Catherine Winters
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catherinewinters.com
Catherine Winters
@catherinewinters.com
2.4K followers 1.3K following 5K posts
She/her, creator of procedural art bots, games, and VR stuff. Not AI.

🎮 Making After Work, a game about rummaging around in your coworkers' desks: https://cornonthecob.games
📖 Querying my queer science fiction heist novel.

https://catherinewinters.com
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catherinewinters.com
#AwesomeCharacters It would be better for the reporter's career if they didn't take any actions out of context. When they finally figured out all the things the crew of the Coreward Baker did before they met, their editor would laugh them out of their office.
The "Pepe Silvia" meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. A chain-smoking Charlie Day gestures frantically in front of a wall covered in paper and red string as he tries to get to the bottom of who "Pepe Silvia" is.
November 27, 2025 at 7:01 PM
catherinewinters.com
#WIPSnips November 27: "disorganize".

Tai prides themself on having more mature and reasonable reasons to dislike that abandoned shopping mall of a country than their judgemental crewmates.
“At least we never have to go back to Haebara,” Thyllis snorted. “What a depressing shithole.” “They’re just flaky,” Anento protested. “Wait,” Clarke laughed, “I thought Anpori was a regular port for you. You just stopped, picked me up, and turned around?” “It’s worse than that!” Beskros crowed. “We’ve been bouncing around Haebara for a halfyear!” “It’s been making Tai crazy,” Anento agreed. I glowered at him. It hadn’t been! The Haebara Free State was just… disorganized.
November 27, 2025 at 6:42 PM
catherinewinters.com
#WIPSnips November 24: "debut"
Nia, the problem with playing "yes, and" with a grifter you don't know is that the two of you can talk yourselves into an extremely complicated and expensive cover story.
Iresh cringed, looking up the street at the manor’s front door. “Allitu’s ass, it’s her ladyship,” he hissed. “Be normal!” “Me be normal?” Nia said through her teeth. She tried to compose herself, to play Iresh’s niece once more. As the older woman approached, Nia forced a smile on her face and affected a curtsey. “Good morning, Madame de Groiv.” “Miss Dorvierre,” the landlady replied. “Iresh.” “Madam,” Iresh said. “You’ve returned then!” Madame de Groiv mused. “Is your friend quite all right? In Birajad, were they?” “Yes, yes,” Iresh said. “All’s well.” Nia froze. How long would a return trip to Birajad take? Had Iresh returned too soon for her lie to work? To her relief, Madame de Groiv seemed disinterested in discussing travel itineraries any further. “Your niece is most charming,” the older woman said. “I understand she’s been presented to the court in Birajad?” Nia’s eyes bulged. A smile wandered across Iresh’s face. “Indeed she has! Her parents have tasked me with finding an acceptable suitor while she’s here.” Nia glared at him behind Madame de Groiv’s back.
November 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
catherinewinters.com
#BookSky #HumpDay Page 49: I'm starting to think Nia and Harrier aren't friends anymore.
“I’ll fix this,” Nia insisted. “I promise!”  “A thousand silvers,” Harrier demanded, her knife sparking. “I have six,” Nia protested. “Then we can wait until your brother comes home and you can see what happens when people steal from me,” the older girl growled.
November 26, 2025 at 6:01 PM
catherinewinters.com
#WIPSnips November 26: "impede". (Well, "disrupt".)
Nia's really not good at talking to The Disableds.
“I was thinking about the other day,” Nia said hesitantly. “In your aunt’s shop.” “Oh?” Caz asked. “You’re a spellbreaker,” Nia said. That was the word for it, wasn’t it? Magical resistance came in many patterns, but what Caz had done to Nia’s charm, that was different. True spellbreakers weren’t just resistant to magic, they suffered from a complete lack of magical potential, actually disrupting magic around them. Just as a powerful adept like Auntie Zarina could use Nia’s charm to evade her gaze, disappearing into that chilling hole in her vision, spellbreakers broke down the thaumaturgical fabric around them—and as Caz had demonstrated, could apparently target the effect. It was an unfortunate and debilitating condition, and one, Nia knew, that was incurable. Was this okay to talk about? “Yeah,” Caz said, her voice somewhere between sheepish and—proud? “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone—” what was the word? ‘With’? ‘Afflicted by’? Nia chose one at random. “—like you.” “No?” Caz grinned. Nia laughed nervously. “Have you always been—” “No, it’s a lot of work,” Caz chuckled. “I had to train for a long time to get this strong.” Nia blinked. A lot of work? “And you still got me.” Caz shook her head. “You’re really good.” Nia fidgeted uncomfortably.
November 26, 2025 at 3:10 PM
catherinewinters.com
#Lovember: Something a character loves that nobody else does? Coffee.
“She looks dehydrated.” Thyllis frowned at Clarke. “You have to drink water every day, don’t you? Tai does.” “Yes she does,” I said sternly. This was just like her. “Clarke, put that away and drink your water.” “I didn’t have coffee yesterday,” Clarke said sadly. “This is my last one.” With a sigh, she tipped the pouch over, the tiny brown capsule landing in her hand. Clarke stared at it wistfully. Now that the pouch was empty, it seemed its contents had been rather more important than I had realized. Like the other times I’d seen her do this, Clarke twisted the capsule and dropped it into the mug. Steam hissed from the surface as the water turned brown, then black, and the pungent aroma I’d come to associate with Clarke’s breakfast emerged. She held the mug reverently and brought it to her lips. “Oh god,” she moaned. “That’s good.” I raised my eyebrows. This hardly seemed an appropriate activity for the common room!
November 25, 2025 at 4:34 PM
catherinewinters.com
#WIPSnips November 25 - "system"
TFW you don't want to admit to being a Kennedy:
“Are you actually from Micapa?” Clarke asked. “Yes!” Had she thought I lied to her?! She grinned. “Not the system? Your family doesn’t live in an orbital or on some moon and you just say—” “I was born on Micapa!” I insisted. “In Amapedalai!” “So in the city, not like, near there, in the suburbs?” “It’s a very short flyer trip!” I blurted, forgetting myself. Clarke laughed, not realizing, I hoped, what it meant that I had grown up outside the massive arcologies that dotted the surface of Micapa, what that implied on a world that didn’t have suburbs, that had conquered the ills of poverty and sprawl, restoring nearly the entire surface to nature—and which, despite it all, undeniably still had families with ‘old money’.
November 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
catherinewinters.com
A tweet by @shutupmikeginn from November 2013: "My 'Not involved in human trafficking' T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt." Headline from Barron's: "Nvidia Says It's Not Enron in Private Memo Refuting Accounting Questions", November 25, 2025
November 24, 2025 at 11:44 PM
catherinewinters.com
#Novmemeber 24: Surprisingly, I have an answer for this.
“Why did she think turning into a snake would help?” Lucia wondered. “I don’t know,” the doll grumbled. “It doesn’t help. It never helps.” “What’s this now?” Iresh asked. “We fought a giant snake,” Caz said. “How big?” Iresh asked, gesturing with his hands. “This big? Bigger?” “Bigger than that,” Lucia said. “Huh,” Iresh said. “It was very annoying,” the doll said.
November 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
catherinewinters.com
Tai’s in trouble. The ship has a 1-star rating, the crew aren’t speaking, and the criminals who want them dead are hot on their trail. If they want to keep everyone safe, Tai will have to introduce their human partner to their old-money family. It's going to be a hard decision. #WIPPit #SF #LGBT
A blue, black, and white movie poster for my work in progress, working title "Cargo 2", inspired by Saul Bass's famous vintage posters for Vertigo and The Man With the Golden Hand: "No Poverty, no crime. Tai’s homeworld iS The perfect Place to hidE their Human Partner from the criminals who want her dead. Too bad someone in Tai's rich, politically-connected family has other ideas." Cargo 2: Three grandparents, six parents, eleven siblings, one human. The credits section is as follows: CATHERINE WINTERS AND COREWARD BAKER PRODUCTIONS LTD PRESENT A CATHERINE WINTERS NOVEL ‘CARGO’ STARRING TAI OF MICAPA THYLLIS CHAUMEDEROT TALATAGARI QUIRIN TALATAGARI ANENTO FRANK THE CAT JEREL BESKROS CHOST MOL RAZIK FEATURING COOL MOSS ABOVE STILL WATER AND INTRODUCING CLARKE SHIPS BY SETEBO-URANQ AND CONSTANT VERIDITY INTERSTELLAR COSTUMES BY UPPER CORE ATELIER “HUMAN” CREATURE EFFECTS BY 3.8 BILLION YEARS OF EVOLUTION CASTING BY THE TRADE AUTHORITY WRITTEN BY CATHERINE WINTERS DIRECTED BY CATHERINE WINTERS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER CATHERINE WINTERS WITH APOLOGIES TO SAUL BASS Catherine Winters dot Com
November 23, 2025 at 7:55 PM
catherinewinters.com
#QueerWriters Sunday: "picture"
“Here.” Nia grabbed Papa’s satchel and shoved it into Caz’s hands. She pointed to the ceiling panel. “Get everything in there.” Caz obliged, climbing up and pulling out Nia’s tools, Papa’s journals, and, slipping out of an old pillowcase, the Moredi family portrait, its frame long since pawned. A much younger Nia sat between a tall man and a woman holding a four-year-old Matteo on her lap. Nia’s face froze. “Oh,” Caz said quietly, hastily covering the painting once more. She slipped it into a bag, reaching for more of Nia’s clothes.
November 23, 2025 at 4:42 PM
catherinewinters.com
Nia Moredi just wants to look out for her little brother. Miss Laval needs to attend a governess-teacher meeting. Baarsin Dorvierre’s being watched. Pickpocket Wren needs to recharge her misdirection charm. If only Nia could remember which of them she’s supposed to be today. #WIPPit #YA #F #LGBT
A mood board of eight tiles and a centre square with lockpicking tools and ancient writing: 1. Always have an escape plan. 2. A swindler never lets herself feel like a fraud. 3. Don't look for the easy grab, look for the easy mark. 4. Never get involved with golems. The pictures depict, clockwise from upper right: A) A city of canals and towering footbridges. There are minarets and steeples and red-tiled roofs. B) A market selling elaborate lanterns, all aglow. C) A porcelain and gold hand, reaching upwards. D) Two figures leaping across rooftops against the coming dawn. E) A pocketwatch--or is it? Constellations and continents cover the front, the body of the watch engraved with runes. It's sitting on ancient parchment. F) A wax stamp with removable chits that function as coins in a card game. G) The lords of the city overlooking grand canals and issuing edicts. They are dressed in fine red robes and silks. H) Assorted bones and shells used for divination and more.
November 23, 2025 at 7:25 AM
catherinewinters.com
#WIPSnips November 22nd: "crystal".

Nia, do you know Scroll of Summon Lysol?
Back in the alley, Nia searched its puddles—of water, she told herself—for that precious scrap of wire. Nothing. Had a clockwork or rat snatched it away, a shiny trinket for its nest? At last, a glint out of the corner of her eye sent her leaping to the ground: the glass bead, and not even scratched. Nia gasped happily, unable to believe her luck. “Bead” was of course the wrong word: the Birajadi glass was of the highest quality, able to hold a charge nearly as well as proper crystal, and not something Nia had expected to see again. And if that was where the bead had landed, was it possible the wire could also be nearby?
November 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
catherinewinters.com
#TimeTravelAuthors November 21: I'm thankful for the fact that I already know about web hosting, wikis, and spreadsheets. I've never been able to pick up Scrivener, and it's convenient for me to give each project its own private Mediawiki for notes, character sheets, and worldbuilding guides.
#TimeTravelAuthors November 2025 1. Introduce your story (optional: include the word "thank") 3. What would your characters do if they could travel forward in time? 5. Wednesday POST-SIZED snippet (optional word: meal/food) 7. Sports in your story 9. Strangest research you did for your story 11. Does time ever fly? 13. Desserts? 15. Saturday excerpt (optional phrase: what if) 17. Does anyone read in your story? 19. Wednesday POST-SIZED snippet (optional word: thank) 21. Something you're thankful for in your writing process 23. Do any of your characters act like turkeys? 25. Shopping in your story 27. A sentence from page 11 29. Author's choice/promo All time-travel authors and published works, WIPs, etc. welcome! To join, just answer the prompts on odd days, using the hashtag #TimeTravelAuthors On even days, post what you like! Questions? @juliebihn@bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 2:27 PM
catherinewinters.com
I made business cards too.
A hand holding a floppy disk made up to look like the install disk for some imaginary 1990s office software. It reads "After Work, Disk 2 of 6"
November 21, 2025 at 1:58 AM
catherinewinters.com
Almost none of my characters are human. In fact, most of the humans Tai meets aren't even human. (The little girl in question, Molly, is my favourite character. She has three lines of dialogue and appears in one scene.) #AwesomeCharacters
After a while, Clarke sighed, looking back at the shop. “That little girl. Was she scared of me?” “Perhaps a bit,” I admitted. “People here probably don’t meet Humans very often.” Clarke frowned. “But she’s—” “You might be the first Human she’s seen outside her own family.” Clarke’s eyes bulged. “How is that possible?” “Look at the shop,” I said. Her eyes wandered over the white tiles—clean enough, though most had lost their lustre from years of scrubbing. From its patina, the counter had also seen some age. From all appearances, the shop was far older than either of its neighbours, likely one of the oldest in the market. “Look at the child,” I said. The girl was back, happily chatting away with an older customer—clearly a station resident. The grey-skinned man laughed at something the girl said, his headwrap so close in colour to the child’s, it could have been made by the same tailor. “Her great-grandparent might well have opened that shop,” I said. “True, they’re descended from Humans, and they know some old family recipes, but they’re locals. We look like outsiders, and you look like a Human outsider.” The girl handed the elderly man his order and spoke a few words to the next customer, another local. They gestured up at the menu. “See there?” I said. “She’s taken her translator off. She doesn’t need it. She’s likely speaking her first language.”
November 20, 2025 at 8:18 PM
catherinewinters.com
Thanks! I really like writing Thyllis. I don't usually do them, but she's got a prequel plotted out and ready for me to finish. It's about the worst papal conclave ever.
“Fucking suns,” Thyllis blurted. “Sister Chiara!” Sister Dahai hissed, frantically making the sign of the Spiral. “Shit, sorry. Shit.” Thyllis couldn’t tear her eyes away from the Arch-Hierarch’s body, shards of the woman’s helm scattered across the floor. “Fuck.” “It’s not like we’re not thinking it,” Sister Jourhi snorted. “But what—what do we do now?” Dahai asked, her voice shaking. “We have to get out of here,” Thyllis blurted, coming back to her senses at last. What would she have done back on Averis Peth? Run. Obviously. “We do?” Dahai sniffed, her fur wet with tears. “Nobody wants this to be a murder,” Thyllis said, staring at the blood spreading across the mosaic. “Nobody wants an investigation. Not now.” “And the easiest way to make it go away is to blame the four of us,” Sister Maudihosa agreed.
November 20, 2025 at 8:07 PM
catherinewinters.com
Thyllis's fur is usually dyed blue or green. There's a very good reason she got excommunicated. #dailyocs
“Why, how old are you?” Clarke laughed. Thyllis snorted. As usual, Clarke was intruding. I opened my mouth to chastise her. “I’m fifty-seven,” the Dodishodan said airily, setting her age visible: half her people’s life expectancy. Clarke gaped at it. “No way, really?” “Really,” Thyllis said. “You look great!” It was true, though I knew Thyllis’s many, many ‘reds’ were concealed under fur dye. Clarke snorted. “How long has it been since you spoke with another Dodishodan?” Thyllis chuckled. “A couple stations back? Something like that?” She grew quiet, considering her answer. “Last year, maybe?” “Really?” Clarke said. “Is it hard?” “Nah,” Thyllis said. “I speak the language, but I wasn’t raised among them. My folks were, but I grew up on Averis Peth. There weren’t a lot of Dodishoda there back then.” One only had to hear Thyllis’s first name to know she hadn’t grown up in the Dodishodai, but it always struck me as surprising how far her parents had fled from Dodishodan space. “Plus,” Thyllis said, gesturing at her fur, today dyed what her people would consider an exceptionally masculine shade of green, “I don’t exactly fit in.” “Have you seen anyone from Averis Peth recently?” Clarke asked. “Suns, no,” Thyllis laughed. “That’s an easy one.”
November 20, 2025 at 6:56 PM
catherinewinters.com
I once knew a cat named Frank. #Lovember
After lunch, Clarke led me to her cabin. On the bed was an orange furry… circle. It wasn’t what I had anticipated. Nor what the link had showed. Or the scan in Medical. I stared at it. “Is that—” “Hello, Frank,” Clarke cooed. At that, the circle unwound. A head appeared. And a leg. The cat looked at me and blinked. “Say something!” Clarke hissed. “Hello, cat,” I said. “Frank,” she corrected. “Hello, Frank.” The cat looked at me and put its head down. “Oh!” Clarke said. “That’s good!”
November 20, 2025 at 4:17 PM
catherinewinters.com
#writesky Page 389: Yup, it's Doctor Moss doing her thing again.
Later, I went by Medical to speak to Doctor. I was frustrated. Worse, I wasn’t sure how to ask her what I wanted to ask. What greeting to use. What tone to speak in. But I supposed politeness could wait. We were friends. She knew I respected her. Loved her. So I chose directness. “Doctor,” I said, walking into her office, “Why are you never surprised by anything that happens on this ship?” “Hello, Tai,” she laughed, turning from her panel. “Please come in.” I frowned. She gestured at a stool. I took it. Reluctantly. “I’m older than the rest of you,” she said. “And I’ve seen a lot. And I’ve not always been a doctor.” I knew that. She had also been— “And I wasn’t only ever an anthropologist, either,” she said. “Yes, I know that’s what you were going to say. I had a life long before that. And I know about people. And none of you are anywhere close to discreet.” I didn’t think that was true, but I didn’t say anything. “It’s true,” Doctor laughed. I frowned. Again.
November 20, 2025 at 12:08 AM
catherinewinters.com
#WIPSnips November 19: "Third"
We have not been putting our best foot forward, you guys.
“But there’s nothing on the Human newsfeeds about any of it!” Quirin cried. “Look!” E was right, there was a surprising amount of news available from Human space. Even news out of the Federated Systems itself, and only a few eightdays old: A new handheld had been announced. It was finally available in yellow, which was very exciting. Two thespians were acrimoniously dissolving their relationship after the alleged involvement of a third. There was a moral debate over a new product that aided in coupling—the article helpfully accompanied by a discount code for the product in question. And a sober piece about border tensions—yet another flare-up of the endless armed conflict that plagued Human space: how would it affect the price of sweets? “Oh my god, you must think we’re assholes,” Clarke groaned. “Kinda, yeah.” Beskros said cheerfully
November 19, 2025 at 7:48 PM
catherinewinters.com
#FiFRevPit The most important relationship in my book? Oof, hard to say.
A movie poster for "CARGO", depicting a sunset with two crescent moons in the sky. In the foreground are silohettes of two people, only their arms visible, their pinky fingers grasping each other tightly. The arm on the left is thinner and has four fingers. The arm on the right is of average proportions and has five fingers. The top of the poster reads "A match made in space. While stealing things." Below the name "CARGO", there is smaller writing in an alien language, presumably the title translated. At the bottom of the poster, the credits section is as follows: CATHERINE WINTERS AND COREWARD BAKER PRODUCTIONS LTD PRESENT A CATHERINE WINTERS NOVEL ‘CARGO’ STARRING TAI OF MICAPA THYLLIS CHAUMEDEROT TALATAGARI QUIRIN TALATAGARI ANENTO FRANK THE CAT JEREL BESKROS CHOST MOL RAZIK FEATURING COOL MOSS ABOVE STILL WATER AND INTRODUCING CLARKE SHIPS BY SETEBO-URANQ AND CONSTANT VERIDITY INTERSTELLAR COSTUMES BY UPPER CORE ATELIER “HUMAN” CREATURE EFFECTS BY 3.8 BILLION YEARS OF EVOLUTION CASTING BY THE TRADE AUTHORITY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER CATHERINE WINTERS DIRECTED BY CATHERINE WINTERS WRITTEN BY CATHERINE WINTERS
November 19, 2025 at 6:28 PM
catherinewinters.com
Screenshot of an Onion headline: “Bill Watterson Writes, Illustrates, Shreds New ‘Calvin And Hobbes’ Strip Each Morning Out Of Spite”
November 19, 2025 at 3:16 AM
catherinewinters.com
#Novmemeber 18 - I love her.
A screenshot of a tweet by @bea_ker: “I’ve just seen my doctor quickly close the Wikipedia page for ‘bones’”
November 19, 2025 at 3:11 AM
catherinewinters.com
#QueerPrompts November 17: Students? Just one. Teachers? There's Moss. The others probably all add up to at least one competent teacher between them.
“We should get back,” I said. “You have lessons with Doctor today, yes?” I made it a question, knowing Quirin would not appreciate being reminded. “She can’t,” Quirin said sullenly. “She’s too busy.” If Doctor had rescheduled Quirin’s tutoring while in port, that was certainly true, but I was reluctant to let the teenager think e was being neglected, that e wasn’t important to Doctor. “What will your next lesson be?” I asked, unsure what else to say. “Doctor Moss wants to talk about gender,” e moaned. “Elth gender.” It was important to learn about other cultures; I knew that. Still, Doctor’s planned lesson did sound a bit tedious. Even after so much time away from Micapa, genders weren’t the most intuitive concept for me, and I often despaired at other societies’ fixation on them. But like the Elth, Quirin’s people had all sorts of genders, and confusing or not, it was important to respect that. Eir father had placed a great deal of trust in me—in all of us—to take care of Quirin on station and off, and I had no wish to fail him. But I didn’t say that. “That sounds interesting,” I said instead. Quirin looked at me skeptically.
November 18, 2025 at 5:19 PM