My favorite artifact in the "you don't need AI to do art" discourse is, of course, screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's sketch of the facehugger to explain it to Giger.

Hey, did you know we're doing a subscription drive right now? It's true! Subscribe now, and get access to the subscriber's corner on our shiny discord, stories and poems in your inbox on the regular, and the joy of supporting poetry and short fiction! store.smallwondersma...

My uncle-est take is you should let marginalized people, folks with more skin in the game than you, have their crashouts in peace.

The Bible

There's an infuriating AI article in the Society of Authors magazine. "Bec Evans searches for principles that could guide authors' use of generative AI." A bunch of authors who all say they wouldn't use it to write but will to 'research', 'remove friction', 'fact check and propose rewrites'.

Every author should enlist the Tremblay Clause.

Editors can tell when you're trying to flatter them in your cover letter. It is unnecessary and off-putting. It's also usually copy-and-paste from your last cover letter to another journal. Just skip it.

Ruin a book or movie by adding the Gettysburg Address to the title: Schindler's Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war,

You succeed in your career and meet your role model. "I really enjoyed chatting with you" you say. "Huh?" they're confused. "You were probably talking to Claude." you bolt awake in the mountains of Carthage. It is 217 BC. You are the general Hannibal. The future cannot come to pass. Rome must burn

Someone patched GIMP to look and feel exactly like Adobe Photoshop. Same keyboard shortcuts. Same tool layout. Same everything. It's called PhotoGIMP and it's free.

Ruin a book or movie by adding the Gettysburg Address to the title: Schindler's Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war,

ICYMI we just launched a Kickstarter for a new horror anthology all about bank robbing! Called Don't Go for the Vault, this project is sure to be a fun, wild ride filled with terror, mystery, and mayhem as vaults of all shapes and sizes are cracked open. www.kickstarter.com/projects/165...

We announced another 15 titles early this week. And am proud to announce that none other than IXCANUL and LA LLORONA director Jayro Bustamante will be attending the Festival to present his new film CORDILLERA DE FUEGO and the documentary he executive produced, COMPARSA.

Thanks to Cam Rogers on Facebook for articulating exactly the issues around the new animated Firefly that's been announced.

Acceptance rates are irrelevant b/c publication isn't a random lottery. All subs don't have the same chance. If you send BCS SF, odds are 0%. If you send a story that makes me cry, odds are high. Writers: ignore acceptance rates b/c they have no bearing on whether YOUR submission may get published.

@nisishawl.bsky.social explains that the Middle Way is usually the best way to approach writing the other--neither as alien, or as just like the writer. It's a more nuanced exploration than the extremes. Join @laurafayeten.bsky.social and me for more Nisi on the Love Letters to the Future Podcast!⬇️

StoryBoard applications are due in just NINE days. Our wonderful program curator @anandalima.bsky.social wrote a terrific piece on why YOU should apply. Read here: mailchi.mp/storystudioc... #writingcommunity

The giant sci-fi convention posted ad rates as a huge freaking jpeg instead of, you know, text. And the jpeg doesn't have alt text. Too bad the sci-fi people couldn't find someone who could code basic html. (I'll delete this when they fix it.)

Hey, a reminder since I’ve gotten a lot of new subscribers/followers on Substack lately: I’m no longer posting there. I’ve moved my newsletter to beehiiv, so if you’re interested in the occasional writing update, please sign up here: jaw-unhinged-jaw-mccarthy.beehiiv.com

So when it comes to a dead actor’s estate letting a film use AI to resurrect them: You have every right to dig up your relative’s corpse and turn it into a marionette, but the rest of us are allowed to think you’re a ghoul. *Especially* if you want us to pay you to see it.

The giant sci-fi convention posted ad rates as a huge freaking jpeg instead of, you know, text. And the jpeg doesn't have alt text. Too bad the sci-fi people couldn't find someone who could code basic html. (I'll delete this when they fix it.)

Let's talk about the "you should have just obeyed the law" response to police violence. A study several years ago found that police are the sixth leading cause of death for Black men in the United States. But it is, if you can imagine, worse than that.

I bet buying a record would make me feel better.

Someone announcing that they started a Substack in 2026: "But I didn't know about the Nazi thing!" I feel like we're at the point in society where one should automatically type [name of thing] + "nazi" into a search bar before adopting the thing.

These are valuable facilities they’ll be guarding, and I certainly hope they’ve fixed the problem of using a wifi jammer to kill their cameras’ connection to the security feeds, one person flipping it with a pole and another then pulling up and back on the battery handle on the now exposed belly.

Coming February 2027! SIDE HUSTLE is an anthology of horror and dark science fiction stories about the extra work we do to stay afloat. Featuring new stories by Lauren Bolger, Poppy Z. Brite, and Mae Murray, with an open call for subs and a Kickstarter in April.

Coming February 2027! SIDE HUSTLE is an anthology of horror and dark science fiction stories about the extra work we do to stay afloat. Featuring new stories by Lauren Bolger, Poppy Z. Brite, and Mae Murray, with an open call for subs and a Kickstarter in April.

An anthology you DO NOT want to miss! Featuring some of the incredible authors we've been so privileged to publish over this past decade! Please share this post with fans and readers of Black SFF. Guaranteed you will help someone find their next favorite storyteller in these pages!

If he's going to get a national profile on the strength of a younger woman's campaign, I'm going to come out and say it: during his short-lived tenure as a math professor, Biss had an inappropriate romantic relationship with one of his undergraduate students. I was that student.

@gianttourtiere.bsky.social Explain

We are announcing something on Tuesday.

Stokercon is still a few months away and since the finalists have already been announced, this is a friendly heads up to anyone who’ll be presenting that it’s not too soon to learn how to correctly pronounce people’s names.

We are announcing something on Tuesday.

Oh my god people are giving small children AI toys and expecting them to learn communication from them??? THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT HUMANS SHOULD BE DOING THIS IS NOT AI'S JOB WHAT THE HELL www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I get it. I've been there. You worked hard on that story. It's a small piece of you, and it feels like the editor is rejecting a piece of you. But don't send that angry response. It won't change anything except to get you added to that publisher's "do not publish" list.

This is one of the best political communications I've ever seen and it made me miss zines and niche magazines and weird little newspapers that were everywhere in the 90s.

The award for best press release goes to.... #canpoli #chillax

Me to author: do you want the back of the paper doll cutout to have a butt crack? Easy enough to do. I am a serious publisher publishing serious things. I am an ADULT.

Me to author: do you want the back of the paper doll cutout to have a butt crack? Easy enough to do. I am a serious publisher publishing serious things. I am an ADULT.

Stripey the cat: I am a glutton and I ate the entire can of food you left out for me and Spritz. It was too much, so I vomited it all over your house. Please feed me again. Spritz: Yeah I'm hungry because this glutton ate everything. Chewie the dog: I ate the vomit so I won't need breakfast.

"PARTIALLY DEVOURED: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life & Changed the World" is OUT NOW! The wildest movie deep dive you've ever read + a memoir of how the film changed my life (and how *any* art can change yours). 45 years in the making! 🩷🧟‍♀️🩷🧟‍♀️🩷 www.danielkraus.com/books/partia...

This puts me at 10 people released. I filed my 1st habeas petition 29 days ago. I am an incredibly small-time, nobody lawyer who knew nothing about immigration law the day I submitted that case. I barely know any more today. I had never sued the federal government and now I've beaten them 10 times.

Here you go, everyone can use this one (it's signed by an authority)

Halfway through the submission period for Agita 1: Bad Science. You still have a week to finish that story (or dig it out of the trunk) and send it in before March 14. And there's an extended period for marginalized authors, March 15-21. Details at agitamag.com/submissions

Halfway through the submission period for Agita 1: Bad Science. You still have a week to finish that story (or dig it out of the trunk) and send it in before March 14. And there's an extended period for marginalized authors, March 15-21. Details at agitamag.com/submissions

THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!

I never skip the opening credits.

me 🤝 Proton's comms person explaining that you cannot simply decide a court order doesn't apply to you just because you don't like it