#amreadingfiction — Public Fediverse posts

A highly amusing alternate history/fantasy story. You think our current government is bad? See what dark arts Thomas Jefferson attempted.

#ShortStory #AmReading #AmReadingFantasy #WritersOfMastodon #History #HistoricalFantasy #JohnAdams #ThomasJefferson #AuthorsOfMastodon #AlternateHIstory #AltHistory #AmReadingFiction

https://calendaroffools.com/stories/for-the-rectitude-of-our-intentions-stephen-kotowych/

Okay, finally back to finishing up my 2025 short fiction reading before submitting a Nebula ballot. I really liked this one. A bittersweet cli-fi relationship story by Christopher Blake.

#Eco-fiction #AuthorsOfMastodon #AmReading #AmReadingFiction #ShortStory #WritersOfMastodon #EcoFiction #AmReadingSciFi #ScienceFiction

https://www.tractorbeam.earth/story/in-every-seed-a-hope

And I'm back to my catch-up on 2025 short fiction reading. This one, by Lawrence M. Schoen is fun. A human librarian who shares Earth's literature with the universe's other sentient races and a pirate. A not-very-concealed comment on digital piracy.

Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Librarian-Pirate-Earth-Book-ebook/dp/B0G38FVDKK

#Bookstodon #AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #AmReading #AmReadingFiction

Another great 2025 short story well worth reading. Effie Seiberg is terrific at funny stories that nonetheless have a message to them. This one is a superhero story that focuses on disability accommodations. Enjoy!

#Writersky #AmReadingFiction #AmReading #AmReadingFiction #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity #Writing #Writers #ScienceFiction #ShortStory #AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #WritingLIfe #WritersLife

https://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-123b-laser-eyes-aint-everything-by-effie-seiberg/

More 2025 short fiction: this one reimagines the life of Alan Turing if he crossed into the fairy world and had a life long affair there. Gorgeous prose. Structured only by the events of Turing's life. Strongly recommended.

https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/because-i-held-his-name-like-a-key/

#AmReading #AmReadingFiction #AmReadingFantasy #ShortStory #ShortStories #AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #Bookstodon

A very cool flash piece by Ian Li: "The Memory Technician." Enjoy!

#AmReading #AmReadingScienceFiction #AmReadingSciFi #AmReadingFiction #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity #Writing #Writers #ScienceFiction #ShortStory #FlashFiction #AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #WritingLIfe #WritersLife

https://smallwondersmag.com/piece/the-memory-technician/

Okay, I'm back to catching up on 2025 short fiction reading. Zach Shephard's "From Darkness, Awake" ran in this anthology about Circe and has her taking on a drug lord in present-day Miami. I thought the blending of myth with crime fiction was creative.

#AmReading #AmReadingFiction #AmReadingFantasy #ShortStory #ShortStories #AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #Bookstodon

https://www.amazon.com/Circe-Ancient-Greek-Tales-Immortals/dp/1804179639/ref=sr_1_2?crid=345L158GO39X1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.neVMf1RdlwOiDitq1M2yJnAOGYkVJZhyElpQq1f6O4ikP3yfnL-slOTWMsAV9qDeO3s6CbuY_CaOuzSos9_Jc-QFtJELxqgbNY4EaFuPQNeKAUU8ynxpDR1qew9WIgGocesxl7EMOjD4lFItEUk2dzaxiSaU66NrEf_lT-lG4YBuhy0VOoH7x4YncuXIGSYYONkCbT-xThlRW-wgkN6qBPY_nJVdvE6WtTj8NjOnTSg.O-dcZfXcuYx9mfLiTSLiBEIW5U0Lv0MwNU2k-LFeLI0&dib_tag=se&keywords=circe+anthology&qid=1767485635&sprefix=circe+anthology%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-2

One last #ShortStory to write about before I call it a weekend: this one is not my usual cup of tea, but it's oddness and strangeness appealed to me. It's beautiful.

#AmReading #AmReadingFiction #WritersOfMastodon #WritingCommunity #WritersLife #AuthorsOfMastodon #Bookstodon #WritingLife #AmReadingFantasy

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/arachnomorphosis/

I loved the format on this short story: I could see where it was going the whole time, but the step-by-step gave it an emotional punch it wouldn't have otherwise had. Recommended reading.

#AmReading #AmReadingFiction #AmReadingSciFi #AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #ShortStory #ShortStories #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity

https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/six-people-to-revise-you/#podcast

A story with a very cool format that imagines co-working as augmented by neural sharing. Definitely worth your time to check this out. Free click.

@renan

#AmReading #AmReadingFiction #Dystopic #ShortStory #WritersOfMastodon #WritingCommunity #AuthorsOfMastodon #ScienceFiction #LitterærScifi #SciFi #Phano #AmReadingScienceFiction #AmReadingSciFi #Cyberpunk #Dystopia

https://www.phano.co/articles/we-are-burnout

This deceptively simple-seeming short story packs a strong emotional punch. It does so by implying the emotion and never showing it, making a truly strong story. Recommended reading. @ThomasHa #AmReadingScienceFiction #Dystopia #AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #Bookstodon #Clarkesworld #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity #AmReadingFiction

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_04_25/

Of course, I realise that spending all my time reading books or writing my own stories means I am escaping into an alternative reality, several alternative realities in parallel, which is a cop out, I know, but the present reality reflected in the media is just too awful

In the stories, I guess I am hoping to find the wormhole through which to escape or a portal from which help may be summoned

#escapism #amReadingFiction #amWritingFiction
#alternativeRealities
#help #HELP!

For those of you going to WorldCon, my book will be on sale at the Liminal Fiction table. If you'd like me to sign a copy, I'll be at the table Thursday 2-3, Friday 12-1, and Friday 3-4.

https://www.limfic.com/book/the-day-we-said-goodbye-to-the-birds/

#WritingCommunity #Hopepunk #ScienceFiction #BookLover #AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #WritersCommunity #WritingCommunity #ScienceFiction #AmWriting #NewBook #AmReading #AmReadingFiction #AmReadingSciFi #AmWritingSciFi #Bookstodon #Environment #EcoFiction #EnvironmentalRacism

And guess whose book is featured in the #SFWA New Release Newsletter this month?

#AuthorsOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #WritersCommunity #WritingCommunity #Hopepunk #HardSF #SciFi #ScienceFiction #Books #Writer #Writing #AmWriting #ReadEveryDay #read #Reading #AlwaysReading #ReadMoreBooks #NewBook #BookLover #AmReading #AmReadingFiction #AmWriting #AmWritingFiction #AmReadingSciFi #AmWritingSciFi #Bookstodon #Environment #EcoFiction #EnvironmentalRacism

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17DR2lH3J6PEvO3I09sEqBM18kIAsO6ZM/view

Terrific story just out from friend and ex-Aurora Street critique group member @carolscheina.bsky.social. A bookstore visited by multiple versions of the protagonist who write notes to each other. A beautiful story flowed. Strongly recommended.

https://translunartravelerslounge.com/2025/02/15/all-these-inscriptions-are-for-me-by-carol-scheina

#Multiverse
#AmReading
#AmReadingFiction
#Bookstadon
#AuthorsOfMastodon
#WritersOfMastodon
#WritingCommunity
#ShortStory
#ShortStories

In Ída Hennessy's "A Slightly Different Sunrise from Mercury, Nevada," Annie works as a "Canary" at the Nevada nuclear test site, at a time portal bringing tourists back to 1952. Multiple unexpected gut punches. Strongly recommended.

http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/a-slightly-different-sunrise-from-mercury-nevada/

#TimeTravel
#AmReading
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#AmReadingFiction
#BookStadon
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#writingCommunity

More Codex2024 reading: Ída Hennessy's RoxysMakeupMoxy6 Gets Real" was very funny. A makeup tips influencer doing her last show before the apocalypse. Strongly recommended flash piece.

https://flashpointsf.com/2024/09/20/roxysmakeupmoxy6-gets-real/

#AmReading
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#Apocalyptic
#Apocalypse
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#ShortStories

More Codex 2024 reading: "Eternity is Moments" by RP Sand traces the relationship between a woman and her grandfather with ecological themes as the backdrop. Strongly recommended.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219709480-asimov-s-science-fiction-september-october-2024

#AmReading
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#writingCommunity
#Bookstodon.
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"Belladonna" by Cressida Blake Roe operates on two levels. On the surface, a time-traveling botanist finds a young protégé with unique abilities. Deeper, it's a story about grooming and psychological abuse of girls. Gritty horror. Strongly recommended.

https://houseofgamut.com/gamut-magazine/belladonna/

#AmReading
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#AmReadingHorror
#Horror
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#Botany

More reading of Codexian 2024 output: Andrea Goyan's "All My Mother Is" is a touching portrait of a mother-daughter relationship in the face of dementia. The fantasy tropes worked well with the material. Strongly recommended.

https://smallwondersmag.com/piece/all-my-mother-is/

#Am Reading
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#Dementia
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#ShortStories

Fiona Moore's "What Happened at The Pony Club" has a cool premise--Y2K knocked out all computers worldwide and the world reverts to depending on smart people. Cool characters--girls at a private high school for these "computers." Cool format--an FBI case file.

https://www.fusionfragment.com/issue-22/

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#ScienceFiction

More Codex 2024 reading, this one from my friend and critique partner Sam Pisciotta. In "House of the Hidden Moon," two worlds bump up against each other. In one, an alcoholic mother has died and left the house to her son. In a second, a ghost and fairies stand in for a family that might have been. It's sad and disturbing, yet beautiful. Strongly recommended.
https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/house-of-the-hidden-moon/
#AmReading
#AmReadingFiction
#AmReadingFantasy
#WritersOfMastodon
#AuthorsOfMastodon
#WritingCommunity

In "When the Cattle Gun Touches Her Forehead" by Ben Serna-Grey, trillionaires get the Nobel while a father slaves on a tower to reduce atmospheric CO2 and his wife submits to in utero genetic engineering to make the baby eat plastic. Satiric treatment of eco-fascism. Strongly recommended

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1N6MGDV

#Kafka
#kafkaesque
#satire
#sciencefiction
#Amreading
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#Bookstodon

Continuing with Codex 2024 short fiction catch-up, Angela Liu's "Before We Were Born" uses a near-future, cyberpunky conceit to examine tensions within a modern family. The twist at the end was terrific. Strongly recommended.

https://logicmag.io/issue-21-medicine-and-the-body/before-we-were-born/

#AmReading
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Cécile Cristofari's braided narrative, "Down the Waterfall," uses a time travel conceit to allow her protagonist to examine her life, live out fantasies, and find what is important to her. Very interesting. Strongly recommended.

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/cristofari_01_24/

#AmReading
#TimeTravel
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#ShortStories

Jennifer Hudak's "The Witch Trap" uses braided narrative to give the reader an academic history of witchcraft as well as narratives skipping through time and characters. It works well. I was completely swept up and captivated by it. Strongly recommended.

https://smallbeerpress.com/lcrw/2024/09/01/lady-churchills-rosebud-wristlet-no-48/

#Witches
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#AmReadingFantasy
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#WritingCommunity

Andrew Sayre's "You Look a Lot Like Aton Fuller" is a perspective I haven't seen: an adult clone, grown for spare parts for a rich man, freed when that practice became untenable, musing about this man upon his death. Definitely thought-provoking. Highly recommended.

https://aurealis.com.au/store/aurealis-174/

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#ShortStory

Renan Bernardo's "A Theory of Missing Affections" has an Ursula Le Guin vibe. A home planet, a distant planet with the ruins of an ancient civilization, a gate that connects them, and sisters on either side: one a historian, one viewing the ancients as gods.

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/bernardo_09_24/

#AmReading
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#AmReadingScienceFiction
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@strangeseawolf

"I hope you enjoy Herald Petrel as well!" ....

I am! It's great. I'm loving it

I don't seem to have the right words to convey what I feel about books I'm reading because words like 'enjoy' and 'love' don't feel right when the story deals with tough situations; 'appreciate' is too weak

I think HP is great writing
The story comes across as 'real' and I love the interplay between the characters

#HeraldPetrel #amReadingFiction

It's out, today. The episode of the Shining Moon Science Fiction #Podcast where @brentclambert , Leigh Harlen and I talk with host @dldavitt about the six stories up for Nebula Awards this year in the novelette category. Great discussion, lots of fun to do. Enjoy!

#NebulaAwards
#WritersOfMastodon
#AuthorsOfMastodon
#Podcasts
#ScienceFiction
#Fantasy
#SFWA
#Codex
#Cyberpunk
#AmReadingFiction
#WritingCommunity
#WritersCommunity
#AmReadingScienceFiction

https://shiningmoon.buzzsprout.com/2222860/15009824-shining-moon-episode-41-reading-the-nebulas-ii