iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 05/02/2026

Today, I finished drafting a new book. This is the 5th novel I’ve written and the beginning of what I hope will become a sprawling, fulfilling series. It’s a science-fantasy story: a fusion of near-future technology mixed with the wonder and mystery of unknowable magic. 🧵

An image with black text that reads:

"The End

Initial draft complete of Book 1 of a new science-fantasy series

~THE HYDRA CHRONICLES~

Word Count: 178,148 words
Printed Manuscript Pages: 906
Chapter Count: 62

Manuscript Begun: Jul 13, 2025
Completed: Feb 5, 2026

“Maybe there was a better way. Perhaps it would come from a dream kept alive by a middle aged woman’s conspiracies and rebellion.”

Hand-painted stormy ocean scene with towering cliffs under dark clouds as several cybernetic creatures fly low over crashing waves, blue energy trails streaming behind them.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/01/2026

Me in 2009: "Social media. Neat. Here are all my pics and videos of my pets and kids." 2026: Ugh -- *Yoinks everything private*

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 03/11/2025

Today's the 10 year anniversary of MYSTIC's publication. 😱 Naturally, I have thoughts. Also, to celebrate the occasion, @torbooks.bsky.social has put the eBook on sale for $2.99 this week. What better time to check it out if you haven't experienced it yet? open.substack.com/pub/jasonden...

A promotional graphic featuring the book cover to the novel "Mystic". Large text proclaims "10th Anniversary." The cover itself features a young woman standing dramatically in a lush, mystical forest while the sun steams through the canopy. Her cape billows dramatically across her body. Two sparkling birds encircle her.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 06/10/2025

Some updates on my writing as we fall into Autumn. I expect to have TWO novels drafted by early 2026. Details in the link.

open.substack.com

What I've Been Working On

Some updates as we end the year, including news about my latest WIP.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 19/09/2025

I’m (re)reading The Stand by @stephenking.bsky.social and it stresses me out less than real life news. #cozyfantasy

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 16/08/2025

Lots of talk about epic fantasy being dead in trad publishing. Trends shift, attention spans shorten. But EF still tackles the grand stories, the big questions, & shows emotional truth on the widest scale. It may ebb, but it is not going anywhere. Keep reading it, keep writing it. I sure will.

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Misha (she/her) @ahsimlibrarian.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

The Moral of the Story @seattlein2025.org @gwillow.me @shwetaadhyam.bsky.social @marshalljmoore.bsky.social @okosunreads.bsky.social Starting with a discussion of the gateway fantasies that inspired everyone. “I think fantasy is a genre of questions.”—Ehigbor Okosun

The Moral of the Story panel at WorldCon

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 15/08/2025

I’m at Seattle WorldCon this week. Yesterday I ran into the legendary Terry Brooks.

Myself and Terry Brooks, who is it elderly gentleman, post for a photo together. Terry is wearing a magenta collared shirt with rolled up sleeves. I am wearing a cyan colored dress shirt with roller sleeves.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 31/07/2025

I just deleted an unnecessary bath scene from a book I'm working on and I feel like the ghost of Robert Jordan is judging me. #amwriting

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 27/07/2025

Somebody got to go on an adventure today.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 25/07/2025

Showing off my new edition of Hyperion, a true classic of dark science fiction. This edition is from @thebrokenbinding.bsky.social with art by Raymond Swanland & art direction by @petrikleo.bsky.social. I love the new design, but I also love that it came with a 2nd slip cover w/ the original cover!

The front cover of the new edition of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Features a mostly black cover with an ominous and foreboding figure looming over the silhouettes of several wanderers trudging over sand.

Inside cover of the special edition featuring a fantastical sailing ship that sails across an ocean of grass.

The edges of the book pages are sprayed black with a stylized design of white light and stellar-like diagrams.

The alternative dust jacket featuring the original book cover. A spiked figure in black armor stands on the hill of an alien world overlooking a sea of grass where a single sailing ship approaches.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 25/07/2025

This project looks awesome. Backed! Please check it out. www.kickstarter.com/projects/844...

kickstarter.com

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 24/07/2025

A celebrity that I admired as a kid died today. But I won't celebrate them cause it turns out they were a horrible person. So instead I'll celebrate deceased artists who were kind and loving & generous: Terry Pratchett. Mr Rodgers, Robin Williams, JRR Tolkien, Chadwick Boseman, Alan Rickman, etc.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 22/07/2025

I’ll be at @seattlein2025.org next month. I’m participating in several panels and doing a reading. Also, my new short story, “The Snake Star,” will be part of the Worldcon Anthology from Grim Oak Press. More info in my newsletter. Who else will be there? jasondenzel.substack.com/p/worldcon-a...

jasondenzel.substack.com

Worldcon & Summer Update

What I've been up to since February

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 22/07/2025

I realized it’s been a while since I introduced myself, so 👋🏻 hi! I’m Jason, an epic fantasy author writing stories full of wonder and transformation. Glad you’re here. Sign up for my newsletter for more behind-the-scenes content. jasondenzel.substack.com

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 16/05/2025

Just started reading Gifted & Talented by @ olivieblake.bsky.social, the first book of hers that I’ve read and holy shirtballs the writing style / voice is perfection. She makes it seem so effortless and I’m not gunna hide my envy. 👏🏼

olivieblake.bsky.social

Olivie Blake (@olivieblake.bsky.social)

author. hi

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/05/2025

Pope Seagull I. His first order is that all communion wafers will be full bread chunks.

A screenshot of a CNN headline declaring that a new pope has been elected. The image shows the purple chimney with white smoke coming out. On top of the chimney sits a seagull.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 04/04/2025

👏🏼 [The Office] “maintains that human authorship… remain essential…to obtain copyright protection for works involving materials created by [AI].” “…firmly concludes AI prompts, alone, do not provide sufficient human control to automatically make a human user of an AI system the author of the output”

essential.to

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Robert Davis @rdavis.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Would love to get a manuscript in my inbox reminiscent of Frieren, with that perfect mix of love, loss, and a fantasy adventure quest. #mswl

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

One of many moments in Omar El Akkad’s new book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” that will stop you in your tracks.

There is an impulse in moments like this to appeal to self-interest. To say: These horrors you are allowing to happen, they will come to your doorstep one day; to repeat the famous phrase about who they came for first and who they'll come for next. But this appeal cannot, in matter of fact, work. If the people well served by a system that condones such butchery ever truly believed the same butchery could one day be inflicted on them, they'd tear the system down tomorrow. And anyway, by the time such a thing happens, the rest of us will already be dead.
No, there is no terrible thing coming for you in some distant future, but know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience.
Who cares if diplomatic expediency prefers you shrug away the sight of dismembered children? Who cares if great distance from the bloodstained middle allows obliviousness. Forget pity, forget even the dead if you must, but at least fight against the theft of your soul.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 28/03/2025

At the FedEx store. Clerk: “What are you shipping to Canada?” Me: “Some booklets.” Clerk: “What’s the content?” Me: “Well it’s a short story I wrote about … … <pitches story>” Clerk: … Me: 👀 Clerk: “I’ll put down ‘fiction’” Me: “yeah that works” 🫠🫠🫠🫠

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 24/03/2025

Fellow #GenX people. So are you a keep-your-reading-glasses-on-you-at-all-times person or a buy-lots-of-dollar-store-readers-and-leave-them-everywhere type?

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WIRED @wired.com · 18/03/2025

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

freedom.press

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow

As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 13/03/2025

On this episode of Intentionally Blank, Brandon and Dan talk about how Brandon still writes in 12-point Courier font + double-spaced. I'm 💯 the same way. I just think it's easier to read. #Writers: what font & typesetting do you draft with? (Link jumps to 22:21 where they discuss this)

youtu.be

Who Gets to Review Things? - Intentionally Blank 197

YouTube video by Brandon Sanderson

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/03/2025

I'm participating today in my 3rd (... I think?) @writingtheother.com workshop with @nisishawl.bsky.social and @ktempestbradford.com. I learn so much from these workshops. I try to make it a point to attend one at least every few years. 🧵

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 01/03/2025

I’ve watched Back to the Future for 40 years and I just recently realized upon my 1,000th viewing that when the lady says “Save the clock tower!” she’s trying to preserve the clock in its BROKEN/melted state. I always thought she was raising money to FIX it. 😂

An image showing two faces from the movie Back to the Future. On the left is a smiling middle-aged woman with gray hair holding out a change collection tin. On the right is a young Michael J. Fox holding a pamphlet that says “save the clock tower” on it.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 24/02/2025

Damn, I’d forgotten how truly great the #Watchmen graphic novel is.

A space scene from Watchmen shows a distant star, a reddish-brown planet, and a small moon. Two blue speech boxes contain Dr. Manhattan’s philosophical reflection on life’s rarity and unpredictability, saying: “Come… dry your eyes, for you are life; rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly.

Dry your eyes…”

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 23/02/2025

Did I wake up at 4am to be among the first people to pre-order the @subpress.bsky.social limited edition of Hyperion? Yes, yes I did. The Shrike approves… I think. (Excellent cover art by Raymond Swanland)

A screenshot of the limited edition book cover of "Hyperion." It's mostly black with striking lines and ominous figures and text. A looming, red-eyed, mysterious figure dominates the cover, along with a planet that appears in eclipse shadow. The pages of the book are painted black.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 16/02/2025

Today is D&D day and the party has no idea what’s about to find them. #DungeonMaster (Art by Dave Melvin from the 5E Planescape adventure module)

A sinister piece of art showing a giant spider crawling across its web toward a terrified modron (a cute rounded robot) who is stuck. The modron is holding a lantern, which provides the only light in the darkness.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 14/02/2025

The weather is a certain way tonight. So tell me your preference: ☔️ Purple Rain 🌧️ November Rain 💧(another “Rain” song)

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 13/02/2025

The Lore of the Rings podcast released their 200th episode today which features several guests, including me. If you'd like to hear me talk for a few minutes about my favorite LotR passage and why I think it's cool, head over to the show and give it a listen. ringspodcast.com/200

ringspodcast.com

200: Favorite Passages from Fellow Wanderers

Twelve Tolkien fans, creators, and scholars share their favorite passages from The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings , and beyond, reflecting on the words that shaped …

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 13/02/2025

Seriously, creative folks: Don't be afraid to let people know your stuff is out there for them, or worry that "now is not the time for that." People are stressed and freaked out and looking for the things that will give them a moment of rest and joy. It is EXACTLY the time for what we do. Tell them.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 13/02/2025

The little girl from Pixar’s Monster’s Inc would be 26 years old today.

The little girl from the movie Monster’s Inc. light skin, dark hair tied in pigtails. She’s sitting up in a large bed under the covers. She looks sleepy and sad and cute.

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Dragonmount.com @dragonmount.com · 11/02/2025

In this house, we believe survivors of sexual assault and stand with you. Find resources at: nsvrc.org and rainn.org

In this house, we believe survivors of sexual assault and stand with you. Find resources at: https://nsvrc.org and https://rainn.org

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Rajiv Moté @rajivmote.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Lotsa flying facial hair this year.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/02/2025

"Ten years, Betrayer. Ten years your foul master has wracked the world." -- Happy 10-year anniversary to the infamous Winter Dragon ashcan film. #WoTSkies #WheelofTime

A still frame from the ultra low-budget film "Winter Dragon." It's a close-up shot of a disheveled man with long hair and a beard, played by actor Billy Zane, who stares ominously at an unseen opponent.

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Tochi Onyebuchi @tochitruestory.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

PSN down on a Friday night in the middle of winter whoever is responsible pls have mercy on us it's been such a long week i miss my homies

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/02/2025

What the hell? I finish the next round of revisions on my book and my reward is that the PlayStation network is offline? #DarkestTimeline

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Jim C. Hines @jimchines.com · 02/02/2025

The response was entirely positive, so let the Nazi Punch of the Day begin. It seems appropriate to start with a classic. This is from Captain America Comics #1. The cover date was March 1941, but from what I've read, it was on the shelves several months earlier. #NPD #NaziPunching

Comic book cover showing Captain America punching Hitler. Text reads, "Smashing thru, Captain America came face to face with Hitler..."

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 06/02/2025

I received a fun package today! My @torbooks.bsky.social editor @rdavis.bsky.social offered me this framed piece of art featuring mass market paperback cover from the 1980’s. This hung on the walls of the Tor offices for many years. Recognize any of these titles? Tell me your favorites!

A close-up image of the picture frame. It consists of 36 total book covers, most or all of which are from the 1980s. There are too many titles and authors to list, but some highlights are books from Fred Saberhagen, Orson Scott Card, Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, Andre Norton, Gene Wolfe, and others. Collectively, the covers are vibrant and colorful, and filled with artwork representative of that classical era of science fiction and fantasy.

A wide shot of the unpackaged picture frame leaning against the wall of my house. The frame is 36“ x 24“ and framed with a solid plastic black border. An off-white Matt surrounds the evenly distributed 36 book covers.

A photo showing the half unwrapped UPS package with packing tape strewn around on the floor

A photo of the unopened UPS package leaning against my wall. It’s a oversized brown box heavily wrapped in packing tape.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 03/02/2025

Look, I’m not saying Bluesky needs to go full algorithm, but admit I wish I had just a bit more ability to prioritize certain accounts I want to see more often. Different from lists.

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Erin Luken @esluken.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

🌟 Sacramento area folks 🌟 Want to come hear me chat writing/publishing in person? I'll be at A Seat at the Table Books as part of their Writing Demystified series on Feb 6th (a week from today!) to talk about my 10+ years (8 in the query trenches) seeking publication. (boosts v much appreciated!)

At the top, text says "Writing Demystified." Text below says, "Join Jason Denzel and Erin Luken for a discussion on all things writing, marketing, editing, and publishing!" Below is a small image of a chair and table with the text A Seat at the Table beside it. At the bottom, the date of the event is given, Thurs Feb 6 5:30-7:30pm and location 9257 Laguna Springs Dr #130. The authors' photos are on either side of the text, plus the cover images of the books MYSTIC by Jason Denzel and THIS DARK PARADISE by Erin Luken.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 29/01/2025

OpenAI right now

Scene from The Princess Bride where Vizzinni says "You're trying to kidnap what I've rightfully stolen"

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 26/01/2025

I nominate “Did you know Cynthia Erivo sang while doing her own stunts?” as the new “Did you know Viggo Mortensen broke his toe…?”

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 25/01/2025

Here we have an authentic, unfiltered photo documenting the rugged state of a feral writer deep in #amwriting revisions with a looming deadline. Observers are encouraged not to make contact during the weekend-long “revision phase”, but tossing snacks is relatively harmless.

A selfie of Jason wearing black-rimmed glasses and a rumbled gray beanie. He’s presumably sitting on a couch and wearing a plain t-shirt. He’s smiling and generally looking like a hard-working (but tired) dork.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 22/01/2025

Authors… does asking for blurbs ever get easy? I’m a chill guy and this is my fourth book and I’m like “omg what if they don’t like me??”

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Jonathan Slater @jonathanslater.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

0 degrees outside. Indoor fetch

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Kat Howard @katwithsword.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

I know there is a lot going on right now, but freelance life is freelance life, so I wanted to let people know that I have openings for editing clients. I work with novels and novellas, developmental and line edits. More info here: www.kathowardbooks.com/editing Signal boosts are welcome, thanks!

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