Sometimes you just have to sit with difficult feelings. Give them space without wrestling with them any further. Then put yourself to bed & let the dawn bring new feelings. Tonight I feel like an utter failure. And that's just what we're going to sit with & breathe through, before tomorrow comes.

My heart is deeply heavy today. Watching footage from the site of the girls' elementary school. Watching the death toll move sluggishly into Western media. Before my current role, I'd have been writing routinely on world events... & it would have done nothing, too. My heart is deeply heavy today.

W. H. Auden has always been my poet of choice for hard moments of world-grief. Today is no exception, though I'm sharing both this classic ekphrastic poem, written in December 1938, and its source of inspiration by Breughel, so you can see for yourself the power of both. #PoetryBreak #ArtBreak

Stepped out for a wee run and got kidnapped by an elder in my building who needed help with an errand. One of my secuestradoras was this lovely pup, and my ferocious kidnapping by Little Old Lady, while not the health break I wanted, was probably what I needed. 🙃 #Colombia Now on to #NightWork!

The older I get, the more I appreciate Archimedes from Sword in the Stone. And I already LOVED him as a kid. Favourite Disney character, bar none. 1) Champion of lived experience. 2) Deeply suspicious of quick fixes at cost to deep learning. 3) True to his ways while supporting others. #BestOwl

#PoetryBreak! I am so behind on work. The teen ward needed some deep emotional care + troubleshooting last night after a long run of meetings, so my plans for #NightWork failed. But so it goes, & we press on - living the best lives we can in our one and only true companions: our bodies, ourselves.

Good morning and good #ArtBreak! You can find Ebuka Pascal Agudiegwu on Instagram, @agu_diegwu. A self-taught Nigerian artist, his work draws significantly from memory, mirroring, & the reflectlon of landscape in subject. Here are 4 pieces with a more "personal journey" feel, as well. What a range!

Who needs fruit slices, fruit salads, and/or fresh-fruit beverages on the way back from their own morning workouts? 👀 (One of these ladies also sells ice cream scoops as a foundational layer for your fruit salad, if you prefer that over yoghurt and/or granola toppings!) #Ciclovia #Colombia

🤞🏻 An hour to write fiction for the first time in weeks.

Anyone need an #ArtBreak? 👀 Pick a demon from "The Torment of Saint Anthony". Which one is YOU? This piece is attributed to Michelangelo, but if he'd painted this it would have been created at around 12-13. So is it by him? Or a sign that art history is always shrouded by a ton of cultural myths?

The Good, the Bad, and the Muppets

There Will Be Muppets

While the kid does her homework, I snuck a bit of #SFF reading before #NightWork. Have you read @cjlavigne.com's The Drowned Man's Daughter? It's a richly atmospheric, sea-salty piece that depicts our bodies in fragile tension with their surroundings, and the stories we use to shroud their failings.

Funny aside. Was chatting with a friend post-run about how recent our understanding of disease is, and how Biblical demon possession belongs to a time before modern medical vocabulary. Only to be interrupted by a fellow who *still* believes disease is demons. 🙃 How little we've grown as a species.

Early morning run! Here's an #ArtBreak care of Maxfield Parrish as I pop out of doors to meet the dawn. Did you know that one of the following is considered the most successful US print of the 20th Century? One of these outsold Warhol's Soup Can & The Last Supper. Popular success takes many forms!

Currently having a grand old time with Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937), a film that feels like it's playfully spoofing a ton of tropes from its era, with cracking good banter. Under the Hays Code one couldn't exactly pull off a Naked Gun, but wit and silliness found a way to persevere. #Movies

One of the great strengths of @wordsmithfl.bsky.social's series on TOS episodes is that, in careful review of the production history, he contextualizes recent haphazard moves in #StarTrek within a franchise riddled from the outset with inconsistencies & decisions made under pressure. #SFF is MESSY!

🧐 The saddest part? Even in this embarrassing announcement, they admit that they're going to get an "AI chatbot" to do this "rewriting". So there's no new specially curated tool, no fresh j-AI sales pitch they fell for, to mess up human reporting. It's the same regurgitation engine as before.

For months, I've been spending my weekends working day snd night, but this last one I only worked days and then SLEPT. I even went out twice for exercise! It's a glorious new dawn and day, folks. Looking forward to slightly better work-life balance from here on out. 🤞🏻 Happy Monday!

Just a wee #PoetryBreak before I get cracking on today's tasks. There are so many ways we can choose to live. Choose to live in ways that are kind. #Poetry

🥹 What a lovely homage to the health workers who died in early pandemic. Colombia has a strong tradition of statues honouring everyday workers, so this joins a proud group of structures around the country celebrating life in community. Do you folks have COVID-19 memorials where you are? #Colombia

#ArtBreak I'm stunned to just be learning of Michel Henricot (1936-2022) today. His fantastic realism blends familiar anatomy with transcendental staging. This is body as "mood", and it reminds me of all the ways we can feel both constricted and ethereal. These would be so cool as covers, too, no?

I help a lot of families who beg for groceries at my local tienda. Many tend to be en route somewhere--& lately, I've seen many on their way back to Venezuela. Professionals may balk, but for hard-up lower-class migrants, there's more willingness to see if things improve. I wish them every success.

Visit the site's version as well. Make your presence known with media doing important work.

Aw. That halftime show was a lovely homage to a wealth of subcultures, aspirations, and hardships on the way. What a wise approach to showing that todos somos americanos (the core of that last sound-off with the flags): all of us just human beings with similar hopes and dreams for a decent life. 💛

Today is the one-year anniversary of the kid living with me. Did I expect to take on a teen orphan while barely having my own sh--aving cream together? No, no I did not. And it has been a tough year-- but no one said doing the right thing would be easy. Or that there wouldn't be joys on the way. 💛

I *think* tonight will be the night when I'm finished a huge tech lift that took way too long in sandbox testing. Just going for a wee walk before switching on the last filters for this much-needed service, & then I'm looking forward to a weekend of MUCH easier lifts. Maybe some writing, too! 🤞🏻🤞🏻

#ArtBreak Henry Wong (@henrywongdraws, Insta) creates visual art for film & TV, where his studies not only bring to life other people's words, but also tell their own stories. All art is in rich dialogue with itself across forms. We can build upon the best dreaming of fellow creators, if we want.

Organically inclusive reader? Fan of speculative fiction? Want to judge the 2026 Ignyte Awards? Judges compose our longlist before we open up to public voting. Applications are currently open thru 2/14. ignyteawards.fiyahlitmag.com/wanna-judge/

Venerable magazine Harper's Bazaar is running its short story contest again, with the winner receiving "the chance" of publication in the magazine. Just one catch: per the wording of the guidelines, _just by entering_ you transfer copyright ownership of your story to Harper's parent, Hearst. 1/3

Hard to put into words how restful it is be among other people for a walk/run before work tonight. I've been cooped up for so long putting out fires, I've missed the wonderful ambience of families, teens, elderly couples, athletes, all just being alive in the world together. #ThirdSpace #Colombia

Coming out of burnout one breath and task at a time. I've got another round of night work ahead, but this episode of @99pi.org on the em dash put me in the right, dorky mood for it. Three cheers for our beleaguered piece of punctuation, plus a clever anti-AI typography movement near the end! 💪🏻🤓

I think my body just broke down like an old clunker yesterday. Could barely move, let alone think. Trying to rev the engine today, but whew. I've been running on fumes for weeks, so it might take a little while to recover. Take care of your health, folks. It's the foundation for everything else. 🫂

Boy howdy, am I overwhelmed. Hope everyone's taking good care of themselves. January was awful. Here's hoping we have a slightly easier month ahead.

#NatureBreak Today I want to show a lil' love for Dickinsonia, possibly one of the earliest animals on record. This curious sprawl was chugging along without a worry for how scientists would later classify it. What would you do with your life, if you didn't worry about how it would look to others?

The teen ward starts school again tomorrow, for the first time in 2.5 years. I have a ton of work this weekend, but right now I'm buying school supplies, probably almost as nervous as she is. To work as a writer, *for* writers, & not be able to help with her education any faster has been an agony.

Here's a treat for today's #ArtBreak. Richard Teschner (1879-1948) was a puppeteer who advanced Javanese rod work in Western theatre. Many of these fantastic creatures are from the early 20th century. He designed the critters, performed with them, and drew them. Live your art to its fullest, folks.

Stepped out for school supplies for the kid, and am marvelling at this palm. I've seen these plants through all their phases dozens of times, but I'm still left chuckling at what we consider "otherworldly". Do we not realize how alien so much of our own planet is to us all the time? #Nature #SFF

You know what? It's a cats day. These are by Louis Wain. The man loved drawing cats, & they filled his life amid great pain. Lean into what you love, folks, and try to bring some joy to others with it. This wretched world, so filled with cruelty and neglect, demands nothing less of us. #ArtBreak

I slept the deepest, calmest sleep in months yesterday. :) My teen ward is going to be in school again, after being out for far too long due to international / arbitrary politics. Every time I think I'm having a rough moment today... I'm not, because the kid's going back to school! 😍 #OverTheMoon

📣 It's here: the 2026 @strangehorizons.bsky.social Criticism Special! 💡 A whole week of critical insight, with a new essay and new review every day. A podcast, a roundtable, an *editorial*. 📚 The weird! Anthropology! Non-anglophone SFF! Plus thoughts on fantasy series, adaptations, film and more.

Una librería no es una biblioteca. No confundáis la cultura con el mercado.

This video was made around the kid, who likes to sing her heart out in the background. 😂 But lo! A video for @clarkesworldmagazine.com's Jan 2026 issue now exists. Yes, this issue has a story of mine in it - and some really great other ones, too. Use my time codes to skip past boring intro stuff.

I hope I'm not jinxing this by saying it, but after I duck out to get the kid food, I'm going to try recording a video review of the latest Clarkesworld. First time in months I've had the capacity. Back issues of Asimov's also await, but gosh, were other stories in this issue fantastic. More soon! 🤞

A humbling moment. Every weekend, I give my newspaper to a street vendor after finishing the crossword. Today I mentioned a job opening, which he told me he couldn't apply to because he can't read. Every time I've given him the paper, he was looking at the pictures. Our privilege knows no bounds.

This week, a few folks reached out unprompted to tell me that they enjoyed my latest in @clarkesworldmagazine.com. I am beyond touched whenever anyone takes the time to read my work - but also, this time, INCREDIBLY ENVIOUS that they read the issue before I did. 😂 I have some reading to do tonight!

Folks, I don't care how hard your weekend was. If the final twist in this documentary excerpt doesn't make you laugh with the deepest of empathy, the problem is you. #Birbs #Nature #AttenboroughIsTheRealTreasure youtube.com/shorts/98WFD...

It has been a REALLY HARD few months. I have messages going back to August that I couldn't get to because I was doing two or three jobs at once. But today I finally got to breathe out a bit (and see how messy the apartment is, oof). And then I stepped out into the good earth and just... existed. ✨

Molly Conger's Weird Little Guys is always an excellent listen, but I strongly recommend this episode. I used to write longwinded essays attempting to bring history and humanism to current events. Molly does it so much better, even and especially when world-grief over recent events hits her, too.

There's a bitter irony to waiting on yet another glitching pro plugin to do its work, so that you can launch the CUSTOM build you developed to bypass a ton of other glitchy pro plugins. 🙃 So close, though! I am almost at my long-overdue rest. Just need these entries to load into my new system...