Mel / MJ (she/they)

@emjayenzed.bsky.social

201 Followers 225 Following

I’m a queer, autistic, disabled, elder Millenial Pākehā from Aotearoa New Zealand. I read 200+ books a year, play World of Warcraft, and spend way too much time solving genealogy mysteries. “The Earth is our mother / we must take care of her.”

The fit, featuring a Zandalari troll paladin with pink hair
Entering the cafe level, with seating areas, bookshelves and a fireplace
Wooden stairs leading up, with a ”Kafa” sign on the right-hand wall pointing up
Entryway to the house/bookstore!
Screenshot of a building in the World of Warcraft MMORPG. It is the interior of a bookshop, with a book sign overhead and stairs that lead off to the left, up to a cafe. There’s lots of wood, red, purple and gold tones.
2025 reading wrap-up summary for my StoryGraph account, showing that I finished 146 books & my top genre was Fantasy.
Picture of the “solved” result of a Clues By Sam logic puzzle game, showing that the game on Nov 11th, 2025 was solved in 3 minutes 22 seconds.
Photo of a stack of new trade paperback books including “The Rose Field” by Philip Pullman, “The Book of Elsewhere” by Keanu Reeves & China Miéville, “The Waiting” by Michael Connelly and “The Raven Scholar” by Antonia Hodgson
Two Fighting Fantasy adventure game books
Photo of the trade paperback edition of “Katabasis” by R.F. Kuang; featuring a black and white cover with gold foiled accents. The book rests on a paper bag, and a cardboard bookmark branded with the details of the Time Out Bookstore in Mount Eden, Auckland, rests atop the cover.
Photo of Ronald Allen, a lean, bearded white man, leaning against the driver’s door of a rust-spotted pale blue Jeep.
Photo of a white lighthouse at Cape Reinga in the very north of New Zealand, set against a very blue sky with bush & grass-covered hillside in the background. In the foreground is a sign post with yellow branches pointing in the direction of, and listing distances to, the Equator, Sydney, Bluff, Suva, the Tropic of Capricorn, and Panama. Photo copyright Mel Allen
Photo of a dark-needled tree growing out of patchy green grass, framing a soft blue ocean and clouded sky.
Photo of the moon rising at sunset in a pastel-toned sky, over a calm seaside and suburb.
Closeup photo of a black and white tuxedo cat lying on his side on a white quilt, holding a small neon yellow felt ball. His eyes are mostly closed because he is tired and happy from chasing the ball for 15 minutes.
A big black and white cat rolls around on the carpeted floor of a darkened room, playing with a neon yellow wool ball stuffed with catnip.
Photo of a pōhutukawa tree in bloom, with red flowers bright against a summery blue sky. The tree is rooted in a grassy bank that leads down to the white sand seashore at Little Manly Bay in Whangaparāoa, New Zealand.
A black and white tuxedo cat is being held upside down by a barely visible person. His mouth is opened slightly & two little fangs are visible. He has long white whiskers and greenish yellow eyes.
Libro.fm app playing the audiobook of “The Dawnhounds” by Sascha Stronach
Cover of “Nona the Ninth” by Tamsyn Muir. Image features a girl with her dark hair braided, smiling softly. She wears a graphic tee shirt and an oversized coat sliding down her arms. In one hand she carries a gas mask. In the background are skeletons and a dog with six legs, sand dunes, and an ominous night sky full of stars and a moon or planet.
The cover of “Paladin’s Grace”, a romantic fantasy novel by Hugo Award winning author T Kingfisher. The design features motifs from the book, including a sword and knitting needles, in blue, green and purple on a black background.
A pine wood bookshelf showing four individual shelves. The top two are full of books, as is the one at the bottom. The third shelf down contains assorted medications, skincare items and a small mirror.
The cover of “All The Weyrs of Pern” by Anne McCaffrey featuring a large white dragon perched on a console inside a space ship and a smaller, gold fire lizard pressing buttons on a keyboard with its muzzle. A large window behind looks out towards a blue planet. My hand is visible as I hold the book up in front of a bookshelf.
The cover of the 1993 paperback edition of “The White Dragon” by Anne McCaffrey, featuring an illustration of a pale dragon perched on a rock cliff edge, with his rider standing beside. The book is battered around the edges & looks well-read.
Photo of a black and white tuxedo cat laying on his side on carpet, staring at the camera with his front paws crossing.
The rear of a Kindle Paperwhite, covered in 3 stickers made by artist Pepper Raccoon. One is a flag in bi pride colours with the words “I’m tired”. One is a human skull with glasses that have the letter X etched on the lenses, and around the edge it says “Bad eyes, good taste club”. The last is a tattoo-style sword surrounded by mini skulls and diamonds, and the words “Fck around, find out”.
Cover of The Grimmelings by Rachael King, featuring a girl with long dark hair looking directly at the viewer, in front of a huge black horse, framed by a moody sky.
Photo of the head of a black and white cat which is being held upside down, with his fangs showing.
Photo of Lake Rotorua at sunset, where the water reflects the soft peachy pink of the sun-lit clouds and the pastel blue of the dusk sky. The lake is framed by greenery and flowers in the foreground, and hills in the back.
Screencap of my Ancestry ethnicity estimate that shows I’m 48% English, 20% Welsh, 9% Scottish, 7% Germanic European, 6% Danish, 5% Irish, 3% Norwegian, and 2% Portuguese.
Photo of a small pagan altar that shows a grey resin statue of the goddess Diana holding a crescent shaped bow above her head, surrounded by a small black bowl containing water, a smokey quartz point crystal, pink flowered lavender in an iridescent vase, a lit incense stick in a holder, and a lit beeswax candle in a silver candlestick covered in was drips.
Screenshot of a book called “The Butcher of the Forest” by Premee Mohamed in the Libby library app. The book cover is dark, in tones of green & black, dotted with red apples, and also features orange-gold woodland creatures and a unicorn, except their heads have been replaced by skulls. The Libby app shows that the eBook was returned to the library today.
Cover of a book called The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, with the tagline “A peculiar crime. A brilliant investigator. A mystery of epic proportions.” The design shows a red sky above a giant wall with a crack in it, and with giant fungi and weird foliage in the foreground.
A black and white tuxedo cat laying asleep on his side atop a blue blanket.
A screenshot of a Storygraph page showing my 2024 reading goal of 200 books has been met.
Photo of a page from a book, showing a portrait of a bearded white man named K. B. Ferguson, who was a farmer in Blueskin Bay New Zealand.