Recent posts by Speculative Fiction Writers and Editors on Bluesky

Love to get marketing emails from companies wondering why I haven't bought the thing I was looking at when it. Is. Sold. Out.

Scammers keep on coming. Just a reminder that in no world would an editor at Penguin Random House have an email address that looks like this:

‘Deserts don’t seem to be susceptible to humans’ dubious achievements. Desert won’t vanish under the pressure of human activity; on the contrary, what frightens us is that it will advance.’ Rahmane Idrissa on a human history of the Sahara. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

If Italy had beaten Bosnia for the last WC spot, today would be INSANE in Toronto. We now play Bosnia at 3 PM, would have been Italy, and this is a very Italian-forward city. I have assembled my squad to watch on a patio. Wish us luck.

Good morning

New drugs arrive today. I do hope this is the solve. If not, I'll go back to doctor and try the OTHER med she prescribed and if THAT doesn't work, I have ANOTHER specialist appt in Nov. I have BOOKS TO WRITE. I am VERY MOTIVATED to GET BACK TO WORK.

Awww I'm pleased as punch! harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/youre-booked...

Oh man. Before Xena, before Red Sonja, before Grace Jones with a big fucking spear, there was... Jirel of Joiry. Bring her back!!

"Brazil will feature the number 24 on the pitch during World Cup 2026. And that carries a message. Steeped in folklore, the number is often associated with homophobia in the country." Via @globalvoices.org

Mum: Have you had a haircut? Me: No beard. Mum: Or lost weight? Me: No beard. Mum: Are you unwell? Me: No beard. Mum: Yes, that's it, your eyes have changed colour?! Me: No beard.

3AM coach to London... these gallery tours are going to be a bit...

me: but how could they possibly enjoy it any more than they already do?

‘It isn’t enough simply to condemn attacks after they occur. A response centred solely on policing is treating the symptoms while ignoring the causes, and may even contribute to further alienation.’ Luqman Saeed in Belfast, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Arm snapped off my glasses. I need them to read and write, so much of this morning has been spent messing around with superglue to make them useable until I can get a replacement pair

More agoraphobe adventures. As tempted as I was to wander along the sea wall. . . It was a bit windy and I wasn't daft. 🤣 #MentalHealthMatters #MentalHealth #Photography #WritingCommunity #Authors #Writers #SkyWriters #BookSky #Editor #Kidlit #Romance #Romancelandia

Good morning, Bluesky. I use Apple music on my phone and every week it creates a playlist called “Your Essentials” and it’s hard not to feel that this week someone said: “Do you think we can make Laura cry? Let’s make Laura cry!” (Nice try, it didn’t work, but I still felt quite targeted.)

Quiet sailing.

"how can recycling-focused projects go beyond environmental benefits to foster dignity, generate income, and open pathways toward social inclusion for some of the most vulnerable people in Latin America’s cities?"

Uggi’s face when I told him that the first foreign rights offer for DEAD WEIGHT just landed in my inbox

I can’t stop thinking about this and how it’s not satire? Like… recent history shows us why guns in the general population of Northern Ireland are not helpful! Very recent! Living memory!

Thank you, Stroud! The nicest audience an author could ask for. The golden ram is happily on tour! 🐏💫 Extra thanks to Hereward and his team at @ylbooks.bsky.social, Brimscombe Mill, and The Long Table Stroud. Other tour dates here: nataliehaynes.com/tour/

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 3: Reading your work aloud really helps. Try it: you'll spot at once the places where your dialogue is clunky and unnatural, or where your descriptions go on too long, or where you repeat your favourite word just a little too often...

The first book of today was a big one - The Bolyen Secret by Alison Weir! You could knock someone out with that book.

Trying to narrow down the classical setting of the new series of Taskmaster. Mosaics are usually Roman era, so that gives us… Pompeii? But there’s a Greek key pattern under Greg’s face, so maybe… Paphos? There are some amazing mosaics there with tiny tesserae. That pot on the right -

And this morning Mr Edwards is on a three-masted sailing-ship, navigating the coast of a land of waterfalls and mountains...

‘People are hemmed in on every side. Making a living has been made more difficult by the disappearance of Soviet welfare models and by the decay of social and material infrastructure in an environment rife with corruption.’ Greg Afinogenov on what Russians want. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Congratulations to Virginia Evans who has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026! We have a couple of signed copies in stock still, if you’re quick!

Times the cat tried to nibble my feet and my thigh today: 6, between 5:30am and 7:30am (Also the number of times I turfed him out of bed, and no, I didn't give him food until the usual time, though I suspect this wasn't about food but wanting to play)

-PRIDE MONTH ONLINE IN A NUTSHELL- Me: I'm doing a queer history tour at a gallery in London tomorrow! 😀 Someone on the internet: I am a middle-aged man from Massachusetts and I would NOT go! You couldn't even pay me! 😡 Me: ...ok?

‘It seems that, for now, the Treasury is winning the battle over whether to stump up an additional £28 billion over the next four years. Most of the media, however, are on the side of the armed forces.’ @desfreedman.bsky.social on defence spending, new on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Vida is amazing and this looks like a really practical business

Aha! Join our Discworld re read chat if you have working dms and fancy doing a discworld re read!

Good morning. We are open. 📖☕️

Now dm groups exist, is anyone interested in a Terry Pratchett re-read chat? I haven't started yet so it's speculative but could also include discussions of reading order ahead of starting. I was discussing it on here and a few ppl were saying they were pondering a re read but can't remember who!

On our Close Readings subscription podcast, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the strange hallucinatory power of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and Coleridge’s search for a meter that could capture the force of his imagination. Listen to an extract: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

I love publication day. Congratulations to Rob Potts. Today we publish and launch. A Football Odyssey - Passion, Politics & The Beautiful Game. Written by a fan for fans Signing books today - 4-5 pm @trumanbooks.bsky.social Marvelous. @bookcornerhx.bsky.social @grovebookshop.bsky.social

I'm excited to see group chats on here! It was my favourite thing on twitter! If anyone wants a nerdy dm chat group I am mad for them. Publishing chat? Doctor Who chat? Honestly not fussy, I just love secret squirrel spaces.

It's friday! Time for the weekly Good News Thread! Sponsored by my beloved, Santos, the MVP of the Pitt who has never done anything wrong in her life and the AI charting mistakes are entirely on management. #GoodNews

The ghosts of Fridays past.

Long day, but I’m taking my medicine in the balcony, the weather’s nice, and this gem is taking me home, where it’s always summer…

I would die so quickly if I lived anywhere there were wild tigers.

It's almost here! OF DREAD, DECAY, AND DOOM is absolutely epic! #books #horror

I recall playing the Amazon Game with @publishingninja.bsky.social. The rules are simple: you try to find a book that won't have a 1* review on Amazon. Some seminal work of genius and humanity that no sentient individual could possibly---no, sorry, you lose again.

I'm glad someone is speaking the truth.

I'm sorry did she just say she cut four minutes from her Broadway show

Some good news for your late night!

I was just talking to a friend tonight about how many parents have to work multiple jobs to stay on the housing treadmill, leading to them being increasingly absent. They don't want to sell you quality time with your kids. They want to sell you getting back to work.

I was just talking to a friend tonight about how many parents have to work multiple jobs to stay on the housing treadmill, leading to them being increasingly absent. We don't want to sell you quality time with your kids. We want to sell you getting back to work.

💙🐱🐱

This is a stupid question. 😃

Oh I see bluesky was bugging out and now we're all getting a million confused posts from each other because this site will post through an outage like no other

I just had to come into the living room and assist in an emergency frog capture because apparently a frog jumped into the house and was hiding under the furniture. 😂

ok I see this on my timeline but if I click it says post not found. now I'm gonna quote post this. for science.

I keep trying to favorite this post and then it is not favorited. I try to repost it and it doesn't seem to repost? does it not exist? is there a glitch? is the power of rainbow too much?

The sun is evaporating the mountains, burning through the sky. We’re all fucking ants under a magnifying glass. Let me turn this up, listen to Vicentico…”Quiero ver amanecer / Pero del otro lado ver amanecer / Pero que alguien se quede aquí para saber si yo sigo vivo” #photography

He's been in here for 45 minutes?? Not moving from new Man Cave??

NOTE: Much love to dispensary dude! I shared this as something cool. Been obsessed with the Cosa Nostra forever. Carlo Gambino for obvious reasons and occasional upgrades (once) in NYC hotels, but mostly because he was quiet, you know? Anyway, talked to Joey Gallo’s ghost recently…

Watching people with preconceived notions preconceive what DEATH OF THE AUTHOR is about is a trip. I want to tell them, “Enjoy the hole you’re destined to stay in”, but I’m too nice, so I just lurk.

HELLO THIS SHOW WHICH I HAVE ALREADY NAMED MURDER BESTIES WAS CUSTOM DESIGNED IN A LAB TO BE MY FAVORITE SHOW I'VE EVER WATCHED www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-o_...

I may have just moved my latest tomato seedlings into four rows of 3" pots divided by what soil/fertilizer method i am trying because I am gonna learn how the fuck to do this SO WELL before next year, I'm not paying for tomato plants next year and we're eating tomatoes until we die of tomato fever

@selfstyledsiren.bsky.social @bcdreyer.social

[7 hrs later] lol, lmao

Dispensary guy: “You from New York?” Me: “Nah, I live in Texas.” Dispensary guy: “But originally from New York?” Me: “No. Born and raised in Puerto Rico. You think I got a New York accent or something?” Dispensary guy: “Nah, but you look like a mobster.”

By and large American tanneries are super allergic to color but Wickett & Craig does do some good ones in its bridle leather.

www.flickr.com/photos/35025...

Please consider donating (I did)

Oh this breaks my heart. Her speech at my first Wiscon changed my life as an artist. I was lucky enough to get to know her somewhat later. She personally ordered me to write The Glass Town Game. Goodbye, Jane. Oh, I wish it weren’t so.

WBAL: “Who every now and then can give you length” — wait, what?

I've known about mammalian diving reflex. I've known that I adore and thrive in freezing cold weather. I've found it calming. Deeply calming. Duh. Freezing air on my face starts the diving reflex. You can get yourself out of a full blown panic attack with a bowl of ice water and your face.

National parks request public feedback on trump's arch. Which will block flight paths btw. Let's supply some. wtop.com/dc/2026/06/n... #voteblue #4thofjuly #realpatriots #democracy #ftrump #triumphalarch

Hawaii nervously looking around at a possible major hurricane season.

Dutifully reading and NOT playing Stardew Valley before bed. I actually don't even play Civ much anymore because it ALSO ramps up my adrenaline 😆. I can SURVIVE with a LOT of hacks, but the NUMBER of hacks needed to thrive at 46 vs 26 is vastly larger.

Here’s some Agnes Cecile art to make your Thursday a little better.

The best thing about group chats is the pressure to reply decreases in proportion to the number of people in the chat.

A thing I love about writing is the PROCESS OF WRITING because I can sort out & note down all the ideas, of course. But it is process that creates narrative. Often I don't know how I am going to make a plot point work until, as I'm writing, a solution slides onto the page. Boom! It's magic.

I'm at the airport waiting for a flight that was originally supposed to leave at 8 p.m. At 5:30 p.m. I got a text telling me it was delayed. This wasn't surprising as it's been a rough day for travel due to storms in Chicago.

A. Europeans carry beers around all the time, drink from them every now and then, and mostly don't get drunk. B. I have got shitfaced with a friend in a public park more than once, especially after my breakup. God bless you, Craig. RIP.

Think of it as evolution in action.

The bridge is in the penalty box?

Horse's-assplay incident.

OK, I have had my fun with the ladies, but I’m home now, doing the Lord’s work.

And it was today, on the last day of school, that I finally talked to that cool dad who always exchanges a quick nod with me while we wait at drop off.

We sent out ARCs for Buzzard to our paid subscribers today. And spoiler alert: I’m prepared to get real loosey goosey with this link for the next 24 hours, so y’all might as well go subscribe. 👀👇🏾 leftunreadbooks.binderybooks.com

We sent out ARCs for Buzzard to our paid subscribers today. And spoiler alert: I’m prepared to get real loosey goosey with this link for the next 24 hours, so y’all might as well go subscribe. 👀👇🏾http://leftunreadbooks.binderybooks.com

O death, where is thy prick?

Trump hasn't learned anything since he was two years old. GMAFB.

No one told me Widows Bay is... FUNNY???

@gammacounter.bsky.social prognosis?

Very excited to announce that we are hosting a virtual event with Danny Caine author of How to Defend Books & Why that is also a fundraiser for @authorsabb.bsky.social July 17 at 7PM. Link to register & for more info 👇

For true crime, Murderland was a staff pick here: portersquarebooks.com/book/9780593... for travel writing the Rick Steves memoir! portersquarebooks.com/book/9781641...

“You can’t repair the past, or the world, but OG Anunoby (who is famous among players and sportswriters for his quiet) could at that moment repair the immediate present, the shot two inches short.” —Jonathan Lethem on the Knicks’ stunning Game 4

if you had to choose between: -Dreamhost -Kinsta -Bluehost -Host Monster for your website which one would you choose? I am leery of Dreamhost bc we've used it for AABB and it seems buggy and annoying and it stalled out while I was trying to open an account.

I absolutely adore this exercise companion, its narrative, and its characters. And not just because I've written for it--actually, the opposite. (I was asked to write for it because I love it.) It's queer, community-oriented, disability-friendly, & constructive. And stridently anti-billionaire. :)

Last call for tonight!

FWIW: I wrote up a recent experience I had, talking to Claude, where I was talking about therapy, and it turned the conversation to suicide. I have some thoughts but I really want someone to investigate properly what makes these models do this. open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...

When I was in university, the art department had an old-fashioned Coca-Cola machine with glass bottles. I no longer drink sodas, but those cokes were delicious, especially after a night of partying.

Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon Trilogy were the first dragon books I ever read that didn't have pictures. I've read so many more dragon books since, but those were the first ones. I checked them out of the children's section of the DeKalb, IL public library. I chose them myself because of the cover art.

My problem. Is that on a Thursday night, when I should be getting ready for bed, I start thinking: could I make an AI chatbot which is a story? The storytelling and the game is to talk to it until it finally tells you its story, like a long conversation with someone who finally unburdens themselves?

I remember days not long back when my foot was hurting, I’d use the arms of a chair like that to stand up, too! Me and Yaz! (Saw him homer to win a game in Minneapolis on an August family trip, the year he won the Triple Crown.)