a “Space Force”, if you will

Hopefully most people will recognize these as scams but if you get a DM from "Bluesky" saying that your account was suspended and you need to click on some skeezy link to reinstate it, that is not how any of this works. You can report that account for impersonation.

and this is your regular PSA to remind you that YOU can hire ME to design YOUR book cover…and logos…and shirts…and tombstones… jordanshiveley.myportfolio.com

This is at least the fourth story I've seen of an author having to exchange multiple emails (over 20) with this publisher to get the contract language to not be rights grabby and it's one of three where the writer walked away. I appreciate the effort and transparency but I will also say-

At the risk of being tedious: this is why markets should post sample contracts. An author should never be in the position of agonizing like this over an acceptance versus a surprise bad contract. It benefits everyone for everyone to have full information before a story is submitted.

The MRM contract mess continues to be...a huge mess. I highly recommend writers, editors, and publishers give Scott's account here a read. It highlights some great points and explains why, exactly, authors are concerned with the contract language. I'm so sorry you had to deal with all this, Scott.

I hate what the new ownership has done to Asimov's, Analog, and F&SF. Important venues and parts of SFF history strangled by greed. Please read Scott's missive here.

We have some good neighbors.

Funny how we all just “have to” accept AI as progress even if it’s janky and either has demonstrated no improvements to productivity or outright tanks it, but we never had to accept remote work despite every study showing it improves productivity AND workers lives. Hmmmmm

The Daily Salem Dispatch is just 20 seconds of her purr box going. She sits about two feet from me and starts purring even before I start petting. Very good little motor.

My last word on the matter

This story made me so. angry. But like...in a satisfying way? Love!

If we assume all the films are a single Bond continuity wouldn't he have been active as a spy for like 63 years? That's not already seen as a flexible continuity? Its not like the recent movies are set in the 60s, they show cell phones and modern cars etc

Obsessive devotion to continuity is the enemy of epic/mythological storytelling—especially when there are many authors involved. Whether we're talking about Star Wars, superheroes, or Bond, the answer is to nail the essence of the story and care less about making it all "fit."

One thing people kind of tell you, but not really, about middle age: One day you'll be like "oh [thing] looks fun but people will think I'm a loser" about a thing And then you'll say. Wait a second. Fuck 'em

Tell me you don’t understand risk pools without telling me you don’t understand risk pools

Hey, a lot of people are talking about changing affiliation from Democratic to Independent. Let me tell you why you shouldn’t do that in Colorado. One of the main ways to get a primary challenge candidate on a ballot is to caucus for your party. You need to be registered as a Dem to caucus.

This is not what they actually say. This is what they used to say, in the long ago before times when Shaheen learned to do politics. There is no kumbaya median voter anymore. The question you get knocking doors is not "why can't you all just work together?" it's "why didn't / will you fight harder?

The average SNAP benefit per month is $177 a person. The average ACA benefit per month is up to $550 a person. People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives. And working people want leaders whose word means something to them.

How about we shut down the government for this very popular and specific goal and then, hear me out, we hold out for like a month and a half and then, ok this part is important, after a watershed election where we ran the table, ONLY THEN, fold and don't get the one thing we said we wanted.

agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish

Anyway a great way to radicalize people is for them to realize that you just abandoned their chance at being able to access and afford health care because you didn’t like waiting in line at the airport.

I don't think anything reminds me quite as much that the world has all kinds of neurotypes as waiting for for something in space with a stranger who is uncomfortable with silence. I hope ya find whatever brings you comfort, but also, it is an experience so foreign to me it is hard to understand.

Okay sorry last one, this is too much fun

Please retire dude people are dying bsky.app/profile/dday...

I'm sure that a "Happiness is Mandatory" policy is indicative of a desirable workplace, yeah?

Look at this beauty

ANOTHER ONE I LOVED: “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by @effies.bsky.social in @diabolicalplots.com ! www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...

Mine has to be the satire "Laser Eyes Ain't Everything" in @diabolicalplots.com , which combines my rage about disability accessibility (or lack thereof) with snark and superhero puns: www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...

The Long List Anthology Volume 9 is now available in print! (Unfortunately the print version is Amazon only at this time)

Ee! A listing on the submission grinder has words I wrote! I'm having such delight at being a baby editor. This is the golden stage... that is, before I have to actually edit. :D thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market/Index...

Editorial cartoon: Don't bread on me. Enjoy :)

Well, the cat is partially out of the bag: More details to come next month but hope you're ready for a bloody, sexy vampire noir book, gang Writing: Me Art: @laurenknight.bsky.social Colors: @jpjordan.bsky.social Letters: @longtalljodie.com Edits: @cerealpancake.bsky.social 🩸🩸🩸

There's no Alt-Text, so here: A US Congresswoman sits at a folding table in a marble hall. A large oaktag(?) sign hangs off the table. It reads: MIKE JOHNSON is starving families and gutting healthcare to cover up the Epstein files. CHANGE MY MIND

OMG same I dont need a nanny moderation to protect me from rudeness, however that is even defined. Profound truths can be expressed "rudely", especially when that's used to police marginalized groups. And if it's legit terrible I want to be see it long enough to BLOCK

This Norwegian stabbur, ca 1700, one of the oldest buildings in the region. Used to store foods & other things off of the ground, away from animals. I'm not OK, for all the Crone reasons. We know where her house came from! Its origins, most likely! imma go get my evil mortar and pestle now brb

the women in the workplace discourse is very funny because a man who can act normal in an office environment that's predominantly female is absolutely on easy street. it's maybe the best gig anyone in history has had. and yet for many guys it is utterly impossible

i have been DYING to share this cover for SO LONG so everyone please look at it and not my face.

I'm already seeing people saying that if OpenAI goes down it'll be the fault of authors and publishers, as opposed to actually blaming Sam Altman and OpenAI for BREAKING THE DANG LAW!

The Democrats won several VA House seats where winning looked like a pipe dream going into the election. The Dems won these seats because they recruited candidates and actually campaigned. Important lesson for 26--the electorate is pissed--but you can only win when you run. Run everywhere!

They have to write articles that mamdanis win doesn’t matter bc otherwise they’d have to write about all the other democratic wins and near wins across the country that DO reflect a change in the party

Kiesling on the history of “dude” as a vocative (being replaced by “bro/bruh” aka the “brocatives”??) #NWAV53

Just because we beat them doesn’t mean we should continue to let billionaires spend whatever they want on elections.

Mamdani: “We won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do.”

Contemplate the heavenly borb! (proof copy of Long List Anthology Volume 9 hast arrived)