Guan Un

Adding on: practicing creating your art and finishing it will gradually improve the starting quality of the things you make. You need to play and create enough to figure out your process and hone your skills. You improve your basics.

Preoccupation with immediate quality hinders your growth.

Cropped art by Jimmy Makepeace of the Mongol nomad Goatskin standing at combat ready, a friend at her back, as the disembodied head of a statue spews violet light from its eyes. Overlaid are captions. Along the top reads "Just Launched on Backerkit. New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2026 is live" Along the bottom reads "Share this post to unlock bonus stories".

⚔️THE CROWDFUND FOR NEW EDGE SWORD & SORCERY 2026 IS LIVE⚔️

Three issues - our Timeworn Terra special - a New Jirel of Joiry story...

The more re-posts this gets, the more bonus content we'll add to this year's issues!

Go here to learn more and back the magazine👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Please listen for all the times I whisper “oh my god” in horror when listening to Ash’s writing process

IT IS MY BIRTHDAY, as a present plz deposit your favorite space opera short fiction!

just read this and im going insane. multiple moments in here that made me react out loud. this story capitalizes on its premise in every way possible (especially the ones that explore the traumas and complexes and existential fears of it all, inescapable emotion)

Can you stop complimenting each other please, this is the internet

This is such a vibe! Love it!

Well deserved! congrats, John!

My story came out in Worlds of Possibility, and the ever-amazing @omgjulia.bsky.social put all the 2025 stories in a FREE ebook, because that's just how they roll 💙 You can get it here: www.juliarios.com/a-gift-to-en...

My condolences during this difficult time

Remember Me in the Meat by Sarah Pauling Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast.

Wanna read an excellent story?

@sarahpauling.bsky.social's new story is out in Clarkesworld: it's about universal cloud memory in every brain, memory cultists, and an assassin who can go underneath it all.
I was lucky enough to beta-read it and haven't stopped thinking about it.

A Raffle I want to talk about writing and words. But first things first. As I write this, it’s a frigid morning. Snow is piled in huge drifts outside the window....

Heyyyy I'm raffling off a couple of tiny knitted creatures--hand-knit by yours truly--to raise funds for community aid organizations. That's right: you can own your very own wee knit beastie and help your community at the same time! Deets are in my latest newsletter:
buttondown.com/JenniferHuda...

Since people are asking if they can do something for me, here is a short thread. I'm clearly going to be laid up for a lot longer.

Here are a few simple links.

Patreon: www.patreon.com/Wiswell
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/johnwiswell
Amazon wishlist: www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...

Author photo of Guan Un.

WELCOME GUAN UN!
@thisisguan.bsky.social will have a brand new story in one of this year's issues. See cool art, crowdfund exclusives, and other exciting details here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Illustration of Enitan (a Black woman with brown skin and short black hair in a green tunic) and her sibling Xiang (a Chinese person in a reddish-brown tunic) by @ashcremated on Tumblr.

In the mood for a space opera adventure reviewers have affectionately called “tear-apart-the-empire-with-your-bare-hands wish fulfillment”?

THE SPLINTER IN THE SKY eBook is currently 1.99 *again*!

✨ bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

✨ www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/...

Thanks for reading Faith! (take root)

I have a reprint out today with the wonderful folks at Small Wonders! Heed the warning, and don't read it out loud.

Congrats!

An intricately detailed traditional and digital mixed media illustration by the artist Dhiyanah Hassan. An ornate frame with Arabesque and Jawi Peranakan inspired designs frames the illustration as a brown femme in a batik sarong and tank top sits on the floor next to her walking stick. A fantastical plant with glowing flowers grow from a wound on her back, ripping the back of her tank top. The plant faces us, the character is facing away, her face pointed between her cream-colored cat who is walking up to check on her and a large mystery moon glowing in the sky. Dark crescents surround the larger moon, and the same flowers from her body is depicted glowing in the purple watercolor sky amidst the stars.

A brown femme person with an undercut, a coral textured tanktop, and a series of golden jewelry stands with her hands over the center of her upper chest with eyes closed listening to her heart beat as a golden glow emanates from her heart. Behind her is a wooden heart, also slightly aglow, with large leaves growing from its top against a pastel galactic watercolor sky. Surrounding this scene are decorative elements and frames that imply resonance and bridges.

Hand-drawn illustration by artist Dhiyanah Hassan. A giant emperor snakehead or channa marulioides fish with yellow scales, black markings and red eyes is swimming up to a little girl in a sleeveless red dress and a top hat who is offering it a glowing flame. She is standing on a large scaled creature that is off-frame in the foreground. In rhe background are bubbles and sediments floating like stars against the water's depth, with shadowy tentacles sprouting from below and light rippling through the surface. The scene is whimsical and surreal.

An illustration by the artist Dhiyanah Hassan of two trans and genderqueer mermaids or mer-people gently swimming through an underwater seaweed cluster with interlinked arms and looks of wonder and affection on their faces. Parts of their bodies and tails are adorned with crystalline structure reminiscent of kyanites.

Hi #PortfolioDay 👋🏽 Queer disabled artist in Southeast Asia open for work on cover art & illustrations for adult, YA, kidlit SFFH & literary projects.

I specialize in hand-drawn 2D with nature-centric, whimsical themes. Folio & commission bookings: bydhiyanah.carrd.co 💖
#SupportArtists #art #artists

Congrats on 100! Amazing!

Art-making is immersive for the body-mind. It's important to take time understanding what accommodations you need to show up for sustained practice.

Let routines vary. Get ergonomic tools. Keep your fave art supplies stocked. Make time for rest & activities that counter physical/mental strain 🌸

The Dragon Has Some Complaints Amazon.com: The Dragon Has Some Complaints: 9780756420499: Wiswell, John: Books

Thanks for the outpouring of kindness, folks. If you want to do something to perk me up? Well, you could pre-order my dragon book! www.amazon.com/Dragon-Has-S...

🙏🏼 hoping for quick recovery!

Welkin News | MattKendrick.co.uk A writing prize open to all forms of narrative prose, be that flash fiction, short-short, vignette, haibun, hermit crab, prose poem or work that sits outside such labels.

DRUM ROLL!!!! 🥁🥁🥁

It gives me great pleasure to announce the SPARKLING longlist for the Welkin Writing Prize 2026.

Congratulations to all the writers on this list. And commiserations to everyone else. The standard was incredibly high:

www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-prize...

Creativity is constant adolescence, and I’m sorry for that A few workshops, and a pep talk: Creativity is constant adolescence, and I'm sorry for that

Sigh, particularly bummed about the world today; sending you all strength. Here's latest newsletter, though I'm sure like me, you're probs sad, too buttondown.com/ashsmash/arc...

2025 - For Your Consideration: Psychopomp Award Eligibility - PSYCHOPOMP.COM 2025 was a year of big changes around here, and we can't imagine where 2026 will take us. Before we do, let's look back at what we did in 2025. We did some

we are so proud of all we did in 2025!

and our intrepid @ecatherine.com gathered it all for you to see 👀

give this post a look!!

find something amazing to read

and consider us when you fill out those nomination forms this year 🙏🖤

psychopomp.com/2025-for-you...

god help me someone asked what i'm looking for in short fiction. how do i say: horror but not like that, questions without answers, short, and fucking weird. the thing that makes good short fiction to me is that the final act of the story is in your head, not on the page

PORTRAIT OF YOU IN FIVE PSYCHICS by Kirsti MacKenzie First guy says: you’re gonna see a UFO. Like, BOOM. He lays this on me. Right now you’re probably thinking well, if that doesn’t torpedo the whole thing for you. But it didn’t. Okay? It didn’t. I sat ...

Without further ado, here are my favorite stories of 2025, to give you something to read today.

Other than my two favorites, these are in chronological order.

My FAVORITE story of 2025 was this one by @keersteemack.bsky.social in @xraylitmag.bsky.social xraylitmag.com/portrait-of-...

A gift to end 2025 — Worlds of Possibility Volume 2! This second volume collects short stories, flash fiction, and drabbles from the August 2023 to June 2025 issue run of Worlds of Possibility.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and 2025 has been A Year. I thought everyone might appreciate a cozy gift. Please get the Worlds of Possibility Volume 2 ebook for free, if you would like it! www.juliarios.com/a-gift-to-en...

Mercutio|eBook From Sunday Times bestselling author of The Embroidered Book and The Valkyrie comes an opulent 13th century epic retelling of the life of Mercutio before he ever encountered Romeo and Juliet. O...

Thanks, John! The ebook and audiobook of Mercutio can be pre-ordered now for their May 7 release (not sure yet what the print release date in the US will be). One cool thing is that it opens with a battle scene where Mercutio meets Dante Alighieri, and Dante actually did fight in that battle.