Hey, everybody, I had a #flashfiction story published yesterday with @foofarawpress.bsky.social. It’s called “Never Quit Your Post”, and it might be the weirdest story I’ve sold to date. Check it out. #writingcommunity foofaraw.press/never-quit-y...

Never Quit Your Post

Aeryn Rudel

foofaraw.press

We have a guard donkey named #Evil on our ranch. Mean bastard, and you don’t go near him while the sun is up. At night, though, I hear him braying out there in the dark, and the next morning, I’ll find the remains of a werecoyote or a chupacabra kicked to absolute pieces. #vss365 #microfiction

Europa's ice mines were little more than frozen gulags, but the company tried to jazz up the hab-modules with motivational posters like “#Toil for a Better Tomorrow” or “Worlds Run on Water.” I'll admit, the posters came in handy during the toilet paper shortage of 2079. #vss365 #microfiction

Hey, folks, today I return to Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules for Good Writing and dive into rules six through ten. This is how they apply to my work, but take a look and see if they apply to yours. :) #writingcommunity #writersofbluesky rejectomancy.com/2026/08/06/r...

Rules for Good Writing? How I Relate – Part Two

Last week, I published an article about the first five of Elmore Leonard’s famous Ten Rules for Good Writing and how strictly I adhere to them. You can check out that post here, but as a quick remi…

rejectomancy.com

Some say the back fields on the Garrity farm are TOO #fertile. That anything you plant there grows. It’s true that the Garrity crops are bountiful. It’s also true that every Garrity has a mark at the base of their necks like the place where fruit comes free of the vine. #vss365 #microfiction

Cats are natural monster repellent, kinda like supernatural bug spray, but you gotta know what kind to get. Black cats protect you from demons, orange ones are good for ghosts, and the gray kitties ward you against minions of #chaos, you know, faeries, goblins, and such. #vss365 #microfiction

Look, you’re gonna run into vamps who don’t kill, who drink from blood bags, who use their powers to help folks. You’ll want to be merciful, but it’s still #fruit of the poisonous tree. They all succumb to the dark eventually. Put away your empathy and sharpen your stake. #vss365 #microfiction

Everybody loved the midnight gardener at first. You’d wake up and find your lawn mown, your garden #tended, and your hedges clipped. Too bad we didn’t know he was leaving things, too. Those curious mounds in the flower bed weren’t just tulips waiting for the spring bloom. #vss365 #microfiction

Diving into Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules for Good Writing and whether, when, and where I follow or flaunt them. Check it out. #writingcommunity #writingtips rejectomancy.com/2026/07/30/r...

Rules for Good Writing? How I Relate – Part One

One of my literary influences is Elmore Leonard. If you’re unfamiliar, Leonard is the author of some of the greatest crime fiction novels (among other things) that you have almost certainly heard o…

rejectomancy.com

There was a church in BFE Washington that believed you had to be above 14,000 feet to get raptured. They tried to #summit Rainier for the celestial pick-up. Didn't make it, of course, but oxygen deprivation makes you hallucinate, so maybe they did see god before the end. #vss365 #microfiction

The trick to cannibalism in a survival situation is to let the meat #turn a bit. Hides the flavor. You can pretend it's something else. There’s always the danger you develop a taste for it, though, and start looking at folks on the subway like chops at the meat counter. #vss365 #microfiction

Used to work with this hitter who'd whack a guy, spout some terrible one-liner, then look at me to see if it landed. I finally gave him the thumbs up just to fuck with him. I hope he’s still out there whispering “part of this #balanced breakfast” like a complete asshole. #vss365 #microfiction

Hey, I’m diving back into the wild world of dialogue tags and looking at how three of my favorite authors use them and what we can learn from that. Check it out. #writingcommunity #writersofblusky wp.me/p6jTNd-2uw

Talkin’ Tags II: How THEY Write Dialogue

Last week, I posted an article about how I write dialogue, which dialogue tags I use, and why and when I use them. To be clear, I don’t think there is a right and wrong way to do this, just a way t…

wp.me

I’m an #unabashed fan of bad movies, the more terrible the better. An empty theater is one of the few places I can be myself in public, let the tentacles out to breathe, use more than two eyes to see. What you meatsnacks—I mean, uh, humans call letting your hair down. #vss365 #microfiction

As a medium, I can tell you most ghosts don’t have “unfinished business.” They’re not incorporeal Hallmark movies fueled by dramatic grief and heartache. They’re just fuckin’ stubborn. Most of my job involves convincing #defiant assholes that, yes, they are actually dead. #vss365 #microfiction

When the art thief Uri Ivanov was caught, he was in a terrible state, emaciated and nearly catatonic. When authorities tried to get him to #reveal where he’d hidden dozens of priceless paintings, he pointed to the corners of his cell and said, “So much room in the thin.” #vss365 #micrfiction

#Tenderly, I laid Jasper’s body into the hole I’d dug. My cat's grave lay at the end of a long row of makeshift headstones. Dogs, cats, and birds that had brought love and joy to my family for generations. A line of tiny tragedies, but each one more than worth the pain. #vss365 #microfiction

Hey, let's talk about dialogue tags. That's not controversial, right? 😉 Don't worry; I'm not a tag hardliner. This is just about which tags I use, when, and why. And, yes, I use dialogue tags other than said. I promise. Check it out. #writingtips #writingcommunity rejectomancy.com/2026/07/03/t...

Talkin’ Tags: How I Write Dialogue

If you’ve spent any time among writers, be it on social media or even in private writing groups, you will have almost certainly heard the “rule” that you should only use said when it comes to dialo…

rejectomancy.com

It’s important to know the supernatural potential of your house in today’s competitive market. At Apparition #Appraisal, we can tell you your home’s value AND the likelihood it’ll become haunted, possessed, or demon tainted. Don't let ghosts and goblins steal YOUR equity! #vss365 #microfiction

I was more than a little #apprehensive when the hospital started contracting with Vampires For Humanity for the ER. Then I saw our VFH liaison heal a gunshot wound just by licking it, and, well, I’m team bloodsucker now. Please don’t tell Vlad I called him that, though. #vss365 #microfiction

What's a good acceptance rate for short stories? I've always heard 10% is a good benchmark, but, of course, opinions vary, and it'll certainly vary by market. My historical average (over 1000 subs) is 13%, which I feel is decent, but I'd love to hear other folk's experiences. #writingcommunity

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A vulture gets on an airplane with two roadkill squirrels it picked up on the way to the airport. A flight attendant stops the buzzard before he gets to his seat, and says, “I’m sorry, sir, airline policy is one #carrion per passenger.” #vss365 #microfiction

Hell has an HR department where souls can file complaints against demons and even Satan himself. Of course, this is simply a pathway to further torment, as the #disgruntled damned are forced to endure centuries of HR training videos on how to avoid a hostile afterlife. #vss365 #microfiction

When we arrived at Ares IV, scans revealed a world teeming with apparent life. When we landed, we found only empty, mechanized cities filled with driverless vehicles and automated factories. A convincing illusion from afar, but nothing more than a planetwide #flea circus. #vss365 #microfiction

No one likes to think they’re the bad guy, and folks who do this job often believe they’re some kind of antihero. Bullshit. You’re not John Wick, and there’s no such thing as a hitman with a heart of gold. You kill people for money, you’re a #villain. It’s that simple. #vss365 #microfiction

Daddy says not to shave against the #grain when I prepare Momma's food. She don’t like the bumps and in-grown hairs. He makes me use the store-bought razor, too. Says my straight razor makes the food bleed. That gets Momma too excited, and then she makes an awful mess. #vss365 #microfiction

Robbing banks used to be simple. Low risk. Now, though, with everyone using Draco Security, you’d be crazy to #pull a bank job. Getting a teller to give up the cash is one thing, getting a thirty-foot fire-breathing monster to part with its “treasure” is quite another. #vss365 #microfiction

A little about why I write the same damn things all the damn time. Slightly more nuanced than "I just like 'em", but not much more. ;) #writingcommunity #horror #fiction rejectomancy.com/2026/06/23/v...

Vampires and Demons and Hitmen, Oh My!

If you’re even passingly familiar with my work, then you’ll have noticed I tend to gravitate to certain tropes. Like, a lot. The top three are: vampires, demons, and hitmen/organized crime. There a…

rejectomancy.com

The best way to survive a zombie attack is to pretend to be one of them. All you need is strawberry jam for blood stains, a good moan, and a convincing #lurch. That last one is important. If you fuck it up and shamble or trudge, they'll notice, and then it’s chow time. #vss365 #microfiction

The goal of Project Windowpane was to open dimensional portals, send through probes, and safely collect data. This failed to impress the project’s government backers, so crewed mission were fast-tracked, and the program gained a new, unofficial name: Project #Defenestrate. #vss365 #microfiction