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From Bell Hammers alfalfa cigarettes — if you know, you know. Looking for a compact and travel-friendly crossbody bag? The Urban Crossbody Bag | QD815 is a practical choice for both men and women, designed with life on the go in mind. Its sleek, functional design makes it ideal for travel, commuting, or everyday use. The adjustable shoulder strap ensures comfortable wear, while the secure zip…

Made from 100% organic ring-spun cotton, this unisex t-shirt is a total must-have. It’s high-quality, super comfy, and best of all—eco-friendly. • 100% organic ring-spun cotton • Fabric weight: 5.3 oz./yd.² (180 g/m²) • Single jersey • Medium fit • Set-in sleeves • 1 × 1 rib at collar • Wide double-needle topstitch on the sleeves and bottom hems • Self-fabric neck tape (inside, back of the…

I texted Kendall a note circulating on Substack by  Alex and Vincenzo Barney quoting a professor who accused Murakami of being a one trick pony. I texted him for two reasons: one, Kendall loves Murakami and I haven’t read a single paragraph of the author; two, to troll Kendall into his first post here. It’s a dialog and it’s about the author, authors, and whether we ever have more than one…

Elizabeth Bear — The Hugo Award winning author of Ancestral Night and other books — sat down for a wide ranging interview about Rockapella, DOOM mods, RPGs, and death or glory stands to defend this run. Elizabeth won the 2005 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for “Tideline“, and the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for “Shoggoths in…

A decade ago, Mark Neuenschwander (photographer of these photos) and I delved the secret tunnels beneath Joplin, Missouri’s downtown district. We delved the Joplin tunnels with the knowledge of a couple members of City Hall. We had prior experience: do not delve these tunnels. Do not risk your life. They are extremely dangerous when there is any hint of rain. Again, I can’t emphasize this enough:…

My colleague and friend Dr. Shane J. Wood wrote a piece recently on Pride that reflects the state of my mind the last few years. I started this piece as a comment on his work and once it eclipsed 1,000 words, well… here we are. ✓ Subscribed It seems to me part of the problem in our attempt to distinguish pride from pride may be etymology. When it comes to pride, we’re stuck trying to tease out…

“What is an antagonist” originally sold to Writer’s Digest as “An Outline for Pantsers.” Teasing out the logic of an antagonist helps me understand how to outline both works I’m writing and works I’m trying to research or remember. We’re focusing on narrative works today, to be clear. Fiction, narrative poetry, memoir, film, etc. Though I hate outlining, I force myself to outline because a…

Does George R. R. Martin write grimdark? Certainly Martin uses the trappings of grimdark. But are his stories doing something else? Perhaps even a parody of grimdark?

I have often said though I cannot directly recommend George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, if I discover you’ve read it, I’m happy to talk about it at length. Similarly, I personally will never watch the TV show Game of Thrones because I’m painfully aware, after how I spent my late teens, there are simply some things I cannot unsee. There are grimdark scenes from the book that I absolutely,…

I’ve thought about religions in fantasy, scifi, and speculative fiction more and more over the past year. It has started to bug me that I’m not finding a more formalized piece on fantasy religions out there — religions in fantasy and science fiction worlds. As is often the rule in all creative acts, when you cannot find it, make it yourself off the scraps of what you find. I humbly offer the…

John Wiswell is an American science fiction and fantasy author whose short fiction has won the Locus and Nebula Awards and been a finalist for the Hugo, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards. His debut fantasy novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In, was released in April 2024 by DAW Books and Quercus. Wiswell’s short fiction has been characterized as making outlandish and unsettling concepts…

Photo by Reiseuhu on Unsplash Once upon a time there was a fantastical antediluvian epic about a world with three ages: an age of angels and their pre-edenic fall, an age of a sort of utopian garden and the fall of man, and the struggling of man before the coming of a flood or a crashing tower. I’m referring, of course, both to the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible, not The Lord of the Rings. In…