Got an actual, honest-to-goodness fan letter! (Well, fan e-mail.) Whee!

@kenschneyer.bsky.social recommending a story about tax accountants for dragons

Across the US, university presidents, deans, and provosts are opening the academic year with the following nuanced, complex, and inspiring address: "First, AI. AI AI: AI, AI AI AI AI. When AI, consider AI, not to mention AI, AI, AI, and AI. AI AI AI AI. "In conclusion, AI AI AI AI AI."

My schedule for @readercon.bsky.social 34: kenschneyer.com/2025/07/01/m...

My take on Trump v. CASA, Inc. kenschneyer.com/2025/07/01/t...

Latest Mensa Research Journal contains an article supposedly describing the ways AI can be used to enhance human intelligence. About 1/3 through, I noticed that the article was unnecessarily repetitive and at a unhelpfully high level of abstraction. 1/

A portal-fantasy, time-travel story with Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie? Jeez, it's like the studio bosses said, "Let's market this to Ken." #ABigBoldBeautifulJourney

With the appearance of Hishashi Kujirai's Japanese version of "Laws of Impermanence" in Babelzine vol 4., my work has now been translated into seven (7) languages.

Completing my panel-selection process for a con, and noticing how great is the temptation to opine on subjects as to which I am not remotely qualified...

A lot of resistance work also will not SEEM like resistance work. People have a tendency to believe everything is dramatic like movies and comics when a lot of resistance is community building. Someone feeding friends who've had their SNAP cut is still doing something critical.

"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. /1

The United States might exist as a nationality or cultural identity regardless of what legal framework accompanies it. But the United States as a POLITICAL and LEGAL ENTITY does not exist without the Constitution. 1/

There will be moments when you wonder if it's pointless to do the right and ethical thing; to still care about justice and helping others when it seems like the worst people are getting to rob everyone else without consequences. Little actions still matter. Ethics still matter. Keep helping others.

Disrupt. And we disrupt by refusing to comply, pushing back against this absolute nonsense, and being vocal about what's happening, in a level that indicates how serious this moment in time is and how it is OVERWHELMINGLY unacceptable. What would YOU do to save your country? Your loved ones?

Judging from the trailers, the production premise of "Fanastic Four: First Steps" seems to be that F4 is an artifact of the 1960s and must be presented as such. Given the failures of the previous attempts, this may be the best working theory.

The 45/47 strategy at this point is to build as much unilateral control by one man as possible. The individual policies are nauseating, but he’ll sacrifice any one of them to get more of an iron grip elsewhere. /1

Resisters in WW2 frequently used the appearance of well-intentioned incompetence to great effect.

I have two (2) award-eligible short stories from 2024, so I'll remind you of them: -- "Tamaza's Future and Mine", @asimovssfmag.bsky.social (July/Aug 2024). -- "Winding Sheets", @lightspeedmagazine.com (#173, Oct 2024).

Brief thread on how we got here: Since the GOP won control of the House 2 years ago they have not passed a single appropriations package into law. Government has operated at funding levels set by Dems 2 years ago via continuing resolutions every few months. This is not normal.

Just for the record: I am *not* going to read every story ever written on/with a given theme, topic, setting, trope, technology, character quirk, magic system, or gimmick before writing one myself. I am not even going to read the "essential" ones. "This has been done before" is okay with me.

December 8 again. The anniversary of the deaths of my father, my grandfather, and (yeah) John Lennon. Not my favorite day. *sigh*

It doesn't matter that you're a lousy poker player, if everyone else at the table is worse.

I am now being followed by more people than I am following (and I haven’t been stingy with following people). This is the first time it’s happened to me, and I don’t quite know what to make of it.

This is the problem: No more vice-presidential nominees named Tim.

The cats and I continue to have disagreements about the lox.

I cannot tell you the number of times a writer, teacher, or other artist has recounted a moment when a stranger (or apparent stranger) told them that some fragment of their work had been crucial, life-changing (even life-saving) for that person. It even happened to me once. /1

Power was out for about one hour and 45 minutes. From the “bang“ I heard just as it went, I’m guessing a transformer blew.

I seem to have a lot more followers than two days ago. 😉 Welcome, everyone! The content of these posts will be variously literary, political, personal, astronomical, culinary, and sometimes shameless self-promotion. These will land in no reliable order. 😂 I have no patience with sloppy thinking.

If one more person tells me that the SCOTUS decision that the president is immune from CRIMINAL PROSECUTION is the same thing as saying the president's actions are LEGAL, I'm going to throw something. /1

Economically, we are almost exactly on track for a Great Depression to hit 100 years from the first one. Think of the election of 2024 as the election of 1924, and extrapolate. Look at US foreign debt and the prospect of substituting tariffs for high-income taxes.

While it’s entirely possible that Trump is serious about Gaetz, look for a bait-and-switch: Senate Repubs get ornery & outraged about MLG2, 45/47 withdraws him & substitutes someone just as scarily compliant, but -- (cont'd) /1

All opinions expressed herein are STRICTLY AND ENTIRELY MY OWN, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer, any organization to which I belong, my relatives, or the nice lady who sells flowers downtown.

I feel like an idiot, but I can't find the button that allows me to pin a post to the top of my feed. (I need a these-opinions-are-solely-mine disclaimer so my employer doesn't freak out about all the political posts I'm going to make.)

I do not offer comfort. This is going to be bad, and in some ways, very bad. And yes, we all need to be planning and strategizing, protecting ourselves and trying to protect others, and, oh yeah, trying to save the country while we're at it. /1

The Mythic Delirium Zoom reading on Saturday 23 November is a who's who of SFF voices over the past 2+ decades--take a look at the list of participants! One or several of your faves will be there. Come join us! (list of participants in the replies) www.eventbrite.com/e/mythic-del...

Marcheto's anthology "Cuentos para Algenon: Año XI" has won the Ignotus Award (the Spanish equivalent of the Hugo, I'm told) in the Best Foreign Collection/Anthology category. It contains Marcheto's translation of my story "Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition…[etc]". Delighted.

Horrified for the future of my country, frightened for the safety of millions of people here and around the world, angry at half my countrymen for actually wanting this, and ashamed for having failed. More coherent thoughts later.

Not sure whether to call this Keating's Law or Lupin's Law, but: . "The students who need the most individual attention from you will always have commitments during your posted office hours."

I'm delighted to report that my new short story "Winding Sheets" has just become available on @lightspeedmagazine.com! It includes an audio version read by the incomparable Stefan Rudnicki! www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/wind...

One marker of a good panel is that is makes you want to write something new, or in a new way. #readercon

Boston-area peeps: The first night of @readercon.bsky.social (tonight) is open to the public and free of charge! One of those free events will be my reading of my story ”Tamaza’s Future and Mine”, 8:00 p.m. in Salon C. The convention takes place at the Marriott Boston Quincy, Quincy MA.

This is Manoug, the new kitten. He has taken to launching himself onto my shirt from various positions, then clawing his way around until he gets comfortable.

Get to know Ken Schneyer @kenschneyer.bsky.social in our latest blog post. The humanities professor and amateur astronomer makes his long-awaited Asimov's debut in our July/August issue with the story "Tamaza's Future and Mine" [asimovs.com/store] fromearthtothestars.com/2024/07/09/q...

My schedule for Readercon: kenschneyer.com/2024/07/02/m...

@asimovssfmag.bsky.social #FavoriteStories Jul/Aug 2024 #Fantasy #SF Tamaza’s Future and Mine by Kenneth Schneyer @kenschneyer.bsky.social A deep, deep undercover agent confronts moral quandaries and questions about her very being—a more thoughtful and contemplative riff on “The Americans” narrative

Since we're all so excited about Laika making a Piranesi movie, I wanted to bump my revisit of Susanna Clarke's brilliant novel. reactormag.com/hugo-spotlig...

Just added 750 words to a partial draft I last looked at 16 years ago. My process is so weird. Oh, and it was previously a fantasy story and seems to be turning into a horror story.

I wrote the first draft of "Tamaza's Future and Mine", which will appear in @asimovssfmag.bsky.social in the next week or so (Jul/Aug issue), between May 31 and June 3 of 2023, and it was submitted to Asimov's on September 10. I have made no significant changes to it since it was submitted.

This is a very good, very thoughtful article.