Congratulations to alumna Amal El-Mohtar on The River Has Roots becoming a Hugo Finalist for Best Novella!

@amalelmohtar.com

#Cymera 2026 event tickets are now on sale! From workshops to talks, here's a reminder of what your GSFWC pals will be bringing you this Cymeramas.

@cymerafestival.co.uk @jennicoutts.bsky.social @robincmduncan.bsky.social @cameronjohnston.bsky.social @shonak.bsky.social @neilwilliamson.bsky.social

Upping this again, if anyone has a few minutes to spare! It's just about your general tastes, and we all know there are always exceptions to every rule, so don't sweat about the answers too much. Many thanks to those who responded and / or reposted. You're gems, so you are.

Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups | British Library Fairy Tales have an older and darker past as stories for adults as well as the young. They were often sensual, bawdy, unflinchingly violent, sophisticated

This amazing online event is happening tomorrow, Tuesday, April 21st. Susanna Clarke, @amalelmohtar.com, Gregory Maguire and I will be talking about fairy tales, fairy lore, and fairy tale literature for the @britishlibrary.bsky.social. Please join us!

events.bl.uk/events/fairy...

Fiction Anthology Purchasing Factors This survey is designed to help clarify how people decide on buying and reading short fiction anthologies. For the purposes of this survey, I am defining "anthology" to mean a book of multiple short...

Some indy research that I'll be sharing results of for everyone to see / use! This survey is on short fiction anthologies. You can take it even if you never read them, as there are Qs about that, too. The aim is to help anthologies shine, so please share it!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I suppose you'd have to ask a bald man.

Where else are you going to see the glamorous duo of @quantick.bsky.social and @neilwilliamson.bsky.social on the same panel?

That’s right, at this year’s Cymera I’ll be running a workshop on writing injuries, can’t wait to see everyone in Edinburgh this year!

Workshop: Writing Wounds with Jenni Coutts — CYMERA Ever wondered the best way to write realistic injuries for your characters? From bleeding, to burns, to broken bones, join author and GP Jenni Coutts for a crash course in the dos and don'ts of writin...

(6/6)

Sunday 7 June
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Workshop: Writing Wounds with Jenni Coutts
www.cymerafestival.co.uk/programme-26...

@jennicoutts.bsky.social

Individual event tickets go on sale this Monday 20th April (13th April for Cymera Members). For more, head to:
www.cymerafestival.co.uk/programme-26

Chaotic Capers with A.Y. Chao, Cameron Johnston and James Logan — CYMERA Train hijacks, moon missions, alchemic artefacts, what could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, actually. In A.Y. Chao’s Paris Celestial , Lady Jing has settled into her role as a Minister of Hell, bu...

(5/6)

Saturday 6 June
6:45 PM - 7:45 PM
Chaotic Capers with A.Y. Chao, Cameron Johnston and James Logan
www.cymerafestival.co.uk/programme-26...

@cameronjohnston.bsky.social @aychao.com @jamesloganauthor.bsky.social

Wise Women with Rebecca Ferrier and Shona Kinsella — CYMERA What happens when the women who know the old ways decide to use them? In Rebecca Ferrier’s The Salt Bind , on the storm-lashed Cornish coast in 1779, Kensa becomes apprentice to a wise woman, learn...

(4/6)

Saturday 6 June
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Wise Women with Rebecca Ferrier and Shona Kinsella
www.cymerafestival.co.uk/programme-26...

@shonak.bsky.social @rmlferrier.bsky.social

Weird and Wonderful with David Quantick and Neil Williamson — CYMERA Expect the unexpected—where the uncanny lurks in the everyday. In David Quantick’s And Other Stories , thirty-three tales revel in the strange, the surreal, and the darkly comic. From small-town ho...

(3/6)

Friday 5 June
7:00 PM 8:00 PM
Weird and Wonderful with David Quantick and Neil Williamson
www.cymerafestival.co.uk/programme-26...

@neilwilliamson.bsky.social @quantick.bsky.social

Wor(l)d Weaving with Robin C.M. Duncan and Tim Armstrong — CYMERA Every word carries a world—stories shaped by the rhythms, roots, and power of language. In Robin C.M. Duncan’s “The Sarry Heid Free Press”, Monty Johnston's up tae no good. Nae change there then, ...

(2/6)

Friday 5 June
5:15 PM - 6:15 PM
Wor(l)d Weaving with Robin C.M. Duncan and Tim Armstrong
www.cymerafestival.co.uk/programme-26...

@robincmduncan.bsky.social

2026 Programme — CYMERA

Genre fans klaxon! Cymera's 2026 programme is out now! Behold events with your GSFWC pals for your perusal, from workshopping realistic injuries to weird'n'wise capering about.

Feat. Jenni Coutts, Robin C.M. Duncan, Cameron Johnston, Shona Kinsella & Neil Williamson.

@cymerafestival.co.uk (1/6)

Rafael Torrubia and Cameron Johnston In Conversation | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Rafael Torrubia and Cameron Johnston In Conversation today.

One small step for a mage, one giant leap for mankind.

Wishing @cameronjohnston.bsky.social a very happy publication day for First Mage on the Moon. A fantasy like no other.

And check out this event!

www.waterstones.com/events/rafae...

Congratulations to our own Christopher Caldwell on making the Locus Top Ten Finalists for Best Collection! And alumna Amal El-Mohtar for making the finalists for Best Novella! Best of luck to all shortlistees for May's ceremony.

@locusmag.bsky.social @seraph76.bsky.social @amalelmohtar.com

Happy Book Birthday to our own Cameron Johnston's First Mage On The Moon! If you're in #Glasgow, get yours when First Mage On The Moon launches at Waterstones Argyle ST this Thursday. Ticket link below:

www.waterstones.com/events/rafae...

@waterstonesargyle.bsky.social @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social

First Mage On The Moon by Cameron Johnston. Against a twilight blue background, a rusty magical rocketship readies for launch, with engineering diagrams off to the side.

Happy Launch Day to me!

First Mage On The Moon is out today.

I checked four times. That is indeed my name on the list. Congratulations to my fellow finalists!

Last chance to get your forms in for #Fantasycon, artists!

Coming up on Thursday this week. Be there or be a regular quadrilateral!

Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell — neon hemlock A collection of short stories. Publication date: October 14th, 2025. An 8” x 5” paperback. 188 pages. In these deftly written stories of the fantastic, Christopher Caldwell unravels the complicities of personhood and gender, slavery and war. Saints and sailors, scoundrels and surfers. Caldwe

In honor of the defeat of the Confederacy and its fancy pompous general being forced to surrender to a rumpled shopkeeper, you can buy my book, which is probably the nightmare of ever architect of the confederacy.

Available in ebook & print where books are sold
www.neonhemlock.com/books/call-a...

A NASA Artemis Boarding Pass in blue, saying Cameron Johnston. Rocket: SLS Space Launch System. Launch Site: Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. Spacecraft: Orion. Destination: Around The Moon.

My name went around the moon on an SD card inside the Orion capsule during the Artemis II mission :)

About as close as I'm ever likely to get to venturing forth into the void. I've also been to Mars, thanks to NASA and their 'Send Your Name To Space' community programme.

Cover image for Air and Nothingness Press anthology, "Tea or Coffee, Stars, and Gravity". It features the silhouette of an astronaut walking away, surrounded by the anthology title lettering with multiple layers of colours, and sprinklings of starry lights.

Thrilled to say I've a short story coming out in 2026! "To Stave Off the Void" should be due out this summer in the "Tea or Coffee, Stars, and Gravity" anthology. It was a lot of fun to write! 🫖☕🌟⚫
Follow Air and Nothingness Press for more details: @aanpress.bsky.social

Two author photographs under the title DIGITAL PANEL. On the left, David Quantick, a white man with glasses and a white beard. On the right, Neil Williamson, a bald white man with a short beard.

Totally stoked that I'll be at @cymerafestival.co.uk this year, talking to novelist and TV writer, David Quantick, about writing weird and wonderful stories.

www.cymerafestival.co.uk/programme-26...

#Fantasycon Artists! Our Jenni Coutts and Heather Valentine would like to remind those intending to exhibit in the Art Show and/or Print Shop that you have until Tuesday 14th April to get your forms in.

You'll find all the details you need at the link embedded below:

@britfantasysoc.bsky.social

Massive congratulations to @bethkesh.bsky.social for the well-deserved BSFA win with this heartbreaking story! 🎉🎉🎉 Very proud to have been asked to narrate this for @podcastle.org

Just nabbed my ticket for this, can't wait! 🚀🌕

Here we see a peerless technique of gong sounding, full of wild passion, but born of years of practise. Bravo!