Since the year's winding down, my 2025 award eligibility and the stories I had published: Links and story info in the thread below, as well as on my site at adrianwardwrites.wordpress.com/work/ Thank you for your consideration!

There's just 4 DAYS LEFT to fund Apex Magazine for 2026, and we're SO CLOSE to hitting our 20k goal! Our full catalogue of critiques, ebooks, merch and more will all be gone on Halloween. Don't miss out on these limited edition items and donate TODAY! 💜👽🎃 www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

If you're looking for a way to wind down from the week, I hear my warlock letter exchange story in Beneath Ceaseless Skies is a fun one!

We're SIX DAYS AWAY from the end of our Kickstarter and 75% FUNDED 🚀✨ Remember, it's YOUR donations keeping us a proudly pro-rate magazine, which financially compensates the skilled authors who bring Apex to life. Help artists thrive in 2026 and donate TODAY 💜👽 www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

We're 8 DAYS AWAY from the end of our Kickstarter! ⏰❗❗ These final days will decide whether we can publish in 2026. YOUR support is what keeps us going, AND what keeps the great stories coming to your inbox! Help Apex thrive and join our Kickstarter TODAY! 💜👽 www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

One of the things I enjoyed most about studying Victorian lit in college was how these people would read each other for filth in the most roundabout ways. And "My Sincere Apologies For the Demon" by @adrianwardwrites.bsky.social puts me exactly in that mindset. I LAUGHED so many times here. Read it!

We've received SO MANY new donations from friends of Apex, and we're thrilled to share them with you! 📚👽 We've got new titles, full ebook catalogues, a chance to star in a short story, and more! Check out our full catalogue and help us fund another year of Apex ➡️ www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

"My Sincere Apologies For the Demon" is out today in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #443! It's got liquor, malevolent entities from other planes of existence, and a warlock getting bounced from the club. Also art, I suppose.

Excited to announce that "My Sincere Apologies For the Demon" is available in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue 443! This was my first pro sale, and in one of my favorite mags to boot. Still doesn't feel entirely real.

New issue of @bcsmagazine.bsky.social is here! Featuring stories by @librariangoblin.bsky.social and Adrian Ward @adrianwardwrites.bsky.social and cover art by @brucedraws.bsky.social: weightlessbooks.com/beneath-ceas...

WE'RE 30% FUNDED!! 🎉🎉🎉 Apex will be open to nonfiction pitches FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! ✨ Want to unlock the next chapter of Apex? Please consider backing our Kickstarter and help us keep publishing the strange, surreal, shocking, beautiful stories you love! www.kickstarter.com/.../apexpu.....

Early Career Hugo Nominations -- Yes, They Definitely Happen a quantitative analysis [link in thread] Almost half of Hugo nominations go to early-career authors: 51/112 (46%)

@thomasha.bsky.social's short story collection has arrived! Absolutely terrific stories, in both senses of the word.

Every once in a while the Muses smile upon me, but mostly they just look vaguely disappointed

Writing something absolutely batshit insane (in terms of content, not quality) Weirdness give me strength

Doing edits on an old, old piece tonight Plus side: I'm matching the prose fairly easily Downside: Said prose is over a year behind my current capabilities

Broke a thousand words on a new story tonight. Not sure if I'll be doing first or second person. Starting off with second, but the prose is going in weird directions I'm not trying to evolve into.

Submission Grinder Delists Analog locusmag.com/2025/07...

Excited to announce that my speculative debut, "All That I Am, A Failed Dream", is now available to read on the Apex blog! Fun little drabble about Courbet and art and also hell.

The humble comma screams in terror as I repeatedly undo and redo while toying with a sentence. The comma exists and ceases to exist at my whim. I am a cruel god.

2025 has been a hard year so far for Apex. In the interest of transparency, we want to share what happened, the current state of things, and how you can help. We're determined to keep publishing great stories for many years to come, and your support is what will make that possible. 🖤👽

Excited to say that my literary fiction piece, "Alien Girl On the Balcony", is now available to read from Windhover magazine! ~2,000 words, litfic. Weird little coming-of-age story. orgs.ncsu.edu/windhover/20...

Current project is really revealing weaknesses in my writing Fingers crossed I'm able to take a step forward with it

The fae are so crazy cause you'll just be an illiterate peasant strolling through the woods and some hunk will pop out of a tree and be like "you got all-natural berry Tums in your purse? I'll give you a hundred florins" and then you make a minor spelling error and he takes your firstborn

Gate story first draft DONE!

Started something new tonight. It feels like a bit of a step forward for my prose. I hope that it signals a step forward for me as a writer. Weird af story, though. The sort that kinda explodes out of nowhere. Sci-fantasy isekai about trippin in the woods with a yandere cat.

Finished drafting a fantasy piece! This one is gonna need some work, especially on the prose side, but it's a fun concept and I think it has potential.

Pretty awesome month for my writing! This month, I finished the first drafts of three full-length stories, one of which I had been working on for a while Got a couple of very kind personal rejections on a flash piece. And made my first sale. Over the moon about that But edits have piled up...

Ughhhh... finalizing a story. Have a title. Rather attached to title. Worried that title may be too on the nose. Forward we march, I suppose.

Work continues. Finishing another portion of something new tonight. From there, rewriting and edits on a really fun little piece, and then maybe finishing tonight's. Kind of the opposite of last year-I've got a lot of to-be-editeds piling up, and not enough stories making the submission rounds...

Very excited to say that I have closed my first sale! Last year, I wrote a fun little story about demons and liquor. And now that story will be published in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social! Details forthcoming. But man, this is exciting.

Two ideas forming in my head atm One sci-fi social satire that is really interesting me. One weird setting-driven sci-fantasy that already has a strong voice. Gonna be a while before I can write either...

Figured something out for a story idea that's been exciting me for a while. Unfortunately I need to turn in a much less exciting story for a class next week. So Big Exciting Thing will have to wait until it has cooled off a bit.

Abandoned this for a bit, came back because I want to try actually doing a full, cohesive outline (working on my plots and all.) A thousand words down, up to a point that was only 790 despite having some other stuff before... but I'm happier with it. If I wind up over 5K, so be it.

Started writing something new tonight, because I thought it would be flash. 700 words in and I'm still in the exposition... Oh well. It's kind of a fun story.

Lots of time spent editing this year. Still managed to draft a few pieces. Still a long list of stories to work on... ha. Ha. Ha.

I was thinking today, about what makes so many of my works not good enough. And I came to the conclusion that I'm really, really bad at writing strong plots, where there's an obvious throughline that develops throughout the course of the story. Practicing that tonight. I really like this one so far!

Started a new project tonight! This one is about the information age, and cookies, and the role of the military in advancement of technology. I have a sneaking suspicion it will eventually wind up trunked. Also some nice little edits on the thing I posted about last night, which is... interesting.

Writing a fourth (hopefully final) draft of a story tonight I really like this one. It's about relationships and traumatized morticians and consensual murder and just generally a really cute, fun time