J.A. Prentice

One of my best friends was raised JW, and I asked him the other day if they believed in the devil, since they don’t believe in Hell. He said “Very much so.”

And all I could think was, “But where does he LIVE?”

Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie - Small Wonders In a land replete with small gods and smaller miracles, a barefoot stranger in devotional robes was an afternoon’s amusement.

now that my last story of the year's out i suppose i should do a round-up?

first back in april, Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie in @smallwondersmag.com, a story with a first draft entitled Eat God and Don't Die

Beneath Ceaseless Skies - Woman Like Stone Like Water by Malda Marlys The stranger turned at the noise she was making and stared at her rather rudely. (Did plains people not train their children properly?) He didn’t quite seem able to stand, but he scooted away from her...

"Woman Like Stone Like Water" is my pleistocene ghost story in @bcsmagazine.bsky.social, but nobody's yet invented ghosts or mysteries so it isn't very scary

I dunno why Victor Frankenstein is always so old in adaptations. He's meant to be like a 23-year-old, fresh out of college, accidentally becomes a dead-beat young dad, kinda guy. I really struggle to think of an adaptation that really captures that.

An illustration depicting a take on the Wicked movie poster done in the style of the original L Frank Baum Oz book illustrations. The text reads Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

What if Wicked was released in 1900?

Here is my take on the book cover / movie poster using the designs W. W. Denslow and John R. Neill did for L. Frank Baum's original books.

(I made the Witch green more for colour scheme but also it's fairly significant to Maguire's book)

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

Machiavelli: It is better to be feared than loved, but you must absolutely avoid being *hated.*

So many forget that last part.

Good news! You can read an oldie but a favorite of mine in Apex today! "Before, After, and the Space Between", first published in @neonhemlock.bsky.social's Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness, is about the fraught relationship between a daughter and her mother and their magic 💜🖤

Hey uh

Don’t care what the writer did to your fictional bestie

Death threats are insane and so are you.

Because the character is fake, the person is not.

Calm the fuck down, and move on.

Learn how to offer criticism like a fucking adult.

I will be the first to admit I couldn’t understand why anyone would oppose Assisted Dying… and then I became disabled and had it “offered” to me.

It’s not compassionate when there’s coercion.

It’s not dignified when it’s offered in lieu of care.

Listen to disabled people.

You should listen to Starship Sofa and if you only have one episode to listen to how about one that has a story of mine in it? www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2024/03...

For the [ast few years I've been editing the short fiction for Star Ship Sofa, a venerable SF (not F/H) podcast. It's a small joint, and I've turned it primarily into a reprint market as we can afford only $50 per story.

I've also turned it into a reprint market because writers need money fast. 🧵

I looooooove the Davison vibes take on the original Cusick hallways here. I like to think the Dalek spun them around itself like a chrysalis.

There are a lot of people who seem to believe that any Social Capital you get for being an author is the same as Financial Capital and nobody is sorrier than me to report that it is not.

The sun itself was hidden, but there was a glitter on the horizon, almost like the dazzle of the crystal walls of the Undertomb, a kind of joyous shimmering off on the edge of the world.
“What is that?” the girl said, and he: “The sea.”

ok just checking: does the whole economy have to be scams? is that a rule now. I feel like we've had about a decade of 'ok we're shifting our industrial base to making those x-ray spex so you can see through people's clothes that used to be advertised in the ad pages between Batman stories'

And the titular story is free to read til the end of the month.

undertowpublications.com/uncertain-sons

This is also how I judge the History Channel. If it’s about a topic I know, I spot at least one lie per minute watching the History Channel, so it’s horrifying to think how many lies I’d be swallowing without knowing it if I watched about a topic I don’t know.

LLM search results are even worse.

A close-up of a barred spiral galaxy. Two spiral arms reach horizontally away from the core in the center, merging into a broad network of gas and dust that fills the view. This material glows bright orange along the path of the arms and is darker red across the rest of the galaxy. Through many gaps in the dust, which appear black, countless tiny stars can be seen.

The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy—observed by #NASAWebb in mid-infrared light—shows “creeping” orange tendrils of gas and dust, and many blue stars. The galaxy’s core, the bright central area, is where the oldest stars are. New stars may be forming farther out. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA 🔭 🧪

Liecraft For a long time now I’d been practicing liecraft five or six times before breakfast. I’d roll over to Khao’s side of the bed and...

Just read this banger published in @apexmag.bsky.social issue 151 and it is now one of my top 10 favorite short stories ever easily.

www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...

Pollinia

Inspired by Jeff Vandermeer’s writing

belgianbooleancg.com/projects/8wX...

Todd Rivers, smiling and holding a beverage

"Scripts written by a machine? Of course I'd be interested! Science fiction's never quite been my bag but I find that kind of offer...exciting. Some actors would think twice but...you know I'm always willing to work, you know. My house's roof is...I'm always interested in work."

Dean Learner, lounging

"I once tried one of my techniques on one of those "AI Girlfriends" and they worked just like they do on human women. After a long night and several missed calls I realized why Superman hides in his Fortress...he hides from what he may do."

"I once pretold a story that warned of this outcome. Of course some people laughed at my tremulous tome of an army of mechanomen who seize control of all the coal mines in Wales and are only defeated by a barrage of close harmony singing. But such is the fate of being a modern day Nostradamus."

a caped crusader flies thru the air with a bunch of colorfully dressed teenagers

Mike Allred drawing Batman ‘66 Meets the Legion of Super-Heroes is just good fun!

Now Playing: One of the best films ever made

A national bond that transcends race, religion, politics and class is our shared agreement that the Muppets are real. They are real people with jobs and lives. Listen to that crowd screaming. They know they're seeing a celebrity.

i hope one day when i die they make a big hologram of me that makes people do property damage

Isaac Chotiner: "I’m not making any allegation. I’m making a simple point about how an average reader—myself included—might respond after reading this ridiculous piece" Ben Smith: "Also — and I'll stop now! — the question he's trying to get at of how you cover monarchies with endless time horizons as a journalist (this is a thing people from most major publications do) is genuinely interesting." Chotiner, with the kill shot: "Come on Ben. I refuse to pretend that both of us are dumber than we are."

If Isaac Chotiner ever said this to me, I would move to the woods.