Julia Rios

The 2025 Rhysling Anthology cover featuring an unplugged TV with an eye on it (bottom text: selected by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, edited by Pixie Bruner)

The Final Trick (opening stanza) On the bus, my mother presses her forehead against the one-eyed vulture in the glass Missed calls, funeral bills, old pockets that smell of pennies. We talk about medications like relatives no one wants to see. Full poem: http://strangehorizons.com/poetry/the-final-trick/

The 2025 @sfpoetry.bsky.social Rhysling Anthology just arrived in the mail!

Honored my poem, "The Final Trick" (originally published in
@strangehorizons.bsky.social) is a finalist this year and in here with so many poems I loved.

Nisi Shawl, a wise and wonderful writer of science fiction and fantasy, had a dream that there was a philosophical system described in a book called The Five Petals of Thought. In the dream, everyone in the world routinely consulted this book to help them overcome life's difficulties. Nisi has since written several science-fiction stories about this dreamed system and the thoughtful world it creates. Now Nisi wants to write the actual book. Here, let them explain it: “The book will be an artifact of this imaginary philosophical movement, and will contain guided exercises and historical examples and all kinds of good self-help content. It will be by turns hilarious and heartening, and everybody I describe it to wants me to make it real. Everybody besides my agent, I mean. They would have to sell it to a publishing house, and they’re not sure they could.”

The wonderful @nisishawl.bsky.social, one of the most original SFFH writers in the business, has a gofundme to support a unique and wonderful project: writing a philosophical text called THE FIVE PETALS OF THOUGHT.

More details at this link:

gofund.me/2ab02d23

The April Worlds of Possibility is split into two parts, and the second contains a number of stories featuring magic and adventure. These range from light and whimsical to a bit more serious, as in Wen Wen Yang's "The Case Against Raven Mail', which finds a grow- ing group of supplicants seeking the intervention of the prince of the realm to intercede on their behalf against a corrupt and despotic duke. What starts as a single person's quest for justice slowly gains a large following as the procession moves through the countryside, finding more and more people impacted and imperiled by the policies of the duke. Together, they bring their case to the highest court in the land, and show that when people come together to help people and to speak out against tyranny, it's often more powerful to do so in person - showing not just those in charge but those other people affected that this is not an isolated problem, and that those pushing back and not doing so alone. Yang provides a powerful and timely reminder of the importance of collective action and mutual aid.

First time a story of mine got a shout out in @locusmag.bsky.social (recommended story!) and Alex Brown's Must Read Speculative Fiction on @reactorsff.bsky.social. Check out Worlds of Possibility, April, editor @omgjulia.bsky.social

Sadie, a short haired grey tabby cat, lounges on a wooden floor and contemplates playing with one of her favorite toys: a plastic bottle cap.

Revealing The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo - Reactor A dark history is unearthed amid crumbling façades in a new gothic horror arriving November 2025

It’s finally here! Thank you so much to @reactorsff.bsky.social for ushering into the world the cover for my gothic horror THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED! Welcome to Villa Sepulveda…hope you survive your stay.

11/25/25 from @erewhonbooks.bsky.social. Preorder info ⬇️

reactormag.com/cover-reveal...

Geraldine, a short haired black cat, sits on a colorful quilt.

Lady Clarissa, a fluffy tuxedo cat, rests against a pillow covered in gothic women running from houses art by Kathleen Jennings

I think about this story every time I use a public bathroom.

Happy Birthday, Loki!!!

Thank you! And yes, I think it’s so interesting how the field as a whole is a community!

Thank you!

Thanks!

Why Didn't You Just Leave won the Shirley Jackson Award! I am honored, surprised, and delighted that our ghost story book won this award! Editing it, and translating the two stories by Alberto Chimal and Raquel Castro, was a truly wonderful experience

I wrote all about my experience at Readercon and the Shirley Jackson Awards! www.juliarios.com/why-didnt-yo...

Corey’s story is a sort of structural framework for this whole anthology!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you, John!

Thank you!

Thank you for writing us such a creepy story!!

Thank you for writing such a fantastic and creepy story, Suzan!!!!

You heard it here, folks: WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST LEAVE is a Shirley Jackson Award-winning anthology. Hugely proud of Nadia, Julia, and every single writer who made this book the spectacularly scary, dark, and stunning anthology it is!

LOL perfect.

Thank you so much for publishing this book! It was a delight working with you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you for writing such a great story!

Thank you!

Thank you!

WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST LEAVE won a Shirley Jackson! What an ending for the book @omgjulia.bsky.social and I thought up in our first interaction on a defunct social media site!

I can't thank our amazing contributors enough. And our publisher @ericraglin1992.bsky.social. And our Kickstarter backers!