That’s the way. We need to raise the quality bar—though for that to happen, publishers need to stop being money whor … sorry, stop focusing solely on profit for a moment and return to their original mission. To shape the public’s taste, rather than pander to people’s worst reading tendencies.

If you want to read my flash "Jimmy. Fucking. Bang" you can go to South Florida Poetry Review & scroll down!

Thank you, Yare! If you’d like to read “Through the Machine” you can find it here: www.pacornell.com/2025-awards-...

Thank you so much, Yari! if you’re interested in reading “The Cold Burning Light of Her,” find it in Lightspeed www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-...

Thank you so much! And @balticon.bsky.social got the Compton Crook Award nomination exactly right for this one... bsky.app/profile/raji...

I loved in 2025 (for your awards consideration): POETRY “The World To Come” @jenniferhudak.bsky.social MIDDLE GRADE AJ Torres and the Treasure of Captain Grayshark @labyrinthrat.bsky.social

I loved in 2025 (for your awards consideration) STORIES “When You Think No One Can See You” @lettie-prell.bsky.social “The Basilisk Painting” @anthonyeichenlaub.com “Artful Felicitations” @darusha.ca “So Deep, So Wide” by Michelle Muenzler “Last Dam Standing” @historyneverwas.bsky.social

Loved in 2025 (for awards) STORIES “Jimmy. Fucking. Bang.” @mynachang.bsky.social “Terraforming: An Unearthly Earth” @aliciahilton.bsky.social “Five Things You Can See” @nadiaradovich.bsky.social “The Dance of Narcissus and Echo” @rajivmote.bsky.social “The Walled Garden” @drfionamoore.bsky.social

I loved in 2025 (for awards) STORIES “Through the Machine” @cornellwriter.bsky.social “Different Flames” @bethcato.bsky.social “The Mermaid Who Declined…” @aphowell.com “The Midwife in the Palace of the Forest King” @jelenawrites.bsky.social “The Cold Burning Light of Her” @swpisciotta.bsky.social

I loved in 2025 (for your awards consideration): NOVELLAS The Deaths of Mountains @jordankurella.com We Who Hunt Alexanders @jasonsanford.bsky.social Disgraced Return of the Kap's Needle @renanbernardo.com

I loved in 2025 (for your awards consideration): NOVELETTES “The Librarian and the Pirate” @schoen.bsky.social “Finding Tiggly” @schoen.bsky.social “The Soundtrack of My Afterlife” @cornellwriter.bsky.social “Uncertain Sons” @thomasha.bsky.social

I loved in 2025 (for your awards consideration): NOVELS The War Beyond @andreagstewart.bsky.social The Tower of the Tyrant @jeremyteg.bsky.social Unworthy @lmariewood.bsky.social Sea Swept @leahcypess.bsky.social The Shadow Minister @lrb.bsky.social

You have to hand it to @balticon.bsky.social for compiling a list of intriguing titles for their award finalists!

HI HELLO I HAVE A MINOR BOOKISH UPDATE!!!!

Reading new novelists for the Compton Crook Award is some of the fun in being a member of @balticon.bsky.social Best wishes to all of this year's finalists. @eirencaffall.bsky.social, Haley Gefulso, Antonia Hodgson, @barsukov.com, @mhayinde.bsky.social & Andrew Luddington

Shea Ashcroft & Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory have been shortlisted for the Compton Crook Award for best first novel! Compton Crook can only happen once in life, so I'm incredibly honored and happy. Thank you so much to @balticon.bsky.social & everyone who keeps supporting the book. I love y'all.

So ... Sleeping Worlds was selected by Kirkus as one of their Best Books of 2025! I’m incredibly honored, to say the least. Great thanks to everybody who supported me & the novel!

Praise from @mauricebroaddus.bsky.social: "Jason Sanford ain't playing with y'all anymore. We Who Hunt Alexanders lives at the intersection of cyberpunk and horror. Edginess and timeliness; blood and desperation; love and terror all woven like a rogue literary DNA strand." 1/2

Working with @metaphorosis.com and @bmorrisallen.com was one of the happiest times of my life.

I wish more people understood Gen“AI” is not AI.

Can't wait!

Now and then, we remember Wordle exists ... 1 480 2/6 🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov is worth the read! A 2x Nebula Award finalist, the true pleasure of reading this tale is the main character's contemplations of betraying orders, warfaring countries, and shifting memories and reflection, symbolized in the mimic tower legend.

Thanks so much for reading! For those who haven’t yet, that story is “Through the Machine.” Find it via this link or the Nebula Reading List: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/thro...

A fact that feels like something straight out of an alternate reality: turns out that before Star Wars, Hayden “Anakin Skywalker” Christensen starred in a TV show called … Higher Ground.

If you like political intrigue, science fantasy that veers into the weird, mind-bending metaphysics, and especially if you like dogs, pick up and devour @barsukov.com's Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory. (Arachnophobes may wish to skip a scene.)

It will take some time for CEOs to finally read the room. After that, it’s a straight path to the bubble bursting. Too much investment and too much talk about something that can mimic human speech patterns and is, at best, a consulting tool and at worst, a hallucinogenic shroom.

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by @barsukov.com "Yaro deserves enormous praise for his smooth writing style and I think this was one of the most illustrating moments of his skill." Read @justairythings.bsky.social's full review grimoireinkreviews.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/s...

Good Morning. @barsukov.com I just finished your book, and I must say I really liked it. I can see why it is a Nebula nominee this year, the way it plays with memory, with reality and illusion, with dreams and nightmares. I will be definitely reading your next book.

Two people have written to me this week saying "I've been looking all over for Armed in Her Fashion but can't find it, pls help" and (a) so glad for word of mouth! (b) less glad to have confirmation that title changes are confusing 😭 The Chatelaine = edited reissue of the same book, for the record!

I started yesterday "Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory" by @barsukov.com. I only managed 28 pages as I was really tired, but I am intrigued and like it so far. I want to know what everyone is hiding about/within the tower and what is this all about...

Our 3rd Nebula nominee is a surreal mix of “Waiting for the Barbarians” and “The Matrix”—an interesting combination, to say the least 🎆🎇 The most complex nominated novel (thus far), @barsukov.com has produced a fascinating antiwar allegory that will inspire and confound equally. #booksky

Memoirs are written by people terrified of their mortality, for people contemplating their mortality.

One of the best podcasts I’ve ever been on!

This year’s Nebula Awards will be presented June 7th. This is the list of nominees for Best Novel. My project for May is to read them all and let you know what’s a hit, what’s a miss, and who I think might win. Follow along! #booksky @huxleyandhiro.bsky.social @captainbluehen.bsky.social

#RealHarryPotter: Your own wand from Ollivanders (™) will cost you 20k & 3 years to make; rich parents buy in advance, kids from poor families rent basic models. Black market is rampant; plastic wands that “look like real wood” tend to explode. Hogwarts allows them b/c otherwise, nobody would study.

A French review of #SleepingWorldsHaveNoMemory, by none other than Emmanuel Chastellière. I can die a happy man now! www.elbakin.net/fantasy/roma...

At the Web Journal today, I take a look at the novel Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory in a post entitled Reality and Perception davidleesummers.wordpress.com/2025/04/19/r...

Erich von Däniken and _Chariots of the Gods_ come from a different, less cynical time. The book’s original title is _Remembrances of the Future_, which describes its appeal in a nutshell: that we were on the cusp of discovering something wonderful. Turns out, we were to discover the idiotic “AI.”

“The Art of Living in a Noir” How does it feel to write fantasy-noir? It feels like being genre homeless on Amazon! I had an absolute blast chatting with Michelle & Matt. #HowTheArtsWereWon open.spotify.com/episode/66m3...

Out Today: I sat down with Yaroslav Barsukov to talk about his book Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory. We chatted about his deployment of personal and national memory, metaphorical resurrection, and how Barsukov complicates his themes. Get it anywhere you listen to podcasts!

This is a good time to remind people I have a newsletter that they can sign up for and also some important news coming! eepurl.com/iJk9XU

Amazing. That's why I’m subscribed to @publisherslunch.bsky.social, to find out how Hunger Games are doing. Honestly now 😂

As we move forward, “GenAI” will settle into its role as a research tool—effectively a glorified search engine. Some folks will make money. A lot more will lose their investments. Many, many more will realize that genuine effort and dedication are required to make dreams a reality.

Yay! I requested my library to buy a book… and it’s on order! Libraries just RULE! The book is ‘Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory’ by @barsukov.com

If you see this, quote with the energy you bring to BlueSky.

#phdchat #lotr

Huge congrats to @labyrinthrat.bsky.social, @jasonsanford.bsky.social, and @alexshvartsman.bsky.social for making the BSFA shortlist!! And to @drfionamoore.bsky.social for being shortlisted 4 (!) times! Did I count that right? :)