If you're looking for some hopeful stories to read in 2026, I've got some free #SF novels & short stories for you to check out...
https://susankayequinn.com/free-books-2
a #solarpunk short story
a #hopepunk #scifi novel
some YA SF, some fantasy #steampunk
even my gritty #cyberpunk serial...
Just finished Bright Green Futures 2024 which was edited by @susankayequinn - lovely collection of short stories, I particularly enjoyed A Merger In A Corn Field by Danielle Arostegui and surprised myself about how I also really enjoyed Centipede Station by T. K. Rex oh and also Ancestors, Descendants by Bright flame.
The collection isn't long (7 stories) but they are all good quality and by authors well known in the field (e.g. @ana @sarenaulibarri @BrightFlame )
Leaving you all with this essay about the #ExistentialDread a lot of us are experiencing, and how one person found hope through #SolarPunk! (And I am another one of those people!)
It's been a record-breaking #SolarPunkSunday, and a great way to celebrate a year of #Resiliency, #SharingInformation, #Rewilding, #Mending, #Gardening, and building the foundation for the future we all need! I'll re-post a few articles from yesterday, and then will call it a Solar Punk day! ! A special thanks to @BrambleBearGrrrauwling and @MaQuest !
A Future Dream - How solarpunk helped alleviate my existential dread.
Solarpunk pushes against the bleak Blade Runner future of cyberpunk that centers urban dystopias dominated by corporations and technology. Solarpunk imagines an #inclusive, #sustainable, possible future, where #renewable #technology meets #ecological #enlightenment.
by Sage Agee, Art by Yuumei, Spring 2023
"LIKE MANY OF MY GENERATION, I have known dread nearly my entire life. In fifth grade, I was assigned a research paper on the topic of my choice. I had begun to spend my weekends with my dad, hanging out at coffee shops in downtown Salem, Oregon, and chatting with adults about the news. We had just witnessed the 9/11 attacks, and the adults in my life seemed to be waking up to global issues, their fear palpable even to a young child.
"This was not long after the release of #AnInconvenientTruth, and I decided to interview my dad’s friends about #ClimateChange and their predictions for the future. When I turned in the finished paper, which detailed mass extinctions and natural disasters, my teacher, Mrs. Stark, wouldn’t accept it. She didn’t believe in climate change, she said, and I needed to study a different topic.
"After that, I felt myself slipping from endless curiosity about the world into a mindset where I had to prepare for the worst, and trust no one. This helped me create the shield I needed to get through adolescence. By then, I knew that my gender and sexuality didn’t align with typical gender roles, but I kept that secret close to my tape-bound chest.
"Solarpunk represents a movement from today’s reality toward a gritty, pragmatic, better future.
"Before my parents divorced, we went to an Evangelical church every Sunday, and I learned to pray each night before bed. These prayers became a place for me to put every bad thought I would have during the day, to pass them along to God. I had already developed a deep shame for my thoughts of being more boyish, and I prayed for these thoughts to end, just as I prayed for an end to natural disasters. I prayed for a better girl-mask. I prayed for a better world. My compulsive thinking followed me into my teenage years. In the ninth grade, I started an environmental justice group, hosting letter-writing parties and taking part in local protests at the Oregon Capitol, but when anti-green legislation passed into law, or when images emerged detailing islands of garbage in the ocean, I blamed myself for not doing more.
"This kind of thinking kept me from coming out as transgender. Every time I had an intrusive thought about growing facial hair and passing as a boy, my self-blame returned. Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough to be a girl; maybe I just needed to date boys and straighten my hair and shave my legs and wear makeup; maybe too, I needed to do more about the environment, protest more, organize more, do something more. I kept making up versions of myself. I only talked about environmental justice around my dad’s liberal friends. I only downplayed my femininity around my queer friends.
artwork depicting someone reading in a futuristic setting
"The one place where I escaped from this constant masking and shifting was in the books I consumed. At 17, I read #UrsulaLeGuin’s series of novels, the #HainishCycle, for the first time. I was instantly drawn into the worlds she created, where gender was fluid, as in #TheLeftHandOfDarkness, where some worlds grappled with climate disaster just as some had overcome it, as in #TheDispossessed. The way she experimented with the utopian, which always included queerness and dissolved gender roles, was like nothing I had read or experienced.
"When I allowed myself to fall into these fictions, my dread would turn over into an almost hopeful outlook. I understood this as fantasy, though, and never considered taking what I had read in LeGuin into my real life. Instead, I spent years dreaming of alternate realities, where I hadn’t been born into a doomed world. To cope with the real world, I would make lists of everything I would need to survive a catastrophe, and I taught myself #SurvivalSkills, like how to build a friction fire in the backyard."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/PHXNH
#SolarPunkSunday #Earth4All #HopePunk #BuildingCommunity #Resiliency
Anyway I'm running a FOOD DRIVE giveaway of paperbacks and you can get Open Minds (Mindjack One) as well as the short story collection that grew out of the six-book #YA #SF novel series.
Enter here: https://forms.gle/BMB1dnrQ3cuh5YLo9
PITTSBURGH FRIENDS: here's a list of "pantries, free fridges, food banks, and free grocery programs by neighborhood or region" for folks impacted by impending loss of SNAP.
*please share*
https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news-2/with-snap-in-jeopardy-heres-where-to-find-food-assistance-across-pittsburgh/
“In the first six months of this year, 14 separate weather-related disasters that each caused at least $1bn in damage hit the US, the Climate Central group has calculated. In total, these events cost $101bn in damages.”
The cost of climate action isn’t as great as the cost of inaction. And the most vulnerable bear the brunt of inaction.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/22/climate-disasters-2025-cost
Time to make 2025 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, you might like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of Nov 2025.
It's the book I should have read before trying to get a job in renewable energy. Reviewers describe it as “to the point, important, and taught me a lot” and “surprisingly entertaining, don’t be put off by the title”.
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/q0437#t=aboutBook
After Hurricane Helene, we promised ourselves that we wouldn't go through another disaster without a battery backup for our rooftop solar. Thanks to the folks at Footprint Project, we're on track to install 20kWh of battery capacity for our building this month!
So now want to pay it forward. On Thursday, October 9th, we'll be donating net proceeds from all sales in-store and online to the Feral Crust Infoshop in Davao, Philippines. This longstanding eco-anarchist project is a living experiment based on principles of mutual aid, cooperation and ecology. So buy a book (or two) and the donated sale will help to fund upgrades to Feral Crust's off-grid electrical infrastructure and rainwater harvesting systems!
https://firestorm.coop/catalog/new.html
#HurricaneHelene #MutualAidDisasterRelief #FeministBookstore #EcoAnarchism #Infoshop #FirestormCoop (- L)
Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱
smallsolar
DoomsdaysCW
Jenny Chase
Firestorm Books