Original flash fiction submissions now open. Submission window closes Oct. 31. 
Honeypot

Honeypot

Reading Time: 5 minutes A derelict spaceship turns out to be a trap for a space pirate and his very unusual copilot.
Gods and Monsters Installment 33: Pamela

Gods and Monsters Installment 33: Pamela

Reading Time: 8 minutes Vampires followed the deluge of fluid and fear, tracking the lonely, homeless, and lost to the city, drawn by the need for belief, as well as blood.
A Perfect Day

A Perfect Day

Reading Time: 4 minutes A day at the beach turns into something unexpected for a young couple.
Gods and Monsters Installment 32: Time Before Time

Gods and Monsters Installment 32: Time Before Time

Reading Time: 7 minutes Thanatos never kills. He’s just the messenger. 
The Fingers of Regina Durette

The Fingers of Regina Durette

Reading Time: 9 minutes Who says your body has to take orders from you?
The Snow Hath No Queen

The Snow Hath No Queen

Reading Time: 5 minutes In a future where the continents are gone, the oceans are dead, and humanity survives atop the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a man goes on a dreamquest to rediscover cold and snow.
Gods and Monsters Installment 31: Small Time Gods

Gods and Monsters Installment 31: Small Time Gods

Reading Time: 7 minutes Ever since he found Gabriel in the field, River has been cut off and alone. Separated from humanity by a knowledge that he didn’t even realize he possessed, a perception deep within his bones. An understanding that though fairy tales may come true, they are written in blood and lies.
Gods and Monsters Installment 30: The Morgue

Gods and Monsters Installment 30: The Morgue

Reading Time: 8 minutes The door is heavy, about four inches thick. A long narrow staircase leads down into darkness. He is in total darkness. Feeling his way slowly along the wall, carefully tapping his feet to see where the stairs begin, he finds a light switch. Harsh fluorescence floods the stairwell. This light would make anyone look dead, River thinks.
Spell to Find Amelia Earhart

Spell to Find Amelia Earhart

Reading Time: 4 minutes Magic circles, incantations—could this be enough to bring back Amelia Earhart?
Body Donor

Body Donor

Reading Time: 4 minutes David volunteers for NASA’s Body Donor program, where human corpses are exchanged for advanced knowledge of an alien species.
Gods and Monsters Installment 29: Beautiful and Strange

Gods and Monsters Installment 29: Beautiful and Strange

Reading Time: 7 minutes Pamela stands in the doorway. River stops stirring and opens his arms. Pamela doesn’t even need to cross the room. She melts into him, soft as butter into flour. She is cold, damp as night fog.
Taking Care of Our Own

Taking Care of Our Own

Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s an aswang on the loose and it’s up to us to deal with it. Don’t forget to bring trash bags…
Forest in Apartment Number Ten

Forest in Apartment Number Ten

Reading Time: 4 minutes When Gretel grew up, she left the Sugar-Candy House and the forest behind her, but some stories won’t allow you to walk away.
Gods and Monsters Installment 28: Journey’s End

Gods and Monsters Installment 28: Journey’s End

Reading Time: 8 minutes That night, Jackson does not come to Bert’s. 
Your Entire Universe in One Bite

Your Entire Universe in One Bite

Reading Time: 4 minutes First dates are always scary, but sometimes fear can be delicious.
Honeypot

Honeypot

Reading Time: 5 minutes A derelict spaceship turns out to be a trap for a space pirate and his very unusual copilot.
Gods and Monsters Installment 33: Pamela

Gods and Monsters Installment 33: Pamela

E. E. KingOct 8, 2024
Reading Time: 8 minutes Vampires followed the deluge of fluid and fear, tracking the lonely, homeless, and lost to the city, drawn by the need for belief, as well as blood.
A Perfect Day

A Perfect Day

Jon AdcockOct 1, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes A day at the beach turns into something unexpected for a young couple.
Gods and Monsters Installment 32: Time Before Time

Gods and Monsters Installment 32: Time Before Time

E. E. KingOct 1, 2024
Reading Time: 7 minutes Thanatos never kills. He’s just the messenger. 
The Fingers of Regina Durette

The Fingers of Regina Durette

Karen HeulerSep 26, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutes Who says your body has to take orders from you?
The Snow Hath No Queen

The Snow Hath No Queen

Shantell PowellSep 24, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutes In a future where the continents are gone, the oceans are dead, and humanity survives atop the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a man goes on a dreamquest to rediscover cold and snow.
Gods and Monsters Installment 31: Small Time Gods

Gods and Monsters Installment 31: Small Time Gods

E. E. KingSep 24, 2024
Reading Time: 7 minutes Ever since he found Gabriel in the field, River has been cut off and alone. Separated from humanity by a knowledge that he didn’t even realize he possessed, a perception deep within his bones. An understanding that though fairy tales may come true, they are written in blood and lies.
Gods and Monsters Installment 30: The Morgue

Gods and Monsters Installment 30: The Morgue

E. E. KingSep 17, 2024
Reading Time: 8 minutes The door is heavy, about four inches thick. A long narrow staircase leads down into darkness. He is in total darkness. Feeling his way slowly along the wall, carefully tapping his feet to see where the stairs begin, he finds a light switch. Harsh fluorescence floods the stairwell. This light would make anyone look dead, River thinks.
Spell to Find Amelia Earhart

Spell to Find Amelia Earhart

Nick ArmbristerSep 16, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes Magic circles, incantations—could this be enough to bring back Amelia Earhart?

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REVIEWS

Friendship Is at the Forefront of Shaun Hamill’s The Dissonance

Friendship Is at the Forefront of Shaun Hamill’s The Dissonance

Reading Time: 3 minutes The book is dynamic and fast paced, with flashbacks and cliffhangers to keep you reading along. It is hard to put down, and I never say this lightly.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 11, 2024

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 11, 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 shifter romance by a New York Times bestselling author, a book about a space pirate, and a thriller about climate change.
Best space operas with kick-ass women

Best space operas with kick-ass women

Reading Time: 10 minutes Nine favorite space opera series with kick-ass female leads.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 4, 2024

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 4, 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 dark magic, ancient evils, and serial killers — just in time for the spooky season.
Deep Black Has Everything You Need: Action, Aliens, and Conspiracies

Deep Black Has Everything You Need: Action, Aliens, and Conspiracies

Reading Time: 2 minutes Deep Black goes deeper into human-alien relationships and what it means to explore the vastness of space. It also questions whether AI should be trusted or not.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for September 27, 2024

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for September 27, 2024

Reading Time: 9 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 romantasy by a USA Today bestselling author, a space opera box set, time travel, and a gaslamp mystery.
Artifact Space by Miles Cameron Takes You for an Interstellar Ride

Artifact Space by Miles Cameron Takes You for an Interstellar Ride

Reading Time: 3 minutes Miles Cameron’s space opera Artifact Space opens with a very action-forward sequence that sees Marca Nbaro, the protagonist, running away from space cops to board a huge cargo ship called the Athens because her dream has always been to work and serve at that ship.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Sep. 20, 2024

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Sep. 20, 2024

Reading Time: 9 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 demon who cost a witch her job, time-traveling tourists, and so, so much fantasy romance!

Writing Advice of the Week

Writing the Other: Fictions and Culture

Writing the Other: Fictions and Culture

Fallon ClarkOct 13, 2024
Reading Time: 6 minutes Fiction is unique to human communication, which is fascinating on its own. But why do we still look to fictions? What do they do for us in the modern age? Why does fiction matter? And what considerations must go into crafting culturally honest fictions?
7 Story Structures to Know (and Disregard)

7 Story Structures to Know (and Disregard)

Fallon ClarkOct 6, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutes Story structure is the framework around your literary jigsaw puzzle, the order into which you organize the events in your story to create a beginning, a middle, and an end. So let’s talk about some common story structures you may encounter while researching storytelling techniques.
Three Craft Reads For Revising Your Story

Three Craft Reads For Revising Your Story

Fallon ClarkSep 29, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes Mastering story edits isn’t easy, but there are a few books I’ve recommended to my clients repeatedly to assist them during edits, and these are also books I use myself when editing my work. The good news: Once you’ve absorbed the material covered in these books, you’ll be able to apply the lessons over and over without really thinking about them. They’ll become second-nature to your writerly process.
Story Is Goal, Motivation, and Conflict

Story Is Goal, Motivation, and Conflict

Fallon ClarkSep 22, 2024
Reading Time: 6 minutes Whether you are looking for a new story idea, developing an existing story, or beta reading a story for another author, identifying the protagonist’s goal, motivations, and conflicts is important to understand the story’s message to readers.

ESSAYS

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will push space travel further than any private mission has before

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will push space travel further than any private mission has before

Chris ImpeySep 6, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutes Polaris Dawn pushes the envelope of civilian space travel in 2024, but at what cost?
Studying lake deposits in Idaho could give scientists insight into ancient traces of life on Mars

Studying lake deposits in Idaho could give scientists insight into ancient traces of life on Mars

Robert PatalanoJul 19, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes While NASA researchers are directly combing the surface of Mars for signs of life, scientists are also using a site here on Earth to approximate ancient environmental conditions on Mars.
ChatGPT and the movie ‘Her’ are just the latest example of the ‘sci-fi feedback loop’

ChatGPT and the movie ‘Her’ are just the latest example of the ‘sci-fi feedback loop’

Rizwan VirkJul 12, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutes Science fiction and technological innovation feed off each other in an ongoing back-and-forth that can play out over decades.
Everything a writer needs to know about AI (for now, at least)

Everything a writer needs to know about AI (for now, at least)

Maria KorolovMar 21, 2024
Reading Time: 6 minutes I want to know what’s really going on with AI. And, as a writer and journalist, I have a personal stake in figuring out what’s happening because I have a strong feeling that my whole career is on the line.

NEWS

Fall 2024 Original Fiction Submissions Period Opens October 1!

Fall 2024 Original Fiction Submissions Period Opens October 1!

Geordie MorseSep 20, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes The fall 2024 submission cycle for original speculative fiction begins on October 1 and closes at midnight on October 31. We’re looking for your best enthralling, imaginative, or bone-chilling original fiction stories, as long as they’re 1,200 words or fewer.
Shadow the Hedgehog, bathed in red light. Image source: Paramount Pictures

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Looks To Fully Embrace Its Video Game Source

Terrence SmithAug 28, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes The trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is taking a darker approach than the previous two films, but still boasts quite a few laughs and Easter eggs for long-time fans of the blue hedgehog.
Hugos awarded, Emily Tesh and Ann Leckie take top honors

Hugos awarded, Emily Tesh and Ann Leckie take top honors

Maria KorolovAug 12, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutes Emith Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory and Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch won this year’s Hugo Awards for best novel and best series.
Sci-fi tractor beam comes closer to reality

Sci-fi tractor beam comes closer to reality

Maria KorolovAug 2, 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes In a breakthrough that sounds like it’s straight out of a science fiction novel, researchers have successfully created a tractor beam using twisting light beams.
Hugo awards votes disqualified

Hugo awards votes disqualified

Maria KorolovJul 23, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Hugo Awards, set to be awarded on August 11, has disqualified nearly ten percent of the votes cast this year due to fraud.
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.

16 best love stories from MetaStellar

Benji BlackwellMay 8, 2024
Reading Time: 8 minutes Dive into 16 enchanting tales of love that transcend time, space, and even the boundaries of reality, plucked right from the pages of MetaStellar.
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 […]

ON WRITING

How creatives can survive AI — lessons from a $1 trillion industry that’s fully at risk

How creatives can survive AI — lessons from a $1 trillion industry that’s fully at risk

Maria KorolovMar 30, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutes There’s a $1 trillion industry that is about to be decimated by AI, and they’re spending billions to figure out how to survive. Any writer, artist, or editor can use their strategies.
Why Adobe Firefly is the only AI image app I recommend — and how to use the latest features

Why Adobe Firefly is the only AI image app I recommend — and how to use the latest features

Maria KorolovMar 28, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutes Adobe Firefly, which is only trained on fully licensed images and pays artists, has added some new features that make it even easier for authors to create illustrations.
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.