Search results for tag #fiction
Girls Against God
By Jenny Hval
Published by Verso Fiction
I first discovered Jenny Hval by way of her #ElectronicMusic and #ExperimentalMusic projects with Lost Girls and album Blood Bitch.
My partner is a fan of her first novel, Paradise Rot, and gifted me this one they picked up from @firestorm
#HorrorBooks #Fiction #Gothic #NorweiganWriters #BlackMetal
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Book cover black and white image of a person in a gown elevating in a closet
My weird queer horror novella, The Hand That Touches Flame, is DONE!
(And it ended up being five parts long. Oops. At 38.5k words it actually almost doesn't qualify as a novella at all, so that's fun.)
Anyway, if anyone was waiting until completion to read my strange story about a couple of traumatised idiots battling extra-dimensional demonic horrors, secretive representatives of a hostile government agency, cultists that may be a thinly disguised metaphor for capitalism, serious communication issues and like, SO much queer pining: now is your TIME.
It is FREE TO READ, ad- and tracker-free on AO3, at the link below. You can also download it as a PDF or EPUB or MOBI or HTML or whatever a AZW3 file is.
If you like it you can hit the Kudos button or you can yell at me in the comments or on here and I'd love you forever for it 💛
A surprising number of people had heard of solarpunk!
The movement is growing!
But most had not read any: there just aren't that many stories out there (which is why I started the podcast,to collect a list of recommended #solarpunk reads).
#climate #green #fiction
2/n
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 7 April 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Today in Labor History April 6, 1781: Tupac Amaru II was captured in Peru after being denounced by a turncoat. He led a large Andean uprising against the Spanish in Peru. As a result, he became a hero in the Peruvian struggle for independence and the indigenous rights movement. The Tupamaros revolutionary movement in Uruguay (1960s-1970s) took their name from him. As did the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary guerrilla group, in Peru, and the Venezuelan Marxist political party Tupamaro. The American rapper, Tupac Amaru Shakur, was also named after Tupac Amaru II. Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, wrote a poem called “Tupac Amaru (1781).” And Clive Cussler’s book, “Inca Gold,” has a villain who claims to be descended from the revolutionary leader.
#indigenous #genocide #peru #tupac #inca #colonialism #poetry #fiction #pabloneruda #Revolutionary #socialism @bookstadon
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Painting of Tupac Amaru II By Unknown author - http://peru.feeder.ww7.pe/index.php?cal_date=2009-07-29, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9105047
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 6 April 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 5 April 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Chapter sixteen of Synthetic Agency is here!
The CIA have an offer for Blake...
https://www.patreon.com/posts/synthetic-agency-154760140
Synthetic Agency is an android romance novel I'm serialising on my Patreon. You can read the first chapter for free: https://www.patreon.com/posts/119290924?collection=1313927
Boosts very much appreciated!
#robots #fiction #romance #SF #lgbtq+ #writing
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Black and white image of a man in a suit with his shirt open to reveal his abs, adjusting his cuffs, against a background of circuitry. To his right is the text: Synthetic Agency, Ruby Jones.
The #MastoPrompt for Friday 3 April 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The Secret Library of Hanna Reeves: A Novel "A secret library built by her wealthy father filled with signed 1st edition books from all over the world" Sale: $4.99 to $2.49 by Christine Nolfi Rating: 4.2/5 (5077 Reviews) #Historical #Fiction #Mystery #Books #Libraries #Maine #Friendship #BookSky
Just a little note that the small press I run released our third book into the wild. The delightful trans het romance Bottle Blondes.
It's available from https://antithesispress.com/shop, as always.
#lgbtqia #fiction #trans #queer #bookstodon
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Trope map for Bottle Blondes by Rhiannon Swanson. The book is pictured on a beach, the cover features a young man and young woman standing back to back but looking over their shoulders at each other. The woman's holding a bottle of hair bleach.
The trope map lists:
- Found Family
- Sisters' Sanctuary
- Southern College Double Life
- Messy Mentor
- Secret Identity
- Two Person Love Triangle
Along with the quote:
"Deeply Gratifying" - The Transfeminine Review
"I will tan thy hide till it be as many colors as a beggar's cloak."
"Thou pratest like an ass... for I could send this shaft clean through thy proud heart before a curtal friar could say grace over a roast goose."
- Howard Pyle, "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood"
#BookologyThursday #Mythology #Folklore #England #Book #Fiction #Literature #RobinHood #HowardPyle
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Robin Hood proudly insults Little John on first meeting him. An illustration by Howard Pyle for his own book: "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood."
The #MastoPrompt for Thursday 2 April 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 31 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 30 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
"Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves;
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid -
Weak masters though ye be - I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war...."
- William Shakespeare, "The Tempest"
🎨 William Hamilton
#BookWormSat #Book #Literature #Fiction #Poetry #Theatre #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare
please enjoy a complete recording of Glory in the Thunder Act 1 Chapter 1 set to a moderate reading speed. Ravelin Galatti is the world's worst goddess and she's already made it your problem
📚
Hayo just finished reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells
I was sick and watched the series. I loved the main character. But as we all know, the book is always better. So I read the book. It is indeed much better. But desperately short. I love that the book is much more no-nonsense, doesn't feel the need to explain every single thing and goes forward in a much brisker pace than the series. So I will definitely read all the other parts as well.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
🔗 https://hayobethlehem.nl/library/book/all-systems-red-679934
#Reading #Bookstodon #Fiction #ScienceFiction
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Cover of book: All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The #MastoPrompt for Thursday 26 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
It has been way too long since I've mentioned Jupiter's Ghost.
#JupitersGhost is a community run, Creative Common Share Alike licensed podcast set in a far future intergalactic society, it is the first of several podcasts and other media set in the universe of the Solar Federation.
https://intergalactic.computer/
@ajroach42 and crew are
preparing to embark on another journey. This time as an animated cartoon!
So, if you've ever wanted to join the crew of a starship, now is your chance. They are looking for brave voices to bring the future into the present.
Want to have some fun today? Then check out the Game Boy Color game based on the hit podcast!
https://ajroach42.neocities.org/game/
#CreativeCommons #podcast #FIction #Cartoon #SciFi #GameBoy #GameBoyColor #GBC
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Screenshot of linked Jupiter's Ghost Away Mission game playable in browser
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 23 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 22 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Why #Scientists think the #Multiverse isn’t just #Fiction : Medium
#Iran #War could push global #Food insecurity to record levels, leaving 363 million people #Hungry : Live Sci
#Turing #Award Goes to #Inventors of #Quantum #Cryptography : NY Times
Latest #KnowledgeLinks
https://knowledgezone.co.in/resources/bookmarks
The #MastoPrompt for Saturday 21 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
What's stronger than "Strongly Agree" 😜😂
@reading @bookstodon @books @humor@fedigroups.social @humor@lemmy.world @aiop @joinin
#Book #Books #BookMemes #Meme #Memes
#ReadingMemes #Meme #Memes #ReadAllTheBooks #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Reading #Readers #ReadersOfMastodon #ReadingCommunity
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Fiction
#Bookwyrm #Bookworm #Bookstodon #BookLove
P.S If you know where this is from let me know so I can add credit.
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Photo of a sign in a bookshop window. In large white letters on a black background it says:
FUCK SOCIAL MEDIA.
MARRY BOOKS.
KILL AI.
A flash fiction story written by me:
The leprechaun bent over the fine fairy boot. Repairing them was always ticklish - the sidhe imbued their footwear with such strange spells, and didn't care how much they wore them out with dancing. Hard to repair without shredding the enchantment, but was there a better way to earn a pot of gold?
🎨 Warwick Goble
#FairyTaleFlash #Mythology #Folklore #Fairy #Faerie #Leprechaun #Fiction #FlashFiction #FantasyFiction
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A leprechaun repairs a shoe. Illustration by Warwick Goble.
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 17 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 16 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 15 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The Only Two Zombie Stories I Ever Wrote - JZ Murdock
#zombies #fiction #horror #substack
https://jzmurdock.substack.com/p/the-only-two-zombie-stories-i-ever
"Speaking of livers," the Unicorn said. "Real magic can never be made by offering up someone else's liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back. The true witches know that."
- Peter S. Beagle, "The Last Unicorn"
🎨 John William Waterhouse
#BookWormSat #NationalReadingMonth #Literature #Fiction #Fantasy #PeterSBeagle #LastUnicorn
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A witch inscribes a magic circle before casting a spell. Painting by John William Waterhouse.
The latest piece of weird ecofiction from The Rotting Leaf just dropped. Check out She Burrows and Invites, by Akis Linardos 👇 🪲
https://www.briefecology.com/the-rotting-leaf/she-burrows-and-invites
#fiction #horror #writing #shortstory #weirdfiction #ecohorror
The #MastoPrompt for Friday 13 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
"The snow was falling upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
- James Joyce, "The Dead"
#BookologyThursday #NationalReadingMonth #Literature #Fiction #Ireland #Celtic #JamesJoyce
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Photograph of a cemetery covered in snow
The #MastoPrompt for Thursday 12 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
ProWritingAid is sponsoring a writing contest called Novel Beginnings. Submit the first 5,000 words of your work in progress for a chance to win the $50,000 grand prize or one of the $5,000 shortlisted awards. Any unrepresented, unpublished fiction writers in any genre. If you have self-published you're still eligible. Read the rules for details. Entry costs $20. It's free if you have a paid ProWritingAid plan.
Entries close: 23:59 GMT on March 31st, 2026
The #MastoPrompt for Wednesday 11 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 9 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
In "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E. T. A. Hoffmann, the Mouse King goes to war against a human king and queen after they exterminate most of his family. The Mouse King's seven heads is a reference to real "rat kings" - groups of rats or mice whose tails have become permanently entwined together.
🎨 Svenja Muche (Cidaq)
#FolkloreSunday #Mythology #Folklore #FairyTale #Literature #Fiction #Nutcracker #Monster #RatKing #Mouse
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The seven-headed Mouse King attacks the Nutcracker. Illustration by Svenja Muche (Cidaq).
This plot smells bad
A short story from the B&C universe based on a random roll from Rory's Story Cubes. #fiction
https://bugandclaw.com/articles/this-plot-smells-bad?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-Bug-%26-Claw-devlogs-and-posts
2/2
"Footprints?"
"Footprints."
"A man’s or a woman's?"
Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered.
"Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Hound of the Baskervilles"
#BookWormSat #NationalReadingMonth #Literature #Fiction #Mystery #Crime #ArthurConanDoyle #SherlockHolmes #Monster #Dog
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Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes from a TV adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles."
The #MastoPrompt for Saturday 7 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
What do your henchmen/minions of darkness wear?
#fiction #poll #fantasy #scifi #anime #manga #superheroes
| full covering armor & faceless helmets, erases their individuality, you foresee no problems: | 8 |
| full armor/robot shells shaped so the women all have boob cups, etc, men get no such customization: | 3 |
| spikes, lots of spikes: | 2 |
| they wear their own clothes/scraps/whatever they get pillaging/nothing b/c they're monsters: | 12 |
| themed costumes to fit my particular neuroses/ninja outfits/etc: | 18 |
| nicely tailored business suits: | 18 |
| leather, leather, and more leather: | 7 |
| metal bikinis and codpieces, baby!: | 10 |
Okay dark lord, where do you live?
#poll #fantasy #scifi #anime #manga #superheroes #fiction #books
| in the castle/manor of the rightful ruler I usurped: | 5 |
| a giant castle/lair, possibly floating/surrounded by forests/swamps/atop a mountain/underground/etc: | 35 |
| giant space station, space ship, throneworld, base on the moon, etc: | 9 |
| this f'n cave/object/dimension/etc I'm banished/sealed in, possibly w/ my very annoying lieutenants: | 9 |
| LIVE? Gee I'd LOVE the privilege to live in physical spaces. sealed away? buddy, they disembodied me: | 3 |
| in a mainframe or network, possibly at the centre of my killer robot factory, and/or I'm EVERYWHERE: | 12 |
| my own hellish dimension where I control all (& maybe host tournaments to conquer other dimensions): | 10 |
| penthouse in the tallest building in the city I own/private island compound/the white house/etc: | 12 |
The #MastoPrompt for Thursday 5 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Wednesday 4 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 3 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 2 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 1 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you - digger, listener, runner.... Be full of tricks, and your people shall never be destroyed."
- Richard Adams, "Watership Down"
#BookWormSat #Fiction #Literature #RichardAdams #WatershipDown #Animal #Rabbit
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Photograph of a cottontail rabbit
Is anyone else sick of living in a reality which is nothing but all the #dystopian #fiction from 50 years ago?
We have #JamesBond villains ( #Musk)
We have #InvasionoftheBodySnatchers zombification ( #MAGA)
Etc, etc.
And now we have #Wargames:
" #AI s can’t stop recommending #nuclear strikes in #war game #simulations
Leading AIs from #OpenAI, #Anthropic and #Google opted to use #nuclearWeapons in simulated war games in 95 per cent of cases"
The #MastoPrompt for Wednesday 25 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 24 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 23 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 22 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
"I wanna punch something. I was so angry and you here. I was annoyed, then you pushed back, and I— Now I feel empty. Anger was good; it gave me purpose, gave me direction. I know who I hate, that’s clear. Now I feel empty, meaningless, directionless. I am still mad, just there is nowhere to land. Uh, for a fuck sake, I speak like my therapist.”
The #MastoPrompt for Saturday 21 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Friday 20 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Wednesday 18 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 17 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Iain M. Banks (1954–2013) was born #OTD, 16 Feb: a 🎂 🧵
1/13
“Iain Banks… is a novelist who has his own ‘double’, an author for whom the idea of a split writing persona is emphatically not out of place”
—“Reading Double, Writing Double: The Fiction of Iain (M) Banks” – a 2010 article on Banks’s genre-busting career
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2010/11/reading-double-writing-double-the-fiction-of-iain-m-banks/
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
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A head and shoulders photo of Iain Banks. He has brown, curly, untidy hair, and a reddish beard beginning to whiten on his chin. He is wearing glasses and a red, white, and blue checked shirt. He's looking up at the camera, which is above head height; we only see grass behind him. He appears to be carrying a toy rocket: its yellow nose-cone pokes up into the bottom of the photograph.
Iain’s debut novel THE WASP FACTORY was published 42 years ago today…
Available on BBC Sounds – Iain Banks discusses THE WASP FACTORY with James Naughtie & readers at the National Library of Scotland
🚨CONTAINS SPOILERS🚨 – read the book before listening!
2/13
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016w0nf
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
Also on BBC Sounds: Inside THE WASP FACTORY
Iain Banks’s 1984 debut THE WASP FACTORY was described in the media as “a work of unparalleled depravity” & also “a masterpiece” – both reviews ended up on the cover. Simon Pegg discusses his favourite novel
3/13
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001w71d
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
“I love plot, I love stories. I hate these novels that just stop… I don't think it’s good enough. I want closure. I don't want any of this existentialist post-modern shite, pal. I want a story, with an ending”
—an in-depth profile of Iain Banks, from 1999
4/13
https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/aug/07/fiction.iainbanks
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
“THE BRIDGE bends reality, breaks the rules of physics, invents technologies & plays around with impossible inventions”
—Sam Jordison explores the link between Iain Banks’s “mainstream” & science-fiction novels
5/13
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
HIPPY COMMIES WITH HYPER-WEAPONS
“I think space opera in general celebrates a certain manic wildness and vivacity of vision, a refusal to be constrained”
A Few Questions About the Culture – an interview with Iain M. Banks, on Strange Horizons
6/13
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
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Photo of Iain Banks standing in front of a display of his 2012 Culture novel THE HYDROGEN SONATA. His hair and beard are both grey. He is grinning as he extends one hand towards the display – and to a large banner that reads
25 YEARS OF CULTURE
THE ONLY *BANKS* YOU CAN TRUST
“As a humanist, atheist, and socialist, he preferred to place his trust in techno-scientific development, rather than his faith in gods, or his capital in the market”
Joseph S. Norman on the legacy & utopianism of Iain M. Banks’s #scifi Culture series
7/13
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #utopia
“Banks… envisions the overcoming of scarcity as the signal achievement of the civilization made by the Minds, & yet he focuses time and again on objects of unfulfilled desire”
—Alan Jacobs on the Ambiguous Utopia of Iain M Banks, for The New Atlantis
8/13
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-ambiguous-utopia-of-iain-m-banks
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #utopia
“Our strange wee country is as complex as any alien civilization, & getting it as right as Banks did in The Crow Road required every bit as much world-building skill as his Culture”
—Simon Stephenson travels THE CROW ROAD for Reactor Magazine
9/13
https://reactormag.com/the-difference-is-entirely-one-of-setting-iain-banks-the-crow-road/
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
Why has Iain Banks’s Culture series – “a world where your Bezoses & your Musks are not just irrelevant, but actively sought out & disempowered” – garnered a billionaire fanbase? Kurt Schiller examines ultra-rich misreadings & delusions for Blood Knife
10/13
https://bloodknife.com/culture-war-iain-m-banks-jeff-bezos/
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #billionaires
The New Scientist Book Club read the science-fiction masterpiece THE PLAYER OF GAMES by Iain M. Banks. In this video, Iain’s friend & fellow author Ken MacLeod discusses Iain’s schooldays, his literary influences, & his idea for a final Culture novel
11/13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7OW6A8XCgg
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
“Pay attention to the moments of contradiction & uncertainty threaded through character dialogue & self-reflection…Watch his tone. Watch his humour. For me, that’s where the sharpest lessons are”
—Dr Bethany Jacobs for the New Scientist
12/13
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
“I mean, your society’s broken, so who should we blame? Should we blame the rich, powerful people who caused it? No let’s blame the people with no power & no money & these immigrants who don’t even have the vote, yeah it must be their fucking fault.”
—Iain Banks, the final interview
13/13
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/15/iain-banks-the-final-interview
#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 15 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
If anyone would like a bit of body horror with their ecofiction, the latest from The Rotting Leaf delivers.
"The Find", by K.M. Greyburn 👇
https://www.briefecology.com/the-rotting-leaf/the-find
Suck it linguists I'll make my own grammar rolls 😜😂
@linguistics @humor@fedigroups.social @humor@lemmy.world @aiop @writingcommunity @writingbooks
#LinguisticMemes #Meme #Memes #Linguistics
#Language #Words #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Reading #Readers #ReadersOfMastodon #ReadingCommunity
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Fiction #Bookstodon
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Post by keva
Here's my first attempt at synonym rolls, with attached picture of cinnamon rolls.
Reply by BrazilFlair
Just like grammar used to make.
The #MastoPrompt for Saturday 14 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Friday 13 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
You're a supervillain/evil overlord, what's the embarrassing/humiliating way you go out?
#fiction #books #tv #anime #manga #comics #fantasy #scifi #poll
| killed by a child: | 5 |
| killed by an animal companion: | 3 |
| killed by the comic relief in a total accident: | 13 |
| betrayed by your lieutenant/minion that everybody saw coming but you: | 4 |
| killed by your own spell/weapon backfiring because you didn't read the spell/manual carefully: | 9 |
| unsealing an even more powerful evil & assuming it would work for you: | 9 |
| tricked into killing yourself/revealing your weakness by a trick that wouldn't fool a kid: | 6 |
| your parents show up and tell you it's bedtime and apologize to the heroes for your actions: | 20 |
Aargh. Missed this yesterday, apologies.
The #MastoPrompt for Wednesday 11 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
You're a villain, what're your weaknesses?
#poll #fiction #fantasy #scifi #books #anime #manga
| a relatively common substance or material: | 6 |
| a rare substance or material: | 3 |
| something special magically embued or blessed: | 5 |
| an object that houses my soul or power etc that can be destroyed: | 4 |
| my unending ego/hubris: | 17 |
| women/men/etc or other vices: | 14 |
| allergies: | 10 |
| my underpaid/poorly trained/sentimental dark forces keep leaving children alive after massacres: | 7 |
Today in Labor History February 11, 1938: BBC Television produced the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R. Čapek coined the term "robot,” deriving it from the Czech word for forced labor by Serfs. R.U.R. is an archetype for many of the science fiction stories and films that followed, like Bladerunner, West World and Terminator, and others about robots, replicants and hosts that rebel against humans. However, “R.U.R.,” like Čapek’s 1936 novel “War with the Newts,” is also a satirical critique of totalitarianism, which was on the rise in Europe at the time he wrote the play.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #play #playwright #KarelCapek #robot #RUR #totalitarianism #fascism #antifascism #serf #slavery #sciencefiction #scifi #czech #bladerunner #books #fiction #playwright @bookstadon
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Male robots, in metal vests and helmets, breaking into the factory at the end of Act III. One has his arm raised to strike a human.By Unknown author - http://www.umich.edu/~engb415/literature/pontee/RUR/RURsmry.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8442825
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 8 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Sorry, boss, but you're getting written out, how do you go?
#fiction #anime #books #fantasy #scifi #comics #comicbooks #manga #TV #television #videogames #poll
| heroic sacrifice that saves the hero/everybody and/or takes a major secondary villain down with you: | 2 |
| heroic sacrifice that in retrospect didn't actually do much and fans are pretty upset about it: | 3 |
| randomly killed by the bad guy to show how powerful they are and to show "anybody can die": | 5 |
| killed by the traitor in the party when they reveal themselves: | 2 |
| killed or otherwise removed (exiled/frozen/etc) in way that you could be brought back (so fans hope): | 3 |
| killed in the same episode that your very obvious replacement is being introduced: | 4 |
| you decide to quit the team and stay in the village/faction/etc because you found where you belong: | 14 |
| you betray the team for flimsy reasons/turn out to be evil all along to justify your death/exile: | 0 |
How is your backstory revealed?
#fiction #poll #anime #manga #comics #comicbooks #videogames #TV #television #movies #film
| slowly, drips and drabs of flashbacks spread out over a season until the full flashback: | 11 |
| at the very beginning when your friend/family exposits to you what you already know about yourself: | 1 |
| your backstory is never fully revealed but there's enough hints a smart audience can understand: | 27 |
| one giant leap back in time that encompasses all of a season/book/game chapter: | 1 |
| a prequel series/movie/book/game that comes after the original story is over: | 3 |
| one long exposition by you to your comrades (probably at a campfire) that goes on and on and on: | 7 |
| in supplementary material, like director's commentary, magazine article, manual, website, etc: | 3 |
| which backstory? you've been retconned so many times, there's at least 15 to choose from: | 11 |
Good morning. 😴🥱☕
7 February 2026
I woke up groggy and disoriented, which isn’t unusual when I fall asleep in my chair. The TV was still on but silent, and Charlie was sitting in front of me, staring like he’d been waiting for me to rejoin the living. I rubbed my eyes, stood, and made my way through the house toward the bedroom, Charlie padding along behind me.
My wife was in front of the mirror doing something with her hair. “I fell asleep,” I said. She glanced over and smiled, but didn’t say a word. That alone was strange—she’s usually quick with a comment.
I headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower. When I looked back through the doorway, Charlie was sitting exactly where I’d been standing, watching my wife. He was perfectly still except for that black border collie tail, curved up with the white tip held like a little flag.
The shower felt good—narrow jets of hot water working into my neck and shoulders—so I stayed longer than usual, letting the heat soak through me. When I finished, I pulled on a T‑shirt and gym shorts and headed back toward my chair.
Down the hall, through the kitchen, into the family room—and then I froze. Because there I was, still lying back in my recliner, wearing the old blue jeans and olive drab work shirt I’d had on all day.
I wasn’t shocked or scared. My first thought was simply, Well, will you look at that. Hadn’t my wife just seen me walk through the bedroom? Or had she only reacted to Charlie? Then another thought drifted in: Well, there it is. Apparently life doesn’t go on after all.
Of course, none of this happened. But it felt like the start of a pretty good ghost story.
“Life is a dream from which we all must wake.” — James Joyce
“The dead are never far from the living.” — African proverb
“Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise.” — Zen proverb
#photo #photography #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #morning #fiction #ghost #story #greategret #savanahriver
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Egret and the Ruins
"The great egret stands like a pale sentinel against the worn geometry of an old utility dock, its white plumage almost luminous against the dark, weather‑beaten wood. The bird is perched high on a crossbeam, tall and composed, its long neck held in a gentle S‑curve as if it’s surveying the slow rhythm of the Savannah River below.
The structure beneath it tells its own story—thick timbers softened by moss, metal brackets streaked with rust, and a vertical pipe rising behind the egret like the remnant of some forgotten machinery. Everything about the dock feels abandoned, a relic left to the river and the creeping green of the surrounding foliage.
That contrast—industrial decay and the egret’s clean, living elegance—creates a quiet tension. The bird seems both out of place and perfectly at home, a bright, breathing note perched atop a fading man‑made frame. You can almost feel the humid air, hear the muted lap of water against pilings, and sense the stillness that settles when a wild creature decides a place is safe enough to pause." - Microsoft Copilot
The #MastoPrompt for Friday 6 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Thursday 5 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
My big project has finally reached a start!
After a bit of a false start this morning with a website configuration issue, pre-orders for Zoe Storm's fantastic new books - The Heart of the Woods and Other Stories and the new edition of To Own the Libs are now live! You can order them here: https://antithesispress.com/shop/
If you'd rather order from your local bookstore you should be able to soon - we'll share an update when our distributor lets us know they're available everywhere!
The other exciting news is that we're open for submissions!
Https://antithesispress.com/submissions-2/
We have a priority submission period for folks who identify as both #BIPOC and #LGBTQIA+. After that we're open to all #LGBTQIA+ folks.
#MSWL #CallForSubmissions #OpenForSubmissions #Fiction #Queer
The #MastoPrompt for Wednesday 4 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
#QuestionOfTheDay who is a character that ruined a work of fiction you were otherwise enjoying and why?
bonus points if you actually stopped watching/playing/reading etc because of this character, so not just like an annoying character you hate but you still kept going
#fiction #movies #film #TV #Television #anime #manga #musicals #comics #comicbooks #ttrpg #CCGs #books #videogames
This week for #StainedGlassWoman is a sample--this first *seven thousand* words from my novel, Nameless, out February 11!
Have a read, and if you enjoy it, preorders are up now, with the paperback and hardcover editions available on the 11th!
#Trans #MtF #FtM #Enby #Fiction #Novel
https://stainedglasswoman.substack.com/p/announcing-nameless
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 2 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 1 February 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
#QuestionOfTheDay what's a piece of fiction that really blew your mind/impacted/changed your perspective/taught you an important value as a child/teen where that impact/perspective/lesson isn't particularly unique or groundbreaking but it was your first encounter with it and it's meaningful to you?
everybody has to have their first encounter with a concept, no matter how obvious/tropey/overplayed etc, at some point in their life. So don't be ashamed if your answer is like "this episode of a cartoon show taught me not to hate ugly people" or something. This is a safe space for sharing. At least I will try my best to keep it as one.
#fiction #TV #television #movies #film #books #comics #comicbooks #anime #manga #videogames #TTRPG #CCGs #musicals #poetry #music
The #MastoPrompt for Friday 30 January 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Thursday 29 January 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 27 January 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories