If you want to see a really great use of repetition of word/phrase, you should check out this story. @maressakate.bsky.social nails a vibe and voice, and her theme is on point for the world we are being reluctantly driven towards by our tech lords.

Part allegory, part slipstream rage of consciousness little piece I wrote last year about why you really have brain fog and what happens when AI takes an interest in gardening. You honor me by reading!

The mind of Gio is singular!

Thrilled to be a repeat offender in Trollbreath Magazine, alongside some really special stories. This was one that extruded out in one long exhale (read: silent scream). The Machines Are Hungry (please don't feed them!)

I have a short (short) piece in this issue, a work of slipstream, inspired by *gestures vaguely all around*… The Machines Are Hungry. Please don’t feed them.

Spoiler alert, my next book.

World Con! Who’s going?? let’s meet up!

Get in losers, we’re going digital!

Over the moon to share that I am now represented by the wondrous Susan Armstrong at C&W. It’s been a wild ride these last few weeks, approaching this terminus at high speed after five years of striving/toiling/hoping (and clearly I don’t know what to do with my hands just yet)…

...unbelievably, irrepressibly vague !! 👀

I have committed an act of newsletter: I finally wrote up what I got from @catrambo.bsky.social's Wayward Wormhole workshop back in November (spoiler alert: it was a lot, and was not what I expected). buttondown.com/sarahday/arc...

3 AM typing marathon. Heart racing. Not inspiration -- just forgot to eat again. The muse: not bad to look at but a terrible roommate.

Many have said that When Shadows Grow Tall has A Wizard of Earthsea sensibility.

New story day! "The Matador and the Labyrinth" is up at Diabolical Plots. Borges meets Hemingway. www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1... The image is from a kylix drinking cup, c. 515 BC. The inscription around the edge reads "The boy is beautiful."

A reviewer here and there has expressed discontent about how my villains are unrealistic, a touch too mwa-ha-ha. To them, I ask, “Did you watch the press conference yesterday?” *me, watching, taking notes for book two* JD: “Say thank you.” *me, scribbling, “Bow to your overlord”*

@beardofdarkness.bsky.social was gracious to have me on his channel and we had a very chill chat about avenues to publishing, how to grease the creative gears, why I’m not a plotter, the function of beards in the generative phase, etc.

Tonight at 8:30pm EST, I will FINALLY have the opportuingty to chat with the author of "When Shadows Grow Tall", the wonderful @maressakate.bsky.social! Topics will include her writing journey, inspirations, writing fantasy in particular, women in fantasy, and more! Join us & bring your questions!

Join me at 5:30 PST tonight (!) with @beardofdarkness.bsky.social for a live interview. Bring your cat and questions of the burning/unhinged variety. www.youtube.com/live/E3fEG_1...

roma fatum est. roma est in aeternum. @maressakate.bsky.social took sargassa on a field trip to the very source. ☀️

"Just once, 347 would like to know what it feels like not to hit the drip. An impossibility—Tutrix is always there, ready to hook her up—but a curiosity nevertheless. What would it be like, to carry a feeling to its natural end; not have its rumpled edges smoothed over, its color faded to grey?"

It's Free Fiction Friday! Enjoy the story and consider subscribing or sending virtual coffee to keep the good stuff coming! magazine.trollbreath.com/the-instruct... ko-fi.com/trollbreathm...

My story, Instructions are Explicit, is free from the paywall today. Click on for a little jog through imperial space. Our story begins in the Dominion Ward, where Bound no. 347 grapples with challenges inherent to the postpartum period. magazine.trollbreath.com/the-instruct...

Wait…you can 3d print guns?

High times tabling at @sbplibrary.bsky.social’s local authors event. We were in the newly renovated plaza and as all locals know, the library has been under construction for an eon. Pretty wonderful to revel in the space after so many years of it being under wraps.

Out here just trying to grab people and keep them reading 📍

The new issue is coming in less than 24 hours! A membership gives you access the moment it drops. If you can't afford a membership, the schedule of Free Fiction Fridays is below, when each piece is released from the paywall. Non-fiction pieces are always free.

Out now! I have a short story in here. The Instructions Are Explicit is my weird lil far-future take on baby-rearing in a totalitarian space state (fun!) More notes about context and content on the ‘gram. Will you give it a read? (I hope so!)

Neglected to include said shot

Major league headshot by the very generous and talented @lunatiquerob.bsky.social, taken during our time at the #waywardwormhole in New Mexico. A step up from my previous 4 yr. old selfie in an Airbnb in Barcelona, doctored on Canva. Big leagues, here I come! Just need to keep batting above .300

Five days from now you get to meet Bound no.347 (!)

Today’s the day! I’ve only just cracked this epic tome but it’s plain to see that Lamia has done something truly special.

It’s not about all the darlings you kill but the friends you made along the way. Missing all the (talented, very cool, funny, etc) people who made #waywardwormhole so special.

The kind of confidence I aim to exude going into this rewrite. As seen in Bisbee, AZ.

👀

Hi, it’s (literally) me.

Fun fact: If you shine a black light on me at night my carapace also glows neon.

Fourteen hour drive ahead of me for the Wayward Wormhole Workshop in the Land of Enchantment (not a metaphor) — hit me with your finest audiobook recs (non-fiction and fiction, if the latter, narration must be excellent). Many thanks!

Woke up to a lot of new followers — hi! — on the heels of weeks & weeks of my For You on X looking like it…wasn’t…for me. So that’s that! I believe in Free Speech, but don’t condone it if there’s a modifying noun sandwiched in the middle, lurking like a sad flavorless hot house tomato (Hate).

Subscribe! Invest! Don’t miss my dark little far-future piece about social pressure, resistance and human instinct within the matrix of early motherhood, coming in December with @trollbreathmag.bsky.social

There is a lot of great short fiction to be had out there: go.bsky.app/UokuX5r

Positive news! On top of other recent stealth first volumes (@sarahreesbrennan.bsky.social, @kerstinhall.bsky.social), and readerly consternation (@amalelmohtar.com on SRB, @niallharrison.bsky.social on Rajaniemi), there’s a trend emerging here. Normalise presenting as a first volume?

*squeak* bowled over by the treatment ye olde book received by @tristanbeiter.bsky.social — second print’ll address that ambiguity (heretofore, a Prequel, in essence Book 1 but I shan’t define it as such due to *publishing politics about which I must be vague*) YES, there will be more books.

Hell of a write up from @edcrocker.bsky.social who seems to understand the subtleties of the themes present in WSGT as well as (if not better than) its author 😊

What’s mind boggling is that with all this mystification, there’s been no word from Chengdu to provide some…reification. Surely emails have been sent, calls made for answers? Why after a few days of virility cross-sites are there still no answers?

WHEN SHADOWS GROW TALL is up on @netgalley US and UK. Honor my house with a request! Examine the nature of truth! Embark upon a quest of indeterminate means in the name of magical equity! Get down with your bad self! www.netgalley.com/catalog/book...

I have this nice graphic but then my sister did me one better with her handwritten love note on a random LFL in BC. When Shadows Grow Tall is available for preorder on Amazon US and Amazon UK, as well as B&N, links in bio & here: linktr.ee/maressavoss. Cheers, people of the sky!

Time to show some marvelous #bookmail: -A gorgeous edition and packaging by M. T. Fontaine, of Marked by the Pyre. -A nice early copy of When Shadows Grow Tall, by @maressakate.bsky.social

Just had some bookmail all the way from the sun-drenched utopia of Santa Barbara, California! When Shadows Grow Tall is a debut indie fantasy by @maressakate.bsky.social, out next summer, which apparently features earth-based magic, lyrical prose & botanical references… I am intrigued…

It’s rare for me to dive into the fray when it comes to yeet wars, but this recent business on “X” with @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social and her forthcoming translation of the Iliad has really got my dander up. Stories belong to all of us. Translation is an alchemical process of place, people and power.