Apparently a lot of ppl needs to hear this #bskycensorship

I’ve been thinking lately about what could be considered fun. Then I realized all of my stories are fun, aren’t they? Just like Fahrenheit 451 is fun with this first line: “It was a pleasure to burn.”

Excited to talk with @erincairns.bsky.social at Electric Sheep this week. Here's a recent MicroVerse interview with Erin - info about her writing, her gorgeous art, and InkFoundry!

A koan worthy of zazen.

Translunar Travelers Lounge is looking for First Readers for the upcoming submission period. If you'd like to find out more about how the magazine is put together, or just want to help out, let us know! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Oh, I have good news.

Post a random picture or else everything will go bad in September

Moksha is doing scheduled maintenance. Obviously that's our preferred method for receiving subs to the @apexmag.bsky.social flash contest, but if you need to get your story in and the portal is still closed, you can email me at [email protected] with your story.

I'm excited to announce that my story "Smother the Wailing of the Heart" has been accepted for the Mmeory anthology from @aanpress.bsky.social. 😁 🥳 🙌

UGH and dealing with Amazon's "error correction" is a major hassle. Besides vernacular/dialect, if there is a story that includes errors on purpose AND THIS IS EXPLICITLY STATED IN THE STORY its also a huge time waster for no reason

I don’t like it when someone looks down on spec stories as “escapism”. I rate escapism higher than some “life lesson” books. We’re living in a hellish world without a temporary exit button, and if something lets you escape this reality, even for a short while, then it should be rated very highly.

"Even within the family, Laura endures unwelcome scrutiny. Uncomfortable and unsettling, and well worth the read." 🐛 Thank you for the review @mynachang.bsky.social! 🖤👽 Don't forget to check out @emilmorel.bsky.social's "Denizens of my Face," out now in Apex Magazine!

My debut story is out in Apex! While writing this story, I was thinking about emotions that are sometimes so hard to express, that feeling of a lump in your chest, that knot in your throat.

The fact that Hirohiko Araki is influenced by Steinbeck’s East of Eden blows my mind. Wow.

I’m so over the moon to be included on this list, alongside amazing writers! And, the mention that “images are so unexpected” makes me even happier because I write in kishotenketsu structure, where unexpectedness is an important ingredient. Thank you so much, @mynachang.bsky.social!

My debut story is out in Apex! While writing this story, I was thinking about emotions that are sometimes so hard to express, that feeling of a lump in your chest, that knot in your throat.

"When I sleep, a centipede draws the curtains of my eyelids closed. At sunrise, fly-bites and buzzing wake me up. Each overslept minute marks one bite on my cheeks—I wasn’t born with freckles." Love this. Incredibly imaginative. @emilmorel.bsky.social @apexmag.bsky.social

What is a novelette? It’s a novel that knows you have other things to do today.

Ended up being 8k and I still need to edit the second half which means adding more words in my case. 🥲

Inio Asano is one of my favorite mangakas. I love how much he embraces weirdness. Yesterday, I was reading his manga Nijigahara Holograph and saw this panel. A lucky coincidence--I have a similar scene in my story, even though the context is different.

I always read @annaclark.bsky.social’s prose with a magnifier, to see every tiny touch, sentence by sentence. And this one is fantastic! And what a first sentence to begin a story: Ellen’s ex-girlfriend called her a personality vacuum before she considered doing it for work.

My poem What the Birds Taught Me is now free to read from Heartlines Spec! 🌿 A small glimpse into a peaceful future in harmony with nature 🪶 Caring for and learning from birds I loved writing this poem and I'm so happy that it found a home with Heartlines!

Out in Apex today with a small horror 😁

I keep encountering new spec fic mags just sort of randomly on my feed, so let me remind y'all that I cover short spec fic for Reactor and I want to read your issues! Editors, pls connect via contact form about reviewer copies. Authors and readers, link me in the replies bookjockeyalex.com/contact/

This is so good! And, btw, I’ve been thinking recently about how Inio Asano ends his stories with mood-setting (mood-exiting?) visuals, and this story has similar ending vibes.

I spent two weeks writing a 250-word story. A couple of betareaders and it’ll be ready to collect rejections. 😭

If you are thinking of starting a fiction publication, do everyone including yourself a favor and do at least the minimum due diligence of doing your best to avoid copyright infringement by making sure the writers have granted you unambiguous permission to publish their work.

SFWA educates authors about industry matters through many venues, including Writer Beware®, a service helmed by @victoriastrauss.com. It is a gift to be in dialogue as writers and other industry participants about the issues that matter most to our genre's future thriving. Read WB's latest here:

If you like dark queer speculative fiction, my short story about cannibalism and loneliness is out today and free to read!

- poetry is very good for your mind because it helps you think in different ways / estranges and re-familiarizes yourself with your own language

Traveling to Japan is also an option.

Remember, a first draft's only job is to exist

Just accidentally deleted my old post about this while trying to re-share (don't post tired folks) so here it is again in case anyone wants to take a look. I have a story in this lovely magazine about grief, faeries and friendship and it's in some fab company. #shortstory #fantasy #sff

This happened again. My 4k story is about to be 5k, and it's heading into the heart of the night with the lights off. #writing

Today's community drabble is "My Girlfriend's Metamorphosis" by Kai Delmas. Find Kai Delmas at kaidelmas.com. The theme was "metamorphosis." Care to drabble with us? Join the fun at reachyourapex.com/drbl

I read this yesterday and was like, “Wow! What are these sentence structures? What are these word choices? Assonance, consonance, short pretty words! The Music!” I’ll add a couple of my favorite lines to this thread. Highly recommended!

I have a story out! At dream publication, no less! It’s about adventure and anxiety, methods of coping, a tool that might help but also caries drawbacks (because brains are delicate and individual), and being empathetic to another person’s choices, even when they end in disaster.

Hello, Bluesky! This is a weird day to go live with this project, but: this is an initiative to add a Translated Speculative Fiction category to the Hugo Awards. If you are a fan of global SF, and want to put some more "World" in "Worldcon", check out our site! Lots more to come. translatedhugo.org

Inio Asano is one of my favorite mangakas. I love how much he embraces weirdness. Yesterday, I was reading his manga Nijigahara Holograph and saw this panel. A lucky coincidence--I have a similar scene in my story, even though the context is different.

My first‑ever publication is in one of my dream pubs! In this gorgeous @apexmag.bsky.social issue, alongside amazing writers! Denizens of My Face is a story about unworded emotions, and I hope it speaks to your heart through the ant antennae and bug wings. www.apexbookcompany.com/products/ape...

Hirayasumi is the feeling of chocolate melting in a cup of warm milk. It’s a glass of hot tea warming your hands while you glance outside the window at the piling snow during a winter night. So good! And, yes, I’m a firm believer in “not everything has to be meaningful,” both in life and fiction.

I'm working on @apexmag.bsky.social issue 150 and I am so excited! This is the previously unpublished/unpaid authors issue that we funded through our last Kickstarter. We have 4 original short stories and two pieces of flash fiction from new authors!

Snipped from Apex Magazine's newest newsletter: I'm thrilled to say that my first ever publication will be with them in July! I love how seriously they take amplifying new voices, and am beyond pleased to be one of them.

This is a beautiful haiku: cherry blossoms . . . we switch to our mother tongue Antoinette Cheung

If you're not enjoying the process, what's the point? There are many jobs out there that pay far better than writing. You're just wasting your time, releasing a bad version of your work, making people despise you and your work, and for not that much money (if that's their excuse).

Still the funniest writing meme I've ever seen. "... she had to save her hairless offspring, Thumb-hands and Two-legs, from the evil human wizard, Dangle-balls."

I really liked how the background music was almost non-existent in No Country for Old Men. For me, in a way, it represents how I feel about some aspects of C. McCarthy's prose in general. I love it.

Rabbit's Foot was one of my favorite stories from 2024. I’ve already added these books to my TBR list!

Ages ago, when dinosaurs were still bullying all the inhabitants of the planet, I was reading Freud’s Totem and Taboo. And I was thinking that it’s really interesting how taboo is directly related to swear/curse words. 1/🧵