We're back! This episode is a throwback -- our February discussion of then-current politics. A lot of what we have to say is still relevant! As for the rest, you can listen to find out what we called correctly and what we were wrong about. :-D

From @vajra.me via @amalelmohtar.com's latest newsletter, this link www.gofundme.com/f/Hot-meals-... from this excerpt from this essay amalelmohtar.com/r/928d43e7?m... about refusing the bad bargains of demons

We need a word for fiction which is dystopian, but not MORE dystopian than the historical moment it's being written in. Like, I wanna warn critiquers that the story is dystopian SF, but the dystopian parts aren't the SF parts, the dystopian parts are already here. idiodystopian? mimetic dystopia?

This story is terrific, and I'm so excited @meghanmccarron.bsky.social is publishing fiction!

🚨 SAVE THE DATE: OCTOBER 18. Millions of Americans took to the streets in June to drown out Trump’s birthday parade. As Trump’s regime escalates his authoritarian power grab, we’re gathering again on 10/18 for a nationwide day of peaceful protests to say NO KINGS: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i...

@maryannemohanraj.bsky.social and I just finished teaching our (by which I mean, @speclit.bsky.social's) week-long Chicago intermediate SF/F workshop with a bunch of terrific students. We miss 'em already.

Episode 260 of my Eating the Fantastic podcast is now live with guest @benjaminrosenbaum.com! Join us for lunch as we discuss how he gamified the submission/rejection process to get into Clarion, why he believes "I am very much a child of Chip Delany" — and more. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...

ICYMI — a new episode of Eating the Fantastic went live this morning with @benjaminrosenbaum.com. Join us and learn why the story he found the most difficult to sell became his most-read work, the reason he couldn’t write for a while after his first Nebula nomination — and more. pod.link/1083737796

It is undisputed that the previous, widely scattered, ventilation system, was unacceptably providing air to terrorists. We therefore ask inhabitants of the rebel sector to visit any of the four newly-installed authorized air hoses safely located in the vicinity of our automated death-ray systems.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU! You & @benjaminrosenbaum.com & Liz & Carlos have the RECORD-SETTING 9 hour that no other game of NI has ever approached. Give 4 novelists/LARPers a role-playing game…

Today is the last day to sign up for the SLF's Writing SFF Workshop! Join @maryannemohanraj.bsky.social and @benjaminrosenbaum.com for a 5-day workshop to improve your writing and meet other members of the community. Learn more at speclit.org

@benjaminrosenbaum.com talking about recognizing the victory that is having bland queer romance books, while also wishing for interesting ones. And then talking about queerness as social action

Two panels in a row, @benjaminrosenbaum.com with some great quotes

More from @benjaminrosenbaum.com

Starting it off strong with a like from @benjaminrosenbaum.com at the @readercon.org fantastical shtetls panel

The deadline of July 21st is fast approaching to join @maryannemohanraj.bsky.social and @benjaminrosenbaum.com in August for the Writing SF&F Workshop. We still have 5 slots remaining for our workshop and 9 slots for our retreat! Learn more at speclit.org

Readercon this coming weekend! My schedule: Fri 11:00 - The Fantastical Shtetl, and Other Wanderings Fri 12:00 - Unexpectedly Relevant SF Sat 10:00 - Reading: Benjamin Rosenbaum Sat 12:00 - Queer Romance in Speculative Fiction Who's coming?

If you would like to hang out with me and @maryannemohanraj.bsky.social the first week of August, to write, critique some manuscripts if you want, talk about writing, and learn things... we're running a workshop/retreat for the SLF & the signup form is up now! Details below.

Back from the Nebula Awards weekend, I've reviewed the audio from my culinary chats with @aimeeogdenwrites.com, Curtis C. Chen, and @benjaminrosenbaum.com, and all is copacetic. I can't wait for you to take a seat at the table with us for their episodes of Eating the Fantastic! pod.link/1083737796

FYI @maryannemohanraj.bsky.social and I are still planning to teach a writing workshop in Chicago the first week in August under the auspices of the #SpeculativeLiteratureFoundation. Sign-up form coming soon!

@ass.golf re: #5572 just want to point out that in the QCverse there would be labels on some racks in thrift shops that advertised them as only having been worn by AIs.

Love when a new translation of one of my games arrives in the mail! @plotbunnygames.bsky.social, thanks for bringing @benjaminrosenbaum.com and my work to a new audience!

On Tuesday, at the protest in front of the State Department to free Mohsen Mahdawi. It worked, he got out the next day!

Growing up I always assumed the Holocaust was the limit case for how bad things could get for Jews. But murder by sincere openly Jew-hating zealots is honestly a little less aggravating than murder animated by lulz and owning the libs, while you're sanctimoniously scolded for *your* antisemitism.

I've got 99 problems and every one of them is a Luftballoon

Benjamin Rosenbaum's The Ghost and the Golem is 40% off this week, you can check out the first two chapters for free!

So this happened. (it's 40% off this week at www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-th... to celebrate.) (Congrats also to @isabel.kim, @jdragsky.bsky.social, @nassos.bsky.social, @jennreese.bsky.social & whoever else is on here!)

Got RPG-curious friends daunted by rules, dice & time commitments? Go back Avery Alder's punk house sitcom game-in-a-deck-of-cards that takes a half hour to play & barely any time to explain: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b... You can read the rules for free at buriedwithoutceremony.com/gfb

Oh this is a good one, thanks! For anyone else who is interested: buriedwithoutceremony.com/dream-apart

I LOVED Sofia's novella (I just nominated it for all the things, yesterday): it's beautiful, harrowing, resonant, & somehow simultaneously quiet and intimate and also action-packed. (Ep features the classic MRAH move of being too excited gushing/arguing about the work to focus on "interviewing"...)

Just finished @benjaminrosenbaum.com novel “The Unraveling” and it is the kind of book that makes you realize why sci-fi exists. Beguiling and complex, funny and engaging, and emotionally satisfying. Some of the dialogue is impossible to explain and yet works so well.

Myers-Briggs but good, alternate theories of historical development, coffee alt-history, queer game mechanics, the ideological choices of epic fantasy, and just a little bit on Yentl: @benjaminrosenbaum.com is on to talk about Laurie J. Marks' FIRE LOGIC! ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/02/10/a...

On the latest episode of "A Meal of Thorns", ARB's critical book-club, author and game designer @benjaminrosenbaum.com joins editor @casella.bsky.social to discuss Laurie J. Marks' FIRE LOGIC, first in an inventive and subversive fantasy series: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/02/10/a...

wow! very exciting! shout out to fellow genderversists @emnorth.bsky.social @micaiahjohnson.bsky.social ky.social @hollygramazio.bsky.social thanks Randos!

Like most 21st c people, I fucking hate telephoning strangers. This, of course, is why it works: your senators know it cost you more than clicking a button. I just called Warner and Kaine (I vote in VA). Could not get a person; left a message. But you know what? It actually felt v. satisfying.

"strategy...will also clash with [those] who want to make a firm stand against trump’s aggressive migrant deportations & his rollback of transgender rights...the party is less inclined to die on either of those hills." cis folks, if you think this is not ok, they need to hear from you. loudly. now.

Here is something you can do right now

hey, cis folks who followed for call scripts! this is good. communities standing together can help protect trans kids—it’s terrifying for single teachers to stand alone. there’s a doc in shay’s link. copy the alt text—whatever. it’ll take so little time. resisting compliance is actual resistance.

Lovely review of The Unraveling by @bluejo.bsky.social ! reactormag.com/jo-waltons-r... "I should have read this book instantly" 😄 Also lovely things about @sueburke.bsky.social, @victoriagoddard.bsky.social, Lily Chu, & @adapalmer.bsky.social.

👍 to the mix of humor, deadly seriousness, resilience, long view, & hope, in this ttrpg-essay on resisting tyranny. I think it has lots of wisdom for surviving what may come. survivethetyrant.infy.uk Assuming the worst case can be a kind of submission; but so can pretending it's not on its way.

Our podcast has been off the packety air for a bit, but we have a bunch of episodes in the can now and are rolling out season 3. In this one, @maryannemohanraj.bsky.social try to think of the next thing to say about LLMs, by integrating all of the things said so far, and producing the next token.

Obligatory 2024 Awards eligibility post! * Best Game Writing/Best Game or Interactive Work: The Ghost and the Golem, August 2024 www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-th... "Rooted in Jewishness....full of wit, bubbling with life..." — Hey Alma You should play it in good health, bubbeleh.

Actually this paper was so useful to our family culture that for a while I printed it out and hung it from a hook on the wall of our hallway.

OMG! I am a writing exercise in @nalohop.bsky.social 's class! I want to see what they wrote... (This blessing, right?)

Today I said "ten-four" to my son and then had to explain the 1970s CB subculture, & how it presaged internet subcultures, & the film "Smokey and the Bandit," & how it has essentially a Cory Doctorow plot ("helpful strangers who share a fandom defy authority via new communications tech")

If you're thinking of voting for the Nebulas/Hugos & want to play my Jewish historical fantasy interactive fiction game "The Ghost and the Golem" (demons, mystical journeys, kugel, Cossacks, Talmudic debates, arranged marriages, bandits, sexy anarchist klezmers...) lemme know & I'll get you a key!

Dream Apart: Alternativ-geschichtliches Schtetl - mit Gojim, Geistern, Gerüchten, Soldaten und einem Mord. https://youtu.be/e5UXnbbZk4Y Mit Benjamin Rosenbaum @benjaminrosenbaum.com , Marina Weisband @afelia.bsky.social , Jasmin Neitzel @bratapfel.bsky.social & Andrea Rick @curiouscat.bsky.social

CW was my origin story. They are champions of story, community, bravely facing the future, learning & growing. For this year's crowdfund, they asked me to donate a perk and I said "put me down for a consultation" -- so you can book me if you want!

You know what would be amazing in a game of Dream Apart? A deck of these Jewish Monster & Magic cards! Here are some impromptu additional Dream Apart rules for using them... (1/4)