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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points

@therisingtithes.bsky.social

5K followers 2.3K following 1.8K posts

🇹🇹 Poet, SFF writer, TTRPG designer. Worldcon 2025 Poet Laureate. @rascal.news columnist. Podcaster @speculate.bsky.social & @skiffyandfanty.com. Author of CAN YOU SIGN MY TENTACLE? and other things. Thank God for words. https://www.brandonobrien.xyz/

www.brandonobrien.xyz

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · Nov 10

Just realised I never did a proper intro over here:

Hey folks. I'm Brandon. I'm a poet, science fiction writer, and TTRPG designer from Trinidad. I have a lot of feelings about elegies, lagahoos, and Kamen Rider.

Find out about my writing and game design here: links.brandonobrien.xyz/

links.brandonobrien.xyz

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 9h

the “[organisational_role] of Antifa” is the new “social justice [5E_CLASS]”

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Reposted by Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points

Alex Jennings @alexjennings.bsky.social · 3d

Let’s pull together and help @zinrock.bsky.social achievement this goal. She’s brilliant, and works on the bleeding edge of horror. Her participation will enrich this program more than they know! gofund.me/defbd960f

Donate to Support Teri Clarke's Writing Journey, organized by Teri Clarke

hello, all! my name is Teri Clarke and I write horror and dark fantasy under the… Teri Clarke needs your support for Support Teri Clarke's Writing Journey

gofund.me

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 10h

the Terrace Martin sax solo at the end of Lupe Fiasco’s ‘Body Of Work’ is the only evidence that God is real

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 10h

a ttrpg but it’s all tables. The cover is a table you roll on to determine which art is on the cover. There’s a table to determine who was its lead designer. there’s a table for who becomes the GM and instead of rolling dice it’s decided by how many snacks are present

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 12h

Again, this is not saying blogs don’t have the obvious value you’ve mentioned, and I don’t see any reason they can’t work in concert as a system. But I’m also mostly just ideating aloud.

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 12h

I mean, I’d argue there’s a subset of readers, no matter how small, who want a specific flavor of thing so badly that a resource like this, if adequately tagged, allows self-directed search. Plus, it is reasonably possible that some books slip through marketing cracks that would cater to a reader.

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 12h

Of course, the larger part of this issue is beyond the reader—marketing gets to decide if a thing is genre or not, and that’s how we get the Orbital problem—but I’d like to imagine that if booksellers/libraries/fans tag clinically and we are willing to group the genre wide, everyone would win.

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 12h

This is def a problem, and I hope I don’t sound like I’m speaking ill of blogs/fanzines and their curation. If it were me, I’d categorise broadly to solve this problem, because the goal is to give readers access to info to make future reading choices, but surely even that would incense some people.

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 12h

The data being available is good! I guess I also wish it was in a format that made it easy for someone to say ‘that looks rad, I’m gonna set a reminder for it’ but this is useful regardless. Thank you!

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 13h

👀👀 (but also: you need to take a break at least once)

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 13h

Braincrack:

there should be a single unified non-blog place online to get a list (and a calendar view) of every upcoming SFF novel & novella release in a year. Something you can just set reminders for the week before, and when it's on preorder, so you can keep up with every pub without hassle.

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 17h

(To be sure, they didn’t get me—I didn’t even get to the money-request stage by the time I verified the scam—but I’m flattered that the scammer knows my little book at all.

God bless the lady who actually operates that real book club, though.)

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 17h

How I know I’ve finally Made It™️:

I just got hit with the book club scam.

I will admit I was briefly emotionally suckered: I did in fact put a lot worth thinking about in Can You Sign My Tentacle?, & I’d love it to death to hear a non-SF/poetry-centric book club was talking about it over wine.

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 19h

Good news is I plan on streaming sometime this week.

Bad news is I thought it'd be today but I have work to do. Plus, you know, not a lot of Action Points to spare.

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 1d

You're welcome! Digital gardening has been consuming my brain for most of this year since a friend sent me down the same rabbit hole, especially the idea of having a place to store thoughts that I think are cool or radical without the kind of performative 'Always On Stage' feeling of ~content~

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 1d

I was initially intrigued because I also want to get into digital gardening as a place to store useful critical concepts that aren't Designed To Be Blog Content, and then it just occurred to me that this would also give me a clear newsletter archive category for a header. Win/Win/Win, in my opinion!

A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden

A newly revived philosophy for publishing personal knowledge on the web

maggieappleton.com

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 1d

(I know a large part of why this is my fault is because I don't tag my newsletters because most of them I have written at 2 o'clock in the morning after a spontaneous bout of inspiration, so I need to be better at that part, too.) 😅

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 1d

This part I know! But I'm eyeing a website refresh & plan to neaten the organisation; as it is, my public newsletter archive is just... on the homepage, & I plan for my future blog content to be separate in intent from newsletters so I want them to be in distinct places without giving the former up.

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 1d

between this, a sudden hyperfixation with Tailwind CSS (including the apparent glut of free template resources), & the realisation that there's a tokusatsu webring?!? (gattonero.moe/tokuring/home), I'm kinda excited to try rebuilding my website soon...

gattonero.moe

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 1d

me when I only just learned that the docs for Ghost actually mention dynamic routing features, which means it may have always been possible for me to separate main blog posts from newsletter content 👀
docs.ghost.org/themes/routing

URLs & Dynamic Routing - Ghost Developer Docs

Routing is the system that maps URL patterns to data and templates within Ghost. It comes pre-configured by default, but it can also be customized extensively to build powerful custom site structures.

docs.ghost.org

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Reposted by Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points

Kathleen De Vere @kathleen.loadingreadyrun.com · 1d

Last day for Pizzamas stuff!

Here's one of my favorite throw-away jokes in the game. This is an optional thing in one transitionary location BTW. I wrote almost 60(!) pages of jokes for this, many of which are probably just for the DM!

pizzamas.com/collections/...

THE GIFT SHOP:
• An assortment of “personalized” keychains featuring common names like Hank, John, Dave, and Bort. (Roll a luck check (D20, no modifiers.) On a 14 or higher, the player’s name is in stock.
• Pizzamas themed gifts for everyone on a pizzamas shopping list. There are shirts, pyjamas, hats, hair claws, and even colouring books. Inexplicably, the pizza-scented candles are sold out.
• Frozen Banana Locos on a Stick. Flavors include: Baked Beans, Zesty Peanut Butter, and Mixed Up Ladder. They are 1 gold piece/$6.99 and advertise “miraculous nutritional properties.”

Further Investigating the Frozen Banana Locos:
Whatever Mixed Up Ladder is, the label indicates the flavour is “100% humane.” The ingredients list is: banana, ladder filling (simulated), artificial flavors. Baked Beans and Zesty Peanut Butter are more self-explanatory.

If anyone buys and eats a Banana Loco:
They are fully healed, but they have to describe how it tastes.

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Reposted by Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points

The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, hello

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 1d

If you dig the stuff I make, your support goes a long way to helping me make more of it!

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · Aug 1

A reminder that if you like the work I’ve been recently making, you can support me via PayPal (paypal.me/brandonobrien), Patreon (patreon.com/therisingtithes), Itch (therisingtithes.itch.io), or Ko-Fi (ko-fi.com/therisingtit...)!

Support Brandon O'Brien

ko-fi.com

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 2d

There is another, MORE INTENSE essay about Elementary that I have had some version of in the drafts of several note apps for the better part of five years or more... I need to revisit it at some point...

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Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 2d

So if you're into that, or the other ramblings I do, you should sign up for my newsletter!

And if you dig my newsletter (& all the other kickass stuff I make), you can support me via PayPal (paypal.me/brandonobrien), Patreon (patreon.com/therisingtit...), or Ko-Fi (ko-fi.com/therisingtit...)!

Pay Brandon O'Brien using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/brandonobrien and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

paypal.me

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