Congrats on pub day, Nick! Who somehow found out that that "sci fi noir crime thriller" is the cheat code to my wallet.

Outrageous.

🧵I’m putting the MRM contract ordeal behind me to focus on making more art, but I just had 1 more thing to say related to this. Throughout the past several months many writers have reached out to say things like, “I wanted to push back, but I’m a nobody” or “my piece was just a little poem.” 1/5

P.A. Cornell has written openly about her recent experience with MRM. Very unfortunate and totally unnecessary. I admire her transparency and her dedication to combating some truly ridiculous contract issues.

This, this, so much this.

What MRM has put P.A. through is absurd. There are terrific editorial teams working at the three big print SFF mags, but as long as the publisher finds it reasonable to treat authors this way, I won't be submitting to any of the publications they own.

Coming off a 6 week sprint of writing 80k words feels EXACTLY like the end of exam season. Eww.

I saw Jaws this week at the local cinema for its 50th anniversary. First time I've seen it on the big screen. Better than ever!

Hey I'm in this gorgeous thing!

Giveaway incoming for the awesome @elizachanwrites.bsky.social's new book!

My collection UNCERTAIN SONS comes out soon, and early copies are already going out to folks who pre-ordered (racing the de minimis change in tariffs!). Now's a great time to pre-order if you're thinking about it. Here's what @wiswell.bsky.social said (art by @cdsart.bsky.social). Thanks, John!

AI company has to pay (and this a case with a judge who really didn't get some of the core arguments by creatives!!)

Giveaway The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder Repost this! "A spooky tale where little is as it seems. Forgery, false accusations, secret identities. Are old crimes coming home to roost? To solve a baffling murder, Mrs Ashton must look both sides of the grave" #booksky #reading #Victorian #books

ICYMI

Yeeeees!

Absolutely love this poem — it's a quick read, but you'll be thinking about it all day.

I'm delighted to have my sci-fi poem "Looking Back" appear in the Sep/Oct issue of @analogsf.bsky.social. analogsf.com/current-issu....

Such a gorgeous cover reveal, the colours!

They can pry my em dashes and semicolons from my cold, dead hands

Can’t pick between: Severance, Mad Men, She-Ra, The Haunting of Hill House, Dark, Daredevil

Oh, so much this. Everyone is born with the capacity for play and original thought, but it takes years of concerted effort to build the suite of skills that form creativity. @tommyblanchard.bsky.social wrote a great piece about it recently: cognitivewonderland.substack.com/p/the-cognit...

This constant conflation of GenAI and old-school applied statistics and other sophisticated software really doesn't help the conversation. A custom-built computer vision tool that helps archivists detect the edges of faded documents is a world away from an LLM "replacing" a human archivist.

BCS forever. A gem of a publication. Offering personalised rejections to writers is a big deal, and a huge amount of work. I haven't sold to them yet but I have sold stories after incorporating some of their notes. Here's to many more years, subscribe to them if you can.

Sometimes I just can't.

So useful

Starting a new section of my WIP with almost zero idea of what happens next. These characters better be sober, because they're driving.

... ... (It's a software program that hallucinates. It doesn't "think" and part of the issue there is reproducing puff pieces without thinking about the consequences. And no way in hell do I let that program book stuff for me)

Delighted to have my dark poem "Roommate" forthcoming in @havenspec.bsky.social, which is about a bad landlord, black mould, and sweet vengeance.

So apparently, if I don't keep encouraging people to subscribe to Clarkesworld, they don't. clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/ All new subscriptions go towards increasing staff pay. They deserve it, so I can't be silent.

The Economist has decided this is an opportune time to publish flagrant climate science denial.

Someone just offered to license our entire back catalog of issues for "AI" training. No way in hell. Not gonna happen. No means no. Don't come back. Don't even look this way. Seriously. We don't want you here.

Ten writers by whom I've read more than five books 1. David Mitchell 2. N. K. Jemisin 3. Justin Cronin 4. Adrian Tchaikovsky 5. Becky Chambers 6. Jeff VanderMeer 7. Mary Oliver 8. Michael Crichton 9. Ursula K. Le Guin 10. Maya Angelou

My weird-western story 'Rusty Sue' is up for the 'best story' and 'best weird sci-fi' categories in the Strangies (People's Choice) award over at Drabblecast. Their podcast is full of great and weirdly weird stories (ofc I'd be delighted if you voted for me). www.drabblecast.org/2023/11/05/d...

SFF writers take note! SFWA's Board of Directors has updates on the Must Read Publishing situation: what Must Read has now promised to change, and what steps SFWA is taking next, to ensure future contracts require less negotiation from writers in genre. READ MORE BELOW ⬇️ www.sfwa.org/2025/07/14/p...

Recommend this excellent body horror flash piece in @apexmag.bsky.social by Colton Kekoa. "Until now, falling apart was just a thing that happened between us. The doctor’s referral made it real. This was a Thing that was Happening." www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...

lol indeed

🎊 And the Nebula for Best Novelette goes to... "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" by @awprihandita.bsky.social (@clarkesworldmagazine.com). Congratulations!!! #Nebulas2025 🥳🥳🥳

Some very interesting thoughts from Mandy Brown this week.

God exactly. The purpose of writing papers is FOR YOU TO THINK SOMETHING THROUGH, not because a prof has a deficit in their life that needs to be filled by reading 5-7 pages of mediocre bullshit. The bulk of things I recall from undergrad are things I wrote papers about.

Putting here again my translation of Sofia Rhei's Cefiro, published earlier this week by Strange Horizon's @samovarmag.bsky.social. It's dark and weird, just the way I like them 🖤 samovar.strangehorizons.com/2025/04/28/z...

Oh! I have a new story out in the latest issue of Clarkesworld Magazine. "Descent" is a standalone science-fantasy novella set in the amazing @sauutiverse.bsky.social about an exploration mission on a planet of storms, epistemology, parental expectations and the limits of knowledge. Check it!

Don't you just love fixing DNS server problems first thing Monday morning?

Endless congrats to @oliverklangmead.bsky.social for making the Hugo shortlist for Best Poem with "Calypso".

PSA: If you like a short story, please don't record yourself reading it in full & post it on your youtube channel. You're using that story's audio rights — rights that are being sat on for a reason — and monetarily hurting the author whose work you enjoyed. STOP IT, please and thank you.

Yeaaaaah!

Could this sound more like SF heaven? Can’t wait to order my copy of this exciting debut from the awesome @jasminkirkbride.bsky.social!

The Shortlist continued: @calebbethea.bsky.social in @xraylitmag.bsky.social @eldaorozco.bsky.social (I think) in Marrow Magazine @arthurmanners.bsky.social in Phano @tsvoboda.bsky.social in @hfr.bsky.social @annalisacrawford.bsky.social in @fictivedream.bsky.social All the links here:

Yet more slurry from the mill of the tech bro bandits

My poem "Martian Gardeners Paring Memories of Old Earth" is now available in issue #20 of Solarpunk Magazine. @solarpunklitmag.bsky.social solarpunkmagazine.com/shop/solarpu...

ICYMI for the Hugos, some of my stories are eligible.