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Catherynne M. Valente

Catherynne M. Valente

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Catherynne M. Valente activity

Livestream Tomorrow Night!

Hello, my loves. Everybody holding up ok during these interesting times?

It's been too long but the livestream is back! I’ll be doing it tomorrow night, September 15, at 7:00pm EST. 

I will be bringing a big fat glass of wine as my co-host and I can't wait to see your questions...

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Open Discussion Post

Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place. 

How are you all feeling?

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The Shark That Never Bit Me: The Authority in Fiction and the Fiction in Authority

Greetings, kittens. We are on month six of time ditching that whole Ligotti pastische flat circle gig and becoming a polka-dotted balloon filled with doom wasps and existential anxiety tossed from fool to fool on a beach of nightmare timelines.

Also, fall is here! Pumpkins! Apples! Foggy mo...

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Mandatory Mad Fiction Frog Dissection: What We Do In the Pandemic: The Two What We Do in the Shadowses

You all picked an easy one for me this month. So I want you to sit down.

Brace yourself. Get some fortifying snacks, fluids, and smelling salts within easy reach. Hold onto something.

I have virtually nothing negative to say about the What We Do in the Shadows series.

I...

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ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Cast Iron Pepperoni-Bacon Pizza with Three Sooper Sekrit Twists


Most of what I’m going to say in this recipe is pretty basic.

Making your own pizza is awesome.

You do not have to make your own dough or sauce if you don’t want to, it’s okay, nobody is judging you, we are all very busy people.

It’s all about the cheese and t...

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Housekeeping--Annual Patrons and Live Event Tonight

Hello, everyone! I hope this Thursday is treating you as well as a Thursday in 2020, the Nurse Ratched of years, can be expected to treat anyone.

Two notes of interest to some or all of you before I disappear into the last chapters of this bloody stubborn book!

One, the annoying PBS/N...

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Life Updates and Mad Fiction Mandatory Media Dissection Poll

Hello, my darlings.

It's been a hell of a month for me here at the old Laboratory. I'm finally within a chapter or two of finishing the book that's been hanging over my head since before I had Sebastian, so my mind has been in another world for weeks. But back here in this one, my grandfath...

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Open Discussion Post!

Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place. 

How are you all feeling?

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Portrait of the Artist As a Young Pig: The Muppets, Childhood Trauma, and More Fun Things to Do On a Sunday

Time is a lie.

Summertime doubly so.

There is no such thing as people, or movement, or reality. Nothing matters anymore, but not in a cool way. Life is Wednesday divided by ennui minus December to the power of vodka over wise old owls in academic robes. I don’t know anymore. Taylor ...

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ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: The Amazing Disappearing Cheddar Apple Scones

 

Amazing Disappearing Cheddar-Apple Scones

I make these whenever I throw a party. Remember parties? No, me neither. But they are spoken of in deep legend and tome, and one day, when need is great, they may return.

Scones might not seem like party finger-fo...

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Mandatory Mad Frog Dissection Presents: Oh Boy. Here We Go. Hamilton.

 This Fuckin’ Guy: Let’s Talk About Hamilton


The standard disclaimer applies twice as hard for this one:

You guys chose this. I told you my opinion on Hamilton is not one of an adoring, anime-eyed fangirl belting out songs out of her range...

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Mad Fiction Dissection Poll

Ok, forcibly indoors kittens, what shall I review for your pleasure this month?

Remember I will be telling you the general mood of the review in parentheses so there are no surprises.

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Open Discussion Post!

Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place. 

How are you all feeling?

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Captain, We Have a Problem: SFF’s Terrible No-Good Very Bad Week

 WHAT IS TIME WHAT IS PLANET NOTHING IS REAL EVERYTHING IS COVERED IN WASPS AND DISAPPOINTMENT

So that’s basically where I’m at.

It would seem that you can have a global pandemic, you can have a righteous explosion of anger against systemic racism and murd...

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ALLCAPS COOKBOOK Presents: Summer Strawberry Pistachio Cake with Fresh Basil Whipped Cream

I’m going to say something very brave. It’s just…it’s time. Past time. I don’t care if I get “canceled” by this overly-sensitive PC culture, it’s worth it to stand up for the truth.

Cake is awesome.

It’s just the perfect thing. When you want to treat yoursel...

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Mad Fiction Lab Mandatory Frog Dissection: Midsommaaaar (The A is for Art)

I would like to say for the record that in my experience Sweden is a very nice place full of nice people and pale food and winning Eurovision songs whose hicks are really some of the least likely of any country’s hicks to murder you and all your friends in some kind of mutant orgy of meat and f...

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Mad Fiction Dissection Table: What's On the Slab?

Another month, another piece of media to review for your comedic pleasure! Once again I'm tagging these with whether the review will be positive or negative so you can gauge your interest fully loaded with KNOWLEDGE

What will it be, my darlings?

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Fun with Sales Tax: Ask Me How

A brief housekeeping note:

As some of you know, Patreon is about to start charging US Sales Tax on some kinds of content, in some locations, starting 7/1.

Does this suck? Yes. Can we not? No.

However, because of the specific kinds of content I offer here, this should not affect ...

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June Excerpt: Moar Quidnunx!

I'm hitting the home stretch on this book FINALLY so I hope you're enjoying it! I did also write two short stories this month, but one is under an NDA and the other hasn't been accepted yet, so let's return to Littlebridge and Osmo!

I hope you are all staying safe and looking after each oth...

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The Story of Us, or, Read a Fucking Book Once In Awhile, Why Don’t You?: Empathy, Crisis, and the Function of Art Right Now

It seems impossible that it is the end of May. That the sudden green on the trees outside my window is real and not just a new, edgier kind of snow. That the only reason the humans where I live are not quite as confined to our homes on account of an invisible death borne by hugging and singing is...

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Orphan's Tales Live Rides Again: A Poll

It has been about a week since we finished the not-an-audiobook-definitely-a-play reading series of The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, and I've been thinking about how to continue with the second book.

I ...

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Mad Fiction Lab Mandatory Frog Dissection: A Survey of Children’s Edutainment

There's A Word for What We're Gonna Have, And That Word Is Blood


Hi everyone! Welcome to the newest feature of the Mad Fiction Laboratory, in which I review a piece of media every month, chosen by you! FIRST TIME'S A CHARM...


So. Let's be clear. ...

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ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Better Than Takeout Beef Penang Curry

 

Faster Than Takeout, Better Than It Has Any Right to Be: Beef Penang Curry

Unlike most of America, I have had no access to takeout anything except some seriously dubious pizza since the start of the epidemic. I live on a Lonely Island in a Lonely Sea, and nobod...

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This Month's Review!

I haven't come up with a clever name for the new review feature yet, but one will come to me, I'm sure. 

Nevertheless, the time has come to choose a subject for me to TELL YOU ALL MY THOUGHTS UPON!

I haven't had a chance to consume any of the Mad Post Doc Student ($20) requests y...

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ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS A QUARANTINE BONUS RECIPE: The Actual Best Cheeseburger and Special Sauce


The Actual Best Homemade Cheeseburger and Special Sauce


*Just like last month, I'm posting a bonus recipe for all patrons at all levels BECAUSE WE ARE ALL STUCK AT HOME HAVING TO COOK FOR OURSELVES and it's BEEN A MILLION YEARS NOW and we're out of ide...

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New Goal Reached! That Means New Rewards!

Hello, everyone!

In what was really the most wonderful birthday present, we reached a new funding goal! I can't begin to tell you what this means to our household and our anxious artist hearts--thank you so much, and thank you for sticking with me in such a horrid time for us all. I will tr...

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Thank You, and New Goals

I just want to thank everyone so much for sticking with this Patreon and being such an amazing community right now. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your presence in my life and your support. Quite literally, I could not manage without you.


We are actually nearing ...

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Plotting for Clowns: A Class Distilled Into an Essay for Your Nerves

Hullo, you beautiful powerful narwhals.

What time of year is it? What time of day is it? What’s happening outside?

WHO KNOWS WHO CARES TIME IS A FLAT TIRE EXISTENCE IS MEANINGLESS SPRING IS A LIE.

I went into the city for supplies this week. I got a coffee at a coffee...

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ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Oh No I Made the Perfect Brownie and I Wept for There Were No More Worlds to Conquer

 Brownies are just this whole thing. Storebought, from a package, from scratch…it’s an endless quest for perfection, and nothing is ever quite there. 

UNTIL NOW.

My friend Cylia made these and then I altered them because THAT’S HOW I DO PRAY I DO NOT ALTER THE RECIPE F...

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April Community Discussion Post

Hullo, all!

Here is your space for chatting with each other, checking in, ranting about whatever, bragging about the little accomplishments and big ones, staking claims on the best dinosaur, anything you like to feel a little more connected.

How is everyone holding up?

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