Alex Harford

And how is it random if you thought about it? Surely you'd have to pick about 50 facts then randomly pick 5 of them.

A Short Fiction Treasures Special: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives Going through the archives of Strange Horizons for this special column has been a bit like exploring a treasure chamber. I’ve picked fifty stories. I could have picked hundreds. Meaning: I left a l…

Strange Horizons turns 25 this year, which is pretty much an eternity in the world of spec fic zines, and I had the privilege of going through the archives for a special short fiction roundup: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

I think I was just very wordy.

Or I should say:

I was wordy.

Unidentified Funny Objects 10 After a three-year hiatus, a new volume of this iconic anthology series of humorous science fiction & fantasy is finally in the works!

We need funny stories, more than ever. Help me pay a bunch of authors to write them!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/ufo...

An editor made me cut 10% of a 10,000 word story.

It took me 30 hours.

It was a great lesson though!

Apex Magazine Kickstarter 2026 graphic.

The Apex Magazine 2026 Kickstarter is LIVE!

Our initial goal is $20K to fund four issues for next year, with the opportunity to unlock issues five and six through stretch goals. I really, really want to go back to six issues a year! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

A couple of dystopian futures. One where most music is banned and teens try to summon ABBA from the past (written before hologram ABBA) and another where punk silence gigs are a respite from a noisy world.

Others where the story is driven by music or it plays an important part in a scene or two.

I didn't follow the account back because of its "AI" generated banner.

"...an artist in a midsize city whose particular artform is creating beasts out of synthetic meat and animating them with jazz recordings..."

I'm in! Many of my own stories revolve around music but nothing like yours. I'm looking forward to reading. I happen to be listening to jazz right now.

Speaking from a UK perspective, tying state pension age to life expectancy and being proactive rather than reactive in healthcare should go a long way towards that.

Yep, by Oliver Sacks! My mum is a big fan of his work, and I keep meaning to read more by him. I've read a few of his patient stories that are fascinating.

So most people visualise images when they imagine things? I feel like I have a good imagination, but I don't think I see images when I'm imagining things unless I'm forming something from a memory.

I wonder if that's why my writing was so white room when I started.

I have a mild prosopagnosia. I used to think I was in my own world when family members & friends thought I'd ignored them, but in recent years I realised I probably didn't recognise them sometimes.

I met someone recently who doesn't recognise himself in the mirror.

Our brains are fascinating.

Massive respect. As a writer who has been trying to break through for years, I think I would have begrudgingly accepted the contract.

I doubt I'll submit to them in future unless something changes.

My favourites tend to be comedy horrors like One Cut of the Dead (I know Lesley likes this one) and Tucker & Dale vs Evil.

Black Swan for psychological horror.

The Innocents and Psycho for classics.

Is there a key I can plug into my face to control my whole life?

"not enough children being born" is also propaganda. It's the obsession with growth that's killing our planet and widening the gap between poor and rich.

Good overall points from the guy though, assuming this isn't a deepfake video.

I've been meaning to transfer from IMDB to Letterboxd for ages, and thanks to your link, I finally did!

It's great to see a fellow Banshees of Inisherin fan - it's probably my favourite 2020s film so far. As you like sci-fi and climate stuff, have you watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind?

Ah, I think Voila was still generative AI? But from long before what we now know. 😭

I knew about the moral rights contract issues with Analog magazine et al, and this newsletter is a very insightful read on contracts for a budding pro author like me.

All that and more! I agree on the "AI" aspects too.

The Perfect Match - Lightspeed Magazine Sai woke to the rousing first movement of Vivaldi’s violin concerto in C minor, “Il Sospetto.” He lay still for a minute, letting the music wash over him like a gentle Pacific breeze. The room brighte...

I look forward to reading "Through the Machine."

From the same publication but many years ago, I thought Ken Liu's www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-... was very prescient. It's a reason I've always ignored Google Discover, Spotify DJ and stuff like that.

The Perfect Match - Lightspeed Magazine Sai woke to the rousing first movement of Vivaldi’s violin concerto in C minor, “Il Sospetto.” He lay still for a minute, letting the music wash over him like a gentle Pacific breeze. The room brighte...

Thanks for sharing and being open about your contract woes. They are useful to learn about for a budding pro author like me who has also experienced publication hell that's ruined excitement.

I agree with you on "AI." But you have an AI-generated image for your Letterboxd profile? 😮

Hello, yes please!
"Love, Scotland" is getting a beauty of a home. 🤩

And even partnering with one of the worst of them. That's what's put me off.

So-called "AI" is the new fossil fuels, smoking, global warming...

Brilliant, congratulations! 😃

I'll get myself a paperback.

Friends Don't Let Friends Prompt By Emily Alex and I were at WorldCon (the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention) last week, talking about The AI Con with people whose livelihood...

Some reflections from #WorldCon on how to talk to friends about "AI"

buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...

How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail    I would rather  eat Quavers that are six weeks stale,  blow dry the man bun of Gareth Bale,  listen to the songs of Jimmy Nail,  than read one page of the Daily Mail.    If I was bored  in a waiting room in Perivale,  on a twelve-hour trip on Network Rail,  halfway through a circumnavigational sail,  I would not read the Daily Mail.    I would happily read  the autobiography of Dan Quayle,  1001 Things You Can Do With Kale,  selected scripts from Emmerdale, if it meant I didn’t have to read the Daily Mail.    Far better to  stand outside in a storm of hail,  scratch a blackboard with a fingernail,  be swallowed by a humpback whale,  than have to read the Daily Mail.    If I was blind   and it was the only thing in Braille,  I still would not read the Daily Mail.    Brian Bilston 

Today’s poem is called ‘How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail’.

Many years ago there was even a study in London that had similar results.

My Writers of the Future winning story "A Word That Means Everything" is out in @penumbricmag.bsky.social. New achievement for me because it's the first time my work has been first in a ToC!

A great story. One of the most compelling openings I've read.