Happy Zohran Mamdani is the Mayor of New York City to all who celebrate 😭❤️

Breaking News: Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist who captured New Yorkers’ attention and ardor, was officially sworn in.

New York City has a new mayor

some beautiful fucking news to start 2026, let’s go Mr. Mayor!!!

For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction

They've started replacing the "welcome to the borough" signs so they say Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani instead of Mayor Adams.

2025, man. What a year, for so many reasons. Grateful to each and every one of you out there, flying besides me in these skies of blue. We’re all we’ve got, and I’m lucky to have you 💜 Here‘s to you, friends. Off we go, into tomorrow, where more stories await!

it’s all i’ve got

This set of observations is produced by my scrolling Reddit and otherwise listening to people talk about "how to write." A) there is no requirement that any of your characters has any sort of "arc" let alone a redemption. B) there is also no requirement that your fiction has a plot.

For those of you wanting to start a new project in the new year but afraid you're gonna suck, heed the words of the ancient texts:

I don't know who needs to see this, or who cares, but if I had a weird 2026 dream it would be: give me the chance to reinvent and rewrite Dial H for Hero, it is one of my favorite concepts in the DC universe and I would combust to be given the chance to write it.

Izolde is a delightful trans woman who comes to the trans nerd meet up regularly, and a valued member of the community. Alas, she's going thru a rough patch. And it's the end of the month, and a shitty time to be seeking a job and new housing. Can you please help her survive until January? <3

RIP 2025 2025-2025

My newsletter in 2026 is going to be odes to things that I love. It’s free and it’s gonna be fun. buttondown.com/megelison

You’re going to be okay. Someone will hate your book. You’re going to be okay. Someone will not get what you’re trying to do with your art and judge you. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to keep creating, in 2026, because you need it and because the world needs you to. Okay?

BEST NEWS IS BEST! So happy for you, Joey!! <3

For my hero of 2025 at @motherjones.com, I wrote about the late great disabled disability justice oracle Alice Wong, including her work with Disability Visibility Project, Crips for eSims for Gaza, and #CripTheVote. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Thirty years ago today. The most beautiful, hopeful farewell.

Black Nerd Probems won a Hugo Award in 2025! Will & Omar founded the site but this is a collective of writers, authors, streamers, editors, and more that keep this thang thangin'. 1/

My top books of 2025: 1. The River has Roots @amalelmohtar.com 2. Audition for the Fox @mcflycahill90.bsky.social 3. The Bloodless Queen - Joshua Phillip Johnson

Some reflections on my first year of publishing Love Letters: Reasons to Be Alive. What an incredible year it has been. How very, very lucky I am. (Unsurprisingly, content notes here for frank discussions of grief and suicidality.)

Heading into 2026, I'm still looking for fulltime or contract work as a senior writer or narrative designer. If you need someone who can write sharp characters, poetic prose, and emotional stories, I'm available! You can find my portfolio here: www.hazelmonforton.com

2025 Books We Loved: Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity by Lee Mandelo locusmag.com/2025/12...

The big Barnes & Noble pre-order sale is live! 25% off all pre-orders, including my own upcoming THE DRAGON HAS SOME COMPLAINTS! A grumpy dragon pretends to be tame so he can eat for free at the local dragon riding academy. Need a monster in your life? www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-dragon...

Hey, @barnesandnoble.com has a 25% off sale on preorders for their members from 12/30 to 1/1. Preorder _The Subtle Art of Folding Space_ at a discount. Debugging physics! A family reckoning! A status report in the form of an egg tart! #BNPreorder www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-subtle...

Captain Janeway & the Emily St. John Mandel novel once said, "Survival is Insufficient," and I agree. But there are years where surviving is the benchmark, and if you're reading this, it means you made it. We get to march into a new year together, with new dawns, new moons, new chances for more <3

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

Dear bluskeeters! I'm doing research with a friend. If you're a Black Author with a speculative book publishing in 2026, could you please pitch and link me, please? This a difficult to sus intersection. Please add your friends' work. Please tag people. Please share

please help. #mutualaid

Little tiny poem to start our week!

Includes @mcflycahill90.bsky.social's AUDITION FOR THE FOX

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Making trouble - Aesop's Fables - Sticking it to the man - Internships Try Martin Cahill's Audition For The Fox www.martincahillwrites.com/books A young woman of divine descent finds that passing her job interview with a trickster god requires starting a revolution.

A note: we have received 700+ submissions in 29 days. I can buy 4-6. CONSIDER THE ODDS. Imagine if all 700 submitters were also supporters of the magazine. Imagine how many I could buy then. Join our Patreon before 12/31 to get in before rates go up Jan 1.

A really good piece from @fozmeadows.bsky.social : fozmeadows.substack.com/p/against-ai

Little tiny poem to start our week!

He’s so good at storytelling.

Time slows, at year's end These numbers, mere suggestion Hours ooze, spilled syrup across days Try to love it, this controlled chaos Clean it later, if you'd like For now? Become the pancake. Embrace the strange sticky of now Make maple angels Luxuriate in sweetness Tomorrow is only a today away 🥞

Starting a tech company called HAL, that specializes in a friendly AI companion to watch over your home, complete with several different musical modes

My newest story comes out in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social on January 6! It is very very different from anything else I’ve written.

As we enter the New Year remember fear of making bad art is holding you back. Fear of people not liking your work is holding you back. Rejection is holding you back You'll make bad art, you'll have people not like your work, and you'll be rejected. Moving past it is half the job of being a creative

in 2026 instead of lore-diving whatever giant franchise benefits from your engagement try doing it with any writer/director with a substantial body of work but no “fandom”. Marie Ndiaye. Maryse Conde. Samuel Fuller. See where it gets you. If you gotta have a static setting do Mervyn Peake

Dune, Where's My Worm?

“Nothing Good Without A Price,” is on here from issue 10!!

You can’t crush ideas by suppressing them, you crush ideas by ignoring them. – Ursula K LeGuin

Knives out: the upper middle class are squabbling vicious children who do not deserve their inheritance Glass onion: the new elite are the stupidest murderous cunts alive and deserve your scorn Wake up dead man: those preaching anger as salvation are leading you to death, hope and kindness matter

Delighted to learn that 4 Weird Horror stories are on the HWA Bram Stoker Award® Reading List. Reminder that Weird Horror is free to read and that if you are still reccing year-end stories our 2025 issues, #'s 10 & 11 can be read here: www.weirdhorrormagazine.com

My new year's resolution this year, as every year, is to be a more available, supportive friend as well as an increasingly looming, formidable enemy.

I’ve been sending stories to @fantasymagazine.bsky.social for years and today is the day I finally have a story out with them! Wicked proud of this little post apocalyptic haunted highway tale :) psychopomp.com/fantasy/issu...

I have been infested by THE WORKS OF VERMIN by @hironennes.bsky.social and can only sing thanks to the mechanics of my transformation. What an absolutely brilliant work of art, and if it isn’t on lists for Best Novel next year, I shall dive into the Catoptric.