iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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AlexHarford-TechSEO @alexharfordseo.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Each paragraph is quotable, so the best thing is to click and read. "The best possible outcome from this summer of hype is that policymakers and the public at large learn to take a breath, hold onto our skepticism, and recognize this kind of hype for what it is the next time it comes around."

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Publishers: “Short stories don’t sell and are impossible to market so we are not going to take the risk of publishing them.” Also publishers: “What can we publish to fit this era of reduced attention spans when people are reading fewer novels?”

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Between the PRs of (largely likely stolen) math breakthroughs, claims of "rogue AI" (actually cybercrimes by companies, but whatevs), and doomerist "whistleblowers", it feels like we've been subjected to a gish gallop of hype recently. >>

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The sheer quality of Amazon's customer service. 🫠 Nearly hit by a delivery driver's van that mounted the pavement and customer service apologise "for any inconvenience caused," a phrase that often gets my goat anyway.

Screenshot of customer chat mentioned in my post

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I'm on BBC Upload tonight, interviewed and reading a poem I started at 4 a.m. on Tuesday. It's broadcast across BBC West Midlands radio including Radio Stoke. Inspiration: wildfires, parched grass at local parkrun The Wammy. I was glad to show my disdain for billionaire tech bros on the radio.

Smoke-stylised text of 'Fire, Fire on the moor, who is the fairest of them all?' overlaid on a blurred smoky fiery background

A white guy with shoulder-length blond hair with text 'BBC: I'm getting featured on Upload'

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

My friend Jake is offering great value flash fiction critiques to help with medical bills. His crits are up there with the best I've had. Please pass on to anyone who might be interested! #FlashFiction #WritingCommunity www.fiverr.com/jscoetzee/he...

fiverr.com

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

fiverr.com

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

So-called A.I. may be the asbestos of the 21st Century. Imagine all the future work to remove the harms it's causing. Any specfic short story (preferably flash) recommendations on the topic? It's a while since I read "The Man in Asbestos," but it describes much of the world and A.I. right now.

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

One of my favourite flash fictions I've read this year, and it's always good to see stories written for themed calls selling elsewhere.

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Dr Keith 🎃 Wilson @keithwilson.eu · 23/07/2026

Any news report that starts “OpenAI says…” or claims “an AI” (sic) has “broken containment” or “gone rogue” is no longer doing journalism, but PR for the #AI industry. #OpenAI used their product to hack a third-party and failed to implement adequate safeguards. That’s it. That’s the story. #AIHype

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

When people ask me what the phrase "artificial intelligence" means, my short answer is, it means "venture capitalists, give me some money". But OUP asked me for a longer answer, given here and summarized in the section headings: doi.org/10.1093/9780...

Screencap of page for linked article, reading:

Contents
Introduction
AI Is a Research Field
AI Is an Approach to Cognitive Science
AI Is a Parlor Trick
AI Is an Ideology
AI Is a Way to Hide and Devalue Human Labor
AI Is a Way to Shift Accountability
AI Is a Way to Centralize Power
Conclusion
Notes

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Ignyte Award-Nominated Writer/Editor LP Kindred @lpkindred.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Just a heads up! @khoreo.bsky.social is 5 days from the end of their kickstarter and the mag hasn't funded. L pointed out last month that if we want nice things, we have to communicate that via dollars. Let's retain this important magazine! khōréō Year 6 www.kickstarter.com/projects/kho...

kickstarter.com

khōréō: Year 6

Help us sustain and grow an award-winning magazine of speculative fiction and migration!

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

The Internet has largely been great for my fiction research. From scans of medieval documents to reports on how far wind turbines can fly if they break off, even detailing how likely they are to kill someone (horror genre)! The past week, "A.I." slop both written and image make things difficult.

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Window = "wind's eye" from Old Norse. I love that. Health-wise, I'm always on about "break fast" to help show fasting is something our ancestors did in relation to how such fasting can help our health today.

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E.M. Faulds / Beth or Taxes / Not em faulds @emfaulds.com · 18/04/2026

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...

docs.google.com

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...

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Reckoning @reckoningmag.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

IT WAS PARADISE, our long-awaited special issue on war and conflict in environmental justice, is out today in ebook form, and the print edition is up for preorder! Edited by @soniasulaiman.bsky.social and with (terrifying) war monster art by @monarobot.bsky.social! reckoning.press/it-was-parad...

Cover for RECKONING: IT WAS PARADISE, featuring an illustration by Moníca Robles Corzo of a monstrous face with multiple sets of curving horns, exposed brain matter, serpents encircling and gorging the eyes, two sets of fanged mouths, and a warhead emerging in place of a tongue.

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Flash fiction deserves more love at the Hugo and Nebula Awards. "Eight Legs of the Mother Hunted" by @brandoncase101.bsky.social hooked me and didn't let go. Intense and gut-wrenching. It hit home especially as our mum fought to keep a roof over the heads of my brother and I when we were kids.

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

All of this - a brilliant article about "A.I." and language.

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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 15/12/2025

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

A couple of stunning highlights from a trip to Argentina earlier this year. The "secret waterfall" near El Chaltén, which I passed on my third day of hiking and camping the Fitz Roy Loop. Mirador El Ventisquero in the Quebrada de las Flechas, driving RN40 from Cachi to Cafayate in Salta Province.

In the background, grey sky and pointy grey peaks with snow cover surrounding them. The foreground is a mix of autumn foliage, rocks, and the long-exposure flow of the waterfall.

A car drives a light-coloured gravel road surrounded by beige-coloured rock pinnacles

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Jason Sanford @jasonsanford.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

This column on Vox is the biggest pile of steaming AI crap I've seen this year. Human's aren't running out of ideas. Instead, those with power and money don't want to listen to ideas that threaten their power and money. Ideas are plentiful. Putting those ideas into action is the hard part.

vox.com

We’re running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones.

What if the best use of AI is restarting the world’s idea machine?

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P.A. Cornell (She/Her) @cornellwriter.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Nebula nominations are open. It would mean a lot if you’d consider “Through the Machine.” Published in Lightspeed and featured by Gizmodo, it’s a cautionary tale of AI in the arts, using the film industry as example. Thank you for your consideration. www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/thro...

lightspeedmagazine.com

Through the Machine - Lightspeed Magazine

“Steve, over here! Turn to your right. Can we get a smile?” He falls back on his training easily enough, turns to the cameras, gives them his famous crooked smile, tilts his head just so as the flashe...

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Google AI Overviews hallucinating as usual. I won't let it poo-poo my sci-fi short story ideas. 🙃

Screenshot of Google search for [Bacon grease lubricate black hole] with AI Overview: The concept of 'lubricating' a black hole with bacon grease is a nonsensical idea based on a fundamental misunderstanding of black holes.'

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Maria Haskins @mariahaskins.com · 30/09/2025

Strange Horizons turns 25 this year, which is pretty much an eternity in the world of spec fic zines, and I had the privilege of going through the archives for a special short fiction roundup: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

strangehorizons.com

A Short Fiction Treasures Special: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives

Going through the archives of Strange Horizons for this special column has been a bit like exploring a treasure chamber. I’ve picked fifty stories. I could have picked hundreds. Meaning: I left a l…

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Lesley Conner @lesleyconner.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

The Apex Magazine 2026 Kickstarter is LIVE! Our initial goal is $20K to fund four issues for next year, with the opportunity to unlock issues five and six through stretch goals. I really, really want to go back to six issues a year! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

I knew about the moral rights contract issues with Analog magazine et al, and this newsletter is a very insightful read on contracts for a budding pro author like me. All that and more! I agree on the "AI" aspects too.

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E.M. Faulds / Beth or Taxes / Not em faulds @emfaulds.com · 28/08/2025

Hello, yes please! "Love, Scotland" is getting a beauty of a home. 🤩

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Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Today’s poem is called ‘How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail’.

How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail

I would rather
eat Quavers that are six weeks stale,
blow dry the man bun of Gareth Bale,
listen to the songs of Jimmy Nail,
than read one page of the Daily Mail.

If I was bored
in a waiting room in Perivale,
on a twelve-hour trip on Network Rail,
halfway through a circumnavigational sail,
I would not read the Daily Mail.

I would happily read
the autobiography of Dan Quayle,
1001 Things You Can Do With Kale,
selected scripts from Emmerdale,
if it meant I didn’t have to read the Daily Mail.

Far better to
stand outside in a storm of hail,
scratch a blackboard with a fingernail,
be swallowed by a humpback whale,
than have to read the Daily Mail.

If I was blind
and it was the only thing in Braille,
I still would not read the Daily Mail.

Brian Bilston

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Andy Dibble @andydibble.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

My Writers of the Future winning story "A Word That Means Everything" is out in @penumbricmag.bsky.social. New achievement for me because it's the first time my work has been first in a ToC!

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Habitats looks lovely, with artwork from Mateusz Urbanowicz, an illustrator from some of my favourite anime (like Your Name). I missed it first time around, so it's Volumes 1 & 2 for me. #ShortStory #FantasyArt

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

A wonderful story and summation of the ableism that exists from the top down in our society and the impact that has.

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Liz J. Bradley🌠 @lizjbradley.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

This is something I’ve had lots of big feelings and thoughts about, so it’s only appropriate that I constrain myself to 100 words for this story. Happy pub day to Gig Economy 🎙️

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

In Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 Episode 49, @ginasue.bsky.social joins @alexhanna.bsky.social & I to take apart the UK government’s “AI Opportunities Action Plan” and discover it’s made up of so much AI magic dust: www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... Thx to @whatulysses.bsky.social for production!

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

I love this article by @emmanewman.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... "Science-fiction writers have the ability to look at big systems and how changing one variable can affect the people who live within them. We bring them to life and help readers to understand..."

theguardian.com

Scientists can help governments plan for the future. But don’t forget sci-fi writers: we can do it too | Emma Newman

Our job is to imagine scenarios from the impact of the climate crisis to the rise of AI – and decision-makers need our help, says Emma Newman

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Renan Bernardo @renanbernardo.com · 19/01/2025

This is one of the most important texts about agency in fiction. I'm always pointing people to it. I think almost every writer and reader in Latin America, and probably anywhere in the "Global South", will frown upon being told to write more active protagonists.

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

What's a funny/intriguing anachronism you read in sci-fi? In The Man in Asbestos, a #ShortStory by Stephen Leacock, everyone wears asbestos suits: "They last hundreds of years. We have one suit each, and there are billions piled up, if anybody wants a new one." #ReadingCommunity #WritingCommunity

blogs.imperial.ac.uk

The Asbestos Story: a tale of public health and politics

An eye-opening account by Professor Sir Tony Newman Taylor on how asbestos has gone from 'magic mineral' to deadly dust that can cause mesothelioma.

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Set in a snowy Irish National Park (with a castle), @jozebwrites.bsky.social's The Wildest Hunt is a great seasonal read. Scary and thrilling for bedtime reading but what the hey. I average less than one novel a year and loved Jo's Waters and the Wild so much that I picked another of her books.

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

My "SpecFic Short Story Writers" Starter Pack is almost at the 150 account maximum if anyone else would like adding? From Nebula/Hugo winners to beginners, you're all welcome. bsky.app/starter-pack... #ShortStory #SpecFic #SFF #WeirdFiction #Fantasy #SciFi #WritingCommunity #StarterPack

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

I won a physical subscription to @onspecmag.bsky.social I love the artwork by James Beveridge and the first story by @julieczerneda.bsky.social I'm looking forward to reading the rest. 😊 #ShortStory #SpecFic

Photo of On Spec Magazine #129, featuring a black and brass whale jumping from the sea

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Al Kennedy @alkennedy.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

We have a properly warped perception of how much various sectors contribute to the UK economy. The fishing industry, which is constantly in the news and to whom politicians of all rosettes regularly play, adds less to GDP than Games Workshop

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Kai Delmas @kaidelmas.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Another giveaway!!! 🙌🙌🙌 Win a free coaching session focused on flash fiction. If I get at least 10 participants I'll throw in a flash critique for a second winner. To participate in the giveaway: like, comment, and repost. Winners announced on Wednesday. www.kaidelmas.com/editing-serv...

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Introduce yourself with: One book (fiction) — Writers of the Future Volume 38 One book (non-fiction) — Life Lessons From the Amazon by Pip Stewart One film — Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind One album — The Decline of British Sea Power by Sea Power One TV show — Father Ted #NewToBlueSky

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Danny Cherry Jr (twitter/Insta/tiktok: @Deecherrywriter) @deecherrywriter.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Found this "quiet poster" feed for those of you who want me off their TL from time to time: bsky.app/profile/did:...

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Lindz McLeod - THE MISEDUCATION OF CAROLINE BINGLEY is out now! @lindzmcleod.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

In honour of the fact that the end of the year is fast approaching, I'm thinking of doing a special 12 Days of Christmas giveaway in December (some books, some query critiques etc). Would anyone else be interested in donating something—a book, their time, their expertise in a particular field for a

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Alex Harford @alexharford.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Why do you write fiction? I started because I wanted to create fantasy worlds with positive people. I like to think I can help make the world a better place, in whatever tiny a way, and storytelling with short stories seems a good way to do that. #ShortStory #FictionWriter #WritingCommunity

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