🏴‍☠️We don't endorse piracy, except when it results in a really cool Sword & Sorcery tale!🦈 Check out the latest seafaring story by @agentofweird.bsky.social, illustrated by @mspencerdraws.bsky.social, in issue six of New Edge Sword & Sorcery: 👉 newedgeswordandsorcery.com/product-cate... 👈

Absolutely hyped.

Reading the new Gertrude Stein biography and a) clearly it’s time for me to try again with Blood on the Dining Room Floor b) Dashiell Hammett was her favorite crime writer (and she adored the genre beyond reason)

(nice part of the pic, zoomed in)

Getting more familiar with procreate, another golden fly!

The one I'm most excited about is The Curve of the World by the late Vonda N. McIntyre. It was her last book and she finished it not long before she passed. I read an early draft and loved it: historical SF. Fascinating characters and speculation. Coming from Aqueduct Press.

watching Lord of the Rings Extended Edition like the rest of you in these in-between days; Fellowship last night, Towers tonight. I guess I watched them until I was tired of them, but five years or so away and I see their magnificence again. Greatly enjoying.

12 gods for Xmas with interesting transport modes #3. Athena drives two-horsed chariot in company with Amazons. Not an unusual idea, but merits inclusion by its extraordinary beauty--the horses' expressions, the snake-fringed aegis, the sense of movement

📆🎁 🌟BONUS🌟 25. BÖRTE ÜJIN Börte Üjin (Dame Bleutée) est la première épouse de Temüjin-Chinggis Khan et la mère de ses quatre fils principaux. Sans elle, son courage et sa sagacité, Chinggis Khan n'aurait assurément pas eu la carrière qui fut la sienne. 1/45 #MongolAdvent #mongolsky #calavhist

A Romancing the Gothic first! I have put the whole schedule for 2026 up in advance! You can already book tickets through March but you can see what's coming (and note it in your diary!) for the whole year! What a talk schedule! romancingthegothic.com/class-schedu...

But there's one paragraph that is obviously never going to be right, as its latest iteration still is remote from that status. Sad face.

Contract signed! No more vagueposting! "The Last God of Talam Dor," a bleak queer dark fantasy novelette about faith and love, will be out in January from GigaNotoSaurus. For a long time, I was certain I would never get to share this story with anyone; I can't wait to share it with you next week.

Wow, Issue #7 of @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social has some Sword and Planet bangers! I loved the pace and voice of Dariel Quiogue's Corsairs of the Crater Sea, the wit and charm of @jamesenge.bsky.social's The Red Road to Lost Amarkh, and @prashanthsrivatsa.bsky.social's moving The Promise of Dilli.

First hour this morning, found three phrases to improve. And greatly improved they are. This ain't the last read-through. I want it in a state where it gives me joy to read in published format for the rest of my life. No less, because you write the story you want to read, and afterward, you have it.

I'm interested in text-to-text fictions because Amgalant wasn't a telling of the history, it was a telling of what was already art: the Secret History. I cared more about understanding and rendering the art, than I did about historical detail. Quite a different aim and I sought others doing same ...

Come across my posts for the first time? I write deep worlds and people on the edges. The most succinct description of what you'll find in my work was given by FirstClassHack over on the Other Place, "Think Patricia McKillip meets Glen Cook." www.kvj.ca

QRP to reintroduce yourself! Hi, I'm Anya, a fantasy illustrator with love for patterns and complex scenes. I draw inspiration from films and historical themes and love creating different worlds and stories with each piece.

on historicity, in a text-to-text fiction 'not strict accuracy, but an authenticity of approach that aims to situate the story in the thematic space of its inspirations... which also strikingly evokes medieval works in feel, in way often distinctly absent from modern retellings, even of Arthuriana.'

No one has sung "The Trumpet Shall Sound" better than the great African American bass-baritone William Warfield. I listened to another of his recordings today, but this will give you a sense of his magnificent voice & how wonderfully he used it. (Bernstein/NY Phil) m.youtube.com/watch?v=8BZN...

Present-reading now. A lot of reviews start with 'not a gimmick' and it isn't. This quickly won me over with its imitation of Homeric style and on p.2 an apostrophe of the poet to his character (I love that 2nd person in epic). Obvs this classics prof and Star Wars fan has had the time of his life.

ratcheting my brain into workability I want to clear the slates (of What Rough Beast? draft 2) for a new story Jan 1 (Temujin and Jamuqa post-Amgalant). Once more into the read-through, dear friends, only once more. May there be no faults to fix this time.

Monolog for a Taxi Driver (1962), an East German existential journey that takes place one Christmas Eve....

Thanks, Nathan, means a lot!

@newedgeswordmag.bsky.social #6 complete! A strong issue with lots of bone-crunching S&S action! Standouts were the creepy Witchfinger, by Andrew Whalen, the morally unsettling Fury Be My Goddess by @breadsonja.bsky.social, and the touching The True Tale of Yehawellon, by @stevewestenra.bsky.social.

Takarazuka Revue noted recently a desire to try and expand global reach and this is their first experiment on this and I hope it works to expand visibility of their work But that depends on interest I saw it 4 times live and own the BD if that helps assure on it being good

Y’all, the Castlevania: Awakening In The Moonlight musical by Takarazuka Revue is available legally on VOD with subtitles starting today until the end of March, this is a great adaptation and the women in this show are so good, PLUS this is a rare experiment globally Please see it if you’re curious

Jirel flees Hell #digitalart #swordandsorcery #jirelofjoiry #fantasy #fanart #retrofantasy

Oi, Jamuqa: you stole my book. -- Temujin, on looking into Amgalant Two, probably

repost to agree on this exquisite Alyx story

Happy to say I have in these issues: ⚔️ in #5 a story -- shorter than the NESS usual, it was a crowdfund extra. Meet old Goatskin in 'The Change' ⚔️ a poem you'll find hidden in its pages: an invitation to Sword & Sorcery ⚔️ in #6 a profile: 'Raw: Janrae Frank and Chimquar the Lionhawk'

This is a free series starter and great fun. Posh thug and hacker take down the bad guys, with sweet and hot trans m/m romance, plus social.commentary. I've just read about five in a row.

📆🎁 23. JAMUQA ANDA La figure historique de Jamuqa Anda (Jamuqa "le Frère Juré") s'estompe derrière le personnage littéraire. Il est l'alter ego de Chinggis Khan, toujours sur sa route, son rival, son ombre, l'ami qui le trahit, son meilleur ennemi. 1/50 #MongolAdvent #mongolsky #calavhist

Hey tis the season once again, for Mongolian Jingle Bells from the Altai Band youtu.be/qJkiYNeDsw4?...

"By having creatures with disabled-like features bond with actual disabled humans, I’m letting the metaphor for the thing meet the thing." Don't miss @allisonwyss.bsky.social's conversation with @wiswell.bsky.social on his novel WEARING THE LION. buff.ly/7DwUstz

I'd better put a Christmas outfit together, it's sure to take the afternoon (it's already Eve where I am in the world)

One book, two brilliant covers! Looking forward to reading both. @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social

Just finished @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social #5. A delightfully hallucinogenic issue, with wild imagery and weird adventures. Faves for me were @brynhammond.bsky.social's The Change, a wry, elegiac story of an adventurer of a certain age, and @mollytanzer.bsky.social's captivating Jirel Meets Death.

Treat a published work that was later divulged to be AI-generated the same way you would if you found out it was manually plagiarized from a different book. Same situation, just the plagiarism has been automated and averaged out a bit, and the plagiarist is also a scab and a cultural arsonist.

The only reasonable position is zero tolerance: the AI industry must end sooner rather than later. It is culturally, socially, environmentally, and economically destructive, and all the Silicon Valley marketing in the world isn't going to make it otherwise.

and hey, I liked his Lancelot: 'Sits alongside Life of Aglovale de Galis and Porius: odd, intensely individual Arthurian tellings with dismal publishing histories... The Art of the Sentence is reason enough to read him. Not pretty, punchy. Knockout language use.' www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

👀 I collected Peter Vansittarts for a while there: his short (bewilderingly short: his publisher put him on a strict word count because he didn't sell) historical novels, ancient and medieval; his Lancelot.

Time for another read of my fave book (when I am not counting Moby Dick or Dostoyevsky). Happy to see the blurb from Ursula K. Le Guin.

They arrived! @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social

Happy Gauda Prime Day to all those who celebrate! #Blakes7

from the Women Builders of the Metro series — Alexander Samokhvalov, 1937 Oil on canvas 45,1 x 28,2

New post, in which I talk about the Old English poem “The Wanderer” and the place of empathy in interpretation. nikolasgunn.co.uk/2025/12/19/t...

#Top31DavidBowie #MusicSky #MusicChallenge Your favourite Bowie songs, one per day, throughout every day in December. (reverse order) 16 of 31 Time (from Aladdin Sane, 1973) youtu.be/V1miHXIYz7I

#MusicChallenge #Top31DavidBowie Ranked 15. Oh You Pretty Things youtu.be/IBgU0tiLy2s?...

#Top31DavidBowie 13 The Hearts Filthy Lesson 1995 One of Bowie's greatest singles. Growling guitar from Reeves Gabrels, Mike Garson's piano blasting in as if from another world, Bowie showing his wonderful vocal range, and it all being mildly bonkers. What a video as well.

We'll be reading stories for ✨ What Elegant Stars: Queer Tales of Impossible Style ✨ from January 15th to April 15th. Give us stories of satellites and sewists, terminals and tailors, dandies and dying stars. <6k words. 8¢/word. simsub ☑️. multiple submissions 🚫. www.neonhemlock.com/submissions