iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

New newsletter featuring two new stories featuring big beasts. The Wild Ones is a nostalgic hopeful story that won the Colombia Journal Prose Prize and the other is a dinosaur story with interview and audio version with the amazing @foofarawpress.bsky.social jaimegill.substack.com/p/do-you-lik...

jaimegill.substack.com

Do you like dinosaurs? Big cats? Lonely teenagers triumphing? Step this way...

Sharing three new stories I’ve had published, some good writing news, and a few shiny things that have caught my eye recently

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I can finally reveal that a flash I am very fond of - a tender queer love story set in the liminal world of airport transit zones - won Santa Clara Review’s “Flash In Bloom” contest. Won’t be out til next year sadly. But look at the pretty picture!

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

My last dive into @fictivedream.bsky.social through @smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge - 2020 this time - and it’s another gorgeous thing but deliciously askew. More stories should be about conversations with weather. And I’m gnashing with envy at that title fictivedream.com/2020/02/03/h...

fictivedream.com

Hurry

by Sheree Shatsky I sit on the couch and watch rain pelt the windows. I didn’t install the hurricane shutters this time around, my experience being any preparation guarantees the big bugger won’t s…

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

And BOOM another from @fictivedream.bsky.social for the @smokelong.bsky.social archive challenge. Nobody said I couldn't name my own so I have. I'm very proud of this short about the end of the world, inspired by a real Mongolian astronomer I spent a day with. fictivedream.com/2025/06/08/i...

fictivedream.com

It’s Not The End Of The World

by Jaime Gill BAYAARA PARKS THE CAR outside the observatory, leans over to his granddaughter, and zips her fur-lined coat tight around her face to protect her from the Mongolian night—a night so co…

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Back on @smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge with glorious @fictivedream.bsky.social. The brilliance of this story is how many hidden fragments of other stories we catch sight of through the brilliant device of "things thrown out". In this micro, novels reside fictivedream.com/2026/07/27/m...

fictivedream.com

Microfiction #67

Things We Threw in the Dumpster by Kathleen McGookey Moldy tuxedo, Kodak slide projector and six spare carousels of slides, boxed-up love letters from his second wife, dated 1979. His falling-apart…

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

So after being waylaid by acute tonsilitis, I am back onto the #archivechallenge with @smokelong.bsky.social - focusing on beauts from @fictivedream.bsky.social archives. My God did I choose the right magazine if I wanted to cry. Just read this: fictivedream.com/2025/02/04/b... (more in comments)

fictivedream.com

Blackhearts

by Beth Sherman AFTER MY FATHER LEFT, my mother would wake at 3 a.m. and blast Joan Jett songs on the stereo. She’d bop around the living room like an awkward teenager, playing air guitar, swinging…

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

One of my favourite stories. Published in one of my favourite magazines. Nominated for one of my favourite "best of" anthologies. "I never dreamt that I would get to be The creature that I always meant to be." PSB, Being Boring. The story and song are both about AIDS and loss. I have themes, okay?

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I’m not a parent. I can’t imagine the anxiety that shadows the joys, how you grow up alongside your children, the tests, the milestones & mistakes, the heartquakes & heartaches. Well I sort of can, which is one reason I am not. But if I couldnt, this sublime, vulnerable, MUST-READ story tells me

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Delighted to have a story in in the unique, wonderful Panorama - a journal about ethical travel mixing reportage and fiction. Falling is about a disintegrating cross-cultural romance, ending with an army of ghosts (or are they?) from my favourite Cambodian myth. panoramajournal.org/issues/issue...

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

And now... back to me. I have a moment to enjoy while it lasts. The incredible @prisminternational.bsky.social have named my fever dream of a story called, um, The Fever, as one of their 9 shortlisted entrants for their Grouse Grind Prize. I dont expect to go further, but my God I'm happy to be here

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Here's @fictivedream.bsky.social treat #2 for my #archivechallenge. I grabbed it at random but that's the thing with Fictive Dream, everything they publish is wonderful. I've not read Louella Lester before but will be fixing this. More on this story in comments. fictivedream.com/2026/06/22/m...

fictivedream.com

Microfiction #62

Closer Than He Thinks by Louella Lester I sway back and forth as the bus pulls to a stop, my pointer finger holding its place in the novel on my lap, and gaze out at the cosy shops lining the stree…

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I'm doing @smokelong.bsky.social's #archivechallenge so I'll be deep mining a publication I love & sharing gems I hack out. I've chosen my adored @fictivedream.bsky.social: first, @emilyrinkema.bsky.social's Murder Hotel. Why should you read it? Check first comment fictivedream.com/2025/01/24/m...

fictivedream.com

Murder Hotel

by Emily Rinkema IT’S MIDNIGHT WHEN we get back to the hotel, the only place with a room available when Steve booked it a week before our niece’s wedding. We’re laughing so hard when we get t…

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I have a few favourite words but today let’s say SCALPEL. Not quite onomatopoeic but that “s”and hard “c”!sounds like slicing and the soft but guttural “pel” sounds like flesh being parted. Or maybe it’s AIR? Maybe air’s the perfect word? Yes actually it is. Ah well, I’ll stick with my first answer

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Rewatching random episodes of Game of Thrones and though the final seasons have problems, Danaerys breaking bad isn’t one of them. They couldnt possibly have done more to foreshadow it. She threatens to burn cities in every other episode!

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Get ready to be bombarded. I've been busy & sick & have a backlog of news. Starting with Superlative - a rare UK based purveyor of excellent but accessible writing - making my story their winner of their inaugural quarterly micro contest. Read right here www.superlativelitjournal.com/quarterly-mi...

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I've 4 stories in this Smokelong celebration, which I'm happy about. SL workshops are often springboards to stories I love, acting much the same as prompted contests - tasks with deadlines, limitations sparking creativity. Though I also write prompted by the weirdest taskmaster of all, my brain.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

“Brilliantly crafted, this thought-provoking story lingers, revealing new layers with repeated readings.” Honoured (and shocked!) my 100-word frozen moment story has come #1 out of 800 in the @newwritersuk.bsky.social contest. (The end may not be what you think) newwriters.org.uk/100-word-202...

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Innsmouth Looksmaxxing @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

RFK says I’ll never write a poem but check this out There once was an old man named Kennedy Who had the most unsettling energy He worked out in jeans While he ate raccoon spleens And had a brainworm as a frenemy

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Heartfelt story about why it means so much that Masters Review published Obedience. I love the story but also… 3 years ago MR saved me from quitting writing. Follow me from sickly child to precocious poet to ruinous alcoholic to -finally- writer. (Thank you for editing @coleameyer.bsky.social!)

open.substack.com

The day I almost quit writing (and how Masters Review saved me)

My queer historical story, "Obedience," is at Masters Review - a publication which saved my lifelong dream of becoming a writer. I'm sharing that dream here, so this one's personal.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I'm delighted for Liz and her new chapbook so I hate to undo all her good work at getting it out into the world, but regrettably I will be one of the readers at the launch.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

My historical story Obedience is out in Masters Review, my attempt to capture the climate of fear, oppression & brutality in New York’s gay bars before the Stonewall uprising. I love Jack, my MC, I’m proud of the story and very grateful to MR for giving it a home mastersreview.com/new-voices-o...

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Thrilled to have had a story accepted into the Flash Flood and to get a chance to be part of this festival of compressed creativity. I have some very talented neighbours on either side of me like @finnwritesstuff.bsky.social and @christyhartman.bsky.social - what an honour to be placed near them.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Very honoured and grateful to @underreviewlit.bsky.social for nominating me for a Pushcart Prize 2026. I love Everyone Has A Plan, my story about love & kickboxing. It's also the story that landed me my first hring as a screenwriter, so I'm even more grateful. www.underreviewlit.com/issue-11-win...

underreviewlit.com

Everyone Has A Plan — The Under Review

“Heng! What are you thinking about?” I open my eyes to find Socheat looming over the sofa where I’m lying, trying to calm and ready myself. There’s always an electric feeling in my chest on fight day...

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M.R. Robinson @mruthrobinson.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

If you have ever emailed a writer to let them know you enjoyed something they wrote, you are among the noblest and best and most saintly in this entire world, and I hope you sleep really well tonight.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I'm very proud to have two of my stories in this gorgeous book full of rich, beautiful fiction - 'Wet Brain' and 'Full Circle, Perfect Square'. If you love thoughtful, beautifully written, story-driven, and very short stories, consider getting a copy. The book is modestly priced and beautiful.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

A thought—like an ember that bends truth towards it. Perhaps. If literary magazines valued stories. Characters. People doing things. Not empty metaphors, like ghosts hiding in the hollows of peach pits. Not verbs and vibes voluminous. Perhaps. Perhaps. They wouldn’t keep publishing empty AI bullshit

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

So grateful FFF is again reprinting a slightly older story of mine - Notes For A Eulogy - especially as the ed had to recode his website to make the experimental formatting work! A short version of this came second in the Bridport Prize for flash, but I think it has twice the impact at 500 words.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Thank you Pithead Chapel, for publishing NO OBITS, inspired by a 1998 headline from the Bay Area Reporter to mark the first week since 1981 without new AIDS deaths. The new meds WORKED. Not a cure, but a reprieve. I try to capture that bittersweet moment in this tiny story bsky.app/profile/baya...

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Cuyler @cuylermeade.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

I almost felt sorry for conservative folks who were five seconds ago commenting on every Facebook post "uh I don't see any kings here you lib idiots what are you even protesting" just to have the White House tweet this but then I remembered wait no they already forgot they said it they'll be fine.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Ah Cuyler that’s so lovely and I’m grateful you made it through one of my longest stories. It’s one of my favourites, Thank you for sharing, I appreciate it

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Can someone watch the second series of BEEF for me please and tell me if it is outstanding or just good. Anything less than outstanding and I will boycott it as I don’t want to soil the memory of the first one - one of my favourite works of art of all time.

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Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Thank you Hungarians. The surgical removal of Orban - a local cancer that has metastised globally - has made me very very happy. It has also made Donald Trump, Elon Musk, JD Vance and Tucker Carlson very very unhappy. DOUBLE JOY.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Please read this remarkable story. The Commuter is like a magical cat that delivers its night’s kills to me every morning. Sometimes pretty but dead bunnies. Sometimes snakes, still alive. Sometimes alien beasts that are impossible to classify. This time it’s a cat friend. A haunted night cat.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

This you must read. MUST. READ. I had the honour of being in on this from the brainstorming stage then watching it become this gorgeously written melancholy wonder. @electricliterature.com have impeccable standards, as this proves. But one day they’ll slip up and I WILL sneak a story in, BY GOD.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

2025 was a calamitous year for me and NYCM. Let's see if I can turn it around in 2026

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

So it's OUT. The tenth anniversary edition of the @bmthwritingfest.bsky.social writing prize, with mine & @unmutualcharlie.bsky.social third-placed story Almost Extinct in it. Available on print on demand on Amazon or on Kindle at a good price if you're curious www.amazon.co.uk/Bournemouth-...

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

This forlorn little story - and its main character — has a special place in my heart. I’m deeply grateful to. @freeflashfiction.bsky.social for reprinting it (and NFFR for doing so first). Does this make me a grizzled old writing veteran? That last paragraph may be my favourite thing I’ve written.

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Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Both of Marco Rubio’s parents were born in Cuba. Marco Rubio was born in Miami in 1971, before they became US citizens. He is a US citizen because he was born in the US under birthright citizenship. #Hypocrites

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I'm 99.9% sure this isn't an April's Fool given they contacted me a week ago. I'M SO INSANELY EXCITED. I compiled a collection of my 20th century gay histories into a chapbook (mini-book if you don't know) and the lovely @purpleinkpress.bsky.social have made it a finalist for their Cat's Eye Prize.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

For the record I think I maybe made a suggestion on one single word and I'm not even sure about that, but I would like to claim the 20 per cent of the credit this post suggests. Amazing work @chriscottom.bsky.social - this is one of your finest, and your finest is very very fine indeed.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

It’s ages since I’ve been a music journalist (that’s mine below) and I’ve lost touch with the consensus but PRESUME it’s now accepted fact that Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations has the best opening 3 songs of the 21st century? If anyone says otherwise, which album? www.bbc.co.uk/music/review...

bbc.co.uk

BBC - Music - Review of Muse - Black Holes And Revelations

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Was honoured to be one of (many) fiction readers for Best of the Net 2026. Thrilled one story I voted yes to won & another was a finalist. But I read many INCREDIBLE stories that didn’t make it… the talent out there awes me. Actually it would help my writing career if you’d all take it down a notch

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Thrilled FFF published this, forming a "northern alcoholic trilogy" with the preceding Wet Brain and Impossible Summer (all illustrated by my gifted friend, Khy). The near-drowning happened exactly as described, near the end of a relationship. The rest, luckily, did not. THANK YOU FFF and Kerri.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

A writing dream has come true: one of my stories has been turned into an audio production on a podcast. This is Manchester, England, 1956, later expanded into All These Things I've Never Done. Huge thanks to Sam James for the PERFECT reading & Chris Fulwell, podcast supremo: rss.com/podcasts/one...

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Did you guys read this story I recommended. If not, please comment with your explanation for why you don't want to take 15 minutes out of your day to experience delight.

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Jaime Gill @jaimegill.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Who was it who said that they would have written a short letter but didn't have the time? Can't remember, but it's a good one. I absolutely hate writing 100 word length stories. But fine. Let's try again... nycmidnight.com/100

nycmidnight.com

The 100-word Microfiction Challenge — nycmidnight

The 100-word Microfiction Challenge is an international creative writing competition that challenges participants to create very short stories based on genre, action, and word assignments in just 24 h...

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