Marie Brennan's Blog, page 11

Let’s do this

I think I was somewhere over Hudson Bay, about thirty-five thousand feet in the air, when I heard the news that Biden had dropped out of the race. I’ve spent the last two weeks on vacation in Europe (more about that later), and I’d really been enjoying the extent to which that put me out of daily engagement with political news; when a flight attendant oh-so-helpfully shared that particular bombshell with me, the bottom dropped out of my stomach, because I thought, this is going to be fucking chaos.

But it’s . . . not, is it? I mean, yes, the racists and the sexists are going to lose their goddamned minds over Harris, and yes, there will be other people who are definitely not racist or sexist but nevertheless find ~other reasons~ to not support Harris. (Maybe she has some emails they can freak out about?) This will be chaos in the sense that the ugliest aspects of America are going to scream their bigotry to the skies. But she has the party establishment behind her, and she has an absolute FLOOD of support from grass-roots donors in the aftermath of the announcement. I think the whole “I’m not excited about this candidate” thing is sometimes overblown — my ideal president is honestly a boringly competent administrator who puts their head down and gets the job done — but it’s true that excitement can get people to the polls who wouldn’t have otherwise gone. And we’re gonna need that to make sure Team Bigotry doesn’t fuck this country over and enshrine the King of Orange to rule over us all, with a compliant Supreme Court behind him.

So, yeah. Let’s fucking DO THIS. Let’s get our first female president into office, not through the GOP trotting out some conservative mannequin to show how much they care about The Ladiez, not through Biden stepping down during his second term (which I honestly thought had a decent chance of happening), but through us actually electing her. Let’s put the female mixed-race prosecutor against the sexist, racist felon. And let’s elect a tidal wave of Democratic candidates into the House, the Senate, the governorships, the mayoralties, everything down to the local dog-catchers, because it’s that patient attention to down-ticket races that has let the GOP build the leverage they needed to screw us all over the way they’ve been doing lately.

And if you don’t have a lot of money to donate — to Harris or to those down-ticket races — or if you do, but in either case if you have free time, consider volunteering with Vote Forward. They work to encourage unregistered and low-propensity voters to engage with an election, and their success rate is pretty damn good. All you need is a printer, envelopes, stamps, and the will and ability to write a brief personal message on each letter. Said message has to be non-partisan, but since we’re at a point where saying “democracy good” is simultaneously non-partisan and anti-Republican, it’s not a tough needle to thread. Let’s get people to the polls.

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New Worlds: Psionics and Mind Control

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we’ve got brainwashing, telekinesis, and bilocating Franciscan nuns — in other words, it’s time for psionics! Comment over there.

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New Worlds: Immortality

Alchemists, faeries, vampires, a callback to the old Highlander franchise: the New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at various kinds of immortal creature . . . comment over there!

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New Worlds: Alchemy

The loyal patrons of the New Worlds Patreon have voted for certain specific magical traditions as the theme for this month’s essays — which means I finally get to unleash my rant about how most “alchemy” in fiction has bugger-all to do with the real-world traditions associated with that term! Comment over there . . .

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Possibly of Use: Covixyl

Fifth in a series of random posts on things that might be of use to others, with the usual disclaimers that nothing works for everybody.

A friend recently clued me in to the existence of Covixyl, a nasal spray that — as the name suggests — was developed in response to the covid pandemic, but which actually has much broader use. Rather than being a vaccine, it physically binds to the cells in your nasal passages, making them inhospitable to respiratory viruses. Two sprays up each nostril give you up to six hours of protection.

Studies on its effectiveness are still few in number, but they are distinctly encouraging. Even if it’s only a 60% reduction in risk of respiratory infection (which is the number I saw somewhere; can’t find where now), that’s still a lot less risk. About the only downside I know of is that the first ten to twenty seconds after you use it are uhhhh kind of literally eye-watering — this stuff does sting a bit! But it’s fairly affordable: $19 for one bottle, which they estimate will last you a month, or you can get it cheaper if you buy three ($54) or six ($100) bottles at a time.

I’m about to go on vacation, and I’m absolutely bringing this stuff with me. I’ll still be masking in high-risk situations like crowds, but having this as a second line of defense will make me feel a lot more sanguine about being able to enjoy the trip.

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New Worlds: Courtesans

The New Worlds Patreon is wrapping up this month’s look at sex on the high end of prostitution — so high, in fact, that it can sometimes leave prostitution behind entirely. We’re turning to courtesans: comment over there!

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New Worlds: Streetwalkers and Bawdy Houses

Prostitution is (unsurprisingly) a complex enough topic that it’s getting more than one essay from the New Worlds Patreon. This week we turn our attention to where and how it’s conducted; comment over there . . .

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No longer a one-off!

I have now published not one but two poems! As of today, “Draco Urbis” is out, in a very dragon-themed issue of Worlds of Possibility. If you’re not a subscriber already, you can pick up the relevant issue in Julia Rios’ Patreon shop. In addition to my ten modest lines, you’ll get seven stories, two more poems, and five illustrations!

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New Worlds: The Oldest Profession

A combination of my choices around what to put in the topic polls and what my patrons have voted for means it’s taken until Year Eight for the New Worlds Patreon to get around to the topic of prostitution. But we’re finally getting started, so comment over there!

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New Worlds: Like a Virgin

It’s gonna be a racy month at the New Worlds Patreon, as we turn our attention back to the topic of sex. Even discussing virginity requires us to get very frank about people’s bodies — comment over there!

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