Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears.

In honor of Lunar New Year, one of my all-time favorite maps: How dumplings spread around the world (tl;dr: It was largely, though not exclusively, the Mongol invasions!)

Happy Lundi Gras www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMFs...

Scarab Amethyst is one of my favourite stones - and I did not know that there were scarabs made from them. Wonderful to see! Middle Kingdom ca. 1981–1950 B.C.E. (Met Museum)

gem sweet apples, painted by royal charles steadman, 1925

Hugo nominations are open, so I thought I'd re-up this list/thread of my published stories from last year. Whether you're looking for eels, ghost horses, Cerberus, pelicans, snakes, metaphorical hogs, actual hogs, a phoenix, or the occasional human being, I hope you'll have a look.

📣WHAT THEME SHOULD OUR NEXT SPECIAL ISSUES HAVE?📣 Spear & Fang? Acid Gothic? Pirates? Older Protagonists? You tell us, in this handy-dandy poll: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

It's time for your periodic reminder that we count on subscriptions to keep the lights on. clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/ Thank you.

Hugo nominations are open, so I thought I'd re-up this list/thread of my published stories from last year. Whether you're looking for eels, ghost horses, Cerberus, pelicans, snakes, metaphorical hogs, actual hogs, a phoenix, or the occasional human being, I hope you'll have a look.

Very excited to back another year of New Edge Sword & Sorcery!

‘Cuisine and culture-contact: lipid residue analysis reveals lack of aquatic products in pottery from Viking Age England’ Congratulations Dr Anita Radini and co-authors from the University of York, led by Dr Steve Ashby, on this important new Open Access paper in Antiquity. doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Our most sensational, inspirational, celebrational KEN AND ROBIN TALK ABOUT STUFF Patreon podcast backers light the lights on this week's installment of KEN AND ROBIN CONSUME MEDIA!! www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com/index.php/ke...

Thank you for reading!

A Super Bowl from the Halaf period at Tell Arpachiyah, Iraq, ca. 5600-5200 BC. (British Museum)

I like that our library does this and, also, I use the library a lot.

A Super Bowl from the Halaf period at Tell Arpachiyah, Iraq, ca. 5600-5200 BC. (British Museum)

"Medusa’s Ship, or The Thing About Bodies" by @nassos.bsky.social, in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social is a great beautiful gut punch. www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/medu...

Working on maps of Dreamlands cities for Dreamland RPG! Here’s one: Ulthar #dreamlands #ttrpg More art, info & playtest schedules are on the Discord: discord.gg/GZwBD9u3

With all the due caveats about the blurriness of populations, identity, territory, etc., this is a very cool map.

I've seen fossils in some remarkable places, but this takes the prize: the benthic foram Nummulites in the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza. These massive blocks were quarried from the Eocene Mokkatam Formation when a relictual population of woolly mammoths still lived on Wrangel Island.

Go to the mead-hall. Go again. The heron of forgetfulness is there, and you don't want to miss your chance. "Drinking the Heron" by RJ Aurand is our story today, and we think you'll want to read it again. And again. smallwondersmag.com/...

Obsidian chalice w/ marble base, Tell Brak, ca 4000-3900 BC.

By 1984, it was a challenge to make vampires feel surprising, horrifying, and interesting. In ”The Pilgrimage of Clifford M,” Bob Leman knocked it out of the park.

Great overview, nicely taking into account a range of interpretations while remaining coherent & readable.

Oh wow. UNCERTAIN SONS AND OTHER STORIES (Collection), "Uncertain Sons" (Novelette), and "In My Country" (Short Story), recommended by Locus. A lot of great works and authors here. Like half the collection category, colleagues/friends I recognize. My thanks to folks who enjoyed these stories.

Weird winter ducks at Montrose Harbor yesterday: Redhead, Long-tailed, Greater Scaup, and Red-breasted Merganser. 78 bus to Uptown + short walk to the lakefront. #greenbirding

Tell me five classes you took in college: Biology of Aggression The Cuban Revolution Arabic Introductory Fiction Writing Anthropology of Appalachia

True highlight of my life today, seeing this replica Bronze Age boat, built with traditional techniques and materials. Just imagining this bad boy sailing up to the tombs on Umm an Nar island gives me chills. 🏺 🤩

I'm ordinarily impervious to impulse shopping when paying up on BackerKit. But I couldn't resist the cuneiform dice sold as part of Chris Sellers' DEFY THE GODS. The game uses two and I bought three. tinyurl.com/5n885fs3

I'll do this too. 1 like, 1 line from my writing.

Our volume on Stone Age clothing is now online and completely open access: Jöris, O., Dietrich, O., Risch, R., & Meller, H. (Hrsg.). (2026). A Stone Age History of Clothing: Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 26. bis 28. September 2024 in Halle (Saale). doi.org/10.11588/pro...

Two fantastic stories from Kaleidotrope are on the short fiction longlist—“The Nine Crashes of Flight Lieutenant Hilla Quinn” by @trailofleaves.bsky.social and “The Hunting of the Phoenix” by @slharris.bsky.social. If you’re a BSFA member, I hope you’ll consider voting for them by February 19th

Reading Malinowski’s account of mist magic in Argonauts of the Western Pacific in proximity to A Wizard of Earthsea makes me strongly suspect that the former influenced Le Guin in her description of Ged’s first serious magic, calling up a concealing mist.

This is a season of grief and struggle. Today we're going to share a long list of stories and poems - of hope, of not just surviving but thriving, of resistance, of unexpected kindness and connection in the midst of darkness. Save these up for when you need them. 1/16

This is such a gorgeous story. Especially in times like these, it's a balm to read such a deft work touching on friendship, care, love, creation, injury, separation, and healing.

Reading Malinowski’s account of mist magic in Argonauts of the Western Pacific in proximity to A Wizard of Earthsea makes me strongly suspect that the former influenced Le Guin in her description of Ged’s first serious magic, calling up a concealing mist.

With snow general over much of the U.S., I’m once again asking for someone to create a life-size snowman scene of the Fellowship on Caradhras.

With snow general over much of the U.S., I’m once again asking for someone to create a life-size snowman scene of the Fellowship on Caradhras.

Another great episode.

So great to see "The Hunting of the Phoenix" on the BSFA longslist! If for some reason you want a story of hope in a time of wicked rulers, corruption, destruction, and despair... kaleidotrope.net/archives/aut...

Post a game you remember playing that no one else remembers

So pleased to see "The Island at the End of the World" on this list, in such fine company. www.thedarkmagazine.com/the-island-a...

My favorite book of 2025. Just downright brilliant. And the ebook's on sale right now for a mere $3! If you haven't picked this one up, you owe it to yourself. undertowpublications.com/ebooks/uncer...

The new Norfolk Iron Age carnyx find featured on #DiggingForBritain with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social is beyond spectacular, dating to that crucial period for the Iceni between Caesar’s expeditions & Boudica’s rebellion. Already my find of the decade, today is a day to worship the carnyx… 1/…

"A serious human life...can hardly begin until we see an element of illusion in what is really there, and something real in fantasies about what might be there instead." - Northrop Frye

"A serious human life...can hardly begin until we see an element of illusion in what is really there, and something real in fantasies about what might be there instead." - Northrop Frye

"An open mind, to be sure, should be open at both ends, like the foodpipe, and have a capacity for excretion as well as intake." - Northrop Frye

Not finished with awards reading, but here is a batch of stories I really loved by @bethgoder.bsky.social, @slharris.bsky.social, @fictionaljosh.bsky.social, @reasie.bsky.social, @emlinden.bsky.social, @effies.bsky.social, and @samtasticbooks.com. Thank you for creating these great stories.

Whatever else Argonauts of the Western Pacific may be, it's beautiful literature.

Here's a roundup of the stories I had published in 2025. Links in thread below.