It's been a tough few weeks, but I see now why people lean into holidays. Having a kid in my care means we'll have Xmas this year, & she's super excited as we budget out gifts for low-income people in her circles. Her excitement at being able to share care in turn is my one bright note on hard days.

#ArtBreak Victorians get a misguided rap. They were as dramatic as any other generation. Queen has a song about one of these, painted during Richard Dadd's institutionalization after murdering his father. Real prudishness is allowing ourselves to believe any culture is anything less than complex.

I feel hopelessly behind, and today is another such day with Too Much to Do, but here's a #PoetryBreak first. The world is so awful. The lies we tell ourselves about ourselves, about our kindness and courage and pursuit of real justice, so often heartbreakingly wrong. But sometimes... #Poetry

Long overdue for an #ArtBreak. These are by the Belgian artist Eddy Stevens (eddy.stevens65 on Instagram). He has a long-running series that blends classic symbolic portraiture (e.g. objects beside royalty) with surrealist animal and object fusions, invoking the many complex sides of our lives.

Just found out that Robert R. Chase died on Oct 20. I'd read & loved his last story, "Lost Recall", in the Asimov's Sept/Oct 2024 issue. Thank you to @asimovssfmag.bsky.social's for connecting so many bright voices with readers. We live on in the way our work makes others feel. Chase's gave me hope.

#ArtBreak I saw this the other day and instantly recognized it as Toronto. Many of Lauren Mercer-Smail's paintings capture back-alley views that instantly invoke my childhood. It's not nostalgia so much as remembering other ways I used to move through the world. What art has that effect for you?

It has been my great honour and privilege to work with @ourmankoto.bsky.social in an editorial capacity at SFWA. This series is his solo project: an anthology that never fails to revel in the full spectrum of Canadian SFF. We *do* have distinct voices--and you can treat yourself to their work here!

I didn't quite get the "rest" I needed these last five days - lots of sadness, lots of crisis management outside my working life - but I'm out before dawn and got to say hi to the horses, so that's something. Will catch up when I get back. And try to remember what I'm fighting for through it all. 🤞🏻

This is the last day of my “vacation” (Thurs-Mon), so I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to write much again for a while, but there was an opportunity to reflect on The Long Walk and the fables we build for our times, so I took it. May your Thanksgivings and Indigenous Peoples’ Days be bright.

#ArtBreak before a writing day. Richard Sargent illustrated covers for The Saturday Evening Post, Fortune, & Photoplay, among others. His distinction came from his ability to capture the persistence of quirks even in life at its most idyllic: the "American dream" never without its eccentricities.

Guys! Guys! New* writers' prayer just dropped! 😅 (*Well, "new" when it emerged in the 1940 epigraph for Robert Service's "Collected Poems" 😉)

#ArtBreak! #Poetry This is C. T. Salazar's "Noah's Nameless Wife Takes Inventory", first published in Ruminate Magazine (2019). "the red-tailed hawk with jewels for eyes swallows the field mouse and the mouse was the only proof the field existed"

the usual useful list: go.bsky.app/2Fq4P6e

Well, I finally posted something: a piece that reflects on deep time, how to cope with deep disappointment in humanity, and random walks with photons / on the streets. It's been really hard to juggle everything, but making time for #WorldGrief matters. Hope you're taking care of your noggins, too.

Just out of the last of four meetings today. Filled with gratitude for the first especially, where I was privileged to see Sheila Williams of @asimovssfmag.bsky.social show the same care & consideration for early-career SFF writers as she does for so many in our genre. Good instruction is a gift!

Been a long while since an #ArtBreak, eh? But Andrea Kowch's creations have a mood to them that certainly encapsulate how I feel these days. May the ferocious busy-ness of these Neo-Gothic scenes reach you with all the command of inner wildness they also portray. Go forth and be ungovernable.

Morning in the park with the girls. ¡Feliz día del amor y la amistad! #NatureBreak

Here's a chuckle for SF-history-lovers, from @wordsmithfl.bsky.social. Just as mesmerism was all the rage in 1920s SF, so too did our love affair with mind control influence 1960s Trek. When people talk about "hard SF", just remember that every era has its misguided notions of what is within reach.

#PoetryBreak before bed. A simple one, but the kind you tuck away and recite to yourself whenever you need a reminder that the world hasn't necessarily become more cruel - only, regained a level of honesty around the cruelty it always had. Let us ache and struggle for better all the same. 🕯️

Say hello to my little friend. This itty bitty member of the gecko committee got lost in my apartment today, and she's been happily chilling in a little sheltered set-up by my desk for a few hours now. We'll see if she wanders away tonight. Thanks for the emotional support today at least, buddy!

#ArtBreak before evening web-dev work, after one more day-work task. Well, #MusicBreak. This is Hildegard von Blingin's Bardcore cover of "We Didn't Start the Fire". You're welcome, and be beautiful to one another. I look forward to being post-web-dev and back to other creative practice soon. 🫂💛

#ArtBreak, anyone? Joanna Karpowicz's most famous work is perhaps her series of Anubis wandering the world. It would be a gimmick if not for the artist's primary commitment to capturing everyday scenes, *then* adding an element that highlights the deep history that walks with us through it all.

Like clockwork here in Medellín, right after Feria de las flores it's four months of Navidad. 😂 "Desde septiembre se siente que viene diciembre" ¡Bienvenidos a la temporada navideña! 🥳

It's been a rough week, but I also received an acceptance from @clarkesworldmagazine.com. It's not even close to my first from Neil, but every story acceptance is a gift and a privilege. I am excited to read the rest of the ToC for my story's issue. I'm sure it will be filled with terrific tales.

For whatever reason, last night I dreamed @rsagarcia.bsky.social was adopting a cat but needed someone to put it up for a week and nurse it through a bout of illness first. Probably just my brain wishing Rhonda the best, but I have our dream cat, Cookie, whenever you want to pick her up! 💛

#ArtBreak before a long working weekend. This is Quint Buchholz, whose pointillist surrealism is often used for illustrations because of his delicate focus on juxtaposing elements not usually seen together. Our world has such wonder in it, too. (quintbuchholz on Insta; www.quintbuchholz.de/en)

Morning, lovelies! It's been hard to carve out time for my own creative practice, so apologies for the roughness of this video... but this weekend I read wonderful SFF in the July/Aug @asimovssfmag.bsky.social, full of craft lessons for us all, and... finished a story to send out. :) A good weekend.

Today's #ArtBreak is Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh--though you can be forgiven for thinking that her bright, highly stylized, steeped-in-symbolism works are paintings. She casts herself as the subject to depict histories of trauma and the complexity of hope around food aid and social uplift.

Sitting down at LONG LAST to a lil' bit of #SFF reading. The July/Aug Asimov's has some authors I greatly admire and adore reading, so... with any luck (i.e., no more work or kid crises) I'll be able to pop up a recording bright and early tomorrow, after savouring each tale. I love my genre so much.

I see elements of JMW Turner in the work of Dorset-artist Jason Anderson, the subject of today's #ArtBreak. His work ranges from less to more abstract shoreside landscapes, and he uses a heavy palette knife to produce a pixellated effect, but... it's there in the burst of colour in the haze, no?

Post a non-religious photo you think of as holy.

Had a rough day and still trying to get my head right after it. Then a painting by Seth Armstrong stopped me in my tracks (well, my doomscroll). So for today's #ArtBreak, please enjoy these stunningly detailed, immersively vibrant LA scenes. I'm a sucker for art that reminds us of our scale. 💛

Happy little #MusicBreak with an updated classic by Tim Minchin. "This is my body And I live in it It’s 48 And 6 months old ... And the weirdest thing about it is I spend so much time hating it But it never says a bad word about me" May we go gently through this great big mess of a life of ours. 💛

Today I chatted with one of my wonderful local friends who is also barely literate. When he read a Spanish post I shared with him from somone else, he read it slowly out loud, and then--beaming with pride--declared that he could read it all. Literacy is such a privilege. May we always use it well.

Sunday Star Trek Caption contest, anyone? 👀 #StarTrek #Funny

I'll also note that, although my first few months in my current gig have been staggeringly busy, I am *so* looking forward to finishing another story, then launching into a novel with a tone similar to this piece in Analog--gritty working-class challenges out in the depths of space. #Soon! #IHope!

I have had the great privilege of working with editors Trevor and Emily at @analogsf.bsky.social for years. My latest novelette, "Not in My Valley", is in the Sept/Oct Analog. I adore reading the full ToC of issues I'm in, and I look forward to spending time with brilliant authors on the page. #SFF

Sometimes my support work keeps me from engaging with SFF directly. But every now and then a treat arises, like the chat I was just privileged to hold for @jonathanmaberry.bsky.social, and my heart is lightened by the reminder of so many people keeping joy alive in our industry. Thank you, Jonathan!

This interview with Vajra is really really good open.spotify.com/episode/5JBn...

I was so thankful to chat with @octavia-cade.bsky.social and @danhartland.bsky.social recently for @strangehorizons.bsky.social. Here, we discuss our roles as reviewers of work addressing hard times. Narrative can seem insufficient, but sitting with that sense of futility is part of our story, too.

In my relief over a few near-losses this week, I am taking an #ArtBreak for some #Poetry by Mary Oliver before bed. Every moment has some wonder in it - and even more so, when we're too busy living fully in it to wonder quite so much at all.

Do you ever watch animal videos where an unusual suspect gets a cuddle it can't properly reciprocate because it doesn't have the appendages for it, no matter how much it wriggles about for more of that good touch, and come away wondering if the whole dang animal kingdom is just aching for a hug?

I'm so excited to get back to recording SFF review videos this week, but for now--Neil at @clarkesworldmagazine.com has a wonderful and necessary editorial in this month's issue, on important considerations for managing submissions in an LLM-inundated market. It takes a village to build resilience!

😂 At first I thought the title of this video was very silly. Then I realized, nah, it's just a great opportunity to boast all the amazing fruits in #Colombia. (And yes, I've tried all the ones named in this video--but that's still barely scratching the surface!) Drop by & I'll fix ya a smoothie!

Mostly small stations in rural areas that are news deserts; residents rely on them for local news, emergency warnings (radio works even when cell service doesn't). Mostly in Alaska or serving tribal communities. There are stations in CO, WV, NM, and AZ. One station lost 97% of its budget.

Stretching the ol’ writing muscle again requires a warm-up round, so today I’ve got a wee story for you about the Scoundrel Saints mythology in Caracas, Venezuela—and what street stories like this can teach us about how myths grow and what they serve. May the stories we tell inspire the best in us.

#ArtBreak? #HeckYes! These are by Choy Moo Kheong, an artist who uses a "laying on" technique, as opposed to brush strokes, which creates a stunning effect with colour when seen in exhibition halls with warm light. Online, I just love the deceptive simplicity and scale of these vivid tonal scenes.

The work of documentation has not been an easy one, but it is necessary. Reports like this one are painstakingly written amid a deluge of overt attempts to spin and deflect blame. This work is and will continue to be essential, to ensure that we don't lose all record of this shameful, heinous time.

#NatureBreak before bed. Say hello to my little #BugFriend: Cyclocephala lunulata! Apparently more useful than harmful to local agriculture in its larval phase, though we still have so much to learn about so many critters on this 'ere globe. It's nice to make new friends some days. :) #Nature

#ArtBreak to inspire on your Monday. This is by Nishino Yoichi (西野陽一) an artist who blends traditional Japanese techniques with animal themes. Its artist has a modest online footprint, but this piece "leaps" out with its depiction of struggle and escape. So go get 'em tigers--er, hares.