New spec flash roundup!

Some indy research that I'll be sharing results of for everyone to see / use! This survey is on short fiction anthologies. You can take it even if you never read them, as there are Qs about that, too. The aim is to help anthologies shine, so please share it! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

IT WAS PARADISE, our long-awaited special issue on war and conflict in environmental justice, is out today in ebook form, and the print edition is up for preorder! Edited by @soniasulaiman.bsky.social and with (terrifying) war monster art by @monarobot.bsky.social! reckoning.press/it-was-parad...

Flash fiction deserves more love at the Hugo and Nebula Awards. "Eight Legs of the Mother Hunted" by @brandoncase101.bsky.social hooked me and didn't let go. Intense and gut-wrenching. It hit home especially as our mum fought to keep a roof over the heads of my brother and I when we were kids.

Great list I've been working my way through this week. reactormag.com/tenish-of-th...

All of this - a brilliant article about "A.I." and language.

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

A couple of stunning highlights from a trip to Argentina earlier this year. The "secret waterfall" near El Chaltén, which I passed on my third day of hiking and camping the Fitz Roy Loop. Mirador El Ventisquero in the Quebrada de las Flechas, driving RN40 from Cachi to Cafayate in Salta Province.

This column on Vox is the biggest pile of steaming AI crap I've seen this year. Human's aren't running out of ideas. Instead, those with power and money don't want to listen to ideas that threaten their power and money. Ideas are plentiful. Putting those ideas into action is the hard part.

Nebula nominations are open. It would mean a lot if you’d consider “Through the Machine.” Published in Lightspeed and featured by Gizmodo, it’s a cautionary tale of AI in the arts, using the film industry as example. Thank you for your consideration. www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/thro...

Google AI Overviews hallucinating as usual. I won't let it poo-poo my sci-fi short story ideas. 🙃

Strange Horizons turns 25 this year, which is pretty much an eternity in the world of spec fic zines, and I had the privilege of going through the archives for a special short fiction roundup: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

We need funny stories, more than ever. Help me pay a bunch of authors to write them! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ufo...

The Apex Magazine 2026 Kickstarter is LIVE! Our initial goal is $20K to fund four issues for next year, with the opportunity to unlock issues five and six through stretch goals. I really, really want to go back to six issues a year! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

I knew about the moral rights contract issues with Analog magazine et al, and this newsletter is a very insightful read on contracts for a budding pro author like me. All that and more! I agree on the "AI" aspects too.

Hello, yes please! "Love, Scotland" is getting a beauty of a home. 🤩

Some reflections from #WorldCon on how to talk to friends about "AI" buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...

Today’s poem is called ‘How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail’.

My Writers of the Future winning story "A Word That Means Everything" is out in @penumbricmag.bsky.social. New achievement for me because it's the first time my work has been first in a ToC!

Habitats looks lovely, with artwork from Mateusz Urbanowicz, an illustrator from some of my favourite anime (like Your Name). I missed it first time around, so it's Volumes 1 & 2 for me. #ShortStory #FantasyArt

A wonderful story and summation of the ableism that exists from the top down in our society and the impact that has.

This is something I’ve had lots of big feelings and thoughts about, so it’s only appropriate that I constrain myself to 100 words for this story. Happy pub day to Gig Economy 🎙️

In Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 Episode 49, @ginasue.bsky.social joins @alexhanna.bsky.social & I to take apart the UK government’s “AI Opportunities Action Plan” and discover it’s made up of so much AI magic dust: www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... Thx to @whatulysses.bsky.social for production!

I love this article by @emmanewman.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... "Science-fiction writers have the ability to look at big systems and how changing one variable can affect the people who live within them. We bring them to life and help readers to understand..."

This is one of the most important texts about agency in fiction. I'm always pointing people to it. I think almost every writer and reader in Latin America, and probably anywhere in the "Global South", will frown upon being told to write more active protagonists.

What's a funny/intriguing anachronism you read in sci-fi? In The Man in Asbestos, a #ShortStory by Stephen Leacock, everyone wears asbestos suits: "They last hundreds of years. We have one suit each, and there are billions piled up, if anybody wants a new one." #ReadingCommunity #WritingCommunity

Set in a snowy Irish National Park (with a castle), @jozebwrites.bsky.social's The Wildest Hunt is a great seasonal read. Scary and thrilling for bedtime reading but what the hey. I average less than one novel a year and loved Jo's Waters and the Wild so much that I picked another of her books.

New speculative flash roundup! Featuring stories in: @naturefutures.bsky.social @uncannymagazine.bsky.social @flashpointsf.bsky.social @xraylitmag.bsky.social @wildhuntbooks.bsky.social Atlas and Alice @smallwondersmag.com @necessaryfiction.bsky.social @factorfourmagazine.com

My "SpecFic Short Story Writers" Starter Pack is almost at the 150 account maximum if anyone else would like adding? From Nebula/Hugo winners to beginners, you're all welcome. bsky.app/starter-pack... #ShortStory #SpecFic #SFF #WeirdFiction #Fantasy #SciFi #WritingCommunity #StarterPack

I won a physical subscription to @onspecmag.bsky.social I love the artwork by James Beveridge and the first story by @julieczerneda.bsky.social I'm looking forward to reading the rest. 😊 #ShortStory #SpecFic

We have a properly warped perception of how much various sectors contribute to the UK economy. The fishing industry, which is constantly in the news and to whom politicians of all rosettes regularly play, adds less to GDP than Games Workshop

Another giveaway!!! 🙌🙌🙌 Win a free coaching session focused on flash fiction. If I get at least 10 participants I'll throw in a flash critique for a second winner. To participate in the giveaway: like, comment, and repost. Winners announced on Wednesday. www.kaidelmas.com/editing-serv...

Introduce yourself with: One book (fiction) — Writers of the Future Volume 38 One book (non-fiction) — Life Lessons From the Amazon by Pip Stewart One film — Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind One album — The Decline of British Sea Power by Sea Power One TV show — Father Ted #NewToBlueSky

Found this "quiet poster" feed for those of you who want me off their TL from time to time: bsky.app/profile/did:...

In honour of the fact that the end of the year is fast approaching, I'm thinking of doing a special 12 Days of Christmas giveaway in December (some books, some query critiques etc). Would anyone else be interested in donating something—a book, their time, their expertise in a particular field for a

Why do you write fiction? I started because I wanted to create fantasy worlds with positive people. I like to think I can help make the world a better place, in whatever tiny a way, and storytelling with short stories seems a good way to do that. #ShortStory #FictionWriter #WritingCommunity

Short stories are my favourite medium, and speculative fiction my favourite genre, so I made a Starter Pack for short story writers. Please let me know who to add! bsky.app/starter-pack... #ShortStory #SpecFic #SFF #WeirdFiction #Fantasy #SciFi #WritingCommunity #StarterPack

Just a reminder that a subscription to On Spec is the gift that can keep on giving. While many of our subscribers keep their copies, others will release them into the wild, AKA little free libraries, airport waiting areas, used bookshops, schools, etc. Anywhere you can find readers.

My books arrived for my first #ShortStory sale! The setting in "Will Oceans Converge in Our Village Park?" is like weather in the UK now. I had to divert due to floods. For a Friend is a lovely anthology on the theme of friendship published by Lucent Dreaming, available from all the usual places.

I'm creating a starter pack of African Spec Fiction authors! If you are one (or know one) please let me know so I can add you. go.bsky.app/TVLxXew

I love a book of short stories and am looking forward to receiving my paperback. I recently enjoyed Lyndsey's "A Ring Around" in Apex Magazine.

Congratulations to Alex Harford for his slightly surreal flash fiction, "Will Ocean's Converge in Our Village Park?" in the Lucent Dreaming poetry and prose anthology about friendship, For a Friend. This is Alex’s first sale! Learn more at bit.ly/3XhQcoZ.

It's great to see the "For a Friend" short story and poetry anthology out and about. I was waiting for my copies to arrive to share a photo. It's my first publication, featuring my slightly surreal flash fiction "Will Oceans Converge in Our Village Park?" I'm very excited for my copies to arrive!

Tales & Feathers Issue 2 Includes: 💫 Choose a Star to Mend the Heart, by R.J.K. Lee 🌶️ Between Breaths, a Mouthful of Fire, by @saganyee.bsky.social Find it here! augursociety.org/subscribe/

AND WE'RE LIVE! Our 2025 Kickstarter has SO MUCH included! Here are some of our rewards: ☀️ Affirmation Critiques 🎨 Graphic Design Bundles and a Website mock-up 🖐️ Personal Snap Judgments ✍️ Critiques 📚 Book Bundles 👽 12 month subscriptions 🍸 Strange Anthology Bundle

Today in Reckoning 8, a reprint! "A Shape That Has No Name" is a heartwrenching, subtle story by Monica Wendel about young people deeply committed to justice and each other struggling to adapt early in the pandemic. Feels very relevant to this moment, too reckoning.press/a-shape-that...

Finished the recent @dreamforgemagazine.bsky.social issue. I usually get digital, but seeing it available in print in the UK was great timing with 3 writing friends inside! Jane Noel's art for each story looks even better too. Next up, @shoreinf.bsky.social's Climate Change special. Mini reviews:

For #EarthDay2024, it would be a great time to pick up a copy of @shoreinf.bsky.social's special Climate Change Issue - featuring 11 stories and flash fiction, poetry, essays, reviews, a special Q&A with Kim Stanley Robinson, and more! Check it out! 🌐✨🌱💚 www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/shor...

#EarthDay2024 What makes us human is our ability to appreciate beauty. That appreciation and wanting to share what makes Earth and us humans so special is a big reason why I write and take photos. It helps me appreciate everything more too.

Finding fantasy in reality... I didn't take a photo that did Meteora justice when I visited last autumn. It's one of the most incredible places I've seen. There are 5 monasteries (one a ruin) on rock pinnacles pictured here, the nearest Roussanou. #Greece #TravelPhotography #LandscapePhotography