Really great coverage from @wired.com about our week of action against online ID verification and how these bills are setting a dangerous precedent by making the internet more exploitative rather than safer. www.wired.com/story/age-ve...

"Choosing" by Susan Taitel is a different take on The Little Mermaid. Check it out in our issue 5:

Sofia Coppola's Troop Beverly Hills

I enjoyed this short story. Who hasn't felt their skin tightening like this, and dreamed of such an ending?

Something very very weird happened during the Hugos award ceremony... It's been on my mind for days, and so I wrote this blog: "When People Giggle at Your Name, or the 2025 Hugo Awards Incident" grigorylukin.com/2025/08/21/w... #Worldcon

This Story Hour's guests used sharp writing and exquisite craft to bring us on journeys of delight and melancholy. You can still watch Susan Taitel and B. Pladek read! @bpladek.bsky.social @susantaitel.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBJJ...

Cast of Wonders 649: Little Wonders 46-Seize Your Future with stories by Race Harish and Susan Taitel, narrated by Mofiyinfoluwa Okupe and Emily Smith, produced by Jeremy Carter www.castofwonders.org/2025/08/cast...

This Story Hour, B. Pladek returns, and Susan Taitel makes her Story Hour debut! Join us for the warmth, the wit, and the wisdom! Join us Wednesday, August 20 at 7:00 PDT! @bpladek.bsky.social @susantaitel.bsky.social www.storyhour2020.com

Do you like kaiju? Or pop stars? Or the systemic exploitation of the music industry? "What Doesn't Kill You" out in Cast of Wonders today!

You had me at Catherine of Aragon invents necromancy.

We’re excited to announce the acquisition of @macey.bsky.social 's BLOOD OF QUEENS, a gothic historical fantasy featuring Tudor-inspired court intrigue, necromancy, and an audacious heist. For fans of M. A. Carrick’s The Mask of Mirrors and Holly Race's Six Wild Crowns, this hits shelves Spring ’27!

I'll be on Story Hour on August 20th.

Manawaker Studio's Flash Fiction Podcast presents: “Dad and Ick” by Susan Taitel podcastaddict.com/episode/http... Supported by Patreon patrons: patreon.com/manawaker #flashfiction #podcast #scifi #parenthood #robots

This is one of my favorite stories. I'm so happy to have an audio version thanks to Manawaker.

Trans Lifeline is a good place to direct resources if you’re looking to help here fuck everyone involved with this decision

This, 100%.

If you are promoting AI art, you need to not follow me. If you follow me, that's a block.

Many changes took effect at #Patreon today, all devastating to creators' income,especially those of us who rely on Patreon to...not die I woke up to my income slashed by 28% despite no change in patrons. I'm not alone--all while our economy burns I'm not sure what to do, but there's a few things 🧵

Everyone I see using the “AI” to create a Ghibli-like image is participating in exploitation and theft. The way I see people happily doing so doesn’t surprise me because those same people have been trained to exploit by pirating books and movies and making excuses for doing it for decades.

Jump to conclusions why don’t you? I did not lock her in a basement. I’m not a monster. We live in a tower.

Bookish Tastes, by Susan Taitel in Small Wonders. I love when flash fiction takes a metaphor and literalizes it, and this is a great example about taste, independence, and how much of us is made of others. smallwondersmag.com/piece/bookis...

Clang clang clang goes the trolley, click click click goes my joints.

Becky Burke of Book Island (a picture book publisher in the UK founded by my fellow Tokarczuk translator Greet Pauwelijn) was "detained" by ICE at the Canadian border on 2/28. Her father asked that her story be shared in case someone can help her. He writes:

Vibrainum this, adamantium that, the strongest substance in the MCU is whatever the hulks' pants are made of.

Bluesky is for trans people! 🏳️‍⚧️

My other toxic trait is going to the grocery store for a few staples and leaving with four distinct types of cheese.

My toxic trait is that I talk to animals and objects and gadgets as if they were people but do everything in my power to not have to talk to people.

At 5 I snuck into my parents' room while they were watching the Godfather. I fell asleep, no memory of the movie. The Color Purple was the inflight movie on a trip when I was 7. I didn't have headphones to hear the dialog. Fell asleep again. Next was Four Weddings and Funeral at 14. Stayed awake.

In today's library program I asked the kids to start by writing down some things that they're afraid of (so a character might be afraid of them too) Shout out for this kid's terrifying grandma I guess??? And another kid's literal mother!

Just in time for autumn, I have finished knitting THE NECK KRAKEN

*sets up a little pillow fort with a 🏳️‍⚧️ flag on top* Hi darlings. SFF is for everyone. We're here and we're writing and no one can stop us. You matter. Don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise. 💚

In last week's newsletter, @jamesfolta.com and I highlighted great writing by Steve Macone, @susantaitel.bsky.social, Sam Weiner & Joey Dundale, and @wendiaarons.bsky.social. Plus, some of James' recent writing for Lit Hub, and my upcoming workshop! Check it out and subscribe at the link below ⬇️

I'm Laura Blackwell, and I write short stories (and am querying a novel) of quiet horror that address injustice and complicity. Some of it's Gothic, some contemporary, some in SFF settings. I also write dreamy, hopeful fantasy. Obit would include words "Shirley Jackson Award." #HorrorWritersChat

This is a fun one.

Ahaha this story is a DELIGHT :D "Character from My Unfinished Epic Fantasy Novel or IKEA Product?" by @susantaitel.bsky.social www.pointsincase.com/articles/cha...

Every been so in the weeds with a work in progress you can't remember if the file created on two hours of sleep was a draft or your shopping list? Just me? Out today on @pointsincase.com www.pointsincase.com/articles/cha...

I love this story!

Do you and your family/friends have entire conversations in book quotes? Or do you find yourself sounding like your favorite author by accident? This is a good read for you.

Saw this sign this week. Thought it was punk af

oh i loved this! this was a fun one, and has a really lovely turn

Do you, too, have "Bookish Tastes"? Today Susan Taitel's story reminds us that we are what we eat, so we should be careful about all we ingest... smallwondersmag.com/...