$506 to go Stretching the ropes of Sword & Sorcery, four different ways. Get in the ring.

66% down. The real test is the last third. But so far, What Rough Beast? is doing what I wanted it to do. It's a different fish than Waste Flowers.

⚔️ONE WEEK LEFT📚 There's one week left to back New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas! Get your paperbacks and ePUB & PDFs, as well as crowdfund-exclusive perks, before the campaign ends on the 30th. www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

✨ Augur Editor update ✨ The application deadline has been extended to SEPT 26th! 🚨 Don’t miss your chance to apply!

⚔️TONIGHT AT 7PM EST🎤 @jayrequard.bsky.social will interview @draq.bsky.social all about the new Orhan novella! Catch the livestream at the top of the crowdfund: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

I've been thrilled by the response to this call-out so far, but there's still plenty of time to send me your writing! Chuck us a story 👇

KG Hutchins’ A Song for the Horses has officially landed in Berkeley, California! @songsforhorses.com

They didn't teach me Charlotte Smith in school. 'Sonnet: On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic' www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51893/...

I'm walking again this October to help support mental health research here in Oz! If you can help support me with either money or morale-boosting, I would very much appreciate it. Thank you kindly! 💙 www.onefootforward.org.au/fundraisers/...

I'll be fascinated. Battlestar Galatica ... gives me a lot to think about, and remains one of my fave things on tv.

New Review! In this much anticipated sequel to a Sword of Bronze and Ashes, @annasmithspark.bsky.social continues to push the boundaries with her unique and refreshing brand of fantasy ❤️ spellsandspaceships.home.blog/2025/09/23/a...

I guess we have two men who get a look-in in this plot (though only one has action); otherwise, four women bounce events between them. Women in Sword & Sorcery, let's go.

Don't know I'd dare watch it in a cinema. It is more eviscerating than the book (that stressed its consolations in her right behaviour). A woman's descent into poverty, I have rarely seen done so well. But it's pretty: filmed like visual art, and Gillian Anderson, my my. Has never been so glorious.

Hey, this chapter is not so bloody awful either. All right. Love a read-through.

Hey poets! Just a heads-up that The Fabulist will be opening a SPECULATIVE POETRY SUBMISSIONS WINDOW in late November. Woo! Details and links to come; meanwhile, sharpen yr quills, refresh the inkwell and start scratching on that vellum…

The queer is deep in this one [45% through my polish of What Rough Beast?]

The Muppets Take Ghorman: a musical

Had so much fun having this talk about sapphic lit and monsters! 🦇

Get yer bee-yuut-iful back-to-back Mongol-themed novellas here! And their sequels too in the running crowdfund, why not?

🔦SPOTLIGHT ON...DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD & SORCERY⚔️ Our two-novellas-in-one-book makes a great add-on when pledging for our new novellas! Learn more here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

My lovely friends at NESS are less that $2k away from funding this incredible set of four books! Check them out and throw a few dollars their way: it all supports a publisher who's actively making space in the genre for marginalized authors, and making sure they get paid well for their work!

Nerdy historical question of the day; please repost if you can: Has there been any comparative study of the career of Modu, Chanyu of the Xiongnu empire, and that of Chinggis Khan’s rise to power?

What was the role of short tales in late antiquity & early Byzantium? A new, open access book 📖 looks at how little stories say a lot brill.com/display/titl... I love that the short stories of Galen are included here & hagiographical stories alongside paradoxographical compendia (wonders & marvels).

Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar, Merv, Türkmenistan. Shot through a gap in the walls of Sultan Kala.

Nothing for my wobbles like reading through it after an interval: hey, no, this story is all right.

BTW, editors: I've got several more Cherryh essays cooking up that are even more ambitious than this one, so hmu if you're interested.

Griffin, Martin Schongauer, ca. 1435–1491 www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

Polishing up What Rough Beast? I still think it's a freak accident that Oliver's publishing my freak little novellas that nobody can possibly want, but boy am I going to seize the chance while I have it.

I'm likely to be bored if I understand everything on the surface at first glance. The only thing I need is trust -- as numbers of others have answered, trust that the difficulty is intentional; give me clues to this end and I am yours. I like a bit of a puzzle while I read.

Lots of interest in this issue!

🎨 Huang Yongyu (1992)

in my city every night is #BatmanDay

Today in the ARB: Vikram Zutshi reviews “Bajau Laut: The Sea is Our Home”, documentary film by Joachim Peter asianreviewofbooks.com/bajau-laut-t...

some recent pages from my small sketchbook. its the "large" size moleskine but my go to is the A4, so its small to me. all of em were done either on break at work or right before my shift.

Melville, mu favorite stylist. His punctuation is like musical notation. None more rhythmically enchanting.

This novella is the superlative Melville. Melville distilled. Eat it today.

This is where we get a new Sword & Sorcery book publisher up and running. Me, I want the first stretch goal for sprayed edges yeah, but far more, I want that extra novelette-in-a-zine by an undisclosed (but new and exciting) writer. Help Brackenbury Books make more books by more authors & artists.

I backed these novellas for 2 reasons Unselfish reason: These are great writers supported by great art and a great publisher, I can't wait to read their new stories, and I want them to thrive! Selfish reason: I want Brackenbury Books to be around to one day publish me! Back this book bonanza now!

🧙‍♂️AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT✍️ Dariel R.A. Quiogue brings you character-driven, fast-paced tales. In THE HUNT OF A THOUSAND LEAGUES his Genghis Khan-inspired Orhan the Snow Leopard flees & fights a menagerie of murderers! Learn more and get your copy here 👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Novellas! Four novellas!! Four sword & sorcery novellas!!! Explore a range of what sword & sorcery is up to these days. As suggested by the art, each of these is doing its own thing, while they share a passion for the sword & sorcery revival. We're above $13,000 and 200 backers. Eleven days left.

One of my favorite interviews so far! 👇

do not abandon what you love the night is long and the horizon is far but joy has a way of returning 🫀

Novellas! Four novellas!! Four sword & sorcery novellas!!! Explore a range of what sword & sorcery is up to these days. As suggested by the art, each of these is doing its own thing, while they share a passion for the sword & sorcery revival. We're above $13,000 and 200 backers. Eleven days left.

🖌️ ARTIST SPOTLIGHT🎨 Luis Melo ( @partyinthefront.bsky.social ) blew you away with his cover for NESS #7, and we're proud to say he'll be returning for intergalactic interior illustration duty on THE BARBARIAN AT DREAM'S END! See more & claim your copy here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

i remain resolute in my confidence we will win and it will be because we stuck together. dooming and fatalism is not how any of us will get out of this mess. i’m saying this as a veteran climate journalist who is a trans woman. if i have more hope than you, think of what that says about your view

#review Craig R. Davis @ BMCR review on Stephanie Lynn Budin, Caroline J. Tully, A century of James Frazer's The Golden Bough: shaking the tree, breaking the bough bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2025/2025.09... "a searching critique of the quality and influence of Frazer’s classic work.."

'These terms create the illusion of fairness while allowing institutions to decide who fits, case by case. They reinforce the fiction of a linear arc — beginning, middle, end — when in reality most artistic lives are nonlinear, interrupted, or cyclical.'

Today we did episode 2 of our LotR close reading, this time with a whole lot of walking, a talking fox, Pippin being baby and everyone singing songs.

Mad Sisters of Esi, by @tashanmehta.bsky.social (pub by @dawbooks.bsky.social) is an excellent novel, one that plays with metafiction to deliver a really emotional journey to the attentive reader. Full thoughts: jamreads.com/reviews/mad-... 💙📚