Pilot Season Poll
Vote for your favorite pilot!
Alright! Pilot Season has come and gone and now you have some choices!
See the possibilities below:
Ko the Cobbler: A dwarven cobbler in a new city. (commentary)
The Steamworks: A member of royalty receives their inheritance. (commentary)
Rainbow Station: A hacker starts a new life in space. (commentary)
I’d also like to take a bit of time and talk about something that bothers me.
I’ve always struggled with self-promotion. I did not know a childhood without social media and the internet. As a result, my teenage years were lived in public; any mistake I made amplified by the social media megaphone that I willingly subjected myself to, despite the warnings of family members. It wasn’t until I grew into myself that I felt the second-hand embarrassment of old photos and posts from that era, and had the self-control to remove myself from social media’s addictive embrace.
I view my experience with social media almost like an embarrassing tattoo that a person gets right after they come of age. Even if you still like the sentiment, it probably hasn’t stood the test of time. We are taught, myself especially as a non-binary person, that taking a stance, having an opinion is dangerous. It could be offensive. It could be the wrong opinion, or ill-informed.
And what could be a more dangerous opinion than being proud of your creative work? Of wanting other people to see it? Of thinking that your work might actually have a positive impact on another’s life, make them smile if only for a moment? It almost feels like bragging.
I’ve deleted most of my social profiles at this point and the handful of social media sites that I am on, I’ve developed a (more or less) anonymous presence: posting and interacting occasionally, liking sporadically, quiet and lurking.
But since the election, my work on this blog has felt different. Now that a second Trump presidency is on the immediate horizon, I feel called towards giving people a place they can escape to or escape within. I’ve felt a drive to promote this blog more and more, sharing it with friends and family, posting about it at work.
With Pilot Season and the work I’ve done this November, I’ve realized something:
I’m done trying to be anonymous.
I’m proud of the work I do, the stories I’ve written. I’m proud of this blog and still stand behind everything I’ve said. I’m creating a place where some people can feel a sliver of hope, even if it’s only for a couple of minutes. I want to reach the people who might need a reprieve, who’d love to take a break and listen to a story about an optimistic cobbler, or a determined aristocrat, or a homesteading hacker.
So, I’m asking you, Dear Reader, to share my work. If you enjoy a particular post, please like it. If you know someone who needs to be cheered up, and you think my work might do it, please share it with them. If you have a question, please comment or email me. Ask people to vote for your favorite story, talk about these stories in the comments, restack these posts or feature them on your own Substack.
If you feel uncomfortable just sharing this publication directly, here are some social media handles I made this week where you can follow and repost or share this poll:
Instagram: zk_hardy
Threads: zk_hardy
Bluesky: zkhardy.bsky.social
These stories are based on my belief in the power of kindness, and the more attention we give to beliefs like those, the more importance we give to them, the more likely we are to build a world that is kind and hopeful.