Tabitha 🐀

@tabithawrites.itch.io

957 Followers 328 Following

Writer & editor, animal lover, local history & architecture nerd, queer fiction fan | Ace & agender | 🚫 genAI | ey/em or they/them Books: tabithaoconnell.com Interactive fiction: alyshkalia.itch.io

text showing example of bibliography entries with author name on one line and then publication year, a tab, title, and publisher on the line below
cover of "Structural Integrity" by Tabitha O'Connell. The illustration depicts a young man walking toward an ornate wooden door looking back over his shoulder and holding out his hand to a man who stands in the lower left corner, his head and shoulders visible from the back. surround the cover are phrases: m/m romance, trans, ace-spec MC, supportive family, anxiety rep, angst & sweetness, existing relationship, communication, class difference
arrow graphic with book cover of "Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin" by Tabitha O'Connell in the center. It has a border of leaves and red roses, with the title text in a decorative font taking up most of the space. The title is overlaid on a castle with a blue sky behind it. in the foreground is the back of a person with short hair in a plain shirt standing facing the castle. arrow text around it reads: low heat, snarky x patient, nonbinary MC, yearning, magic plants, bonding over books, mom who meddles (crossed out) tries to help, loose Beauty and the Beast retelling, getting out of a bad relationship.
Text: Characters figuring out their Queer/ Neurodivergent/ Disabled selves. Figuring it out Bundle: 17 books for $16. July 12th to 31st, Itch.io. Covers bordering text: This Is How Immortals Die, Nic Hidalgo. Bad Memory, M.A. Melby. Dragon's Soul, J.F.R. Coates. A Designer Magick, Stefanie Carter. Lucifer's Favour, Tessa Hastjarjanto. Countering the Hands of Crime (Sythe Series #2), Elise Carlson. Bleeding Gold, Niranjan. The Baptism is Long but the Song is Everlasting, Rob MacWolf. Our Simulated Selves, Nikki Null. Rin in Time Immemorial, L’Poni. Giving in to Gravity, Avery Bridge. A Life in Too Many Margins, S. E. Thomson. What Lies Within, Issy Waldrom. A Demon to Save Me (Found Humanity #1), H.S. Kallinger. Blood of the Gods, Wren L. Rivers. The Protector and the Annihilation, Naila Moonsi. Structural Integrity, Tabitha O'Connell.
cover of "Structural Integrity" by Tabitha O'Connell. The illustration depicts a young man walking toward an ornate wooden door looking back over his shoulder and holding out his hand to a man who stands in the lower left corner, his head and shoulders visible from the back.
book cover for "Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin" by Tabitha O'Connell. It has a border of leaves and red roses, with the title text in a decorative font taking up most of the space. The title is overlaid on a castle with a blue sky behind it. in the foreground is the back of a person with short hair in a plain shirt standing facing the castle.
book cover of TORMENT: A GOTHIC ANTHOLOGY, curated by Juniper Lake Fitzgerald. A pale, veiny hand with red knuckles tears through the black cover to reveal a red background
covers of Structural Integrity and Structural Strain by Tabitha O'Connell with text: "Kel: messenger boy - cinnamon roll - people-pleaser. Yaan: government official - anxious mess - conflict-avoider. First they need to confront their issues... then they have to actually work on them."
Graphic with text reading: OUT NOW A TIMELESS COLLECTION OF QUEER GOTHIC TALES TORMENT: A GOTHIC ANTHOLOGY CURATED BY JUNIPER LAKE FITZGERALD
graphic with text and image of the book TORMENT: A GOTHIC ANTHOLOGY, curated by Juniper Lake Fitzgerald. Cover depicts a pale, veiny hand with red knuckles tearing through the black cover to reveal a red background. Text reads: Coming March 10, 2026. ARC sign-ups open now!
graphic with text reading: Trans People Take on the World. Nov 1-15, Itchio. below are 32 book covers: The Strangers Sanctuary, S.E. Robertson What Lies Within, Issy Waldon Synthetic Sea, Franklyn S. Newton Non-Player Character, Veo Corva A Life in Too Many Margins, S.E. Thomson Like Salt and Whi Sky, Merlina Garance A Memory of Blood and Magic, K.N. Brindle My Personal Trainer Cracked My Egg, Fern V. Bedek Enemies to Enemies, Ash Kreider The Poison Fruits, E.M. Haegar The Thread That Binds, Cedar McCloud The Wings of Ashtaroth, Steve Hugh Westenra The Elysium Proposal, A.E. Bross Structural Integrity, Tabitha O'Connell Songs of Broken Bells, Lilly Lockwood Echo Sight, Cian Verath The Uncontinented Stars, Haden Cross Between You, Me and the Moonlit Sea, Linn Silver Secondhand Origin Storie, Lee Brontide Blood On The Snow, Finn McLellan Manipulators War, Elise Carlson Powder & Feathers, Johannes T. Evans Our Simulated Selves, Nikki Null All Roads Lead to This, Kay Claire 1000Lotuses, Lotuscarp.com First Rose, Jake Vanguard A Demon to Save Me, H.S. Kallinger Dragons Soul, J.F.R. Coates Garden of Rotten Roses, Nicole Hidalgo Name Her Holy, Aubrey Ennis Baker Thief, Claudie Arsenault Illusory, M.X. Misfits
Promotional image for Ace Pride Week Bundle #2 All books in this bundle have either a major character that identifies on the ace spectrum, an ace-identifying author, or BOTH! Oct. 19-25. 26 Books, $26.00 Book covers pictured are: Non-Player Character by Veo Corva Journey Home by May Barros Triple Strike: Threads of Fate by G.M. Gray Wherever the Stars Call by S. Jean Yours Celestially by Al Hess The Star-Crossed Empire by Maya Darjani The Audacity 1 by Carmen Loup The Thirteenth Key by Cara Nox In the Eye of the Beholder by Beverly Anne Michel A Designer Magick by Stefanie Carter Bloody Spade by Brittany M. Willows Structural Integrity by Tabitha O'Connell Curse of Souls by Niranjan The Thread That Binds by Cedar McCloud Of Spells and Love by Odessa Silver Courtly Love by T.D. Cloud Song of the Wolf T.C. Smith The Dragon Next Door by Vanessa Ricci-Thode The Grand Duke's Masseur by sbdrag Blood by D.C. Hart Lantern by Burgundy Athena Pendragon Inarora's Excursion by Astrid E. Abell The Blood Divide by Zan Lowell The Towers of Nine by Alyssa Louttit Walking the Knife's Edge by Elise Carlson Junk Junction by William C. Tracy
Graphic advertising the Ace Pride Week itch.io mega bundle. Oct 19 - 25. 50+ books for $50! All books by ace authors and/or ft. ace characters across a variety of genres! riyati.ink/acepride2025 Book covers for the following books are listed top left to bottom right: Non-player Character - Veo Corva A Dragon’s Treasure - Elis Madsen The Blood Divide - Zan Lowell The Grand Duke’s Masseur Child of the Forest - Audrey Simmons Wherever the Stars Call - S. Jean How Six Saved the Grogs - Blaine D. Arden City of Strike - Claudie Arseneault In Spite of the Inevitable - Morgan Biscup Structural Integrity - Tabitha O’Connell Of Spells and Love - Odessa Silver Inarora’s Excursion - Astrid E. Abell Puppetry - Nina Waters Sidetracked - S. K. Kelley Lost Blades - Liz Sauco Claimed by the Undead - C. L. Carhart The Star-Crossed Empire - Maya Darjani Triple Strike Threads of Fate - G. M. Grey Curse of Souls - Niranjan Courtly Love - T. D. Cloud Song of the Wolf - T. C. Smith Blood - D. C. Hart Chai and Cat-tales - Lynn Strong The Thirteenth Key - Cara Nox The Dragon Next Door - Vanessa Ricci-Thode Walking the Knife’s Edge - Elise Carlson Yours Celestically - Al Hess Pet - H. S. Kallinger The One He Brought Home - Skye Kilaen Junk Junction - Sara Codair Secondhand Origin Storie - Lee Brontido Riyati Rebirth - Kai Zeal Bridges of Smoke - Julie March The Whisperer in White - Y. R. Liu In the Eye of the Beholder - Beverly Anne Michel Peace in the Sky - Caye Marsh A Spark in Space - Janina Franck Journey Home - May Barros Doce Drosera - Anita The Audacity - Carmen Loup Bloody Space - Brittany M. Willows Enemies to Enemies - Ash Kreider Devil’s Deal - Tessa Hastjarjanto Merchants of Knowledge and Magic - Erika McCorkle A Life in Too Many Margins - S. E. Thomson Where We Converge - A. E. Bross Lantern - Burgundy Athena Pendragon A Designer Magick - Fox N. Locke The Harmony of Falling Snow - Andora Brohaw The Thread That Binds - Cedar McCloud Towers of Nine - Alyssa Louttit
screenshot from r/CasualConversation posted 2 days ago by TotalThing7 Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing? I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up. Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?
photo of a white hand holding the book "The Keeper of Lonely Spirits" by E.M. Anderson
Graphic depicting 23 book covers (list below). Text reads: "New Worlds, New Adventures. September 16-22. 23 books - $25. itch.io" Books: The Kalista Chronicles: A Brave Sacrifice The Spider's Friend Shadows Dark and Deadly War Heart A Light for the Dead to Follow The Dragon Next Door Undine's Blessing Love Tales from the Borun-Ma First Snow Usurper Thief, Acolyte, Consort The Warm Machine The Star-Crossed Empire Structural Integrity Structural Strain Inarora's Excursion Song of the Wolf Hallowed 1# Cosmonaut In Spite of the Inevitable The Healer: Tales of Pern Coen The Sarcophagus of Lamia The Flame of the Dragon's Oath
Cover art for many short stories with a red and orange overlay. Text atop reads “Free Short Story Bundle. September 15th-22nd” and “20+ Stories”.
Graphic labeled "Trans books by a nonbinary author". Three books by Tabitha O'Connell are depicted: "Structural Integrity" has an illustrated cover with a young man walking toward an ornate wooden door looking back over his shoulder and holding out his hand to a man who stands in the lower left corner, his head and shoulders visible from the back. “Structural Strain” has an illustration in the same style of two men standing in front of an archway with a building in the background. One, wearing a green robe, stands right at the edge of the arch with a nervous expression, holding a suitcase in front of him. The other is in the foreground, only visible from the waist up, and is facing the first man with his hand held out. text beside these two reads "Trans man x cis man, dual POV". the third book is "Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin", which has a border of leaves and red roses, with the title text in a decorative font taking up most of the space. The title is overlaid on a castle with a blue sky behind it. in the foreground is the back of a person with short hair in a plain shirt standing facing the castle. text beside this one reads "Nonbinary MC (ey/em pronouns)". text with arrows pointing to all three reads "Strong character arcs, Cozy domestic moments, Dose of angst"
a large greek-revival-style house surrounded by vegetation. two-story columns support a massive pediment.
screenshot of bsky post by Anarchy Goose, ‪@anarchygoose.bsky.social‬, dated August 26, 2025 This is something that got lost a little in the wider Itch wildness but Itch has banned almost all queer content from the UK citing the OSA, even though that isn't what the OSA requires and almost certainly nobody asked them to. They are a wildly incompetent company, regardless of wider issues. quoted post by Ela Bambust, ‪@ela-bambust.bsky.social‬: @itch.io is this something y'all did on your end or is this the UK government because if my *page* is hidden now I'd like to know
Graphic with a book cover and short text at the top. the book is "Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin" by Tabitha O'Connell. It has a border of leaves and red roses, with the title text in a decorative font taking up most of the space. The title is overlaid on a castle with a blue sky behind it. in the foreground is the back of a person with short hair in a plain shirt standing facing the castle. text beside it reads: A queer Beauty and the Beast retelling starring a snarky nonbinary farmer struggling to end a bad relationship and a shy, sweet man stuck in a magical castle. 99 cents. below, a banner reads "Indie Book Sale. indiebook.sale. Fantasy, sci-fi-, and horror. August 23-25."
graphic with a banner over 24 book covers. banner text reads "Indie Book Sale. indiebook.sale. Fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. August 23-25"
A graphic with 25 book covers. Caption text reads: "Narratess Indie Book Sale August 2025. Short Stories & Novellas Bundle. itch.io” books depicted are: The Living Sword by Pemry Janes Tales of Lunis Aquaria by Tessa Hastjarjanto Killer Debt: An Anthology of Murder by Dianna Gunn Dame Ophis by Merlina Garance Werecockroach by Polenth Blake Running with the Wolf by Bryony Rosehurst Journey Home by May Barros Water’s Edge by Ellie Lieberman Og-Grim-Dog: The Three-Headed Ogre by Jamie Edmundson Grey Angel by Dani Finn Chai and Cat-tales by Lynn Strong Unburnt by A.M. Weald Of All the Stars by Kris Madigan Flooded Secrets by Claudie Arseneault The Selkie and the Minstrel by Elis Madsen Moral Laundry by Conrad Altmann Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin by Tabitha O’Connell Cat/Mouse: An Allied Space novella by Eliza Mares The Hand That Feeds by Sass Everett Like a Bullet to the Head by Claude Hamesh Dirt You Shall Become by Karen Lykkebo Tales of Yamato by Odessa Silver Lantern by Burgundy Athena Pendragon Dark Heart of Ilmoure by Cara N. Delaney Bad Grains by Susanne Schmidt
screenshot of a webpage showing $11,954 pledged of $15,000 goal. 99 backers, 28 hours to go.
Then, in September 1913, he went on a visit to Edward Carpenter, the prophet of the simple life and high-minded homosexuality, and he experienced a revelation. He has described what took place in his own Terminal Note (see page 235): Carpenter's friend George Merrill touched him on the backside, and the sensation, as he put it, travelled straight through the small of his back into his ideas. On the instant, an entire new novel shaped itself in his mind: it was to deal with homosexuality, would feature three main characters, and would have a happy ending.
screenshot of text: Obscenity censorship does not coalesce in a vacuum and I think it is journalistic malpractice to report on it as if a campaign’s superficial goals are the finish line. People should be fully informed on how these groups attempt to manipulate them with reasonable complaints while either neglecting to mention the scope of their own intentions or the beliefs and motivations of groups they associate with.
screenshot of text: In addition to these concerns, the de-indexing has caused a lot of confusion and misinformation. Press and players cited Consume Me and Mouthwashing as examples of affected games, but Itch had actually de-indexed both games before receiving pressure from payment processors, for unrelated reasons. The mess has caused some developers to criticize Itch fiercely, claiming the storefront should have done more, both to protect developers and warn them about what was happening. Lawhead, however, believes that Itch deserves some benefit of the doubt. "They don't have the resources that a place like Steam does," Lawhead said. "They are about as indie as I am. It's not hard to knock something like that off its feet and make it impossible for it to get back up... The only way to fight this is to understand that we are all in this together, and that includes Itch.io too."
post from ‪mady castigan ‪@madycast.com‬ every time itch lies, a trans journalist thrives! I am going to keep using your replies to fundraise for more journalism! did you know you can also support us with a monthly membership at our website? this helps us have predictable income and stability! transnews.network/upgrade. the post quote posts itch.io saying: That game still meets the criteria for deindexing, we never stated otherwise. In this case it's a game that accepts payments and has been tagged by the author as NSFW and has the addition of a tag suggesting sexual content, "eroge".
screenshot of a bluesky post by mady castigan @madycast.com from 8 hours ago. isn't it super cool when a company that supposedly supports queer people instigates harassment on a trans journalist by latching on to a gamergate-style smear campaign against her and her colleagues? I'm not going to engage with any of this. It's a complete waste of time. We stand by our reporting.
screenshot of text: "If you’ve opened up a few of these sites and grimaced at the mention of PayPal, Stripe, Mastercard, and Visa, then congrats! There’s no escaping the sweeping NSFW bans forever until we make payment processors and their banking partners back down from enforcing their puritan bullshit on us. There’s also no real replacement for itchio at this time that’s going to allow queer creators of all types of work to connect with their audiences in the same way they have in the recent past, or a place that’s going to allow so many creators to bundle up their works to fundraise for themselves or a charity. While itchio may not be perfect, it is a platform I believe is worth protecting, or at least not destroying if you actually care about the wellbeing of poor trans queer creators like us. We have got to fight for each other in all of this, or at least stop cannibalizing the folks trying to main any kind of transparency just because you’re more likely to have a conversation with them than some jackass on his sixth yacht." the second-to-last sentence is highlighted.
screenshot of text: Update: Itch.io have responded to the report from Trans News Network on Bluesky, claiming the article is "full of misinformation". "I haven't had a chance to look up everything individually, but I do want to note that we have [an] existing set of indexing rules that can impact indexing," the storefront's account wrote in a separate reply. "There are circumstances where pages may get marked as requiring human review before being eligible for indexing. This is completely independent of the indexing eligibility change for adult works."
screenshot of posts from mady castigan @madycast.com: This particular staffer has spent days lying that Itch isn't delisting non NSFW games and defending Itch's decisions in a condescending tone to community members in their discord. while weaponizing their identity as a queer artist to try to stifle community dissent. [screenshots from discord, text is small and hard to read] mady goes on: my personal stance: obviously don't harass this staffer, but I think it's bad when higher income/less marginalized trans women weaponize their identities to justify the oppression of poorer trans and queer people and defend corporations, and worth calling out! this is exactly why we criticize Sarah McBride, and equally goes for all queer people or POC who weapons their identities to protect corporate interests or fascists. you either stick with us and fight, or take the side Of corporations over the hungry queer artists being starved by their decisions.
post by mira @thefreeradical.org Krispycat responded to me, I reached out to her for private comment. Go give her a follow, by the way, and support her games - she's caught up in the middle of this, so we may as well support an indie queer dev. @butterflylatte.bsky.social two images are attached
Mira ‪@thefreeradical.org‬ anytime a minority figure whose doing a harmful action / is complicit in some sort of oppressive bs is criticized, you'll see people come in troves arguing that their minority status means that you cant criticize them, actually, and are bad for doing so. ignore them - traitorqueers arent our pals people did this for mcbride, and now they're doing it for some itch transfem staffer that my colleague criticized. they've done it in the past for abusers in DSA, people have done it for ppl i have personal beef with, people have done it in orgs like PSL to cover up abuse, etc etc etc
post by mady castigan ‪@madycast.com‬ controversial opinion but spending hours ginning up a massive hate mob by lying about a transfem of color journalist to all your followers in order to defend a corporation that is actively destroying the lives of dozens of poor trans people actually doesn't make you woke
post from mira @thefreeradical.org: fully can vouch for this, btw. mady's an amazing person and friend whose used her own personal income to help keep myself and many other queer journos off the streets. she rocks, and everyone attacking her for daring to criticize another transfem is a POS mady castigan @madycast.com replies: thanks Mira 💖 I guess it was inevitable I would get the attention of the dogpile mob out here for daring to call out all people whose actions harm trans people, even if they are trans themselves. ironically, they're engaging in exactly the act they think I'm engaging in (dogpiling a trans woman of color for doing nothing wrong) If I'm ever publicly defending any entity who hurts trans people as their representative, you all have full permission to call me out and compare me to McBride.
screenshot of bluesky post from mady castigan (@madycast.com), posted 1 day ago. text reads: Here's a screenshot of someone on your staff lying to the community that LGBT games weren't impacted, while you were blanket deindexing yuri games (which are lesbian, not NSFW). As a journalist, I have a responsibility to correct misinformation from corporations. Stop lying to your community! the screenshot within the post is a discord message from lyn-marie/charlene from 7/24/2025 that says: LGBT games are not deindexed. a couple games got deindexed due to their identifying tags (such as "adult") but they are not an inherent part of the temporary deindexing of nsfw content.
same as others in thread
old postcard reading "Greetings from Malta". image is a composite photo/illustration of a woman with giant butterfly wings. on the wings are photos of various buildings/scenes.
old postcard reading "Greetings from Meriden, Conn". image is an illustration of a woman with giant butterfly wings. on the wings are photos of various buildings/scenes.
old postcard reading "Greetings from Concord, NC". image is an illustration of a woman with giant butterfly wings. on the wings are photos of various buildings/scenes.
old postcard reading "Souvenir of Hot Springs, Ark". image is a composite photo/illustration of a woman with giant butterfly wings. on the wings are photos of various buildings/scenes.
old postcard reading "Lembranca Do Rio de Janeiro". image is a composite photo/illustration of a woman with giant butterfly wings. on the wings are photos of various buildings/scenes.
old postcard reading "Greetings from Elmira, NY". image is a composite photo/illustration of a woman with giant butterfly wings. on the wings are photos of various buildings/scenes.
diagram depicting entities in the payment processing process. The issuer processor has an issuing bank. the issuer processor goes through card networks, who go through an acquirer processor, which has its own issuing bank. the acquirer processor goes through a gateway, which leads to the merchant (who in turn goes back up the chain).
screenshot of text: So to sum up: the claim that Itch is targeting lesbian SFW games is solely based on a single quote from a single dev that was not backed up by any proof that the noted games were ever actually deindexed. I'm begging journalists to do better. I think it's entirely possible to talk about the effects this has had and is having on creators―because it is undeniably having effects―without spreading misinformation at the same time.
screenshot of webpage button labeled "change your pledge"
screenshot from the website The Advocate. Headline reads "SFW lesbian games wrongly axed in online stores' overeaching 'adult content' purge." author is Rachel Kiley. published August 13 at 3:38pm EST
Developer Blood Machine, who primarily does both NSFW and SFW yuri content, reports that one of her games, called Girl Purgatoriem, was taken off the site completely. While reuploaded on her personal website, she still finds herself severely affected.
screenshot of text: “On a whim, I tried to search up my SFW games as well - Wendy, warm, Like Seafoam. These games are fairly innocent and wholesome; 'warm' and 'Wendy' star children. However, they don't appear in the suggestions either - I suspect it's because they're yuri games,” she recounted, describing a genre of fiction which depicts romance between two female characters and has no inherent sexual elements.
screenshot of text: There are also some scenarios where your page must be viewed by a moderator before it can be indexed. The most common case is for new sellers: If you've just created an account and you're selling your first project, then your published page is placed in a queue for review. We generally review these within a few business days after a project is published.
screenshot of text reading: "This statement revealed that every single adult game would be deindexed from the storefront. While Collective Shout denies involvement in pushing the removal of all adult content, alleging they only advocated removing games with tags they disliked, Itch nevertheless maintains that they were pressured to deindex all adult content." the last sentence is highlighted.
screenshot of itch.io user alyshkalia's page showing the "edit theme" menu, which indicates that several games have the "hidden" setting applied
screenshot from itch.io. page is open to the "distribute" tab and the subsection "geo restrictions" is selected. main text reads: Geographic restrictions Geographic restrictions prevent users from certain regions from accessing your project page. These restrictions are primarily implemented to comply with local laws and regulations, such as content safety standards. When a user from a restricted region attempts to view your project, or pages associated with your project, they will see an explanatory message instead of your project page. UK Online Safety Act The UK Online Safety Act requires platforms to implement age verification systems to prevent children from accessing adult content, including pornographic material, content encouraging self-harm, and other potentially harmful content. The Act came into force on March 17, 2025 for illegal content and July 25, 2025 for child safety protections. Learn more about the UK Online Safety Act Games tagged as NSFW containing adult content are automatically restricted in the UK to comply with these requirements. Your page's restriction status is shown below. Important: If a geo-restricted game appears on your profile page, your entire profile will also be geo-restricted for UK users. Please review each of the games on your profile.
screenshot of text: On July 23 media hosting platform Itch.io began systematically delisting, and in some cases removing, hundreds of LGBTQ+ and/or adult video games, table top RPGs, written stories and works of art from their storefront. This occurred overnight,
screenshot of headline from a website: Game Devs Say That Itch's Adult Content Ban Is Targeting Lesbian Games, Even If They're Safe For Work by Rhiannon Bevan - Published 1 day ago
screenshot of text reading: Q: Can I disable forwarding for my own messages or for messages in/out of my server? A: No, you cannot control this at this time.
screenshot of text: $6,707 pledged of $15,000 goal
screenshot showing $200 raised out of $300 goal (66%)