My pet peeve is people not understanding genre and the way it shapes character traits and behaviors.
If you watch a show about PIRATES and you're offended pirates do a little maiming as a treat, or a HORROR movie where creatures fuck'n'kill, then I don't know what to tell you.
It reminds me of those people who google how many words per minute someone can type then ask writers why their sequel isn't ready when they are capable of writing *this many words per workday per week*
Wordbuilding discourse is circulating again so let me say:
the average person does not know why the sky looks blue; they just know it appears that way because it always has.
Why do you need to explain every magical thing in your world and not let it be a thing that just *is*?
@TheAnthonyMark
@TheEqueerstrian
Fanfic is better than AI churned content because fanfic is all about things you like and are passionate about. Even amateurish fic is better than AI
The timing of the ai thing in publishing is so funny
*walks into an industry dying, underfunded, on fire, scandals under every rock*
Ai tech bro voice: hey this is the easiest money ever
@HaileyPiperSays
Oh yes they don't even want to read the projects made with their own machines
They are neither writers nor readers but a secret third thing (shitty tech bro)
The hypocrisy of the (white) author in question hiring a Greek sensitivity reader for her Greek myth retelling book "to be respectful", while behind the scenes she did digital yellowface and pseudonymously review bombed BIPOC debut authors....
OK I've had enough. How fucking dare anyone spread lies about Bethany, one of the victims of the review bombing, to deflect from the allegations
Here are 31 pages of receipts of the review bombing. Everyone, judge for yourself.
When you watch or read a fictional thing, you have to acclimate yourself to the framework of operation the media provides.
If the show has cannibal protagonists, the human eating is a given. It's "normal" & unremarkable because that's the POV you're meant to follow as a viewer.
I think writers should familiarize themselves with what AI covers look like, because I see a lot of people being anti-AI, then publish or promote books with a clear AI cover.
Or do we writers only care about text-based AI stealing our jobs, but stealing from artists is fine?
Engaging with these media is about suspension of disbelief, but also brief suspension of our own code of ethics in a way. Bc this is horror, it's not about characters being good and moral and flawless.
Example I just came up w/:
In a dark romcom, you're meant *by the narrative* to judge the serial killer for forgetting their spouse's birthday.
But you cannot judge them and their spouse for being murderers bc that's just the baseline! It's what roles they occupy in this genre!
@lindzmcleod
No one cares about prose anymore eitherrrr
I do not want AI to write invisible prose I want humans to start writing the most frilly flowery words imaginable π
Why don't rich celebrities who claim to enjoy literature fund magazines? I know a couple who used to do that, but seriously, why isn't art patronage an established thing that celebrities do anymore?
As someone who has published A LOT of flash fiction (and I mean, a lot, more than 100 pieces, many of them nommed for lit awards), both in speculative and literary venues, I wonder if I could create some mini worksheets of prompts and tips for those who want to write flash 1/2
LISTEN (rant)
So many of my favorite pieces I've written got 50+ rejections before finding a good home. And those stories tend to be the misfits. Too experimental, too weird, too difficult in subject matter or execution. And you know what? I see writers get disappointed after-
Take science and technology for example. We all use phones and computers and medicine without knowing exactly what they're made of, their codes or chemistries, how they work under the surface.
Why would magic in speculative stories be any different?
Briefly resurfacing from my cave to say that if you are a professional editor hired to work on a story, subtweeting the author's typos and grammar in real time is the most unprofessional thing you could do. Especially if the author is ESL/non-native.
Proud to announce I've sold a short story to
@apexmag
(my 16th submission to this publication 2018-2024 & 1st acceptance from them).
"Their Wings as Powdery as Bones" is a horror tale of sisters, an angelic apocalypse, the ones who are anchored, and the ones who drift away.
I know no one reads horror poetry, but I have a collection coming out soon, and I want to tell people that there is no wrong way to read poetry, especially sf/f/h poetry. Treat it like bite-sized short stories. Or, like an oracle's cryptic prophecies. 1/
It also reeks of entitlement. Here I am trying to write and pub despite several personal crises. I'm patreon promoing yelling at the void bc even a small base income would help A LOT.
And the AI ppl think they can train a machine to write and make money for them to sit and gloat
*Greece, a violently homophobic country finally legalizing same-sex civil marriage after π¬π· lgbtq+ activists fought hard for it for decades*
Some rando anglo: finally, those dirty backwards greeks will let us do the π³οΈβπ wedding island tourism they'd been so cruelly denying us
The SFF community is full of people who publish stories about fictional oppression and genocide.
It saddens me that the same passion for anti-racism and anti-genocide found in storytelling does not translate to the real life SFF communities.
The irony of her fake goodreads account giving 5 stars to Greek debuts and 1 star to Black debuts (from the same literary agency that represented her too!)
This is embarassing. The Greeks don't want you.
I'm thrilled to announce SUBMISSIONS are OPEN for speculative poetry on the theme of "Fungi".
So grateful to
@sfpoetry
for giving me the opportunity to guest-edit this issue ππ€
Please send me your mushroom poems!
The contract has been signed!
"Death Comes for the Sworn Virgins", my 3700-word genderqueer ghost story, has been accepted for publication in
@strangehorizons
π»π¦‘ππ
Just look at folklore. You do not expect folk stories and ballads to hold your hand and explain every single thing about them. Folklore expects you to immerse yourself and keep up with the inherent strangeness woven into our world.
So basically just give me a story where every third generation a woman births a bird instead of a baby and that's fine because that's just how things are, every family has their quirks, right?
Give me a spaceship that is just a regular sailing ship and the cosmos is its ocean
If you stay in this industry long enough, you learn to spot the writers that care more about accumulating power and connections rather than working on their craft. The entitlement that they be awarded clout and publications. The superficial/artificial relationships with peers...
When I slushed for Shimmer (and the very brief stint I did for DP) I was not allowed to submit. I was perfectly good with that.
I'm not eligible for the Ignyte awards. A policy I helped make. I'm NOT telling ppl what to do. This is just me and my stance.
I'm happy to announce that my Balkan ghost story has been published in
@strangehorizons
. I had an amazing experience working with
@ALWlikeahowl
to polish this story about death and transformation π¦΄ππ¦‘π
I don't know how many times we need to say it that the future of writing is just.... writers.
That's it. There's no other answer. No technology or innovation.
Do you guys ever think about how, with so many pro sff magazines closing, placing those weird, difficult, experimental, tragic stories is going to become harder than ever?
Less "why would authors submit stories with typos" discourse and more "why would editors not bother to fix eye-gougingly obvious typos before publishing accepted stories"
Tastes vary and that is fine
The only scifi I like is either near future semi-dystopia or science-fantasy (often alchemy inspired)
The only fantasy I like is fabulism and magical realism
(I am also a horror writer above all and I like my hauntings vague and unknowable)
It should be a crime that my writing is the best it's ever been at the same time that SF/F/H short form publishing is at its worst.
Everyone keeps going defunct. Keeps opening at erratic underpromoted periods. There are more subs than ever as well as fewer slots. AI is a thing.
Life's been kicking my ass a lot lately but but BUT I'm on the preliminary Stoker ballot TWICE with:
1) THE SAINT OF WITCHES, my debut collection of horror poetry, and 2) NIGHTMARE SKY: an astronomical horror anthology full of awesome people that also contains me!
This is a high-caliber TOC & the stories look unique & like sth I would enjoy reading. But the fact remains that this is an anthology of Greek myth retellings without a single Greek author involved (and a payment double the monthly π¬π· minimum wage, to put things into perspective)
Weβre thrilled to reveal the cover of FIT FOR THE GODS, an anthology of inclusive retellings of Greek myths, edited by Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams β available August 1st from
@vintageanchor
ππ Excited to announce me and
@FoxesandRoses
are teaming up with the awesome
@flashfictionmag
to guest edit a special flash fiction call for Weird Horror.
Read the guidelines (which contain our definitions of the genre) and send us your weirdness ππ
8. Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights
This one was tough and its not entirely AI's fault: the painting is REALLY complex (and frankly weird)
It got the general shapes/colors right, but went really abstract
A little something came in the mail π
I guess this means I can finally make an announcement:
My weird, experimental, longform body horror poem "Vanishing Act" will appear in a future issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
@fandsf
Fiction, but horror in particular, is about delving in the human soul... the intrusive thoughts, the trauma, everything that scares those around us but also our own selves. Readers SHOULD learn to sit with that discomfort. It's part of the human condition.
I just saw a TikTok video where a reader was debating if she should rate a book less because a character had a THOUGHT that offended the reader.
For those of us in the business of writing about the ugly parts of human behavior, this is what we're up against.
ππππππππ
Contract signed! Excited and proud to announce my queer, greek surveillance body horror "Who Sees All" has been accepted for publication in Monstrous Futures, an anthology forthcoming from
@dark_matter_ink
, edited by
@AlexWoodroe
π§Ώπ€
I find myself disliking the tiktok-fication of publishing, especially when it comes to anthologies and other shortform open calls. Potential writers appreciate clear guidelines and direct communication more than fun videos, trend/trope graphics, and *sparkle* aesthetics *sparkle*
Some writers pub in small mags for the joy of it, the sense of community, the confidence boost, the moment-caught-in-amber aspect of microfic as journal entry
We shouldn't encourage them to sit on a pile of their work like a dragon, waiting for the Paris Review to liberate them
What does it mean when submission guidelines say "we don't accept gore or perversion"
Like the gore I get. No blood and guts that's fine. But perversion?? What do they even mean by that? Especially in the current political climate lol.
--allowing a handful of "big" mags to dictate what is or isn't good or important storytelling is giving them too much power. Sometimes we mistake gatekeeping for taste-making. Sometimes we end up self rejecting or, worse, self censoring to make ourselves and our stories--
Oh this is another thing too!
Over-reliance on "worldbuilding" leads to readers needing everything spelled out and explained (when a lot of the time the answer is between the lines/gathered from context clues). This bleeds into writing from non-Anglo perspectives and cultures 1/
I've been reading some old stories published in still-alive sffh magazines and it's mindblowing how in 2015 stories were allowed to end with ambiguity or no resolution as long as they ended on an emotionally resonant note. But now it's like we must give short stories 3 epilogues.
A lot of creatives, myself included, are struggling financially (on top of other areas in your lives). So I would really appreciate it if magazines stopped giving us reasons *not* to submit to them. SFFH publishing is already suffering as it is, there's no need to make it worse.
Contract signed! It appears I am entering
@thedeadlands
with "Threnody in Dark Wood", a story about a professional mourner and the ghosts she sings inside her head π»β°π¦΄
Lit mags that charge submission fees while not paying contributors a single cent are so funny. Where's the money going babies?
If a spec magazine did this they would be chased out of the community.
Some good news, finally!
"We Are Not Yet Healed", my blobfish lesbian cosmic horror story, has been accepted for publication in
@dark_matter_mag
's The Off-Season anthology, edited by
@Marissavu
ππ€
Also people should be aware in general that if leftist leaning/presenting people are comfortable being xenophobic in public, 99% of the time they are being racist in private
Pleased to announce I've sold a weird, queer story to
@The_Rumpus
. It's about living inside your mother's cancer-riddled lungs. Also, about having a girlfriend who thinks she's dead.
It's here!!! πͺ²π³
My return to Strange Horizons is a body horror short story about a Greek village, its pack of half-feral kids, and the shapeshifting skills the cicadas taught them.
Read "Cicadas, and Their Skins" here:
I know the knee-jerk reaction to finding out there are books without punctuation/paragraph breaks/other difficult and experimental creative choices is to go "no, that's bad and lazy". But personally I like that books like that exist.
fun fact: the english word "clue" (originally spelled "clew") used to mean a ball of yarn or thread. it took on the sense of "a piece of help or guidance" because of the myth of theseus, who is guided out of the labyrinth by ariadne's clew.
Everyone talking about leaving twitter meanwhile this is the only social I have ever managed to use consistently without hating myself. Also this is the only place I can meet the kind of weird people that match my weird. Also promo. π
Oh! Oh! TOC reveal, I am in this!
I have written a Greek hospitality horror about an unleaving guest, a story which will appear in No Trouble At All.
"Echthroxenia" will be among a stellar lineup of some of my favorite horror authors.
Announcing the No Trouble at All table of contents! We adore these fifteen polite horror stories and can't wait to share them with you in June. Let's take a tour of the titles...
I wonder if the reason so many sff short stories have a happy ending (often forced/rushed) is because we feel uncomfortable with the idea of Not Knowing Stuff (therefore uncomfortable with ending stories in vague, open, or even bittersweet ways).
Contract signed!
A reprint of my flash fiction "The Light at the Edge of the World" (AKA the sad lighthouse story) will appear in
@PodCastle_org
next month! π£πΆπ