Traveler
Reading Time: 25 minutesVera and Sorrow thought they were going to the Facing Cities to intercept a missive sent by their enemies, the League. What happened next was…unexpected.
In the Shadow of the Lotus Tree
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhat would you give up in order to be young again?
Writing Humanity in the Digital Age
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe best stories live on the edges of movements, as if the authors who pen them take up silent calls to action and then rally their readerly troops for battle.
Act of God Review: One Man’s Journey to Save Humanity
Reading Time: 4 minutesJan Byron Strogh’s novel Act of God presents a simple premise: What will happen when Earth becomes inhabitable? In the novel, the apocalypse comes in the form of ice spreading from the poles towards the rest of the world. And because ice has frozen all fertile land, humanity now faces not only extreme climate change,
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 31, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an epic fantasy by a USA Today bestselling author, a box set about post-apocalyptic survival, and a college for monster hunters.
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Schrödinger’s Dilemma
Reading Time: 4 minutesA man receives a mysterious puzzle box with no sender, igniting an existential journey into the nature of self and reality. As obsession consumes him, the box reveals an impossible and horrifying truth—one that will shatter his reality and unlock his own doom.
When It Found Us
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhile returning from a nearby lake on a camping trip, a couple discovers their camp trashed—with a strange sparkling substance coating everything—and are forced to run when something unnatural gives chase.
At a higher dose, love
Reading Time: 13 minutesIs human photosynthesis the future we need to avert climate change?
This Place Will Be the Death of Us
Reading Time: 14 minutesA group of therapists are attacked by their own building. They must rely on a drug-induced second sight to survive.
Line Edit Like a Pro (Here’s How)
Reading Time: 6 minutesLine editors look at the structure of your writing, including your meaning, syntax, concision, and word choices. Pull it off like a pro this way.
5 Vampire Novels to Read After Watching Nosferatu
Reading Time: 5 minutesDid you recently watch Nosferatu and were left wanting more vampire content? So did we. That’s why we scoured the internet for novels featuring vampires. We have curated a short list of books that caught our eye, and maybe these will also appeal to you. Happy reading! The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 24, 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list is all magical — magical romances, magical mysteries, and magical academies.
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The Wager
Reading Time: 17 minutesAfter a supernatural entity kidnaps their unborn child from the womb, a young New Orleans couple seeks help from a Choctaw conjuror to get him back.
A Kindness, A Cruelty
Reading Time: 4 minutes“The arrow is easy,” Elspeth said. “If it is a kindness, it is only in comparison to a cruelty.”
Unsticking a Stuck Manuscript
Reading Time: 5 minutesFacing a stuck manuscript and unsure how you’re going to unstick the story and finish?
Nosferatu Is a Homage to Classic Horror Movies, Not Just to F. W. Murnau’s Version
Reading Time: 3 minutesRobert Eggers directed the most recent adaptation of Nosferatu, which is a frankly cynically plagiarized version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But that’s a story for another day (and a really fun one). In terms of plot, not much differs from F. W. Murnau’s 1922 version: a centuries-old vampire living in a remote castle somewhere in
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 17, 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes apocalypses, witches, and romantasy from a USA Today bestselling author.
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Slip
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe plan failed, or I wouldn’t be here assisting a paramedic as he straps my corpse onto a gurney. Confusing? Yeah. Try being me.
Life In 2050
Reading Time: 32 minutesThis novel is a pastiche of the classic novel by George Orwell 1984.
Generate Story Ideas with Tarot (Here’s How)
Reading Time: 6 minutesTarot cards offer powerful ways for creative people to generate story ideas and work through storytelling issues, including character development and problem-solving challenges.
Best Speculative Fiction Books Read in 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutesAnother year has come and gone, and I thankfully never had reader’s block. I even surprised myself by out-reading my own reading challenge. From yours truly, here are the best speculative fiction books I read in 2024 in no particular order. Disclaimer: Most of these were not published in 2024. Ansibles, perfiladores y otras máquinas
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 10, 2025
Reading Time: 11 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a magical hairless cat, a serial killer on the loose in a steampunk London, a telepathic monkey on a distant planet, and a girl who is admitted to a magic academy despite the fact that she has no obvious magic.
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All In The Game
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn a battle-ridden world, lives are spent like currency, and one soldier tries to understand what happened to his comrade.
The Rarest of Contraband
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe best thing about running the ship’s laundry was the many nooks and crannies to hide contraband. I had powder, of course, and weapons, the bread and butter of any smuggling outfit. But a month ago things changed when the hyperdrive malfunctioned.
Gods and Monsters Installment 45: Love Without Compromise
Reading Time: 5 minutesHe will miss the fog and the light on the Bay. But he hungers for the solace of the Redwoods’ towering shadows. He needs to hear waves break endlessly on wild rocky shores.
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Imaginary Children
Reading Time: 24 minutesA lonely, powerful woman takes part in a risky experiment that allows her to see visions of the children she could conceive with certain men—strangers whom she would find deeply attractive. She becomes obsessed with finding a man who is triggering visions of one child in particular.
Add a Writing Ritual to Your Routine
Reading Time: 5 minutesRecognizing opportunities to introduce rituals and modify our routines for the better can help us create writing habits that stick.
Our Share of Night Review: Horror, Legacy, and Everything in Between
Reading Time: 3 minutesMariana Enriquez is mostly known for her short narrative. We included her in a little list to keep spreading the Halloween cheer last year. Our Share of Night, for its part, is a big, chunky girl. It is also Enriquez’s most ambitious novel to date that keeps her style intact and introduces more horrors and
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 3, 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a human discovering a long-lost Earth, elves and vampires, time-travel romance, and a solar flare that could destroy humanity.
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From an Ixil, To a Gringo
Reading Time: 4 minutes“Juana has stopped ageing,” the village elder tells Theo as they step towards the distant shack. “She ceased about five years ago. Said she couldn’t grow any older without dying. And if Juana dies, there’s no telling what Edna might do.”
The End Is Nigh: Gods and Monsters in Retrospect
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe release of the final installment of Gods and Monsters is only a week away, so we now invite you to look back on the story and hear from King herself about what the writing and publication process has been like for this unique and thrilling novel.
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Red Jenny and the Pirates of Buffalo
Reading Time: 25 minutesIt is a time our children will know better. The sloth and frivolousness we wallowed in has left them a world with new players in different positions, where the spotlight has shifted and those that were once proud are now desperate. In this new world, the North American center of political and economic power has moved up above the 49th Parallel, and the relationship between the old and new superpowers is not as warm as it had been before.
Winter Is For Writing
Reading Time: 6 minutesIf during this time of year you’re thinking, “I need something to do,” January is the perfect time to stop wandering, set goals, and adopt new writing habits.
Snow White and the Huntsman: The Power of Gesture
Reading Time: 2 minutesA look at the power of gesture in establishing resonance and character evoked through the interplay of acting, scriptwriting and direction with brilliantly woven callback scenes as the heroine Snow White shows maternal grace to her nemesis Ravenna. Snow White protects herself, heart and kingdom, while holding on to the grace of who she truly is, relating with love and innocence even at the end of a tough battle with a selfish antagonist.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 27, 2024
Reading Time: 13 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list is all romantasy with two USA Today bestselling authors.
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Gods and Monsters Installment 44: Premonitions of Endings
Reading Time: 5 minutes“Tarantulas are loners, like you,” says Ryo, resting a weightless hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “I was a loner too. Perhaps if I had it to do over… But that’s foolish talk. I don’t, I can’t. I don’t know if you can, but…”
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Company Man
Reading Time: 3 minutesSam was a company man. He was exactly what the company needed and what the company wanted. That is what made him so disturbing.
Writing Fiction Scenes that Work
Reading Time: 5 minutesWorried about lackluster scenes? Something feeling broken in your story? Return to basics and think through what a scene is and what it can and should do for your story.
The Werecleaner Review: Werewolves Against Capitalism
Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of this year’s surprises is The Werecleaner. You play as Kyle, a janitor at a corporate company. But — you’re actually a werewolf!
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 20, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list has dinosaurs, warlocks and vampires, and a time travel romance by a New York Times bestselling author.
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Tuning
Reading Time: 11 minutesA mother who is frustrated with her teenage daughter comes across a magical object that can repair items. She wonders what effect the object might have if she used it on her daughter.
Let the Salt Decide
Reading Time: 4 minutesZeke looked out a kitchen window, into his backyard. Waves crested and lapped the shore, leaving salt-soaked artifacts in their wake. The sea always has a say.
Gods and Monsters Installment 43: Predator and Prey
Reading Time: 8 minutesRiver enters Bert’s. In spite of himself, his heart leaps at the sight of Pam. He wants his heart to be stone. He wants never to have met her. But wishes are overrun by desire. Love triumphs over fear.
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Mothermind
Reading Time: 12 minutesAmong war’s victims are the soldiers and those who care for them. Nothing in our shared future will change that, though some of the details will be new. What will be the reality for cloned soldiers?
4 Magical Must-Haves for Fantasy Stories
Reading Time: 6 minutesInclude these four elements in your story to fit it within the fantasy genre and reach your intended fantasy readers.
After Yang: The Case for Slow-Moving Sci-Fi in a Superhero-Dominated World
Reading Time: 3 minutesSuperhero movies are no doubt the largest science fiction movies that are being released at this time, but I long for films that give the audience to sit, think and reflect. Kogonada’s After Yang gives viewers that opportunity. It’s a gem of slow moving science fiction that we desperately need more of in today’s short form dominated world.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 13, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes epic fantasy, cozy fantasy, dark fantasy — and an EMP attack against Ohio.
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