We are delighted to announce the selection of two new Otherwise Fellows: illustrator and animator Aude Abou Nasr and author Ayida Shonibar @ayidashonibar .
https://otherwiseaward.org/2026/02/announcing-2025-otherwise-fellows
#SFF #illustration #fantasy #ChildrensLiterature #sciencefiction #horror
We are delighted to announce the selection of two new Otherwise Fellows: illustrator and animator Aude Abou Nasr and author Ayida Shonibar @ayidashonibar .
https://otherwiseaward.org/2026/02/announcing-2025-otherwise-fellows
#SFF #illustration #fantasy #ChildrensLiterature #sciencefiction #horror
I couldn't resist this bundle for loving friendships... So I put The Lucky Machine in. 💜 Support 37 SFF creators at just $35+ from Feb 1st through Feb 15th on Itch: https://itch.io/b/3486/friendship-centered-sff
I couldn't resist this bundle for loving friendships... So I put The Lucky Machine in. 💜 Support 37 SFF creators at just $35+ from Feb 1st through Feb 15th on Itch: https://itch.io/b/3486/friendship-centered-sff
Glennis Cochrane did well from the divorce from Chuck. Despite his wealth, he had decided to represent himself, and, well, you know what they say about that. That he also decided to represent himself in the criminal assault case resulting from what happened outside the court was just icing on the cake. Court officials do not take well to being punched. 10-15 years before any chance of parole.
She sold the house, and purchased a charming heritage building near the CBD. A two story house with an attic. The estate agent said he was obliged to disclose that the house was haunted. Glennis laughed it off..
The reality was that the house really was haunted. She hadn't seen the ghost, but she'd heard it, and seen the effects.
Most noticeable was that the ghost was obsessive about the way the kitchen was set out. The pots and pans had to be just so. The crockery stacked the right way. And the pantry organised by date.
Once she'd figured that out, the ghost started on the bathroom. Then the living room.
The ghost had strong opinions about art. A Mondrian print ended up on the floor, but a Pollock reproduction stayed. Family photos were safe, but often got rearranged. Sometimes in different ways - it seemed that the ghost had moods. Her own paintings were untouched.
And that brought on the studio. Glennis had cleaned out the attic, and had a skylight put in, and set up the area as a studio. Every morning, her brushes would be cleaned, and but any work she'd covered would be uncovered.
Gradually, she started to feel someone watching her as she painted. Just the edge of a shadow out of the corner of her eye. A flicker of movement. So she started talking to the ghost.
About her day, about the divorce, about the current painting, the day's news. Just talking. When she told the presence about Chuck getting dogpiled by the court security team, she was certain she heard a hint of a giggle. And saw the hint of a figure.
---------------------------
Next we have the most famous work by Glennis Cochrane: "Past and Present" where you can see a ghostly outline of a young woman in formal late Victorian clothes on an IKEA lounge chair, illuminated by a shaft of dusty sunlight.
The artist always insisted that it was painted from a live sitting, but no attribution for the model has been found.
What am I bid?
#SF #SFF #UrbanFantasy #ghost #art #SciFi #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting
Glennis Cochrane did well from the divorce from Chuck. Despite his wealth, he had decided to represent himself, and, well, you know what they say about that. That he also decided to represent himself in the criminal assault case resulting from what happened outside the court was just icing on the cake. Court officials do not take well to being punched. 10-15 years before any chance of parole.
She sold the house, and purchased a charming heritage building near the CBD. A two story house with an attic. The estate agent said he was obliged to disclose that the house was haunted. Glennis laughed it off..
The reality was that the house really was haunted. She hadn't seen the ghost, but she'd heard it, and seen the effects.
Most noticeable was that the ghost was obsessive about the way the kitchen was set out. The pots and pans had to be just so. The crockery stacked the right way. And the pantry organised by date.
Once she'd figured that out, the ghost started on the bathroom. Then the living room.
The ghost had strong opinions about art. A Mondrian print ended up on the floor, but a Pollock reproduction stayed. Family photos were safe, but often got rearranged. Sometimes in different ways - it seemed that the ghost had moods. Her own paintings were untouched.
And that brought on the studio. Glennis had cleaned out the attic, and had a skylight put in, and set up the area as a studio. Every morning, her brushes would be cleaned, and but any work she'd covered would be uncovered.
Gradually, she started to feel someone watching her as she painted. Just the edge of a shadow out of the corner of her eye. A flicker of movement. So she started talking to the ghost.
About her day, about the divorce, about the current painting, the day's news. Just talking. When she told the presence about Chuck getting dogpiled by the court security team, she was certain she heard a hint of a giggle. And saw the hint of a figure.
---------------------------
Next we have the most famous work by Glennis Cochrane: "Past and Present" where you can see a ghostly outline of a young woman in formal late Victorian clothes on an IKEA lounge chair, illuminated by a shaft of dusty sunlight.
The artist always insisted that it was painted from a live sitting, but no attribution for the model has been found.
What am I bid?
#SF #SFF #UrbanFantasy #ghost #art #SciFi #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting
Planting Life in a Dying City
Left alone after a tsunami destroyed eir village, Lefeng would have walked into the mountains and not looked back. A child lost on the trails redirected eir course and another survivor planted the seed of an idea – a new family. Lefeng's commitment to those ey comes to love will take em to the hated city and a new way of life. But in a slowly dying city, Lefeng's determination can only carry eir family so far.
Available on
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1846933
Other retailers: https://books2read.com/u/3JOR5E
And now on Itch!
https://jess-mahler.itch.io/planting-life-in-a-dying-city
Delighted to report that my essay 'Should Galadriel have taken the Ring?' has been nominated for the BSFA Award for Best Short Non Fiction and Speculative Insight have made it free to read for the voting period. So, be my guest (and BSFA members please consider voting for it).
#galadriel #lotr #tolkien #bookstodon #fantasy #sff #fairyqueen #bsfaawards2026 #bsfa #bsfaawards #essay
https://www.speculativeinsight.com/extras/galadriel
Delighted to report that my essay 'Should Galadriel have taken the Ring?' has been nominated for the BSFA Award for Best Short Non Fiction and Speculative Insight have made it free to read for the voting period. So, be my guest (and BSFA members please consider voting for it).
#galadriel #lotr #tolkien #bookstodon #fantasy #sff #fairyqueen #bsfaawards2026 #bsfa #bsfaawards #essay
https://www.speculativeinsight.com/extras/galadriel
Bolt works for the mob. A primary motivator for how she deals with the civilians trying to enter her life is not letting them get hurt by her employers. Discovering a child needing care, but whom has no parents she can find, would send her into a tail spin (figuratively only, since she's a day angel that can fly). Becoming attached would be catastrophic for her and the kid. There are few things she would go to the constabulary to deal with, but she'd risk the coppers for the sake of a child. No way is she keeping it; no way would she walk away, leaving it on the pavement either.
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#Cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
Bolt works for the mob. A primary motivator for how she deals with the civilians trying to enter her life is not letting them get hurt by her employers. Discovering a child needing care, but whom has no parents she can find, would send her into a tail spin (figuratively only, since she's a day angel that can fly). Becoming attached would be catastrophic for her and the kid. There are few things she would go to the constabulary to deal with, but she'd risk the coppers for the sake of a child. No way is she keeping it; no way would she walk away, leaving it on the pavement either.
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#Cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
Forced to choose between death and the unforgiveable, Reimund chose life for himself and his followers. Now he needs to live with his choice.
Bound by His Oath is now available on Itch
https://jess-mahler.itch.io/bound-by-his-oath
Meadowsweet is the story of a freighter captain with a literal sex addiction, the woman he buys to help manage it, and her absolute commitment to doing things her way no matter what the rules say.
Only on Smashwords
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1905146
Maintaining an interstellar community is extraordinarily hard. Even within the human worlds, it is difficult.
The hardest part is disease.
Not so much massive plagues - they are easy to quarantine. The tricky thing is the endemic bugs of each world. The things that could run riot in other biospheres.
Smoothing the spread of such bacteria and virii is initially handled by the scout service, who introduce the most common microflora and fauna to new worlds in a well controlled way. They also manage the outward spread of the new world's biome to neighbouring worlds.
But what about after that? How do you maintain a biome that is not going to kill travellers across tens, let alone hundreds or thousands of worlds?
The answer lies in one of the least formal parts of any major interstellar community.
The tramp trade network.
Small independent traders that move from world to world in small ships, moving relatively slowly, and almost always visiting the surface. Picking up the latest mutations in the local microflora and fauna as an incidental, and releasing the latest from the nearest neighbours.
Keeping the local group more-or-less in sync. And the trade routes overlap, and operate in overlapping spheres.
Yes, if you were to catch a fast ship from one end of a large polity and travel to the other end, you might well get very sick. But if you did it slowly, you would get gradually adapted.
The downside is that most travellers over large distances tend to spend much of their time vaguely unwell.
"Space Flu" they call it, and it is something that affects many long-distance tourists. People discuss solutions for it on the news boards almost constantly, and new treatments are always being touted.
What only a few very well informed people know is that this travelling malaise is a sign that things are working as expected. There will never be a complete cure for it, and it would be a disaster if one were found.
#SF #SFF #SciFi #SpaceOpera #microfiction #tootfic #microfic #IAmWriting
Meadowsweet is the story of a freighter captain with a literal sex addiction, the woman he buys to help manage it, and her absolute commitment to doing things her way no matter what the rules say.
Only on Smashwords
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1905146
Maintaining an interstellar community is extraordinarily hard. Even within the human worlds, it is difficult.
The hardest part is disease.
Not so much massive plagues - they are easy to quarantine. The tricky thing is the endemic bugs of each world. The things that could run riot in other biospheres.
Smoothing the spread of such bacteria and virii is initially handled by the scout service, who introduce the most common microflora and fauna to new worlds in a well controlled way. They also manage the outward spread of the new world's biome to neighbouring worlds.
But what about after that? How do you maintain a biome that is not going to kill travellers across tens, let alone hundreds or thousands of worlds?
The answer lies in one of the least formal parts of any major interstellar community.
The tramp trade network.
Small independent traders that move from world to world in small ships, moving relatively slowly, and almost always visiting the surface. Picking up the latest mutations in the local microflora and fauna as an incidental, and releasing the latest from the nearest neighbours.
Keeping the local group more-or-less in sync. And the trade routes overlap, and operate in overlapping spheres.
Yes, if you were to catch a fast ship from one end of a large polity and travel to the other end, you might well get very sick. But if you did it slowly, you would get gradually adapted.
The downside is that most travellers over large distances tend to spend much of their time vaguely unwell.
"Space Flu" they call it, and it is something that affects many long-distance tourists. People discuss solutions for it on the news boards almost constantly, and new treatments are always being touted.
What only a few very well informed people know is that this travelling malaise is a sign that things are working as expected. There will never be a complete cure for it, and it would be a disaster if one were found.
#SF #SFF #SciFi #SpaceOpera #microfiction #tootfic #microfic #IAmWriting
Interested in #SFF #fandom #history? Especially for Los Angeles? Here's a #video for you.
> Sci-Fi Origins: Saving Star Trek, Fan Zines, Cosplay and Counterculture. https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/episodes/sci-fi-origins
> "Boldly go into the heart of science fiction storytelling and discover its deep roots in Los Angeles. From UC Riverside’s vast sci-fi collection to author Octavia Butler’s Pasadena, host Nathan Masters explores how Southern California became a launchpad for stories that imagine new worlds …"
Interested in #SFF #fandom #history? Especially for Los Angeles? Here's a #video for you.
> Sci-Fi Origins: Saving Star Trek, Fan Zines, Cosplay and Counterculture. https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/episodes/sci-fi-origins
> "Boldly go into the heart of science fiction storytelling and discover its deep roots in Los Angeles. From UC Riverside’s vast sci-fi collection to author Octavia Butler’s Pasadena, host Nathan Masters explores how Southern California became a launchpad for stories that imagine new worlds …"
G'morning all.
My short story Meadowsweet is now available on Smashwords.
Meadowsweet started as a kinky/erotic take on Firefly, but the main character had her own ideas about how the story should go.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1905146
#SFF #Kink #ShortStory
Meadowsweet is the story of a freighter captain with a literal sex addiction, the woman he buys to help manage it, and her absolute commitment to doing things her way no matter what the rules say.
Coming Jan 15, only on Smashwords
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1905146
