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John A. McColley

@jamccolley.substack.com
1K followers 1.6K following 884 posts

Writer(SFWA, Down The Drain, Ascendent Publishing, Feb 2025), Artist, Dad, DM, not-quite-musician and video maker. (He/They) Breaking The Word, out Aug 15 2026: linktr.ee/jamccolley

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Reposted by John A. McColley
Paul Jessup @pauljessup.com · 5h
In case you missed it late last night, I released a #analoghorror #foundfootage #folkhorror trailer for my upcoming book, Rustbelt Gothic. Filmed entirely on a VHS-C camcorder. No AI or anything funky involved. Music by Witchcandle youtu.be/t2Y0FlgdWwQ
youtu.be
Rustbelt Gothic Book Trailer
YouTube video by Paul Jessup
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 15/10/2026
Oh! Did you get to see Frog Rock?
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 15/10/2026
It was a treat to hear you talk about demons and apples and even flesh rooms. lol. I look forward to diving into Calamities.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 14/10/2026
That was fun! It was great hearing your thoughts on process and upcoming projects. Thanks again for the Monstera sticker. I look forward to the read! Also thanks for coming to NH. I feel like we're kind of out of the way for most authors.
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Neon Hemlock @neonhemlock.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
okay this deadline is in two days, and then we open for novella submissions 😅
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 13/10/2026
And in New Hampshire! www.goffstownmainstreet.org/pumpkin-rega...
goffstownmainstreet.org
Pumpkin Regatta | gmsp
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 13/10/2026
Congrats!
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 13/10/2026
That's a good sign! Luckily I have my reservation set at Gibson's.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 13/10/2026
Concord's half an hour from me. I've taken the evening off work to take Mr. Golden's advice and pick up Calamities! See you in a few hours.
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Francesca Baerald @francescabaerald.com · 09/10/2026
4 HOURS LEFT! Last chance to get my cartography artbook UNBOUND with the special limited signed print of Camelot 🏰
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 08/10/2026
Writing buddy @jscottcoatsworth.bsky.social had a new book come out yesterday! MM Romantasy, the second of a series, if you're into series (I know I am!) www.jscottcoatsworth.com/book/office-...
jscottcoatsworth.com
Office of the Lost
When Perfection Collides With Chaos, Sparks Fly Crispin Eladrin, desk fae at the Office of the Lost, could find a needle in ten haystacks. His desk is so neat it would make an accountant blush, and he...
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 06/10/2026
Good for you, taking your health seriously. Godspeed.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 02/10/2026
It also says "Updated: 2 October 2026" so maybe they got hit by a big wave of subs and already got 1000. Sadly, that points to AI sloppers, but this is the business now...
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 30/09/2026
Excellent!
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 27/09/2026
"Where Smoke Walks, Fire Follows" is in developmental edits right now. ;)
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 25/09/2026
Gotcha, man. Stay safe, scritch kitties!
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Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine) @wolfbridge.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The co-author of this book, @tobiasbuckell.bsky.social, is brilliant. I've walked away from conversations with him with reshaped understandings of the written word. He's in a bad spot right now. His GoFundMe is nearly funded and every little bit will help! www.gofundme.com/f/help-autho...
gofundme.com
Donate to Help Author Tobias Buckell and His Cats Move to Scotland, organized by Tobias Buckell
Hi, I'm author Tobias S. Buckell, and these are my two cats, P… Tobias Buckell needs your support for Help Author Tobias Buckell and His Cats Move to Scotland
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Gail Simone @gailsimone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Writing "wisdom" I hate: WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW. This is the worst advice ever. It would be better if it was KNOW MORE SO YOU CAN WRITE ABOUT IT. Every good writer I know is constantly researching and getting new information and asking experts. It's a terrible bit of advice!
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Caroline M. Yoachim @carolinemyoachim.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Lightspeed and Nightmare are running a kickstarter! Pick up a subscription and help spread the word! www.kickstarter.com/projects/lig...
kickstarter.com
Update 2: New Add-On Rewards are Here! · LIGHTSPEED & NIGHTMARE: Award-Winning SF, Fantasy, & Horror
Overnight, we surpassed 40% of our funding goal! Geting to that point has cleaned us out of most of the limited quantity rewards we had (including all 25 copies of LIGHTSPEED: YEAR ONE!), but good news: Today we've added a bunch more signed books and other goodies, including: LIGHTSPEED Issue #100: A physical copy of our landmark 100th issue. New signed books from Chuck Wendig, Daniel H. Wilson, Ken Liu, Paul Tremblay, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Stephen Graham Jones, Veronica Roth, and Victor LaValle. Signed two-book bundles from Olivie Blake, P. Djèlí Clark, and Seanan McGuire. Two more signed limited editions by Martha Wells: Witch King and Queen Demon. Plus, we found one more copy of the rare NIGHTMARE #1 in print. And lastly, we've moved our D&D experiences to the add-on menu. Bring some friends to play in a game alongside John Joseph Adams and/or play in a game DMed by JJA! If you've already backed, you can edit your pledge to add any of these new rewards.Thanks again so much to you all for the amazing amount of support.
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George @hannahtempler.com · 22/09/2026
luckily!!! in 2026 there are a lot of independent Webcomic templates that are more affordable and accessible than ever (thank you to the heroes building these!) this is one that I know of, but please reply if you have others: rarebit.neocities.org
rarebit.neocities.org
Rarebit | HTML Webcomic Template
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 22/09/2026
Run for your nuts!
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Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Today is #HobbitDay because Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were both born on September 22nd. Normally we'd shire a hobbit pun or two but it might just feel like a tolkien gesture and we don't want to embarrass our elves. Anyway it's a good day to come and boromir #Tolkien books. 📚
A shelf of books by JRR Tolkien
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FrodoLove @frodolove.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
We don’t have to put up with this. Not these policies or these politicians or even this system of politics. It's time for us to chase out corruption and build a politics that actually responds to the people.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 20/09/2026
I'm a Muppet!
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 20/09/2026
"It's just crazy enough to work!" Is peak human.
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Miaganga @miaganga.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
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abcdef 🕶️ @onecaliberal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
And we will obviously be watching and we’re not fucking around with do nothing about fascists any more. Do it or we will get rid of you too. We are done.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 17/09/2026
Offroad Armadillo really takes his/her mud seriously!
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Christina🌊🌊 @sassycc.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Do you understand it!!
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A minor detail is missing from the headline.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 10/09/2026
No lies detected.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 08/09/2026
"La donna è mobile qual piuma al vento"
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 06/09/2026
I love this concept of intentionally addressing other works. It feels like culture in a way I think too few people have had access to over recent decades. Thanks for doing this.
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Slarg @slarg.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
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Porter Square Books in Cambridge & Boston @portersqbooks.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
It is so goddamn perfect out in Cambridge today. Here's your plan: 1. Wander to your local bookstore 2. Buy a book on a whim. (Don't overthink it, don't make it hard) 3. Get a tasty beverage 4. Set up somewhere outside & read for a bunch 5. Remember you deserve joy
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Nurse Chapel 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇱🇨🇺 @nurse-chapel.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
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S.E. Danesti @seedanesti.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The President of the United States is a traitor and a rapist.
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Casey Whitaker @alphacentauri53.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
An Aussie brings the 🔥🇦🇺 “You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money, a country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive.” #EndOligarchy
This Australian's reply to Trump's rant about "NATO not being there for America" is perfect.
"Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money, a country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number one cause of Bankruptcy, A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They’re just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's.
Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker’s stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you've got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban in Afghanistan thanked you very much tor losing again
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
'NATO wasn’t there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and die…
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T E Hodden @tomhodden.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Absolutely this. It is very rare that an author won't accommodate a reader wanting to discover their work, but, and I can not emphasise this enough: EVEN IF THEY DON'T ASK FOR OR EXPECT A REVIEW, GO LEAVE ONE! It is *literally* the least you can do in return for a free pdf.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 01/09/2026
That's a follow!
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 01/09/2026
Just read you're coming back to Concord with Chuck in October! I don't get to many signings these days, but I aim to be there! I have a self pub/micropress horror coming out at the end of Oct if all goes well, my 5th book in print.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 29/08/2026
Congrats! My next release also involves secrets and monsters in a National Park (Yellowstone!) Fun times.
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Morgan Brice/Gail Z. Martin @morganbrice.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Glow is LIVE! Enter the Legends world, where National Parks hold secrets—and monsters steal hearts. With hurt/comfort, first-time romance, shared danger, fated mates, and true love. Grab it here in ebook and paperback: www.amazon.com/Glow-Morgan-...
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 26/08/2026
These are all striking, but you know I'm partial to that last one!
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drachenmagier @drachenmagier.bsky.social · 09/10/2024
It's #PortfolioDay ~? I'm a traditional fantasy artist, with a strong love for dragons and unicorns and cake~! <3
snufkin riding a frog and looking at glowfliesstriding unicorn with fishes in backgroundwater dragon in water under lily padsmatch-stick-like creature with sword and shield
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The Whimsical Muse @whimsicalmuse.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Surround yourself with the kind of people who are proud to have a library card.
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Jeremy Ghooooost Shipp @jeremycshipp.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Hey Bluesky, have you grabbed a Halloween gift yet for your doppelganger or homunculus? I'd love for you to check out my shop. Each Jeremy Creature is designed and hand-sewed by me and takes many hours to create. You can learn more about each Creature at the shop. jeremycreature.bigcartel.com
Here's a lovely photo of a bunch of my fabric art creatures.  They're sitting together with purple fleece on the background and green fur on the ground. Samantha Shadowseed is a fabric art watermelon. She's light green with wavy darker green stripes. She has a red face with seven bulbous black eyes and an open mouth with five sharp teeth. Phantasmorgana is a white ghost bag with a gray face, twinkly black eyes, and a little frown. Her body is covered with embroidered black flowers and red markings. The top of her head is a metal coin purse clasp. She's wearing a black, magnetic, fabric witch hat. Lapina is a fabric art bunny of sorts. She's black with a gray face, seven red eyes, a little open mouth with six pointy teeth. She has long black and gray ears, and two twirly tentacles. Her body is covered with hand-embroidered stars of various sizes and colors. There's also an embroidered red planet with a yellow ring and another purple planet. She's holding a yellow fabric egg. She's sitting on a metal pink wire chair.  Titania is a fabric art black cosmic spirit with a gray moon face, twinkly black eyes, and a little frown. Her body is covered with embroidered stars of various sizes and colors. I also embroidered a couple planets. One is yellow and one is purple with a red ring. She has black twirly head wispy embroidered with a line of white stars on each one. Bazletazle is a tiny black celestial spirit with a gray moon face and four black bulbous eyes. He's covered with stars of various colors. Those two are sitting on a green and pink striped chair. There are two black, cosmic spirits covered with various stars and planets of various sizes and colors. One of the cosmic spirits is a moon face with twinkly black eyes and a black frown. One of the cosmic guys is a sun face with twinkly red eyes and a red frown.
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 21/08/2026
I love this one, too! This could work as a sequel to the other one I wrote a book for. Or an unconnected story in the same universe!
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John A. McColley @jamccolley.substack.com · 21/08/2026
Another banger! Well done!
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