Who's going this year? (Apart from the people whose names are right there, I mean)

Thank you to these heroes for publishing/accepting for publication my words: @bulbculture.bsky.social @thehooghlyreview.bsky.social @rfpress.bsky.social @underbellypress.bsky.social @rawheadjournal.bsky.social Bull Thin Skin Bottle Rocket Mythic Picnic The Wild Umbrella NFFD Flash Fic Festival

Time to collect my published short stories from 2025 into a pinned thread as if I know what I'm doing. Listed from longest to shortest and overlaid on a holiday snap, with word counts and links in the replies. Hope you enjoyed one or two of these throughout the year! Or, y'know, maybe now? No? 🪐📚

In lieu of a newsletter, our Ed has done an end of year roundup and teased our Spring sub calls. Please give it a read. trashcatlit.com/2025/12/31/t... Happy New Year and thank you for sharing, reading, subbing and loving. We appreciate you 🦝💜 New issue launches 2nd Jan - it's all about cats.

Good morning! Here are your 3 minutes of peace & calm. #OceanDevotion

Just DNF'd an audiobook by an author whose work I've previously praised to their face and now I'm feeling guilty about it. Although in my defence the book really was boring my arse right off.

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

How I'm walking out of 2025 www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDpA...

Our charity anthology authors share the love! "This story is a glittering shard of dark urban magic from the king of creepy-trippy-cool. Come scream into the void; you know you want to…" Paperback £7.50: mybook.to/WhatComesToL... @sarahkat.bsky.social @matgost.bsky.social

Hope everyone's presents were excellent this year. Here's some extra Christmas presence - a thread of short stories I've just caught up on featuring weird freaky presences. Enjoy! 'Maintenance Window' by @hellena.bsky.social at @nightshadesmag.bsky.social : www.nightshadesmag.com/maintenance-...

About to Bubble Bobble the face right off this post-Boxing Day lull. Nice swanky box @evercade.co.uk

Our charity anthology authors share the love! "A Crossing gives us pilgrims almost meeting on the road – but centuries apart. Rich with authenticity and memory, deftly unspooled in under 1000 words. A gem." Paperback £7.50: mybook.to/WhatComesToL... @leighloveday.bsky.social @sarahkat.bsky.social

Hope everyone's presents were excellent this year. Here's some extra Christmas presence - a thread of short stories I've just caught up on featuring weird freaky presences. Enjoy! 'Maintenance Window' by @hellena.bsky.social at @nightshadesmag.bsky.social : www.nightshadesmag.com/maintenance-...

Boxing Day stroll. We made some friends (not real friends, obviously, swans crave the eradication of all life on land)

Welcome to SURREAL WEEK, where calories don't count, drinking is governed by airport rules, no one cares how you're dressed, and marathoning old movies is the norm. You have until January 5th when doing absolutely fucking nothing becomes embarrassing again. Do nothing with it wisely.

Just got a Christmas card either wishing us Love Thugs or calling us Love Thugs, and either way, looks like my new band name has sought me out

This how they did in my team in Jan. They kept them long enough to train bots, then fired them. I'm currently surviving doing work of 4 people, at breakneck pace. If you wonder why I have clear eyed view of where we are with LLMs, this is why. I was ground 0 www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forc...

One of the weakest and most damaging arguments for using AI is that it's not going to go away. That's a horrible argument for conforming based on everyone giving up and letting our environment, the veracity of our collective knowledge, and future generation's ability to learn all be destroyed.

Our charity anthology authors share the love! "The Memory of Water is an elegy for a dying pond. Memories of fishing, damp leaves, otters and ducks. Now the farmer poisons the pond with slurry. Little is left but memories. But a small hope remains." Paperback £7.50: mybook.to/WhatComesToL... 1/2

@amalelmohtar.com Cousin unexpectedly asked for a book for Christmas this year. No idea what sort of stuff she reads. Went out and made a responsible purchase.

Went in the greengrocers today. Immediately got hit by boccoli

On the 13th of December, your Trash Cat gave to you... a reduced price on our charity anthology until Christmas Eve 🦝 Grab one, gift one, read one for less of your penny-monies. All proceeds to The Wildlife Trusts for the badgers and stuffs. mybook.to/WhatComesToL...

Happy #Caturday from Arsehole nesting unhelpfully in the tinsel.

Contributing to work meetings in ways that are beneficial for everyone.

YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU oh damn now I have to buy a console capable of running it

First family Christmas card to arrive is from an auntie calling my kids twats and invoking the Antichrist. Brisk start. Going to be hard to beat tbh

I live in Wales and today received my Join Us letter from Reform UK, complete with SAE which I posted back to them, immediately, empty. If every other person in Wales did this, Reform would spend over £1.5 million on postage. Not sorry. Join me Cymru.

Love flash fiction? Want to support a venue that gives it their all for the SFF genre? Look no further! www.kickstarter.com/projects/fla...

I was masking a house out of a photo for an edit and accidentally made an ontologically evil image

There is a bit more nuance here than the slimy BBC clickbait headline would have you believe, but even so... not great for authors to hear from someone whose business was built on their existence. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We're so proud of our first print anthology and plan to donate all royalties (so far) to The Wildlife Trusts in January 🦝 Please consider adding to that pot and grab yourself, or gift someone, 27 amazing short fictions 💜 mybook.to/WhatComesToL...

Here’s this month’s blog post of open submission calls for #SFF and #horror writers! This one features eco-gothic stories, pulp SF, South Asian folk tales and sunny yet dark thrillers. timjmajor.com/2025/12/03/o... #AmWriting #WritingCommunity Please share!

Can vouch for Jessica Reisman's The Arcana of Maps and Josh Rountree's Fantastic Americana, but they're probably all bangers.

Happy Christmas panic-buying onset for those who celebrate! Must be time to bump this, suitable for anyone in your life who likes a) charity and b) animals. And optimally c) reading. 27 snack-sized stories curated by @trashcatlit.bsky.social for The Wildlife Trusts: trashcatlit.com/what-comes-t...

The numbers in here are hilarious. Do you use AI on the job? Execs: 87% Managers: 57% Workers: 27% Planned investment by 2030: $5T "Necessary" annual revenue to justify that spend: $650B Current annual revenue: $50B

One of my favourite covers from the Spectrum era. Absolutely nob all to do with the game, but as an artefact of the '80s I love it.

It's #Caturday and Void Baby is at the top of his tower with a list of demands.

Good week for UK bookmail so far, or zinemail if that's a thing. The fabled issue 3 of @remainsmagazine.bsky.social and two issues of @seasidegothic.com to see what that's all about! And a cat (he was already here and was not sent by post)

Heading out to see Predator: Badlands and I'm excited because they can no longer in good conscience show me the goddamn Running Man trailer 🙏

All of our previous issues are available to purchase or read on our website! Pictured here are the first six issues, published between 2022 and 2024. The best way to support an indie magazine like ours is by reading, sharing, and talking about the work we put out. 🤎

“AI workers said they distrust the models they work on because of a consistent emphasis on rapid turnaround time at the expense of quality.”

One Spanish cultural discovery I forgot about until going through photos again just now is that your McDonalds drink options include a beer or a bottle of gazpacho. Absolute untameable mavericks

These are all rejected Street Fighter II win quotes and you cannot convince me otherwise

If you're trying to convince your friends to spend time on Bluesky rather than X, maybe show them this. X is not "the public town square" or about "free speech." It's "just what Elon Musk wants you to see." If you see stuff he doesn't like he'll step in to make sure you don't see it for long.

Bookmail! Belated b'day extra from a work pal (with cover by the unmistakable @egallagher.bsky.social). Recruited Oscar and his wonky whiskers to add gravitas.

A whole song was cut from Sinners, but you can still watch it online: #Sinners

It’s back 😏 Nominate Your Favorite Lit Mags of 2025 through this form ⬇️ www.chillsubs.com/best-lit-mag... Let’s love on some editors, folks. They freakin’ deserve it!

In these busiest shopping weeks of the year, with everyone under horrible pressure over money, job security etc, try to be nice to retail staff (who likely have unreasonable sales targets from HQ to make up for a lousy retail year). Far too many stressed customers will behave appallingly right now.

Happy #Caturday from Void Baby, trying on his chic new winter bandana as he stares into the time vortex