Sten Tarkusest 🇪🇪🇺🇸 ~ 🇺🇦

The day is finally upon us! THE FIST OF MEMORY is officially out NOW in the US and Canada. This near-future story of assassins, aliens, astrophysicists and ancestors that I started 15 years ago, is finally out in the world & it still feels a bit unreal. astrapublishinghouse.com/product/the-...

Please welcome the most fabulous writer and my fellow Clarion west Novel Workshop participant @bydeannajohnston.bsky.social to BlueSky! Say hi! She’s awesome.

This morning I am envisioning a kinder and happier world 💛 💜

An honest question: would all the adaptations and retelling of things like Romeo and Juliet or King Lear qualify as “Shakespeare tie-ins”? Ok, maybe less honest and more snarky.

An autumn Sunday in beautiful Guagán Barra (Gougane Barra) in West Cork 🍂

Quite possibly the fact that I made it to October…. (In reality, participating in the Clarion West Novel workshop)

next is “this is c(lone)-pop” in @othersidespec.bsky.social! 🧪⭐️🤍 which was also recommended by @mariahaskins.com in @locusmag.bsky.social othersidespec.com/pieces/this-...

Just don't use it. Ursula K Le Guin comes to mind: 'We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.'

I’m not sure Kai-Tristjaan does get through the horrors. It’s not really an uplifting story.

O barbarous and bloody spectacle!

If you were to try to convince a first time attendee and writer to go to world con, what would say?

Nothing you write is wasted.

Why had he lived so long among those who were not kind?

From Bruno to Lysenko, the politically powerful have always slight to distort science to their preferences as if ideology can alter reality. This is a centuries old tradition, one that has only harvested ignorance

If kids are playing in the water and then go quiet, find out why and ask if they’re ok. If they don’t answer, get moving That stick with me

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

The architecture of thoughts in story brings me joy today. Soaring spanning structures or crafted fine details, all make up the whole. Story can be magnificent cathedrals or simple vernacular of rough wood sheds, and all of them have their own glories Ask again tomorrow, though, when I hate it

Super psyched to have two poems selected as Rhysling Award Finalists! “The Language of Fireflies” (in @thedeadlands.com) and “The Mourning Robot” (in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social). Thanks so much to everyone who nominated and congrats to all the wonderful finalists!

The feel of a fountain pen on rough paper invites ideas like no screen I’ve ever seen. That much seems to be true. As for the candle, I couldn’t possibly say, but if my house burns down, you’ll know why

Another reminder that the scammers are getting better, but you are smarter. Don't click in their emails. Our podcast for #writers on the subject: carsonhume.com/2026/...

Tove Jansson in her studio,1956, Finnish artist and creator of the Moomin book series #womensart #RoomArtWeek

Film you’ve watched more than six times with a gif Hard mode: no Star Wars, Star Trek, Lott, marvel, dc, Disney, Pixar, dreamworld, Spielberg, Cameron, wachowskis, or ghibli

🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Here's a goddamn win and thank you to many people for bringing it to my attention: 988 works. We have more people still with us because of it. I'm glad they're here and I'm glad you're here. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/s...

I take sick days because I am, well, sickk. So how do I convince my little writing demon that I am taking a sick day because I’m too muddledheaded to work, which applies every bit as much to writing as to my day job? He won’t listen!

May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be safe from harm. May you live with ease.

This isn’t a new problem. LLMs predict what an average writer might say next, copying other writers. We have always had a word for this: derivative. The real work is in writing what hasn’t been written before, outside the scope what has already been written.

Oh, they do much, much worse than that, albeit for higher stakes than a million dollars

I am currently sporting two horribly swollen tick bites* and a dog bite. Yes, this is my best life (*Ixoides pacificus bites give be a big reaction like a volleyball sized mosquito bite. Not actually a tick borne disease but we are watching)

The backstory is evolving into a wild and tangly thing that now I desperately want to write the prequel first, but that would undo so many delightful surprises. #writerlyproblems

This morning I am envisioning a kinder and happier world 💛 💜

"Steam rose from tea and outside the gentle light of a late spring afternoon played in new-green leaves."

"Qonoraq regarded her hand for a moment, a weathered hand, a grandmother’s hand that had cared for babies and woven cloth, and seen a lifetime of mistakes made." There are days when the font gives, and others when it doesn't, alas.

Indians on Bsky, #Indiasky, please pay attention, read up & email the government to make your objections known about the Draft IT Rules, 2nd Amendment, 2026, which is going to seriously adversely affect the ability of Indians to engage in any political discourse online w/out state sanction.

And done! Pass it on

Because for some of us, the only thing worse than writing is NOT writing.

Bookish Checkpoint: Last book finished: All This Twosted Glory by Tahereh Mafi Currently reading: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab Next Read: probably Number9Dream by David Mitchell Last added to TBR: Stories are Weapons by @annaleen.bsky.social

Bookish Checkpoint 💙📚 Last book read: Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe Currently reading: Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden Next read: The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson Last added to my TBR: The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer