My short fiction recs from Jan-March are now up! With stories from @clairejiawen.bsky.social @dracopoullos.bsky.social @angelaliu.bsky.social @russellnichols.bsky.social @rajivmote.bsky.social @amfisher.bsky.social @joelhans.com @jenniferhudak.bsky.social itsajumble.blogspot.com/2026/04/shor...

All birds announce stunning pivot from flying to AI. Ornithologists concerned. Penguins smug.

It’s a good time for author’s copies, apparently!

Returning to Denver for another layover. We shall continue the quest for a good porter or stout when we land.

Honestly, a list of five popes who weren’t entangled with politics would be a far more interesting read.

Weird Horror, Uncanny Magazine, and The Deadlands: Review by Paula Guran locusmag.com/review/...

Pre-2022 data is like pre-1945 steel.

They just changed my flight from gate C59 to gate C59. Lots of confusion at Denver today.

This is what they get for hiring Marines to do the job.

It seems impossible to get a stout or porter in Denver International while waiting for a delayed connection.

Sold another story! At this rate, I may have enough for an anthology.

With a report for the AM crowd.

Just arrived, my author’s copy of @thedeadlands.com Issue 41, featuring ‘The Skull of Francisco Xalbec’ by yours truly and a collection of excellent poetry and short fiction by other fine writers. More info - and more stories - at psychopomp.com/deadlands/.

Credit where credit's due to @fortcircle.bsky.social Games for giving a credit to Kickstarter backers due to a pricing error. That's the way to make and keep faithful customers.

A small town detective has to deal with a murder most people are trying to write off, a coworker no one wants to be around, and the aftermath of his wife's death roughly a year ago. 'Tis The Season: www.amazon.com/Tis-Season-W...

If you’re killing time on a nice day, you can’t beat a book and the rooftop of MLK library. @dcpubliclibrary.bsky.social

Just finished Imperial Twilight by @stephenplatt.bsky.social, on the Opium War and the decline of Imperial China. A fascinating look at economics and politics between the UK, the EIC, and China, focused on the Canton factories. The war itself is limited to a few pages, as befits it.

OK, this story is absolutely amazing.

If they run test races at this track, do you think they call them Nürburgring Trials?

Artemis II giving two middle fingers to the world as it leaves, possibly forever, to find a better place on a cold rock in space.

Please don’t fuck this up.

It probably will not come to this, but there is also technically no rule against bringing Chief Justice Roberts’s pet cat, Mr. Marbury, in a specially designed cage where a single door separates him from a hungry python who respects neither law nor God.

Disappointed to see the TV in my office doesn't have the NASA channel.

Good, now crush their cars into cubes. I'll leave it up to you if you let the drivers out first.

Goddamn Arkansas.

On this date in 1961: The 23rd Amendment (allowing DC to vote for President) hit the required approval of 2/3 of state legislatures (thx OH & KS!) & went into effect This map shows how states voted. Gray states (see a pattern?) never got around to it (Really, VA?!?) #DCStatehood

@bsky.app no Ai thanks.

The ultimate bracket (by Ron Hague in the late, great Spy magazine, December 1989):

Just finished 'The Last Emperor of Mexico' by @edwardshawcross.bsky.social, a well-written book on Napoleon III's attempt to break the Monroe Doctrine by putting a Hapsburg archduke on an imperial throne in Mexico. Three years of (in some cases) literal insanity later, Emperor Max is executed.

I'm not saying it's aliens (because I'm not Avi Loeb), but . . . .

Classic DC problem: Red Line skipping Union Station due to ‘Presidential motorcade.’

Stephen Colbert Presents: J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Bombadil and the Barrow Downs.'

Shot: "It is nearly impossible to overstate the Japanese revolution in the massing of six fleet carriers in one tactical formation." Chaser: "It is also nearly impossible to overstate the Japanese folly of massing six fleet carriers in one tactical formation." - 'Tower of Skulls,' Richard Frank

I’m not sure if the cat feel asleep on the window sill and fell into the dog’s water bowl, or made a clumsy leap and landed in the water bowl, but I do know it’s quite a mess and the cat is acting innocent.

So. Here's the Thing.

So. Here's the Thing.

Alfred Bester wisely went with 'The Stars My Destination' and not 'The Waffle House My Destination' in his novel featuring teleportation.

My cats like dice. They like them so much they retrieve them from dice bags and carry them around the house. Rolling dice on carpet isn't any fun; no noise, they don't go far. But the hardwood floor in the master bedroom, oh, that's fun! And at 2 AM, you can also play keep-away with the humans!

We're in booth 726 #CrowdedShelf

If you're going to be at AwsomeCon in DC, make sure to stop by and say hi to @waylandsmith.bsky.social. Oh, and buy some books.

200 days until my earliest notional Federal retirement date.

These are not rush hour headways.

Ominous.

Attenborough voice: "The majestic Tomahawk migrates in small packs through the mountains of Central Asia, far from its original home in the European plains." (OK, it's not funny, but at this point, if I didn't have dark humor, I'd have no humor at all.)

F’ off and die. You.

I get the feeling a lot of non-lawyers are going to learn the term 'force majeure' soon.

The Horseman dropped his head.

And at the end of it all, we almost didn’t get to land at DCA without breaking minimum. 700 estimate, 300 in reality. Broke out of the clouds past the Masonic temple.

Well, O’Hare airport is a fucking nightmare zoo this evening.

Read ‘The Secret History of the Rape Kit’ by @pagankennedy.bsky.social between PDX and ORD. Part history, research story, and personal story, it restores the rightful creator of the rape kit to her place. Informative, well-written, and harrowing.