Digging up old music I haven’t listened to in years and came across October Project’s Falling Farther In. Beautiful voice (Mary Fahl) and hauntingly sung, with well crafted instrumentation. I used to listen to that a lot in college, but forgot about them.

I have a story in this! "The Ways of Plants and Spells" I'll have more to say about the story later, but keep your eyes on it--lots of good stories and great writers involved!

Another new story by a fellow Codexian!

Thrilled to share that I'll have a story in an upcoming issue of Tales & Feathers! I should know more about the timing soon, but excited to have "Ten Truths Known by the Railways' Brakers" coming out in @talesfeathers.bsky.social!

I’ve read a lot of Elis’s early drafts, poems and stories, and it’s great to see this one out in Adventitious now!

The Moth Plateau comes to its dramatic close with Of Moths and Breaking, narrated by Melle, whose story was so much fun to write. When the 15-year-old discovers her family home destroyed, nothing will stop her from confronting the corporate stooges in charge!

It's out now and free to read! One of the most personal things I've written and already kindly reviewed at Tar Vol on...

Guess what, the final Moth Plateau novella comes out next week! It's been an intense five months, with a new one out each month. To celebrate, the first novella, Riding the Moth Plateau, is on sale. If you've missed out, come get started on this weird Western journey: books2read.com/u/3L7rEX

I'm stoked to announce my ARC campaign for my fantasy romance trilogy! I have a certain number of free ebook and Audible codes to give out in exchange for an unbiased, honest review for books 1&2, and 3 when it comes out! If you're interested, please fill out the survey below. shorturl.at/FRnjj

LAUNCH DAY! There's no fee to enter, and on top of the winning publication, EIGHT authors will receive $100 each. THAT'S $2,300 of community-raised funds! See inkfoundry.net/the-inkmark/ for more details!

We have ‼️8 days‼️left to raise $4800 for year 6 of Tales & Feathers. And if we can get there we might even reach our Print Edition goals!! 👀 Please back if you can! And if you can't, likes and shares are a huge help. We so appreciate your support and can't wait to bring you more cozy fantasy. 💚

And if you want more weird fiction set in this decaying, decadent city, another story was published a dozen years ago in the defunct Penumbra, but I've now posted that to my Ko-fi page: ko-fi.com/post/reprint... This goes to the opposite extreme of "Grey Eytel," imagining the end state of the city

New story out today! "Grey Eytel and His Band of Birds" is in the magazine Hell Itself. It's a story of history and how we remember it, telling the true story of a key moment in the city's past through the lens of a historian trying to correct the record.

The moths are falling from the sky like catastrophic precipitation. In other words, Moth Plateau 4 is out! Days of Sagebrush and Absence tells the story of the doubting priestess and hermit Milliva trying to offer comfort to a people lost and confused and cut off from the world below.

The fourth novella of my Moth Plateau series comes out this weekend--Days of Sagebrush and Absence tells of a catastrophic environmental collapse in a weird wild west and the doubting priestess who ends up leading the cowpokes and messengers through trying times: www.danielausema.com/p/moth-plate...

A rejection, a hold notice, and an acceptance all in a single day! (Before lunch, even.)

I just read this one yesterday and loved the way the story was constructed--a very imaginative story!

slightly diminish a book: I assume someone's already done The Lesser Nobleman of the Rings (Hidalgo of the Rings? ooh, that could work) so I'll go with Titus Whimper

Hello friends, we are 🎉✨LIVE ON KICKSTARTER!! ✨🎉 WE'RE FUNDING: 🌟 T&F Year 5 💫 T&F Year 6 and, if we reach $15k: our first ever Tales & Feathers PRINT EDITION! 🎊📚‼️ Check it out below! Like, share, and back the campaign to help us bring our dreams into reality. 💚

"Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli." Easy mode: Princess Bride, of course, but for a lesser known one...

Ephemeral Village, my poetry chapbook from Island of Wak-Wak, has been nominated again for the Elgin Award (in its second year of eligibility)!!! www.islandofwakwak.com/ephemeral-vi...

Another behind-the-scenes look at the Moth Plateau series. Sakehin, a daredevil who is far more impressive in his own mind than in reality. And yet...kinda charming: www.danielausema.com/2026/04/intr...

@emmiechristie33.bsky.social identified "language as magic" as one of the hallmarks of my stories. So, I decided that this month's reprint for my newsletter (&Ko-fi) would feature language as magic, "Excavating Lost Languages," which originally appeared in Frozen Wavelets: ko-fi.com/post/Flash-F...

Setting my alarm and using complex statistical divinations to get that 95th slot

I have canoed this backwater—Croton Pond in Michigan—many times and portaged that dam. Would not want to be in an open canoe below that dam now. But would love to make some of those floodwaters appear here in our Colorado reservoirs now, if I could safely (photos from an Mlive article yesterday)

Moth Plateau #3 is out today! Time with its Tricks follows the daredevil Sake, exiled from the upper plateau for...distractibility and an utter, unfounded certainty in his own greatness. Instead he winds up in the Misbuilt City. Links to Amazon and others here: www.danielausema.com/p/moth-plate...

Fun thread on fish and gravity--give it a read.

April issue of Star*Line has my poem "Sailing through Flooded Cathedrals"--and mine is one of a few poems chosen by the editor to appear online. So, get a copy here or simply scroll down to read mine: sfpoetry.org/wp/starline/... It's a post-apocalyptic, free-verse poem. I think it's pretty good...

As I continue to add behind-the-scenes stuff about the Moth Plateau series, here's an intro to the main character (and some of the side characters) of the second novella, Pursuit and Moth Songs: www.danielausema.com/2026/03/a-si... Where's she from? Why's she wear that mask? Learn more here.

Looks like Fannetsburg is located in a place called Metal Township in southern PA. Which feels auspicious. You can actually search the graves at the cemetery here: www.findagrave.com/cemetery/197... (at least the officially recognized ones?)

Very cool, both the map itself and the detailed info, some of which I'd heard before but never in this straightforward way that puts all the pieces together.

Good sized group marching in northern Colorado today—the crowd felt comparable to last October’s. Lots of support from the people not marching, too, in cars and lining the streets #nokings

Why hasn't Fred Coppersmith, of Kaleidotrope, even been on the ballot yet? Kaleidotrope has been running for, what, twenty or so years now? And in that period, Fred has been publishing any number of first/early publications from all sorts of now established authors. (me included.)

2. WYSR “Three Days of Unnamed Silence” One of the best anti-capitalist stories I've read! inkfoundry.net/review/why-y...

A V of Canada geese just flew over my head (they’re here year-round, so not a spring sign)—all looked normal color, except the point goose, which was a bright white. It wasn’t just different lighting, because the difference stayed as they flew and changed directions (and it fell back from point)

The reprint I just sent my newsletter subscribers included people using sea anemones as underwater breathing devices. Jellyfish wristwatches would fit in with that so well!

!!

Post a gif of who you wanted to be as a kid.

I'll be adding more background info on this series of novellas as new ones come out. With Pursuit & Moth Songs available now, I decided to dive into the origin of the series as a whole. I mean, who even thinks of writing about a place with so many moths? www.danielausema.com/2026/03/the-...

The second Moth Plateau novella is out today! books2read.com/u/bpvKEl or www.amazon.com/gp/product/B... While the first one is a relatively straightforward narrative, this one plays around with POV and style to tell the story of a woman trying to escape her past…and the bounty hunters after her

Poem sold to Star*Line! Watch for "Sailing through Flooded Cathedrals" in the next month or two. It's a post-apocalyptic or at least post-disaster poem, of loss and searching, of "the vague hope for that unknown, / wispy wingbeats over the water"

Reading the latest @seananmcguire.bsky.social ‘s Wayward Children novella, Through Gates of Garnet and Gold, and it’s got moths, too! See, it’s not just me obsessed with moths right now. Must be something in the air. Love this description.

When the people on stage part and Björk steps forward... And then, check the full video of the performance for the amazing, frenetic outro, which differs from the single (and album version). youtu.be/7fyufPkXLbs?... Amazing!

I have been having a great time reading these author spotlights and getting to know these (some familiar, some new to me) writers through @emmiechristie33.bsky.social 's eyes: www.emmiechristie.com/short-fictio...

I had some longer fiction to catch up on for a bit there (plus I’ve been listening to Robin Hobb’s various series while driving, so decided to track down the related shorts)

Please consider nominating Kaleidotrope in the annual Pretty Nice Zine You Might Consider Maybe Nominating for Some Kind of Award if There’s Room Left on the Ballot Someday Award!

I didn't renew my SFWA membership this year, but if you're a member, do consider P.A. Cornell's story! I only had poetry out in 2025, but I'm told my poem "The Lesser Zodiacs" is a possible nominee. Poetry is new to the Nebulas, so if you're nominating for poems, I'd love if that gets some notice.

Follow-up to yesterday's post, as part of releasing Riding the Moth Plateau, I'm also putting some of my earlier books for sale. All three of the original Spire City seasons are discounted from now through Sunday, everywhere except Amazon. Universal links here: books2read.com/ap/8YyAJa/Da...

It's been one week since Riding the Moth Plateau was released, and three weeks until Pursuit and Moth Songs comes out. I've got one more post about the series as a whole on my blog: www.danielausema.com/2026/02/moth...