As a special holiday treat, my poem "The World To Come" is out today at @strangehorizons.bsky.social ! strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

Check out my 2800-word sentence about a shipwrecked Andalusian merchant losing his mind in a field!

Deep breath Ok I'm going to try and stay calm But I'll point out that AI translation is literally causing translators to be fired (see the whole Harlequin line in France) (1/?)

For over a millennium, the winemaking traditions of the Kalash, an ethnoreligious people, have endured in Pakistan’s Hindu Kush mountains. In one of the most remote regions in the world, beliefs and customs are passed down orally.

I've been thinking about this story at least once a week since October. Easily my favorite sentence this year

Check out my 2800-word sentence about a shipwrecked Andalusian merchant losing his mind in a field!

Understanding they are apparently backtracking now due to the response, but— I left SFWA for a number of reasons, which this unfortunately fits neatly within. Rather than an overly cautious, compromised “professional association,” freelance writers need a union. Read on if you want to help.

All PM Press books are 50% off with coupon code GIFT through 1-1-2026. Stock up while you can. pmpress.org/index.php?l=...

CANADIAN CARTOON STYLE ARTISTS are you able to spare a picture for a great cause? Our voice acting peers need our support in bringing awareness to their challenges! The requests are super simple and flexible, and donating art is a fantastic way for us to move the needle and volunteer!

BCS Patreon has fallen below the monthly amount we need to pay our authors a pro rate and our First Readers a worthy honorarium ($125/mo). Sometimes folks need to lower or pause their support; we understand. But less than 1% of BCS readership donates or supports. www.patreon.com/beneath_ceas... 1/3

Be weirder and more unsettling

Are there any fan artists who can do (Western) TV cartoon characters reasonably true-to-style who want to donate a little mischievous labor to some Canadian creative industry workers in a union fight against corporate greed? If so, send me a message and I can give you details!

Are there any fan artists who can do (Western) TV cartoon characters reasonably true-to-style who want to donate a little mischievous labor to some Canadian creative industry workers in a union fight against corporate greed? If so, send me a message and I can give you details!

Congratulations to Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me), recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for Rakesfall! Chandrasekera's book was chosen by authors Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

Well they, burned the Apple Man down in FLX tonight. And they, burned his barrels too.

My novelette “The Third Movement of Time,” is now free to read in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social ! "Winter observes her frustration at Gorgós's irrational behavior and, within it, a particle of jealousy..." www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-...

Live in BCS #442: "Pools of Light at the Center of the World" @willmcmahon36.bsky.social "...and the singing of the insects reminded him of another villain in the story of his exile, which was the lute player, from whose clicking mandibles had come..." www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/pool...

📣 NEW CRITICAL FRIENDS! In a new ep of the @strangehorizons.bsky.social SFF criticism podcast, I talk with @redfernjon.bsky.social and Nileena Sunil about books that might be longer, and others that could be shorter. How to read a text that offers too little, or too much, stuff? Some ideas.

Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.

My story “Pools of Light at the Center of the World,” a 2800-word sentence about a shipwrecked Andalusian merchant losing his mind in a field, is now free to read in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social! Check it out. www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/pool...

Too bad this Asian pear tree lost a limb, but it worked out for me. I’ve heard mixed things about making perry from them, but figure I’ll give it a try.

My story “Pools of Light at the Center of the World,” a 2800-word sentence about a shipwrecked Andalusian merchant losing his mind in a field, is now free to read in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social! Check it out. www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/pool...

New Issue: BCS #442 Seventeenth Anniversary Double-Issue, with stories by James Morrow and @willmcmahon36.bsky.social today, @patricksamphire.bsky.social and @rjtaylor.bsky.social next week (but in the ebook now), McMahon podcast, art Bruce Brenneise: www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/issues/issue...

Italy's largest union, with over 5.5 million workers, has called a general strike for Friday in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla. And smaller Italian unions have said they will join CGIL's general strike.

“Israeli Forces Kill 198 Palestinians in Gaza Over Three Days” It’s a genocide. Daily endless massacres, largely ignored in the West.

New cover art, starting with BCS #442 Seventeenth Anniversary Double-Issue this Thurs, with stories by James Morrow @patricksamphire.bsky.social @rjtaylor.bsky.social @willmcmahon36.bsky.social: "Arbor" by Bruce Brenneise. www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/artwork/arbor/

Five-ish gallons of last year’s ciderkin (second pressing cider from rehydrated pomace, low ABV). Let it sit because it was bland, but malolactic fermentation has since added a nice tang. Going to bottle some as-is, then do a gallon with sumac and a gallon with goldenrod and aster. All foraged here.

Really enjoyed this article digging into the evolutionary and geological development of the modern apple family (and the call for cider-makers to explore a diversity of Pomme fruits!).

My story “Pools of Light at the Center of the World,” a 2800-word sentence about a shipwrecked medieval Andalusian merchant, is out today in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social for subscribers and via @weightlessbooks.bsky.social. Check it out!

Fists up for the IILF! Big thanks to @donfoolery.com, @parkeriswriting.bsky.social, and everyone who came out for our September reading!

Irrealists: join us TONIGHT at Liquid State Brewing in downtown Ithaca for readings by @donfoolery.com and @parkeriswriting.bsky.social! Onward!

August Reader Spotlight: Edmundo Paz-Soldán read his moving short story “Artificial” from the anthology LATINX RISING (Ohio State University Press, 2020).

My story “A Fallen Angel Rings the Doorbell” is out today in The Sunday Morning Transport. It’s about letting yourself be messy, and letting yourself be loved. Here’s a free 60-day subscription if you need it: www.sundaymorningtransport.com/smt2024

Divest from the "Novel That Wishes It Were a Screenplay" industrial complex NOW

First pressing day of the season. The recently foraged apples and pears still need to sweat a while in the barn, but it’s been a week for the ~3 bushels from the USDA Geneva Station, so step one is washing and quartering (or halving for crabs). Cracked a bottle of last year’s cider to ease my way.

August Reader Spotlight: @lilianacolanzi.bsky.social captivated the audience with two stories from her collection YOU GLOW IN THE DARK (tr. Chris Andrews for New Directions, 2024), “The Cave” and “The Greenest Eyes.”

Some urban foraging over the past few days. Apples, crab apples, and pears. Destined for cider and perry.

Some urban foraging over the past few days. Apples, crab apples, and pears. Destined for cider and perry.

The union representing the musicians from Jimmy Kimmel’s band releases a statement calling the FCC’s pressure on Disney “state censorship.”

The following is a statement from the WGA on ABC’s decision to pull ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

Toured the USDA apple and grape germplasm repository in Geneva, NY today. Thousands of varieties each, preserved as a living library. The taking was free, so we gathered about three bushels of apples for a special “Geneva Medley” cider (several species and dozens of varieties). High acid and tannin!

Irrealists: Our next reading will be on Monday, September 22nd from 7-9pm at Liquid State, featuring @donfoolery.com and @parkeriswriting.bsky.social! Join us for good fiction, good beer, and good company.

YOU, HUMAN: Vol. 2 – BOOKBUB! You, Human, Vol. 2 is a BookBub deal for a limited time, now only $0.99. The first volume is also discounted at this time. Also available in hardcover, trade paperback, and eBook wherever books are sold. Amazon: eBook | trade paperback | hardcover Barnes &…

Toured the USDA apple and grape germplasm repository in Geneva, NY today. Thousands of varieties each, preserved as a living library. The taking was free, so we gathered about three bushels of apples for a special “Geneva Medley” cider (several species and dozens of varieties). High acid and tannin!

August reader spotlight: @spires.bsky.social (and her young assistant) gave the crowd an excerpt of her upcoming novella ELLIPSES, forthcoming from Infinivox, about a field biologist discovering life on an alien planet.

Cider of the day: Kitchen Sink from Rose Hill Farm (Red Hook, NY). A wild ferment, unfiltered and bottled pet-nat with high carbonation, this one has strong acid, good tannin, and a really nice bright flavor with notes of citrus and tropical fruit.

The Ithaca Irrealist Liberation Front has already stated our revolutionary position on the literary/genre discourse of the day.

Hello, translated spec fic readers! We apparently had some kind of secret settings update that locked our signatory page, but it should be fixed now! See who's onboard, sign with the link at the top if you haven't already, and share widely: translatedhugo.org/signatories/

I’ve made an update to this situation. open.substack.com/pub/pacornel...

What MRM has put P.A. through is absurd. There are terrific editorial teams working at the three big print SFF mags, but as long as the publisher finds it reasonable to treat authors this way, I won't be submitting to any of the publications they own.