Melissa Ivanco-Murray

I hate generative AI with every fiber of my being, so let’s get that out of the way right now. Does my hatred make this analysis biased? Probably. Does it matter in the long run? Probably not, because the objective evils of gen-AI are pretty overwhelmingly obvious to anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together. Before we go further, a TW: Violence, self-harm. If either concerns you, skip the next paragraph. Environmental impacts from massive data centers aside—a

Vasilisa Mikulishna, as drawn by yours truly in ProCreate on my iPad Because of my fun doctoral research into Slavic warrior women (in case you missed any of the series of blogs I’ve been posting), I was approached to contribute an article for an anthology about Russian radicals and folklore. While the timing isn’t optimal, between querying The Night Chemist, my husband about to graduate vet school, and us being about to move to a different state...I accepted. Because I have

I do a lot of things when I’m not writing, and not just guitaring. I’m an all-around creative person. I am constantly in a state of creation. Sometimes I sew clothes or costumes or crafts, sometimes I make jewelry, sometimes I make seasonal wreaths because I’m never happy with what’s hanging on my front door...but a lot of times, I draw. I used to paint, but that got messy. Then I went crazy with my Copic markers, but I had a kid and those are way too much temptation for him,

I posted about this on Instagram a while back as my stock of Slavic Tarot decks was dwindling and then, alas, exhausted, but I figured I should probably talk a bit more about its creation process and why I ultimately discontinued printing it here, for those who are curious or have been pressing me to make another printing. I’ll begin with why I stopped, which I guess is beginning with the ending: printing costs have skyrocketed. They are absolutely bonkers high right now.