Difficult post, but past time to rip the band aid off. FIYAH is going on hiatus indefinitely, with issue #40 currently set to be our last for the time being. The mag cannot continue running at a loss, and needs time to reassess operations from top to bottom if a viable path forward is to be created.

This idea plus the sapphic monsters+goddesses anthology just opened for submissions by @scyllapublishing.bsky.social is making me ponder!! Pondering is through the roof!! #writesky #fantasywriters

when we mourn le guin, we mourn one of our greatest writers & thinkers. but we also mourn one of our all-time greatest haters

I saw a classicist's talk recently (not going to share her name because that would reveal my work), and she ended with her reasoning for why classics is a valuable field, which parallels my love for #writing: "Classics is a multidisciplinary exploration of people who are like you and not like you."

The devil is on my shoulder whispering that I could use AI to make a website as I grit my teeth over WordPress.com. Get thee behind me, Satan. I'm going to learn html now and do even more work to make this author website. Efficiency means nothing to me.

My LEAST favorite parts of being a writer: 3. Choosing a title 2. Social media management 1. WRITING AN AUTHOR BIO #writesky

This is one of the most interesting things that I've read in a long, long time! 🛰️🪐🏈🏟️🫯🌌💟📡🍔 #speculativefiction #specfic #sciencefiction

if you're not sure what to say when you call your reps, Celeste has a script!! reps.fyi

Make art! Make art! Make art!

This rainy April feels perfect for werewolves, so I just borrowed the first of this trilogy from my library app!

Teeny tiny change to my pen name! From "R. J." To "R.M." This is partially because I like the sound more, and partially because in my early research of names I missed another author who goes by R. J. Sterling! And if you want to call me something casually, "Sterling" works great.

America wants to label swathes of human beings just like me and just like you as pornographic, as illegal, as degenerate freaks. But I'd rather be a freak than a fascist.

I am seeking advice from writers!! If I want to tweak my pen name, should I inform that magazine that published my story, or just leave it be? I like it when people call me "Sterling," and now I'm wondering if I want to officially make it the first name of my pen name. #writesky #writersofbluesky

Reminder: In light of Bad Bunny's Superbowl performance spotlighting Latino culture, here's a hefty list of Latino speculative fiction authors I curated if anyone wants to take a gander and read some phenomenal work. Much love to all! go.bsky.app/6BAmgpi

It's my third day being very very sick, and I need a break from my Peaky Blinders binge. Any #shortstory recommendations to fill my afternoon? They do not need to be Peaky Blinders related, but major points if wool suits are involved.

Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

Oh my GOD this story!!! So surprising, heartbreaking, breathtaking! "The sweater we buried you in is hanging in my closet. " What a first sentence!!! #writersofbluesky #sciencefiction #writesky

There's only two more days to vote for your favorite Apex stories of 2025! And while you're at it, you might read my story "Cassandra and the Changeling," published in issue 151. It's only 1000 words long and full of queer teen angst (as well as a pinch of resistance). #writersofbluesky #writesky

I appreciate being included in this!

TELL ME YOUR 🏳️‍🌈QUEER SHORT SFF🏳️‍🌈 OUT IN DECEMBER 2025!!! Originals only pls, up to novella in length, indie okay. Just reply with the author, title, and a link to read and/or buy and I'll get them on the list. Here's November's list for context & more info: www.patreon.com/posts/some-q...

MINNESOTA VERSION OF COME OUT YE BLACK AND TANS

I also realized that this is my *2nd* project this year that heavily features Dead Mom Angst. The implications of this pattern are nobody's business except for me and the tiny imaginary therapist that lives in my head. #writesky

You know that it's a good writing day when you're crying for two pages. My spouse is starting to realize that I don't want comfort when I'm crying and writing. I want celebration! I successfully tapped into a deep well of emotion and put it on the page!

"In the next ten to twenty years, automation will grind jobs to dust as it grinds out unbelievable volumes of production . . . labor will have to intervene in the political life of the nation to chart a course which distributes the abundance to all instead of concentrating it among a few." #MLKDay

I find Gmail’s new “write this for me” feature deeply sinister. They’re trying to convince you that you are dumb and helpless. Don’t let them steal your ability to formulate thoughts and communicate. You were capable of writing an email in 2022 and you’re capable now.

Calling all 2SLGBTQIA+ poets! We have a message for you from our poetry editor Jess Cho: “Dear queer poets, PLEASE FUCK ME UP.” If you have something strange, dark, and unrepentantly queer… send it our way! We’re open to submissions right now and we pay $50/poem!

Love this from Guillermo del Toro

Clipping.'s song "Dodger" is a #scifi story about an analyst who tracks down people who choose to unplug from the internet. "Human unedited, ended the technical betterment For all the rest of 'em, though Upend excessive unethical detriments" youtu.be/h0-k7vW9Xek?...

I love this! It is a story of hope in a magically created eco disaster.

"Out of habit, I rub the pad of my thumb along my bottles’ corks. All properly stoppered, shut tight. Through the glass, the winds feel warm and cold, soft and terrible, each one unique." -- "Rewilding the Many Tethered Winds", my new short story out now at @kaleidotrope.bsky.social !

Nested by the fire with fiction and nonfiction journals, tea, and two novellas by @premeemohamed.com. I love stories about resilience after climate disaster, especially with some speculative fungi weirdness thrown in. 💙📚 #theannualmigrationofclouds

"Is a River Alive?" by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social is the most significant book that I read this year. The lyrical writing braids activism, indigenous and western science, and personal narrative, like streams throughout a flood plane joining into one roaring river of a book, full of hope. 💙📚

"They carol, feast, give thanks, And dearly love their friends, And hope for peace." On this shortest day, I hope for the end of genocide and of the bottomless greed of pollutocrats. And on this longest night I hope to be like a bulb under frost: resting and transforming in the darkness.

My first professionally published story is available to read now at Apex Magazine! It's less than 1000 words--what do you have to lose? Thank you to everyone who reads and comments. Your support means so much to me.

"The wide ring of brambles holds the typical detritus of youth—beer bottles, soggy magazines, nicotine pouches. At the center is God." 🚬🚲 New fiction today by @rj-sterling.bsky.social: "Cassandra and the Changeling" Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...

My FIRST professionally published short story is available now in Apex Magazine's 151st issue! Join two adolescents on a collision course with the Strange. www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-... #writersofbluesky #amwriting #newwriters #speculativefiction #QueerWriters #shortstory

On that note: Trans authors (I mean authors who are trans, NOT cis people who write about trans people), drop your book links here and I'll try to repost as many as I can throughout the day. Cis people: Repost trans authors' book links. Cis people who want to complain about being excluded: gtfo

This is a pretty useful resource for folks trying to make it in the magazine circuit (it’s me, I am Folks). I’m setting the goal of 25 rejections before July (and maybe some publications, too). #amwriting

A few hours reading fantasy, a few hours writing fantasy, repeat as the snow falls. The Last Hour Between Worlds (@melissacaruso.bsky.social) is a hilarious page-turner about a reality-hopping sleuth’s first night off since having a baby. Add a ~tense professional rivalry~, and it’s perfect. 💙📚

Me in January: I should overcome February doldrums with a self-imposed writing challenge. Me now: What EVIL, CONNIVING, SADISTIC monster made me start this challenge?! Back, fiend! Leave me to my blankie and ghibli movies! For truly I shall never write again.

I am so grateful for indie speculative fiction magazines! I truly enjoyed the strange biology of this story.

I need all of the gays in my phone to scream with me about Lucy Dacus. youtube.com/watch?v=a90_...

BEHOLD THE COVER OF ISSUE #7 BY LUIS MELO! @partyinthefront.bsky.social is one of twenty-seven talented artists contributing to our 2025 issues. Sign up to be alerted when the crowdfund launches: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Snow day goals: *Write 3 pages *Call my representatives *Allow myself to be buried in the snow like a daffodil bulb.

Writers who use pen names: how do you introduce yourself when you meet other writers IRL? Pen name forward? Real name? “My names is () and I publish under ()?” #writers #writing #indieauthors #fiction #shortstory

Today I am feeling the challenges of being a writer with a high-energy and time consuming day job. I try to fit in 15 minutes of writing here and there, but the reality is that I write best when I can chew on a story for at least an hour. And yet, at the end of work the doom scroll calls… #writing

Tactile art grounds me. Any opinions on the caption for the eclipse+torch collage?