Jules

@julesanew.bsky.social

432 Followers 800 Following

Scientist, teacher, writer, Dodgers fan, parent, music lover. Mostly bookposting, baseball posting, a smattering of science and politics. Gender? That's a question I don't have an answer to.

A small blond child (wee knight) in costume armor with a costume sword.
Moodboard for The Shadows WIP. Upper left: Illustration of a crowded, cramped city alley. Upper mid: Four black-clad people with face masks in a warehouse. Upper right: Shadowed cobblestone alley with someone at the mouth sweeping. Mid left. Two memes. "A niche character trope I like is the person who is nice, a good person and acts well-adjusted, then they do something where it's like oh you're secretly a little bit insane actually. Middle: A shadowed portrait of a woman with sparks coming out of her hands. Mid right: A meme: Original poster: "80% exhaustion 10% sarcasm %20 don't care" Reply poster: "that's 110 percent". OP: "20% of me doesn't care." RP: "should've seen that coming." Bottom left: Warmly lit storefront doorway on a cobblestone street. Bottom mid: Painting of fancy buildings on islands floating well above the ground. Bottom right: Cramped thrift store with shopkeeper.
Audiobook screen of All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan.
“Welcome in,” she said, putting on her best customer service smile. “Can I help you find anything?” The person looked vaguely familiar, but she saw so many people in the course of her job and her other work in the district that almost everyone looked vaguely familiar. They were short and round with an open cheerful face and dark pageboy-styled hair. “Oh!” they said, startling. They wore a pair of eyeglasses, the lenses spotted and smudged, rimmed by tarnished metal. They nudged the glasses higher on their nose, but still squinted in Ania’s direction. “Apologies,” they said with a breathy laugh. “I wasn’t looking for anything for myself.” They leaned forward to add in a stage whisper, “Unless you have a better pair of eyeglasses.” Ania wrestled with telling them that a good cleaning cloth might go a long way toward helping, but they went on before she could say anything. “I’m actually here to make a donation.” “Oh!” Ania said, pleased and surprised both. “Wonderful. We always appreciate a donation.” She looked them over once again, this time with new eyes. They didn’t carry a bag or a box or any of the other things people typically brought donations in. “Is it… something you have with you?” The customer laughed. “Oh no. Heavens no. That would be a challenge.” But they didn’t explain any further. Ania felt like she was somehow missing half the conversation. Trying to regain her balance, she settled her smile once again. “Well then. Maybe let’s go to the counter and figure out how we can take care of it?” she said. She put her hand over the left side of her chest in greeting. “I’m Ania, the owner.” She turned to lead the way further into the store. The customer chuckled warmly. “Oh, I know who you are,” they said as they followed, but once again, didn’t take the next step and offer their own name.
Concept art of a gloomy fantasy city alleyway.
Every once in a while, everything aligned and the store was busy from opening to close. The three of them were constantly moving: helping customers, restocking shelves, cleaning up messes. "You should sit down," Mallack said to Ania as he rehung a collection of shirts that a customer had tried on earlier. Ania, across the rack from him, said, "I'm fine." He didn't look at her, focusing on putting the shirts back with others of the same size. "Mm hm. That hip you're favoring would argue the point." Ania looked up at him with exasperation. "There's too much to do." She gestured with her chin toward a new customer coming through the door. "I'll be fine." Mallack looked up, one eye narrowing. "That's different than 'I'm fine'." "Sun warm me, I wish I had something to throw at you right now," Ania said under her breath as she moved deliberately toward the door to greet the newcomer. Her hip was throbbing, but she certainly wasn't going to give Mallack the pleasure of seeing her limp.
Passengers on the Axiom spaceship from the Pixar movie Wall-E. The passengers sit in hoverchairs drinking liquid food and watching screens all day, doing nothing at all for themselves.
A screenshot of the Libby app showing that the user’s library has acquired 4 more copies of the audiobook of Alix E. Harrow’s The Everlasting since they placed their hold, with 7 copies available in total. Libraries buy books! Those are sales for the authors.
An ad poster for the obscure and cancelled TV show Battle Creek showing the two leads (Dean Winters -- the Mayhem guy from Allstate commercials) and Josh Duhamel each holding a cup of coffee. A bullet streaks across the image, blowing a whole in Winters' cup but missing Duhamel's.
Magica Riot by Kara Buchanan on the bookstore shelf.
The cover of Woodworking by Emily St. James. The image shows a haphazard pile of school desks in a classroom.