Tanya Meeson

I need to begin all my email with this.

I can’t make a living writing any type of media but the people who can’t afford to pay me to write the media can still make billions a year selling the media they can’t afford to pay me to write.

One of my biggest pet peeves. (I also really see it more in contemporary SFF/H writing than literary fiction, strangely.) A lot of writing seems to be purely about vibes without the author worrying about sense.

The Curious Case of the Disappearing White People And how the white right can’t face the monster in the basement

The white right and its sturmpodcasters claim that white people are disappearing because of a Great Replacement and 'white genocide'. For them, the truth behind the numbers is far too horrific to contemplate. My latest, free to read. anotherdayinparadisewithtomeaton.substack.com/p/the-curiou...

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

A black and white abstract artwork featuring a complex network of intersecting curved lines, some thick and others thin, against a textured, off-white background with visible shading and subtle dark speckles, evoking a sense of dynamic movement and intricate pattern. *) Alt text generated by AI

get a library card get a library card get a library card get a library card get a LIBRARY CARD

"Your book doesn't sell because of the cover/blurb/writing style/lack of marketing/insert random reason here."

No, it's because it's niche. That is all. We can stop with the author shaming.

Packing my winter woolies for a reportedly chilly Joburg and looking forward to tomorrow night's launch of 'An Act of Murder'. If you're near Sandton, pull through to Exclusive Books at sixish and come and say hello.

Johannesburg! Arnold Prinsloo is coming home as we launch ‘An Act of Murder’ next Thursday in Sandton*, and it would be grand to see you there. I'll be chatting to the excellent Michelle Constant, so both you and I will be in safe hands.

* OK technically Arnold lives in Melville but close enough...

YouTube video by Kiabugboy More Oncocerida from Gotland

Timeline cleanse: do you want to see one of the best fossil animations I have EVER seen?

@kiabugboy.bsky.social you are literally a master of the form. BBC or Discovery (whoever pays more) should hire you immediately 🧪🦑⚒️

I absolutely love writing but man sometimes publishing feel like I signed up to get kicked in the head repeatedly by an MMA fighter.

A fork in the road Live in an Elon Musk world or live in a Mary Oliver world? Which would you choose?

My friend bought me a digital clock to save me from my destructive early morning doom scrolling. It got me thinking about all the moments in my life when I've found myself at a fork in the road: fall into the black mirror or stay in the real world...

tanyameeson.substack.com/p/a-fork-in-...

I met an actual flat earther last night. I didn't really believe they existed but they do. Thought they were joking at first and, when I realised they weren't, couldn't stop laughing at them. Felt rude. But what else is there to do?

This news about 4chan is honestly a little beam of light in a really dark time.

@melattree.bsky.social

Looking forward to interviewing @jonkeevy.bsky.social about his debut novel The Unwoven Warrior. A character-driven Afrofantasy blending magic, action, war, loss, myth and tribe into one very readable story with Amkela and his fellow Inyentu at the helm.

#specfic #scifi #scifilit #afrofantasy

Watched this piece of a fantastic 90s Catholic horror again this week. One of my fave genres. Honestly, give me some 90s tack, some satan and demons and Gabriel Byrne-types as the tormented priest and I'm IN. (And Arquette is just perfection as a the 90s rave-grunge girl.)

The Great Pivot Saying hello to a brave new world I never wanted

Steven Kurutz's NYT's piece ‘The Gen X Career Meltdown' was like being validated and getting kicked in the face all at once. It's weird to think it, but my time as a jobbing writer is coming to an end whether I want it to or not...

tanyameeson.substack.com/p/the-great-...

'Dandelions,' was painted by the Danish artist Bertha Wegmann around 1910. It wasn't an arbitrary choice of a plant to paint: the dandelion was used to promote the women’s liberation movement in Scandinavia because of its capacity for uncontrolled, strong-willed growth.

'optopia' i like that :) I also like the idea of these kinds of stories hot-wiring new narratives in our imaginations and therefore new realities. but i wonder if the human mind gets as much of an endorphin rush from a story without the drama of the dark side.

I'm really fascinated by the idea of hope and I love this quote by Isaac Asimov. For a while I thought I was writing hopeful dystopia, but I like solarpunk. Maybe because it feels subversive and rebellious to imagine a better world when everything is going so tits up. Maybe it's the new fantasy.

A reader told me that my book The Akashic Records is 'solarpunk'. I'd never heard of this before. Basically, it's cyberpunk's opposite. Instead of a gloomy dystopia, solarpunk imagines a future world where humans, greentech and nature live in harmony. We need more of this.

#specfic #scifi #scifilit

Absolutely. I often wonder what happened to the illustrations and paintings.

Yes! I was think of getting some primo-quality scans done and making prints

And some more...

#vintagescifi #scifi #scifilit #sff

Found this collection of fantastic scifi pulp at a local market today. Love the smell of the paper and the fantastic illustrated covers. Can't wait to get stuck in.

#vintagescifi #scifi #scifilit #sff