Rambling Readers

emmadavidson

Two weeks ago, I planted herb and veggie seedlings in pots on my balcony, and put clear plastic bottles cut in half over them as a way of keeping the warmth in.

They’re all still growing, and one of the herbs in particular is doing quite well.

Small thing, but growing green things on the balcony makes it a nice place to be, and it’s fun to push the boundaries of what I can grow in a Canberra winter.
#HopePunk

Lemon

A rant on why I think we need realistic Solarpunk, plus some other things 1/2 ☀️

Felt compelled to make this. It will finally stop floating around in my head 🎉

Podcast over here if you're interested: https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts

#solarPunk #hopePunk #art #myArt #comics #sustainability

Page 1 of comic. The uppermost caption states: "I like realistic Solarpunk. I think it's the best kind, actually!" Under it is a horizontal space filled with doodles: someone exiting a tool library, a girl holding a mended sock, a chama group is pooling donations, a woman browses Wikipedia, a volunteer is filling a bowl with free soup.
"By realistic I mean grounded. Something that we could imagine happening in our real world. No magic (a drawing of a girl with fire powers), no supernatural elements unless you know what you're doing (a talking cat), no cure-all tech (a man is claiming a tiny piece of tech is going to solve everything).
The artist appears. "I feel that way because of my answer to this question: what is Solarpunk for?"

Page 3. "And that tomorrow part is important! When it comes to technology, we can stop climate change and achieve a sustainable world right now." A whole section next to this text is filled with various sustainable technologies: perma- and polyculture, wind turbines, vernacular architecture, reforestation, libraries of everything, trains, trams, bikes, solar panels, habitat restoration, degrowth etc.
"We don't need to wait until a fancy piece of tech comes along and fixes everything." There's a rendition of that meme where people are huddling together to discuss something. A contraption called "carbon sucker 9000 appears". The group gives it a thumbs up and continues discussing their own stuff like minimizing plane travel.

"What we need is large cultural and societal change. But most people struggle to imagine anything but dystopia."
In a frame nearby, a rich guy gleefully puts his foot on a pair of scales, favoring a bag of money over the planet. However, just out of frame is a group of people with tools, ready to take the planet back.

"Solarpunk is for filling that blank space! And a grounded, though not unambitious, approach makes it feel more achievable to the average person."

Page 2. "Well, let's see...Solarpunk isn't just an aesthetic, it's an emerging genre and artistic movement." The statement is accompanied by mandala-like drawing of several hands drawing the Solarpunk symbol.
Then there's a dualistic drawing: Cyberpunk and Solarpunk next to each other. In the Cyberpunk drawing, a man is holding a gun, and in the other he is unloading soil from a big bag into a garden bed. Three tiny people are floating next to the Solarpunk man, imagining what tasty stuff can grow from that soil.
The caption reads: "Solarpunk is also sort of CyberPunk's counterpart. While Cyberpunk concerns itself with wrecking bad old systems, Solarpunk is about building new, better ones. SolarPunk's creation was very intentional - it's for letting us imagine a tomorrow that's not a fucking shitshow."
In the corner, the artist points at a box labeled "future" and asks "If it's alive, what do you reckon it looks like?"

Page 4. "If we can imagine absolute Cyberpunk dystopia with ease but not the opposite, it's because we don't have enough popular stories yet which would showcase that believable alternative." A lady is reading a Solarpunk book. She exclaims: "So you're telling me people can just do stuff without a monetary incentive or the risk of hunger and homelessness? Movie number 3752 about robots enslaving humanity was much more realistic!"
"The hard part for Solarpunks is imagining what the culture and structure of this new society would look like. How would it operate?" Drawing: the author sits gloomily at a desk, mumbling "I wish I could try out this hobby but the tools are so expensive, and I don't even know if it'll be a long-term interest or not...". But then they have an epiphany. "Wait, I could literally just go to the library!"
"How does this new world think? And what do we change about ourselves to get closer to it?" The final doodle is of a man stating we must ensure economic growth until the end of time, though the woman next to him retorts: "You and what endless planetary resources?" She then suggests that we instead produce what's necessary and give it to those who need it.

C. R. Collins

#ScribesAndMakers May 13
Shameless self-promotion day. Let's boost away.

Tales of Ardonna is a #HopePunk #Fantasy series set in 3 timelines. All but the trilogy have standalone main plots, with connected subplots. More info, sales links, & maps can be found on my website.

https://crcollins.org/

If you BUY DIRECT it's always cheaper.

Stay tuned next month for info on the final sequel, scheduled for release in July.

Tales of Ardonna current book tree with its three levels of book covers, descending from earliest to latest timeline.
On the top branches, pointing left, are Mage Era books: River’s Roar and Giants’ Gate.
The middle branches, pointing right, are for Dragon Age books: Song of Jade: Red Wolf and Song of Jade: Hidden Kingdom
The lowest branches, sprawling left to right in the center of the tree, holds the Modern Era books. The Woodspell trilogy is here, its 3 volumes on the lefthand side. The sequels, Chasing Sunset (beneath the third book) and Midnight Crow (to the right and a bit lower) are on the trunk, plus a promo placeholder to the right of the second book which says Final Sequel 2025

YA future ice age hopepunk adventure with a touch of paranormal, found family, a usurped love triangle trope, enemies forced to cooperate to survive, a cute cave digger pup, and a touch of mysticism.
The Calling: Humanity’s Wake-up Call.

https://books2read.com/FindingHumanityBook1
# books #scifi
#hopepunk #fantasy

Photo of a paperback of The Calling with a compass, a comm, a lapis lazuli pendant.

C. R. Collins

#ScribesAndMakers Apr 12
Shameless self-promotion day.

Tales of Ardonna is a #HopePunk #Fantasy epic adventure series set in 3 timelines. All but the trilogy can be read in any order as each has a standalone main plot, along with the ongoing subplots which connect them. My website has more info, plus maps. If you buy direct, they are always cheaper, plus you own the ebook.

https://crcollins.org/

Woodspell Series: https://crcollins.org/books/

Other Tales: https://crcollins.org/tales-of-ardonna/

Susan Kaye Quinn

I'm hosting an online #solarpunk bookclub meetup next week! We're reading ALL WE CAN SAVE.

Details in Solarpunk Future discord https://discord.gg/JNVcu4rr?event=1351224860948435085

When: April 16th, 8pm ET

Book https://bookshop.org/a/102876/9780593237083

#books #hopepunk #climatechange

@ayanaeliza.bsky.social @kkwilkinson.bsky.social

Susan Kaye Quinn

I made a zine about why we lift up hopeful climate fiction stories on the Bright Green Futures podcast! (plus my prior one about solarpunk)

You can download/print/share them (plus I have a handy video on the trick of folding them): https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/p/bgf-anthology-and-zines

Ep of the pod about how the resurgence of zines is an indicator of cultural change: https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/p/episode-27-zines-cultural-change

#solarpunk #climatechange #hopepunk #zines

two zines — How to Solarpunk and Bright Green Futures

km herkes, mostly gardening

A little #bookpromo for my first novel:

An inventor running for his life teams up w/a pair of broken heroes to fight injustice in a post-revolution world.
NOT a dystopia. More like hopepunk mystery romantic suspense.

Disability rep, chronic pain rep, found family vibes

https://books2read.com/ControlledDescent

#bookstodon 💙📚🪐 #writing #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #Hopepunk

the tagline "Move Slow, Fix Things" beside the cover for Controlled Descent by K. M. Herkes. Cover shows 2 figures on a snowfield hiking towards a futuristic city skyline and mountains. Overhead, a contrail angles from top right to lower left against a deep blue sky. Book description reads, "A reclusive inventor assembles a team of talented outsiders to fight for justice in a post-revolution future. Gritty scifi on the outside, with a big, soft heart. Chronic pain rep, disability rep, and strong chosen family vibes." Ebook, audio, paperback.

Ika Makimaki

Must say there is something so beautiful and healing about seeing a bunch of strangers in a #repairCafe helping each other fix their rice cookers, format their laptops, sew their teddy bears, patch up their clothes, figure out ways to solve problems with what they've got right there and each other.

Highly recommended activity to restore faith in ordinary people when we see so much cruelty from the top.

#solarpunk #hopepunk

Valerie Roney

Ok folks! #hopePunk weekend challenge!

Take some time to ponder, and add your own toots to two of my favourite visioning projects:

#spoonieTown an imaginary place where we've already solved all the problems - what's life like there? What's kind of infrastructure is used? How do we take care of each other? What's a day like?

#tonicMasculinity - share your favourite examples from pop culture, your real life moments, or men you admire and why. There's so much good to celebrate. 🎉

Branwen OShea (she/her)

A reminder that all three books in my series are available wide, so if you’re boycotting Amazon and love to read, I’ve got you covered. 😊

https://books2read.com/FindingHumanityBook1

#hopepunk #scifi #fantasy #books #sciencefiction #reading #amreading

Image of an Arctic landscape with a spiral galaxy overhead. An ebook and paperback of The Calling are atop the snowy hill. At the top of the image are the words: In a future ice age, humanity emerges from its subterranean haven to discover they re no longer the dominant life form. At the bottom are the words:
THE CALLING: Humanity's wake-up call. Answer it or face extinction.
The book cover is mostly blues, white and orange. It shows a teen with an orange parka exiting a massive elevator at night. A gun is on their back, and they’re looking out in shock upon the arctic landscape and start sky. In the distance, a strange star in on the ground.

C. R. Collins

#Today (March 3) begins the Smashwords ebook sale. You’ll find lots of indie authors there, including me. 😀 My books are all 50% off this week. It’s a great time to start a new series, whether mine or another.

Go here to browse or search:
https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos

The vendor link under each book on my site will take you to its Smashwords page.
Woodspell series: https://crcollins.org/books/
Tales of Ardonna: https://crcollins.org/tales-of-ardonna/

#Bookstodon #FantasyBook #MastoAuthors #SFF #HopePunk

Smashwords promo – your ebook, your way. Read an ebook week. Picture is woman lying on stomach reading an ereader. My books are 50% off. smashwords.com/shelves/promos

C. R. Collins

#ScribesAndMakers Feb 28
Shameless self-promotion day.

Tales of Ardonna is a #HopePunk #Fantasy adventure series with scifi & romance thrown in. More info, plus purchase links & maps, can be found here:

https://crcollins.org/

If you buy direct through my site it is always cheaper.

Branwen OShea (she/her)

The humans and star beings thought the biggest problem they faced was each other. They thought wrong.

💫Enemies forced to cooperate
💫A young leader set up for failure
💫Morally grey villain
💫A cute cave digger pup
💫Future ice age shifters
💫Non-violence in a violent world

Available wherever you buy books. Seriously, even your favorite small indie bookstore should find it in their catalogues.😊
#hopepunk #scifi #fantasy #amwriting #books #youngadult

https://books2read.com/FindingHumanityBook2

A paperback of The Chasm by Branwen OShea held in the sunlight over tiny white wildflowers. The cover features a young woman with braided white hair, Arctic clothing, and a walking stick standing in an ice chasm and defiantly looking up at a black helicopter that has its guns trained on her. The sun sets bright orange and yellow behind the helicopter.

Branwen OShea (she/her)

“There is always a way, even if it is hidden from us.”

#hope #hopepunk #writing #amwriting