Hi @diabolicalplots.com I tried to send a submission question through the contact us form but I keep getting an error message. I have a very weirdly formatted piece that I would like to submit but it is very dependent on the formatting (italics, bolding, etc) which are stripped out when submitting.

Fellow authors: without any context, what's the first line of your current WIP? "It pleases the King of Faerie to operate a mortal company, a synergistic tension of contradictory worlds."

Someone sent me a spam message "Cya soon, ya stunning wildflower you..." and I guess I'm glad that some people are still hand crafting spam instead of using AI.

I received a puzzling rejection saying that they felt the addiction narrative was unclear. I was so confused. I did not think I'd written about addiction. I asked a beta reader and they also did not think I'd written about addiction.

I just used the word "synergetic" in a story and I hate it so much. The sacrifices we make for art.

Remembering the time I derailed an entire session I was GMing by describing the silver sparkles of the sun on the water. The players were convinced it was a clue and something was Deeply Wrong about the water. I was just trying to be poetic! They felt that normal sun sparkles on water were gold.

Me: writes glacially slowly, is happy to finish a short story in a month. Also me: why are novellas so short? I can read them in a single sitting.

I'm currently doing research for a short story by reading a bunch of job advertisements. Why do I do this to myself. Why are job ads so painful to read.

Definitely Fallen London. @failbettergames.com

- A COURT OF SPARKS AND ASHES - You are a fey knight warring across the remains of a burning kingdom. Can you fall in love so hard you save the world? Or will your selfishness damn the Far Realm to ruin? PDFs, design notes and foldable miniature zine version here: www.patreon.com/posts/court-...

Today a ten year old asked me to teach him how to GM. Truly this is the pinnacle of GMing.

Several people have asked me recently why Analog/Asimov's/F&SF/Ellery Queen/Alfred Hitchcock still don't have Submission Grinder listings again, because the communications from SFWA on the subject have been so positive. So I thought it might be worth addressing this briefly.

There are goldfinches at the bird feeder and they are so beautifully yellow.

Abhorsen. Either beautifully animated or live action by the BBC. I think either way the bell ringing would be exquisite.

"I Am Frankelda" is coming to Netflix on June 12. A Mexican stop-motion feature film by Arturo & Roy Ambriz (Cinema Fantasma).

Nightwatch on the Hinterlands deserves more love, y'all. A paladin with a mech suit who only knows how to go full throttle! An alien diplomat who mixes tech and magic! A masterful blending of fantasy and sci-fi! Also there is a murder mystery and weird golem things made of corpses and magic.

Nightwatch on the Hinterlands deserves more love, y'all. A paladin with a mech suit who only knows how to go full throttle! An alien diplomat who mixes tech and magic! A masterful blending of fantasy and sci-fi! Also there is a murder mystery and weird golem things made of corpses and magic.

#DEAL ALERT! Calling all one-clickers because TO HOLD THE BRIDGE @garthnix.bsky.social is on #sale on #Kindle US for a limited time only! amzn.to/4d8Frxk #ToHoldtheBridge #ad #amazoncom

I recently reread this and it is the weird, dark Bluebeard story that you need in your life.

I feed the stray cat colony that lives behind the abandoned railway station. Cats don't care that you fought a Shoggoth. Cats don't care about the long lines of scars that cover your arms, the invisible scars that cover your soul. Cats care that you brought fish, that you give head skritches.

Misread my notes for an RPG as "love in the time of badgers" and that would really make a great RPG.

It is so annoying when well meaning people fuss over you when you don't want to be fussed over.

I really need a Moby Dick musical in my life.

The most important rule of baking yeasted things is that you must speak gently to your yeast.

I was looking for notes for a story idea that I was explaining to Joel, and accidentally took him on a tour of the various bits of paper, post-its, draft emails, Google docs, and tiny idea notebook. I found so many story notes (and the notes for two RPGs) but not the one I was looking for.

And please, as a kindness to first readers everywhere, double space.

What are your favorite hex crawl RPGs? I just had the idea for a little one page RPG where you are a swarm of bees in search of a new hive. I think it would work well as a hex crawl.

The Fellowship of the Ring as Penguins! 🐧 They are all a different species that matches them! 🧵 below:

The only thing worse than dealing with a possible scary medical diagnosis is trying to navigate the health care system while dealing with a scary medical diagnosis. It's so unclear who I should talk to!

my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

I really want to make a one page RPG that's about fighting kaiju while falling in love with the guy you're drifting with.

I really want to make a one page RPG that's about fighting kaiju while falling in love with the guy you're drifting with.

I grew up reading the Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling fairy tale anthologies (probably too young) and they taught me what a modern fairy tale could be, unafraid to embrace the dark and the weird.

I'm definitely "The Dragon in the Library."

It turns out that there are so, so many books about things "in the library." There is silence, lust, lifeless, shadows, murder (x3), Merlin, lost, the woman, the body, the stranger, the liar, the dragon, the burglar, the anarchist, the herring, that night, no cats, and one week. (tag yourself)

The return of Artemis II was such a beautiful thing to witness. A reminder of the good in humanity.

This is writing. Putting in the time--painful hours of learning how to write a sentence, fix a scene. Failing and trying so that you can make space for the brilliant days when the story burns in your mind and you write it in one glorious afternoon.

😮 it's the border between ancelstierre and the old kingdom @garthnix.bsky.social

moby-dick, his eyes enormous: from hell's heart you STAB at moby? for hate's sake you spit your last BREATH at moby? oh! oh! the great shroud of the sea for ahab! the great shroud of the sea rolling on as it rolled five thousand years ago!!!!

I have been creating original worlds for the Star Wars RPG I'm running. It took me a while to realize that unlike the movies, I'm not constrained by budget. I can have red deserts, purple forests, and a version of Displacer Beasts. I think I'd still be making boring worlds if I relied on AI.

"average person eats 3 spiders a year" factoid actually just statistical error. Average person eats 0 spiders per year. Renfield, who obsessively eats every spider he can, is an outlier and should not have been counted.

I have obtained jam!

I have obtained jam!

JAM DAY!! Today I am going to attempt loquat freezer jam.

The guidelines say the things we like - but so long as you aren't doing the things we don't want, please don't self reject!

Karen Memory, my novel starring badass saloon girls taking on disaster capitalists in the wild West, is on sale on Kindle for $2.99 in the USA! If you need a little escapism in these dark days. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

Maybe a horse. Get all the sugar and apples from the coffee shop and tempt it out. (I'm probably too confident because I actually know very little about horses.)

Big Redwall vibes.

Yes I'm currently GMng a Star Wars game but also I could be playing Firefly.

Greg Davies: Great task, well done. Didn‘t eat a thing. Persephone: Thank you. Alex Horne: Ah. Well. Let’s take another look at that pomegranate.