In more book news, i'm unsurprised @premeemohamed.com's meaningful, captivating work got shortlisted ❥ #shortlist #DarkFantasy put it on your #TBRShelf with the rest of your #ToBeRead hoard (but this goes on top of course ;) )

We're thrilled to present the shortlist for the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction:

It's thunderstorm o'clock @spyscribe.bsky.social ⛈️

::taps mic:: this on?? Hey friends! I'm so pleased/astonished to tell you that my short story, "Bone Harp Hair," will be published as part of Issue #52 of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet! smallbeerpress.com/lcrw/2026/06...

Been a long time since a thunderstorm has woken me, dang it is pouring. #cowx

this ticket entitles you to one (1) novella next month from: THE DEADLANDS by: @amalsingh.bsky.social NEXT MONTH'S ISSUE FIRST NOVELLA FROM THE DEADLANDS IT'S HAPPENING TICKET 🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️💀🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️it's so good🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️🎟️

Includes The Necessity of Stars by me! A fading memory, an enduring love, and something really peculiar in the garden...

Indigo has pre-orders of Mercutio 25% off as one of its Most Anticipated Fantasy titles. Comes out Aug 18 in Canada.

Today’s the day! I can never sleep the night before a book comes out. If you’ve got your copy today, show me!

Fuck AI.

Allegedly, THE KRAKEN SEA came out ten years ago. You still have time to run away to the circus, and see how everything started for orphan Jackson. Enter a world you've only dreamed of, where a train will carry you to other worlds. JOIN THE CIRCUS TODAY! www.apexbookcompany.com/products/the...

We celebrated TWO book birthdays last weekend — three years of DANGED BLACK THING by @genni.bsky.social, and the TEN YEAR anniversary of THE KRAKEN SEA by @ecatherine.com! 🎂🎉 Check them both out below! ⬇️ www.apexbookcompany.com/products/dan... www.apexbookcompany.com/products/the...

Holy what, ten years???? You guysssss.

It's Midsommarafton in Sweden and I wish I was there in that long summer night. ☀️ As I do every year, I'll share my most midsummery story: "Hare's Breath", first published in Shimmer. www.shimmerzine.com/hares-breath/

If you haven't read @montelin.bsky.social 's Sturgeon-Award-Nominated "his love's ashes on his tongue", give it a read! It's a beautiful meditation on grief. psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...

Mushrooms.

Delighted to see Whalesong by @thisisguan.bsky.social here 🐳

Woke to yips and barks from coyote cubs and parents. Pack moved east, yapping all the way.

And then I decided to read Moby Dick again. 💕🐳💕

Super delighted to see @montelin.bsky.social's @thedeadlands.com story on that beautiful Sturgeon Award list!! file770.com/2026-theodor...

Tolerable.

For this first round, I decided on Red Gatorade, and some Nuun tablets, and I've got Pedialyte powders, so we'll see how this goes. Thank you for all the tips, you're wonderful.

What's the least awful Gatorade or other electrolyte drink? Need to know for cancer reasons.

In the middle of my Buffy rewatch. I've never met a more gracious man at a convention. 💔

Was so sad to hear about the death of Marjane Satrapi today. I dug up my notes on interviewing her once in Paris. substack.com/profile/9027...

SPY

Woke in the night to hear the foxes screaming.

Sonic ice

An FYI I wasn't sure about posting here, but: I was recently diagnosed with cancer (curable) and am undergoing chemo for it. Round one kicked my butt. I'm still here, but will be delayed in all things. Thank you for understanding. Send pellet ice and ginger ale. 🥤

Wet the line! wet the line!

"We will count the cries and the last drops of water. We will count the stones thrown. We will add up what’s left of hospitals and schools" such a poem for you TODAY, beloveds 🖤 We’re Running out of Fingers for All This Counting by Kelsey Dean read it here 💀: psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...

First Mother's Day without her. Cannot recommend. However, Solnit's The Faraway Nearby got me through so many long caregiving days. 🧡

🥳 Some self-promo this Saturday morning:

happy 9th anniversary to the day we watched Zendaya fall madly in love with Tom Holland in real-time

"She had always run too hot, your mother. Her insides were a growling furnace that snapped away at her entrails; all too eager to set her ablaze from within, like an arsonist without an escape plan." TODAY, beloveds!! Lurid Parts by @aquaticteal.bsky.social psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...

We have friends everywhere.

[disco sounde] Make a litel tea Reade a litel Woolf Staye yn tonighte! Staye yn tonighte!

Things I forgot I preordered.

YELP REVIEWES OF CHARON THE FERRYMAN OF THE DEAD "oddly quiet. no warmth." "no bottled water provided." "what's up with the freaky glowing eyes?" "i know I am dead but still turn on the radio, yeesh." "let an actual alive guy on the boat, who I think was being guided by the ghost of Virgil? WTF"

we've started rolling out issue 42 and we can't stop swooning so many great pieces and THAT COVER in case you missed it: psychopomp.com/deadlands/is... and hey, click that Join Our Patreon button, too 🖤 it's what lets us bring you all the deathly goodness 💀

Just finished Virginia Woolf's A Writer's Diary, and highly recommend. The entries on WW2 near the end are extraordinary, real time reports on living through repeated raids.

Really good piece on writing/creativity. @loottheroom.bsky.social she talks about "The Last Great American Dynasty" near the 6-minute mark, you might dig. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/28/m...

Fuck Moleskine.

Anne writes about her story "In This Corner of the World," available to read @thedeadlands.com today. Both are spectacular. I read this piece when my mom was in her final days, and it eased something in me. 💖💀💖

I love this story so much, and hope you will make time for it in your day.

Guys (gender neutral), I cannot stop eating cucumbers sliced in rice vinegar and kosher salt and coarse black pepper. 🥒

90% of reading submissions is thinking carefully about specific stories and 10% of reading submissions is staring into space, thinking “there is nothing in this world better than short fiction.”

Thank you for this honor. 💖💀💖

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf we're talking about HOUSE, BODY, BIRD by Bernie Jean Schiebeling. A haunted house novella in a dollhouse museum & a propulsive lesbian survival thriller, deliciously dreamlike & pounding with action. Weird, in the best way. Our drink is a Dollhouse.

How has it been ten years.