Andrew Variously

Congrats Emma @slashnburnett.bsky.social for making the BSFA's Best short fic shortlist! Knew "25 Peppercorns" was a top tier submission the minute I finished reading, the kind of story that makes being an editor so satisfying.

Voting and story links at the message below, folks! Best of luck, Emma!

Always nice to see zine reviews out there in the world (even when it ISN'T the zine you yourself put out 😉)

I'm one of the editors on the menu for this. Looking forward to the convention as a whole, but this could be really interesting, whether it means discussing short fiction or long 🙂

Catherine O’Hara, R.I.P. From ‘SCTV’ to ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ she brought exquisite timing and surprising layers even to the silliest characters.

This is much shorter than she deserved, but I wrote a few words about the late, great, Catherine O'Hara.

www.thebulwark.com/p/catherine-...

Clocks keep on ticking... 8 hours to go local time, but to allow for those in other time zones the editor will officially close when he crawls out of bed on Saturday morning...

Oh my... additional delight incoming, as Cheryl S. Ntumy's "Listen, Don't Touch" is ALSO on the BSFA's short fiction longlist!

Votable at this link: bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-awards-...

Readable at this one: mythaxis.co.uk/issue-42/lis...

We're delighted that Emma Burnett's "25 Peppercorns" is on the BSFA's longlist for Best Short Fiction! But then, we were already delighted she offered us the chance to publish it in the first place ❤️

Worthy of your vote, reading public. And also of simply reading:

mythaxis.co.uk/issue-43/25-...

@mythaxis.bsky.social is open to submissions again until Jan30!

mythaxis.co.uk/submissions....

This is our first subs window since last April, and we're looking for all forms of speculative fiction (plus pieces for our next end-of-year crime issue) to appear in 2026 and 2027.

Info at the link!

A black on white illustration of an eldritch Citadel Tower with eyes, coral, and mushrooms, surrounded by a halo of paper and bubbles.

The previous illustration rendered on a navy tshirt in neon yellow ink.

We are so stoked to finally reveal our TriCon t-shirt design by the brilliant SorrySacha! 😍

Final shirt/ink colours may not be exactly as pictured, but we are absolutely certain this design is going to look fantastic on all of us!

Pre-order your tshirt w/ registration @ tricon-halifax.com

🖤💙💜💛💜💙🖤

Learn something new every day. I didn't even know the pig god played LEFT 4 DEAD

Blue card showing outlines of ticket stubs and the text "Earlybird Ticket Deadline Dec. 21, 2025" with TriCon details.

One month left for Early Bird tickets! The all-weekend pass is just $85, and mystery t-shirt pre-order, $20! Prices on both will go up Dec 21st.

3 days of panels, workshops, lectures, launches, and networking with other writers & creatives in speculative genres? Yes plz!

tricon-halifax.com

Text reads: "Goalkeeper Craig Gordon, 43 next month, has his hands in his gloves in disbelief as the Hampden Park DJ hits play on Freed From Desire. This is not a dream."

I'm very happy for the Scots about getting to a football World Cup for the first time in nearly 30 years, but I don't think the BBC's reporting quite encapsulated the depth of feeling on the night

NOVELETTE AVAILABLE NOW A picture of the cover (Black silhouette of a house, trees, and fence over a red sky. Text: The House of Forgotten Things by Addison Smith" Arrows point to the cover, denoting "Generational Trauma, Haunted Cellar, Karma Ghosts, Twisted Tradition, Haunted House."

Releasing my horror novelette "The House of Forgotten Things" into the world today! In the spirit of "Fuck Amazon," the book is only available on my Payhip store, which provides information for downloading and transferring to your device!

Please share! 🥹

payhip.com/b/Dxa78

A blue card reading "Featured Programming" and "The Blue Pencil Cafe" leads three circular avatars of editors, Rebecca Bennett, Carl Engle-Laird, and Andrew Leon Hudson. A white TriCon logo is in the bottom right corner, and a yellow button reading "Sign-ups begin December 22nd" in the bottom left.

What kind of programming will you find at TriCon? All kinds of stuff, like the Blue Pencil Cafe!

Sign up for a 1-on-1 session with an editor! Spaces are limited, & sign-ups open December 22nd!

Featuring @englelaird.bsky.social, @mythaxis.bsky.social, and @heartlines-spec.com, with more to come!

Picture of Barcelona, taken from a wooded hill within the city with a clear, pale morning sky and the ocean horizon in the distance

Just finished the best book I'll read this year: "A Natural History of Empty Lots" by @christopherbrown.bsky.social – thanks for writing something so beautiful!

Pic (because why not? 🙂) is Barcelona as viewed from one of the wooded hills within the city, beside Parc Güell and just uphill from home.

Putting out my shingle for a limited number of customers for November! All proceeds go to getting me a new computer that can handle design better than my poor laptop. Please share, and if you are interested, drop me a DM!

Portal fantasy. But the portal is the door on the front of a cuckoo clock.

Science fiction. But the science is phrenology.

Body horror. But the body is the student body.

Think I'm going to grow my moustache party-long but keep it business-short online to maximise the admiration/horror when I'm encountered in person

Guess what? Delighted to welcome contributors new and returning, and delighted by their stories: serious, moving, sinister, and heartfelt. Also some great audio versions and other reading recs.

Thanks to all who've gotten involved!

Very much our pleasure 🙂

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🏔️ Epic fantasy
🧭 Maps
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#booksky #indieread #mapmaker #mapmakertrilogy #bookstoread #epicfantasy #fantasyforadults #bookboost

YouTube video by Kevin Palmeri Tom Lehrer - An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer (Full Album) (Public Domain)

Very sad today: RIP, Tom Lehrer.

I've been a fan for maybe 40 years. He was a favourite of my grandfather, and my mum introduced me to "An Evening Wasted with..." (and deftly dodged my confusion about the Oedipus Rex lyrics).

I'll poison a dove for you today, Mr. Lehrer 💔🕊️🥹

youtu.be/PYA-jgI1ryg

Ten (technically eleven) authors by whom I've read more than five books (who aren't on the same list as @addi.social 😉):

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
Patrick O'Brian
Edith Pargeter (as Ellis Peters)
Colin Dexter
John Sandford
Ian Fleming
Kim Stanley Robinson
Stephen King
Enid Blyton
Frank Herbert

Photo of "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" by Joseph Wright 'of Derby', a beautiful oil painting of a scene that would get you well cancelled if you tried it these days.

Close up on a painting of a girl's face that looks like an AI botched it, from "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" by Joseph Wright 'of Derby'

I was at London's the National Gallery last week, and surprised to discover that Joseph Wright 'of Derby' was using Generative "AI" to do his paintings for him back in 1768.

Ah, people throw that word around too easily these days 😉😂 but thanks!

Okay, needed a little time to fan away the vapours, but I've got myself under control again. Congrats to all involved in Motives Unknown, either between the covers or behind the scenes!

The closing story is "Skeletons" by @bethrdb.bsky.social (excuse the fannish gush here 😊) and I thought it was just beautiful in every way - the characterisation, the narrative, the prose, all of it. And, as a final sentence with which to end this story, and book, you could not really ask for more