I'm thrilled to join Haven Spec as Poetry Editor! Excited to dig into the beautiful mountain of spec poetry - the vivid, the emotional, the lyrical, the strange, the dark, the climate-conscious, the bittersweet, the idea-driven, the magical, the otherwordly, the weird. . . and everything else!

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Grouchy writer rant: don’t put this in your guidelines if you want me to take you seriously “Simultaneous Submissions: Don’t. This is the fastest way to get on our list.” Especially from a token or nonpaying market. If. You dont want sim subs, fine, but sim subbing writers are not criminals 🙄

Seeing my favourite bread newsletter (@wordloaf.org) post about the starvation in Gaza made me tear up - important to see food writers as well advocating for Palestinians (also includes some links to where you can send financial support on-the-ground) newsletter.wordloaf.org/bread-not-as...

So I vaguely recalled in the wake of Sweeney jeans ad discourse (which I was genuinely trying to avoid) that at some point I thought I learned that Black people gave us jeans — I just couldn’t recall the source until today. There is a doc which this article summarizes, with sources cited. Cheers.

We need to teach people the difference between being uncomfortable and being unsafe. Because the discomfort of the safest people is endangering the most vulnerable, all day every day.

I've seen 2 Hamilton Fringe shows & they were both bangers! --> The Pole Shebang - touching, funny, interactive, IMPRESSIVELY athletic memoir via pole-dancing --> Ugly Privilege - standup comedy that really hit for me. On autism, queerness, & being a weird little guy Going through Sun! #HamOnt

Today's newsletter: The Wall Street Journal says ChatGPT had a "stunning moment of self reflection." NBC says Grok "issued an apology." This lazy language isn't just bad writing — it's helping tech companies dodge responsibility for real harm. www.readtpa.com/p/stop-prete...

Very nice article on speculative poetry!

Unbound/Boundless who no longer have the rights to sell my book are still selling it for FUCKING $4 on Amazon. Talk about some shady fucking shit. Trying to burn through the inventory THEY NO LONGER HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO SELL before they are forced to send me the remaining stock. Weasels.

“Mmeory” is a multi genre anthology of memory manipulation stories on KS. Cheering for a surge this week - 87% base funded ($727 to go). Our recent updates are about choosing authors and designing covers - www.kickstarter.com/projects/526... #sff #fantasy #book #ks #booksky

One of the reasons I think “defund the police” is a great slogan is that you get to repeatedly tell people that studies show that police don’t actually solve murders, and in fact one-third of stranger-murders are committed by police.

Congrats Chris! Happy book birthday!

Here is a list of 5 dark medical non-fiction books from our very own @jessicapeter.bsky.social! Join our Discord for a lively discussion! howlsociety.com/2025/04/29/h...

Had a lovely time moderating a panel on horror at @gritlitfestival.bsky.social last night with Cheryl Isaacs, Pasha Malla, and AGA Wilmot! Thanks to everyone who made it out to our later night session. #HamiltonReads2025

LAST DAY to cast your votes to nominate works for the #2025PrixAuroraAwards! Learn more about how to vote at https://csffa.ca#2025PrixAuroraAwards! Voting closes TODAY at 11:59 EST on April 5, 2025. As I’ve mentioned, I have two works eligible for Best Short Story! Enjoy nominating all your faves! Cheers! #SFF

Today begins the Crime Writers for Trans Rights Auction! A couple hundred or so authors have donated items to be auctioned off in support of The Transgender Law Center from Kellye Garret, Gillian Flynn, Roxane Gay, S.A. Cosby, and more, including me with this: www.32auctions.com/organization...

If you're in HWA and haven't voted on the Stoker preliminary ballot yet, you're running out of time! oh whoops I dropped this link to my short story that's on the list, my bad

True then. True now. Thank you, Willem Arondeus.

Seriously Google? How does your "AI" get "but has also faced criticism for publishing AI-generated stories" from the countless news stories written about us NOT WANTING GENERATED STORIES and actively fighting against them. Oh wait, it's not actually intelligent, is it? Just bullshit all the way down

I'm going to be hosting an event @gritlitfestival.bsky.social this year! Join me for "gritLIT After Dark: Horror" with Cheryl Isaacs, @agawilmot.bsky.social, and @pas-mal.bsky.social on Sat April 26 #HamOnt www.gritlit.ca/festival-eve...

Really nice article from Hamilton's poet-in-place about why having a city poet matters - and really, why art matters. www.thespec.com/opinion/cont... #HamOnt

Check out the first Strong Women, Strange Worlds starter pack: go.bsky.app/7VBpS1A #specfic #writing

Your Ontario Election Guide! (Part 2)

Tomorrow is the provincial election! I encourage you to vote - against Doug Ford. Show him he doesn't deserve a majority. To find out who is the most strategic vote against Ford and his PCs in your riding, see votewell.ca or smartvoting.ca. #HamOnt

Congrats Chris!

Meet Kojo Damptey, the Ontario NDP candidate for Hamilton Mountain for the upcoming provincial election. #HamOnt #HamOntMtn #onpoli

Are you a trans or nonbinary writer? Clarion West just announced a new scholarship that covers all six weeks of tuition:

To our American friends who may now be struggling to find health information on US websites: Please check out the Public Health Agency of Canada's website for helpful resources, updated dashboards & practical health tips. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 canada.ca/en/public-he...

I cried at the speech Trudeau just gave. That “fought together at the beaches of Normandy, in Kandahar” hits hard when it’s mourning the loss of our biggest ally (the US) in this childish-spite-driven trade war. 30 mins watching despondent economists & manufacturing leaders first didn’t help.

Haven Spec is doing some great work on the SFFH publishing scene. Check out or back their Kickstarter!

I literally screeched when I opened my email and saw Howls from the Scene of the Crime is on the Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot. So thrilled to make it to this first step along with my co-editor in crime @timaeusbloom.bsky.social through @howlsociety.bsky.social !

It's cool that all three of these historical portraits are at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, but let's leave describing women of colour as "exotic" (twice in this article!) back in past centuries. www.thespec.com/entertainmen... #HamOnt

So one of the things I did while frantically finishing the first semester of my PhD was um.... shoot a mini Blair Witch Project of my own. (I felt like I NEEDED to include actual video with a Blair Witch-themed gift I gave someone). Want to see it? youtu.be/tBc85WLtMoI

The end—or entirety, if we're being honest—of 2024 was chaos, so I forgot to post a list of eligible works for awards, but here's a few of my stories that came out last year!

GOTHS FOR BREAKFAST is here! 15 February A full day of online classes, talks and workshops on all things horror and Gothic to raise money for charity Magic Breakfast Pick your price point and join us! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/goths-for-...

Rip Justin Trudeau you would have loved electoral reform

I just learned that the branches of the US armed forces each have their own planes, ships, and ground forces. 😰 All this time I assumed they stuck to their one thing (Air Force planes, Navy ships, etc) … and Top Gun is Navy!?

This year for the first time I am also doing a top 5 stories read this year. In no particular order: - Pig House by @kayv.bsky.social at @seizethepress.bsky.social www.seizethepress.com/2024/02/10/p... - Cooking: A Science by Shinjini Day at @ergot.bsky.social www.ergot.press/authors/Shin...

My annual tradition of producing my top 10 books in 2024! This year they leaned non-fic, though still plenty of fic. They were all amazing books I would absolutely recommend, though not if you're in a mood for something "feel good" Photo below and in no particular order in the next messages.

It's a vibe!

Happy New Year! We've posted a submission call for BIPOC writers only. We're looking to acquire one excellent horror/Weird fiction collection for our 2026 publishing calendar. Find details at this link, and if your collection is ready now, send it our way! cursedmorsels.com/submission-c...

I was feeling like I'd "not done enough" in writing this year (even before starting a PhD) but then I laid it all out and... it's good! It's not all new short stories published (and no agent/novel pub yet), but I did cool stuff. I newsletter'd the whole thing: mailchi.mp/a59a435436bb...

Not only did Canada Post illegally lay off striking workers, it also cut off the medical benefits for people like Marc Caron, who has cancer and now has to pay thousands of dollars for medication. This is despicable.

Thrilled to see one of my poems on Ellen Datlow's recommendations list for building her Best Horror of the Year anthology. "Requiescat in Pace" is a little poem about famous women hauntings. It's in this issue of Star*Line: www.sfpoetry.com/sl/issues/st...

Help us send 2,000 books to readers who are incarcerated this winter through our Books Not Bars program

I think, on balance, they are a good feature for platform growth and for onboarding, but we are really missing important tools for protecting yourself we should be able to: a) see what packs we’re in b) see what pack people are following us from c) remove ourselves from packs easily

It’s official: in 2025, the Nebula Awards and @sfwa.bsky.social will recognize poetry as a new award category. Poetry has been a vital part of SFF from the earliest pulps. I’m so thrilled to see it recognized in this way.

more users are joining and the hog grows longer