iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 09/09/2026

I'm going to have to go with Lower Decks, because it's the only one tattooed on my arm.

An arm tattoo of the main Lower Decks characters (Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford, Tendi, T'Lyn)

Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 20/08/2026

I just finished Wolf's Belly by @johnaugust.bsky.social and Simon Estrada. It's amazing, a must read! I can picture this turned into a really killer animated film some day.

The cover of Wolf's Belly by John August and Simon Estrada. Red Riding Hood, but kinda spooky. It's very cool!

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 20/08/2026

Who's your favorite non-human sitcom character?

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 01/08/2026

Just finished: Trashed by @derfbackderf.bsky.social. It's partly a novel about the lives of a group of trash collectors in a crummy small town and partly a nonfiction look at the trash disposal system. It's educational in a really gross way! Read it!

Cover of Trashed by Derf Backderf. A trash collector is holding two bags of trash, one leaking, and looking about as thrilled as you'd expect.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 23/07/2026

I just finished Charity & Sylvia by Tillie Walden, based on a real couple who lived in early America. It's absolutely beautiful and made my cry. Highly recommended!

Cover of Charity and Sylvia by Tillie Walden; two women in early-1800s clothes gaze at each other; inset of a cabin and complicated border.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 16/07/2026

This might be too obscure, but I made it for me. Also, Clevatess is good so far, but they're really not kidding about those content warnings.

The arm meme - Victorians Reading "The Old Curiosity Shop" - Don't Die, Nell! - Me Watching The First Few Episodes of "Clevatess."

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 11/07/2026

One reason I'm bullish on us winning the culture wars is that even if there's no queer characters in 225 Hollywood family films (and that does suck), this art wall for kids and tweens was like half Jax. I couldn't even get them all in (there was a maid Jax and a Zooble too.) Culture finds a way.

A kids' art way with some dinosaurs, two Jaxes, a Rumi, a Trogdor(!!) and some other stuff, plus handwritten signs saying 'I Love My Two Moms' and 'Let trans kids bloom'.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 10/07/2026

Just finished: Opting Out by @redgoldsparks.bsky.social and Swati Srikumar, a charming middle grade graphic novel about figuring yourself out when you don't seem to fit anywhere and don't really want to. I wish I'd had this one when I was a kid!

Cover of Opting Out by Maia Kobabe and Swati "Lucky" Srikumar. A kid joyfully dumping a bunch of stuff (including a sword) out of a backpack.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 07/07/2026

A Million Views by @aaronstarmer.bsky.social. I had to read this one because it looked so different from the author's other books. It's a neat introduction to moviemaking techniques and terminology for kids interested in becoming filmmakers!

The cover of A Million Views by Aaron Starmer. A bunch of kids doing movie-making activities.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 05/07/2026

I got Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by @patrickhorvath.bsky.social at the Lake City Books sale in Madison! It's about a bear who's a serial killer. It was great!

The cover of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath. Top-down visit of an anthro bear dragging a bloody bag through the woods.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 27/06/2026

Here's where I'll be (briefly!) at ALA 2026! The Little,Brown Young Readers Booth (3612) between 3:30 and 4:00 on Sunday, signing copies of The Ink Witch.

Map of part of the floor for ALA Chicago 2026, with booth 3612 circled.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 23/06/2026

I'm the most like "nobody in particular!"

That Amazing Digital Circus character test thing with results that show that I'm not definitively any one of them.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 22/06/2026

Come see me if you're visiting ALA this year and get yourself a signed copy of The Ink Witch!

A graphic saying: Author Signing with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - The Ink Witch, Steph Cherrywell, Sunday 6/28, 3:30-4:00 PM at LBYR Booth #3612, ALA Annual in Chicago 2026. Book cover and author's photo are shown.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 12/06/2026

Middle grade book You Are Now Old Enough To Hear This by @aaronstarmer.bsky.social. Holy moly, this was so good! Like reading Riverman again. A wonderfully strange book about family mysteries which seems like it's going four or five different directions and yet manages to make it all fit in the end.

Cover of 'You Are Now Old Enough To Hear This' by Aaron Starmer.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 02/06/2026

Hey librarians and other library folks, if you're visiting ALA in Chcago later this month, I'll be doing a signing for the Stonewall Honor book The Ink Witch at booth 3612 (the Little, Brown Young Readers booth) on Sunday afternoon from 3:30-4:00! #ALAAC26

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 09/05/2026

I've been following him for a while and he seems fine? He's such a random choice to be mad at. It reminds me of this:

A Far Side panel where a bunch of people are protesting at the house of some random guy named Wayne.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 21/04/2026

so hey, while I was completely not noticing at all, one of my favorite Euro-comics had a successful Kickstarter and is now coming out in English! Freaks Squeele is everything great about bandes dessinees, manga, and superhero comics, all rolled up in one bawdy, beautifully-drawn ball.

Image of Flourent Maudoux's Freaks Squeele - a big wolfman is carrying a redheaded demon girl, another girl with short black hair is running in front of them, there's a definite sense of running away from something in a panic.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 20/04/2026

Forgive-Me-Not by @marinscos.bsky.social. Lovely YA graphic novel romance; a princess is shocked to find out that she's a changeling, and the ORIGINAL princess has fought her way out of fairy country to drag her back "home."

The cover of Forgive-Me-Not by Mari Costa. A purple-skinned hobgoblin girl and a beefy short-haired warrior lady human lying in a flower field in a "this is a romance" pose. Mari Costa really loves these "Beefy loves Shrimpy" pairings, huh? I've read three books by her now and they're all really different but they all have that.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 20/04/2026

After the Fall by @edashtonwriting.bsky.social. Earth is in ruins, and the remaining humans have been domesticated by aliens and are treated as pets. I blasted through this book in one go, it hooked me so much!

Cover of After the Fall by Edward Ashton. A stone bust of a dog-headed person in a park with an orange sky and ruined buildings in the background.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 15/04/2026

The Demon of Beausoleil, lovely book by @marinscos.bsky.social that I picked up because I enjoyed Belle of the Ball so much. Much more adult than Belle, but really charming and fun; it's about a cambion who gets disowned for seducing his sister's fiancee and has to make a living demon hunting. Neat!

The cover of "The Demon of Beausoleil" by Mari Costa. A cambion looking kind of evil-ish while another guy lies down in a pentagram.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 08/04/2026

Kinda fun to see one of these where we don't have to explain about the little blue spots being cities.

A map of Wisconsin counties after the 2026 spring elections, it's like half blue because the conservative candidate faceplanted in not only the population centers but tons of smaller counties that usually go red.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 08/04/2026

@seananmcguire.bsky.social once again my habit of preordering things and then forgetting when they come out so I just get delightful surprise packages pays off! As someone who read them in the 90s, I am so thrilled that Magic novels are back.

Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos, a Magic the Gathering book by Seanan McGuire.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 01/04/2026

Oh, well done, Wikipedia. (Significantly better than most of today's japes because these are all true, in ways that the linked articles make clear.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

A "Did You Know" wikipedia list in which every entry is something technically true but misleading.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 01/04/2026

It's the first anniversary of my first book! It feels wild that it has been a whole year of being a published author. I still have a lot of audiobook download codes I never gave out (it's read by Steven Universe VA Grace Rolek!) so I need to think of a contest or something to run with those.

The cover of Unboxing Libby by Steph Cherrywell.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 31/03/2026

Hey, today's the day to make trans stuff more visible, so why not check out The Ink Witch, my all-ages Stonewall honor book about a trans witch saving her mom? It's on Bookshop, but I bet your local library system has it too! bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The cover of The Ink Witch by Steph Cherrywell.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 31/03/2026

Here's mine (copied from that thread!) The Ink Witch - middle grade fantasy - Stonewall Honor Book about a trans girl from a family of witches: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... Unboxing Libby - middle grade SF about a robot whose identity doesn't match her model type: bookshop.org/p/books/unbo...

Covers of The Ink Witch and Unboxing Libby by Steph Cherrywell

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 31/03/2026

The Ink Witch - middle grade fantasy - Stonewall Honor Book about a trans girl from a family of witches: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... Unboxing Libby - middle grade SF about a robot whose identity doesn't match her model type: bookshop.org/p/books/unbo... Fun for all ages!

The covers of The Ink Witch and Unboxing Libby by Steph Cherrywell.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 16/03/2026

Running a raffle/giveaway for a signed copy of The Ink Witch, my award-winning book about a trans girl who goes on a magic road trip to save her mom! To enter, just reblog this post and tag me. I'll pick a name at random in one week (the evening of 3/22.) Shipping to US only, please.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 13/03/2026

And here is the last cover! It was so awesome to get all these!

Alternate cover for the book 'Unboxing Libby' - main character Max is in a box.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 11/03/2026

Cover 9 of 10! This one goes for a brand-new title and includes some elements from the book. They even got the Best Friends club button! (And the pickles!)

Alternate cover for the book 'Unboxing Libby', this one titled 'Searching for Max', with an error code, jar of pickles, and Best Friends Club button.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 08/03/2026

Cover 8 of 10! Sharing for completeness, but it seems to be a draft of number five - or maybe a more minimalist alternative? I still love how creative people are getting with the title font!

Alternate cover for the book "Unboxing Libby" which is just the title "Unboxing Max."

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 05/03/2026

Cover 7 of 10! Another one that seems to have been not quite finished (but with some intriguing erasures - is that a wing?), possibly because the artist spent so much time making the title extra-super-fancy.

An alternate cover for the book Unboxing Libby; unfinished drawing of the main character plus a fancy title.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 02/03/2026

Cover 6 of 10! This cover goes abstract, as Max observes an uncolored, headless figure representing her own uncertainty about her identity. Or, someone just ran out of time to draw Roxanne. Neat either way!

Alternate cover for the book Unboxing Libby. The main character, Max, and an ...unfinished(?) Roxanne.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 01/03/2026

The start here is the really creative rainbow font for the title! (I also like the little robot hiding in the 'A')

Alternate book cover for the book 'Unboxing Libby' - it's a 'hello my name is' nametag with 'Libby' crossed out and 'Max' written in. Neat title font too!

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 27/02/2026

Here's one with Max popping out of a shipping carton. She looks really cheerful in this one!

Alternate cover for Unboxing Libby, featuring Max popping out of a carton.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 26/02/2026

This one features a cool overhead view of Max and Roxanne on the roof of the year-round Halloween store. (Yes, the Mars colony has a year-round Halloween store, duh.)

Alternate cover for the book Unboxing Libby showing two of the protagonists on the roof of a Halloween store. The name 'Libby' is crossed out and replaced with 'Max', and there's a black-and-yellow striped boundary visible in the background.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 25/02/2026

I think this is my favorite out of the whole group because it's one of only a couple that illustrates a scene from the book - the famous "Roxanne and Max yell at each other next to a cliff" scene.

Alternate cover for the book Unboxing Libby. Characters Roxanne and Max are standing on a Martian landscape, yelling. Earth is visible in the sky.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 25/02/2026

Unboxing Libby was a book club pick for kids in the Berkely school district, and a bunch of them drew alternate covers. Let's look at some! (Shared with permission.) Here's the first one! You'll notice some of these say 'Max' instead of 'Libby.' Why? Read it and find out!

Hand-drawn alternate cover for the book Unboxing Libby, titled 'Unboxing Max', with a girl standing in front of some black and yellow striped boundary tape and an explosion of color.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 10/02/2026

I just discovered Gnosia and it's AMAZING. I blasted through all 17 released episodes in two days. It's basically people on a spaceship playing repeated games of Werewolf and there's three nonbinary characters and also an uplifted beluga. It's awesome.

The cast of anime Gnosia, a diverse bunch of space people.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 07/02/2026

The second thing I've ever knitted! Aside from some awkward knots at the beginning and end, the big problem here was that I somehow went from 15 stitches wide at the start to 25 at the end. Oops. But it came out about 1000% better than the first thing I made, so I'm counting that as progress.

An orange scarf that starts out okay and just keeps getting wider.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 07/02/2026

This by @deathbybadger.bsky.social is great and the best part is, okay, Pratchetty Footnote Humor aside the actual plot is super grim, but the VILLAIN is this amazing Varrick-esque "shows up in every episode with a different get-rich-quick scheme" elven con artist and she's fantastic and I love her.

The cover of Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire. It's one of those 'is it a vase or two faces' vases, with some basil, an apple, and something that looks like a cat (not actually a cat) in it.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 27/01/2026

My first attempt ever at knitting! I know it look like I made tons of mistakes, but actually it's just a perfectly executed amigurumi of the human appendix.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 23/01/2026

This is really cool - a Pride flag made of NASA images! Created by Rachel Lense. Of course the current gag regime took it down, but it deserves to be spread far and wide!

A Pride flag, but all the stripes are from photographs NASA took.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 14/01/2026

Stop!! Hibari-Kun! came in the mail! I never expected this to come out in English. A series that - as an interview put it - was very of its time while also being radically ahead of its time. I believe you can only order it from the publisher's website, but it's worth a look! peow.studio/shop/na

Cover of the English release of Volume 1 of Stop!! Hibari-Kun! by Hisashi Eguchi. A blonde teenage girl (Hibari) holds a guitar and sips a drink through a straw. There's a band around the cover with a close-up of Hibari; co-star Kousaku (dark-haired teenage boy) is in the background looking distressed, or possibly turned on.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 08/01/2026

Finished the beautiful Scarlet Morning by @gingerhaze.bsky.social, an amazing upper middle grade I can only describe as like One Piece crossed with the Southern Reach series. Gorgeous art, an inclusive cast, wild and intriguing worldbuilding. You gotta read this!

The cover of Scarlet Morning by ND Stevenson. Two teens in ragged nautical clothes, one holding a book and one a lantern. Clouds of salt, and behind them, a woman in shadow, a blood-red sun, ship's masts, and birds.

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Steph Cherrywell @stephcherrywell.com · 02/01/2026

Hey, I got this one. It's weird that this changed meanings so completely. I think it might have just been convergent evolution.

A picture of the phrase 'out of pocket'.

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