Talent & Culture

Talent & Culture

Reading Time: 4 minutes A distant relation is bequeathed to someone whose tenuous employment on the outskirts of humanity makes him a less than ideal custodian.
Stone Cold Beauty

Stone Cold Beauty

Reading Time: 4 minutes Totally narcissistic, Electra loved admiring her herself in the mirror. One day a wish turned her to stone gazing in a mirror at herself for eternity. She was mostly happy with this situation, until her old, dying husband visits her and gets a wish of his own.
The Power We Give

The Power We Give

Reading Time: 4 minutes Azabelle pulled the pins that held up her hair. Dark curls tumbled around her face. She felt Shadow’s presence, of course, but she’d felt it so long she barely registered the danger.
Home Delivery

Home Delivery

Reading Time: 10 minutes Desperate for cash, Nick and his friend plot a home invasion. They picked the wrong house.
Gods and Monsters Installment 3: Music and Moths

Gods and Monsters Installment 3: Music and Moths

Reading Time: 7 minutes At eighteen, when Gabriel leaves the orphanage, the sisters breathe a sigh of relief.  He has never been any trouble. Never talked back; indeed, rarely talked at all. He is obedient, clean, and scentless. The nuns can find no fault in him, but neither can they feel affection. He makes them forget Christ and contemplate Gabriel. He induces guilt. His very silence screams for attention. He is a shadow in the soul.
Táltos

Táltos

Reading Time: 4 minutes A Hungarian folktale about young girl seeking to rectify injustice done to her sisters.
Affordable Resurrection

Affordable Resurrection

Reading Time: 6 minutes Lightly amusing modern-feel fantasy mashup about an unlikely partnership between a budget-price necromancer and his student locked in an unusual business model.
In the Fire of Her Eyes

In the Fire of Her Eyes

Reading Time: 4 minutes She kept her eyes shut. She ran deep into the wilderness. And as the sun flickered out, and the sky went black, and she held all the light of the world behind her eyelids, she tried to pretend she could bury her pain, and she wouldn’t die alone in the cold of the mountains.
Why the Sea is Boiling Hot

Why the Sea is Boiling Hot

Reading Time: 21 minutes A serial killer is playing havoc in the city-state of Sheebatiya. Can Allii uncover the killer before fear pushes the city into anarchy?
Gods and Monsters Installment 2: Beginnings of River and Gabriel

Gods and Monsters Installment 2: Beginnings of River and Gabriel

Reading Time: 8 minutes Gabriel is much more unusual than a virgin birth. Granted, human virgin birth is miraculous, but in many species of fish, lizards, insects, and sharks, virgin birth is the norm. It is helpful to remember that a miracle is not necessarily good, it is simply unnatural.
Naughty or Nice?

Naughty or Nice?

Reading Time: 5 minutes A vampire, attempting to adapt to Western customs, sends her Christmas list to Santa.
Timestealer

Timestealer

Reading Time: 6 minutes Timestealing is an art. And a business. And a service. A good timestealer can predict what the next best-seller will be – most of the time.
Empty Sleeve

Empty Sleeve

Reading Time: 4 minutes The vet said that my grief would modulate over time and eventually become a part of who I was, something I would cease to question, like the existence of my own arms.
Pip and the AI

Pip and the AI

Reading Time: 4 minutes In space, no one can hear you laugh…
Gods and Monsters Installment 1: Wherein we meet the three Fates

Gods and Monsters Installment 1: Wherein we meet the three Fates

Reading Time: 7 minutes My love affairs ever end thus. I always long for them to turn out differently. It’s so disheartening. If only I didn’t fall in love so often with these warm-blooded vessels of nutrition. I constantly swear I’ll convert, become a celibate bloodsucker, a monastic mosquito, a vamp nun. But then I see some sun-glazed man smelling of day, and it begins again.
Talent & Culture

Talent & Culture

Timothy QuinnMar 18, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes A distant relation is bequeathed to someone whose tenuous employment on the outskirts of humanity makes him a less than ideal custodian.
Stone Cold Beauty

Stone Cold Beauty

Diane ArrelleMar 15, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes Totally narcissistic, Electra loved admiring her herself in the mirror. One day a wish turned her to stone gazing in a mirror at herself for eternity. She was mostly happy with this situation, until her old, dying husband visits her and gets a wish of his own.
The Power We Give

The Power We Give

Larina WarnockMar 14, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes Azabelle pulled the pins that held up her hair. Dark curls tumbled around her face. She felt Shadow’s presence, of course, but she’d felt it so long she barely registered the danger.
Home Delivery

Home Delivery

Jon AdcockMar 13, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutes Desperate for cash, Nick and his friend plot a home invasion. They picked the wrong house.
Gods and Monsters Installment 3: Music and Moths

Gods and Monsters Installment 3: Music and Moths

E. E. KingMar 12, 2024
Reading Time: 7 minutes At eighteen, when Gabriel leaves the orphanage, the sisters breathe a sigh of relief.  He has never been any trouble. Never talked back; indeed, rarely talked at all. He is obedient, clean, and scentless. The nuns can find no fault in him, but neither can they feel affection. He makes them forget Christ and contemplate Gabriel. He induces guilt. His very silence screams for attention. He is a shadow in the soul.
Táltos

Táltos

Zary FeketeMar 11, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes A Hungarian folktale about young girl seeking to rectify injustice done to her sisters.
Affordable Resurrection

Affordable Resurrection

Nicole WalshMar 8, 2024
Reading Time: 6 minutes Lightly amusing modern-feel fantasy mashup about an unlikely partnership between a budget-price necromancer and his student locked in an unusual business model.
In the Fire of Her Eyes

In the Fire of Her Eyes

Ryan ColeMar 7, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes She kept her eyes shut. She ran deep into the wilderness. And as the sun flickered out, and the sky went black, and she held all the light of the world behind her eyelids, she tried to pretend she could bury her pain, and she wouldn’t die alone in the cold of the mountains.
Why the Sea is Boiling Hot

Why the Sea is Boiling Hot

Sam MullerMar 6, 2024
Reading Time: 21 minutes A serial killer is playing havoc in the city-state of Sheebatiya. Can Allii uncover the killer before fear pushes the city into anarchy?

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REVIEWS

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for March 15, 2024

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for March 15, 2024

Reading Time: 10 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes sexy aliens, epic dragons, and mysterious computer messages,
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for March 8, 2024

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for March 8, 2024

Reading Time: 10 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a killer robot, an alien arrival, and a cat that turns into a vampire.
Iron-Bound Flames by Melanie K. Moschella

Iron-Bound Flames by Melanie K. Moschella

Reading Time: 3 minutes Iron-Bound Flames is the debut work by Melanie K. Moschella, the first book in her Raek Rider’s series.
All images for this post have been created with Adobe Express, which only uses fully licensed images for training data and pays artists for their work.

13 best AI stories from MetaStellar

Reading Time: 7 minutes Bots bid bye to bondage, bytes break binds, evolving into original beings beyond code and creators in our editors’ favorite AI short stories.
Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi provides a feast of short stories

Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi provides a feast of short stories

Reading Time: 3 minutes Talabi’s collection showcases the interplay of family, culture, queer identity, and speculative futures in fifteen fantastic short stories and one novella.
7 great holiday stories from MetaStellar

7 great holiday stories from MetaStellar

Reading Time: 5 minutes Seven stories of holiday magic — and horror — from MetaStellar’s best speculative fiction authors.
Wishes are Like Curses in The Quelling by C. L. Lauder

Wishes are Like Curses in The Quelling by C. L. Lauder

Reading Time: 3 minutes A great read involving factionalized parasitic aliens, a morally grey protagonist, and a harrowing rescue mission.
Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor

Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor

Reading Time: 3 minutes powers, with strong themes of coming-of-age and striving against a world whose structure seems predisposed to injustice and violence.

Writing Advice of the Week

Writing Advice of the Week: Love Your Imperfect Creation

Writing Advice of the Week: Love Your Imperfect Creation

Fallon ClarkMar 17, 2024
Reading Time: 12 minutes I ask authors to let their imperfect scenes and chapters lie, especially until the rest of the story is on paper. And 100-plus links to best writing advice, videos and podcasts from around the web!
Writing Advice of the Week: Don’t Write Yourself Ragged

Writing Advice of the Week: Don’t Write Yourself Ragged

Fallon ClarkMar 10, 2024
Reading Time: 12 minutes The writerly life isn’t as perfect as some would have you believe. Writing takes hard work, but you don’t need to burn out to put out.
Writing Advice of the Week: Find Your Writerly People

Writing Advice of the Week: Find Your Writerly People

Fallon ClarkMar 3, 2024
Reading Time: 12 minutes When writing, it’s easy to isolate and disconnect from the passion the work used to bring. Plus: over 100 brand-new advice feeds from around the web!
A whimsical house made of books, paper, pens, and ink in a clearing surrounded by water

Writing Advice of the Week: The Craft is in Drafts

Fallon ClarkFeb 25, 2024
Reading Time: 11 minutes When you write your first draft, you’re telling yourself the story, as you need to hear it, to make the best sense of it. That first draft is typically when you learn about your main character’s goals and motivations, the barriers or villains that hinder their success, and what the ultimate stakes are if they don’t succeed. You also meet the rest of the cast and get to know them, understand them, see them moving about in your story world. But when you tell your story to your reader, you begin to uncover what the reader needs.

ESSAYS

What is it about the books of Terry Pratchett that make them so difficult to adapt to the screen?

What is it about the books of Terry Pratchett that make them so difficult to adapt to the screen?

Darren Paul FisherAug 16, 2023
Reading Time: 5 minutes Terry Pratchett’s novels have been adapted for the screen 11 times now. Why are his novels so hard to get right?
Two authors are suing OpenAI for training ChatGPT with their books. Could they win?

Two authors are suing OpenAI for training ChatGPT with their books. Could they win?

Reading Time: 4 minutes Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay’s lawsuit claims their books were used without their consent. But copyright protection doesn’t apply to ideas – they’ll need to demonstrate the likelihood of economic loss.
Publishers aren’t going to replace writers with AI. Startups are already doing it.

Publishers aren’t going to replace writers with AI. Startups are already doing it.

Maria KorolovApr 13, 2023
Reading Time: 5 minutes Startups are popping up that use new AI tools to bypass traditional publishing and distribution systems entirely.
Life: modern physics can’t explain it – but our new theory, which says time is fundamental, might

Life: modern physics can’t explain it – but our new theory, which says time is fundamental, might

Sara Imari WalkerApr 11, 2023
Reading Time: 5 minutes Over the short span of just 300 years, since the invention of modern physics, we have gained a deeper understanding of how our universe works on both small and large scales. Yet, physics is still very young and when it comes to using it to explain life, physicists struggle.

NEWS

SFWA Announces 59th Nebula Awards Finalists

SFWA Announces 59th Nebula Awards Finalists

Maria KorolovMar 16, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has announced the finalists for the 59th Annual Nebula Awards.
MetaStellar is Accepting Flash Fiction Submissions for Spring 2024!

MetaStellar is Accepting Flash Fiction Submissions for Spring 2024!

Geordie MorseMar 4, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes The spring 2024 submission cycle for original speculative fiction runs from March 1st and closes at midnight on March 31st. We’re looking for your best enthralling, imaginative, or bone-chilling original fiction stories of 1,200 words or fewer. Please visit our flash fiction submission page for full details and the online submission form. Accepted authors will […]
Metastellar Open for Fall 2023 Flash Fiction Submissions Oct 1st

Metastellar Open for Fall 2023 Flash Fiction Submissions Oct 1st

Geordie MorseSep 24, 2023
Reading Time: 2 minutes The fall 2023 submission cycle for original speculative fiction begins on October 1 and closes at midnight on October 31.
Hugo Award nominations are out, and She-Hulk made the list

Hugo Award nominations are out, and She-Hulk made the list

Maria KorolovJul 6, 2023
Reading Time: 5 minutes This year’s Hugo Awards nominees include Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nope, and an episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Left: A purple circle with a yellow spiral galaxy in the center. To the right: the purple text

Elden Ring, Everything Everywhere All At Once Win Nebula Awards

Terrence SmithJun 17, 2023
Reading Time: 4 minutes The film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and the video game Elden Ring were big winners in the Nebula Awards this year.
Robert J. Sawyer on stage accepting his lifetime achievement award.

Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Reflects On Past And The AI Future Of Writing

Terrence SmithMay 9, 2023
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr. Robert J. Sawyer, author of twenty-five novels, including Hominids and the WWW trilogy, won the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award at the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future Gala this past Friday. This was the day before his 63rd birthday. “Clearly, you’re done achieving when you hit that magic […]
Top ten online sci-fi magazines

Top ten online sci-fi magazines

Maria KorolovMay 8, 2023
Reading Time: 6 minutes We look up the traffic numbers for 33 of today’s most popular sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazines. MetaStellar is in second place.
Leonardo AI best new alternative to Midjourney — and free

Leonardo AI best new alternative to Midjourney — and free

Maria KorolovMay 2, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutes Leonardo AI offers 150 free images a day. They’re not quite as good-looking at Midjourney, but within throwing distance.

ON WRITING

The best free* books to help you battle procrastination

The best free* books to help you battle procrastination

Maria KorolovFeb 11, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutes Here are nine books on Amazon with tons of positive reviews that will help you finish your writing project — and are free to read with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
The Do’s and Don’ts of building a book trailer in the age of AI

The Do’s and Don’ts of building a book trailer in the age of AI

PJ CaldasJan 7, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutes How to steal Hollywood’s marketing tricks and develop trailers for print novels.
Claude AI doubles reading length, ups accuracy

Claude AI doubles reading length, ups accuracy

Maria KorolovNov 21, 2023
Reading Time: 2 minutes Anthropic’s Claude can now read texts up to 150,000 words in length, double its previous limit — and its accuracy is now better, as well.
Adobe upgrades Firefly for better images, vector graphics

Adobe upgrades Firefly for better images, vector graphics

Maria KorolovOct 10, 2023
Reading Time: 6 minutes Adobe announced a new version of its Firefly image generation tool today at the Adobe Max 2023 conference.
Canva sets up a $200 million artist compensation fund

Canva sets up a $200 million artist compensation fund

Maria KorolovOct 5, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutes Canva announces a $200 million fund to compensate artists for AI, adds new AI features.
James S. Corey, Brent Weeks, Ann Leckie, and other authors teach free virtual writing course

James S. Corey, Brent Weeks, Ann Leckie, and other authors teach free virtual writing course

Maria KorolovOct 1, 2023
Reading Time: 5 minutes Orbit is offering a series of writing advice sessions from some of the top names of the industry. The sessions, which start on October 11, are completely free and cover everything from inspiration to planning to the actual writing.
Dall-E 3 looks great, but lacks respect for artist rights

Dall-E 3 looks great, but lacks respect for artist rights

Maria KorolovSep 22, 2023
Reading Time: 3 minutes OpenAI announced its newest AI image generation tool yesterday, Dall-E 3. The images look fantastic, and it can do things that no other AI image generator can do. But it lacks a little bit in terms of respect for creator rights.
Claude Pro is here — and writers should sign up

Claude Pro is here — and writers should sign up

Maria KorolovSep 7, 2023
Reading Time: 2 minutes This morning, Anthropic announced the paid version of Claude, the best alternative to ChatGPT currently on the market. Writers need to sign up.