THE FINAL DAY We're actually so close to year 6, we're already now at $11.4k, LET'S MAKE THIS HAPPEN

We're almost at the end of the Tales & Feathers campaign, and we still have a ways to go if we're going to fund year 6. Please do back and share if you can, I want to keep sharing these quiet little stories with you all! 💜

I love this story 😭

This is it, friends. The final week of our campaign. 😲 We have only 6 days to reach our stretch goals. If you've been waiting to back us, now is the time! At $13k, we'll be able to run year 6 of T&F ✨ At $15.5k, we'll be able to put a PRINT EDITION in your hands! 🤩 Back and share to help! 💚

Ishmael, after taking a fat rip from Queequeg's tomahawk:

Year of the Cow 🌾🌙

We have ‼️8 days‼️left to raise $4800 for year 6 of Tales & Feathers. And if we can get there we might even reach our Print Edition goals!! 👀 Please back if you can! And if you can't, likes and shares are a huge help. We so appreciate your support and can't wait to bring you more cozy fantasy. 💚

The loss of FIYAH is an incredible loss for the SFF community. They consistently published superlative work by fantastic creators, and I sincerely hope they can return from this hiatus in future to a stronger and more supportive short fiction ecosystem.

It is my birthday

JOIN THE AUGUR TEAM 💫 We're looking for a Graphic Designer to join our Marketing team! If you are... 🎨 Artistic, creative, and like to have fun ✍️ Organized, curious, and an ideas-person then we want to hear from YOU! Application details can be found at the link in our bio 🔗 📌Deadline is June 6th!

Against my better judgement I have looked at this Granta story. I'm no expert but I read a lot of magazine submissions and can tell you that a not insignificant number of LLM-generated slop starts with this exact construction: Short opening sentence. Not [x], but [y], like [z]. Granta story:

Art for ‘Thunderfort’ a little while back

Incredibly chuffed that I've managed to become the guy whose inlaws get him fruit trees for his birthday. We've added PEARS to the orchard, folks! 😍

Good morning readers! In celebration of hitting ✨$7.5k on our campaign✨ we have a special update this morning: an interview with the inimitable @diogolsramos.bsky.social, whose wonderful story, "Through the Doorway, I Watch Her Come and Go" was published in our latest volume. Read it here!

Okay, obligatory disclaimer that I could reasonably list 90% of the stories T&F has ever published as my favourite, but ONE OF THEM has gotta be Baobab Lover, by Kwame Sound Daniels. 😍 Dryads and coffee shops and necromancers; it's so beautiful and FUNNY. Adore this piece.

Happy Tuesday everyone! ✨ What's one of your favourite Tales & Feathers stories? We'd love to hear what pieces have stuck with you through the years. 💚

J.B. makes the absolute best Little Guys. This fella keeps me company at my desk, 10/10 lil guy vibes.

Looking for tells-at-a-glance is a symptom of the very problem AI is exacerbating, which is superficial reading. AI lists of three often have no *there* there -- there's no *reason* to use that device in that place in that way. Sometimes two of the items in the list are close synonyms, for example.

The mere presence of AI tells is never enough to conclusively determine if a piece is AI, bc AI is trained on real writing, so everything it does, it does because it's copying from people. Em-dashes, list of threes, "not x but y"; all potential AI tells, all legitimate writing construction.

Did you see that our big sibling is currently open to submissions? 👀 If you fit the Priority Call, send them your work! And if you're curious about how their and our process is, read this update for a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to your submission once you click that "Submit" button. 📚

WHOOOO!!! NOW LET'S GET YEAR 6!!

Y'ALL. As of this moment, we are $104 DOLLARS AWAY from funding the next year of Tales & Feathers. 😱😱 LET'S GET THERE TODAY. Who can push us past those first goalposts?? 🌠

If you enjoy these writing prompts and want them and our magazine to continue, check out our Kickstarter! Back at any level and you can add Tiny Tales volumes 1, 2, and/or 3 to your rewards: yearly collections of every #TinyTalesTuesday prompt we've ever posted! 👀

Ever since the War, everyone knows your face: the face of the hero. The accolades are nice, even if they're not why you did it, and you don't mind the house and grounds you've been gifted, but sometimes you need an escape. Where do you go to be anonymous again? #TinyTalesTuesday #WritingPrompt

On the one hand, every time a new pop-up for less-than-useless AI features gets in my way, it induces rage. But on the other hand, I also get a smug satisfaction at how pathetically desperate this grifters are. Clearly no one is using their shitty tools, and they're scrambling.

We reached 100 backers yesterday! ✨✨ THANK YOU for your support!! We're only $10 short of $6k, and just $510 short of goal #1!! 😍 If you've been waiting to pledge your support, now's the time! The sooner we reach our base goal, the more likely we'll reach our stretch goals! Every bit helps. 💚

I would love for a Kickstarter campaign to not be an annual event! The more we can fund now, the more sustainable the magazine will be. Please pitch in if you can; if not, likes and shares really do help out enormously!

Hey Augurians!! We're NOW OPEN for a PRIORITY call from BIPOC, trans, &/or disabled creators currently living in &/or from Canada 📚 From May 5th-31st, Augur Mag is now ACCEPTING speculative submissions of... ✨ Short fiction ✨ Flash fiction ✨ Poetry Scroll for more details 👀⬇️

Appropriate response to baby zombie

I never asked for my new hobby to be turning off as many AI features as possible in everything I touch, but here we are.

I wrote a little bit about cozy fantasy and slice of life fantasy, and the intersections there that we look for at Tales & Feathers. Give it a read! 💜

Good morning, friends! We are ✨SO CLOSE✨ to hitting that 5k benchmark; let's do it today! Many excellent goodies available, and two sold-out reward tiers have been made available again! If you want a T&F editor to edit your story, or consult a linguist on your fantasy language, now's your chance! 💚

While we're announcing things im very excited to finally be able to say my debut lesbian vampire novel HUNGER IN THE BLOOD is coming out with @torbooksuk.bsky.social next May!! HitB is a queer, dark, crunchy, gory novel that I hope you will enjoy!! www.thebookseller.com/rights/tor-u... now go vote!!

@merriam-webster.com's Word of the Day is 'augur' and we approve! 🤩 We're always looking toward the future of more stories, magic, and voices to discover! Check it out 👉 www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-...

Good morning friends, and great news: we've been selected as a Kickstarter #ProjectWeLove!! 💚 As of this morning, we are 70% of the way to our first goal, which also happens to be 30% of the way to funding our third goal of a PRINT EDITION! Please like and share; let's see if we can pass 5k today!

”We want to keep bringing you cozy, slice of life fantasy, & to hold on to the sentiment of no plot, just vibes. We want to keep reading your stories about comfort & connection, perseverance, & the healing power of cooking.” Lovely words from managing editor @loukoren.bsky.social. Keep T&F alive!

The Tales & Feathers Kickstarter is LIVE! Please spread the word and help us keep publishing our quiet little slice of life fantasy magazine. If we reach our stretch goals we'll get a PRINT EDITION which is something we've been wanting since the moment T&F was created! OUR DREAMS COULD COME TRUE!!

Honestly, I could care less. And if you don't think I'm serious, you've got another thing coming.

The finale of Last Train from Deadwall is up now at @podcastle.org !! You can now listen to the entire story start to finish and I know I'm biased, but I HIGHLY recommend it. The narration is fantastic and it's a wild good time. No spoiler summary: 💀🚆🕰️🗝️🍻✉️🦕🦋

Hello friends. 👀 It's time for a ✨Tales & Feathers Kickstarter Campaign!!✨ It's all thanks to YOU, wonderful readers, that we've been able to publish our little magazine, and now we need your support to fund Year 5 and beyond. 💚 Sign up below to be notified the moment the campaign goes live!

It's the final three days of the campaign! Time to unlock our final two stretch goals: a final bump in word count to 150,000 words, and a second translated story! And let's welcome more authors to the project: @mariahaskins.com, @niallspain.bsky.social, and @pbarmby.bsky.social! Link in the comments

GET READY TO SUBMIT ‼️ Augur Magazine is opening for a priority call! We're accepting submissions from anyone living within Canada who is also... - BIPOC - 2SLGBTQIA - Disabled on MAY 5TH!!! Open call for international + Canadian subs will take place this summer! Check out our subs guidelines👇

my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

This story is an incredible ride, and I'm so happy I got to narrate it. The world building is wonderful, and getting to know Knucklebone was such a joy. Everyone go listen to part 1, and tune in next week for the conclusion!

Listening to this I had SO MUCH FUN. I really do write for myself, it turns out, because I loved this story.

Y'ALL. LAST TRAIN FROM DEADWALL (part 1) IS UP AT @podcastle.org!! YOU CAN LISTEN TO A HUMAN READ THE WORDS I WROTE. THEY DID SUCH A GOOD JOB!! (THANK YOU @heyraeva.bsky.social!! 💜) I WILL NOT BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS!!! Part 2 coming next week!!

Please help get the word out that I am open for submissions. Thyme Travellers is an award winning anthology of Palestinian fantasy, science fiction and horror. My publisher and I are making it a series. Submissions are open for short stories, pro rate pay: soniasulaiman.com/thyme-travel...

Proud member of the Anti-AI / "poorly disposed for productive conversation" list here!

If God is perfectly good, why does my cat stick her ass over the edge of the litterbox to pee on the floor?

IT ME!!!!! PLEASE FUND KICKSTARTER VERY MUCH SO MORE FRIENDS CAN BE IN BOOK THANK YOU !!!! 🌈