My Easter treat has been re-reading InCryptid - but I can only read the novels I own, and that means starting with Tricks For Free. HOW I wish there was an easy way of buying these books in Australia. I would dearly love to own the whole lot.

The award for Best Short Non-fiction goes to: Eugen Bacon for Spec Fic and the Politics of Identity: Finding the Self in Other

Abraham Aondoana points to creators of Nigerian speculative fiction across a variety of media in this new essay, outlining how their work reflects their own context and why that's vital for speculative fiction in general. Read it here (for free!) - www.speculativeinsight.com

Full text of Ian Mond's Locus review of A Forest, Darkly. 💙💙 locusmag.com/review/a-for...

New essay! Free to read! In which Abraham Aondoana points to just some of the ways Nigerian speculative fiction develops from a different starting from Western speculative fiction... Read it here: www.speculativeinsight.com

Abraham Aondoana points to some of the excellent SFF work coming out of Nigeria in a variety of media in this new essay. Read it now for free: www.speculativeinsight.com

New essay! Abraham Aondoana looks to what's happening in Nigerian speculative fiction - literature, film, comics: why it's important, what it's saying, and generally how cool it is. Read it now for free: www.speculativeinsight.com

If you're at Iridescence #Eastercon this weekend, stop by our bid table for a badge ribbon, a tiny koala, a Tim-Tam, and other great Brisbane swag including postcards, bookmarks, and stickers! Help fund our bid merch and parties by Pre-Supporting! #Brisbanein28 #Worldcon @easterconuk.bsky.social

New essay! Abraham Aondoana looks to what's happening in Nigerian speculative fiction - literature, film, comics: why it's important, what it's saying, and generally how cool it is. Read it now for free: www.speculativeinsight.com

This month's story is now live on my Patreon! Did you know I have a Patreon? A new piece of fiction every month, for just $1 each! With access to all previous fiction, if you want to dig it up. www.patreon.com/seananmcguire

Gas companies make billions in profits while paying very little tax in Australia. Come on, Albo, let's tax the fuckers 25% & spend that money on communities facing the impacts of escalating climate disasters like storms, fires, heatwaves and floods. #taxgas #RisingTide

Launching rockets with people in is really cool to watch! and Sending folks into space to orbit the moon is a colossal waste of money and science-hours. I contain multitudes.

Year of the Mer is out everywhere in one week 😬 www.simonandschuster.com/books/Year-o...

There's a reason @fozmeadows.bsky.social has a bunch of Best Fan Writer nominations and it's because when he goes, he goes fucking brilliantly.

In case you missed this thread…

New from VIDA: 🎉 James Keating (@jameskeating.bsky.social) & Paige Donaghy (@paigedonaghy.bsky.social) introduce a blog showcasing seven UniMelb undergraduate history projects 🎉 Read it here ⬇️ www.auswhn.com.au/blog/making-... #hist #histaus #gendhist #histsex #IWD2026 #undergrad @unimelb.edu.au

What does April 2026 hold? Well, the title is "The Future is Nigerian"... You can read the teaser paragraph right now - www.speculativeinsight.com - and you can read the whole thing (free!) on Friday morning (AEDT).* *(... it's only AEDT for a few more days, let me enjoy it.)

And in 2025, @arobertswrites.com gave us this banger of an essay on the national myth-making in The Lord of the Rings (no, NOT about Britain): www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/what-... ... which is also relevant for how it speaks to myth-making today... and which is also still free to read!

NEARLY APRIL! Our free-to-read April essays so far have included: 2024 - @lizbarr.bsky.social on Star Trek and fandom, in an essay that has sadly only got more relevant: www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/the-d... Also has one of THE GREAT footnotes. See if you can find it.

Don't sleep on the alt text

An excellent selection

Thrilled to see that the latest edition of @auswhn.bsky.social’s Lilith: A Feminist History Journal features not one – but two – book reviews by my PhD students! 📚 Congratulations Kaitlin Mills and Michael Stockwell 🤓

ICYMI! These are both great essays - still very relevant - and of course you can still read both of them...

AND THEN I read a half biography of Doc Evatt, which was not what I was expecting but was nonetheless surprisingly interesting. For someone with little interest in the intricacies of legal decision making. randomalex.net/2026/03/25/t...

I dunno peeps. Kinda feel like I'm sitting in Australia in about February 1965. Albo isn't Menzies, and Trump sure as shit ain't LBJ, and the invading/invadee situation is different. And yet. We're back to "I don't want to teach this era in 40 years time kthnxbai."

Site Selection for the 2028 World Science Fiction Convention will open soon. To vote in Site Selection, you must be a WSFS member (supporting, virtual, or attending) of @laworldcon.bsky.social, the current year’s Worldcon. Join LAcon V soon and vote to bring Worldcon Down Under! #Worldcon

🎉✨NEW ISSUE OUT!! 🎉✨ Fafnir's latest issue features a prefatory by Israel A. C. Noletto on SF and Eutopian Imagination, two essays on Norwegian SF & climate modeling as a worldbuilding tool, a lectio praecursoria and seven book reviews! 🐉 Read the full issue for free here: fafnir.journal.fi

Why having menopause front and centre in Paranormal Women's Fiction is so important: Tracey Ambrose outlines the difference it made for her, and many other readers, in this new essay. Subscribe to read (and other essays every month!) for AUD30/yr, ~USD21 or GBP16 - www.speculativeinsight.com

Yeh I am so far out of rightwing discourse that I had not previously come across the Greens being called watermelons. Which I personally find *hilarious*.

thanks to @mondyboy74.bsky.social I read Notes from a Regicide. It took me two sessions because I decided to be an adult and not read until midnight (I know, I know, foolish choice). randomalex.net/2026/03/24/n...

Metaphorically standing with my ex (for me, I’m the ex) teaching colleagues today.

Why having menopause front and centre in Paranormal Women's Fiction is so important: Tracey Ambrose outlines the difference it made for her, and many other readers, in this new essay. Subscribe to read (and other essays every month!) for AUD30/yr, ~USD21 or GBP16 - www.speculativeinsight.com

This new essay from Tracey Ambrose looks at why having a subgenre specifically focussed on middle-aged women was important to her - and so many other readers. Read it now by subscribing, and access 11 other essays over the year! AUD30/yr (~USD21, or GBP16). www.speculativeinsight.com

My new cozy fantasy series -- with archaeologists, tombs & magical languages -- launches in April with Curse of Bronze, a dainty novella packed with vintage paranormal whimsy. Pre-order now! books2read.com/cursebronze

Hugo nominations close soon and yes you should nominate Le French Game and Citizen Sleeper 2 but also... ...YOU CAN NOMINATE TTRPGS IN THE GAMES CATEGORY AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL #HugoAwards

And after the Coode St podcast, I went out for lunch, via the library and the bookshop… One I’ve wanted to read for months, one I learned about today, one I read weeks ago.

With meeeee. Such a fun discussion was had.

Escapist Routes is up! It's my 50th edition! This week I watched a mediocre British crime drama, plus new episodes of Paradise and The Pitt. Blonde Eve Myles is not real and cannot hurt me; Jane is a smol bean with autism and did nothing wrong; and a LOT is happening on The Pitt, let's dive in.

This new essay from Tracey Ambrose looks at why having a subgenre specifically focussed on middle-aged women was important to her - and so many other readers. Read it now by subscribing, and access 11 other essays over the year! AUD30/yr (~USD21, or GBP16). www.speculativeinsight.com

Tracey Ambrose takes us into the developing subgenre of Paranormal Women's Fiction in this thoughtful and personal essay, available now for subscribers. Not a subscriber? You can fix that for AUD30/yr (~GBP16 or USD21) - gets you 12 extra essays each year! And 2 ebooks! www.speculativeinsight.com

If you’re on Substack—and I know a chunk of you aren’t—this novel generated an egregious amount of Streisand effect level controversy.

Chuck Norris 😞

Tracey Ambrose takes us into the developing subgenre of Paranormal Women's Fiction in this thoughtful and personal essay, available now for subscribers. Not a subscriber? You can fix that for AUD30/yr (~GBP16 or USD21) - gets you 12 extra essays each year! And 2 ebooks! www.speculativeinsight.com

Tracey Ambrose explores the development of Paranormal Women's Fiction as a subgenre, and her own reaction to it, in this delightful new subscriber essay. Read it and 11 other essays each year by subscribing (AUD30; ~GBP16 or USD21) - www.speculativeinsight.com

In which I read the second of Lisa Hannett's books about women, and delight in the mixture of myth retelling + historical thoughtfulness and analysis... randomalex.net/2026/03/18/y...

I read a relatively meaty tome about how (mostly) Philip K Dick, Samuel Delany, and Ursula K Le Guin used 'orientalism' in their work... it doesn't quite go from racist --> thoughtful, but it's not far off. randomalex.net/2026/03/20/s...

Come for the importance of representation, stay for "I laughed my tits off", in this new essay...

In 1989 Hollywood went underwater crazy, producing no less than six ocean-borne science fiction thrillers including The Abyss, Leviathan, Deep Star Six, and others. Sure, most were cash-ins - but what were they cashing in on? I suspect it's not what you think. fictionmachine.com/2026/03/19/s...

Tracey Ambrose explores the development of Paranormal Women's Fiction as a subgenre, and her own reaction to it, in this delightful new subscriber essay. Read it and 11 other essays each year by subscribing (AUD30; ~GBP16 or USD21) - www.speculativeinsight.com

The Guardian has partnered with the Australian Historical Association to use history to explain stuff. Today I do the University crisis. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...