Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet

@rr4idic.bsky.social

120 Followers 77 Following

Sci-fi/fantasy writer by night, data scientist by day, astrophysicist by training, Star Trek fan all the time. Author of THE CLOAK AND ITS WIZARD, available from book purveyors near you. See the ol' blog at rznicolet.com

A screenshot from the game Songs of Silence. Part of the map is shrouded under fog of war; part appears to be devastated and barren. In the center is a big, black spherical wormhole entrance (a "purgatory" in the game's lingo) circled by ominous red lights.
A framed poster which is a blueprint for the exterior of the USS Enterprise D, from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's got multiple views and lots of labels, including the Bussard collector!
The Romulan Way, a Star Trek novel by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood. The cover features Dr. McCoy and pretty (apparently) Romulan woman on a dark background. There's also an inset with the two of them running and some spaceship stuff.
Several brightly colored phlox flowers, along with some that have yet to unfurl. They're five-petaled and just a little too purple for me to call them magenta. In the blurry background, it's clear the plant has variegated leaves with pale golden edges, and it's not from the heat we've had lately.
A pair of plants with variegated leaves (golden on the edges), that might be phlox plants. The one on the left is noticeably smaller; the one on the right is out of focus on top, but may have buds.
Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care & Feeding of British Dragons, by Quenby Olson. A deep brown dragon with paler undersides, yellow slitted eyes, and a mischievous grin peeks out from a stony egg.
Cover of "The Cloak and Its Wizard," by R. Z. Nicolet (aka that book I wrote). The background is mostly teal, with a few faded watermark-ish doodles of strange creatures; the starry cloak hangs off the letter "O" while the wizard leans against the edge of the bottom right cover. She's graying and perhaps wearing scrubs.
Death by Silver, by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold. The cover has fancy silver writing and borders, and focuses on two men in 19th century clothing: one dark haired, and the other light. The light-haired man's right hand is raised and glowing with some kind of magical fire or some such.
The Cloak and Its Wizard, by R. Z. Nicolet. The starry cloak is hanging from the letter "O" in the title, while a woman with graying hair and maybe wearing scrubs leans against the lower-right edge. The background is teal, with a few faded something-or-anothers in it.
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. An astronaut attached to a tether falls backwards above a yellow-and-black backdrop.
A box, a small table layout, and a bunch of cards and dice and little silver boxes for counters. A Black woman with a torn uniform features on one of the cards, as does what looks like a brontosaurus made of plants. There's more game than fits in this picture.
A beach scene. An enormous , winged humanoid alien with glowing lights for a face looms from the clouds over a pair of aliens (Birrin) looking up at it. The title on the cover is "Other Worlds," and it's shiny.
If Wishes Were Retail, by Auston Habershaw. Much of the cover is blocked by the interlibrary loan paperwork, but you can see the red jinn with black hair, black mustache, and a shirt with torn-off sleeves and a name tag.
A squirrel sitting in a tree, seen from below. It may be hard to see through the leaves, but it's munching a whole piece of pizza.
Radiant Star, by Ann Leckie. The title runs across the middle of the book, surrounding by stylized blue arches above and gold arches below. The lower arches surround an eight-pointed star; the upper, a triangle with a while splotch that probably represents something from the book, though I'm not sure what.
My DIY cover for the short story you can get through my newsletter! The title is "Breaking the Ice," in pale blue on a black background. A white, glow-y sketch of a creature made of many blobs and tentacles and sketchy labels swims on the cover, holding a measuring device of some sort. The story's by me (under R. Z. Nicolet).
A circular bed filled with dramatically purple irises. There's easily a couple dozen of them.
A weird little plant growing in bare dirt. Its leaves are arranged in a four-points pattern. Each leaf is green in the center, and golden at the edges -- and that golden color doesn't look like damage.
A circular patch of irises, of which only a few have bloomed. There are many very promising buds.
A pair of very large, very purple iris blossoms.
A phlox, with purple five-petaled flowers, some stalks of which have been munched.
There are some other plants in the foreground, but the main thing is the lilac covered in tiny pink flowers. Not pictured: it smells amazing.
Another columbine with multiple blossoms; the petals are paler, with the inner petals a light lavender, resulting in a pleasing contrast.
A columbine with multiple very purple, very fancy flowers. There are ten petals, with five smaller inner ones, and very yellow pollen.
A fake title card for the original series of Star Trek. The Enterprise is orbiting a purple-green-ish planet. The fake title says "Are Kirk's Shirts Lower Quality Fabric Than Everyone Else's?"
A fake title card for Star Trek: The Next Generation, with the Enterprise flying in front of a planet. The fake title says "Dr. Pulaski Has Dubious Medical Ethics."
A fake title card for an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, showing the upper side of the starship under the title "Are We There Yet?"
A generated fake title card for an episode of the original series of Star Trek. The Enerprise orbits a habitable planet. The title says "I'm Wearing A Red Shirt And I Have Regrets."
A (non-AI) generated title image from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, showing the station in the background, and with "You Know, It's That One Episode Where They..." as the fake episode title.
A screenshot of a "jelly ring" from Subnautica 2. It's a gian ring with little finny/tentacle-y things trailing off of it, glowing with its own bioluminescence. It's a colonial organism inspired by siphonophores, which means it's awesome. Also likes hanging out around hydrothermal vents.
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, by T. Kingfisher. In addition to a the title in a somewhat irregular font, there's an angry gingerbread man holding a sword on the cover.
A wide promo picture for Subnautica 2. A pair of divers shine a flashlight into the water, checking out a school of fish... and an incoming giant claw. Two glowing spots on a giant monster loom in the distance.
Close-up of a columbine, which have five large, pointy, light purple petals outside of five more rounded, off-white petals, and a big poof of yellow pollen-producing stamens, all above a bunch of cheery green leaves and stems and a couple other promising buds. There's a wooden fence in the blurry background.
A picture of Emperor of Ruin, by Django Wexler. Most of the cover image is covered up by the interlibrary loan sticker, but you can see some old architecture in the background above a deep, glowing pit.
The cover of the House of Sundering Flames, by Aliette de Bodard. The cover is mostly red, with what looks like a silver engraving of a burning building topped by a hawk. Behind it lurks a tiger in front of billowing flames. Below are a few flowers.
A pollen count chart for Austin, MN, which was as close as I could find to the Twin Cities. There's no pollen present... except for tree pollen, which has a dial all the way into the red on the right hand side, a numerical score of 1716 (over twice the 746 or so of the last one), and a "Very High Concentration" rating.
A single light purple phlox flower on top of its stalk, all five petals neatly arranged. Several other furled buds are nearby on the same plant. There's chickenwire in the background, because rabbits.
A screenshot from the National Allergy Bureau, showing the Austin, MN station (closest to where I live). All the measures are low... except for the fricking tree pollen, with is over in the "high" zone with a concentration of 743, whatever the units are supposed to be.
Blood of the Chosen, by Django Wexler. A lot of the cover is hidden by a big interlibrary loan sticker. There are some big flaming braziers in front of an ominous, blue-tinted underground location that's filled with old architecture.
Brigands & Breadknives, by Travis Baldree. A rattkin sits on a cart, quill in hand and parchment in lap. A pot hangs over a fire. A goblin stands next to the fire. She has startling red hair, a patchwork coat, very sharp teeth, and something that's not quite a chicken on top of her head. Behind the goblin stands an elf with white hair and one long pointy ear, cleaning a huge sword with an impractically spiky pommel.
A trio of small snapdragon plants, sitting in individual black plastic pots on a windowsill, leaning towards the window like they wanted to get out there.
Death by Silver, by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold. The cover has what looks like fancy silver columns around the edge, surrounding the two protagonists. On the left is a dark-haired man; on the right, a light-haired man with some kind of white glowy flame thing around his raised right hand. Both are wearing 19th-century style suits and look very dapper. (And yes, they very much do a Sherlock and Holmes with romance during the book.)
Empire in Black and Gold, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A golden wasp appears in the center of the cover, on a black background, surrounded by flaring embers. At the bottom is the subtitle "The Days of Peace are Over."
The Cloak and Its Wizard, by R. Z. Nicolet (the pen name). The cloak hangs from the letter "o", while the wizard sits in the lower right. (She might be tired.)
A snapdragon seedling in a pot much bigger than it currently needs, with four little leaves and a start on the next pair.
A bunch of light-brown cookies with crinkled surfaces, on a metal cooling rack above black tile.
A cluster of very curled-up tulip leaves emerge from the brown, dead dirt. A bunch of leaves from last fall are in the back-left, mostly maple and oak.
A pair of small pots, full of soil, resting on a windowsill. The ground outside the window is blurry and covered in white snow. Inside the pots, if you look closely, are a couple of tiny seedlings.
A box full of copies of The Cloak and Its Wizard.
Over twenty round cookies sitting on a cooling rack. They're all brown; the ones on the left have dramatic cracks, while the ones on the right only have small cracks. Imagine you can smell the mingled scents of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
A mostly black-and-which cover, with Drive: the scifi comic in white print in a little red box in the lower center. It's by Dave Kellet. There are a ton of characters on the front, many of whom are aliens looking concerned about the angry human at the podium in the middle, or maybe the alien looming behind him. There are also spaceships and a planet getting slightly smashed.
The Cloak and Its Wizard, by R. Z. Nicolet. In other words, it's the cover of my book again. The cloak is still hanging on the letter "O", and the wizard is sitting in the bottom-right corner in what looks like scrubs.
Forged for Destiny, by Andrew Knighton: A Heroic Fantasy with a Chosen One Twist. A blade hangs in front of a silver crescent moon surrounded by flames.
The cover of The Cloak and Its Wizard, by R. Z. Nicolet, with the titular cloak and wizard hanging around the title. On a red background behind the cover, there's a trope list, which includes: * Strangers to Friends * No Hugging, No Kissing (okay, some hugs) * Found Family * Hero Insurance * Empathic Weapon (crossed out) Clothing * Resigned to the Call * Clingy MacGuffin * Fantasy Kitchen Sink * Snarky Non-Human Sidekick (note: the cloak would object to being called a side-kick)
"Blood for the Undying Throne" by Sung-Il Kim, translated by Anton Hur. A woman with dark clothing and violet-tinted black hair streaming to the side stands near the center, in front of a yellow circle, hands outstretched. A spiky golden crown floats over her right hand; a book hovers over her left. Behind her is a dark figure on a creepy throne. Behind the throne are a trio of coffins; behind them, more coffins appear to fly through a magenta background. The whole thing has amazing color contrasts.
An email from a sketchy gmail address, claiming to have recently explored "The Cloak and Its Wizard" (no, you haven't, you're not on the ARC list) which says: "I recently explored The Cloak and Its Wizard, and I was charmed by its whimsical, imaginative, and humor-filled fantasy world. Veronica Noble’s reluctant journey alongside a mischievous, sentient cloak creates a story that’s entertaining, inventive, and full of heart. The book’s mix of magic, humor, and high-stakes adventure makes it a delight for readers who enjoy clever, character-driven fantasy." It's pretty obviously genAI regurgitation of the book's blurb.
Slayers of Old, by Jim C. Hines. We see the lower half of a man wearing orange pants, leaning on a cane. A black cat walks between his legs. The cat has six eyes on its face and several tentacles emerging from its haunches.
"The Cloak and Its Wizard," by R. Z. Nicolet. The titular cloak is hung on the letter "O"; the title is white letters on a teal background. The cloak is red outside, blue inside, with starry coloring. A gray-haired woman in scrubs sits in the lower-right corner.
A pair of candles on retaining walls bordering a set of concrete steps, glowing amidst the dark and snow. Cropped to make a wide image and omit the neighbor's car.
Baking Bad, by Kim M. Watt. The background of the cover is teal. At the top, it says "Beaufort Scales: A Cozy Mystery (with dragons)". A lopsided cupcake is silhouetted above the title; underneath, a bottle of poison. In the background, we see the shadow of a spooky church.