Sylvie Althoff

Don't Buy Starbucks! At any location, today and beyond, while workers are on ULP strike!

As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.

Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX

Two-panel Geordi meme template: the top, negative frame responds to the text "internal mother figure trying to protect me by making me fear for my life," while the lower frame responds positively to the text "engineering team reports heightened levels of tachyons or whatever."

I may have just hit on something: internal family systems, but instead of a family (upsetting), my feelings and impulses are a '90s-era Trek starship crew (wholesome, supportive, silly).

I'm so grateful to every one of you creating art and telling stories. Whether it's for you or published, whether it's ephemeral or documented - you keep blood in the veins of the world.

1Q w Sylvie Althoff - Podcast Episode · Dat Fury Radio · 11/11/2025 · 28m

Had the pleasure of chatting with good friend Howie at Dat Fury Radio last weekend. We talked about sci-fi, music tech, and aliens, among other things. Give us a listen!

Shout out to the child in my class whose snack, rather than a fruit roll-up or chips, was 40-50 black olives in a plastic container. She ate every damn one, like an absolute queen.

Not sorry to this man

I almost always have the opposite problem. Especially for short stories I tend to include way too much scene-setting and emotional beats that need to get cut in editing.

Lesbians in Space: Where No Man Has Gone Before

It's like peanut butter and chocolate, but with Lesbians and Space! Check out this amazing collection of 21 short stories, all with #sapphic themes. Includes 4 stories from Hugo award winning and nominated authors!
#fantasy #scifi
www.spacewizardsciencefantasy.com/book/lesbian...

I saw someone call Ai a Thneed and I can't stop thinking about it. It's a PERFECT analogy. The Thneed was an all-purpose tool that didn't do anything really useful. It was a fad that did major damage to the environment to make the Onceler a billionare. It left no real lasting impact, only damage.

It’s cool, entropy has a key to the place. We keep a cot in the crawlspace for her.

White House of Leaves

Somehow

I'm so sick of discourse from supposed allies about where trans people went wrong.

Where we "went wrong" is that billionaires spent unimaginably large sums to attack us repeatedly and major media outlets have spent a decade piling on.

The phrase "trans activist" is goofy because like 95% of the time it's used it refers to a trans person simply existing.

Media, pointing at a woman buying a coffee: behold, a trans activist.

Woman: buying coffee is not activism stop being so fucking weird

Media: trans activist criticizes media

"Loved everything about the vibes on this one."

"It's not too often I get hung up on a story's length, but I couldn't shake the feeling that this one would be fantastic as a novelette or novella."

...Yeah, I've gotten worse rejections! Back to it.

For Tolkien fans, a timely passage for No Kings Eve, from WH Auden’s review of Lord of the Rings.

(And help others see the light and do the same 😉)

A photo of an orange cat curled up comfortably on a cat bed in a shop window. The bed and window display are decorated to resemble a patisserie, with signs boasting “Today’s Special: Cutie Pie” and “Made fresh daily.”

We as a society really lost our way when we stopped worshiping cats as gods. Look at this magnificent motherfucker.

Sorry, that’s mine. He gets around.

Kermit faces off with Hopper in The Muppet Movie

Meanwhile in #Portland

While the Punch a Nazi anthology is no longer available on Ko-Fi, you can still read my queer Jewish ghost story “Bubbe Hates You” for free on my website! Give it a read, and if you like it, consider throwing some money to the Trevor Project (link in story).

A child-drawn picture of author Sylvie Althoff, incorrectly spelled.

The latest in unsolicited student portraiture:

Some Queer Short SFF - August 2025 | Charles Payseur Get more from Charles Payseur on Patreon

🏳️‍🌈SOME QUEER SHORT SFF - AUGUST 2025🏳️‍🌈
I round up 25 stories by @rukman.bsky.social @nicowritesbooks.bsky.social @rfdwrites.bsky.social @gothgreenwitch.bsky.social @nassos.bsky.social @sylvie-althoff.bsky.social @mererain.bsky.social @whatsmacksaid.bsky.social & MORE!!!
www.patreon.com/posts/some-q...

No Beastie Boys? Cowards.

"Root and Branch" by Sylvie Althoff Hidden in a Thai jungle, a geneticist and a synthetic human struggle beneath the brunt of persecution. By Sylvie Althoff. Featured in Baubles From Bones: Issue 6.

Longer and queerer is my short story "Root and Branch" in issue 6 of Baubles from Bones: www.baublesfrombones.com/root-and-bra...

Last of the Cigarette Gremlins by Sylvie Althoff - manywor(l)ds :: place The skinny old punk was up to something. She blended in with the usual crowd at Wart’s: saggy gauged earlobes, sunbleached neck tattoos, ratty Bundeswehr jacket, the PBR can that looked like she’d bee...

My flash story "Last of the Cigarette Gremlins" is out on manywor(l)ds: manyworlds.place/issue-9/sylv...

That's now 126 writing rejections for 2025. You WISH you were this rejected. 👑

i remain resolute in my confidence we will win and it will be because we stuck together. dooming and fatalism is not how any of us will get out of this mess. i’m saying this as a veteran climate journalist who is a trans woman. if i have more hope than you, think of what that says about your view

one of the clearest signs you're dealing with a strong and principled political movement is when they want to make it illegal to make fun of them