"The Worlds War, and the Cosmic Peace that followed, spat out new and interesting ideas about the #soul. This holoessay will focus on..." Barbara shut off Cardinal Feris, droning of voice and bland of face. Plus, souls and what happened to them were now her purview. #vss365

Books are not clutter. Clutter is all the other stuff that gets in the way of having more books.

Jeremiah found the #thrum of the old sublight engine #soothing. Soon, as the ship approached translation point for M31, he would have to spin up the hyperdrive, which he called Old Bertha. Old Bertha predated his grandsires, and the noise made his teeth ache. #vss365 #scifisat

NEIGHBOR: are you still feeding your crows? ME: oh yeah, 100% NEIGHBOR: we saw one the other day with a gray patch on its- ME: right, that's Gray Feathers NEIGHBOR: wait, you have names for them? ME: not...all of them?

NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap26012... Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans.

"The nebula is a #ruse, an artificial construct. I didn't have a cloaking device when I hid it here." "Hid what here?" "Jump Gate 7." #vss365

Create something today. The weirder, the queerer, the angrier, the better. Create something. It matters.

Portal snapped into existence right beside me. It hovered there for a moment, aa if waiting for me to make my choice, to stay here or #slip away. "Come to Bradbury 7," the ad read. "A new life awaits!" #vss365 #scifisat

Distant beacons and a lighthouse stretched and lifted by a mirage on the horizon. #photography #fujifilm

Bison in the snow. #BlueSkyArtShow #Cold #EastCoastKin #photography #PhotographersOfBlueSky #photography #phototographer #dhephotos #more #adventure #someday #bison #snow #Colorado #RMANWR

You can't afford to get caught outside in a storm on Ramirax 4. Even a #drizzle of sulphuric rain will burn you to a crisp. After the rains pass, vegetation grows back in just one day. The only animal life that survives are metallic-skinned frogs. #vss365 New #spaceopera #WIP

"It's not a #drizzle, it's a #hurricane the size of a planet," said sci-officer Pi. "If you can keep it at #bay you'd have our deepest #thanks," said the alien creature. "You've got the wrong idea I'm afraid, this is an evacuation. Tell your people to run!" #vss365 #2wordprompt #vssdaily #scififri

There’s a lullaby up in the sky Waiting to be caught-sung Not tonight Not tonight though Tonight I just want to hear the rain Drum through The nights Absence of you #poetry

Never give up. Your town needs a new eccentric who talks to ravens, wears jewelry made of ancient bones, and stalks the forest atop a steam powered mechanical wolf. I believe in you.

A car left quietly in a field near Hartsel, Colorado. I shot low so the grass and plants could press into the frame, letting time and landscape do the storytelling. Worth noticing. #FoundObjects #RuralStillness #ScottKissPhoto

Historians mostly agree that after the Worlds War, the colonies #veered away from Earth's control, creating their own governments and confederations. Humankind would have remained divided, but for the actions of Pope Barbara and the Brotherhood of the Cyborg. #vss365

The Wine Shop - Edward Hopper, 1909. Source : Whitney Museum of American Art

Always be your true self. If the timid townsfolk recoil as you float past cloaked in a fog of swirling souls and clattering ravens, so be it.

Salish Sunset #photography #sunset #VancouverIsland #WestCoastKin

"Hitting the target's not the problem, Admiral. I can jump the ship and the station beyond the enemy's targeting lock and into Wild Space with my eyes closed." "Then, what's the problem, Jasper?" "Wild Space. The Cygnians might be tame compared to what's out there." #2WordPrompt #scifisat

Sunset Ireland - Sunburst over Hollygrove lake, Galway, Ireland #Sunset #Ireland #Scape #Landscape #Sky #Clouds #SkyScape #Photography

Sometimes, #dappled sunlight is just dappled sunlight. Other times, it’s like the video imagery on the city screens in the movie, Blade Runner. That eye on the boards to the left… I hiked a little faster that day. #vss365

Sharing a book i just read: A Memory Called Empire by @byzantienne.bsky.social, which I found in the best way, by wandering in a local bookshop. Absolutely loved it, from start to finish. Now, I need to see if they have the sequel.

Sitting on the sandy shore watching the silver ships sail the sun-seared sea. #vss365

Read banned books. Read books that make you cry. Read books written by friends. Read books you don’t quite understand yet. Read books of ancient magic that transform you into a dark being of the cosmos, capable of such wonderful & terrible things.

Perhaps the Worlds War had been #unmissable. The Historical Council on New Roma posited that Earth, Mars, and Proxima, could have avoided conflict with each other by talking more. Other historians were unsure. But all agreed: war with Sagittarius 5 had been inevitable. #vss365 #scifisat

We wash the body in rose water and stitch the mouth shut. The priest says a blessing, his voice trembling in the fading light, then we #adorn the corpse with garlic wreaths and place it in the cold earth. Night falls, we clutch our crucifixes, and pray for a swift dawn. #vss365 #microfiction

Dark mornings make waking hard, but mornings are now naturally brightening! Meanwhile, evenings have been brightening for about a month. Daylight Saving Time is not needed!

5 senses of the forest: Touch moss. Listen to the beating heart of the wood. Taste the danger and decay. Smell the creatures of shadow and thorn. See yourself joining them forever in the gloom.

"He's being consumed, a result of the Cygnian treachery. They call it resurrection, but he'll be just another mindless zombie." Solon silenced the holoreel. He stared at the paper on his desk. 20 systems had agreed - a unanimous declaration of war. But it still needed his signature. #2WordPrompt

Most sentients busied themselves with rebuilding as their first concern after the Worlds War. Most, but not all. Some dropped out of society and fled for the Rim and beyond. #scififri

Whether it’s reading, listening, or watching, enjoy some science fiction today. Happy Birthday, Isaac Asimov!

- Humans stare at glowing rectangles all night, hooted the first owl. - For guidance, said the second. - They ignore the stars. - And us. - Wisdom used to live in #abstraction. - Now it needs charging. - Will they ever look up? - Eventually. Wonder leaks back in through the cracks. #vss365

An interlude of #delight first day of the year before the return of the noise. Outside feels much like first day of spring before the return of the heat. And I sit outside reading a book. #vss365

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

The portalsong spat you out at the wrong place. Your biocomp spazzed for a moment, rebooted, and then started speaking to you in Old English. After fixing the settings, it told you you had #traveled an extra 30,000 light-years. Best get comfortable. Portalsong won't re-align for 20 years. #vss365

Juniper waited for the results from across the galaxy. A #sole name had been on everyone's lips for months: Matilda Strong. Would the conclave dance with Juniper's wilder sister? The holos turned bright white before the Habemus Papam: Matilda would take the regnal name of Barbara IV. #vss365

Always thought this Hubble photo of SN1994D was so beautiful. It has that solitary, errant nature. "Candles in the dark making their own way." How can you see an image like this and not be awed and humbled by the vastness and raw power of the universe? If god exists, it's nothing we can fathom.

All my stories (all of them, every last bless-ed character) are speaking loudly today, asking if this will be the year when I actually sit down and write.

Your ship sat above a dead world, sapped of its power. The lights would go first, then the #air. You closed your eyes in reverie - a festival, the smile on his face, and your children playing in the purple grass. You almost missed the portal snapping into existence next to you. #vss365 #scifisat

"That looks like burning." "Echo 2 is on fire." "But those are our ships in orbit!" "Look closer." "They're changing." "That's what my communication was about. Was to be about. The Cygnians can alter our ships into theirs." "Dusty! They're scanning us! "Shit." #scififri

Some of Dusty's patrons left, taking their chances at running on their own. The rest chose to jump with us. (Old Mad George wanted to fly his ship at the Cygnians. We handcuffed him to the bar.) Dusty's jump engine #struggled with the mass of the extra ships, as we made our way to Echo 2. #vss365

Fifth Avenue at Twilight, 1910 by Lowell Birge Harrison (American, 1854 - 1929). Oil on canvas | 76.2 × 58.4 cm. Private Collection. #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

“Here There Be Dragons” My December #SciFanSat cover art for our Best of 2025 issue coming out this Saturday. As the year draws to a close cold, dark, and somber, I was inspired to create a lone dragon on a rocky iceball world lit not by a star, but by the accretion disk of a black hole.

The early Earth colonies lived in a constant struggle for survival, an ordeal greatly lessened by the discovery of space folding, later called JumpTech. Marcus Parsons, inventor of the jump engine, became a lauded hero and embarrassingly rich. Parsons Industries had a plant on every world. #vss365

I'll never forget Dusty's words. "No joy on signaling Earth. Tried to #shoot the transmission to Echo 1 as well. Nothing." Then the bar's sensors pinged. "Cygnian battle cruiser entering system. We've got...20 minutes." "Dusty...I..." "LAST CALL! CYGNIANS INBOUND! JUMP IN 10!" #vss365

ONLY YULE

Hyvää joulua! Here in Finland we celebrate Christmas on the 24th. Yellowhammers are frequent winter visitors in our garden, so I thought I'd draw some for his year. #art #animalart #Christmas

Dusty Rebel wandered to the end of the bar. I had just jumped in from Tau Ceti, memory-patch intact and ready for download. Dusty One-Eye, as the old timers called her, was the best in this system for clear transmission and good alcohol. I needed both. Tau Ceti had fallen. #vss365 #2WordPrompt