Whyyyyy did I suggest to my editor that excerpts from fantasy!Buddhist scripture would be Just The Thing to make chapter-heading epigraphs in a book with *thirty chapters*

The doors of Story Oracle, Clarion West’s first ever choose your own adventure narrative game, are officially open. Awaiting you inside the labyrinth are adventure, romance, and as many as 10 book recommendations curated by some of your favorite CW authors. Start your journey here: bit.ly/44kuAuI

The Strange Horizons Annual Fund Drive to keep us publishing in 2027 is finally here! You can find the fund drive at the link ⬇️ www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s... Some changes have arrived this time around though. Read the thread to learn more.

Why would I automate the part of my job that I most enjoy? Why would I have a robot write on my behalf when my clients hired me for my specific unique voice and perspective? No, I do not use AI. Maybe there are authors who do, but I don’t know any personally.

Aaaand we finally got a chance to unbox our finished copies of THE EYE OF LEVIATHAN tonight! We have books . . . and we have *knives*. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPDm...

Just four weeks left until THE EYE OF LEVIATHAN comes out! As an appetizer, we've got this prequel novelette in @adventitiouswords.bsky.social: www.adventitious.net/stories/non-...

The Writer's Little Book of Naming returns! This is a novelette-sized ebook entirely focused on the ways in which creating names for characters, places, and things in a world can reflect culture and enrich a setting: www.swantower.com/writing/the-...

We are definitely fans of all the love and support coming through! We've cross $10k and are nearly halfway there! Here's some Fund Drive issue coming your way:

The Dream of Jeannie by Marie Brennan @swantower.bsky.social Link ⬇️ strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

As part of @strangehorizons.bsky.social's ongoing fund drive, I have a new poem out in the special issue! And @mariness.bsky.social just reminded me of the lovely term "calligram" for this type of work (much prettier than "concrete poem"): strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

They are now live!

Several people have asked me recently why Analog/Asimov's/F&SF/Ellery Queen/Alfred Hitchcock still don't have Submission Grinder listings again, because the communications from SFWA on the subject have been so positive. So I thought it might be worth addressing this briefly.

Let's be clear about something: any editor who runs an author's work through an "AI detector" is using the same technology they're supposedly trying to avoid. Furthermore, they're feeding that author's work -- w/o permission -- to the same companies that have probably already stolen earlier work.

Moving/retooling/rescheduling is a hassle; we need these funds to keep the magazine going! So (1) I'm warning you, the other members of the publishing community, about the Kickstarter of now (2) I'd appreciate your support in boosting/following the backerkit link: www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

How bad was the Kickstarter AI? AI doesn't have memory or context. Instead of approving our project quickly, like in past years (we're known), the AI demanded proof we shipped things from three years ago, using documents that don't exist, that were not requirements of Kickstarter.

Why did we move our @strangehorizons.bsky.social annual fund drive at the last-minute? (1) BackerKit is cool; the cool people are there; come be cool with us (2) Kickstarter randomly started dicking us around. By randomly I mean with AI. They replaced their humans with AI, and the AI was bad.

New poem today! A rhymed and metered quatern double called "Horizon's Child," about being the son of two very different worlds: www.zoeticpress.com/an-21-start-... Or listen to it here: www.zoeticpress.com/4lph4num3r1c...

Our Kickstarter is live! Help support another year of speculative fiction by immigrant & diaspora writers over at @Kickstarter. 🧡 With your help, we can keep funding our work, expand to regular author interviews, raise our artist pay, & more! Support us at: www.kickstarter.com/projects/kho...

Innnteresting. Despite #Kickstarter telling me that launching their pledge manager would close late pledges, now it looks like you can still back LADY TRENT'S FIELD JOURNAL? Can anybody check this link and confirm that for me? www.kickstarter.com/projects/mar...

NEW: Federal judge blocks Trump admin's effort to move 14 trans women to men's prisons. "[I]t is fundamentally unreasonable for prison officials to respond to serious risks ... by intentionally creating those risks and offering to treat them after they predictably occur." Today, at Law Dork:

Me: "Okay, I'll bike to the grocery store --" Wind: <gusts over 30 mph> Me: "Or drive. Driving is good."

Reminder that I'll be closing late pledges for Lady Trent's Field Journal on Monday (the 8th)! Get 'em while you can! #Kickstarter #ProjectsWeLove www.kickstarter.com/projects/mar...

I wholeheartedly agree. David not only gives us The Submission Grinder (a vital tool) but I could not have made it through the nightmare of the MRM contract negotiation without his support. David does more for this community than I have time to detail. He deserves all the accolades.

New story concept with @alychelms.bsky.social: two writers from the same project get isekai'd into their shared world and are fighting inside it over how to rewrite the story. Call it THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE ISEKAI WAR. (with apologies to @amalelmohtar.com and @maxgladstone.bsky.social)

Reminder that I'll be closing late pledges for Lady Trent's Field Journal on Monday (the 8th)! Get 'em while you can! #Kickstarter #ProjectsWeLove www.kickstarter.com/projects/mar...

Since painting the ally flag is well beyond my (non-existent) nail art skills . . .

I have been Extremely Brave today and faced the dreaded INBOX -- specifically, the stratum of encrusted things at the bottom of it that have been awaiting responses forever.

It's a great day to avoid all responsibilities and dig into Non Plus Ultra by M.A. Carrick www.adventitious.net/stories/non-... A novella for those who want to escape out of the real world...

Do not become numb to beauty.

In ONE WEEK -- on June 8th -- Lady Trent's Field Journal will be closing late pledges so I can start fulfillment! If you want the coloring book, art book, or bookplates for the novels, get 'em while you can! #Kickstarter #ProjectsWeLove www.kickstarter.com/projects/mar...

The entire reason AI is being deployed in schools is to funnel money out of schools and into tech companies. Whatever reasons you've convinced yourself that AI edtech is necessary, regardless of how "useful" you think it is, it's sole purpose is to pad the pockets of the wealthy.

Spanish sailors, lost princesses, Goblin Markets, and "that's no island" . . . @adventitiouswords.bsky.social has published "Non Plus Ultra," a prequel novelette to THE EYE OF LEVIATHAN, coming out from @orbitbooks.bsky.social next month! www.adventitious.net/stories/non-...

We will never know or properly appreciate how many lives have been saved by librarians. The right book in the right hands at the right time. Astounding.

In ONE WEEK -- on June 8th -- Lady Trent's Field Journal will be closing late pledges so I can start fulfillment! If you want the coloring book, art book, or bookplates for the novels, get 'em while you can! #Kickstarter #ProjectsWeLove www.kickstarter.com/projects/mar...

Show this to any clown who thinks "A.i." will help marginalized people.

This 👏🏼 is 👏🏼 how 👏🏼 you 👏🏼 do 👏🏼 it

Me to @kniedzw.bsky.social, on scrubbing most non-North American megafauna from this book: "Would the scrub-ox have been domesticatable if it hadn't gone extinct in the late Pleistocene? Who knows! . . . Look, I have to find new ways to be a nerd. I can't just keep repeating the *old* ways."

And… Anathema’s Kickstarter is live! Please read, donate & share to increase our reach! We’re excited to bring more speculative fiction, poetry and nonfiction by queer writers of color into the world! Our fundraiser is scheduled to run through the end of May: www.kickstarter.com/projects/ana...

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. 💚

MANGA'S FIRST CENTURY is an Eisner nominee!!!!! It's nominated in the Best Academic/Scholarly Work category alongside some other great books. Thank you so much to the nominating committee, and congratulations to all the nominees!! www.comic-con.org/awards/eisne...

How did I not know about this Lady Trent/Dragons book from @swantower.bsky.social? Happily for me, TURNING DARKNESS INTO LIGHT is on sale for $1.99 at Amazon and the rest of the usual suspects. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

I don't put my foot down a lot, but I will kill any audiobook deal for my work where they try to slap an AI narrator on it. Narrators are artists. The greats have filled my heart with light on countless nights. They will not be replaced with slop.

Hey, doctors. I know you are loving AI recording our visits and transcribing notes for you. But bragging how much time it saves you while I sit there realizing you don't think about my medical problem ever again after leaving because you have your AI write it up for you is um... not trust inducing.

Always yell about the books you love You never know when you'll be someone's Bigolas Dickolas

I swear I have more energy *after* going to the dojo than I did before I left. Working theory: my humours were out of balance and I needed to circulate my blood to counteract an excess of phlegm or black bile or something.

This is your periodic reminder that word of mouth moves more books than any formal advertising! I invite you to rec something you've recently enjoyed -- preference for the stuff that's *not* already extremely well-known and talked about everywhere.

Quote-posting myself to rec @what-eats-owls.bsky.social's Little Thieves trilogy, which I *adored*: such compelling characters, such a rich and textured world, such dodging of stereotypical plot beats, and a huge number of quotable lines to boot!

This is your periodic reminder that word of mouth moves more books than any formal advertising! I invite you to rec something you've recently enjoyed -- preference for the stuff that's *not* already extremely well-known and talked about everywhere.

example one bajillion of how graphic design makes or breaks your tabletop rulebook