Lying on the hotel room floor waiting for the pain to fuck off

Here's a BIG bundle of friendship-centered SFF stories. The Unidentified is not alone in showing that the most dramatic love stories don't necessarily involve romance! The UnID "A group of outcast friends disrupt corporate control at their ad-funded, game-designed school in this fun tech dystopia."

I realise I've said for a while that eating the rich could lead to prion diseases, I must caution everyone that the risk is greatly increased by the rich already having eaten people. I must insist on ensuring they remain several steps removed from our food chain. Please dispose responsibly.

Thrilled to see Shadow Jack (@giganotosaurus.bsky.social) included on @wtalabi.com's list! He calls it, "Weird, dark, intense, beautiful, strange, surreal, unsettling, and vivid..." Fab to be in the company of excellent writers like @tadethompson.bsky.social - so many cool new stories to read.

Welp, we came stone last in the novice foxtrot and first in rhythm blues, so 3rd overall. I will take it, since this time I didn't get flumg into the barrier

Goodnight. Hare, The Frost Pink Moon, Catherine Hyde.

2025 was another great year for African short fiction! Author @wtalabi.com recommends 10 highlights across science fiction, fantasy, and horror, from "magic-for-wealth schemes" to an unsettling religious organization (in space). And if there's some ties in there...? We're not complaining.

Tomi Guarino in the mixed: Started training the same music for SP and FS last weekend. He personally found the artist for the 4th cut and got approved. Still waiting on Pharrell, some technical things to work out (should be cleared by tomorrow) #MilanoCortina2026

The saltire whale I made for our Scottish clubs' mascot has proven extremely popular 😁 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🐋

A new systematic review has found that trans women on HRT have the same level of fitness as cis women and don't retain any advantage in sports. www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

I found out my skate club does a branded black oodie and I need one. Imagine being warm at the rink....

What do you call a day where you can dress casual/no uniform (say at school.) I call this civvies day. (South African)

It also misunderstands the Ancient Greek world as a White one. Greece, Northern African & Asian countries, and the Levant were a mix of peoples who traded and travelled and lived together, even up until the World Wars.

Hey look! A new book! Some of you may have caught The Packet serialised in ParSec magazine but this is its first outing as physical book. If you like stormy sea voyages and sci-fi, this is the one for you. Out in April, opening for pre-order now. www.newconpress.co.uk/info/book.as...

Happy release day @aknighton.bsky.social !

Happy release day to @lyndseycroal.bsky.social with her novella In This City, Where it Rains!

GUESS WHAT we are OPEN for 2025 AFTERLIVES: The Year's Best Death Stories subs!! BUT (and this is SUPER IMPORTANT) we are asking EDITORS to send us work this time so WRITERS, be in touch with your editors and READ ON for more info: psychopomp.com/afterlives-2...

One more day!! Here are some of the very kind things talented author pals have said about the book so far, to tempt you into this strange Scottish gothic horror fold (complete with @clhellisen.bsky.social artwork!) Out from @lunapress.bsky.social tomorrow!! ✨🖤 linktr.ee/lyndseycroal

SFF Readers, do you like stories which centre friendship, or where friendship groups tackle plot problems? To help you find them, I've organised this 37 book bundle. It's an even split of Fantasy, SciFi & SciFi-Fantasy, available till Feb 15! (Book blurbs in link 😉.) 🌈📚🪐📚💙 itch.io/b/3486/frien...

My favourite sounds: The crash of waves at night. The distant eeriness of the call to prayer before sunrise. The rrrrip of a deep edge on ice. Foghorns through the mist. The pipe-and-whirr call of a ring neck dove.

I am absolutely thrilled to have work included on the 2025 Locus Recommended List, alongside @rainewilson.bsky.social @mkhardywrites.com @seraph76.bsky.social @matociquala.bsky.social and many others. Thank you, and I appreciate any and all votes! locusmag.com/2026/02/2025...

The Cymera Prize for Speculative Short Fiction is open to any writer living in Scotland or Scottish by birth or inclination, aged at least 14 years. Submissions are open from Monday 12th January 2026 until 8pm BST on Sunday 22nd March 2026. www.cymerafestival.co.uk/2026-prize

Right, I need to go sew ribbon onto an IKEA whale to make it into a saltire, for reasons. Gonna go watch Glitter & Gold on netflix to get me in the Olympic mood while I sew.

A funny-looking friend

I am absolutely thrilled to have work included on the 2025 Locus Recommended List, alongside @rainewilson.bsky.social @mkhardywrites.com @seraph76.bsky.social @matociquala.bsky.social and many others. Thank you, and I appreciate any and all votes! locusmag.com/2026/02/2025...

This book is beautiful, an incredible piece of speculative fiction drawing on academia, the natural world, and the power of stories to shape our future in a dystopian post climate/tech collapse nightmare

The Unidentified is part of this BIG friendship-centered book bundle. When it first debuted, I felt pressured to add a love triangle to conform to the YA tropes at the time. In this new edition, I got to strip that out and refocus the story on falling out of best-friendship & finding a new crew!

Very cool! you should go read The Needfire of gothic Scottish lesbian horror is your jam. Which it should be.

To celebrate we're offering $2 off the ebook and free shipping to the UK and the US if purchased directly from the publisher. tanithleestoryteller.com [Small press glitch: please ignore the word preorder! It's definitely "order" I just need to figure out how to fit the page title!]

Ah this is excellent news - so glad to see Tanith Lee's influence on fantastical fiction being so appreciated

Looking forward to the @edinburghsff.com social today - always good to meet up with other writers for a chat. Extra bonus! It is not currently pishing down in Edinburgh, and it's a balmy 7C.

the interminable screaming of cats with a three second memory. OMG I HAVE FED YOU LET ME WRITE

I love this book soooo much! And it's @davidgreenwriter.bsky.social's birthday today so a good time to share the joy and buy yourself a copy.

In Too Stupid To Live moments, I left my skates at the rink this morning. If you ever wonder why all my characters are idiots, it's because I write what I know.

The fabulous folks of Neon Hemlock are having an AMA! Come talk about Queer SFF. www.reddit.com/r/QueerSFF/c...

Saw one of these sharing the street with a squirrel earlier. I give it a month before the rodents of Leeds raid the plastic treasure fleet, crack open their lids, devour their cargo, & ride them around the city like a band of furry privateers.

Spotted in Dundee.

Book 3. Call and Response, Christopher Caldwell's collection of fantastical Black, queer short fic. Stunning and unapologetically American - not stars and stripes bluster, but a seething cocktail of folk magic, fairy tale logic, bitter truths & hopeful poisons. www.neonhemlock.com/books/call-a...

Tune in tomorrow for our @lunapress.bsky.social 2026 Novella Launch!! @aknighton.bsky.social and I will be chatting all about the novellas, inspirations, and thematic overlaps despite being such different genres! 7pm GMT/2pm EST on YouTube to watch live! Spread the word! ✨️🖤 youtu.be/E2rmVnbVOp4?...

I have been struggling to read for the last few weeks. And struggling to write. (these things go hand in hand, it's like trying to build muscle while starving) anyway, no more doomscrolling the end times, cat, go read a fucking book.

Monetisation The advert said MONETISE YOUR FOLLOWERS so he thought he would respond by painting them in the changing light, like waterlilies in a pond.

But the AI bots are coming, and people using AI to grift you into trusting them are here…and you should be at least lightly vigilant or aware. And regardless, if your gut says No Bueno, listen to your gut. It’s your life and energy & you don’t need to be tuned into every rando.

Enjoyed this episode with Scotland's @lyndseycroal.bsky.social, talking novellas, short stories, closed room horror, her recent and upcoming releases, and her path of discovery writing. (My own approach is similar - if I plot something out extensively, i get too bored to go back in and write it.)

Your brain thinks your cat is a baby. Science says that’s…completely reasonable. #CatScience #ScienceOfCats #Neuroscience #BrainScience #PsychologyFacts #ScienceCommunication #SciComm #CatsOfInstagram #CatLovers #CatParents #DidYouKnow #FunScience #NerdyButCute

in case you missed it! check out this fantastic flash story by @amfisher.bsky.social 💀🖤

don't need a free course to tell me LLMs are plagiarised slop and create *more* not less work to correct the flaws they make because they're glorified text-predictors. how about the government put money into paid apprenticeships for older adults (not just young folk and new graduates).

I wrote a thing about short stories, why they get rejected, and what you can apply to your own work. clhellisen.beehiiv.com/p/a-view-fro...

It comes from a livejournal post Cat Valente wrote when they were editing Apex (I'm horrified to learn that this is now 16 years old). It's basically what you're saying here - show us the cool shit up front, don't bury the lede, hook us early catvalente.livejournal.com/590003.html?...

I've been slush reading for many years now, and I mostly say no to stories where the reward is all in the ending. **A reader is only going to get a few lines in before they judge yea or nay.** You need to set up the payoff of the ending in the first few lines. And that's a tough one.