C.N. Reed, The Mighty Lamplighter

September-October Submissions Open! We are looking for short stories to publish! If you have something written that counts as speculative fiction, and it embodies hope, send it our way!

If you have a hopeful short story that your looking to get put out there, check this out!

#booksky #writing #amwriting #fyp

Sometimes, you have to give yourself permission to not do as well as you did yesterday.

You can always do better tomorrow.

Used books carry old conversations, musings buried deep in their folds.

#booksky📚

Mycosovereignty and The Last of Us: How Fungal Horror Redefines Humanity, Agency, and Social Relationships Exploring the concept of mycosovereignty through The Last of Us and how fungal networks reshape human identity, community, and posthuman ecology.

Last chance to read this awesome piece before it’s locked in the archives!

Check it out and look at mycological sovereignty!

open.substack.com/pub/codyreed...

I’ve ran into this so many times. People think creatives are just naturally talented, that they create everything with perfect precision the first time and that they have done it since birth. It’s practice. It’s 100s of hours, doing the same thing over and over and doing it better through failure.

A book cover for SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS by David C. Smith, with art by @azuremeraki.bsky.social‬ that shows a middle-aged, brawny warrior with his sword held low, staring down the viewer while standing over a man whose blood is all over the floor.

Brackenbury Books is publishing its first full length novel this year - SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS by David C. Smith! Cover by @azuremeraki.bsky.social

Learn more and sign up to be alerted when the crowdfund goes live: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

⚔️Shares are most appreciated! ⚔️

Queer theory is one of my favorite things to talk about. It’s helped me come to both amazing conclusions in texts I’ve read, as well as how it impacts my everyday life.

if you’ve never took the plunge, now is the time.

#literarycriticism #queertheory #booksky

I've peeked at X a couple of times lately through my old fan accounts (burned up main acct several months ago). People I love are there.

It's giving Stormfront in the 2000s. The algorithm is pushing a white nationalist view of the world.

The Twitter we knew and loved is dead. X is its corpse.

My library just added the whole Discworld series in audio, so I’ll see y’all in like three years when I’ve finished them all

True words by a wise person, whoever they are. Keep your heads up, #writers.

#amwriting #booksky #aspiringwriter

Villains are people “who abuse others for their own self-interest. It’s a symbol of their fundamental disconnect from the love that drives human society.” — J. M. McDermott

Damn, does that sound like some identifiable billionaires? 🤔

#writing #writingfantasy #aspiringwriter #amwriting #booksky

When you go into a library or bookstore, and you have to hunt down some ancient text for research, do you also feel like you’re in an Indiana Jones-esque adventure? 🤔

#aspiringwriter #amwriting #booksky

A friend of mine recently hosted a sapphic book tea party, and I am extraordinarily jealous. Not because they didn’t tell me, but rather because I live in America and they are in Edinburgh.

#booksky

Book Challenge: Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 14/20: Steampunk: past, presents, & futures ed. By Rachel Bowser and Brian Croxall

#booksky #20bookchallenge

Book Challenge: Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 13/20: Clockwork Rhetoric, edited by Barry Brummett

#booksky #20bookchallenge

Want to read more Black fantasy, horror and science fiction? I have a list of over 250 books for kids and adults. Get your summer reading list going! #summerreading #booksky #blackbooksky

bookshop.org/wishlists/3a...

And while we’re in these dark and profoundly stupid times, might I suggest Martha S. Jones’s work—highlighting how African Americans used the courts to argue for the idea of birthright citizenship long before the Civil War as a means to establish their status as free citizens.

Missed a few days, whoops!

Book Challenge: Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 12/20: Orientalist by Edward Said

#booksky #20bookchallenge

God, this administration is making things worse day by freaking day.

“Integrity is no greater and no less today than it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. It stands outside of time.” – Eudora Welty, The Atlantic, p. 104

A Proposal On Writing Equitable Fantasy: Part I It is a difficult challenge to create inclusive fantasy, but it doesn't have to be. Let's situate the problematic past of fantasy, its relationship to D&D, and how we can be more equitable.

New article up on my #Substack! If you’re #writing #fantasy and interested in representation, then it’s right up your alley! ✍️📚

#amwriting #writersky #writingcommunity #booksky

Book Challenge: Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 11/20: The Sorcerers Apprentice by Jack Zipes

#booksky #20bookchallenge

On Moths The Future of this Newsletter

“A part of the writing process is understanding direction. A lot of us writer folk take that for granted”

Book Challenge: Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Day 10/20: The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

#booksky #20bookchallenge

A tall humanoid crow figure stands with hands outstretched in the middle of a brown field at sunset. On his head is a sharp spiked metal crown, highlighted by the disk of the setting sun like a halo.

Why not crowpope though??

AI and the Death of the Amateur A critical look at how LLMs and Text Generative Ai are impacting the Amateur writing space.

Let’s face it: a lot of new writers are using Ai to help them. Some are using it as an assistant, others are using it to write an entire book.

Are we seeing the death of the amateur in real time? Let’s talk about it.

#ai #aiwriting #writing #booksky

Book Challenge: Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#booksky #20bookchallenge

Day 9/20: The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire by Thomas Richards

Welcoming the Ghost into the Machine An experiment in Collaboration

Trying an experiment with the ethical implications of Ai while using Ai. It’s an interesting topic and I want to see what others think! Any feedback, positive or critical is greatly appreciated!

If you have concerns, please voice them.

#ai #writing