M.R. Robinson

hey all!!! Apex Magazine needs our help! with 4 days yet to go? they need $4,000 to keep bringing us monthly flash fiction contests, stories published from the slush, dark surreal fiction, and a zine that supports new authors and voices!

After three months living here, basically never leaving my apartment, working constantly… I have made it out into the world at last! My parents are visiting! And we’re meeting lots of new friends! 🐊

Delighted to see so many of my favorite magazines and authors on this list… alongside a story by yours truly! I’m in stellar company!

Today in the art of sticker placement.

Our general submissions close TOMORROW! If you are a queer writer, get your exploration-themed stories and poems in by October 21 @ 11:59pm Eastern. Don't self-reject! This is a broad theme; if you aren't sure your piece fits, send it in and let us decide! Guidelines: othersidespec.com/guidelines/

This anthology is going to be great, like all 742,915 of Joe's projects! I'm really excited for it and you should be too.

Launched the @bookmoon.bsky.social Indiegogo campaign (began it last December, launched today, everything I do is a little slow these days!) today but missed the actual moment as I was in teen's zoom school class . . . 😂

fantasy authors love a blight. up there with the old ways and calling mountains a spine

Maybe someday Ash and Val will decide they don't hate me, and we can hold a Q&A where we play a nice game that hasn't been chosen solely to make me scream? Anyway, lots of fun stuff! Secret merch! Submissions stats! Vague hinting at fun magazine news! Sign up for free to get all the details!

ICYMI, we are OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS for Issue 4! The theme: EXPLORATION 🪐🗡️ Submissions are open until October 21st! With this theme, we're interested in stories that explore new worlds, the self, ideas, relationships... anything! Don't self-reject! Guidelines: othersidespec.com/guidelines/

18 days left the Apex Magazine 2027 Kickstarter, and we're 45% of the way towards our goal! Just $1k more will get us to the halfway point, and then it's all downhill (uphill? Whichever metaphor sounds more relaxed and positive) from there! 💪 Donate below: www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

Had a dream last night in which I surprised all my students by telling them they had to individually complete a 1500-piece puzzle in 85 minutes or they would receive a 0 in the course. Teachers reading this, you can have this idea for free, you’re welcome.

🌈🚀💫Queer & trans* SFF poets: share your work pub'd this September! Drop the title/link for your recent poetry to be included in the monthly Queer Spec Poetry Roundup on Stardust & Verse! Originals & reprints welcome; feel free to interpret queer/trans* and speculative broadly. Shares appreciated!

We are $600 away from halfway there. If you can share, thank you. I got moved to rehab four days ago, and I'm learning to walk again. 🖤

Nothing quite like being a fan of a sports team so atrocious that the nicest thing the announcers have managed to say about them all afternoon is “urgh, huh, well, hrm, that was interesting.”

New story day for my very brilliant friend Kehkashan Khalid! Everything she writes is my new favorite thing she’s ever written. I loved this tender tribute to the power of connection and stories in strange, violent times. www.castofwonders.org/2026/10/cast...

apropos of previous thread by John Wiswell: writers have a lot of solidarity when it comes to contracts. if you are a new writer and you think something might be hinky about your contract, it is completely fine to ask other professional writers even (especially) if you don't know us.

A lot of talk about Bad Magazine Behavior today. For what it’s worth… we would LOVE to read your work; we have sample contracts linked in our guidelines, designed to be as author-friendly as possible; and we pay artists fairly for original art. It’s pretty easy to treat people well. I recommend it!

i couldn't be happier that this story is reprinted in OTHERSIDE. thanks for giving my communal eco-grief story a second home 🌰🩸🫶

It’s cool that my job description is “talk about Shakespeare,” sure. And, yeah, I like writing! But… I am currently assembling IKEA furniture, which means the only thought in my head right now is: I would burn my life down in exchange for a job where all I did all day was assemble IKEA furniture.

Alternative sales pitch: Heated Rivalry x Grey’s Anatomy, but make it speculative and structurally experimental.

Prefer print? Get FREE shipping on Issues 1 -2 from @bookshop.org today for Anti-Prime Day! Each issue includes 15+ speculative stories and poems by 2SLGBTQIA+ creators for only $14.99! Thank you for supporting queer art. Issue 1: bookshop.org/p/books/othe... Issue 2: bookshop.org/p/books/othe...

Happy Banned Books Week AND Anti-Prime Day! We've spent this week fighting with Amazon, who blocked Issue 3... because a stylized illustration of a statue = porn, at least if you're a queer publication. The best way to support us is directly. Code ANTIPRIME gets you 15% off subscriptions this week.

I had so much fun chatting with @electricsheepsf.bsky.social this morning about a few of my stories… and also hope and rage and despair and the objective fact that Dragon Age 2 is the best Dragon Age. An honor and a joy to be invited. Kind of made me want to drop everything and write a short story 👀

This is tomorrow! Hope to see you there!

There are a lot of difficult and surprising things about living alone for the first time. But probably the most difficult thing is: WHY IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF PASTA

Light a candle, make a cup of tea, and spend a few minutes with this tender, mesmerizing, astonishingly lovely little story.

Oh! And speaking of guidelines and policies: WE OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS FOR ISSUE 4 AT MIDNIGHT EASTERN ‼️ Please send us the stories and poems only you could write! We can’t wait to read your work!

ISSUE 3 IS HERE! And completely free to read! We're SO excited for you to read this issue 🧡 It's bleak and beautiful and heartbreaking... and, as always, spectacularly queer. Give it a read, tell a friend, help us spread the word! Read it here: othersidespec.com/issues/issue-3/

Today I kept a notebook in which I tracked everything I did + how long it took, assuming I would discover all this extra wasted time that I could be using more efficiently, and instead what I learned was… I have 12 minutes of free time per day. And I just spent 2 of them on this post 🫩

I’m so excited for this!

We are opening submissions for our fourth and final issue of the year in October! SOON! Issue 4 has a theme: EXPLORATION 🪐🗡️ Early opening for trans, BIPOC, and/or disabled authors: October 1-7 General submissions: October 8-21 Guidelines: othersidespec.com/guidelines/

I’ve been trying to figure out how to celebrate all weekend (cake? a nice dinner? a brief break from work—jk, no breaks allowed) but finally settled on the perfect celebration: After almost two months spent eating every meal awkwardly standing up in my kitchen, I have purchased a dining table 😎

"This is a propulsive tale that pulls in so many threads of real-world contemporary tech and culture. A seriously cool science fiction tale that is fucked up (and I mean this) in the best of ways." 👀 www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/ghos...

It’s only noon and I have taken this many photos of my dog today. And then I wonder why I am not getting anything done.

Catch co-founder @mruthrobinson.bsky.social talking about building resilient queer SFF communities at @spacemagiccon.bsky.social on Saturday, October 3 @ 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern 👀 Registration info: www.rainbowspacemagic.org/

The most exciting story acceptance of my career is sitting in my inbox! This has been the worst year, creatively. A total slog. Cannot even tell you how nice it feels to finally get some good news. I think I’ll celebrate this weekend by… uh… grading sixty papers and answering eleven thousand emails?

Really excited to be one of the keynote panelists for RSM! The whole schedule looks incredible. If you haven’t registered yet, now is the time!

"This is a propulsive tale that pulls in so many threads of real-world contemporary tech and culture. A seriously cool science fiction tale that is fucked up (and I mean this) in the best of ways." 👀 www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/ghos...

Our subscription drive is still going and is now 70 new subscribers short of its goal. We had hoped to reach that in time for our 20th anniversary issue in October so we could give everyone their raises as part of that celebration. It's going to be close. clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/