Austen Tucker
Cat herder by trade. Novelist by compulsion. Blind, queer, and building things I can’t find anywhere else.
In this new world of AI and shifting ground rules, I’m not sure what I am yet. This site is where I figure that out — in public, under the name the Arcades.
What I’m doing right now
- → Building this site in public with a ten-agent editorial team
- → Writing a wild memoir about blindness, identity, and the internet
- → Making tools for people traditional tech forgot
- → Teaching myself what “product owner” means when the product is my own life.
📚Writing LabNovels & previews📓Field NotesBlog & dispatches🎮PlaygroundDemos & experiments🛠️ToolsThings I’ve built
Strange but true
- I published some of the earliest “furry” fiction to reach print — before the genre had a shelf to sit on.
- I helped define what people now call “eggfic” years before the term existed.
- Nominated for an Ursa Major Award while still in high school.
- My writing is archived in the Strong National Museum of Play.
Books
Published YA fantasy — queer identity, civil rights allegory, catgirls with feelings. Five titles out, more on the way. Not represented right now, but open to it.
Browse the catalogWeb & Apps
Full stack — Python, JavaScript, Next.js. I build things that are actually useful for neurodivergent and blind communities, and occasionally make interactive toys just because I can.