawn in chalk pastels on a black charcoal background. The text reads "Rainbow Lights" and "Polenth Blake" in a formal serif font. Right is a blue/purple blue jay bird illustration with vines. The eroded san-serif font reads "The Bigfoot Mysteries #1", "Sunstruck" and "Polenth Blake".

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 13/09/2024

A video of some very tiny fish! These are my danio fry from a few days back, with some bonus moss/algae action at the end. #FishKeeping #Aquarium

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 26/08/2024

As we're describing our social media strategy through the medium of pictures, here is mine. (I made the fractal and took the cat photo.)

$A kaleidoscope fractal where the repeating sections are a closeup photo of a black and white cat face. Infinite pink cat noses at every scale.$

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 08/08/2024

A picture of my writing desk! I took the picture fast enough to stop the tea getting cold, because I'm not a monster. Ask me anything about items on the desk! Learn my secrets!

A black writing desk photo taken at an angle. A keyboard with rainbow lights is on the keyboard shelf and a monitor showing my author website is on the main desk. Other items include various colourful stim toys, plushies, dowsing pendulums, a fiberoptic flower ball, a rusty steampunk lamp, sweets and a mug of tea with owls on it. Work items are pots of pens, pencils, paint brushes and feathers, plus various notebooks. A cuddly owl sits in the in-tray because he hasn't been processed yet. It's tidy and free of dust. The bookshelf in the background is not.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 25/06/2024

It's apparently #MakeATerribleComicDay2024 so I have made a comic with one of my favourite things! 👁️

A rough hand-drawn comic. Panel 1: "I MADE A COMIC" filled with branching lines. Panel 2: "IT HAS" and crosshatching. Panel 3: "PANELS" and wavy lines. Panel 4: A large panel filled with colourful eyeballs. Their irises are the only colour in the comic. The top says "AND EYEBALLS" and the bottom "WHICH MAKES IT THE BEST".

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 02/06/2024

"Werecockroach" is a sci-fi / fantasy novella about an agender aroace person. Also aliens and werecockroaches! The photo shows the crayons used to draw the cover, the food is a toast sandwich, and I took the photo. #PrideBookFair #QueerAdultSFF #Pride #BSNM www.polenthblake.com/words/cockro...

A photo with two wax crayons in a cardboard egg box. The crayons are worn down from use. Slightly blurred in the distance is a toast sandwich on a chipped plate.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 18/01/2024

Werecockroach is $0.99 until 22nd January 2024! Get it while it's cheap, but still just as full of cockroaches and aliens. Features an agender aroace lead. This is part of the Kraken and Friends queer book sale. Site: www.krakenfriends.claudiearseneault.com #AspecAuthors #BSNM #SFF #Insects

A promo picture with the cover of Werecockroach (a cockroach in wax crayon). The text around the cover reads: Kraken Collective & Friends. Rin moves into a new flat on the day the aliens arrive, only to find that something odd is going on with their new flatmates. 99 cents. www.krakenfriends.claudiearseneault.com

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 01/08/2023

This is my majestic mind horse. Some time back, someone on Twitter wanted to see people's mind horses after learning that some people draw from their mind with no photo references. I really didn't use any photo references for this super realistic horse!

A silly horse that looks like it was drawn badly with a mouse in a graphics program. It has a round fuzzy black body with purple spots. The legs, head and tail stick outwards from the body. "Mind Horse" is written above the horse and one leg has the artist signature of Pol '22. There is nothing majestic or realistic about the horse.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 16/07/2023

Here is a happy rainbow cat. I drew him.

A rainbow cat painting. The cat is sitting and facing the viewer with his tail wrapped around his feet. He looks happy. The art is black ink outlines with acrylic painted fur in patches of rainbow colour. Like a tortie only more rainbow.

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Polenth Blake @polenth.bsky.social · 12/07/2023

I wrote this novella about people who can turn into cockroaches and first contact with aliens! Nobody dies and it's actually rather gentle. The lead is aroace and non-binary. I drew the cover. www.polenthblake.com/words/cockroac…

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