Great throwback episode. Think it's time to re-read Exhalation (again) ...

Dare you to read short story this if you haven't.

"The Dare was to demolish Wilbur Hastert’s house and car, and to strip him naked, all before he left the courthouse. What courthouse? Who was Wilbur Hastert? It was done before the internet knew the answers."

After a frustrating day, this lovely story gave me just the perspective I needed. Go sloths! 🦥

gavagai.com/posts/3894

Water sprays 100 feet down over a granite cliff at Rainbow Falls.

Bright pink peonies bloom at a Duke Gardens on opening day.

Tulips bloom at a botanical garden.

A snake warms itself in the sun along a dirt path in the woods.

I'm back from our Spring Break trip visiting multiple colleges. We had a packed itinerary but made time to stop and enjoy nature (and friends!) along the way.

We went to the beach in hopes of being able to see the Artemis launch to the north. 🚀

No such luck (too cloudy), but we were rewarded for our effort with the sight of this kitesurfer and some cool contrails.

This whole account is brilliant.

Fort Lauderdale's aquatic center is home to a 27-meter dive tower, supposedly the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, pictured here. Two men dive off lower levels on a sunny, bright blue sky day.

Fort Lauderdale beach is packed with Spring Breakers rn but there’s still peace to be had at the nearby aquatic center.

I love working through story problems and world-building while I swim laps. And the views of the tallest dive tower in the country?

Not bad either.

This is fascinating. Poppet dolls were actually medical notes.

May I present your horror/romance writing prompt for the day.

Go!

On the cover of the short story collection The Church of Divine Electricity, a drone buzzes in the air against a bright pink backdrop and casts a shadow that looks like it could be a bird or an angel.

Current read by author Emily Mitchell. First two stories out the gate (“Mothers” and “Life/Story”) are bangers.

Can’t wait to see what’s next …

A woman stands at the edge of a river, carrying a sword and wearing little but a long stream of hair down her back.

If you're looking for some weekend reading, the latest issue of @lunastation.bsky.social is out!

Art by J.L. Meyer, speculative fiction by 16 talented women-identified authors.

www.lunastationquarterly.com/issues/065/

Agreed!

Set operation of a country in the belly of wa(te)r & i understood that wa(te)r / does not wash the red tint off the scalp of a bleeding ocean.

Enjoyed attending a poetry workshop this weekend taught by Strange Horizons Poetry Editor @vanessajae.bsky.social.

Some of the great spec poets we read: Zaynab Iliyasu Bobi, Marcus Whalbring, Massimo Mitolo, @angelaliu.bsky.social and @swantower.bsky.social.

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

A spray of pink and white orchids with fuchsia centers and feathering on the largest petals bloom from a banyan tree.

My outdoor orchids normally bloom in May but the cold snaps we've had sped up the timeline a bit. So pretty.

I'm laughing ... no I'm crying .. no I'm ...

I'm dead. 😆🍕🌮🧄

"Are we conflicted about serving patrons who have consumed intelligent species, including our own? Absolutely. But Human culture is based on allowing terrible things, particularly if it involves business and/or compromising with a colonial power."

Was taking out the trash the other night and noticed how amazing the stars looked. Now I know why ...

Note to self to look for this special "planet parade" Saturday just after sunset!

Coat Check Girl by Adan Jerreat-Poole Check your skin at the door.

Adore the mix of macabre circus with romance.

"Peeling your epidermis off hurts a lot. It doesn’t have to, but the pain is part of the experience. It makes it feel real, like they paid to touch death for a midnight."

translunartravelerslounge.com/2026/02/15/coat-check-girl-by-adan-jerreat-poole/

“We Require an Engine,” Said the Testicle Collective by David Anaxagoras This is the story of you, a man—simple, uncomplicated, perhaps a little stubborn, getting on in years, but still vital. And some of the stupid fucking choices you’ve made.

If you need a laugh today — a weird, wonderful laugh with a side of giving the middle finger to toxic masculinity — check out @davidanaxagoras.com’s wacky story “'We Require an Engine’ Said the Testicle Collective.”

It’s amazeballs!

translunartravelerslounge.com/2026/02/15/w...

Text on background of a misty green forest reads: "We rushed to embrace but stopped short, each caught on an invisible fishing line, on the hook that was our lives--at once remembering where we were, who we were.

I don’t write much romance but in honor of Valentine's Day here’s a bittersweet love story of mine that asks,

What if you could hop off your spaceship and reconnect with the gorgeous alien lover you left behind?

Would you have regrets? Would she?

www.heartlines-spec.com/the-architec...

These 60,000-year-old poison arrows are oldest yet found Hunter-gatherers probably derived the poison from the milky bulb extract of a Boophone disticha plant.

South Africa has yielded the oldest direct evidence of poisoned hunting weapons. The find pushes poison-based hunting deep into the Pleistocene and reveals sophisticated chemical knowledge, planning and tool use far earlier than previously documented. Ars Technica buff.ly/3ySienA
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Great list I've been working my way through this week.

reactormag.com/tenish-of-th...

I don't know what to tell you. You can't sit at a piano for the first time ever and play a sonata. You can't pick up a tennis racket for the first time and serve a 110MPH Ace.

You have to fuck up.

You have to be able to handle failing.

You have to love it enough to not get it right and keep on.

Loved the voice of this piece.

www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...

I was mostly being silly abt that amazing last moment-- although in Florida, the truth does always seem to find a way to be stranger than fiction ...

Here's good story if you need something uplifting today.

Nine out of ten newly sentient robots agree: Grandmas are the best!

Jennifer’s Daughter - Nightmare Magazine My mom was sixteen when a band of boys took her out to the woods and bound her to a tree and tortured her to death, like in Jennifer’s Body, so you see her womb was kinda already out of commish by the...

I adored this dark-yet-somehow-kinda-heartwarming tale and its twist on the movie Jennifer’s Body, by @smessenger.bsky.social.

As for its depiction of rural Florida? This native attests 100% accurate. Especially that end scene. 💀🐊

www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/jenn...

Flames leap in the air above a black metal fire pit.

The boys got a little carried away with the fire pit.

We rarely get temperatures down in the 40s here, so there was much excitement this week. I’m happy to report the evening ended safely.

Damn, hadn't read this letter by MLK in a while.

"The ... great stumbling block [is not the ...] Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."

THIS.

"We are fighting and struggling and self-caring our way through the apocalypse, and every day there is something terrible but also something lovely, and we are caught in constant whiplash between the two."