It’s that time of year! I’m in my second year of Astounding eligibility, and I also published nine eligible short stories in 2025. If you only have time to read one, I hope you’ll consider “Handsomest Gentlest,” a love letter to my very good dog. You can find all nine here: m-r-robinson.com/fiction/

sort of unrelated to this point, though not entirely: the fact that there's such a thing as professors of rare moths etc is one of humanity's crowning achievements to date and this is what the right wants to take away from you

Cutting a circular hole in the window so I can break into the museum. Everything I want to steal is round. So that's a plus

He spread his arms out wide. "I will go mad!" he announced. "Good idea," said Ford Prefect, clambering down from the rock on which he had been sitting. Arthur's brain somersaulted. His jaw did press-ups. "I went mad for a while," said Ford, "did me no end of good."

More advice, this time from Robert McKee in "Story":

Since muppets are back in the popular conversation gonna share my favorite tumblr post of them

Who knows a man's name, holds that man's life in his keeping. Thus to Ged, who had lost faith in himself, Vetch had given him that gift that only a friend can give, the proof of unshaken, unshakeable trust.

peter: if aunt may ever finds out that i'm the web slingin' spider-man, she might just have a conniption!! mj: what's swinging, movers and shakers? how about you joining this fine female for a cup down at the coffee bean!? harry: i may end my own life

Making some robot friends to snark on bad movies with me, but I program them wrong so they keep saying stuff like, "She's really elevating the material," and "You know, just completing a film at all is an achievement"

They say Hugo noms are open, so just reupping. Thanks if you previously read or enjoyed any of these. No collection category, but if you liked UNCERTAIN SONS AND OTHER STORIES, the titular novelette, "Uncertain Sons," (sans other stories) is eligible. As are other-other stories in thread. Thanks!

(in case it wasn't obvious, I've run into too many dudebros who justify gratuitous assault and child marriage and other shit in their histfic and fantasy media bc "that's just how it was" my brother in ante Christum and anno Domini, history is a vast ocean and you're snorkeling in a lap pool)

for no reason whatsoever, I am bringing out my favorite 12th-century illumination today, which depicts 1) a Thracesian woman killing a Varangian Guard who tried to assault her and 2) his comrades praising her and giving her all of his stuff for her very understandable and justifiable actions 🙏

Supergirl #10 is out today! Drawn by me and written by @mooncalfe1.bsky.social with ink and coloring assists from the wonderful Stacey Lee. Hope y’all will check it out. Here are some designs for the issue:

(For the record I support deploying the military against the AI industry for laughs, not because it is a necessity for survival.)

also IF the AI doomerism was correct and we are in the process of building literal Skynet the ONLY ethical way forward would be to deploy lethal military violence against the AI industry and it's researchers worldwide. If you aren't suggesting that, you don't believe this is end-the-world serious.

One bit in the rough cut of BLADE RUNNER that I really like, in no other cut, is when Batty is after Deckard at the end and has beaten him a few times, you hear him shouting "I HAVEN'T HURT YOU, HAVE I? HAVE I HURT YOU?" and he sounds at once genuinely concerned and terrifyingly menacing. Good shit.

Every hit that our protagonist takes should worry us (and there is, of course, a difference between a dramatic fight and a thrilling/spectacular one, although there certainly can be overlap, and I'll get to spectacular in a sec). 6/

And in an era in which so much stuff is "figured out" post-production, environment-dependent fights and stunts not only feel more tangible, but also testify to the narrative importance OF said fight. You know what's happening when you start to shoot. You know it matters, and you know why. 4/

A good thing about AI slop like the Cruise/Pitt fight thing is that it highlights just how repetitive and soulless MANY movie fight scenes are. They might as WELL be slop. Some top-of-my-head things to keep in mind to make your fights human: - Incorporate the environment (cont) 1/

the best fights off the dome are zuko vs azula (siblings, both the victims of their father); jen vs shu lien (mentor vs student); 7 samurai/magnificent 7 (sacrifice for few people, for almost no glory or reward, bc it's the right thing to do); ed vs scar (they have the SAME goals and it *hurts*)

I would add that emotional stakes are the only ones that matter. oh, the world is ending?? nobody gives a shit, man. that's too big for people to even contemplate. you can have that, but you have to back it up with human-level stuff, like "my dog is dying and you're wasting my last hours with him"

A very good essay on religion in Middle-earth

When you remove all ambiguity or multiplicity of meaning from a work of art, you kill it.

TLDR free yourself from the chains of believing that a text must mean only one thing.

Also, a plot point or character or symbol can have a Christian (or other religious/ideological) meaning as part of a network of meanings. Like, lembas are kind of the Eucharist but they are also kind of speculation about what if pre-packaged military rations tasted good yknow.

The Matricomp (the evil matchmaking computer from Krypton that tried to marry Superman’s mother) has been referenced in a comic book in 2026. I love comics.

They wrote about the pre-Christian era and pre-Christian beliefs but the Táin Bó Cúailnge etc were the medieval equivalent of Percy Jackson. They were reimagining and rewriting the pre-Christian tradition for their own reasons, not describing contemporary beliefs or practices.

Omelas already exists: no need to build it or choose it. We already live here –in the narrow, foul, dark prison we let our ignorance, fear, and hatred build for us and keep us in, here in the splendid, beautiful city of life...

If you believe this, then you should call for the destruction of the "A.i." industry via regulation, boycott, and defunding.

Clearly I’ve been doing this wrong the whole time.

TBF, if I was the writer of Deadpool & Wolverine I would also worry that I could easily be replaced by an algorithm.

Attempting to do the most base level academic history using primary sources on well documented subjects in a time period as recent as the 1980s will quickly dissuade you of the idea that everything is online.

Here's my variant cover for Superman/Spider-Man #1 without the text, featuring the vehicle that climbs walls and the other one that punches. Because I knew what to do with my one chance to draw Spider-Man.

Now this is how you do exposition…

The clouds have made the aurora look so haunted

I have absolutely nothing eligible for nomination this year BUT LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT SOME OF THE AMAZING STORIES I READ.

I love this gate.

Christchurch Gate is the main entry into the cathedral close from Buttermarket, Canterbury. Built 1504-21. The gates were restored in 1660. In the 1920s Buttermarket became the site for a fine war memorial to the fallen of the 1914-18 war. #ArchitecturalIllustration #Pencil #drawing #ArtShare

Discworld QOTD, from Wyrd Sisters

Hello! I see you've decided to conflate a human being being an evil fascist apologist committing crimes and perpetuating fraud with (checks notes) being a woman. Perhaps you would like to not do this.

The train coming into the station. Sacrebleu but I was afraid! I thought that locomotive was going to crush me, dead! I'm not ashamed to say I scrambled out of that maison de cinéma double quick time.

Are Olympians allowed three legs?

This is marvelous, and my understanding is it would not have been unusual going way back to be inclusive in this way. Medieval friars using sign language is well documented: partly to say pass the salt when eating somewhere with a rule of silence, maybe as memory aids, but also for preaching/service

My poetry collection Time Travel Is Easy and my novelette Her Wine Red Star are now on my PayHip store! payhip.com/RickHollon

Probably my all time favourite dub performance in one of these :(

If you're an artist feeling depressed about AI, especially watching other creatives use it "just to mess about" EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW EVERY ISSUE WITH IT, a bit of judicious disdain sometimes works wonders. Slap it down, it's fucking awful, and people should *not* be encouraged to use it.

#Woodensday The astonishing Kyrenia ship that traded Rhodes-Cyprus-Levant-?Egypt from c.315 BC. Sank c.291 BC of N coast of Cyprus packed w goods + equipment that were exceptionally well preserved. Vol1 of full report of 1967-72 excavation only published 2022, but now also in digital format: see alt