Subs for Issue 7: The Urge close at end of day today! 🖤

My schedule for Can*Con! My first time being guest of honour anywhere, and I have absolutely no chill about it. If you come to my kaffeeklatsch (sign up required) or my signing (no sign up required), I'll have some chapbooks I'm printing up to give away, while they last. Please say hi if you see me.

If you're an HWA member and have enjoyed reading something published this year, consider submitting it for the Bram Stoker Award recommended reading list. It's a great way to put a spotlight on your favorite stories! horror.org/awards/curre...

Shout out to @ajvanbelle.bsky.social for having their poem Star Stitcher included in the Year's Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction anthology!

So completely thrilled that my poem STAR STITCHER (@havenspec.bsky.social) will be in the Year's Best Canadian F&SF alongside this incredible lineup! What amazing company it's in. Can't wait to read everyone's wonderful work in this year's collection.

HUGE NEWS: We have signed a worldwide distribution deal with Simon & Schuster! Taking this next step with Simon & Schuster, and their sales team, will allow us to further our support and publishing efforts within the horror community. More here: shortwavepublishing.com/news/shortwa...

You can listen to me reading my Rhysling finalist hopepunk poem, "Star Stitcher," here:

Tonight is the last day for @sfpoetry.bsky.social members to vote for the Rhysling Award! My poem "Star Stitcher" is a finalist; you can check it out here: www.havenspec.com/st... If you're not a member of SFPA, still check out the finalists if you want to read some great speculative poetry.

Last chance to sign up to 6 weeks of Autumn Frights horror writing school organised by @alexdavis1981.bsky.social ! I'm running the first session Thrills & Chills on Tuesday evening and really looking forward to it! Tickets and details here: www.eventbrite.com/e/autumn-fri...

Pretty sure high-stakes cozy fantasy is gonna be a strong sub-genre. And pretty sure I love it.

My favorite thing about this guide? That I threw "saving the galaxy" at the end of a bulleted list like an afterthought. 😅

Epic hopepunk? Yes! #ABillionPaperStars is #onsub and gaining speed, and one day you will be able to meet Eleanor Close. Just hope you don't meet her in a dark futuristic alley.

I want world peace; global equity and inclusion; a restoration of atmospheric carbon to preindustrial levels; and non-cheesy, non-AI, royalty-free images of futuristic spaceships so I can use them in my Canva graphics. Not so much to ask, really.

This is my first time doing an unboxing video, and opening my copies of the 2025 Rhysling Anthology from @sfpoetry.bsky.social seems a worthy occasion for the first time!!! 📚

Not me reading "dive shop" and instead of immediately clueing in that it's a scuba gear shop, my mind went straight to thinking it was the shop equivalent of a dive bar. Brain fried 😂 🧠🍳

Just noticed I have a few openings left for this event tomorrow Sept. 6, if anyone wants to do a last-minute sign-up! This is the last live video meeting pitch event I'm doing until December. minnesotawritingworkshop.com

I wish I were joking!

This should not have to be said, but I've seen it multiple times so I guess it does: They/them pronouns are a way to talk about someone in 3rd person without assigning a gender. The second person pronoun is still, and always, "you." It's not, "Hey, they! How is they doing?"

⭐️ This is your periodic reminder to leave stars/reviews for books you've enjoyed! ⭐️ It doesn't have to be long or comprehensive—a sentence will do. Review numbers on places like Amazon/GR help the algorithm make those books more discoverable for new readers.

Been using LibreOffice Writer and Calc for months and have been loving them both! No intrusive AI, no obnoxious cloud, just text on the screen.

The lunar eclipse isn't until Sunday so maybe it's just haze making the moon look like this! IRL it looks more like a pinkish red, instead of orange as in the photo.

In my drafting process, autocorrect has occasionally changed Fir Bolg to Fir Bolt and, most recently, Fir Blog. Pretty sure Finn MacCool is either rolling over in his grave ... or getting inspired and setting up his WordPress or his Substack right now.

Well, I outlined a plot for the 3-Day Novel Contest this weekend. But my character insists on wearing the pants!

Any other neo gender people out here?! I wanna see all your beautiful faces on my timeline! #nonbinary #neogender #genderqueer

Can confirm, this poodle is so adorable she breaks the Internet. You will want to follow along for more! 🐩

To every trans and queer person reading this, we will get through this regime. Authoritarians have been trying to wipe us out for over 600 years and they will always fail. We will survive this because even the smallest act of queer joy, even survival itself, is an act of defiance against fascism.

I've been doing some general outlining for the 3-day novel contest. Am liking my plan. And then today I had a different idea that is literally just ✨cozy fantasy vibes✨ so I'm probably not going to switch horses to that one but I admire my imagination's optimism!

The first sentence you ever said as a child: do you know what it was? I'm told that at 18 months I shocked my mom with, "Seems to be children in the park, probably playing ball." I read an editor MSWL that includes theirs, and it made me curious! What was your first sentence?

Hey fam, it's time for the August indiebook.sale run by @narratess.com! There are more than 300 books in this one (including Dungeons & Dragon Dating by yours truly)! You should definitely check out all the books if you have the time, but for those who want help here's a thread of recommendations:

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

If you query me, there's no need to let me know you've received full requests from other agents. A few agents do want to know about full requests from others, but most, me included, only need an update on other interest if you receive an offer of representation!

In 2014, I thought I was quitting writing for publication for good. In 2018, oops I slipped and wrote an epic sci-fi series (which is still in the works so stay tuned) In case that speaks to anyone who wonders about whether to keep going!

I'm almost finished reading The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline for a project I'm doing (one that's still secret but not for much longer) and it's SO GOOD. Maybe I should make readers videos like some awesome people I know. Maybe I will. But sometimes I just want to say THIS IS SO GOOD.

Want to support @3lobedmag.com’s Kickstarter and maybe snag a signed copy of Haunted Ecologies or a short story/flash fiction critique from me??? If so, follow the link and support beautifully weird, genre bending speculative fiction :) www.kickstarter.com/projects/asf...

Favorite text I've received today: "At a zoo. Thought of you." 😂 The context? A zoo info board about mycorrhizal fungi, which live in symbiosis with tree roots, providing nutrients to the trees in exchange for sugars. Fungi can also communicate chemically over long distances.

More than 600 queries have landed in my inbox since I reopened 2 weeks ago. So much amazing material to read through.

#PosterPit #AG #C #HF In this dual-timeline novel, a feminist retelling of Beowulf is intertwined with modern scholars uncovering the truth behind the legend. A fast-paced literary puzzle that rages against the silencing of women. #WeBlameTheWildThings #OnSubmission

#PosterPit #AG #SF #A 150 years from now, a girl notices a boy living on the streets. She feeds him, teaches him, and eventually loves him. 35 years later, the girl is a criminal wanted by the interstellar military, and the boy is the veteran soldier sent to terminate her.

#PosterPit #AG #SF #A If you could heal with a touch, what would you give up? And what would you forget? It's too much fun making visuals for my sci-fi novella #APalmEdgeLikeAKnife 🚀🖤

Shameless follow up to say that if you enjoyed this, chances are you will enjoy VILE LADY VILLAINS — where this particular thing may or may not happen to one of the characters. I’d be so grateful if you preordered it www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0...

This guy has been dropped off to get an ultrasound. How long until I pick him up? The estimate is that it will take "a while." Which, one may note, is precisely the length of time Edward Cullen has been 17 🧛

Do not kill the cringe, but rather kill that within you which cringes.

It's time to do a lot more reading for this project. Which is still secret but won't remain secret for much longer 👀👀👀 As you can see from the images, I might be hinting at something a tad dystopian! 😉

Cover-shaped, you say? 👀👀👀👀👀👀

Very excited to take one-on-one pitches at the 2025 (Online) Chesapeake Writing Workshop on August 15-16. Join me! Anyone from anywhere can attend. Learn more about the virtual writers conference here: chesapeakewritingwor...

There is *so much* writerly news I can't tell you yet. Today is the second day in a row when it's taken a few moments after waking up before the memory hit me that something incredible happened the day before.

Excited to say I've joined #BandOfVillains, the street team for the upcoming horromantasy #VileLadyVillains by the brilliant @danaiwrites.bsky.social (@michaeljbooks.bsky.social & Union Sq. 2026). It's gorgeous and groundbreaking and I'm so excited to be an official team member spreading the word!

For NO particular reason, I'm thinking about my sci-fi series. #ABillionPaperStars is the book of my heart. For everyone who's ever been alone against the galaxy or loved with absolute trust that survives the decades, I'll bring this book to the world if it's the last thing I do.

📚 Tip for querying nonfiction! 📚 The marketing section of a nonfiction proposal is most useful when it describes *your specific* market reach. Instead of telling me the size of the market for books on your topic, tell me how many people you personally can reach, through: 1/

I'm taking online pitches at the Writing Day Workshop on Aug. 16. A great opportunity to pitch me live from anywhere in the world, or to have 10 minutes to ask my advice about querying!