I write science fiction and science nonfiction. Author: A Wall Is Also a Road, Automatic Noodle, Stories Are Weapons. Bylines: Flaming Hydra, New Scientist, etc. Pod: Our Opinions Are Correct. Sometimes a professor of media studies. I love noodles.
Public Key
npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Profile Code
nprofile1qqsy4mlmcp37vzpqdful7x6ppy4hwputudhd6w0m4ug9jzkl55xfxuqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds9qh87z
Show more details
Published at
2026-11-04T00:36:31Z Event JSON
{
"id": "b26a3f35ae1add5ba2d9f889ef396ec13d07440d7a6eaaea066a9bd8a1d6998b" ,
"pubkey": "4aeffbc063e608206a79ff1b41092b77078be36edd39fbaf10590adfa50c9370" ,
"created_at": 1793752591 ,
"kind": 0 ,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://wandering.shop/users/annaleen",
"activitypub"
],
[
"client",
"Mostr",
"31990:6be38f8c63df7dbf84db7ec4a6e6fbbd8d19dca3b980efad18585c46f04b26f9:mostr",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub"
]
],
"content": "{\"name\":\"Annalee Newitz 🍜\",\"about\":\"I write science fiction and science nonfiction. Author: A Wall Is Also a Road, Automatic Noodle, Stories Are Weapons. Bylines: Flaming Hydra, New Scientist, etc. Pod: Our Opinions Are Correct. Sometimes a professor of media studies. I love noodles.\",\"picture\":\"https://stockroom.wandering.shop/accounts/avatars/109/355/127/860/497/220/original/1d8fcedc05d30ca0.png\",\"banner\":\"https://stockroom.wandering.shop/accounts/headers/109/355/127/860/497/220/original/247512c66dc92016.png\",\"nip05\":\"[email protected] \",\"fields\":[[\"Pronouns\",\"They/Them\"],[\"Website\",\"http://www.techsploitation.com\"],[\"Podcast\",\"http://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com\"],[\"Newsletter\",\"https://www.buttondown.email/thehypothesis\"]]}" ,
"sig": "552065fb0f71e7cb589e68f821b1c160de518fef527672cd70697bd2f07a217cfc506dff5b50e6a1992540a6dae025031b2aea61dc01625271a7b431a0e646c1"
}
Last Notes npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 A better future is possible! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 If you're in San Francisco, there are many signed copies of A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD at Green Apple Books on Clement -- and some of them have special character cards hidden inside! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I have decided to start using the phrase "ladies and germs" as much as possible npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 In my latest for Reactor, I explore the history of nonbinary pronouns in science fiction, and why I always include nonbinary characters in my novels. https://reactormag.com/why-pronouns-matter-in-science-fiction/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 This Thursday 10/22, 10am pacific time, catch my AMA on r/fantasy. Ask me about my new novel A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD! Or ancient Rome! Or soft robots! I'll talk about whatever! There will be a book giveaway! Come say hi! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Something I've noticed while on book tour for the past couple of weeks is that Mastodon is a really good way to let people know about bookstore events. So many people I've met on the road have told me that they found out about my book tour from me or other folks on the fedi. I think it's partly because so many book-loving people are on Mastodon. But also if you compare Mastodon to places like Bluesky or Insta, the community here has a higher percentage of actual humans vs. bots or operatives. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 These incredible character cards were made by Lucy Bellwood for my new novel A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD. They show Gardenpath, a cellular slime mold from beyond the galaxy, with their friend Murtis from ancient Pompeii and their friend Oriel from back home. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Boston! I'll be there on Wednesday 10/14, 7 pm, at Brookline Booksmith, talking to @nprofile…nhuc about my new book A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD! Come out to say hi! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Boston and Burlington, VT! See you next week!! I'm at Brookline Booksmith in Boston on Weds 10/14 and at Phoenix Books in Burlington Thurs 10/15! Let's talk about slime molds and ancient Rome! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 The audiobook of A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD is generating a lot of excitement, and it's all due to narrator Jess Nahikian, who managed to create the perfect queer David Attenborough vibe. You can get the audiobook wherever they are sold! Here's an audio excerpt if you want to check it out! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD comes out Tuesday 10/6, and that's when the Slime Mold Autumn book tour starts! @nprofile…22zy praised the book as a "magnificent work of cosmic imagination" and CB Lee called it "beautiful." Yumei Kitasei said, "Single-celled eukaryotes have never been so sexy." npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 A sentient slime mold from beyond the galaxy meets the world of ancient Pompeii. That's the premise of my new novel A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD. If you want to know more about the bonkers research that went into my worldbuilding in this book, here's my tale ... with helpful captions and illustrations! The book comes out on Tuesday 10/6. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Yes, that was me listening to literally every sound file of elephant ethograms on this site. Basically, elephants appear to communicate in part by "rumbling" to each other simultaneously. I love the idea of a language that requires multiple simultaneous speakers in order to generate meaning. https://www.elephantvoices.org/explore-the-elephant-ethogram npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 For me, Godzilla is one of the most relatable characters in film npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 My latest short story, "The Day My Clitoris Disappeared," has just gone live on Flaming Hydra! It's about a graduate student whose clitoris goes missing after the Second Comstock Act is passed. Don't worry -- the clitoris wins in the end. And it always will. (Yes, there's a paywall because Flaming Hydra is an indie collective of writers and artists, and we want to be paid! It's so cheap to subscribe! And you support creators! Who don't use AI!) npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Did you like AUTOMATIC NOODLE? I have a special order just for you: the sequel is finally happening, to be published in fall 2027. I hope you are ready for NOODLE UNION!! There will be dumplings. Oh yes. There will. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Just discovered these absolutely batshit insane books by Janet Morris, a defense and psyops expert who spent her free time writing military fantasy smut that apparently sold millions of copies in the 70s and 80s. Now they are only available as print-on-demand. These original covers ... OMG WTF https://www.blackgate.com/2016/03/19/vintage-treasures-the-silistra-quartet-by-janet-morris/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Need a delicious read this late summer weekend? Automatic Noodle just came out in paperback! Give it a try -- you might like it! I just signed a bunch of copies at Noe Valley Books. 🤓 You can order it there, or at your local indie (Bookshop.org is great too!) https://noevalleybooks.com/book/9781250450982 npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Happy paperback day to Automatic Noodle! It's been a delightful year for this little book, which won the Octavia E. Butler Award and was a USA Today bestseller. I signed some copies at Green Apple Books in the Richmond when I dropped in to buy npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 This gives me hope npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Kirkus calls it "very strange and strangely satisfying." Publishers Weekly says it is "as bizarre as it is meticulous." They're talking about my new novel, A WALL IS ALSO A ROAD. It's coming 10/6/26. Pre-order it: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250228031/awallisalsoaroad/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Did you know I have a new book coming out about a graduate student who is a slime mold from beyond the galaxy? Who comes to Earth to do fieldwork and meets a badass sex worker in ancient Pompeii? It's called "A Wall Is Also a Road." You can pre-order it now, which is a tremendous help for me as the author! (https://torpublishinggroup.com/a-wall-is-also-a-road/) Also, I am going on tour in September and October, so please come say hi!! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Welp ... it's fire season in California again. The time of year when I consult PurpleAir every day. #sfba npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 @nprofile…3ttw I require sequential pictures npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Only two more weeks to enter your sci-fi stories for the Protopian Prize, given to works that imagine positive futures for humanity, w/tech that serves the public interest. (I'm one of the judges!) Two winners get $5000 US each, and publication in an anthology from MIT Press! #scifi #future #writing https://protopianprize.com/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 You know you have cognitive overload when you look at your to-do list and realize that item number one is "do the" because you got so distracted by everything you have to do that you forgot to actually list what it is that you need to do npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 My latest essay for @nprofile…af9l is about why I hate the phrase "we're living in the future," and why it is that we hear it so often during periods when history is being violently erased. Read this essay and many more when you subscribe to Flaming Hydra, a collective of artists and writers (yes, we share all profits equally!). It's only a few US $$ per month, and you get a daily dose of original writing and art!!! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 @nprofile…wdzu I'll be at Brookline Booksmith on 10/14! And yes! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 @nprofile…wdzu Not this year, but I will be coming to Boston on my book tour in October! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 That's right, friends! STARLOG is back and I'm the editor-in-chief. We have so much good stuff for you in our first issue (PRINT ONLY), coming this November!! Space-time! Alternate worlds! The unknown! Plus you can subscribe now, and get our podcast hosted by the amazing Jordan Hoffman and Dave Gonzales! #scifi #starlog npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 @nprofile…h6sh It's in a localized format, because the author and publisher are in the United States. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Do you need a story about aliens, graduate students, ancient Rome, and ... tentacles? I'm pretty sure you do! That's a good reason to pre-order my next novel, "A Wall Is Also a Road," for 25% off at Barnes & Noble if you are a member. (Not a member? You can pre-order anywhere!) npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Made some new friends at the Succulent Expo in San Francisco today. #PlantDad npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 My galaxy petunias are the greatest and I love them npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 If you're in #Sanfrancisco and you want to help our city in a disaster, you can sign up for NERT training right now! Learn how to help first responders in a quake, fire, or other disaster! The classes are fun, and the current one just started. If you missed the first session, you have tons of time to make it up and you can just start with the second session next week! https://sf-fire.org/nert npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 That thing where I sometimes accidentally type "mastodon.com" to get to my server because my brain is still trying to fathom the wonders of decentralization and falls back on dirty old habits from 2010. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 We are not "living in the future." We are living in the present. The future is something different that hasn't happened yet. I know this sounds facile, but once you ponder it for a while you start to realize how pernicious and constraining it is to our imaginations to confuse the present with the future. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I have recently entered my Plant Dad Era (I partly blame @nprofile…y84f) and suddenly I'm talking to plants on the street and deadheading flowers in the park to promote more blooms. My fingers are constantly sticky or thorn-scratched. And I am doing things like filling a jar of water so that I can gently water my pansies underneath their blooms because they just can't handle a full spray. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Bay Area peeps! What are you doing this weekend? Why not join me and a bunch of other amazing authors at the Bay Area Book Festival?? It's all happening in downtown Berkeley! I'll be there Saturday and Sunday! www.baybookfest.org npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Feeling grumpy and sad. Please send pictures of flowers, cute non-human animals, or stars. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Infrared and Ultraviolet are doing their synchronized napping routine. #caturday #catsofmastodon npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 It's my birthday, so I've decided that tonight I will finally make the viral scoopable cookies that the algorithm has been feeding me for months. Are they just slop, or will they turn out to be as good as they look on the videodromes? I will try to remember to post the results here! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Remember Don Martin, whose bizarro, sick cartoons were always one of the best things about MAD magazine? I did a deep dive on him and his work for the latest issue of @nprofile…af9l, on the first day of our soon-to-be-legendary MAD WEEK! https://flaminghydra.com/don-martin-mads-sickest-artist/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 It's easy to forget that a good idli is just really good. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 At last I can announce that AUTOMATIC NOODLE is a Hugo Award finalist! It's also a finalist for the Locus and Nebula Awards! This has never happened to me before, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate all you fine nerds and friends for voting for this little book about robots who just want to make noodles. I spent many late nights on Mastodon while writing, and got live feedback on some of my ideas from many of you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 As a special treat for Indie Bookstore Day, the wonderful folks at LibroFM are running a sale, and the AUTOMATIC NOODLE audiobook is available for just $4.99 until 4/26. This sale is only on Libro.FM, Nook, and Chirp. Lots of other books are on sale too! Rejoice and fill your ears with words! https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781250395627-automatic-noodle npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 It's awards season! I couldn't be more proud of the two books I published last year. "Automatic Noodle" is my love letter to San Francisco's future. The anthology "We Will Rise Again" is a hopeful collaboration between me, npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Another day, another game of "is that silly squeak coming from a squirrel or a raptor?" npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Bay Area! 3/12! Me and the legendary Cindy Cohn from @nprofile…eexk! Don't miss this amazing opportunity to hear from a veteran of the privacy wars ... and learn new ways to keep yourself safe from the prying eyes of government. Cindy's new book is absolutely essential reading in these times. https://www.eff.org/event/privacys-defender-book-launch-party npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Give yourself a sweet-weird treat this weekend with a fantastic @nprofile…hhz8 deal (US only) that includes most of the fiction that @nprofile…0v6g and I have written. Sales benefit the Miss Major Alexander Lee Black Trans Cultural Center! https://www.humblebundle.com/books/charlie-jane-anders-annalee-newitz-tor-books npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 The light in #vancouver is astonishingly beautiful today. After plodding all over town in the rain looking for apartments yesterday, I feel that I have earned this sun!!! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 @nprofile…uptt I think it's similar to War of the Worlds, in that it imagines what would happen if England were treated by people from other nations the way England had treated its colonies. Remember: Dracula is trying to buy up British real estate, as well as sucking blood (and Marx had already described capitalists as vampires so that would have been a known trope). So one possible reading is that it's about the English being menaced by monstrous colonizers taking their lands and lifeblood. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Spending a pleasant evening considering the connections between three anti-imperialist novels: Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897), War of the Worlds by HG Wells (1898, though serialized in 1897), and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899) ... all of which came out during and after Queen Victoria's opulent "Golden Jubilee" to celebrate 50 years of glorious Victorian imperialism. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Why does the internet feel so lonely, despite also being so loud and overwhelming? In my latest column for @nprofile…zhrn I explore how a 1950s sociology classic, "The Lonely Crowd," sheds light on what's happening today online. (You can read it for free by signing up for a free account.) https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26935790-200-the-internet-feels-super-lonely-right-now-heres-why/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 This deal is incredible, and it's for the best cause. For the next 19 days, you can get ALL the fiction by me and @nprofile…0v6g at a special price from Humble Bundle in the US -- and all sales benefit the fantastic folks at the Miss Major Alexander L. Lee Black Trans Cultural Center. #bookstodon #scifibooks npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Last night, Automatic Noodle won the Octavia Butler Award!! I'm so honored and happy!!! 🤖❤️🎉 https://www.instagram.com/p/DUI5pCoknog/?img_index=5&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Heated Rivalry's plot arc is also a permission structure for desire. In my latest for @nprofile…af9l, I talk about queer fulfillment (the opposite of queerbaiting!), and how Letterkenny fandom pulled me into the gay hockey show. #heatedrivalry #queer #Canada https://flaminghydra.com/issue-489/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Mac nerd question! Just updated my Mac OS and now there is an annoying window that pops up constantly, trying to get me to sign into iCloud (I do not want iCloud) and configure "smart" crap (I do not want more AI). No matter what I do, the window will not go away -- it goes into the dark pattern of taking me to settings, and when I hit "cancel" on iCloud, the other pop-up returns to remind me to sign into iCloud. Anyone know how to get rid of the iCloud reminder window? npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Need hope in this era of political nihilism? Come (virtually) to celebrate speculative resistance & protest with me, Karen Lord, @nprofile…z6jf & guests, for our new anthology WE WILL RISE AGAIN. City Lights Books is our host on Sat, 1/10, 11am PT. https://citylights.com/events/panel-discussion-we-will-rise-again-speculative-stories-about-political-protest-resistance-and-hope/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Today only, Automatic Noodle e-books are on sale for $2.99 on all platforms! Grab one while they're still hot and chewy! https://bookshop.org/p/books/automatic-noodle-annalee-newitz/625018d0518991aa npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 These icons have saved my sanity so many times this year with their ridiculous friendliness, constant quests for belly rubs, and deep concern that my face remain VERY clean by cat standards. Here are Infrared and Ultraviolet, finishing out the year by attempting to groom each other and maybe wrestle lazily at the same time. #catsofmastodon npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 @nprofile…wryx @nprofile…tmu7 sorry about that! We promise the next thing will also be exciting though perhaps less correct npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 @nprofile…rpwy @nprofile…lff8 or like a subcategory of UTI which I do not like npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Ahhhh! Automatic Noodle is one of Kobo's best science fiction books of the year!! I'm so proud of these humble, noodle-making robots. https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/best-science-fiction-books-2025 npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 In bookstores today! It's "We Will Rise Again," a book of hard-won hope in this dark season. I co-edited it with the wondrous @nprofile…dm2q and Karen Lord -- it's an anthology of speculative stories and essays about protest and resistance! Grab one now! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I've reached the "eating the last piece of pie with my bare hands" stage of the weekend npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 f you're in the Bay Area and want to chat about Automatic Noodle, I'll be visiting the first-ever meeting of the Noe Valley Books Book Club to talk about it! 12/4! https://noevalleybooks.com/event/2025-12-04/noe-valley-books-book-club-automatic-noodle npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Fascism is a form of intergenerational trauma. In my latest newsletter, I talk about how this played out in the life of sexologist Wilhelm Reich, whose career as an anti-fascist activist took a dark, grifty turn. https://buttondown.com/thehypothesis/archive/we-will-rise-again/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Are you yearning for hope? Do you need some friends in the resistance? It's time to pre-order your copy of "We Will Rise Again," a glorious anthology of speculative fiction and essays about political protest and resistance. With stories from an incredible lineup of international authors! Coming 12/3! Perfect for the holidays! https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Will-Rise-Again/Malka-Older/9781668095959 npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 The problem with digital ID cards isn't what you think. Here's why the UK and other nations should stop pushing digital ID apps, right now. My latest for @nprofile…7xzh, now outside the paywall! (You need a free account to read it.) https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26835650-100-digital-id-cards-could-be-a-disaster-in-the-uk-and-beyond/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Working on revisions to my manuscript...and of course my editor won't let me do what I want. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Bay Area friends! Food! Trauma! Healing! All that and more with me, @nprofile…a3wr and Lee Lai, tonight, 6pm at Mrs Dalloways! Free! It's all part of Lit Quake, the Bay Area's greatest book festival. https://litquake2025.sched.com/event/28S9x/disaster-with-a-side-of-noodles npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I cannot stop thinking about this paper about how Iberian harvester ants can produce offspring of two entirely different species. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02524-8 npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I keep telling myself that one of these days I'm going to learn to stop giggling when I'm speaking on panels or giving talks. But um it's been like 30 years now and I'm still doing it so .... is it possible that I'm just a lifetime giggler? npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 This is coconuts. I was using PirateShip, an app for buying and managing mailing labels. When I entered the window for printing a label, a dialog box popped up asking me if I wanted the document summarized by AI. The document, to be clear, was a mailing label that I was in the process of printing. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Seattle area friends! Tomorrow, 8/11, I'll be at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park @ 7pm, talking about Automatic Noodle with robot law professor Ryan Calo (sadly he's not a robot; he just studies how the law applies to robots). Please come! https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/annalee-newitz-automatic-noodle #bookstodon #seattle #scifi npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 We had an amazing book launch last night for Automatic Noodle -- thanks so much to everyone who came out, and packed the church (words I never thought I'd write)! The book tour is officially underway, and this week you can see me in LA, Phoenix, and STL! Next week: Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC! More details here: https://www.automaticnoodle.website/blog/2025-book-tour-dates npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 There is so much absolutely weird and sad shit in US politico-cultural war news today that I started to post like fifteen angry things and deleted all of them because all I want to say is hug your friends and remember that saying hello to a neighbor is worth more than 5000 hot takes online. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 This week, you can get the ebook of The Terraformers for just $2.99 wherever ebooks are sold -- including indie bookseller platform Bookshop.org, along with the usual places. If you can't wait for Automatic Noodle, this will tide you over! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Californians are debating secession again. It's not the first time, and my state's history of separatist movements really isn't pretty. I've written about it for Flaming Hydra! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Scene: On DnD night, a party is exploring the Faewild. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 @nprofile…9nd3 Such a good observation. Our fear of robots is kind of telling on ourselves, isn't it? npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Will they destroy us? Will they be our willing slaves? We are asking all the wrong questions about AI and robots. In my latest newsletter, I talk about why I wrote an entire novella about how to ask the right questions about building a new life form. https://buttondown.com/thehypothesis/archive/robots-are-obsessed-with-1990s-web-aesthetics/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 One day I'm going to be a normal person, but today I spent an hour writing a really hot sex scene between two single-celled organisms who admire each other's commitment to the scientific method. #amwritingscifi npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I downloaded a scientific paper of great interest to me. It is of typical length, about 15 pages in the PDF. I opened it in Acrobat, and got this message highlighted at the top of the page next to an AI sparkle icon: "This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary." I cannot put into words how much this enrages me. First, this is not a long document. Have you met documents? Second, and more important, telling someone to not read a thing they want to read??! Fuck you, Adobe. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Noodles are good. Robots are great. What if some sweet, messy robots made you noodles with love and some extremely relatable weirdness? You'll find out!! Now through tomorrow, there's a pre-order sale on AUTOMATIC NOODLE for Barnes & Noble members (it's free to become a member)! https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/automatic-noodle-annalee-newitz/1146167621 npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Do you like noodles and robots? Of course you do! And because I love you, I wrote a very cozy novella about both called Automatic Noodle, which you can pre-order now! Find out what happens when a group of abandoned bots decide to open their very own noodle restaurant in San Francisco, while the city recovers from a devastating war. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250357465/automaticnoodle/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Astounding!! Finally you can see the cover of the anthology I've been working on for the past couple of years with co-editors @nprofile…7sxt and Karen Lord! "We Will Rise Again" is full of essays, interviews, and speculative stories about protest, social movements, and hopeful resistance -- all informed by the experiences of real-life movement leaders and community organizers. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Want to know what US government workers actually do, vs. the propaganda spewed by DOGE? This incredible website, "We the Builders," is full of first-person testimonials from government workers about their actual jobs, and how they make the government work for the public. https://www.wethebuilders.org/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Today's Bronze Age archaeology nerd deep cut: Just thinking about the so-called sexcavation at Knossos where they found something SHOCKING in a palace basement in the late 1970s ... npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 It's been a horrific week, but we are going to survive. I've been thinking a lot about how we'll do it. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Right now, the U.S. is in a media crisis. Just in the nick of time, I'm starting a newsletter series about understanding media in the twenty-first century. I'll teach you how to challenge and change the messages that our media carries. Let's go. https://buttondown.com/thehypothesis/archive/what-is-media-a-primer-for-americans/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 We desperately need a new way to think about the future. But first, we must journey 12,000 years into the past, to discover where our idea of "the future" comes from. In my latest for @nprofile…7ah3, I take you there. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26435250-100-ancient-humans-understood-the-future-and-the-past-pretty-much-as-we-do/ npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I am in #vancouver! I will be here for a couple of months. Any recommendations for good Chinese noodle places (literally any kind of noodle, from any part of China) or hikes or both? npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Need some climate hope today? @nprofile…zc9u has just published stories from the 12 winners of the "Imagine 2200" climate fiction contest. I was a judge, w/Omar El Akkad, and we loved these brilliant stories from around the globe. They're full of memorable characters and inventive scenarios for humanity's long-term survival on a healthy planet. Free to read! Enjoy! npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I'm going on a 3-month vacation to Canada with my partner, who needs a biologic to, you know, stay alive. Despite everything I know about how fucked up the US insurance system is, I am still gobsmacked at how cruel they are in their attempts to block his 90-day supply. They gave him a one-week window to fill his prescription with a "vacation override" -- and every day they cancel the pharmacy orders, using various bullshit excuses. It's day 5 and he's still trying to get his prescription filled. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 From the Time Flies and Paperclips Are Old Dept: My nephew applied for college in November. Today, I needed some paperclips. The box contained one long strand of connected paperclips that he had knitted together when he was about eight. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 I think LLMs may wind up being remembered the same way we remember 19th century Spiritualism. A bunch of scientists and rich people bought into Spiritualism, too -- until they didn't. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Why yes I may have sampled the corner of these freshly baked Cadbury mini egg brownies, made in the Scottish style. npub1fthlhsrrucyzq6nelud5zzftwurchcmwm5ulhtcsty9dlfgvjdcqkjs03d Annalee Newitz 🍜 Today I'm making shortbread with a layer of caramel and a layer of chocolate on top. Usually that's called "millionaire's shortbread" but I'm really not in the mood to celebrate millionaires or billionaires. So I'm calling it Ultra Tasty Fuck Yeah Shortbread, which is accurate and evidence-based.
