#sff
AVAILABLE NOW ON KOBO PLUS: When a world of conquerors run out of enemies to kill, will they find a new purpose for their existence, or just more enemies among their own? https://books2read.com/u/bMYvRk #koboplus #scifi #bookstodon #SFF
“Yesterday you were white, today you’re black,” Kaylee said.
“Well, my talent is to change races.”
“But which are you, really?”
“That matters? You change sexes. You were Kyle yesterday.”
“I’m always black.”
“No, you’re always you. And I’m always me.”
AVAILABLE NOW ON KOBO PLUS: When a world of conquerors run out of enemies to kill, will they find a new purpose for their existence, or just more enemies among their own? https://books2read.com/u/bMYvRk #koboplus #scifi #bookstodon #SFF
#WritingWonders 6.8 — How are weddings celebrated in your world?
Despite my small stories and excerpts to the contrary, weddings don't exist in this universe. I simply translated those stories into a modern Western-European context.
People live with their mother's family—her siblings, her mother, uncles, aunts, and maternal cousins. Men or women (sometimes with a brother) can strike out on their own, but a household is established by a woman when she has a child. Since there are no legal ties between a woman and men not in her maternal family, lovers may sometime post a bond contractually promising monogamy. Because of property stewardship laws, this never implies inheritance. Bonding is often celebrated amongst mutual friends (that approve of announcing such nonsense to the world), but never with family. It's usually a simple meal, but ultra-sociable people or celebrities may throw a party, without presents.
Presents are only given at the birth of a child or at birth anniversaries.
My MC's mother was a celebrity singer, but she and her lover chose to be monogamous. Instead of a party, she simply announced this to the world. (It put her fans on notice about pestering her or her manager.) Because of this reason, my MC has an acknowledged father. A woman acknowledging a father for a child is a rare thing, and is considered totally romantic. The man is expected to help raise the child in place of or in conjunction with her brothers or uncles. The MC has found memories of her father.
Businesses sometimes ask children to bond to create a stronger connection between families. This is rarely romantic, and since only the woman is verifiably restricted in her liaisons, multiple issues often crop up. (A character I discussed in another Writing Wonders, Crys, is expected to bond at majority; unfortunately, he's gay.)
The rarest type of bonding is when high ranking politicos bond families together. This often results in the closest thing that corresponds to what we think of a wedding. It usually results in a gala or a ball with all sorts of guests, besides from the two families and their friends.
This last instance is what my MC faces. In her case, it is very romantic, though there is a problem: She loves two men and is bonding both...
#BoostingIsSharing
#CommentingIsCool
#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
Time for the all-new #VisualWritingPrompt for June 8th, 2023
Write a single toot reply #SciFi story about this AI generated image.
#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #SFF #freewrite #dreamAI #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory #SmallStories #FlashFiction
Gelesen: Some Desperate Glory (2023) von Emily Tesh
#bookstagram #books #sff #sciencefiction
I came across a post about "Aestus" (Book 1) by S.Z. Atwell (@szattwellauthor) during Independent Author Month in April. It seemed to tick a lot of boxes for me: #Solarpunk -adjacent, #ClimateFiction, #SciFi, etc.... So, I gave it a go! I finally finished the novel about week ago and I have been thinking about it since. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Well-written, engaging, thought-provoking, with excellent characters. 1/4
Prompt: Red (Story #2)
I can’t remember which brings bad fortune, red sky at night or dawn. I guess it doesn’t matter, the sun rises and sets in a bloody glow every day now. They say it’s wildfires, why I can’t breathe—I’m more concerned about distance from the epicenter, the fallout to come.
#50WordFriday #50WordFiction #MicroFiction #SFF #SciFi #WritingCommunity
BCS #384 ebook is out early at @WeightlessBooks & Kindle Store and for subscribers, featuring stories of epic fantasy and the characters in it by returning BCS authors Chris Willrich and Margaret Ronald, behind cover art by Roberto Nieto.
https://weightlessbooks.com/fiction/beneath-ceaseless-skies-issue-384/
https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Ceaseless-Skies-Issue-384-ebook/dp/B0C71Q46WN/
#sff #fantasy #ebook #litmag
New World a-Coming, Ch. 30
The oenological assassin:
https://open.substack.com/pub/smithscribe/p/new-world-a-coming-ch-30
#SFF #serialnovel #adventure #timetravel #alternatehistory #fiction #bassanda
Find it at www.smithscribe.substack.com
Zoey eyes the closet behind their mattress shield and minefield of Lego bricks. “Do Legos hurt boogiemen?”
“He’s barefoot,” her brother answers. “It’ll hurt.”
“Okay, but—”
“Then we rush him,” he says.
They reach for kitchen knives as the closet door creaks.
Achievement unlocked: writing and completing a #SFF series in under a decade while having a full time day job, and a few side gigs.
At 283 pages, 103k words, after three previous books and several short stories written in less than a decade, the story I set to tell since I imagined it back in highschool, my science #fantasy series is complete. The main story of Tempest Blades is concluded.
Of course this is just the #WIP. The manuscript needs editing before being published. But hey! I did it!
Really nice selection of essays by queer writers about formative older queer #SFF works on Tor dot com #queerSFF
https://www.tor.com/2023/06/07/celebrating-the-books-that-queered-us/
Utopia Science Fiction magazine is published through the support of our readers. Those who subscribe as Patreon supporters are especially important to helping us continue publishing quality science fiction, poetry, and art. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter - you will earn our undying gratitude as well as a lot of other cool stuff!
Subscribe to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/UtopiaScienceFiction
#WritingWonders 6.7 — Where is one place in your world you try to avoid? Why?
[Is this a sequel? Hmmm...]
If War is a State, Can You Avoid the Place?
I don't know when I started shaking, when the world turned cold, started retreating from me down a white tunnel of perception. A whine ramped up in my ears to drown out the remembered angry shouts, the screams, and the sound of daemon fire. What snapped me back was arms encircling me, followed by gentle wings and downy feathers doing the same.
Bolt. She held me.
I never ran when others were in danger. I was a fighter, so I never went hysterical. I never flailed. I didn't hit. I shook. I held my head. Rocked.
Bolt said, "His bodyguards said ya'd had an episode in his suite. Your PTSD, a? From da gang war in Harbor City?"
I breathed in deeply, then out. The more people understood I was damaged goods, the less they'd stupidly rely me on solving their troubles. I was a teenager in the arms of a subordinate ten years my senior.
I nodded.
She hugged tighter.
Swallowing bile, I finally got out, "You got stuck between the crashed airship and the invaders that brought it down in flames."
Bolt said quietly, "I wasn't thinking, telling you my war stories. I'm so sorry."
I gulped. "I—It reminded me of Harbor City. People shooting on all sides, hiding behind postboxes and wagons. Trying to protect the boss who was too stupid to live, me having to shove her down." The lack of control. My voice grew louder. "Then I thought, 'Oh, I worked so hard to get that airship into the air.' Three dozen crew. An ensign who desperately wanted her discharge because she'd been so mistreated by her superiors. I'd gotten you and Citron onboard! Had you died...!" I shrieked, trembling again.
By now, Bolt felt my tears wetting her shoulder. Dignity, pride? I don't know which I morned, but both were gone, not that I had them to start with. I was a sharp tool, raised as a weapon, used as such, not really human. I deserved neither.
She patted and rubbed my back. "We done saved the city from a siege, ya know. Your doin'"
"Not me. You. And the ensign. Others. Not me. I—I couldn't have done it. I'd have broken."
Bolt chuckled, and I felt the buzz of it through my chest and back. "Nah. You'd have fought jus' fine. It's the thinkin'a'bout that's freaky."
"Maybe? I can fight a few people, take my bruises. But lots of people?" I shuddered, tried to pull back, but she didn't let me. "This war thing—Director Rainy Days is now talking offal that stinks of me having gotten that frigate in the air against the odds, but dozens of ships, together with me commanding captains who know what they're doing and I don't. I so want to avoid that. I don't want to go there, to that place. I can be responsible for myself, but for others? I don't know!"
Bolt knew where I was going. Rainy Days had made us her tools at the same, after our battle against her—and Bolt was the only one in centuries that had nearly killed the Director. She said, "If the Overlords of Equitorium really have your father hostage..."
Nausea came up and the whine in my ears increased. I really wasn't the one in control.
If my father hadn't been killed, then Rainy Days wasn't responsible for the crime I'd blamed her for. She'd given me hope of seeing him again, and had taken control of my life by doing so, and Bolt who'd bonded with me. Made Bolt my responsibility. I finished for her, "I will have to go there before Rainy Days plans come together. To save him, to prevent a war."
Now I hugged her back. We'd be in danger because we'd be the infiltrators. Me, Citron, the team, and Bolt, all in danger, her more so because she'd be be protecting me, who as Rainy Days' newly declared heir would be the highest value hostage planet-side.
I had no choice. I never did. I'd be going, one way or another, to the one place in the world I wanted to avoid.
#BoostingIsSharing
#CommentingIsCool
#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #microfiction #suddenfiction
The Trials of Baromir
In this fantasy story, Baromir spends two weeks out of his farming life visiting the continent he lives on.
Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/bzKRRL
Pre-order link: https://amzn.to/3Z0qDWU
More formats available after June 30
#bookstodon #selfpromo #SFF #booklover #fantasy
#Books #Ebook #Readers #readercommunity #Ebooks #fantasybook
#readersofmastodon #SFFBooks
Time for the all-new #VisualWritingPrompt for June 7th, 2023
Write a single toot reply #SciFi story about this AI generated image.
#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #SFF #freewrite #dreamAI #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory #SmallStories #FlashFiction
Sci-Fi Fantasy/Action: When the mortals forget their gods, the gods will remind them why they are mortals. http://amazon.com/dp/B0BL2NF99G/ #Bookstodon |#SFF |#MustRead |#Kindle
The school Rue was supposed to attend—which Nona said was excellent—was overflowing. Kids were being given disposable tablets and asked to do Khan Academy instead of assignments from living teachers.... the smoke kept blowing south. Burnt Canadians, they called it. They rated the Boston weather by how thick the Canadians were, and how many asthma hits they needed.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/04/24/135741/a-full-life/
Hej Uppsala! My programme at Eurocon 2023:
Friday June 9, at 18.00
Panel:
Sorrow and speculative fiction - Ways of healing a trauma and reinforcing resilience
Sal IX - 2
Saturday June 10, at 14.00
Signing with Oskar Källner
#Bookstodon #Eurocon2023 #Swecon2023 #SFF #SpecFic #Literature #Books
Let's do an intro!
Hello to all #SFFWriters!
I'm Jane and I'm an #editor and #sff fan who loves helping #authors and #writers. I'm always after a new favourite story!
I can help with #Copyediting #developmental #editing, #BetaReading or #Critiques. I also offer #HybridEdits - a mix of developmental and gentle copyediting.
Give me a ping to get a #freesample and find out exactly how I could help you.
www.33southtextworks.com
Sci-Fi Fantasy/Action: When the mortals forget their gods, the gods will remind them why they are mortals. http://amazon.com/dp/B0BL2NF99G/ #Bookstodon |#SFF |#MustRead |#Kindle
I would love to hear from people who choose to write in English instead of their native language: why?
English is my third language, and I went for a BA English/American Studies. I write in English because my 2nd language, German, just doesn't do it for me, and I'm not confident enough to write in my native language.
Why did you pick English?
He patted the metal owl. In response, the clockwork bird spun its head and hooted.
“Bubo isn’t a part of our mythos,” Athena sighed.
Hephaestus grinned at his handiwork. “He is now! Titans may clash, but stories like his keep us in humanity’s heart.”
Anyone else writing urban/contemporary fantasy? I see so little of you and would love to know who's out there!
Sci-Fi Fantasy/Action: When the mortals forget their gods, the gods will remind them why they are mortals. http://amazon.com/dp/B0BL2NF99G/ #Bookstodon |#SFF |#MustRead |#Kindle
Hey! A friend just launched a new audio drama. "Regina Prime." It's all done by her, and it's got some great voice acting, sound design, and nice bite-sized episodes. I encourage folks to check it out.
https://open.spotify.com/show/7iFDe3afqKAaCdbJy7wrJI
#audiodrama #audiofiction #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #podcast #writingcommunity #indie #reginaprime
The Trials of Baromir
In this fantasy story, Baromir spends two weeks out of his farming life visiting the continent he lives on.
Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/bzKRRL
Pre-order link: https://amzn.to/3Z0qDWU
More formats available after June 30
#bookstodon #selfpromo #SFF #booklover #fantasy
#Books #Ebook #Readers #readercommunity #Ebooks #fantasybook
#readersofmastodon #SFFBooks
Time for the all-new #VisualWritingPrompt for June 6th, 2023
Write a single toot reply #SciFi story about this AI generated image.
#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #SFF #freewrite #dreamAI #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory #SmallStories #FlashFiction
Sci-Fi Fantasy/Action: When the mortals forget their gods, the gods will remind them why they are mortals. http://amazon.com/dp/B0BL2NF99G/ #Bookstodon |#SFF |#MustRead |#Kindle
Primarily I write #ScienceFiction and #humor, but I've also written darkly comic stuff, fabulist satire, and some literary fiction. Once I was a prolific blogger of squibs, screeds and other drivel (some pure & some quite tainted with meaning.) I co-host a podcast. I teach at a university.
My cats are keeping me sane. (Ish.)
If you want to understand my rich inner life better, I recommend this #book: Alpha Max
This book hits stores today!
Bookshop.org is the alternative to Amazon that supports independent bookstores, so when it offers something of mine, I provide their link to the book. The science-fiction / technothriller crossover, SUBORBITAL 7 is a paper book here (and at Amazon etc)--and is also an #ebook.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/suborbital-7/18871631?ean=9781803363820
Live in BCS #383: "Fruit of the Memory Tree" by J.A. Prentice.
"Above, the branches creaked. I climbed careful, wary they’d snap and come falling upon us. There was a weight to them I had not seen before. Though the fruit blooming between grey leaves were palm-small, they seemed to drag the whole tree earthwards. This close, our laughter died away and we stared up, caught in the shadow of the tree."
https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/fruit-of-the-memory-tree/
#sff #fantasy #shortstory
Nice #SFF Kickstarter for an anniversary print run of Intisar Khanani's short fantasy novel Sunbolt, this is YA in a diverse fantasy world with a tone similar to Robin McKinley or Tamora Pierce and I quite liked it, the new cover is lovely and I'm excited about the prequel novella listed as a stretch goal! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/booksbyintisar/sunbolt-deluxe-limited-edition
I just backed this! There are some pretty sweet perks. Year's Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume One
Award winners. Award nominees. Hidden gems. All Canadian. All in one anthology. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kotowych/years-best-canadian-fantasy-and-science-fiction-volume-one?ref=thanks-copy #CanLit #SFF #SpeculativeFiction #Anthology #Fundraiser
My mentorship with Gurjinder Basran at the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive is coming to an end, and the current writing group I’m in takes three months to get around to workshopping my stuff. I’m looking for a writing group which meets every two weeks or so. Any speculative fiction writers out there want to make a little writing clique? I give useful feedback. #WritingCommunity #SpeculativeFiction #WritingGroup #Readers #Writers #SFF @indigenousauthors
The IGNYTE Awards voting is open to all until June 30. Check out the full list of truly amazing finalists. The voting link is at the very bottom.
Ruby Finley vs the Interstellar Invasion is nominated for Best In Middle Grade. The competiton, as you'll see, is STIFF. So honored to be here among all these stars.
https://ignyteawards.fiyahlitmag.com/2023/05/24/announcing-the-2023-ignyte-awards-shortlist/
#MiddleGrade #ScienceFiction #SFF #kidlit #Bookstodon #BlackFediverse #BlackFedi #BIPOC #books #reading @bookstodon @diversebooks #BlackMastodon
I found the timewarp hiking the woods of my hometown alone. It sends me back thirty years to my adolescence and teenaged body.
With adult courage, I ask out the shy girl I admired but never dared speak to.
Thirty years later she finds the timewarp, and says yes.
One of the things I've loved about being here is discovering new books I would never have heard about before.
Just picked up "Another Life" by @sarenaulibarri from @StelliformPress and while there, another book made its way into my cart - "After the Dragons" by Cynthia Zhang - looking so forward to reading both!
You can get them both directly from the publisher here - https://www.stelliform.press/index.php/shop/
Happy #PrideMonth 🏳️🌈
Spotlight on the troubled genius that was Jeffrey Catherine Jones (1944-2011). Some treasures of mine along with an excellent biography and more artwork at the link.
#JeffreyCatherineJones #TheStudio #Pride #PrideMonth2023 #LeighBrackett #AndreNorton #AndrewOffutt #Illustration #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #SF #SFF @fantasy
https://neotextcorp.com/culture/the-brushwork-of-idyl-hands-a-jeffrey-catherine-jones-gallery/
‘In his place, one hundred and thirty-two turtles down from World, Broadback the Turtle contemplated the universe.’
New today from Mary Soon Lee, a 400-word gem:
‘False Dichotomy’
Art by Sumit Roy
It is Mary’s 2nd story for IZ Digital; her 9th for IZ
Did you know there are The Witcher comics?
➡️ Find out more: https://www.howtolovecomics.com/2020/11/01/the-witcher-comics-guide/
📁 File under: #Comics #ComicBooks #TheWitcher #gaming #fantasy #SFF
Is a Tasty Nibble 🍪 the winning mood over a Huge Binge? 📚
#Sample for #Free
30 #IndieAuthors of #SciFi & #Fantasy 💫
#Novellas & #Anthologies Only!
https://books.bookfunnel.com/shortsandnovellasmay-june23/oz8sr79d1p
Interested in "Carl Sagan's Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe" by C. Gockel 😁
Has a cute (and familiar) white ferret on the front! :blobcataww:
#ShortStory #Novella #SFF #Humor #Android #DarkFantasy #EpicFantasy #AlternateHistory #Dragons #Aliens @sffbookclub @scifi @sffbipoc
Paying markets seeking submissions from speculative fiction writers this month. https://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/2023/05/87-calls-for-submissions-in-june-2023.html #CallsForSubmissions #CallForSubmissions #Writers #SpecFic #SpeculativeFiction #SFF #Horror #SciFi #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #WritingCommunity
"Mr. Fifteen was a hand-me-down Camera from Aunt Lucy when she died. She used to dress him up in a little suit and call him Herbie. When the Cameras were invented, so were many excuses to think of them as people."
Read "Mr Fifteen" by Tom Pike in Issue 6 🤖
#SFF #ShortSFF #ShortStory #ScienceFiction #SciFi #SpeculativeFiction
A nice bundle of 37(!) of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books in a nice bundle at Humble for $18, nb these do require a Kobo account to redeem, once redeemed you can download them from Kobo as Adobe DRM ebooks also but if you're exclusively a Kindle user it might be tricky- charity donation to National Coalition Against Censorship, remember you can Adjust Donation just below the pay button so more goes to charity! #SFF https://www.humblebundle.com/books/mercedes-lackey-valdemar-and-beyond-daw-books
OUT NOW! Kevin Brandon discusses his fictional true-crime podcast Diana's Monster, working on Batman: Stained Heir, his mother's social invisibility, getting specific about a fictional place, and the petty cruelty of small towns. Listen on your favorite Pod App, or from:
https://redcircle.com/shows/79493627-5893-4fb2-9efa-1d67ce982735
#audiodrama #audiodramasunday #audiofiction #interview #creative #sff #monster #supernatural #writing #indie #mystery #truecrime #batman #podcast
'The Eye of Argon' by Jim Theis is a classic of #SFF fan literature. But not in a good way.
It's so bad that back in the day we used second and third generation photocopies for drinking games: you would read aloud in the most dramatic manner possible and, if you broke into laughter or even cracked a smile you had to down a drink and pass it on.
You could get really wasted playing that game. And now you can play at home without needed to know someone with a copy:
Pat Murphy. 1999. There and Back Again.
An extremely thinly veiled pastiche of The Hobbit. Amusing, well executed, but not worth seeking out unless you're a completionist of one sort or another.
Hello, updated #introduction!
I'm a #poet, #professor, literary #translator, new media #artist, and #SFF writer.
I work in #experimental #poetics, speculative fiction, digital-visual collage, and hybrid works that blend the textual with the digital (including experimental film, #videogames, glitched imagery, and AI generated artwork).
I'm also an avid D&D player and Dungeon Master.
#DigitalLiterature #eLit #Erasure #Collage #SciFi #Fantasy #Horror #AIArt #VideoGames #DnD #TTRPG
#bookstodon and all those looking for a great #book to #read: I finished Another Life and highly recommend it! @sarenaulibarri creates a wonderful #solarpunk society that lifts various parameters of regenerative futures. And the tactics for getting there are realistic.
Another great book from @StelliformPress #Climate #CliFi #SFF
I added it to the "Great Reads" section of my website today. http://brightflame.com/books-i-recommend/
#WritingWonders 6.2 — Were any of your fictional settings inspired by real world locations?
I am going to interpret this question so it is yes. (And sneak in some #writingadvice.)
When I wrote the original story, my main character related that she was being blackmailed for having been in a gang. It allowed her to be good at fighting while coming across a nihilist. I got glimpses of a gang war and a city block on fire, and what she had to put up with (and submit to) to rise in the ranks of male lieutenants. The darkness evoked a sooty heartless cityscape, which fit in with detective noir images of the gritty cities of the northeastern US in the mid 1900s. You could call that inspiration, right?
Then I decided to write a prequel to the original story that related that edgy backstory.
I ended up choosing a set of cities: Baltimore, Princeton, and Brooklyn, with secondary roles for the Jersey coast opposite Brooklyn across the bay, Philadelphia, and little towns and parks in between. While I didn't actually set the story in these places, because this story doesn't take place in modern times or a recognizable world, I employed maps of the region.
Using actual geography is helpful for numerous reasons. It limits the movement of characters and suggests obstacles in their adventures. Having to deal with how bus lines are laid out, and posted bus and light rail schedules, can add worsening to a story. It makes the story feel real.
I use Google Maps to find interesting associated businesses and government buildings consistent with the story. I often use street view to suggest what the characters might see, hear, or smell. That filters into the description. Sometimes I use actual street- and place names, as I did in Fight for Real (https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110317141401752671). The 17 Restaurant in the story exists in Baltimore, as does the intersection. Find it in street view and see what I based the descriptions upon!
Street maps are helpful for laying out a believable marathon route.
Maps with building layouts are good for find a building to duck into to loose a tail that has doors on the opposite street.
Rental maps are good for finding a place for the MC to rent an apartment where there might be a close restaurant for important scenes to take place.
Finding a suitable apartment might lead to determining how far a character might realistically have to run—through an Ivy League university—to reach a train station while being chased by assassins. In that same neighborhood you might need a coffee house to meet a magic tutor, or need to find a suitable a cul-de-sac to be ambushed by goons.
I could randomly layout towns and cities. Sometimes I do. However, city planning, whether it was done via zoning or stupid urban sprawl, has a consistency that adds a layer of realism. The composition of the neighborhoods and the distances between places keep me from making things appear unnaturally hard or easy for the characters. Also, why invent the wheel? Drafting cities is another way to procrastinate. (As is scrolling around online street views, admittedly.)
#BoostingIsSharing
#CommentingIsCool
#writingAdvice #fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #urbanplanning #map #googlemaps
😅Oh my gosh! In my Excitement yesterday, I forgot to say THERE ARE PRE-ORDER BONUSES!
https://cmaudiobook.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
💜 Short stories "Runtime" and "Always Be You"
🔥Narrated short story "Un-Dead" MP3
🎵"What You Remember" and "Dream Sweet" MP3s
🎨 6 character portrait wallpapers
#IndieAuthor #LGBTQ #PrideMonth #SelfPromo #SFF #Audiobook #ChameleonMoon
What a beautiful, optimistic piece of speculative fiction.
I don’t hate dark SF, but sometimes it’s nice to read about the hopes and dreams that we still have for the tech we build.
Thanks for this, @naomikritzer. It was just what I needed today.
@tomclearwood @ami @gutenberg_org
Gutenberg also has a large library of pulp science fiction from the 20's to the 50's. A surprising amount of stuff published in the monthlys is public domain. Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, etc. #SFF
Virgil Finlay interior illustration for "...As Others See Us" by Raymond F. Jones published in Fantastic Adventures, May 1951. Jones is best known for his 1952 novel "This Island Earth" which was adapted into the 1955 film. #FinlayFriday
#VirgilFinlay #RaymondFJones #ThisIslandEarth #FantasticAdventures #Pulps #WeirdTales #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #SF #SFF #Illustration #PenandInk @sciencefiction @fantasy
Huge 🙌🏼 THANK YOU 🙌🏼 to Lydia Fletcher of Library Journal for the rave review of our forthcoming #SFF #SciFi novel A SECOND CHANCE FOR YESTERDAY. We are honored.
Review (paywalled):
https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/a-second-chance-for-yesterday-1797589
Via Arlington Public Library (free):
https://libcat.arlingtonva.us/Record/318818
Hey, @bookstodon, did you really, really want to like Gormengast, but just found everything about it too disagreeable?
Have a gander at Mordew, by Alex Pheby. All the Gormengast vibes, but none of the disagreeableness.
Topic: Contrarian Barbarian's Book Club (Of greatness!)
@bookstodon I'm popping this up once more, just in case anyone else wants to join before our first meeting in late June.
Is anyone out there interested in being a part of a Contrarian Barbarian's Book Club where we read whatever the hell we want individually and meet up once a month on the newly formed Contrarian Barbarian Discord server to tell each other about it for a couple of minutes each and then discuss? (All genres/fiction/non-fiction on the table.)
The key focus would be sharing books we love with other people in a positive way. It'd have the diehard rule that if you freakin' love a thing, no one can be negative about it because that would be raining on your parade and your parade is spectacular dammit!
All time zones welcome to say hi!
LGBTQIA++, disability and neurodivergent friendly, with a structure with set rules of conduct--meaning that boorishness (repeatedly talking/typing over people and not respecting boundaries) or trollishness gets booted with the might of Gandalf warding off the Balrog.
If you like the sound of this, reply to this and tell me about the book you love most with the power of the sun.
We've already got a bunch of amazing people and the more the merrier! :blobsmilehappyeyes:
#books #bookstodon #sff #horror #scifi #crimefiction #nonfiction #reading #genrefiction #scifi #mystery #literature #history #botany #romance #science #reading
Last promo post of the day -this #PrideMonth on #itchio only, my ENTIRE collection of really #Queer #Ebooks and #IndieGames is half off! All month! :D
Enjoy, and celebrate our continued existence on this planet. I expect to see a lot more. <3
Happy #PrideMonth, y'all! (Or Wrath, or Sloth, or...) Rather than a company with a rainbow sticker, I'm an actual #Queer #IndieAuthor! 🌈
I can't think of any better day to announce that my first #Audiobook, CHAMELEON MOON, is complete at 16 glorious hours of enhanced narration and original music...
And pre-orders are open right now!! 💜
https://cmaudiobook.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
#Author #SFF #SpeculativeFiction #Books #QueerBooks #Indie #ChameleonMoon #lgbtq
In my “Looking Back on Genre History" segment on Episode 647 of the #StarShipSofa #podcast, I talked about #TheHouseOfNight, #Watchmen, and how #SFF works have discussed and brought attention to the #TulsaRaceMassacre of 1921.
#ScienceFiction #Fantasy #Greenwood #Tulsa #Books #Bookstodon #Comics #Television #SpeculativeFiction
http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2020/11/18/starshipsofa-no-647-frederick-gero-heimbach/
Read my short story "Élan Vital" in ✊🏾 Black Sci-Fi Short Stories ✊🏾 edited by Tia Ross
It's a story of dealing with loss, of holding on, and of letting go. It's dedicated to my mom 💖
The anthology is available in hardback and is fabulous! Get it today:
https://ktempestbradford.com/bibliography/black-sci-fi-short-stories/
#SFFBookClub #books #reading #bookstadon #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #SFF #ShortFiction
Time for the all-new #VisualWritingPrompt for May 29th, 2023
Write a single toot reply #SciFi story about this AI generated image.
#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #SFF #freewrite #dreamAI #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory #SmallStories #FlashFiction
5 page preview of THE HUNGER AND THE DUSK on IDW's instagram right now! #bookstodon #comics #sff
https://www.instagram.com/p/CszHdCBMCxy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Since I'm trying to spread the joy everywhere: current Humble Bundle has 20 #sff audiobooks for $20 and it includes ALL SIX MURDERBOT AUDIOBOOKS!
Go, do yourself a favor and get them. Murderbot is a literary comfort food.
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/marthawells-agriddle-and-more-audiobooks-books
This is one of my only published pieces at the moment. It's a short story about a mage who feels personally obligated to let a cute little elf girl know that she's been catfished by an orc that his pegacorn killed in the woods. He found the orc's cell and was morose at what this orc had been doing to this poor elf for centuries.
I wrote under a pseudonym. The wife I dedicated this story to had her mom pay a man to kill me, though.
Happy #TowelDay friends. Here's a recording of me interviewing #DouglasAdams 25 years ago. We talk about the internet, video games, and the arbitrary nature of the Gregorian calendar. https://archive.org/details/ASDA042198 #scifi #sff
*straightens special writing pajamas, smooths down totally chaotic hair and puts on the glasses that make me look like my neurons zap alluringly...*
Hello lovely #book reviewing people. Or people who are intrigued at the idea of reviewing a book. Or people who love alt-history or comic fantasy.
If anyone is intrigued at the thought of reading a funny alt-Tudor history fantasy whodunnit, I have ebook review copies of my new novel, OverLondon available that are, even now, doing a dodgy digital dance, desperate to be prodigiously perused. (I couldn't help myself.)
OverLondon is sexy, it's orange, it features a world created by Anne Boleyn after she's gone on a rampage and it's even got crime solving pirates. (Pirates!)
It's got a cover quote from C.K. McDonnell which made me almost widdle my pants in happiness and... did I mention it has a crime solving pirate?
I can't promise that reading this book for review will imbue you with a confident pirate strut for the ages and gift you with the charisma of a thousand dashing swashbucklers, but it might.
So... just reply to let me know if you want a copy for review... and if you don't, that's totally cool!
Thank you very much for reading my post.
I am now going to make a cup of tea with two bikkies on the side while right-hand-turning-only dog snores at my feet. You're welcome to join me:)
#sff #comedy #crimefiction #terrypratchett #fantasy #review #bookreview #booklover #bookstodon #books #history #review #ebooks #reading
Fanatical is now offering one of these #ebook BUNDLES, this one for CYBERPUNK /DYSTOPIAN books; "tier one" which seems to cost *one dollar*(!) includes two of my cyberpunk novels, ECLIPSE and BLACK GLASS. And another novel by another fella. Or you can get the whole bundle, a buncha novels, cheap. I've never bought books this way, but it seems like a good deal to me (they contracted with me for this of course).
https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/cyberpunk-dystopia-novels-collective-bundle?v=4694
"Narratives that use robots and androids to represent the Other often don’t interrogate the assumptions about humanity at their core because they fail to answer one question:
Why are so many androids white?"
Read the rest of my essay "Androids and Allegory" at Twelfth Planet Press.
https://motherofinvention.twelfthplanetpress.com/2018/07/02/androids-and-allegory/
#SFF #ScienceFiction #SciFi #BlackMastodon #BlackFediverse #JanelleMonae #ChesyaBurke
Time for the all-new #VisualWritingPrompt for May 22nd, 2023
Write a single toot reply #SciFi story about this AI generated image.
#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #SFF #freewrite #dreamAI #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory #SmallStories #FlashFiction
Long ago there was a zine called Electric Velocipede and they published one of my best stories: Enmity
Sadly, EV no longer exists and even the website is gone. Seemed a good time to republish the short on my website.
Read the story here:
https://ktempestbradford.com/bibliography/enmity-by-k-tempest-bradford/
#reading #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #SFF #ShortFiction #Fantasy #myth #goddess #TreeGoddessSerpent
Time for the all-new #VisualWritingPrompt for May 21st 2023
Write a single toot reply #SciFi story about this AI generated image.
#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #SFF #freewrite #dreamAI #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory #SmallStories #FlashFiction
For context about this month's #WritingWonders posts, they're from a new science fiction series I'm working on that will be published later this year.
https://www.ryansouthwickauthor.com/enigma
(I should have posted this in the beginning! 😊 )
#Enigma #LostColonies #SciFi #sff #AmWriting #WritingCommunity #AuthorLife
Meet the Vengeful Queen Anne Boleyn. Metal style! She's got Henry VIII's head in an arrow box and she isn't telling anyone where it is...
This is what happens when a metal head comic sff author is challenged to create a book trailer on their day off, after they've been listening to an extraordinary amount of Parkway Drive.
Right-Hand-Turning-Only house sitting dog here in Berlin has been looking at me funny. I suspect he is not a metal fan. He's more a Sade fan I think... maybe with a bit of Sting thrown in. "He's a smooth operator... right hand turning smooth operatorrrrr."
(Dog is not amused. I am greatly amused.)
#FinlayFriday meets #MerMay
Virgil Finlay preliminary cover design for the July, 1948 issue of Fantastic Novels, which the editor rejected in favor of this basic Lawrence Stevens woman in peril by blue meanie cover. Unbelievable.
#VirgilFinlay #LawrenceStevens #Mermaid #Fantastic #Pulps #WeirdTales #Illustration #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #SF #SFF @sciencefiction
The 🌠 Nebula Award Winning 🌠 middle grade novel Ruby Finley vs the Interstellar Invasion has...
🔬 A Black girl who loves science
🕵🏾♀️ Mystery & Adventure
🐝 BUGS
👵🏽 Loving family
👭🏽👭🏽 A ride or die friend group
💕🏘️ A tight-knit community
👇🏽 Join Ruby's adventure today 👇🏽
https://ktempestbradford.com/books/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=rubyfinley2023
#SFFBookClub #books #reading #bookstadon #MiddleGrade #SFF #ScienceFiction #SciFi
New graphic tee design - Black Wizard With His Blue Dragon Familiar A new graphic tee design: Black Wizard With His Blue Dragon Familiar:
Bit of a mini re- #introduction as I've lost all my mastodon.social follows/followers recently and am hoping to reconnect with those folks. I'm a #StreetPhotographer based in #Boston, and was formerly an academic philosopher writing about #AnimalLiberation.
I'm an #anarchist and #vegan. I enjoy #SciFi and #fantasy #SFF literature, as well as learning #languages. (Currently working on Spanish and Italian.)
I am a #football #soccer fan, and support #Barça, #ASRoma, #FCSP, and #celtic
A #SFF new release maybe of interest, Rachel Neumeier's No Foreign Sky is the author's first space opera (I've liked what I've read of her fantasy) and seems to center on a Cherryh-like human-alien cooperative society, looking forward to trying this one out https://www.amazon.com/No-Foreign-Sky-Rachel-Neumeier-ebook/dp/B0BY9LXJJY/
I need to do an updated #introduction post, since my pinned posts are now out of date. I'm an Assistant Fiction Editor at Utopia Science Fiction Magazine and we are interested in reading your work!
Send us your #sff & #scifi #fiction, #poetry and short nonfiction #science articles. Submission guidelines here: https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/submit
Also, our current issue (see image!) is on sale now! Get a copy here: https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/
Who wouldn't want a guide to the "Best Worst City on the Globe!"? Impress your friends and torment your enemies with intrepid feats of armchair travel!
All subscribers to our magnificent newsletter will receive their very own ebook copy of A Tourist's Guide to OverLondon, written in imaginary collaboration with the OverLondon Guild of Rat Catchers.
It's got pictures and diagrams and everything! If you like #terrypratchett #sff #montypython or just plain oddness, this may be for you!
(And if it's not your cup of tea, that's perfectly fine! You can always have a cuppa and ruminate on the daftness of authors making things that aren't their actual books for sale because they decided to procrastinate for an entire week last month. Why? No one knows!)