José Pablo Iriarte
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labyrinthrat.bsky.social
José Pablo Iriarte
@labyrinthrat.bsky.social
3.1K followers 710 following 3.4K posts
Spec fic author and middle grade novelist. Cuban-American ceterosexual enby. They/them.

Debut MG novel BENNY RAMÍREZ AND THE NEARLY DEPARTED is a Norton, BSFA, Ignyte, and Florida SSYRA finalist!!!

https://linktr.ee/labyrinthrat
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labyrinthrat.bsky.social
"Unfinished Architectures of the Human-Fae War," by @carolinemyoachim.bsky.social is a neat blend of fantasy and science fiction and found fiction--time bubbles and stasis fields and generation ships, Oh my!

www.uncannymagazine.com/article/unfi...

#labyrinthratreads2025
There have been portals to the Fae realm for at least as long as humans have had fairy tales, but the first one deliberately engineered by humans was opened in an abandoned amusement park thirty-five miles northeast of Antiphony. The historic event was observed from a safe distance by a team of army engineers, with military reinforcements on standby in case anything went wrong. It was also observed from a significantly closer vantage point by Jolene Kestrel, who absolutely should not have been in the park that day. Jolene was by far the most promising student at Costa Nova University’s prestigious School of Architecture, Class of 2056. She’d entered the park shortly after dawn, illegally, through a hole in the rusty chain-link fence. For several hours—hyperfocused on her work and utterly unaware of what was about to unfold—she sat in a dilapidated bumper car and sketched endless variations on the ivy-covered steel curves of the largest roller coaster in the park, searching for the seeds of an architectural innovation that could someday be the cornerstone of her legacy.
November 26, 2025 at 2:35 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
"Six People To Revise You," by @jrdawson.bsky.social: www.uncannymagazine.com/article/six-...

Sometimes it feels like Dawson is writing specifically what I need to read. But maybe you do too.

#labyrinthratreads2025
Sadie nods. She quietly stands up from her overstuffed chair, forgetting her book. In her soft way, she crosses the carpeted floor to her desk. She opens a drawer and takes out a manila envelope. She hands it to me, her socks tip-toeing across the room like a ballerina. “Here,” she says. “I’ll fill out your blue sheet. But only if you read these.” “What is this?” I say. “I told you I checked our insurance—” “They’re from our friends,” she says. “A couple of your students. Your brother and your uncle and your aunt. My mom and dad. Charles next door and your graduate student cohort. People who know you, and love you.” She holds out her hand. “Where’s the sheet?”
November 23, 2025 at 2:38 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Am I . . . am I supposed to cut this part out?

I'm not sure my ordinary scissors will do.
A screen cap of The Guardian, with a sign up ad enclosed by a dashed box, like in old school magazine cut-outs.
November 23, 2025 at 1:37 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Oof.

"Without Sunsets or Snow," by @mariness.bsky.social.

#labyrinthratreads2025
They’d given my mother exactly three more hours. I could have protested, of course. She had the credits — financial, green, and gray. An attorney easily could have argued that she was owed at least three more days. Maybe four. Maybe five. Enough to sample a few last meals, maybe go see what was left of the pyramids, try a few last moments on luxury on a floating island. I wasn’t even sure I could take the three hours.
November 23, 2025 at 1:31 AM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Rescuing this from a comment thread.
"We have to allow folks to redeem themselves." I think we could have a good discussion about this, but anybody trying to big-tent around MTG isn't even asking her to redeem herself. Every time this discourse comes up, about the poor people who voted for leopards and got their faces eaten off, hardly anybody ever asks if the victimized leopard-voters have acknowledged that the problem isn't that the *wrong* people got their faces eaten by leopards, it's that *any* people did. What has MTG done, beyond a vague apology for her rhetoric being "over the top" or whatever, about the way she stalked David Hogg? What has she done to address her antisemitism? What has she done about blaming 1/6 on BLM? What about calling Sarah McBride a child predator? I know this isn't just about MTG, but the point extends--"I was on board with trump rounding up brown people that I think are worthless and deporting them, but not with him doing it to my school's custodian" . . . have you acknowledged that you were racist when you thought all those other victims were okay to target? If they haven't actually changed their other toxic views, they just finally found one bridge they couldn't cross, then we shouldn't even be having a conversation about redemption. They haven't begun to pursue redemption.
November 22, 2025 at 10:28 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
. . . what?
A screenshot of a Minesweeper game.
November 22, 2025 at 10:25 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
As a sometimes stats teacher, this is making me weep.

This . . . is the opposite of true
A tweet from The Old Place: "If someone's response to any argument is self righteously saying 'correlation does not equal causation,' you are not speaking to a critical thinker."
November 20, 2025 at 1:26 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Mine.
The cover of the Tracy Chapman album TRACY CHAPMAN.
November 17, 2025 at 2:56 AM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
And just for gits and shiggles, here's the opening to my most recent completed manuscript, which will be making the rounds very soon. Will somebody buy it? Dunno! It depends on whether TPTB believe there is a market for a nonbinary middle grade novel!
Iriarte/TALK TO YOU YESTERDAY Chapter One A gust of wind made the branch I stood on bounce like a swimming pool diving board. High above the ground, I clutched the trunk of the tree and worked to steady my breathing.
November 11, 2025 at 4:58 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
And here is the opening to the follow up, AJ TORRES AND THE TREASURE OF CAPTAIN GRAYSHARK:
A trio of palm trees receded through the spyglass, shrinking until they disappeared behind the churning sea. On the deck of the Salty Rogue, Captain Cornelius Grayshark pulled the scope away from his eye, collapsed it with a satisfied grunt, and turned toward the ship's bow.
November 11, 2025 at 4:52 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Convincing you to read my novel with the first sentence. Share yours if you want.

(This is the opening of BENNY RAMÍREZ AND THE NEARLY DEPARTED.)
PROLOGUE Ignacio Ramírez would never describe himself as a great artist. He was far too humble for that. He was the humblest artist he knew, and he knew many, being . . .
November 11, 2025 at 4:48 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Oh. My. God.

You can't fix this.
A facebook comment thread where somebody has invoked the "First they came for the" poem in defense of . . . billionaires.
November 7, 2025 at 1:07 AM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
October 28, 2025 at 7:17 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
It hurts, that my kids should ask me to buy this.
A bag of Ruffles Queso Cheese flavored chips.
October 26, 2025 at 7:20 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Looks like between 3:56 am and 4:45 am my spam account (ie, the throwaway email I give when forced to give an email for stuff) got signed up for approximately 130 accounts. So like a DDOS on my email?

Is there a mass unsubscribe option?
October 26, 2025 at 1:05 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
This bar's bathroom has an automatic hand dryer. Unfortunately I don't have automatic hands to dry.

I only have, well, manual hands.

#SorryNotSorry
A hand dryer with the label "Automatic Hand Dryer."
October 26, 2025 at 1:35 AM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
I promise you that having the addition overwhelm the original White House is exactly what trump wants. That he cares about this, in fact, more than he does about holding lavish thousand-guest balls that he will likely never live to see. This is a physical legacy.
From CBS News: The changes have drawn pushback from some historic groups. Earlier this week, the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation urged the administration to hold off on further demolition until the ballroom can go through a public review process, arguing the massive addition "will overwhelm the White House itself."
October 25, 2025 at 6:21 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Cookies and . . . soda?

Okay, I'm intrigued.
A photo of a new restaurant in Clermont, Florida: CRAVE Cookies and Soda
October 25, 2025 at 5:28 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
I ordered some copies of my books, and the box arrived like this.

All I can guess is that somebody was hoping to find copies of the new @rickriordan.bsky.social book but discovered, to their chagrin, that it was just mine. ;)
A box of books from Penguin Random House. One of the two flaps is completely open, most of the tape has been removed, and the brown packing paper is crumpled up and disturbed. The same photo from a different angle. A box of books from Penguin Random House. One of the two flaps is completely open, most of the tape has been removed, and the brown packing paper is crumpled up and disturbed.
October 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
This is my new reggaeton stage name.
October 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Dear blue sky, why tf would you suggest these nazi accounts to me?
A screenshot of BlueSky Suggested Accounts, including the white house, homeland security, and the department of war.
October 18, 2025 at 2:20 AM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
How much you wanna bet this "enhanced platform" will require me to pay a "convenience" fee to pay my bill online?
A banner on the Duke Energy website: "Later this year we'll be moving your online profile to an enhanced platform providing improved security."
October 15, 2025 at 11:37 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
I think my father would be proud to know that in my house we still call Entenmann's chocolate donuts "truck tires."
A box of truck tir--*ahem* Entenmann's chocolate donuts.
October 13, 2025 at 5:01 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
Just a reminder, if you've got young-at-heart readers in your life who love funny ghost stories. 😊
A graphic noting that my books--BENNY RAMÍREZ AND THE NEARLY DEPARTED and AJ TORRES AND THE TREASURE OF CAPTAIN GRAYSHARK--are middle grade reads that are perfect for both Hispanic Heritage Month and Spooky Season.
October 11, 2025 at 5:54 PM
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
I was SO GOOD today when a student came up to me to complain that they had never been taught how to differentiate this.

SO GOOD
A photo of a question on a math quiz, asking students to differentiate 4√x.
October 10, 2025 at 10:32 PM