Carrie-Edmund Laben
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carrielaben.com
Carrie-Edmund Laben
@carrielaben.com

Author, editor, birder. All power to the imagination! And rats.

They/them

PFP: A great auk. Header image: Calvino the rat as a baby.
Pinned
What if the world was on fire? What if a tiny group of queers, burnouts, and witches were fighting an oppressive government and an evil scientist from South Africa? What if family was way more complicated than most people think?

It's not the news, it's my new novel:

wordhorde.com/product/ss-b...
Smoke Season Bundle
Note: Orders will ship together once all items are available. The Smoke Season trade paperback comes with a bookplate signed by author Carrie-Edmund Laben and a free eBook in your selected format. …
wordhorde.com
Fine I can be basic.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RooT...
Loreena McKennitt - All Souls Night
YouTube video by Mr.Music.Channel
www.youtube.com
November 3, 2026 at 3:37 AM
It's this insistence on punishment that makes it extra-revolting when they try to extend us pity for being so "deluded", as they're especially wont to do with trans mascs.
The underlying belief is that trans people are lying about who we are, so we'll stop doing it if we're punished enough.

When they punish us and we don't stop being trans they think "more punishment, more punishment." The longer it goes on the more it strips their humanity.
Without really being able to say why this is I actually think that transphobia has an unusually high propensity to drive its proponents off the wall. Just based on casual observation and vibes, but it seems to me that people who become Gender Bigots seem to get obsessive and chauvinist real quick.
November 2, 2026 at 11:35 PM
I guess it's that time!

Holiday book drive for NYC kids in need, including kids in the foster care system: greenlightbookstore.com/secret-snowf...
Secret Snowflake Holiday Book Drive 2026
Greenlight is excited to partner once again with NYC Service - and with YOU, our customers - to provide new books to kids in New York City this holiday season! As part of the Secret Snowflake initiative, we've selected special books to be donated, and we're discounting them 30% for the book drive. The book drive runs November 1 - November 30, so we can get books shipped out in time to get them wrapped up and distributed for the holidays.This year, donated books will go to the NYC Administration for Children's Services (ACS), which supports children and families across the city, including youth in foster care. We've selected books for a variety of ages, reading levels, and price points, so you can choose books to donate that kids will love!Last year, thanks to the generosity of our customers and publisher partners, we were able to deliver over 850 books through the Mayor's office to be distributed to New York City kids -- and we hope to donate even more this year. Thank you for your generosity in putting books in the hands of the kids who need them most this holiday season!HOW IT WORKSTo participate, just select books from the list below to purchase (at a 30% off discount!) for donation, and complete your purchase online. That's it -- we'll take it from there!Things to note:Donation orders must be completed by midnight on November 30.You will not be asked for pickup/shipping information on books for donation, and you will not receive a physical copy of the book; books will be sent directly to the recipients in coordination with NYC Service.If the book you selected goes out of stock with the publisher, we may substitute a comparable book at the same price point.Secret Snowflake items do not count toward your order total for free shipping.
greenlightbookstore.com
November 2, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Random thought: What if sortition for inheritance. When someone dies, their estate is raffled off and everyone in the community has the same number of tickets.

Exceptions for housing with a survivor still living in it and items of sentimental value up to x$, where x could be fairly generous even.
November 2, 2026 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Carrie-Edmund Laben
My recommendations are ALWAYS open to works of natural history. ALWAYS.
January 9, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Carrie-Edmund Laben
Im about a 1/3 of the way through Smoke Season by @carrielaben.com. An important character was introduced and it feels like the first act is closing.

Excited for what lies ahead!
November 2, 2026 at 12:45 PM
I was literally dancing with rats to the CD version of "This Corrosion" yesterday.
Gun to your head, name a song that’s over 6 minutes long.
November 2, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Hanging with Angela Carter Rat-Laben and pondering why it feels so transgressive to name a male rat for a female author but totally normal to name a female rat after a male author.
November 2, 2026 at 1:41 AM
I assume Haley Stevens will be joining Ed Sheeran as his new opening act?
November 1, 2026 at 9:38 PM
What the fuck, man, what the fuck.
November 1, 2026 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Carrie-Edmund Laben
Get to finding loopholes, ignore it, do everything you can to make it a dead letter, remind people how evil it is every day.

"We don't like this unjust law but will respect it" is just cowardice and incompetence. No movement or community worth a damn has ever operated this way, and none ever will.
November 1, 2026 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Carrie-Edmund Laben
Christmas ads broadcasting in October.

This is rivalling Donald Trump for the greatest threat to human civilization. The time may have come to string the ad executives up by their ankles over an alligator swamp.
October 31, 2026 at 8:49 PM
#horrorwatch my attempt to explain the plot, for the bewildered.
P. sure the idea is these are vignettes from different moments in the house's history being re-enacted as hauntings in various rooms. As far as I can reconstruct the chronology:

First the Elizabeth-Julia-husband-gardener love quadrangle plays out, rendering the house haunted.

...
November 1, 2026 at 3:45 AM
Like this man has had at least a decades-long graft of feeding people to vampire ghost things and stealing their money and Poe is implicitly in on it? #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 2:32 AM
That was cold-blooded! #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 2:28 AM
Reverse Orpheus-ass dork. #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 2:25 AM
This set looks uncomfortably flammable... #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 2:21 AM
This movie hits the exact midpoint in an imaginary spectrum between expressionism and giallo. #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 2:12 AM
That is the spookiest and slowest anyone has ever circumnavigated a room. #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 2:04 AM
This is very Italian... #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 1:58 AM
"It is the hour. Words have no meaning." is pretty metal. #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 1:53 AM
"You can't die if you're horny enough" apparently #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 1:49 AM
Maybe it's the edible but I am digging the relative complexity of the plot. #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 1:45 AM
I wonder if you only have to pay half child support for a half-ghost? #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 1:41 AM
That was the least subtextual lesbianism I've seen since I was last at Metropolitan. #horrorwatch
November 1, 2026 at 1:35 AM