I read this book and you should too

Strange Horizons turns 25 this year, which is pretty much an eternity in the world of spec fic zines, and I had the privilege of going through the archives for a special short fiction roundup: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

This one is about the intersection of imperial domination with local religious traditions. (Sorry, I struggle to describe Ann's books without sounding like that.) But it's also a bunch of fun, flawed, incredibly strange characters making poor life choices at each other. You are going to love them.

<clears throat> www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0FP...

In all the kerfuffle of getting home, I almost forgot I have a book birthday today! Check out Wings of Tabat! Available through all the usual online suspects or order it from your local bookstore or library! #booksky #fantasybooksky

I don't know if I came up with this or not--I know I say it, and have said it. At any rate, the thing is, IMO part of why this can be a difficult conversation to have is that "you accidentally broke her foot" is generally easily understandable by most people, because a broken foot is

begging folks on bluesky to turn down the "you hate waffles" energy. it's a microblogging platform, y'all. no, there's not a lot of nuance. but we don't have to assume intellectual binaries when we read others' posts. ftr, imposition of rigid conceptual binaries? tried-and-true fascist tactic.

A MESSAGE FOR ALL THE YOUNG NEIGHBORHOOD CHALK ARTISTS: Keep chalking! Whenever Fitness Coach Vanburen and I are out on our Walk Fitness, it makes me smile to see your work. Draw on those sidewalks! Show us your pictures and words! It makes the day brighter!

Pencil some #writing time into your calendar. Then sit down at the assigned moment, close social media, and start writing. It might feel like starting a car on a cold morning, but if you don't try, it won't happen.

maybe this is too obvious to need stating aloud, but often "everyone does [unethical thing]" isn't a hard-won cynical truth, but a fantasized justification that serves mainly to create a permission structure for the speaker to act unethically.

Cached US Kindle giveaway: 10 copies of THE RAVEN TOWER by @annleckie.com, which I *have* and *have read* and *have given away before*. I really like this book a lot, and I have a hilarious story about it I'll mention in the next skeet. #KindleBookGiveaway

Oh, this is a good bit of analysis.

you know what, in the spirit of this, just throwing this out there: are there any people who know detailed history of the secularization of the Teutonic Order-State under Albert, Duke of Prussia? I need it for a half-written fantasy book.

....okay I already watch his stuff but I might need to start rewatching regularly in a prophylactic manner.

Reminder that muting specific words on social media for a day, a week, a month, or even forever can be laudatory self-care.

and this is why you don't trust elite / gatekeeper liberals when they make a grand show of handwringing over how extreme the fascism has got, they're not finally "waking up" to anything, just covering up the cryptofascist class loyalties that will reveal themselves again when the shit hits the fan

"that's not funny, no one should lose their lives to gun violence" so true! that's what we've been saying all along. I'm so glad you agree

This sounds wacky but it is backed up by science.

"The Bright Ages" illuminated a world often overlooked, weaving tales of resilience and creativity. It reminded me that even in darkness, brilliance can thrive. What a comforting escape! #booksky #medievalsky

the "tax the billionaires" political refrain is Good Actually in part because it is a call for the people at the top to actually be constrained by rules informed by the public interest, a virtue that fingerwagging correctives about how much revenue such taxes would *really* generate doesn't address

Whoever chose the music for the first season of the Pottery Throwdown has a taste for minimalism.

Hell, Rowling is a warning to us all as to how insidious that smart/dumb framing can be, how the self-serving self-image as smart, wrapped up in its little Hermione fantasy of speshulness in a meritocracy, abjecting the dumb as essentially so, is a pipeline to classist & ableist *wilful ignorance*

minor nb: I don't think it's his lack of intelligence in play here so much as wilful ignorance. Not that I think he's smart, fuck no, but I think it's worth being very clear in the fight against fascism that it's not clever people versus dumb people, it's a lazy, craven, vicious *refusal* of reason.

We have existing narrative for big hero with the gun. We do not have very well engrained narrative in US for "Quiet community work making incremental changes and passing baton to next person to keep going after you die." We've made the first one sound glamorous. The second one sounds like WORK 😆

This is a great thread. I would just add that often the people who make it look the easiest are those who work the hardest (now or in the past). The ease that you see is the product of that work, not a sign that the job is easy.

Randomly thinking about assumptions we make about other people's jobs. It's so obvious that [job X] is easy, we could do it with no training, the person we see doing it (and maybe having a hard time) must just be stupid or something, we know how it should go! The thing is.

I've been thinking about names and pronunciations at award ceremonies a lot recently. Like I know for a fact that Worldcon has recently done a really great job of collecting everybody's names and giving them to the presenter.

Good morning! A reminder that GBBO is back AND old seasons of The Great British Sewing Bee are free to watch on Roku. Have a cozy weekend 💗

Absolutely. Do not undervalue your art even if you think you dont have clout. They selected YOUR work from many because it was good. It is worth pushing for fair terms.

If you're a newer writer considering signing a predatory contract because you feel like it will help your career long term to publish in a "prestige" market and "It's only a short story," I beg you to reconsider.

This this thiiiiiiiis. Editors are not altruistic souls who are doing your pathetic self a favor. You are two entities who are each bringing something of worth to the table. Remember both halves of that. (And if you don't feel like an editor is bringing something worthwhile, DON'T WORK WITH THEM.)

And remember that however shiny the market, it’s always better to walk away from a bad deal than stick it out. And to be clear, what’s a good deal for someone else, can still be a bad deal for you. Trust your judgment. 4/5

Important reminder: "Chinga la migra" scans to "shave and a haircut."

Time's running out on this deal! I don't know the exact ending time but it's soon

Either we are all free, or none of us are free. Either we all have the right to be who we are, or none of us have that right. And if someone doesn’t believe that, all they are doing is choosing whom they wish to start with eliminating, but their end goal is to get rid of everyone who is not them.

Trans people have been around your whole life. You’ve been sharing bathrooms with them your whole life. They’ve been in your communities your whole life. They’ve even been playing sport your whole life. And you didn’t care *at all* till a few years ago when every right wing org decided you should

I would like to point out that the below statement--which is true--is not saying anything about whether on wants to give money to an artist who's a horrible person, or whether one should or shouldn't continue to enjoy that art. That's a totally different issue, and one you have to decide on your own

A reminder that "But what if people on YOUR side are on the Epstein list?" is a bullshit argument, EVERYONE who was raping children needs to get into the bin right now, that's the deal here and it ain't exactly complicated

How Mark David Chapman's love of the Beatles limited his career advancement

I'm scared I will draw the Wrath of the Fanboys, but... this week on my newsletter I wrote about why I think the "Golden Age of Science Fiction" writers have so little appeal to a huge swathe of today's SF/F writers & readers. undercover-in-the-apocalypse.ghost.io/this-is-why-...

good art has no bearing on your morality. don't twist yourself into knots defending the morality of an artist you like, or denigrating the art of someone evil. you can just accept that good art is not a determiner of morality-- not for its creator, not for its audience, not for its society.

Somewhat randomly I chanced upon this piece I wrote after Jack Vance's death in 2013: arcfinity.tumblr.com/post/5228991...

ACTION OPPORTUNITY: Public Comment Period for urging CDC to restore old guidelines that everyone get COVID vaccine access, opposing new restriction to high-risk only (which will reduce number of places stocking it & make it easier for insurance to deny coverage). Commenting takes literally 1 minute!

Better Late Than Never: The 2025 Hugo Ceremony Apology It's been more than two weeks since the pretty disastrous 2025 Hugo ceremony (for all the gory details, see this post) and not only do we finally have the Hugo nomination statistics, we also finally have an apology or rather two. First of all,…

This book is madcap, inventive, thoughtful, and so so funny. I highly recommend.

A lot of people think of “Smart” as a singular axis of raw capacity, and not a complex web of individually cultivated skills. It’s genuinely a problem.

For idiosyncratic Reasons I am thinking about "the Preservation crew in Murderbot is suppposed to be all smart scientists and in the show they do stupid things" & also thinking about during the recent tornado in a multistory bldg full of smart, capable scientists

WINGS OF TABAT was mentioned in this round-up from Gizmodo! gizmodo.com/100-new-sci-...

Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head. 🖊️🦑

Science fiction is the subset of fantasy where we are being fashionable about science. This is science fiction's own novum: the idea that "science" can be an aesthetic and that then-current models and ideologies of knowledge, both in form and content, can be a source of both constraint and excession