Glad my youngest prefers making elaborate models of historic battles and scenes from his favorite novels to attending expensive summer camps. This one came out really well — not just the electricity he used to simulate cannon fire but the dramatic movie soundtrack playing in the background. 😂

Weekend reading has me thinking a lot about all I'm "unseeing" these days -- and how to undo that training.

Happy 1st Birthday to the New Puppy who is officially no longer new or a puppy. 🥳🎉 Henceforth, I hereby nickname her Trouble and submit into evidence for name change: one leather chair with a big bite missing on the arm, two gnawed wood side tables, a pillow and many many disembowled stuffed toys.

This is so gross -- tho I have to smugly point out I sorta predicted it in my story "All You Ever Wanted," that ran last year in Shorelines of Infinity @shoreinf.bsky.social. For the record my virtual AI teacher was cooler. I assumed school boards would have higher standards. 😒

Mashable@mashable.com · 3w ago

AI company Realbotix is piloting STEM robots for rural schools.

Less than two days left. Stretch goal to pay 9 cents a word has been hit! Let's get it to 10 cents.

Strange Horizons@strangehorizons.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Strange Horizons Annual Fund Drive to keep us publishing in 2027 is finally here! You can find the fund drive at the link ⬇️ www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s... Some changes have arrived this time around though. Read the thread to learn more.

Excited to see my name on this cover with so many other great writers! Many thanks to @rickandwrite.bsky.social and @bsfa.bsky.social.

The Broad in Los Angelos was a surprise hit for my whole family, which normally prefers outdoor adventures to museums. Lots of color, movement and contrasting styles. Free admission was nice too.

I will miss you, California. We toured colleges, walked beneath redwoods, biked the Golden Gate Bridge, went to a cool art museum, ate giant fruit-shaped confections, and caught a World Cup game that we lost but thoroughly enjoyed. Until next time.

I’ve been reading a lot of creepy crawly short fiction lately— fantasy, science fiction and horror inspired by bugs. Here are my favorites (new and classics) with some links 🧵 1/9

This is a deep-sea isopod. Dr. Johanna Weston, a deep-ocean biologist and guest investigator at @whoi.edu, is confident this is Bathyopsurus nybelini, one of her favorite animals. Learn why via the YouTube caption: youtube.com/shorts/DenUj...

We got Doodled.

I'm taking the reappearance of screwworm in the U.S. as a reminder to listen to the 1977 classic sci-fi horror novelette "The Screwfly Solution" by James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon). pseudopod.org/2014/08/22/p...

PseudoPod 400: The Screwfly Solution | PseudoPod

AP/Nassau: The excursion liner Carib Swallow reached port under tow today after striking an obstruction in the Gulf Stream off Cape Hatteras. The obstruction was identified as part of a commercial…

pseudopod.org

Emily Mullin@emilymullin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Bad news: Screwworm is back in the US. Good news: We know how to fight it. With millions of sterilized male screwworm flies. Bad news: We don't have enough capacity to produce all the flies we need. My latest for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/us-pla...

Finished writing a story, so I rewarded myself with a pretty new fern.

I love fiction with unusual form and structure. If you can, support this cool project. Proud to be the 36th backer 😎 on @BackerKit Crowdfunding for [RECORDED] — An Anthology of Found Media Fiction!! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/m...

[RECORDED] — An Anthology of Found Media Fiction!

Weird videos you didn't take showing up on your phone... Haunted books no one else remembers reading... Strange audio cassettes that won't let you stop listening... [RECORDED] showcases weird, spooky,...

backerkit.com

Annals of AI fuckups: an author forwarded me the email below, in which the book club scammer mistakenly sent the AI output instead of the intended email pitch. Note the "strategic analysis", which illustrates the scammers' boiled-frog approach

I've only watched the first two episodes, but I'm really enjoying Star City. Love the switch to the Soviet perspective. www.ign.com/articles/sta...

For All Mankind Spin-Off Star City Goes Back to the Beginning of the Space Race for a Soviet-Era Spy Thriller

The first two episodes of the For All Mankind spin-off wind back the clock on the space race to watch it unfold from the Soviet perspective.

ign.com

Can you spot him? We lost a lot of our iguanas in the cold weather, and my flowers were really enjoying the break from being on the menu. But it appears they're baaaaaaaaack. 🦎💐🥬 😩

#fungifriends #fungi #mycology #mushrooms Dancers of the Forest. 🦋 📷 credit unknown

“When they talk about spells of obedience they mostly don’t mean literal spells. You can come under someone’s thrall without any magic. You can feel desperate in any number of ways, and you can convince yourself...” www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/ten-...

Ten Unsent Letters to the Dark Lord - Lightspeed Magazine

1. I’m sorry, my lord. 2. I miss the sound of your voice, deep enough to shake the mountain fortress’s stones. I miss feeling it rumble in the soles of my feet. I miss the glow of your eyes while you...

lightspeedmagazine.com

Did you almost forget this awesome con is going on this weekend? Did you know you can still register and attend in your pajamas or fit it around whatever other plans you tried but can't get out of because its ALL ONLINE and ONLY $25?! Are you me? Because you sound a lot like me ...

I love how our banyan tree keeps remaking itself through the years. Almost alien in its beauty.

Great suggestions below. Saving for future reading ...

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them)@bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3mo ago

What is the weirdest speculative fiction book, adult or YA, you've read in the last 10 years or so?

The title caught my attention. The last lines caught my breath. Excellent poem by @nicowritesbooks.bsky.social. strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

The Mermaid Speaks of Social Justice from the Bathtub

Change requires examination of the initial errors

strangehorizons.com

Enjoyed attending a Miami Book Fair literary social last night hosted by @fabyjosaphat.bsky.social. We talked abt how great writers often let silence and the unspoken create tension, mystery and subtext. Example: “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahari. www.newyorker.com/magazine/199...

“A Temporary Matter,” by Jhumpa Lahiri

Fiction, from 1998: He wondered what Shoba would tell him in the dark. The worst possibilities had already run through his head.

newyorker.com

This includes my sci-fi short story, “A Map for the Labyrinth,” which I wrote after hearing for the millionth time that you should never start your first scene with a main character who has amnesia. Take that, rules! Mmwwaaahahahahaha.

Rick Danforth@rickandwrite.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I am delighted to announce the ToC for @bsfa.bsky.social 's Fission #6 anthology. It's been an honour to edit these wonderful works, and I cannot wait to see it out in June / July. www.bsfa.co.uk/fission/

Old Man is tired but Little One (no longer so little) still wants to play.

Look what arrived in the mail today. Excited to start this Arabfuturist space opera with lots of political intrigue by @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social. Heard its for fans of A Memory Called Empire and that's me so lets goooooo.

Lovely piece. Congrats @emmiechristie33.bsky.social. "In their 900th generation, the mayflies zoom around, not needing cars—they skip that part and go straight to selling vacation time shares and disbelieving in climate change and building invisible little planes to expand their wings."

Emmie Christie@emmiechristie33.bsky.social · 3mo ago

My nonfiction flash just published at The Razor! "The mayfly does not envy us our time, though it lives just for a day. Its minutes are weeks, and its hours are months, its moon waxing and waning in the space of one of our breaths." I'm really proud of this one :) therazormag.com/articles/we-...

This short, potent story by @jenniferhudak.bsky.social will punch you in the gut. And you will thank it. www.adventitious.net/stories/pena...

Penance — Jennifer Hudak

A prisoner sentenced to clean a god's skin begins to hear something she shouldn't. Is she headed toward sainthood or heresy?

adventitious.net

This beautiful novel hit close to home for me given it’s set in a future Florida disintegrating from climate change. Glad I didn’t read it during hurricane season but loved the resilient main character and the devastatingly tender final scene "in the field.” Master class on mixing bitter w/ sweet.