Sidetracks - March 9, 2026

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.

Renay

1. Last week, I dropped Issue #43 of Intergalactic Mixtape. While I was building it, one of my group chats was reflecting on the way the book blog community used to move and I was reminded of when we used to do book reviews and discussions and then link to other people reviewing the same book at the end, so people could get different perspectives. Then I thought about the fact that I've been reading book reviews for years but haven't been reviewing myself, and my strong desire for that section to be in IGMX. I missed the old days more than I realized.

2. There's a short interview with Cat Sebastian about her new book, Star Shipped, which I am very excited to read.

3. My Youtube soap opera recently posted a compilation of the shorts, which she normally does to collect a whole storyline together. The show lightened up a little, but now we're back in peak drama and emotional turmoil, with wedding dress drama and the continuation of pregnancy loss grief. I continue to be sat for the ongoing matriarch drama. How many no contacts from her children will she collect this year?

4. On Joy and Resistance:

"That there have been two high-profile examples of this kind of radicalizing joy on the largest possible stages in less than a month feels like a balm for the relentless shit we have been living under as ICE has destroyed our communities. It is a reminder that even right now, even as the fight rages on, there is time for joy, there is time for art, there is time to celebrate difference and self, and to insist that you too can be free.

Because they want you to forget that."

5. With the above essay, every time I revisit it I go watch Liu's performance again. It's so invigorating.

6. There are two bids for the 2028 Worldcon; Brisbane and Nuremberg. I won't be able to go to either (sob), but I do want to make it a habit to vote in site selection. I have a few friends who are advocating for Brisbane, after COVID left the last Worldcon in that part of the world stuck online-only. I haven't decided yet, but I'll definitely be doing more research into the bid reports.

7. Please watch this Steerswoman vid.