The Wordsmith's Forge

A Rainbow of Queer Books for Pride 2025: Pink

HAPPY PRIDE 2025! For Pride this year, we’re changing up our usual rec lists. Instead of doing books with specific identities or themes, we’re focused this time on cover color! Throughout the month of June, we’ll be doing 8 rec lists, each with covers inspired by one of the colors of the original Gilbert Baker Pride Flag. We drew a little additional inspiration from the meaning behind the color and why it was included in the original LGBTQIA+ flag (in this case, hot pink = sex), but we prioritized color over meaning. That said, there are definitely a few steamy stories in this load of pink tales! In a few days, we’ll be back with our second post – red – but until then, check out this whole bunch of awesome pink-covered queer books.

Poke a bigot in the eye! Read and recommend queer books this month.

We made it to the end of May! \o/ If you have completed some of your short-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We've also passed through of spring. If you're doing seasonal goals, hopefully you have finished the spring one(s), so you can look ahead to the summer batch.

This year I'm trying something new, continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them. The main drawback is that this update becomes more of a chore each month.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 4
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 10
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 17
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 24
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In February 28
New Year's Resolutions Check In March 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In April 30

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Today is Speak Your Language Day.  If you know multiple languages, use all of them!  If not, grab some fragments such as quotes or words that don't translate, and do something with those.

Celebrate Speak Your Language Day with Translated Books from Around the World!


Some of my works feature languages other than English.

"Hanes" / "History" is bilingual in Welsh / English and won me an award.

"Shumáad Delineha" / "Space Flight" is a bilingual poem in Láadan and English.

Clay of Life has bits of several Jewish languages.

Fiorenza the Wisewoman uses some Italian.

Frankenstein's Family has pieces of multiple European languages.

Hart's Farm has mostly Swedish excerpts but also a few others.

The Origami Mage is Asian and features mostly Japanese bits.

This is one of my favorite Beltane songs.

Happy Beltane for those of you celebrating.



 

Today's theme is Halloween.  See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.


eerieindiana  -- Eerie Indiana
General squeeing, discussion and fanworks.
[Active with multiple posts in April.]

hp_halloween  -- Spooky double-drabble exchange for HP Fans
A Halloween-themed Classic Book-Centric Harry Potter double-drabble exchange.
[Seasonally active.]

mfu_canteen  -- MFU_ Canteen
Man From UNCLE, David McCallum, Robert Vaughn and all things MFU.
[Active with one post in April.]

terror_sffa  -- Horror, SFF, Animation, Myth, Spec Fic
Panfandom and multimedia.
[Active with multiple posts in April.]

Happy Earth Day!




25 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

40 Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day Throughout Earth Month

Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

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When is Draw A Bird Day?

Draw A Bird Day is April 8th of every year, all day long in whatever time zone you currently reside.

How do I celebrate Draw A Bird Day?

Quite simply, just draw a bird and share it with whomever you choose. The drawings are not meant to be "professionally" done by any means, though that certainly can be the case if you are so talented. The important thing is just to draw and bird and share it.

Today is my birthday. So far I've gotten an assortment of gifts from recent outings.

This is a prank-free zone if the rest of the internet is annoying you today. Enjoy!