Val Nolan

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations.
130/749 J.G. Ballard, The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (2006) though I’d read most of them before (and except for the interminable Vermilion Sands stories)

It all actually takes place pretty recently, in a galaxy that turns out to be very close by.

Book cover: charcoal sketch of Heaney's face by Colin Davidson

Finished Late Heaney by @dedalusdenaries.bsky.social a careful and perceptive reading of post-Nobel Heaney. Even allowing for the bias of my pre-existing affection and respect for Nicholas, this was hugely impressive.

This is not simply an analysis or a dissection ... (contd.)

Interzone 304 is out. Not sure if that’s been noticed now that they’re not on social media. Am reading the first story, by @vallescurarule.bsky.social “County Colours” and it is very good… Why is part of Ireland in Japan? interzone.press. Review to follow when I get through the issue

Background image is a book cover: the top third is bright green with yellow text that reads Tiffani Angus, Val Nolan. The middle third is black with white text that reads Spec Fic for Newbies Vol. 3; the bottom third is green with yellow text that reads A Beginner's Guide to Writing Even More Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Foreground text: "Typically manifesting as an idealised version of higher educational environments, dark academia serves as a form of resistance against the contemporary corporatization of universities, where students are as likely to be regarded as financial assets than anything else." p. 128

Have you always wanted to create a curriculum for a school for magic practitioners? SPEC FIC FOR NEWBIES 3 cracks open the textbook on Magic Schools & Dark Academia with a 101 history plus Extra Credit and 2 activities to get you started! Available for pre-order! linktr.ee/specficforne...

Fingers crossed that we someday get an awesome #StarfleetAcademy "making of" or art book. I would love to know more about the development of the show and see more of the concept art!

This is what ecocide looks like.

Superman flies through a window to confront a criminal: WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT OF ME? IM GOING TO GIVE YOU THE FATE YOU DESERVE, LUBANE, FOR PROMOTING THIS WAR AND PROFITEERING UPON THE DEATH AND MISERY OF OTHERS:

Morning Bluesky.

A black cat named Luvi raises his head from a cream basket. His yellow eyes stare right at the camera. His ears are raised. Behind him is a colorful curtain to the left and a vent to the center.

The Luvi monster rises...

To the left, the cover (green and black) of "Spec Fic For Newbies: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror" Vol 3 by Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan. To the right, a list of the topics covered by the book: "Learn about writing… Space Academies, Superheroes, Terraforming Tales, Mad Scientists, Space Westerns, SF Procedurals, Meta SF, Spy-Fi, Searches For God In Space, The End Of The Universe, Dinosaur Tales, Archaeologist Stories, Hollow Earth, Elves, Magic Schools and Dark Academia, Wizards & Sorcerers, Magical Realism, Anthropomorphic Fantasy, Fantasy of Manners, Swashbuckling Fantasy, Weird Fiction, Urban Gothic, Shapeshifters, Birthing Monsters, Alien Abductions, Fungal Horror, Bugs!!!, Kaiju, Deals With The Devil, Near-Death Experiences"

Against a background of multi-colored confetti are three book covers. Spec Fic for Newbies Volume 1: The cover is split into thirds with the top and bottom third red and the center third black. Text on the top third reads Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan in yellow font. The middle third reads Spec Fic for Newbies in bold white font. And the bottom third reads A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror in yellow font. Spec Fic for Newbies Volume 2: The cover is medium blue on the top and bottom third with the center third black. In the top blue block are the authors’ names in yellow: Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan In the middle black block is the main title in white: Spec Fic for Newbies Vol. 2 In the bottom blue block is the subtitle in yellow: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing More Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Spec Fic for Newbies Volume 3: The cover is bright green on the top and bottom third with the center third black. In the top green block are the authors’ names in yellow: Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan In the middle black block is the main title in white: Spec Fic for Newbies Vol. 3 In the bottom green block is the subtitle in yellow: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Even More Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Beneath that is the text "Spec Fic for Newbies Vol 3 is available for pre-order!" and “Out March 24!” In the center is a QR code and in the bottom right is a Luna Press logo.

Thinking about pre-ordering *Spec Fic for Newbies Vol. 3*, the third stand-alone entry in the writing guide series from @lunapress.bsky.social? Check out the subgenres and major tropes covered in the book here, and then head over to the Luna website: www.lunapresspublishing.com/product-page...

To the left, the cover (blue and black) of "Spec Fic For Newbies: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror" Vol 2 by Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan. To the right, a list of the topics covered by the book: "Learn about writing… Space Opera, Astronauts, First-Contact Stories, Climate Fiction, Pandemic Fiction, Uplifted Animals, Submarine Stories, Mysterious Islands, Biopunk, The Multiverse, Mythic Fantasy, Fairies, Goblin Markets, Enchanted Clothing, Dragons, Cryptozoology, Body Swaps, Portal Fantasy, Comedic Fantasy, Carnivalesque, Folk Horror, Ghost Stories, Werewolves, Possessed/Cursed Items, Animals That Attack, Evil Children, Ecohorror, Gendercide, Places People Shouldn’t Go, & Last Person Left Alive Stories!"

Have you checked out what the second stand-alone volume of our *Spec Fic for Newbies* writing guide series offers you?

Find it here www.lunapresspublishing.com/product-page... from @lunapress.bsky.social! Grab yourself a copy and get writing! 😀

To the left, the cover (red and black) of "Spec Fic For Newbies: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror" Vol 1 by Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan. To the right, a list of the topics covered by the book: "Learn about writing… Spaceships, Aliens, Big Dumb Objects, Robots, Military SF, Utopia, Dystopia, Apocalypses, Cyberpunk, Solarpunk, Folktales & Fairy Tales, Witches, High Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Grimdark, Historical Fantasy, Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Time Travel, Gothic Horror, Supernatural Horror, Vampires, Psychological Horror, Body Horror, Zombies, Suburban Horror, Splatterpunk, Techno Horror, and Cosmic Horror!"

Have you checked out what the first stand-alone volume of our *Spec Fic for Newbies* writing guide series offers you?

Find it here www.lunapresspublishing.com/product-page... from @lunapress.bsky.social! Grab yourself a copy, start learning, and get writing! 😀

The review seemed to call for something different, yes 😂 Very enjoyable to put it all together. Glad you appreciated it 😀

Interzone #304 In this issue of Interzone: stories by Rachael Cupp, R.T. Ester, Dominic Green, Simon Guerrier, Val Nolan, and Jennifer Jeanne McArdle; columns by Alexander Glass, Una McCormack, Val Nolan, and Aliya ...

Interzone #304 out now, including my column on “Always Coming Home” by #UrsulaLeGuin.

shop.interzone.press/b/IxvFR

Thank you for the signal boost! Delighted that you enjoyed the story 😀

Having experienced this nastiness, I can only wish you a speedy recovery 🚀

#StarfleetAcademy's "Kids These Days" features almost all of the now well-established 32nd century Starfleet starship classes. Only the Intrepid class is a no-show. I hope we will get proper class names with the upcoming Fanhome USS Credence and USS Dresselhaus models! 😃 🧵 1/2

"Have you ever worked with water?" I'm asked as they slide me into the alien's resonance imager...

And, like, "Um, guys, maybe hold up a second here?!"

Background image is a book cover: the top third is bright green with yellow text that reads Tiffani Angus, Val Nolan. The middle third is black with white text that reads Spec Fic for Newbies Vol. 3; the bottom third is green with yellow text that reads A Beginner's Guide to Writing Even More Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Foreground text: “Westerns have always had their share of capable women because the setting fosters independence and resourcefulness. Space westerns are no different, and, while the parent genre’s stereotypes of barmaid, schoolteacher, and golden-hearted sex workers (looking at you, *Firefly*) still exist, they’ve long been supplanted by a broader range of archetypes.” P. 47

Howdy, pardner! That's a mighty fine... *spaceship* you got there. SPEC FIC FOR NEWBIES 3, out soon from
@lunapress.bsky.social looks at Space Westerns, why we took our wagon trains to the stars, and the various characters that walk into our alien saloons! Pre-order now! linktr.ee/specficforne...

You're very welcome! I've read the first few pages (before I had to break to start making dinner) and I'll finish it over the weekend. Great stuff so far 😀

This was a lot of fun... I got to write about Starfleet Academy for Reactor! 😀

Well now, this sounds *fascinating*...

The urge to warn visitors to your home that they're "now entering peak ADHD territory..." 🙃

Birthing Monsters: “You know when something isn’t quite right. You feel bloated, a little nauseated, and maybe that baby bump isn’t the expected shape. That’s when the question comes up of whether it’s a baby … human … at all.” p. 204

Pregnancy and birth are topics that easily link to current political events... and easily inspire Horror stories. SPEC FIC FOR NEWBIES 3 investigates how gone-wrong births become stories & provides activities to get you started writing your own! Pre-order now! linktr.ee/specficforne... #SFF #Horror

Seb Doubinsky author picture

Delighted to announce the exciting new speculative novella by Seb Doubinsky, The Machine, for the award-winning Luna Novella 2027! Luna Press has acquired EWR from Matt Bialer, of New York Sanford J. Greenburger Associates www.lunapresspublishing.com/post/unveili... @sebdoubinsky.bsky.social ❤️

Featured in Interzone #304, in order of appearance: Cover art by Emma Howitt, illustrating ‘County Colours’, Val Nolan’s novelette of people finding their way in a fractured new world; Aliya Whiteley’s latest fabulous Climbing Stories, ‘Everything is Ruined’; Nick Lowe’s reviews of the latest films in a brilliant, extremely satisfying serving of Mutant Popcorn (Interzone patrons can read Nick’s reviews of over 1400 films in the complete 700,000-word online Mutant Popcorn archive); new stories by Val Nolan, R.T. Ester, Dominic Green, Jennifer Jeanne McArdle, Simon Guerrier, and Rachael Cupp; Una McCormack reflecting on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home in Dancing in the Library, her regular column; Kelly Jennings on new books by Gretchen Felker-Martin, Naomi Novik, Jo Walton and Ada Palmer, M.R. Carey, Sheri Singerling, and Nancy Kress; Paul Kincaid on The Misheard World, Aliya Whiteley’s new novel; Paul McAuley on R.T. Ester’s debut novel The Ganymedan; Val Nolan’s hyperlinked 6000-word Choose-Your-Own-Adventure review of Chris Farnell’s Fermi’s Wake; ‘K is for Kings’ by Alexander Glass, the latest letter in his A to Z of Zelazny; and finally, Val Nolan completes his story-review-column trifecta with a new Folded Spaces, this time exploring Celticist John Carey’s ‘Aerial Ships and Underwater Monasteries: The Evolution of a Monastic Marvel’!

Interzone #304 is now out and I am *all over it* like a bad rash you got in a really fun way with a story-column-review trifecta! 😂 My novelette ‘County Colours’; my latest 'Folded Spaces column; plus my Choose Your Own Adventure review of Chris Farnell's Fermi's Wake! shop.interzone.press/b/IxvFR

Me checking my phone in the middle of the night...

Not gonna lie, between this, Swashbuckling Fantasy, and, erm... Weird Fiction, Spec Fic for Newbies 3 is definetly the horniest of the three books 😂

Background image is a book cover: the top third is bright green with yellow text that reads Tiffani Angus, Val Nolan. The middle third is black with white text that reads Spec Fic for Newbies Vol. 3; the bottom third is green with yellow text that reads A Beginner's Guide to Writing Even More Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Foreground text: "We also can’t forget the many delicious elves from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy: bowman Legolas, royal elf Galadriel, lord of Rivendell Elrond, and his daughter Arwen, who marries Aragorn. Jackson depicts them as tall, beautiful, and mysterious, with long blond or dark hair and pointed ears: they’re Middle-earth thirst traps!" p. 123

From Legolas to Jared to Romantasy, elves have been a fan favourite for decades, but where did they come from? SPEC FIC FOR NEWBIES 3 explores the sometimes complicated history of these characters & even provides 2 activities to get you started writing! Pre-order now! linktr.ee/specficforne...

Eve, Martin Paul, ‘The Archive at the End of the World: Speculative Preservation and the Politics of Loss’ (presented at the Textual Ecologies: Media, Materials, Environments, Passau, Germany, 2026) Eve, Martin Paul, and Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, ‘Martin Paul Eve in Conversation with Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’ (presented at the SHARPIES 2026, Online, 2026) Eve, Martin Paul, Lucy Barnes, and Aileen Fyfe, ‘Open Access Books: Rights, Ownership and Control’ (presented at the London Open Science & Scholarship Festival 2026, London School of Economics, 2026) Fitzpatrick, Kathleen, Martin Paul Eve, Bonnie Russell, Scott Schopieray, and Ian Scott, ‘The Ethics of Open Scholarship’ (presented at the Ethics Week, Michigan State University, 2026)

I don't get out that much these days owing to terrible ill health/kidney failure, but I am still speaking on several occasions this year if you would like to hear my words.

Co-conspirators include @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social, @aileenfyfe.bsky.social, @kfitz.info, @alittleroad.bsky.social