I'm still struggling to find my footing here on Mastodon. A bit with the platforms and tags, but mostly finding people to follow. I'm a bit all over the place, posting about my #writing, be it academic or fiction (mostly #SciFi), and about cool #Science I ran into, and the more common than it should be - complain about stuff.
I'm interested in #SFF, #publishing, #MiniaturePainting, science, #queer culture, academia, human sexuality, geekish humor, #comics & #EarthSci.
Recommend people to me!
https://pestojaguar.itch.io/perhapsyoumighttrythesoup-01
My Zine "Perhaps You Might Try The Soup" is a #ScienceFiction adjacent zine with experimental text, comic pages and interesting images and jokes.
Best of all it's Free,
I would be thrilled if anyone gets the time to check it out. I think you will enjoy it.
Boosts also greatly appreciated.
#Zine #Zines #Art #Weird #SciFi #SFF #Comics #MastoArt #Artists #Experimental #Comedy
Coming July 2025
It's been fifty years since magery returned to the north. The citizens of the Sharren Accord have enjoyed decades of peace and prosperity.
Giadella Marteen didn't mean to ruin that.
For more info on this book & the Tales of Ardonna series please visit my website: https://crcollins.org/
#Fantasy #FantasyBooks #HopePunk #Booksodon #Bookstodon #FantasyBook #BooksOfMastodon #SFF #Reading #Booktoot #Polyamory #Magic #Adventure
Looking for a short diversion (or 10) to relieve the pressures of life on your brain?
Reactor's got ya: https://reactormag.com/tenish-of-the-best-african-speculative-short-fiction-stories-of-2025/
A new short film is here.... Even I can't keep up with which one is my newest short film. I rushed to finish this so asto fully focus on The Night Dancer, then forgot to post about it as I was shooting. So here it is, #FearTheFlower the story of a cheating husband who turns into a monster.
https://video.ploud.jp/w/hBRDDrJtxiur3gaGoD5B8Z
#film #sff #monster #monsters #horror #vfx #blender3d #blender #cgi #digitalart #art
So I know that more important stuff is going on, but nominations for the Aurora Awards are now open and my short story "Anomaly" is on the eligibility list. If you enjoyed this story and you're a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and would be willing to donate $10 to the cause of speculative fiction, please head over to the CSFFA website and nominate me! (And others. We're all in this together - Elbows Up!) https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/eligibility-lists/
#Canadian #ScienceFiction #SFF #CSFFA #AuroraAwards
It is a popular mathematical experiment to try and work out just how fast Santa has to be to reach every house with a child in a single 24 hour period.
The calculations always end up with a significant fraction of the speed of light.
There then usually follow discussions about what the collateral damage from Santa's passing would be. And cargo limits, and so on.
All of these are wrong, and ignore another end-of-year tradition. The portrayal of the ending year as an old man.
Now that I've put these two traditions side-by-side, I think you can see what is really going on.
It is possible for one man to visit every house in a night, with no shock waves or any of that silliness. But it comes at a cost.
For that man, the night lasts many years, as he travels back in time after each visit. Even with time travel, he does not get much time to eat - so the snacks you leave out are essential to him surviving the night.
But he only just survives. By the end of the night he will have aged over forty years. And then he hands the reins of the time-travelling sleigh to a younger man, warning him of the cost.
Someone always answers the call, despite the cost, because there is always someone willing to sacrifice everything to bring joy and light, even just a little, even if only for a moment.
So leave the snacks, and, if you catch a glimpse of him, give him a bow of respect. He deserves it.
#SFF #SF #Christmas #Santa #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting
The siege of the bank had been going on for hours. Scores of police blocked off the street, and on top of a nearby building a TV news crew broadcast the standoff to a waiting nation.
Then the crew noticed movement. A young woman, dressed in a black skirt,leather vest, and Doc Martens, wearing headphones, was making her way through the police lines. She spoke to no-one, but no-one tried to stop her. She walked up to the front door of the bank, and went inside.
After a few minutes, the bank robbers and the hostages all started filing out, most of them with their heads hung low, some crying. One of the bank robbers raised a gun to his own head, and then just gave up, dropped it, and sat down, head in his hands.
From the flanks, the police moved in and secured everyone. The police in the centre did nothing at all. A few of them had likewise sat down and appeared to be oblivious to what was going on around them.
The news crews closed in.
Getting a coherent story out of anyone proved difficult. Most people just asked what the point was. Some shrugged and said nothing at all. Eventually the news crews pieced together what had happened. Wherever the young woman had walked, people around her were struck with a sense of hopelessness, despair, or just all consuming apathy. Those on the edges were least affected, those closest, the most.
The rooftop news crew kept watch as the crowds slowly dispersed. After an hour or so the mystery woman walked out, looked around, looked up at the news crew and gave them the finger. Then she walked off, the world just a little greyer and duller as she passed.
The city had a new hero. The Goth. And she didn't care.
#Goth #Superhero #SFF #SF #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #IAmWriting
I'm set to shoot #windShortFilm a #solarpunk comedy in June, so this last mile campaign is to cover basics like food, transport, etc. We made all costumes, props, and set constructions from scratch and it strained our budget since it is a futuristic story with no central governments, and no #capitalism Everyone participates in running the country. Help me make it!
250/500
Details: https://www.dilmandila.com/donate/wind-a-solarpunk-short-film
#mutualaid #sff #scifi #buyIntoArt #creativetoots #crowdfund #writing #writingcommunity
The thing about a base on the moon is that everyone underestimates the amount of support the Earth provides. Even with a so-called sealed environment, there is considerable support provided by the outside.
So when they established the first moonbase, it was very short lived. To be fair, it was only really intended as a temporary establishment, but it only lasted just over one and a half times the design life. Which for a NASA project is abysmal. So 36 months after being established, it was abandoned. The next one, an ESA project, lasted about the same.
The third was a Chinese military one. It was meant to be permanent, but they abandoned it after two years because of the cost of resupply.
The fourth one was an attempt at a lunar hotel. It lasted three months before the company running it went bust, and a joint NASA/ESA rescue mission had to be sent to bring the staff home.
The fifth one was a genuine attempt at colonisation, headed up by a multi-billionaire. They were well funded, and established a large semi-underground city space. Several hundred people moved there. Most of them died there. The oxygen plant worked, the CO2 scrubbers worked, but the small population did not have enough depth in skills to keep it running safely. Eight people survived the catastrophic cascade that destroyed the biome and the containment. Only seven of them made it back to Earth. The last one remained behind to manage the launch of the one remaining earth-return ship.
The sixth and seventh ones followed similar patterns, at great loss of life.
This cooled the idea of a permanent moon base for several decades.
Eventually someone tried again. This time it was an international consortium of space agencies. Their objective was to try and determine what would be needed for any sort of permanent non-terrestrial colony.
The answer was shocking to everyone.
Over thirty thousand people ended up needed to provide the required depth of skills. And for each of them approximately two hectares of wild space was needed, in addition to the farmed areas.
What was the extra space for? It provided sufficient complexity to the support biomes to ensure that they could not easily go into a systemic collapse. It provided for pollinators to breed, for detritus processors to grow, and all the millions of little things that were needed for an actual ecosystem.
It took them nearly thirty years to build it. And it remains the only one that Earth has ever successfully built.
The Selenites, as they call themselves, have, however, built two more as their population has grown.
#SF #SFF #SciFi #SpaceOpera #microfic #microfiction #tootfic #IAmWriting
The tiny island community surveyed the devastation the typhoon had caused. Fishing boats were tossed onto the land, buildings levelled, and the bridge linking them to the next island had been torn apart by the waves.
On the horizon, the wall of the other side of the typhoon's eye approached.
From inside the storm shelter a voice yelled "There's an aid flight coming in! Wait! No! No! They've taken a lightning hit, and lost power! They're going down!"
The few who had left to do a quick survey ran back, but just as they reached the entrance they froze as a terrific roar filled the air.
Looking back, they saw a huge shadow in the storm wall. The enraged roar came again, and a giant reptilian shape burst from the clouds, bat-like wings beating against the wind.
The dragon flew at the island, and landed just outside the shelter, wings covering most of the remains of the settlement's buildings.
In the dragon's left foreclaw was the fuselage of an aircraft, wings ripped off. It set it down.
The hatch opened, and a woman got out. She looked up. The dragon raised its head and stared at her. "I told you I should have made the flight" it growled.
"If it hadn't been for that lightning strike, I would have been fine."
"And yet here we are."
"Sorry, love."
"You are safe now, that is all that really matters. And the emergency supplies are here."
The woman looked at the small group huddled at the entrance to the storm shelter.
"And this is why I thought I should do it."
The dragon lowered its head. "I suppose."
She called out "Don't worry, she's here to help. I need a hand getting the supplies out before the eye passes. Come *on*."
One man, braver than the others started towards her. "Miss?"
"Freddy", she gestured to the dragon, "and this is Emerald." She climbed back in, and a larger hatch at the rear opened. "Come on, form a chain. Quickly!"
The rest of the small group who had ventured out, formed a line, and passed the packages of supplies and equipment into the shelter.
Emerald rumbled "Inside Freddy. I'll guard."
Freddy reached up, and kissed Emerald's snout "Thanks for the save, love", then she turned and ran into the shelter.
The doors closed just as the winds of the typhoon hit again. Emerald gripped the ground, and used her wings to protect the wrecked aircraft. It might be so much junk now, but it was Freddy's pride and joy. So she would protect what was left of it.
#SF #SFF #Fantasy #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting #Dragon
Alys considered the chip in front of her. A tiny low power particle accelerator. Barely 10KeV.
In the Great Collapse that followed the riots of 2032, Big Science - indeed Big Anything had gotten a bad name. A few projects survived - the LHC, Sea Sweeper, and a few others. But the rest? As dead as low orbit.
That was what had triggered the riots and the then the Collapse. LEO had undergone a Kessler event, and all space launches had been banned. Eventually the weather satellites had failed, and it only took a few major events for the giant multinationals to become the target of everyone's hate.
That had been twenty years ago - Alys had been a kid at the time - and they were predicting that launches would not be able to resume for another ten years at least.
So she considered her chip. A little low power accelerator like this could not achieve much. But it could ionise light atoms. Maybe....
A few weeks later, she had her circuit set up. One thing that the tiny chips had enabled was cheap small scale chip fabrication. So now she had an array of these chips with a feed for hydrogen, and a thermocouple array. And her collision chamber.
She started the hydrogen flow, and turned the circuit on. A second later the power metre started to climb. 5.5 volts, and 5000 milliamps.
She disconnected the dummy load, and routed the output into the circuit's input. And unplugged the external power.
The power remained stable.
It was not much, but it was a start.
She picked up the phone, and dialled the head of the department "Dr Fulsom? Can you come down to the workshop, please? I've got something to show you."
Naturally it was Dr Heather Fulsom that got the credit - at first. But Alys de Jute was the one who went down in history.
Glennis Cochrane did well from the divorce from Chuck. Despite his wealth, he had decided to represent himself, and, well, you know what they say about that. That he also decided to represent himself in the criminal assault case resulting from what happened outside the court was just icing on the cake. Court officials do not take well to being punched. 10-15 years before any chance of parole.
She sold the house, and purchased a charming heritage building near the CBD. A two story house with an attic. The estate agent said he was obliged to disclose that the house was haunted. Glennis laughed it off..
The reality was that the house really was haunted. She hadn't seen the ghost, but she'd heard it, and seen the effects.
Most noticeable was that the ghost was obsessive about the way the kitchen was set out. The pots and pans had to be just so. The crockery stacked the right way. And the pantry organised by date.
Once she'd figured that out, the ghost started on the bathroom. Then the living room.
The ghost had strong opinions about art. A Mondrian print ended up on the floor, but a Pollock reproduction stayed. Family photos were safe, but often got rearranged. Sometimes in different ways - it seemed that the ghost had moods. Her own paintings were untouched.
And that brought on the studio. Glennis had cleaned out the attic, and had a skylight put in, and set up the area as a studio. Every morning, her brushes would be cleaned, and but any work she'd covered would be uncovered.
Gradually, she started to feel someone watching her as she painted. Just the edge of a shadow out of the corner of her eye. A flicker of movement. So she started talking to the ghost.
About her day, about the divorce, about the current painting, the day's news. Just talking. When she told the presence about Chuck getting dogpiled by the court security team, she was certain she heard a hint of a giggle. And saw the hint of a figure.
---------------------------
Next we have the most famous work by Glennis Cochrane: "Past and Present" where you can see a ghostly outline of a young woman in formal late Victorian clothes on an IKEA lounge chair, illuminated by a shaft of dusty sunlight.
The artist always insisted that it was painted from a live sitting, but no attribution for the model has been found.
What am I bid?
#SF #SFF #UrbanFantasy #ghost #art #SciFi #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting
We were on a deep survey run out towards the far edge of the Orion Arm that Earth is in, so yeah, we were a long way from home. We're just come out of jump, and were recalibrating our sensors, when the collision warning alarm went off.
We had sealed our suits, and were reaching for the controls when the impact happened. Whatever hit the ship got us in the crew quarters. Fortunately we were all on the bridge at the time.
Marcelo went aft to investigate, and a few minutes later we heard him scream, so we went after him like idiots. We found him backed up against the wall, a hexapod advancing towards him - all sharp claws and spines. When we entered, it turned towards us, so we backed out of the common area. It ignored Marcelo, and followed us.
Now I know what you are thinking, why didn't we shoot it. Simple. We were a survey ship. Yes, we had some small arms, but they were kept in a locker near the gravraft. Heck, the ship itself only had a single turret with a couple of popguns.
So, we backed out, and it followed us - but it is not a big ship, and it was not long before it cornered us.
It pulled a rectangular object out and some sort of cylinder with odd grips. Then, before I could do anything, it was right in front of me, and pushed the rectangle against my suit, and did something with the cylinder. Then it turned around and went back into the the object that collided with us.
The thing that had crashed into us reversed course , leaving a three meter wide hole in the hull.
Marcelo made it back to the bridge with a rocket pistol, but it was all over by then.
We sealed the bridge and repressurised, then opened our suits. The outside cameras showed the other craft just sitting nearby. We looked at the rectangle, and it appeared to be some sort of tablet with markings on it. Some of the markings matched the ones on the craft that hit us.
We puzzled over this for an hour or so, then another larger craft turned up, and opened up comms. That was when the one that hit us left.
It took us a while, but we figured out that they were offering to tow us to a repair yard in the next system. Not having any other clue, we sent an image of the tablet, almost instantly, they had tow lines attached.
Marcelo had been sitting thinking for a while but spoke up once we were underway. "Ceinwen, Dargh? I think that thing was giving us its insurance details."
#SF #SFF #SciFi #SpaceOpera #Humour #microfic #microfiction #tootfic #IAmWriting
Thanks to @Steveg58 for the inspiration.
Holly lowered herself down from the skylight. Down here on the exhibition hall floor there were no alarms, except on the cases themselves.
She had two hours before a guard did his rounds, and she had a lot to do. First she tugged on the looped second rope, and carefully lowered the large box.
Next, she gently nudged two of the display cases, just a few centimeters at a time, keeping a close eye on the thin wires that connected them to the alarm system. When they were 45 centimeters apart she stopped.
Next she opened the box, and lifted out the display case inside it. It was modeled exactly on the same style of case that the museum used, and even had small wear and scuff marks. Delicately, she pushed it into place, and then used a small puffer to put just the smallest amount of dust on the top.
Opening her case, she made sure everything was in position, and then closed it and locked it. Then she put her tools back into the large box and sealed it.
She was just hooking herself back onto the climbing rope when a gravelly voice came from behind "Most people break in to steal something."
She spun around and shone her torch trying to see where the voice came from. "Over here", it rattled out again.
The light settled on an open sarcophagus. Inside, the mummy was sitting up, watching her through the bandages. She gulped as it stood and walked over to the new case.
"Interesting. Where did you get a dragon skeleton from?"
"Err... I made it? It's modeled on Mom."
"You are half dragon?"
"No, I'm adopted."
"By a dragon family."
"Well, Dad is human."
"I see. And this?"
"Art?"
"You are not sure?"
"Uh, no? It's just that...um..."
"I'm a four thousand year old mummy?"
"Yes."
"And your mother is a dragon. It is All Hallows as they call it now."
"Oh."
"Anyway, the guards will be coming by soon enough, and you had better be on your way. I will watch what happens with interest.
Holly got going.
-----
"I tell you, Miche, this place gets creepy at night."
"Look, Nick, it's just a museum. It's not like the exhibits are going to get up and move around."
"I dunno. I mean look at that mummy. I swear it has moved since we last did our rounds."
"Don't be stupid, how could a four thousand year old corpse move around?" Michelle shook her head. "You are such a scaredy cat. How did you end up a security guard anyway?"
"I figured guarding a museum was a pretty safe job?"
The two guards continued on their way, arguing.
Behind them, the mummy looked over to the taxidermied bear, and put a finger to where the lips would be. The bear shrugged.
#SF #SFF #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #halloween #NotHorror #IAmWriting
I'm making a new film, a dark comedy set in a #solarpunk world where direct democracy thrives, no politicians, no central governments, where communities are self-sufficient and help each other to survive the climate crisis. But I need your support to imagine this future.
Details https://www.dilmandila.com/donate/wind-a-solarpunk-short-film
262/2000
This film is the final step toward making a feature set in this world.
#mutualaid #creativetoots #kickstarter #crowdfund #art #BuyIntoArt #sff #film
A Pratchett is releasing a new book in the Discworld universe this month!
Thanks for coming in to discuss this contract.
Like many industries, the demolition industry is pretty tight-knit. Our teams all know each other, and we keep in touch. Sure we compete for contracts, but the work is stupid dangerous, so there is no room for cutting people out - they might know something you don't, and save you and your crews lives.
So when I got your call to bring down a hotel from the 1910s, I had a look around, noted the incomplete demo work, and told you I'd get back to you. That is this meeting.
I asked around.
Turns out almost everyone has had go at that place. And I mean almost everyone. In fact the only local company that hasn't is mine.
So I had to ask "Why is the place still standing?" The answers were weird, to say the least.
I know you know the stories, but let's go over them.
Two teams tried to implode the place. Whenever they got ready to blow the place, they'd find det lines disconnected, fuzes pulled out of charges, even the charges themselves not where they were meant to be. And not once or twice. This went on for months.
Some other crews were going to go the traditional wrecking ball and bulldozer path. Except that every time they went to start, equipment failed. Wrecking balls came off cables, dozers lost tracks or hydraulics, engines would be be missing critical parts.
And then there were the other things. Lights in the windows. Security guards hearing noises, but finding nothing. Security guards who would, one morning, just resign, and never explain why.
Everyone agreed that it was the same problem. The locals. Only not the neighbours, or do-gooders, or NIMBYs.
The locals in the hotel.
The dead ones.
Ghosts.
All the teams were convinced that the place was haunted.
Big Mike, who isn't scared of anything, hired an exorcist. They lasted half a night, and now live on the other side of pond.
Which is why I am declining this contract. If you want my advice, not that you'll take it, stop trying to knock it down.
Either sell it as is, or fix it up, and turn the liability into an asset. You have what looks like a genuinely haunted hotel. Clean it up, renovate, and charge a premium.
Just make it clear to both the ghosts and and the contractors what is going on. You'll want them on your side, after all.
#SF #SFF #SciFi #Horror #Aughost #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting
Free Book Alert!
So my book is on promotion on Kobo, discounted to $0 from 3rd to 9th August, but I think it's only available in these locations: CA, US, UK, AU, NZ. It's being featured on the Free Page of Diverse Stories, so hoping it gets some more attention. Help spread the word!
Here is a link to get it.
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-blossoming-of-the-big-tree-1
Chapter 18 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city
Nicole attends a city council meeting and eventually tells a little lie about why she's not sleeping very well. Irkith reacts badly to that, ordering her to tell the truth.
The piece of Kurg lodged in her mind tries to take over and Kazic levels a blaster on the Ulkun King...
@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries
I've finished: Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
I accidentally entered Gladstone's Craft universe through the wrong door. Starting with: Dead Country, The Craft Wars #1. I decided to go back to the beginning of the Craft Sequence.
Thee Parts Dead was a delight. So many neat ideas, such a rich world.
It is a perfect mix: of the ancient and modern, of the magical and scientific, of old tropes and new.
I love the glimpses we get of a wider world and a deeper history. Hinting at a bigger universe beyond the limits of this novel.
It is both a light read and a complex tapestry of original twists on old tropes and new ideas that will peak the interest of an experienced fantasy reader.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/320caeca-00f8-4312-a2ba-7c04f7a5405a
@bookstodon @audiofiction
#fantasy #SFF #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks #MaxGladstone
The Wizards and the Warriors by Hugh Coock is out in audiobook format for the first time.
From: r/hughcook
[Announcement] The Wizards and The Warriors by Hugh Cook audio book now live! (Audible, Google Books and Kobo)
"Hey folks!
Morgan here, the fan narrator for Chronicles of an Age of Darkness.
I am super pleased to be able to announce that the audiobooks are now live and available for purchase!
Audible, Kobo, Google Books"
I also found it on LibroFM:
https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781963191424-the-wizards-and-the-warriors
@bookstodon @audiofiction
#HughCoock #fantasy #AudioBooks #libroFM #bookstodon #SFF #ChroniclesOfAnAgeOfDarkness
