Check the 🔗⏬ for guidelines and to submit your short story, factual essay, or cover art! #sff #scifi #weirdfiction #horror #fantasy

My favorite part of writing genre mashups is slamming tropes together as hard a I can, and seeing what kind of amalgamation comes out the other side. So, if you like stand-offs with laser pistols, or dusty trail towns on the edge of space, Gas Giant Gambit awaits. 🔗⏬ #scifi #spacewestern #books

A tribute to a great man and beloved Captain. ❤️ Sir Patrick's family has requested donations to Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's research, supporting the efforts to solve a disease you all know is close to my heart and has deeply affected so many. Please give to this research if you are able. ✨🍀 -Kate

Fell asleep to "Encounter at Farpoint" last night (as I do often). It, of course, felt different, but I rest assured knowing Sir Patrick will always be on the bridge of the Enterprise when I need him. Farewell, mon capitain. Your example showed me what it meant to be a good man. 🖖 #startrek

"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." 🖖

With the cosmic horror outline complete, I've switched my attention to editing Shallow Trenches/Open Skies, and my Google searches have followed suit. And they have delivered unto me, this; perhaps the best thing I have ever learned doing book research. I give you, "Suffretjitsu!"

Today I learned that I have been added to another starter pack, go.bsky.app/yXtjZd, and I'm in good company. I don't intentionally write fantasy (though when science advances, things may require relabeling), but i do write sci-fi. But snark? I'm no Lewis Carroll.

Got nearly 100 pages into the second draft of Shallow Trenches/Open Skies last week, when I realized late Friday night that I need to start over and add in three or four "before" scenes for the MC. Readers gotta see how inept he is before he learns better from the other characters. #amwriting

Famous last words... Find out what's got Kon's hackels (does a frog have hackles?) up in this stand-alone side-quel to Gas Giant Gambit. Read "Athenaeum 496" in Other Tales Vol. IV. 🔗⏬ #scifi #sciencefiction #shortstory

Authors know what I'm talking about, but when my only interactions with books was reading, I didn't fully realize the importance of leaving reviews. So, this is for those who may be like I was. (And if you've read Gas Giant Gambit, have you left a review?) 🔗⏬ #books #bookreview #read #reader

Sometimes, people can seem a little strange. But you would too, if you weren't as local as you looked, were, in fact, very far from home, and had limited--and unusual--pathways home. Read "The Ontology of Ovens" by Bill Purnell is the latest issue of Perseid Prophecies. 🔗⏬ #weirdfiction #scifi

A friend saw someone reading Gas Giant Gambit on the bus today. Is that an author milestone? It feels like an author milestone.

Submissions for our Winter 2027 issue, coming January 1st, are now open! Check the 🔗⏬ for guidelines and to submit. #sff #scifi #fantasy #horror #shortstory

There's no time for sleep when beamslinging action is at hand! Stay up turning pages with Gas Giant Gambit. 🔗⏬ #scifiwestern #scifi #spacewestern #books #booksky

To be blunt, morphine addiction really wasn't treated in any meaningful way. Alcoholics Anonymous was only 20 years old in the mid-50s, and NA was literally in it's infancy. Many men came back from the horrors of war only to get caught up in the horrors of addiction, with little help to overcome it.

From the very first draft, I knew the chapters of Gas Giant Gambit would reference the movie titles of Westerns. But Shallow Trenches/Open Skies has a wildly different tone, and the chapters in draft 1 are just numbered. But now I'm thinking World War I soldier poetry...

Okay. Here we go. Shallow Trenches/Open Skies - Draft 2.docx

Look! A wild Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference! Gas Giant Gambit is available now! 🔗⏬ #scifi #scifiwestern #spacewestern #sciencefiction #booksky

A pair of boopable snoots.

After a week off from writing to let my brain reset, I'm switching from one of the five works-in-progress I've got going to another. Try to keep up. 🔗⏬ #writer #writing #novel #shortstory #books

They said he wouldn't remember. Over and over, they promised. Read "Balsam Fir" by @tallhillking.bsky.social now. 🔗⏬ #scifi #darkscifi #shortstory #sciencefiction

The neighbors put out their Christmas decorations earlier and earlier every year.

We don't insist on a theme, but stories that match the issue's season (for this submission window, that's winter) may be looked on with a favorable eye. (And we are absolute suckers for a good holiday horror story!) Check our Submissions page for updated guidelines. 🔗⏬ #submissionsopen

The trouble's comin'. Ain't no stoppin' it. Only question is: will you turn heel, hunker down... Or ride out to meet it? Gas Giant Gambit is available now. 🔗⏬ #scifi #scifiwestern #spacewestern #books #bookstagram

There we go. Absentee ballot all filled out, placed in an envelope, stamped, and waiting by the door to be dropped in the mailbox when I run errands tomorrow afternoon. I have, essentially, voted--like I have done every election cycle since moving to Canada 21 years ago--by mail.

I'm late this week, partially because I spent Monday (the day I usually write my blog) finishing up the retrofit of my '80s record console into a more MCM vibe, and the perfect computer case for my vaguely "Doctor Who, if he were a '40s era PI" office. And I've got photos of the whole process! 🔗⏬

This one creeps me out. Did you know there is fungus growing in the Chernobyl exclusion zone that use radiation in the same way most plants use sunlight? They grow TOWARDS radioactive material. Now, how could I POSSIBLY use that fact in a cosmic horror story set during the late 1950s? 😏

No matter how much time passes, or how far into the black we travel, petty tyrants will always act the same. Get Gas Giant Gambit now. 🔗⏬ #spacewestern #scifiwestern #scifi #sciencefiction #books

In a world where every moment is monitored, what happens when one little girl starts answering questions before they're asked? Read "The After Question" by Mathew Alfes the latest issue of Perseid Prophecies. 🔗⏬ #scifi #horror #weirdfiction #shortstory

I picked this '70s-'80s era record console for free years ago. It has sat in my office all that time, waiting for me to have the opportunity to refurbish it into a more MCM feel and make it suitable to become a PC case. 1/3