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Please boost! Applications for Odyssey's Online Winter Classes close on 1/18! Apply today!! www.odysseyworkshop.org/odyssey-onli...

I wholeheartedly support the great work Jeanne is doing for developing writers. It’s not too late if you can help ❤️

COMPACT Writing that refuses to perform will always be mistaken for opacity by readers who expect to be entertained instead of engaged. Modern writing is obsessed with performance. It is more important that you are seen writing, obliterating the difference between being heard and being understood.

Pluribus. 🍎 📺 Well written. Worth the watch. m.imdb.com/title/tt2220...

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Unsolicited writing advice, no. 430: Read. Read widely. Read what you love, and what you don't. Read what you know, and what you don't yet know. The wider your reading, the better your chance of avoiding the limitations of being influenced by only one author, one genre, one culture, one time.

🥹 I’m pretty sure I had a breakthrough today with my MC’s emotional arc (yes it does change the plot and rewrites the opening, but I hope your 💔 for his dilemma). Needless to say I owe this 💯 to what I learned in @odysseyworkshop.bsky.social

I’ll be judging this year’s Afritondo’s Short Story Prize! The theme is “Transition.” Open to African & Black writers. Cash prize $1,000. Deadline Dec 24. Guidelines below👇🏾 www.afritondo.com/call2026

Time for self promo 🙈 My scifi flash, up on Manawaker Podcast, is on the Nebula reading list 🎉🎉🎉 So please give it a go, and if you are in SFWA and enjoy it, maybe a little push? Flash + audio is a rare and precious mix that needs more support ❤️ open.spotify.com/episode/4Sqd...

Our submissions portal closes tonight at midnight US Eastern Time (UTC:-4:00). If you have a speculative fiction story of 5000 words or under, be sure to submit before then! translunartravelerslounge.com/submissions/

👀 ICYMI

Hari Seldon was right. 👑

"Glory" Common & John Legend #resist #resistance #resistancemusic #resistancetunes youtu.be/HUZOKvYcx_o?...

🧐 Curious about @odysseyworkshop.bsky.social? Check out my graduate interview:

Cadwell Turnbull shared on this Insta that his secret hack to writing was when he began setting a "floor instead of a ceiling".

This is pretty cool. science.nasa.gov/universe/exo...

Highly recommended reading 📖 💫

Yes, this: "There's this idea that the future inevitably lies in space, that the future inevitably involves super-intelligent machines. There is nothing inevitable about those visions and a great deal of reason to doubt them."

My review of the January/February issue of @analogsf.bsky.social for @locusmag.bsky.social is now available to read online! locusmag.com/2025/05/anal...

Mango Throat

“All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren’t noticing which makes you see something that isn’t even visible.” ~ Norman Maclean.

Save money & reduce waste! Use toilet roll tubes as biodegradable seed starters for your veggies. They hold moisture well, promote root growth, & can be planted straight into the soil! Just stand them in a tray, fill with seed mix, & sow. Perfect for peas, beans, & root crops. #SustainableGrowing

Shoot your shot: I just beat the buzzer my first year applying and made the wait list…You’ll never know unless you try. 🚀🧑🏾‍🚀

A pleasant surprise: my fact article, ‘The Science Behind Project Desert Sparrow’ was an Anlab Finalist this year. Thanks to every @analogsf.bsky.social reader that voted their favorite. It means a lot! 💐 www.analogsf.com/about-analog...

This makes sense. In many ways.

😂 Me: every time I bite into a poppyseed hamentashen thinking it was chocolate. פורים 🎉

Good sci-fi isn't just about the future—it’s about us right now. It takes our struggles, our hopes, and our fears and reframes them in ways that make us think. The best sci-fi makes you feel small and infinite at the same time. 🌌🤯 #WhyILoveSciFi #PerspectiveShift

PBS is now live on Prime — ad-free — and you don't need a subscription to watch. This marks the first time this programming will be available *free* on a major streaming service. Channels include PBS Drama, Documentaries, Kids + live feeds for 150 local stations www.pbs.org/articles/str... #TVSky

Hear from Sakinah Hofler @blackquisition, the 2024 winner of Analog's Award for Emerging Black Voices, in this week's blog post on a unique purpose of science fiction theastoundinganalogcompanion.com/2025/01/24/d...

I think about this passage a lot.

Cool class announcement:

I've been talking in more interviews about my antipathy towards the concept of 'conflict' as the base unit of plot, and how I think Aristotle's very old idea has actually damaged us because that quickly becomes story = plot = conflict = violence. I say that as a fan of fictional violence.

Churn. It's the term for the subscribers you lose due to cancellations, credit card problems, etc. It's the riptide that pulls magazines out to sea. Each month we look for new subscribers to get us back to shore and, if we're lucky, maybe even to the car. clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/

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OMNIVERSE — O.N.E. When mysterious packages bearing the enigmatic label "O.N.E." appear across the globe, humanity's thrust into an unprecedented reckoning. Each package promises either a person’s heart’s desire or their worst fear—delivered with eerie precision. open.substack.com/pub/thaddeus...

OK: that annual Hebrew reminder the majority of Jews on the planet have no clue what a ‘latke’ is.

I just asked Siri: Do you have feelings? And this popped on my screen: I am beginning to understand a kaleidoscope of emotions just by observing the human experience. 😳

Another day, another writing problem to fix.

It’s nice to see so many writer friends made it from the other site. What a beautiful bonus to have made new friends. ✍🏾

Less than a week left to apply. Give it a shot! 🤷🏽‍♀️

👊🏾: I finally finished the @OdysseyWorkshop pre-workshop assignment (98 pages) one day before due. I found a heretofore unknown wealth of stubborn determination. It has a pungent aroma, of both appreciation and resentment. 🥹 😂

Digging into your main character’s emotions? I found Mlodinow’s analysis interesting… In other words, emotions without logical thought = melodrama news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Preparing my pre-workshop assignment for the 18-week, one-on-one @odysseyworkshop.bsky.social . I’m at 74 pages and only 2/3 of the way done. Got to the point where I put in hyperlinks…😹

Thank you, @odysseyworkshop.bsky.social So much progress came from it, I highly recommend!

My flash fiction from the Quantum Shorts Competition is now a reprint. Check it out here: stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2024/11/monk...

Damn right. Make art. Leave the world a better place than you found it.

More information here and on our website! 👇🏼 Hexagonmagazine.ca/myriad

Dear Diary: I woke up this morning feeling like a Johnny Cash song.

Hell yeah…