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Tessa Gratton

@tessagratton.bsky.social
2.5K followers 270 following 459 posts

NYT bestselling queer SFF author. #MXTX trash. STRANGE GRACE, THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR, LADY HOTSPUR, NIGHT SHINE, STAR WARS: The High Republic, THE MERCY MAKERS! nonbinary, they/she

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Eleonor Piteira @eleonorpiteira.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
❤️❤️
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Eleonor Piteira @eleonorpiteira.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
'The Shape of Monsters' by @tessagratton.bsky.social , with cover illustration by me and design by Stephanie Hess 🌔
Photo of a hand holding a book called' The Shape of Monsters' by Tessa Gratton, with cover illustration by Eleonor Piteira and design by Stephanie Hess. The illustration is showing a reddish-brown skinned young man with dark short curly hair, dressed in a sleeveless dark robe. His left eye is glowing gold and he's pulling gold geometric threads apart with this hands. Below, there is the silhouette of a city, and one small moon.
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Gray Frights! @clickgate.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I really enjoyed The Mercy Makers (and its sequel) by @tessagratton.bsky.social if you’re interested in fiction where the main characters all experience multiple-gender attraction — really felt authentic to my lived experience as a bisexual person
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
working on a newsletter! re: why I wrote The Queens of Innis Lear, which sold 10 years ago (!!!), including me making fun of the play, unending praise of bastards, and the first page of a high school essay I wrote in 1998 about villains. Sign up here: www.tessagratton.com/newsletter
tessagratton.com
Writing with a Knife — tessagratton dot com
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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Oh fun the latest AI book marketing scam is basically like “why are you such a bitch?”
Hi Maris,
I came across / Want to Burn This Place Down, and something about the way you examine power, exploitation, and the frustrations built into modern work caught my attention.
It made me curious:
What made you choose such a direct and confrontational voice rather than take a more measured approach to discussing these problems?
I ask because questions like this often lead to the most interesting conversations between authors and readers.
They open up the thinking behind a book, not just what It says.
I'm currently organizing live reader discussions centered on that kind of conversation, giving readers a chance to explore the ideas, choices, and experiences behind a book.
Would you be open to hearing how the discussion works?
Best,
RAJ
~ Reply
~ Forward
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Shepherd @neolithicsheep.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The number of newsletters by people who are otherwise not terrible that stay on substack and help them pay Nazis is astonishing.
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Lucienne Diver @luciennediver.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Important post from @victoriastrauss regarding the Anthropic Settlement and all the recent issues and attendant questions: writerbeware.blog/2026/09/04/a...
writerbeware.blog
Anthropic Copyright Settlement: Publishers Are Making Incorrect Claims on Authors' Payouts - Writer Beware
This week, many authors who are part of the Anthropic copyright class action settlement began receiving notices like this one: Upon accessing the portal (which doesn’t seem to have a formal name, so I...
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Will McKinley @willmckinley.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
"It's given a lot of people permission to be themselves, to not dream it, be it, which is the motto of the movie, really. I would like to be remembered for that." Farewell to Tim Curry (1946-2026) #RIP
Tim in costume as Dr. Frank-N-Furter
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Chris DeRose @scratchyderose.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
RIP king…nobody played baddies like you. 💔
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Elle Ess @viamarsala18.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Two humans who easily might have been part muppet, and I mean that in the best way.
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Danny Lore @weredawgz.blacksky.app · 26/08/2026
Okay I’m pretty sure that trump or McConnell are doing dark rituals to cheat death and put other folks in line in front of them
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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
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Kill Tim Faust 💀 @tbone.malware-virus.biz · 26/08/2026
my wife has a friend who sent Dolly Parton a painting she made & a letter explaining how much Dolly's music meant to her while she was transitioning. Dolly responded to it personally & paid for her top surgery. Sounds like an urban legend but it's real. I think we're going to more stories like this.
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Kathryn VanArendonk @kvanaren.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
not sure how to express this without sounding like a chair-turned-around youth pastor, but there's something so radical about having your most well-known lyric be "i will always love you" and then sincerely embodying it whenever possible
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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
When we hate on these disgusting immoral evil billionaires it’s bc just look at everything Dolly did. They could be doing that. They could just be helping people and every day they choose not to help people. They choose to harm. And when they die, we’ll dance and laugh and be thankful they’re gone.
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
finished a full draft of The Mercy Makers #3, so I invented a cocktail to make myself feel better. Asked Natalie what we should call it and she ROASTED ME: "Overdue Deadline!" "At Least There's a Last Page!" "Wrong Last Line!"
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Uncanny Magazine @uncannymagazine.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
We are OPEN!!!!!
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
And from the poet Li-Young Lee
One Heart


Look at the birds. Even flying
is born

out of nothing. The first sky
is inside you, open

at either end of day.
The work of wings

was always freedom, fastening
one heart to every falling thing.
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 20/08/2026
HAPPY ANTHROPIC SETTLEMENT EFFECTIVE DAY FOR ALL WHO CELEBRATE!!!!!
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
everybody says suddenly enjoying birds is the true sign of being in your 40s but I think it's diligently reading the traffic report newsletter your town puts out every week.
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korraiko @korraiko.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Open for commercial and private commission contact: korraiko@gmail.com #art #fantasy #darkart
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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
buy books borrow books talk about books you love lend books to friends books are great
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Helen Burns is deeply into Speed. And who can blame her, it is a perfect movie.
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Jason Song Quinn (Comms Open) @hulkhoquinn.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Jim Henson didn’t muppeteer a tiny green frog that was singing and playing the banjo, with rubber gloves while totally submerged underwater in a airtight aluminum tank just so you could tell me that AI is “inevitable”.
Comic page depicting how the did the scene in the Muppets Movie with Kermit playing the banjo in a swamp
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I think one of the big lessons for authors to take away from this Daggermouth mess is to get it in your contracts that no one can feed your work into AI of any kind, even so-called detectors.
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Adam Rawnsley @arawnsley.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.
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Jae Koyanagi @jaekoyanagi.com · 31/07/2026
Agreed, you should buy and read this series, it's a banger in more ways than one
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I wish I could put a content warning at the front of the book just for my dad.
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I just wrote a line in The Mercy Makers #3 that is so unhinged re: Iriset and sex that I can't even look at it without giggling hysterically and fighting down a hot flash. SO you all have that to look forward to.
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gochenourabout @sjgochenour.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
this is a nice comprehensive overview of why substack sucks and some good alternatives.
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
is it even August if I haven't walked into a spider web taller than me
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K.C. Clyburn, Author @kccomplainsalot.blacksky.app · 31/07/2026
buy @tessagratton.bsky.social's book! bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
bookshop.org
The Shape of Monsters
A talented heretic and the emperor she both loathes and loves will learn what monsters are really made of in the second installment of the Moon Heresies trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Te...
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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
If writers won't listen to arguments from creativity or morality...how about the potential to get caught and have your deals pulled? Great points from Scalzi here.
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
As I rid myself of nearly everything I've written in July, my cuts file officially surpasses the current draft word count. 105k vs 77k. 💀
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Congratulations for your historical proximity to me!
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I have to write 1600 more words of This Book before I get to watch The Vampire Lestat finale 😭
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Riley Black 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦕 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Be a fan of your own work.
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Authors Against Book Bans @authorsabb.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
a white panel with black text that reads: Authors Against Book Bans
Statement of Opposition Re: S.4925 “Stop the Sexualization of Children” Companion Bill to HR 2616.
Authors Against Book Bans (AABB) fiercely opposes Senate Bill 4925, the latest step in this insidious plan to pass nationwide book banning legislation.
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Jan Adriaenssens @verbeeld.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Brutal photo caption from The Guardian: “Gianni Infantino carefully explains to Donald Trump that he is not part of the Spanish national team.”
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Obvs Spain deserves this but also Martinez needs his own special Cup
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Tucker Jones @tuckerjones.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I'm watching in germany. The German commentators kept quiet for nearly the whole thing until suddenly the shot widened and we just hear with a German accent, "Oh, Miss Piggy"
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
KERMIT!!!
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
My cat Helen brought her favorite ball down to the den and is playing her own soccer game against herself and the ghosts while we watch the final.
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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
alright, vamos!!!!! #ESPvARG
a picture of my tv showing the World Cup final with a gian Spanish flat on the left and a giant Argentina flag on the right of the field as smoke goes up in the colors of the respective flags
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
That was so delightful and stressful but mostly delightful and I'm SO GLAD a penalty goal was not the determining factor. I love you Mbappé!
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Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
I thought that the French didn’t go on vacation until August.
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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
this game is giving me secondhand embarrassment
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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
If we win tonight I think France should give us back Calais. By the same token, if they win we should give them Hastings.
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Tessa Gratton @tessagratton.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
in an apt metaphor for how this book is going, my white board just came apart in my hands
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