iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Aw, thank you so much! Yes, that’s me—robots and weird apocalypses, my favorite niche 😁

Reposted by E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥

Apex Magazine and Book Company @apexmag.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The third tale of ECO25: THE YEAR'S BEST SPECULATIVE ECOFICTION 🌎💡🌱 Read "Lolo's Last Run" by @emkerkman.bsky.social ⛰️ alongside 23 stellar tales of climate fiction, solarpunk, New Weird, and ecohorror 🌟 🌳🍎 Preorders for ECO25 are open now! www.apexbookcompany.com/products/eco...

"Lolo's Last Run"
E.M. Kerkman
"I know Jome Hill-Moses is in the crevasse before I look in it -- and as soon as I do, I don't need to reach the bottom to know he's dead."
Preorder ECO25: the Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction today at www.apexbookcompany.com

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Hey, that’s me! Lolo’s Last Run will be available in print in ECO25 on Nov 17th, 2026!! It was also a finalist for @asimovssfmag.bsky.social’s reader’s choice awards! So so honored to have been chosen for this anthology alongside such excellent writers. I can’t wait to read the whole thing!!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

of all the people I could think of to write this book, you’re up at the top of the list!! I can’t wait to read it!!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

More exciting news! I am officially a nominee for this year’s Astounding Award! Read more about it here: astoundingaward.info #astoundingaward #writingcommunity #sciencefiction

astoundingaward.info

Astounding Award for Best New Writer

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

ALPHA was one of the most influential workshops I attended as a teenager that helped form me into the writer I am today! If anyone knows/mentors young spec fic writers, please encourage them to apply!

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Alpha Writers Workshop @alphaworkshop.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Here is a beautiful flyer our lovely publicity people (it was me) made for applications this year! It’s so cool and easy to print out and post in libraries or send to your friends wow!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Hi everyone! Sorry for the radio silence—I’m back with exciting news! This year, I am once again First Runner-Up for the Must Read Books (formerly Dell) Award, for my short story KINESIS. I will be at ICFA in Orlando again this year, and hope to see some familiar faces there! #MustReadBooksAward

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Hey look, it’s me holding up a copy of my story in this month’s issue of @asimovssfmag.bsky.social! My first publication ever available in a brick and mortar store, too! Check my blog/newsletter for more info :)

A photo of author E.M. Kerkman holding a copy of Asimov’s Magazine issue 48 open to page 146, standing in front of her local Barnes and noble.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

#SFFChat Sept 6: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding! It was one of the first books I ever read that had morally complex characters who were equal parts interesting, dislikable, and compelling. My own writing is influenced by his characterization to this day.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

#SFFChat Sept. 5: all of my characters go through some sort of transformation within the book, but I’d say the biggest is Callum. He goes from an angry, self-isolating person to someone who can handle his grief and is actively working on healing relationships he previously damaged.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

#SFFChat A4: here’s the opening page of De Terra Ad Infinitum!

01.
Inside the cockpit of a Roseway U-07 Firebird, Alexia Terranova flipped through the pages of a handwritten preflight checklist with a scowl on her face. On the dashboard of the single-seater aircraft, the vernier thruster light was still dark. Her in-air stabilizers were offline. Meaning, while she could steer, it wouldn’t be easy. Or fast.
At the moment, she really needed easy. And fast.
“Thirty seconds to drop!” the race referee announced over the tinny PA system in the hangar outside. Between the guttural rumble of her barely-legal engine and the thick shell of windglass around the cockpit, Terrah almost couldn’t understand him.
“Terrah, you need to pull out,” a voice instructed her, and Terrah turned down the volume on her headset.
“Not a chance, Rosie.” Terrah reread the ‘Thrusters’ page again in case she’d missed something the first three times. “I can still fly.”
“Yeah, and crash. Of all the races for you to be overconfident in, the Spire is not—”
“Fifteen seconds to drop!” the referee shouted.
“Terrah—”
“Auxiliary fuel pump off,” Terrah replied. “Flight controls, free and correct. Instruments, comms, gauges, lights, and docking gear, all checked. Altimeter is set, directional gyro is set, trim is set. Main engine, on. Auxiliary engine, on. Main thrusters, on. Vernier thrusters, not on, but we can work with that. Harness is fastened, rescue float is in here somewhere—”
“If you crash my fucking plane, I’m taking what you owe me out of Leo’s estate,” Rosie grumbled.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

#SFFChat A3: my first professionally published short story came out on 9/2 with Apex Magazine! I have another one out with Asimov’s this month as well. One of my life goals as a writer was to have a piece published in one of the Big SF Mags, and to have *two* in one month is a dream come true.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

#SFFChat A2: Terrah’s goals and aspirations in life have gone from more self-centric dreams to dreams that support the family she’s found/built. In the book, she has to learn to be selfish again—because she can’t help anyone else if she doesn’t help herself first.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

#SFFchat A1: aside from my usual plethora of short stories, my current project is De Terra Ad Infinitum, a dieselpunk alt-earth sci-fi novel about illegal plane racing, flying cities in an apocalyptic world, government conspiracies, and the unavoidably cyclical nature of human history!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Oh this is so cool! I’m totally going to do this—I’ll make a thread and then backdate the first few posts :) what a fun idea!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Also also, as a fun little extra, a friend of mine did fan art for Black Gold a while back—here’s her interpretation of the MC! (Also, please go support her art if you like what you see! You can find her on KoFi here: ko-fi.com/cat_psychic)

A drawing of the main character in my most recently published short story, dressed like a cowboy with robot parts visible through the costume, over a simple blue and tan background

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Reposted by E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥

Apex Magazine and Book Company @apexmag.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

The Apex Magazine team is thrilled to announce that our Kickstarter for 2026 begins OCTOBER 1ST!! 🎃🍁 We're keeping all the rewards you love, adding exciting new rewards for readers and writers alike, AND reopening submissions! Mark your calendars, and we'll see you at the graveyard smash! 👻🌙🐈‍⬛📅

"Apex Magazine Submissions OPENING! October 1st!"

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Black Gold is out today!! I’m so excited for everyone to get to read it—thank you to Apex Magazine for making that possible!

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#SFPit @scifipit.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Dear friends, writers, #agents, interstellar travelers, interdimensional aliens, and otherwise paradoxical time hoppers! We would like to invite you to set your favorite time-traveling device to October 21st, 2025, for the pitch event dedicated to Science Fiction, #SFPit! 🧵

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Mountain biking! Hilariously, I’ve come full circle and now coach for the team I raced for back in high school. The cycling world is very small 😂

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Hi #weeknightwriters! I coach a HS sports team this time on Thursdays so alas I can only pop in right at the end—I have two upcoming short story publications! One is Black Gold, out with Apex Magazine on 9/2. My other, Lolo’s Last Run, is currently out in the Sept/Oct edition of Asimov’s!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

hi y’all!! I’m absolutely blown away by all the amazing #PosterPit posters, and the love you’ve shown my projects #PlanesWIP and #PiratesWIP! I’ll introduce myself properly for all the new folks soon, but for now I just want to thank y’all 🥹 what a wonderful #WritingCommunity

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Unfortunately not yet! There was an old, old version of it once available on Amazon, but I pulled the series from all platforms to rewrite it and query it traditionally. Fingers crossed it’ll be published sometime soon!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

#PosterPit #W #SF #SPF #A #NA #PlanesWIP Racing planes for a living, and newly accepted to the airforce academy, Terrah's living the dream when disaster strikes. Explosions on a flying city always mean trouble. Especially when you live under it.

Text on poster: "De Terra Ad Infinitum: A new adult science fiction novel by award winning author E.M. Kerkman. One central mystery, Two worlds colliding, Three narrative POVs. Terrah always knew she would fly. She never expected to fall." Along the side, the repeating text reads "Omnes aequales sub astris. Pax diu". The background image is a real photograph of a North Vietnamese MiG-17 aircraft being hit by 20 mm rounds from an Air Force F-105D on June 3, 1967. Photo credits: USAF via National Archives

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Sammy Holden @holdencreates.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

WARCROSS x ONE OF US IS LYING DEADLY ARCHETYPES is a fast paced, grounded YA sci-fi that features: - a high-tech, high stakes VR competition game - an unlikely group of allies - the ticking clock of a mind control glitch - hero x villain archetypes #PosterPit #AG #SF #YA

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

#PosterPit #W #NA #F #R #PiratesWIP During her world tour, Captain Holloway is captured by pirates. After encountering an assassination plot, a magical curse, an unlikely romance, and an imminent war, she finally takes a side. The wrong side. It's all Captain Falcon's fault.

The text in the image reads: "Magic, mutiny, romance, and a six-month deadline. What could possibly go wrong?" "Dual POVs, sentient oceans, vengeful ghosts, magical curses, enemies to lovers, and lovers to enemies." "He has a curse to break. She has everything to prove." "Sail By Dawn, a new-adult fantasy novel by award winning author E. M. Kerkman." The background image is of a sailing ship on a stormy sea with dawn light shining from behind it. It is a paining titled "Bird of Dawn" by Montague Dawson.

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Emilia Young | Author @emiliayoung.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

📖🐦‍⬛Mark of a Magpie🐦‍⬛📖 When a small-town thief crosses paths with the kingdom’s big-shot assassin, an unlikely partnership is born; but can their goals align before their egos and secrets land them both a spot on the gallows? #PosterPit #PosterPitOS #PosterPitA #AG #OS #A #F #R #DIS #onsub #editors

*Art by Shibushio on fiverr*

The image shows a fake movie poster for the book "Mark of a Magpie"

Text in the image reads: Mark of a Magpie, An adult fantasy by Emilia Young, On submission next week, Thief x Assassin, Forced Proximity, Morally Gray, Women's Wrongs

Behind the text are two characters leaning over the side of a ship with beautiful skies in the background. The first character is a women, Ryn, who has brown hair in two braids, wearing leather armguards and a tunic, watching the land pass. The second character is a man, Seven, who has black hair and is wearing a tunic with a black turtleneck beneath it. He's watching Ryn with a small smile on his face.

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Jacob Foster (Querying) @fosterja8.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

IDLE OF A PSYCHOPOMP How far would you go to make sure your loved ones survive? For a retired explorer, that burning question never ceases to exist. When he overhears a rumour about a mysterious forest, he ventures back into the wild, desperation overwhelming every other emotion. #PosterPit #Q #T #A

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Jadyn @jaystraigis.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

🌊OF GEMSTONES AND DIVINITY🌊 Kiana robs the wealthy to give to those in need. Emeralda left her noble life behind to be a seafaring vigilante. The unlikely duo must cooperate long enough to take down a bloodthirsty pirate. They get along better than they expected. ~96k #QueerPit #NA #F #FR #HF

A mock search bar with search suggestions, there is a picture of a crashing wave in the background. The search bar says 'Of Gemstones and Divinity', the search suggestions are:
Second world historical fantasy, sapphic rivals to lovers slow burn, pirates and sea adventures, self discover, rebelling against the government, all women pirate crew, duels and banter

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T 🐀 @tessaswck.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Think: A forest that gives birth. The paper-thin layer of skin between life and death. The sacrifices we make to ensure our lineage. Pairs well with: sandalwood, cedar, bonfire, freshly laid mulch, and pinot noir. #HuntingSeason #PosterPit #PosterPitA #AG #H #LIT #SPF

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Shida Ketzer (follows back all fiction writers) @wisteraverse.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

🗡️Murdered in cold blood &resurrected through forbidden powers, Quill becomes a legendary assassin. 🥷When her latest mission sparks the higher power’s wrath, Quill must avenge the death of her people and her own murder. 💀Failure will cost more than just her life.🪶 #PosterPit #P #F 🪐📚 📚💙 🌈📚

“This world, my dear, is the slaughterhouse of noble ideals.”

Color Magic
Fantasy Heist
No Romance!
Epic Fight Scenes
Feral Feminine Rage
Touch Her & You'll Die

Title: Killer Quill

Coming
Sept. 25
2025
Wisteraverse.com

Author: Shida Ketzer

Guaranteed
NO
Romance

Color composition: Saturated red, black, & white.
Figure: Quill's image holding a dagger and a quill wafting tenrils of black magic

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Jessica DeLand - Author (WAKE Coming Feb 2027) @delandjessica.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

A CURSE SO DARK & LONELY X THE INHERITANCE GAMES When a ballerina is kidnapped by fantasy fugitives desperate to recover their leader’s magic trapped inside her, she unearths their secrets to facilitate freedom, but bonds w/ them & falls for 1 instead #PosterPit #Q #YA #F #M #R #FT

Pretend movie poster for #Posterpit featuring an image of a dark forest in the background with the silhouette of a ballerina's legs en pointe in front with rope tying the ankles together. Ice is creeping in from the bottom, purple swirls of magic are by the legs, and a giant feather is on the ground beneath the feet. Words at the top read, "Mental health rep," "Slow burn," "Found family," "Forced proximity." The top center reads, "One kidnapped ballerina, Four fantasy fugitives, And her quest to escape" next to a badge reading, "Killer Nashville Claymore Finalist." Center reads, "Jessica DeLand's Wake" centered between words reading "A Curse So Dark and Lonely" and "The Inheritance Games," both bracketed separately by feathers. Bottom reads, "YA Contemporary Fantasy, AAPI/ADHD Writer, 26 Full Requests, 4 Previous Offers of Publication, Querying Now."

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

#PosterPit #W #SF #SPF #A #NA #PlanesWIP On the floating city she calls home, Terrah just wants to race planes and join the air force to make a better future for her family. Then things start exploding.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

YES!! So excited to see these moodboards out in the world :3

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Jadyn @jaystraigis.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

⚔️OF GEMSTONES AND DIVINITY⚔️ An honorable thief and a noblewoman vigilante must work together to end a pirate’s reign of terror. 🌊 ~96k 🌊 Slow burn rivals to lovers 🌊 Second world historical fantasy 🌊 Pirates and sea adventures 🌊 Rebellion and self discovery #Queerpit #NA #F #FR #HF

A mood board for the aesthetics of my novel, Of Gemstones and Divinity. There are nine pictures in a grid, all are warm toned.
Upper left: a map, candle, scroll, and coins on a wooden table.
Upper middle: pirate ship on the sea in front of the horizon.
Upper right: a spyglass overtop of some maps.
Center left: close up of a pile of coins and glass bottles lying on sand.
Center middle: two women laying together in a nondescript setting, both appear contemplative.
Center right: an overflowing treasure chest sitting on sand, a spyglass and seashells are nearby.
Bottom left: the deck of a ship, facing the door that leads below deck and the stairs that lead to the helm.
Bottom middle: black boots stepping toward the camera.
Bottom right: the deck of a ship, facing the corridor area between the cabin and taffrail.

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Amara Cavahlo @amaracavahlo.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

IRON WIDOW x THE CLONE WARS When her squadmate is murdered, Ahrin will risk anything for revenge, even her chance at knighthood. But this murder is the key to a tangle of secrets spanning star systems and centuries: ‘anything’ is a much higher price than she could imagine. #QueerPit #SF #YA

Illustration of a longsword silhouetted by a glowing green symbol of three concentric ovals. Title: "Odyssey's Wake", YA sci-fi by Amara Cavahlo

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Jeannie (Jay) Marschall 🍇🫐🍏🍋🍊🍓 @jeanniemarschall.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

THE BUTCHER OF THE FOREST❌UNDEAD FOLK What is an aging witch to do when two newcomers upend the age-old agreements between her world and the Other People? Well, there's magic to turn to, the forest, your community ...and your dead wife, of course. #A #F #H #MYTH #N #QueerPit

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Christina Adrian @christiemadrian.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

When an accident turns Chess into a reaper, she must learn to control her power, manage a ghost dog with boundary issues, help her ex-friend's spirit, try not to fall for her annoying Grim, & save the thin veil between the living & the dead all before her chem test on Friday. #QueerPit #YA #SN #F

Four pictures of a girl dressed in black in various poses and expressions. The last at the bottom shows her with a skeleton dressed in a black hooded cloak with a scythe.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Alas I will not be doing #Queerpit this year (I do not have a finished manuscript, oops) but if you are drop a like so I can support your pitches!! And best of luck to all of you! #WritingCommmunity

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

That’s so good to hear! I was doing the same at their age, best of luck to them going forward. I always find young authors to have the most unique and original ideas!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Alright team, I am all geared up and mostly ready to go for #PosterPit this weekend! If you’re also participating, drop a like or comment and I’ll be sure to check out your posts!! #WritingCommmunity

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 12/08/2025

Just saw someone repost this so I thought I'd resurface it for everyone. It's still relevant.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

ugh it’s the worst, isn’t it? I have asthma so walking around outside in the bad air is doubly annoying. I keep hoping for rain to come tamp it down but alas

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

A2: My LDP flew out to see me this week! We’ve been planning this trip all summer and it’s been great spending time together. I feel bad all of my social media marketing events are happening while he’s here, but he doesn’t mind (I bought him a copy of murderbot vol. 1 as an apology; he loves it!)

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Current status: footsore from trekking around Chicago all week and really, really tired of the Canadian wildfire smoke. Us midwesterners barely get any summer heat as it is, and I want to be outside writing!! A minor complaint in the grand scheme of things but still.

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Biopunk retrofuturism?? sounds right up my alley!

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E.M. Kerkman | 🏴‍☠️☠️🔥 @emkerkman.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Hello #WeeknightWriters! This week I’ve finished organizing all of my short fiction in a spreadsheet to help prioritize my revisions, and hacked out a few more words of Planes WIP, my new adult (ish) dieselpunk sci-fi novel about airplane racing, conspiracy theories, and disastrous bisexuals ✌️

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