Tessera

mere rain

@mererain.bsky.social

Author of speculative fiction of all genres. Pubbed by JMS Books, Mischief Corner, Flametree, CossMass, Mad Scientist Journal, Astral, Things in the Well...

3248 Posts1658 Follower 1515 Folgt

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 10h ago

My new release is set in 1986 so I guess it's... historical fiction??

mere rain@mererain.bsky.social · 6d ago

NGL "Come Away" is the result of my childhood obsession with the movie Labyrinth. If you haven't seen Labyrinth 🥲 do you like muppets, forests, or Celtic mythology? Quests? Pining? Fae in tight pants? www.amazon.com/gp/product/B... also @jms-books.com

Holly Lyn Walrath @hollylynwalrath.bsky.social · yesterday

There is a lengthy pro-AI screed in the latest HWA newsletter and it is . . . a mood.

The real enemy isn’t your buddy who is using AI to make a book cover; the enemy is the Powers-That-Be who thrive on dividing everyone, especially in the United States. Look at how divided everyone in the US got over politics over the past ten years, and it’s now trickled to other countries. No more, are you a fellow human? Nope, it’s who did you vote for? Well, then you must be a hateful asshole. Instant block.

But who’s the asshole?

Every week, the gatekeepers of horror writers have some new witch hunt. Sometimes it’s a good thing to suss out shitty publishers, editors, and agents. Yet, not ALL shitty ones are sussed out because, you know, there are consequences to getting all the shitty people shut down. Some people still like the opportunities to get published or represented even if it means going with the most despicable people because the gatekeepers didn’t get them shut down, or sometimes, don’t even notice. It all depends on who is buttering the toast.

The past few weeks have been so tedious with all the gatekeepers out in full force. They are whipping people up into a frenzy, and more division is happening when it comes to AI. Of course, the irony is that the gatekeepers are denouncing AI, yet they are doing it on Facebook, which uses AI. They are likely typing their pretentious screeds on their phones, which also use AI. They likely sell their books on Amazon, which also uses AI.

AI is here. It’s been coming since I was typing on a manual typewriter. You can let the robots win by becoming less human by cutting out all your friends, fans, family, and readers because they dared to try out AI, or you can be a human being and let people explore and figure things out for themselves.

Hollywood is already embracing AI.

Many companies use AI.

AI can be useful for tedious tasks such as creating listings on eBay or Poshmark. Do you shop or sell on those platforms? They totally use AI now, so you’d better boycott them too.

I went to the AI panel at Stokercon, and of course, most of the panelists were vehemently anti-AI. An audience member stood up and pointed out that they learned about the panel because they saw it on Sched, which is the app that the HWA/Stokercon uses, and THAT is AI. Doesn’t HWA have an anti-AI stance? Oh, but of course, THAT is okay; it’s all the other AI stuff that isn’t.

Tiffany Morris @tiffmorris.bsky.social · 22h ago

So apparently that HWA pro-AI newsletter also uses Indigenous water rights issues as a prop, trivializing the activism by Indigenous peoples to protect our water including specific anti-data centre actions. I guess they figured why not alienate Indigenous horror writers while they’re at it?

“Sure. Sure.

Yes, we know AI is using up resources. So does driving a car or a planes so does building a new home. So do a lot of things. Humans have always used up Earth’s resources and usually not nicely. There are reservations and other Indigenous communities in Canada that have never had clean water and have been ravaged by pipeline construction. But somehow that’s been okay for the past fifty or a hundred years, and very few people scream about that. But suddenly, AI is the enemy, not everything else we’ve been doing all along. Suddenly YOUR water might not be clean, so it’s a Big Deal”.

Tenebrous Press @tenebrouspress.bsky.social · yesterday

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈So far it's evading notice on all the MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR OF THE FALL lists, but we assure you: there's a cosmic storm brewing that you'll want on your radar. The successor to the beloved YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY has entered local airspace. PERSISTENT HORRORS DEMAND PERSISTENT REBELLION⬇️

cover art by Mx Morgan G Robles featuring a swan alighting on a cosmic sea, the sky pink blue and white behind it.

JMS Books LLC @jms-books.com · 3d ago

To save my brother, I made a promise to the lord of the woods. I didn’t keep it. Now he’s taken my little nephew. Do I really want to escape the man I once gave my heart? MM fantasy by Mere Rain now available from JMS Books! www.amazon.com/dp/B0...

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 3d ago

For the acknowledgement, I mentioned only influences from the 1980s, but there are others, and I would be remiss in not mentioning the art of Shaun Tan as an inspiration for the many-winged bird-creature Redbud. Every piece by Tan could be an entire story.

Book cover of Creature: Paintings, Drawings, and Reflections by Shaun Tan, shows arge one-eyes creature walking over a grassy hillock with a girl, both glancing over their shoulders at the viewer.

Painting of a bull-like creature in an overgrown lawn, giving directions to a small child carrying a cardboard box.

mere rain@mererain.bsky.social · 3d ago

My new release is set in 1986 and is a homage to fantasy films and books from that period. Please try them if you haven't! (I think only @terriwindling.bsky.social is on bsky) www.jms-books.com/come-away-ag...

AUTHOR’S NOTE for m/m Fantasy novella "Come Away Again" by Mere Rain. Image is text, which reads as follows:
Thanks for reading this product of my library-loving youth!
Here is a non-exclusive list of books and movies that influenced this story:
First and most obviously, Labyrinth, and David Bowie as the Goblin King, and his soundtrack
for the film.
The art of Brian Froude, especially his book Faeries (available in Spanish as Hadas).
The art of Terri Windling
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Windmaster’s Bane by Tom Deitz
Jack the Giant Killer by Charles de Lint
Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock
If you try any of these, drop me a line on facebook or bluesky and let me know what you think! I
actually haven’t reread any of them since I was a kid, although I did dig out my dvd of Labyrinth
a few years ago to share with my niece and nephew.

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 3d ago

Cover of fantasy novella Come Away Again is blueish with a dark haired person reaching for a will o wisp

Nefarious Bat Press @nefariousbatpress.bsky.social · last mo.

📣 We're opening to QUEER CRIME NOVEL SUBMISSIONS in August! 📣 Details in screenshots - and the🧵 below:

WE'RE OPENING TO SUBMISSIONS!

OUR YEAR OF NOIR
OPENS
1ST TO 31ST AUGUST 2026

2027 is our Year of Noir.
We've got hardboiled supernatural crime fic coming up trom Brennan
LaFaro, T Parker working on a near-future dystopia procedural, and Shauna MC Eleney's Where The Bluebells Lie set to finally hit the shelves.
But we want more.
Between 1st and 31st August, we're opening to QUEER CRIME NOVEL SUBMISSIONS of 50,000 words or more.

Queen of Swords Press @qospress.bsky.social · 5d ago

BIG thank you shoutout to our publisher‘s Patreon supporters! You’re a big help for keeping our little engine chugging along! For everyone else, even $1 a month helps a lot. www.patreon.com/CLundoff

Get more from Catherine Lundoff on Patreon

Get more from Catherine Lundoff on Patreon. Join for free or become a member for just $1/month. Welcome to the Queen of Swords Press Patreon, lovely…

patreon.com

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 4d ago

Wider Detroit area🐈peeps

Brian in Detroit@kanoki.net · 2w ago

Posting Meatball the Cat daily until I can find a loving home for this sweet kitty cat. I will drive him up to three hours from Detroit for the right owner. He's got a long life ahead of him and he needs you!

Rebecca Buchanan @lyradora.bsky.social · 4d ago

Witches Save the World is here! #witchsky #booksky #magic #fantasy #magic #witch

Charles (Cy) Payseur @cypayseur.bsky.social · 6d ago

🏳️‍🌈SOME QUEER SHORT SFF - JUNE 2026🏳️‍🌈 I round up over 40 works by @mruthrobinson.bsky.social @mdmcd.com @redscribe.bsky.social @ashvalewrites.bsky.social @sylvie-althoff.bsky.social @rukman.bsky.social @ernerker.bsky.social @marisca.bsky.social & MORE!!!! www.patreon.com/quicksiprevi...

Some Queer Short SFF - June 2026 | Charles Payseur

Hi all! I’m still a mess in general but the show continues, this month with works from June—and there are quite a few, thanks in large part

patreon.com

Carson Winter @carsonwinter.bsky.social · 4d ago

NYCTALOCOS it out now! Me and a lot of other cool folks are featured in this antho themed around night terrors. Edited by the great CM Muller. Grab a copy here: chthonicmatter.wordpress.com/themed-antho...

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 4d ago

New releases from @jms-books.com including forest fantasy by yours truly. 🎊 Also available from Amazon, but cheaper to buy direct. www.jms-books.com

JMS Books LLC@jms-books.com · 4d ago

New LGBTQ ebooks drop weekly from JMS Books! ❤️ Check out this week's authors: 🧡 Mere Rain 💛 Pelaam 💚 Adam Carpenter 💙 www.jms-books.com #queerbooks #mmromance #ffromance #jmsbooks

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 5d ago

Need plot bunnies?

hookland.bsky.social@hookland.bsky.social · 5d ago

No work will be done in Hookland today. It's the Puck Fairs. Epic bouts of storytelling, drinking, love-making and other funs of the fair. #Lughnasadh

August 1st – Puck Fairs
Starting on the old Celtic festival of Lughnasadh and lasting for two days, the Puck Fair is a pre-mediaeval tradition that is still going strong in Hookland. Associated with St. Urian and the faery folk, legend has it that the fairs started as the one point in the year when Hookland and Faeryland were close enough that trade between the two realms was possible. This is often offered as an explanation as to why the fairs used to be held on hilltops sacred to the faery. Whatever their actual origins, the Puck Fairs have become two days when an annual horse and cattle fair is supplemented by traditional matchmaking such as the 24-hour trial marriage (where the couple put together may separate at the end of the fair without any consequence), dances, bouts of wrestling and stick-fighting, horse races, story-telling contests and colossal amounts of drinking. Brutally suppressed during the Cromwellian Commonwealth, condemned by Methodists, often a source of modern moral outrage and an aggravation to the police, the Puck Fairs have proven to be a tradition that is exceptionally hard to kill off. Some have noted there is an increase in the number of people who disappear around the time of the Puck Fairs.

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 6d ago

The first time I read this headline as "information" instead of inflammation. Maybe my eyes are inflammaging.

Eric Topol@erictopol.bsky.social · 6d ago

Inflammation is a driver of age-related diseases (inflammaging) and this new NYT magazine article gets deep into the progress that is being made to track and block it gift link www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 7d ago

I am pro-deep dark woods but will also read your anti-woods propaganda if you write something cool enough. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

Come Away Again mm fantasy by Mere Rain
Cover: bluish with dark haired person in woods, reaching for a light.
Blurb:
To save my brother, I made a promise to the strange and powerful lord of the woods. I didn’t keep that promise, and now he’s taken my little nephew. I swear I’ll get him back, no matter how dangerous the forest between the worlds may be, or how angry its lord. I succeeded when I was only sixteen, after all, surely I can prevail again.

But as I stumble from one peril to another, I begin to think he was taking it easy on me last time. Maybe he doesn’t want me in his realm after all, even though he once offered me a home here. Maybe I waited too long. Well, he’ll have to tell me so to my face. I’m not giving up until I find the heart of the woods, or die trying.

I’ll save my family and escape again. I want to return to my normal life ... don’t I?

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · last wk.

How many fairy tales, horror movie, and urban legends have warned us not to go into the deep, dark woods? But do we listen?! Well, maybe one of these 7 books will finally convince people that nothing good comes of messing with freaky forests...

J.D. Walker @authorjdwalker.bsky.social · last wk.

Enjoy the anthology "A Decade of Gay Romance," which celebrates the ten best-selling short stories in the first ten years of @jms-books.com ! Includes my story "A-dork-able." Get your copy! :))) ebook www.jms-books.com/a-decade-of-... print (on sale!) www.jms-books.com/a-decade-of-...

A Decade of Gay Romance edited by J.M. Snyder
In the image are two men, lying in bed, one with his head on the bare chest of the other with arms stretched across the bed. They are smiling. Both men have short black hair, are hirsute, with moustache and beard, and have ivory skin with a hint of gold. Perhaps in their late 20s or early 30s.

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 7d ago

If anyone is curious, the book that got me the most negative DMs was this holiday romance about two men with the same favorite book. Apparently it's "socialism" to acknowledge that entrenched poverty and racism still exist at Christmas. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

Stealing Gifts by Mere Rain
cover shows a man in black standing in the snow in front of an apartment building.

mere rain@mererain.bsky.social · last wk.

Weirdly got way more negative comments on having an MC who is somewhat dickish when under stress than for the one who cold-bloodedly killed a bunch of dudes.

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 7d ago

That one creepiest Twilight Zone Episode

Tiernan Blanchard@gaycannibalism.bsky.social · last wk.

PINK PLASTIC, my strange and nasty little story, is out at @typebarmagazine.bsky.social. Give it a read, why not. www.typebarmagazine.com/pink-plastic/

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · last wk.

My new Labyrinth-inspired mm fantasy, now available! Years ago, Thomas made a promise to the lord of the woods. He didn't keep it. But the woods don't forget... www.jms-books.com/come-away-ag...

Come Away Again by Mere Rain
Cover shows a dark-haired figure reaching for fluttering light, in a tree.

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · last wk.

Last day to pre-order my Labyrinth-but-gay novella before it releases and goes up to the exorbitant price of 2.99. It's like 25 cents a creature, what a bargain! www.jms-books.com/come-away-ag...

COME AWAY AGAIN
By Mere Rain
painted covers shows a dark-haired figure in a huge tree, reaching for one of many fluttering lights.
Blurb: To save my brother, I made a promise to the strange and powerful lord of the woods. I didn’t keep that promise, and now he’s taken my little nephew. I swear I’ll get him back, no matter how dangerous the forest between the worlds may be, or how angry its lord. I succeeded when I was only sixteen, after all, surely I can prevail again.

But as I stumble from one peril to another, I begin to think he was taking it easy on me last time. Maybe he doesn’t want me in his realm after all, even though he once offered me a home here. Maybe I waited too long. Well, he’ll have to tell me so to my face. I’m not giving up until I find the heart of the woods, or die trying.

I’ll save my family and escape again. I want to return to my normal life ... don’t I?

Ali Trotta @alwayscoffee.bsky.social · 2w ago

This is out now, available worldwide! Inkwood Books in NJ has signed stock! So does The Head and the Hand in Philly! Any indie bookstore can order you a copy! It's at all the big box stores, too: Amazon, B&N, Walmart, etc. Ask your library! And if you loved it, leave a review (Goodreads, etc)!!

Ali Trotta@alwayscoffee.bsky.social · 2w ago

This comes out…tomorrow?? Holy hell. So grateful to @clashbooks.bsky.social for being wonderful! I’m so in love with @katelanfoisy.bsky.social’s gorgeous art & grateful to @ericsmithrocks.bsky.social for being 18 kinds of fab! So excited for y’all to read it!! Thank you for all the support. XO

A photo of my poetry collection, offerings, extraordinary gods, between two Crystal balls. One is clear and one is black.

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 2w ago

40% off sale today only @jms-books.com 🔥 Includes pre-orders like my Labyrinth-inspired novella "Come Away Again" (out on the 29th!) & new books from @klnoone.bsky.social @diannehartsock.bsky.social @authorhollyday.bsky.social @tinnean.bsky.social www.jms-books.com/mere-rain-c-...

Come Away mm fantasy by Mere Rain
drawn cover shows a dark haired person reaching for a fairy or firefly in the woods.

DanSkinnerArt @danskinnerart.bsky.social · 2w ago

I had a few DMS just now from folks wanting to know when the new book will be released. When I have an answer I will let you know. In the meantime if you want to sample my work I suggest you start with my first novel, Memorizing You. It's on Amazon and Smashwords. And please tell me your thoughts!

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 2w ago

And please tag yourself if you've also got books in this sale! Even if we don't follow each other - I've already bought most of my friends' books.

mere rain@mererain.bsky.social · 2w ago

1 week left for the Smashwords sale! Most of my romance pubs are included, except the new Labyrinth-but-gay novella - that's also 25% off but only from @jms-books.com. Other authors to seek: @klnoone.bsky.social @elliethomas.bsky.social @meganaderr.bsky.social www.smashwords.com/profile/view...

mere rain @mererain.bsky.social · 2w ago

Joyce (Wolf) Chng/Ch'ng 🐺 Wolf's Path is a finalist!@jolantru.bsky.social · 2w ago

Oh hey, I am in this amazing anthology which is now available for pre-order! 25% off. Waterstones! Pre-order now with code: SUMMER26. 21-24 July. Online only.

Promo graphic for No Laughing Matter - Waterstones 25% off for Books Coming Soon. Pre-order now with code: SUMMER26. 21-24 July. Online only.