And ALSO featuring: A lovely magical realism short story by @mrlwwrites.bsky.social Queer flash fiction by @leoastrum.bsky.social Optimistic sci-fi by @element115.bsky.social Reprint cozy fantasy by @rajivmote.bsky.social A novelette about longing, wonder and nature by @clhellisen.bsky.social

Also featuring: Poetry by @brokenswanquill.bsky.social and @deborahldavitt.com Flamboyant assassin shenanigans by @lrb.bsky.social Reprint flash fiction by @jennarainhm.bsky.social An amazing reprint long poem by @jdblood.bsky.social A little dreamy sapphic story by @authorsaraheahart.bsky.social

The Pink Hydra #4 is live!!! As always a blend of tones, styles and lengths to suit, but I particularly want to recommend starting with "Edelyn's End," an #ownvoices heroic fantasy novelette by 24-year-old trans British writer Beth Cleaton. 🏳️‍⚧️ thepinkhydra.com/issues/0201202506

The hero was ageless through the eras--maybe he was a demigod, maybe and elf--but he collected, here and there, long-lived cuts and stubborn scratches, close-call scars and scrapes with death. Little reminders that he was mortal. #vss365 #scar

I have a vendetta against vendettas. It's a hard fight to win. I send them bullets, they send me their existence. No matter how hard I try to get a "gotcha", a victory in this war, they just keep BEING THERE. My grudge keeps growing. Why can't I win? #vss365

I can call the king by his first name, for I am above the king. I am the Author.

I have a plague doctor to ward off disease. The blank eyes of his black mask tell me it's okay. His bones are silent windchimes hanging over my bed. The gravesite misses him, but I can't return him now, not with the virus about. I cough. He and I both must stay here. #vss365

It was a casual conversation with my neighbor. But something was… off. It told me to run. I backed away slowly. His eyes followed me. I turned and broke into a sprint. Never slowed down. I still don't know what it was. But I didn't look back, and I'm still running. #vss365

That feeling when I saw him? Butterflies. Something crawling inside me, waiting to burst out and fly. I was mistaken. They were maggots. When one surfaced from its burrow in my abdomen, he plucked it up and ate it, and he dug into my flesh to reach more of the feast. #vss365

I’m stuck in this room. They won’t let me out. The door’s unlocked, but it won’t open. I stare at the doorknob, but it won’t turn. I sink deeper into the room. They won’t let me out. #vss365

I don't think she had a brain anymore, just a head filled with fluff. She lay in a bed stacked with pillows, buried in blankets, staring at the ceiling with hollow eyes. She was nothing more than a stuffed animal sinking into plush as soft as the breaths she breathed. #vss365

Sunshine came alive for me when you were in my arms. I had never enjoyed daylight before, but suddenly every moment was a beautiful dawn. I wonder what to do now that it’s sunset. You’re falling into shadow, and I’m trying to see your face through the darkness. #vss365

We're opening a resort on the Plutonian shore. Come surf on the hellfire waves! We have: A waterslide into Tartarus. A selection of tormented spirits to drink. A river of blood, for your swimming pleasure. Just shave your hands into skeleton gloves and come on down! #vss365

People wore street clothes in the city, but it was all gowns and shining robes in the palace. The elegant towers stretched high over the buildings and watched everyone. It made one man stop and wonder how many steps he would have to climb to get all the way up there. #vss365

The roots sucked up the sorrow that had drenched the musty earth; the trunk was worn and wet from rain that seldom ever cleared; the branches spelled an elegy that fractured up the sky; the leaves were shining green with shadows dancing on the stones. #vss365 #elegy

One man was never seen in the rest of the hall. The number 49 glittered gold when you stared at his door—just what was he doing in there? He’s not magical, right? But it almost sounded like incantations were murmured within. Strange things happened near room 49.

“Infinity infinity infinity…” Pressing his ear against the door, he heard the chanting inside. It was that old wizard again, the one nobody saw. Not to be trusted. This raised some concern, of course, over just what the wizard was sending to infinity. #vss365

I opened the cage. The little wren flew out. I never saw it again. It was quiet in the living room with that empty cage. "You wouldn't believe it," my daughter later wrote to me from afar. "I heard the most beautiful song today. Like the one from our living room." #vss365

He said the elven harp was too beautiful for humans to have created. With long fingers, he showed the little girl how to play. He said she was good, for a human, but she didn’t have the magic of the elves. She promised to find her own magic someday. #vss365

Sit down by the fire, children, where the tales are told. Half my mind says tell them to you 'fore my mind's too old. Once there were more stories, but I lost them long ago; Hear the rest before they're black and flying with the crow. #vss365

Before me was a girl in a bonny dress that swirled in a satin gyre as she turned to me. I thought her a goddess, but she was merely a daughter of a king. “Would you like me to play?” she said, silver flute glinting. Nothing would be more lovely in the world. #vss365

I swore to kill whoever killed my mother. Tracked him down. “Stop!” someone called as I raised my gun. “That’s my brother. You kill him, I kill you.” “Ha! My sister is behind you. You kill me, she kills you.” “Ha-HA! My nephew…” Vengeance is an exhausting circle. #vss365

Warning signs plastered the entrance, indicating little hope. I waded alligator-laden waters and brushed toxic plants. Hopped barbed wire and skirted electric fences. Well, I got the treasure, but no way am I going back through all that. I’ll just stay here with my gold. #vss365

The demon walks the earth. People know him for one thing or other, mostly normal things. They put his demonhood aside. The demon frowns. His true nature is not yet manifest. He dreads the day the facade cracks, the day his friends tremble in fear.

The sun rose to a new sort of daybreak, a new crack of dawn: a literal breaking of the Earth into two pieces. The ground rumbled and shattered. But something kept the two halves from drifting apart. Many bridges span the rift. The ground has stopped shaking. #vss365

“When life hurls you lemons, hurl lemonade.” Or something like that. The first lemon hit me quite hard. I saw life clutching several more, ready to throw. I can’t tell you why this made me throw up, but life thought it was gross and backed off. #vss365

Noticed one of my Submittable submissions has shifted from "received" to "in-progress". Exciting! And terrifying that my poetry is actively being judged. #writesky #writingcommunity #submissions #submittable

The other great thing about Bluesky over Twitter is that "jdblood" wasn't taken by some guy who went inactive in 2009

Thanks for this fun art show! I'm an artist of fantasy art, divination decks, and animals. Here are a few of my cats! You can find me at www.albaillustration.com Etsy shop: albaillustration.etsy.com Redbubble shop: www.redbubble.com/people/elisa...

Sounds resound and noise annoys. Unfortunate that ears must hear. #vss365 #noise

He came up from the Underworld to play the god of death. A hero's gleaming blade proved him mortal after all, but still he haunts the surface, pulling strings from far below. #vss365 #death

His face had not a furrow, but his gaze was aged by grief, The tree on which he laid it watered years by dreary rain. #vss365 #grief

The old couple tenderly rocked a new life form wrapped in blankets, cooing gently. Who was this child they so coddled? I saw within the blankets a pair of horns and a devious grin: a young devil had tricked them into thinking him human. He winked as I passed them on by. #vss365

I never do sleep. Not like I need it. I'm flowing swift all night like the water. I hear the distant windstorm blowing, Singing something soft to shutting eyes, Someone else's lullaby. #vss365 #lullaby

Deadly poison poured daily down the throat. O, sweet neurotoxin! A slow, burning demise. #vss365

A Tale of Two Citrus It was the best of times, it was the clementines

The clockwork man had spinning hands and numbers for eyes. They called him the Timekeep. He’d come in and look at you, and if your eyes met his, you’d spiral away into infinity. They so transfixed you: the motion, the ticking, the time. #vss365

There is a particular sort of Being that warrants a capital B. To Be is not simply to be. It is to exist in truer form, to understand a truer knowledge, to walk a truer way. It is easy to be something; it is much, much harder to Be. #vss365

Shining flowers like minuscule suns lit up the grassy plain, a galaxy of infinite colors dotting the land. I picked them, one by one, until the night turned black. #vss365

As I migrate my online presence from Twitter to here, I will be gradually reposting the little stories (mainly #vss365) that I wrote on there. Not sure how active I will be with new stories, but it's nice that much of the same community seems to be here.