Rambling Readers

alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts

If you like #solarpunk #art and #illustration with a lot of #hope , you might have seen @the_lemonaut Creative Commons works (one of which is even featured on #wikipedia !).

They're currently looking for (Solarpunk or not) #commissions to fund their University costs!

More at https://mastodon.art/@the_lemonaut/113635294107241326

#commissionsOpen #visualArt #sustainability #hopepunk #disability and #disabled characters, #ClimateChange #climate #creativeCommons

A big and detailed illustration of an indoor space filled with people. Everything is gently lit by the summer sun let in through the two tall windows. The outside is green as can be.

The room - a maker and hacker space - is furnished with various shelves, tables, work benches and chairs. Nearly every surface is teeming with tools and containers, and abstract colorful murals cover the walls.

Two tables stand in the middle of the room, right next to each other. A man at the left table is teaching others about repairing their own prostheses. He himself has a body-powered prosthetic arm. At the right table, people are busy repairing a bike, sewing clothes and pride flags. In the back, people are chatting, passing each other tools; a girl sitting next to a window is painting her prosthetic arm on her lap.

Digital illustration. The scene is set on a spring morning.
A middle-aged woman is standing in the centre of the frame, holding a miner's helmet in one hand and in the other - a flyer, close to her chest.
Before her is a statue of two people, one of which is pulling the other out of a hole while holding onto a small wind turbine. A discarded pickaxe is lying on the ground.
The woman looks uncertain, but there's a hopeful glimmer in her eye.

In the background is a building the second floor of which looks drastically different from the first: it's much more colorful and imaginative. The text on the building reads "Community Center"

Digital illustration of a rooftop vegetable garden under a semi-transparent solar panel, lit by the morning sun. Behind it we see a vibrant residential tower, and yet further - a park still bathed in gentle shadows, as well as a train bridge.

Three people are in the foreground next to the raised garden beds. A grandmother is sitting on a stool, explaining something to the curious child who's crouching nearby. To the left, a girl, clearly in the middle of doing something, appears to have zoned out and is now looking into the distance, fiddling with her necklace.
A watering can is dripping on the thin stone-tiled path nearby.

Have a reader on your gift list? We’ll be 50 Indie authors available to personalize and sign our books. And since it’s at the Westbrook Outlet, you can pick up other gifts too! My books, taking place in a future ice age, even fit the season!❄️
(And if you’re in #WordWeavers, we could meet in person!)
#HolidayGifts #Books #reading #Readers #scifi #Fantasy #Hopepunk

Image of over thirty book covers around a flyer with the following information:
Connecticut Christmas Market! WESTBROOK OUTLETS & CONNECTICUT BOOK FESTIVALS: HolidayAuthor Celebration! 50+ CONNECTICUT AUTHORS. WESTBROOK OUTLETS. DEC. 21, 2024 11a - 4pm. 314 Flat Rock Place Westbrook, CT

Branwen OShea (she/her)

Just got an email that my future ice age book, The Calling, was nominated for three awards in the 2024 Indie Ink Awards!
(Best Cover, Best Setting, and Wittiest Character)

If anyone wants to check out The Calling, here you go! (and notice the amazingly detailed artwork by @raifiondella!)

#FindingHumanitySeries #scifi #hopepunk #fantasy #youngadultbooks #author #authors

https://books2read.com/FindingHumanityBook1

Author’s hand holding a paperback of The Calling outside. The cover features a teen exiting a massive elevator into a nighttime Arctic landscape. Far in the distance, on the snow, sits a strange star.

Susan Kaye Quinn

First batch of signed #solarpunk paperbacks shipped out!

I love that people are gifting these stories of hopeful climate fiction to the people they love (including themselves!).

Still some left: signed paperbacks at cost
https://susankayequinn.com/signed-paperbacks-at-cost

#solarpunk #hopepunk #climateFiction #ClimateChange

Two bags of envelopes of hopeful climate fiction: I'm sending out signed copies of both a collection of short stories (Halfway to Better) and the first in a novel series (When You Had Power).

Branwen OShea (she/her)

💫Great Holiday Gift for Teens!💫

❄️Enemies forced to cooperate
❄️Saving a sibling
❄️First contact
❄️Touch of paranormal
❄️A nonviolent badass female MC
❄️Found family
❄️Usurped love triangle trope

#scifi #hopepunk #fantasy #books #youngadult #aliens #iceage #FindingHumanitySeries #reads #reading

https://books2read.com/FindingHumanityBook1

Cartoon drawing of a nighttime Arctic landscape with a brown bear cub looking up at the sky where there’s the book, The Calling
Story summary: In a future ice age, Bleu's expedition team emerges from their subterranean haven to discover húmans are no longer the dominant life form on Earth. THE CALLING by BRANWEN OSHEA

Branwen OShea (she/her)

50% off!

The humans of Northern Haven reluctantly ally with the mysterious star beings, hoping to gain help finding other survivors of the new ice age. Instead, they discover a fierce, new threat that sheds doubt on everything they know of their new allies.

#fantasy ##scifi #hopepunk #aliens #amwriting #books #youngadultbooks #sale #onsale

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QFPHQVN

A hand holding a paperback of The Chasm by Branwen OShea in front of matching white wild flowers. The cover is mostly yellows and oranges due to a sunset. An unarmed star being woman in arctic leather and fur stands in an icy chasm looking up defiantly at a black helicopter pointing its guns at her.

Lemon

An illustration for a certain thing that also functions as cover art for two episodes of the #solarpunkPrompts podcast :] This was quite a challenge, and I think it turned out pretty cozy

(And #thebikeisdoingjustfine)

#art #illustration #solarpunk #hopepunk #hackerspace #makerspace #hacking #making #disability #disabled #accessibility #rightToRepair #futurism #wholesome #myArt

Branwen OShea (she/her)

I started writing The Calling at the original heyday of dystopian literature (2011), and specifically wrote it to seem in the beginning like a “Dystopian, chosen one” trope that later gets usurped to “Hopepunk, no chosen one, everyone is responsible,” … 1/2

#hopepunk #scifi #dystopian #humanity #nonviolence #violence #peace #fantasy #FindingHumanitySeries

Image of a paperback and ebook of The Calling in front of a spiral galaxy. The cover features a teen exiting a massive elevator and looking out into a dark, arctic landscape. In the distance, a strange star in on the snow.

Branwen OShea (she/her) replied to Branwen OShea (she/her)'s status

…because I felt we all needed new stories where each of us can affect things and make a difference, where society CAN change to overcome violence, & we CAN live in harmony with our planet. It’s multiple POV because the real MC is all of humanity.
To learn more:

In a future ice age, Bleu’s expedition team emerges from their subterranean haven to discover humans are no longer the dominant life form on Earth.

#hopepunk #scifi #FindingHumanitySeries

https://books2read.com/FindingHumanityBook1

A paperback of The Calling is held outside over a snowbank. The cover features a teen exiting a massive elevator into a dark arctic landscape. In the distance, a strange star rests on the snow.

Susan Kaye Quinn

Threaten the status quo brutality of the world with your art, friends.

#solarpunk #hopepunk #ClimateChange #fascism

Image of crops burning and me with a little bucket of water.
World on Fire
me writing my little hopepunk stories

Branwen OShea (she/her)

Why I like rereading my own series:
❄️I love how Bleu never gives up on saving his little sister, Ayanna
❄️I love how, ultimately, Ayanna sort of saves herself
❄️I love how Rana, when faced with vicious hate, counters it with love and wins.
If interested in learning more, here’s the first book:

https://books2read.com/FindingHumanityBook1

#scifi #hopepunk #hope #love #fantasy #books #amwriting #writing #oc #lovewins #reading #amreading #amreadingya

Rana, a 16 year old star being with amber thick amber braid, blue eyes with horizontal pupils, and wearing arctic clothing of leather and fur. Behind her are stars and snow.

Ink drawing of 15 year old Ayanna. She’s wearing an off the shoulder dress with a large pendant on a chain around her neck. Her hair is long, black curls, and she has an overall impish slight smile.

Bleu is an 18 year old male with light brown skin, short black hair, and hazel eyes. He’s wearing an orange parka with fur around the hood. The hood is back. Behind him is the blue sky he was named for and always wanted to see.

C. R. Collins

#FediBookFair

Tales of Ardonna is a #HopePunk #Fantasy series spanning 3 timelines set in a world where humans are not dominant. 🌳🌲🌴 It consists of a core trilogy with standalone sequels & prequels.

Ebooks are available through multiple vendors or you can buy direct where they are always discounted. No DRM. For more info, purchase links, & maps visit:

https://crcollins.org

#FoundFamily #Polyamory #Magic #Trees #Dragons #Shifters

Tales of Ardonna book tree showing 3 timelines. Branches on top left have the Mage Era books: River's Roar and Giants' Gate. Branches middle right is Dragon Age with the Song of Jade subseries - Red Wolf and Hidden Kingdom. Lowest branches and trunk is Modern Era with the Woodspell Series and sequels Chasing Sunset and Midnight Crow, plus a placeholder for final sequel in 2025

Novel Exploration

Just finished reading Branwen O'Shea's The Calling

Now what am I going to do?

It had me reading and reading in the middle of the night when I should have been asleep and if that is not the definition of a good book, I don't know what is. Complex. Inventive. Rich in imagination. Packed with characters you would want as your friends (and a few you wouldn't). Excellent

https://branwenoshea.com

@BranwenOShea #TheCalling #BranwenOShea #FindingHumanitySeries #amReading #YA #HopePunk #Sifi

Branwen OShea (she/her)

Smol cat. Big story.

(And yes, there’s cats in it-future ice agewhite lions.)

https://books2read.com/FindingHumanityBook1

#cat #cats #scifi #hopepunk #ya #reading #books

A long-haired, dark grey cat sits next to a copy of a book, The Calling, and looks up at the camera. While the book looks small next to the cat, it’s over 500 pages of an epic future ice age adventure.

Novel Exploration

The thing with HopePunk, it assumes the worst before it looks for the best - the disaster has happened but there are good people doing good things

Is that fair?

I'd rather disaster never happened so I want to write stories that motivate people to help prevent things getting worse but it's a tough one to sell. Somehow you have to elevate the mundane, ordinary business of being human in a f**ked-up world into an engaging, exciting story

What would I call it? OptimistPunk?

#amWriting #HopePunk