Fusion Fragment

SUPPORT FORUM FOR THE CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR PERSONAL SPIRIT-ANGEL - Uncharted Welcome to the forum! You have successfully registered and now have full access to the site and all its resources. And congratulations again on the summoning of your own personal spirit-angel. It’s an...

FFer Read of the Day: "Support Forum for the Care and Feeding of Your Personal Spirit-Angel" by @vanessafogg.bsky.social in @unchartedmag.bsky.social

www.unchartedmag.com/stories/supp...

ICYMI: Some 2025 story submission trends (so far)

The cover shows a forest. Some of the tree trunks have red fabric tied around them.

43. Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice

long, dangerous journeys / returning to a home you've never been to / we'll always be here

Oops wrong number! I think you want @uncannymagazine.bsky.social and not me!

Worlds of Possibility, Fusion Fragment, and Diabolical Plots: Reviews by Charles Payseur Sadly, Worlds of Possibility is closing down fol­lowing the publication of their June issue. It marks another stellar project from editor Ju­lia Rios, and the final issue includes some fantastic st…

“Mazal Tov, Mazal Tov” by @ymresnik.bsky.social from Worlds of Possibility, “Shells” by @czwrites.bsky.social from @fusionfragment.bsky.social, and more short fic recs from @cypayseur.bsky.social

Same. But honestly, anything Ai-generated is likely to be rejected just purely on the basis that it’s *mundane*. These LLMs don’t produce anything original or interesting. They can’t. Only humans do that. Use your delightful terrible human brain.

A Recipe for the Day Alban Kills the King — Orion's Belt Start by chopping the onions.

FFer Read of the Day: "A Recipe for the Day Alban Kills the King" by @mruthrobinson.bsky.social in Orion's Belt

www.orions-belt.net/archives/a-r...

Issue #25 “Breathing Under Ice” by Phoebe Billups: sisterhood / inheriting the volcano / what lies beneath”Dear New Tenant” by Jaq Evans: respawning sisters / sign the lease / going t…

@locusmag.bsky.social recommended @czwrites.bsky.social "Shells" from this issue of @fusionfragment.bsky.social www.fusionfragment.com/issue-25/ this one made me conscious of the body I'm inhabiting.

Time, Energy, Care, and Audacity. IMO, those are the things you need to run a mag. That's all it takes (and thank goodness, because that's still A LOT) and I hope people know that, because I'd love to see more mags out there to find places for all these stories to live!

...who had somehow earned the right to say what was good and what was bad. But, as I'll say to anyone who'll listen, there's no such thing as good and bad stories. There's only stories you love and stories you don't. And you don't need credentials to publish the stories you love.

Anyway, when I think back to launching FF 1.0 in 2007 and 2.0 in 2020, at both of those points I thought "Who am I to do this? Who says I should be allowed to pick which stories get to published?"

And I very nearly talked myself out of it, all because I thought that there were certain people...

I'm shouting about this because of one of the things I said during my Chill-n-Chat at Flights of Foundry last weekend: There are so many stories out there that deserve to find a good home, and just not enough publication slots. And the more different types of editors to publish them, the better!

And that manifests itself in the way FF runs, where it's very much a direct-to-pub editing process. Any more detailed editing is really limited to the occasional R&R offer I'll send out for stories I think are almost there.

This resonates with me because I'm very much just Some Guy. I had a BA in English Lit and had sold a couple stories to semi-pro and token paying markets, but I'd never edited anything besides my own work. Hell, I'd never even been in a writer's group and done the whole critique thing.

Piggybacking on this thread (read the whole thing btw, lots of great points) to say how important this is. If you want to start a mag, you only need 3 things:
1) the time and spoons to give it the energy it deserves
2) the desire to support writers and the writing community
3) the audacity!

I can't recommend @evelynepark.bsky.social enough!

The cover of FF#26. On it, a woman's face is surrounded by shards of glass, each of which contain an eye of their own, and broken fragments of a noh mask. A list of contributors is overlaid on the image: A.D. Sui S.L. Harris D.A. Straith Leo Oliveira Cressida Roe Nkereuwem Albert Emma Russell-Trione Nana Afadua Ofori-Atta

Exact release date is still TBD, but now that it's October it's time to get excited for FF#26, which you'll be able to get before the month is through!

Pale Serpent, Green Serpent - Uncanny Magazine We play this game every time we meet, and I’ve never lost yet. Our meetings have become ritual by now: me and Tsing, once every few seasons, or years, or decades, or however long it takes for one of u...

FFer Read of the Day: "Pale Serpent, Green Serpent" by @ewenmaer.bsky.social in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social

www.uncannymagazine.com/article/pale...

YouTube video by Emily Wolfe - Topic Predator

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hNO...

Albums on repeat at FF HQ: #1: Emily Wolfe - The Blowback #2: Yumi Zouma - Willowbank #3: 50 Foot Wave - Golden Ocean #4: The Crane Wives - Foxlore #5: Wet Leg - Moisturizer

Tuesday evening music celebration post: The production of FF runs on good tunes, so here are the five albums that spent the most time on repeat at FF HQ last week.

The FFer vibes are strong in this short fiction recommended reading list! Recent work by FFers @clairejiawen.bsky.social @awprihandita.bsky.social @spencerwriting.bsky.social @angelaliu.bsky.social and @bethgoder.bsky.social! And lots of other great stuff!

I know, it's basically impossible to go wrong! I wish there was a magic "random story" button in their archives.

Love the SH archives! In addition to all the stories Maria called out, I'll piggyback on this to drop two of my SH faves:

"Collateral Memory" by @followthelede.bsky.social: strangehorizons.com/fiction/coll...

"Secrets of the Kath" by @fatimataqvi.bsky.social: strangehorizons.com/fiction/secr...

Important distinction, for whoever needs to hear it today:

A rejection of your story is not a rejection of you as a writer!

Robot, Changeling, Ghost Content Warning Shivering, she pours her child a bowl of sugar-frosted cereal. The soured milk is two weeks expired. The body of her child has been buried in the local cemetery a week longer than t…

FFer Read of the Day: "Robot, Changeling, Ghost" by @avramargariti.bsky.social in @flashfictiononline.bsky.social

www.flashfictiononline.com/article/robo...

Issue #20 “Dirt Retreat” by Eugénie Szwalek: places to rest / deer-borne cake / GREG”Give Me English” by Ai Jiang: language as currency / diaspora / frenemies”In Pursuit of the …

And please see "In Pursuit of the Light" as proof that @mchristinebd.bsky.social does incredible work writing about real-world places and definitely peers inside stranger's windows.

www.fusionfragment.com/issue-20/

Just wrapped attending Part of This World: Setting Your Story in Real World Locations at @flightsoffoundry.bsky.social. Amazing discussion by @celialake.bsky.social @mchristinebd.bsky.social @swingingstorm.bsky.social, shepherded along by @valerievaldes.bsky.social. Thanks to all!

Just finished the Volunteering for SFFH Magazines session at @flightsoffoundry.bsky.social and throwing this old thread out there again, for folks who are interested in volunteering as a reader here at FF!

TOMORROW! The FF Chill-n-Chat filled up quick, but if you see me online in the Flights of Foundry Discord (look for the FF logo) you're welcome to DM me with any hey-I'd-like-to-ask-a-short-SFF-magazine-editor type questions you've got!

The cover is mostly a gray sky. At the bottom, a snow-swept landscape, with trees and power line poles in the distance. In the foreground, an old truck is beached in a snowbank.

42. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

the collapse of modern society / communities in crisis / taking control of your own destiny