Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 3hAnd still. And yet. With all that being true. I am materially better off without them in my life. I am emotionally happier and safer, obviously, but they abused me financially in ways that have lastingly harmed my finances, and now, estranged, they can never do that to me again. 1190
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 3hAnd then I have to add literally every time my parents come up with casual acquaintances trying to make normal family small talk that my parents raised me in a cult and we will probably never speak again and it's not always funny that they disowned me in a birthday card. But I just love suffering! 1150
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 3hI cannot ask questions of my father that could help me reconnect to family, including connections with material benefits, including, theoretically, citizenship claims. I cannot ask them to put me up during a hurricane even though they could in theory. I am not in the will. I get nothing but PTSD. 1180
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 3hI do not get to have relationships with anyone sympathetic to my parents, including people with physical and financial assets that could have helped me when my graduate plus loans were stolen by my school. I do not know anything about their health profiles and have no idea if I am at increased risk. 1201
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 3hThere's a high literal cost to being estranged. They destroyed a lot of my valuable things when I left home. They have my original birth certificate and child vaccination card. They stole student loans I am still responsible for. My parents did insurance fraud in my name I had to make right. 16916
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 3hNot that I expect any meaningful solidarity from The Onion about anything at all, but it sure sucks that I can't expect that! 120
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 3hI have never heard of this person before and I struggle to imagine what value they have provided to my friends' timelines, since the only other thing about them I have been able to figure out is that they think Ukraine shouldn't exist independently. 110
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 20hI really need to buy a pair of clogs for shuffling around inside and that never go outside so that it protects my foot. 060
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 20hThis is me trying to drill into my very thick skull that I MUST WEAR SHOES when breaking down boxes. I am uninjured (a weird shaped scratch I didn't even notice until there was a weird plop of blood on the floor, it's got a painless bandaid on it) but KNIVES ARE DANGEROUS WEAR SHOES YES EVEN INSIDE. 1110
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 23hI actually wonder if this is because if Twilight or The Hunger Games or Sexy Dark Fantasy is your first entry into enjoying books, it's very obvious where you go next as a reader. That's not true at all of HP. Mystery? Portal fantasy? British boarding school books? 180
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 23hIt's interesting to compare to The Hunger Games because when non-readers pick up that series they will generally buy more books on the whole than they used to, or at least they become open to audiobooks or a zeitgeist novel in a way HP non-readers aren't necessarily. 180
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 23h"non-readers read HP" sounds like it made people into readers but what it actually did was make non-readers participate in a cultural juggernaut of marketing that happened to have a boon series attached. 1142
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 23hI think it is partially because other books are set up to be challenging to read. The thing that is challenging about those books is trying to make them make sense as a literate reader who needs character development and worldbuilding and plot continuity. 1110
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Twitter gave me both a lot of highs and lows l, but I've never woken up shaking from a nightmare I went viral on Bluesky, and I still sometimes have that dream about Twitter. 020
Reposted by Lev Mirovhookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Bloody kids of today. They aren't satisfied with manglewurzels or turnips for their Haggedy-Raggedy lanterns. Oh no, they want something non-traditional, something a bit different. Something a bit too bloody orange if you ask me. The spirits won't like it. – Sam Buckle, 1982 #VOH 724438
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 07/10/2026This thread. Once you see an estranged parent in action you start to notice that behavior all over the place, about any relationship, full of possessive rage about being unable to threaten someone back to being a passive object. 19032
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 07/10/2026He's so bad at explaining things he lets AI write his tweets so, you know, he could have meant anything. 090
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I assumed it was a social requirement of his job, which is bizarrely somehow something multiple jobs require their employees to do to prove they are team players according to advice columns. 2100
Reposted by Lev MirovPavel @spavel.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Banished to one of the cursed islands from Voyage of the Dawn Treader after petitioning Prince Caspian to fund The Real Housewives of Cair Paravel 616134
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I can only imagine how horribly painful that marketing is for someone whose baby didn't make it. 040
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Given we used to use Amazon way more than we do now, there's a lot of stuff about us it clearly DOESN'T know from older purchase history, which is also interesting. It's not like when Target figured out Aleksei had anemia before his doctor did. 150
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Everything it knows about me/Aleksei are clearly based on purchases in the last calendar year, mostly from whole foods. Stuff I would consider genuinely private info (disability status, interest in queer stuff, our ages, stuff I DON'T buy on Amazon) surprisingly is not there. 260
Reposted by Lev MirovEl is in the Details @elsbells.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Stalled at $487/$950 for late Oct. rent! I’ve forestalled eviction threats, but I need to keep paying steadily. Meanwhile, being chronically ill continues expensive: I have a doctor’s appt. Thurs., & after that, prescriptions to fill. Please help if you can. 💜 Cashapp/Venmo: Elstherepaypal.mePay Elizabeth Leinback using PayPal.MeGo to paypal.me/aislinndelyon and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries. 0412
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026The only people I see obsessed with the name of the Gulf aee Europeans distracting themselves from their own problems with fascism by making fun of the United States. Everybody else is busy. 060
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026/leaning around the corner in a shady trenchcoat and hat, whispering Hey, you. Yeah. You. You want queer poly fantasy? Three books about good but fucked up people trying to stop a genocide? Choosing to break cycles of family violence? Go buy The Gardener's Hand trilogy. You'll like it. 1177
Reposted by Lev MirovFelicia Davin @feliciadavin.com · 06/10/2026I heard there's free shipping at Bookshop.org October 6-7, so here's a list of my books you can get there! Queer romances in fantasy and sci-fi settingsbookshop.orgBooks I wroteCheck out this list on Bookshop 12217
Reposted by Lev MirovKythryne Aisling/Wyrding Studios @wyrdingstudios.com · 06/10/2026I have a new variation of dyed tiger’s eye. About to start getting these onto the website. They’re all one of a kind. The leaves will go up after that. 0218
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Truly a nightmare scenario that deserved even more exposure to light than the exposé we got about how they fucked over the Black women on and off screen. 050
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Supernatural, which I wasn't even watching actively, but knowing how it ends I simply refuse to bother. 160
Reposted by Lev MirovChace Verity @chaceverity.com · 06/10/2026It's October 6, 2026, and Chace Verity is back. It's October 6, 1946, and Ike Irving is back. Radio Silence, a full length standalone 1940s historical m/m romance about two radio stars reuniting after five years apart, is available now. chaceverity.itch.io/radio-silence payhip.com/b/ZoVOE 154639
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026We are too powerful to be left unsupervised after sedation lol 020
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026In fairness to this trope, when I awoke from dental surgery unable to talk bc my mouth was full of gauze, I immediately began untaping my IV because the tape was giving me hives & I couldn't take it. My brain was not fully on. 1111
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I'm sure it's not related that I watched a video about booktok the night before, lmao. 010
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I've had an almost identical dream, but the people were yelling at me for not tagging "descriptions" because my book described things. 110
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Theoretical duets that should/should have happened. Best movie song that was nominated for but didn't win an Oscar. Songs with unexpected instrumental parts. Favorite use of a song in a movie trailer. Weirdest music video. 000
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Perhaps I technically could have snuck outside and gone for a walk or whatever. But functionally I knew doing so would result in retaliation so I really didn't. 050
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026The 17 year old who can't leave without an adult was functionally me. My parents made me wait until I turned 19 to begin community college mostly because they could no longer legally prevent me from leaving if they didn't. 170
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026That's the thing, right? Just because I got entertainment or enjoyment out of something doesn't mean I want other people to associate me with being a FAN of it. 170
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Omg I unfortunately also think the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven is a very thoughtful and interesting film about finding ideas worth living for after only having ideas you'll kill for, and cannot talk about this movie to most people who like it. 050
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026The Everlasting is definitely among the best time travel fantasies I've gotten to read recently, not surprising given that I liked Ten Thousand Doors of January. This book is for an older readership, and also for people who wish fantasy books questioned divine right of kings and empires much more. 140
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I stand by a thematic and visual resonance with The Locked Tomb, but not a tonal one, per se? If you are the kind of person who zones out in line thinking about how ghosts work in TLT you will probably really enjoy the worldbuilding of The Everlasting. Think the duel in Nona The Ninth, not Gideon. 140
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I do not think tonally it is very similar to the other Arthuriana-based fantasy by Harrow, "Once and Future Witches" though there are shared themes. The Everlasting has a very loving relationship with other Arthuriana and particularly with Arthuriana scholarship. Very skillfully done. 150
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I accidentally stayed up all night to finish it. I liked it. I think I would recommend it to people who found Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory to not grapple enough with the villain's crimes and who love This Is How You Lose The Timewar bc of its similarity to Stephen Moffatt's run of Dr Who. 190
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I accidentally stayed up all night listening to it. Boy howdy is there gender! 010
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Apparently I had to be taken out of the theatre because I screamed very loudly during a 90s cinema showing of Disney's Snow White when I was 5 or 6 when the evil queen poisons the apple and starts laughing. 1110
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026It is weird and cool to live at a time where people my age who were influenced by the same things I was are writing books that are their personal ruminations on that thing in the way I myself write in response to them. 050
Lev Mirov @thelionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026It's sometimes really good when books in a mythic legacy (Arthuriana, in this case, but also a particular type of epistolary fiction) go out of their way to let you know what their component mythologies were, reassures you it is both FOR you as a reader and not bound by their weight. 150