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I've Joined The Creator Accountability Network

I've joined the Creator Accountability Network (CAN) as a provisionally credentialed creator! The provisional period is three months long, and at the end of that time I'll be fully credentialed if nothing disqualifying comes to light.  I'll be excerpting details from their website as the best way to explain what this is and what it means for me as a content creator and for you as readers and audience members. The short version is that I've undergone ethics training as part of the credentialing process, and that if you feel my actions have harmed you (now or in the future), you can report harassment, abuse, or other harm to CAN. Quotes in the rest of this post are from CAN's website as of August 16th, 2025. Here's the long version: From CAN's mission and purpose statements:  "The Creator Accountability Network empowers Community Members to build trust with Content Creators through ethical training and credentialing, victim-centered reporting of unethical...
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Aetherbound by E. K. Johnston

Set on a family-run interstellar freighter called the Harland and a mysterious remote space station, E. K. Johnston’s latest is story of survival and self-determination.

Pendt Harland's family sees her as a waste of food on their long-haul space cruiser when her genes reveal an undesirable mutation. But if she plays her cards right she might have a chance to do much more than survive. During a space-station layover, Pendt escapes and forms a lucky bond with the Brannick twins, the teenage heirs of the powerful family that owns the station. Against all odds, the trio hatches a long-shot scheme to take over the station and thwart the destinies they never wished for.

TITLE: Aetherbound
AUTHOR: E.K. Johnston
PUBLISHER: Dutton Books for Young Readers
YEAR: 2021
LENGTH: 256 pages
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Science Fiction
RECOMMENDED: Yes

Queer Rep Summary: Trans Main Character(s), Intersex Minor Character(s).

This is a trans-affirming sci-fi book with a premise revolving around someone who has the ability to (in certain contexts) manipulate genetics. It's lovely to read something that doesn't try to "fix" the trans character, but finds other solutions for the in-universe problems caused by their chromosomal situation. It's similarly understanding and cathartic around issues including but not limited to neglect and food restriction. The tagline is "There's a fine line between survival and cruelty", and the overall arc is of someone who was raised under the claim of survival-driven scarcity, slowly, in a zone of love and abundance, untangling which parts of her upbringing were actually just cruel. 

Major pieces of backstory and world-building are conveyed in a series of well-described but pretty dense infodumps, one at the very start and a few more sprinkled throughout the rest of the text. They felt a bit clunky but were sufficiently brief as to keep from being overwhelming. The overall effect works well and I love the main characters.

CW for sexual content, grief, emotional abuse, bullying, sexism, misogyny, pregnancy (graphic), calorie counting, body horror, medical content, medical trauma, trafficking, slavery, child death (not depicted), major character death, death (not depicted).

From the book: “This book contains a scene of medical violence. Characters also obsess about food and count calories.”

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The silhouette of a young woman with a purple sky and orange planets


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