iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jess Gofton

Ghoulothy @landbeforetim.myatproto.social · 21h

Conversion therapy in the west also includes asexuality. This isn’t a first nor will it be a last, so this isn’t shocking. High control religious people may be prudes, but they also want you to feel ashamed for your sexual attraction. If you lack one, then they view you as incomplete or inhuman

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I'm really enjoying melting back into this story! And looking forward to finally reading Queen Demon afterwards

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Happy Sunday, Womble! Currently on holiday so reading is a bit slow, but I'm slowly making my way through The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem and rereading Witch King by Martha Wells.

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

if you see this, recommend a short book HELPMEET by Naben Ruthnum is one of the best horror novellas I've read. So much imagery that gave me whole body shudders, and one of those books I recommended to everyone I spoke to as soon as I finished it.

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Happy Sunday, Womble! I finished Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher last night and think I'm going to reach for The Unhaunting by Micaiah Johnson next. Adored her sci-fi, so can't wait to try her horror!

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

In the mood for some tragic sapphic horror this Halloween season? My story "As Sweet" is in the latest issue of @penumbricmag.bsky.social 🥀

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Happy Sunday, Womble, and hope you feel better! I've been enjoying short story collections this month and am currently making my way through Revolution in the Heart ed. by Jonathan Strahan. Hoping I can finish it up today!

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Yes! The second book was probably my favourite in the trilogy, actually (though I loved all three)

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Cislyn Smith @cislyn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

If Flights of Foundry means something to you, if you've gotten something out of it - whether that's inspiration for a project or a friendship or good memories or the comfort of knowing someone out there is designing events like this... Put some money in, please. flights-of-foundry.org/donate/

flights-of-foundry.org

Donate – Flights of Foundry

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alexis simpson is confused by display name changes @amutepiggy.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

if you don't support trans rights, you are a loser

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Morning Womble! I'm enjoying a bit of poetry this morning with Offerings for Ordinary Gods by Ali Trotta, and then will be moving on to either Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher or Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold.

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It's fantastic, hope you enjoy it if you pick it up!

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Will I ever stop talking about how much I love THE KINDOM TRILOGY by @dr-bethany-jacobs.bsky.social? No. It's not like it's an unloved series, but I desperately need more people to read it and talk to me about it because it's top tier space opera and the fact it's a debut is mind-blowing.

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

she's just a sweet troutvestite 🫦🎶

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"The Last Archive" by @alixeharrow.bsky.social in THE SLANTWISE HISTORIES (2026) As depressingly relevant today as it would have been in 1930s Germany, but Harrow's writing, even when mournful, is full of the gritty kind of hope you feel when you resurface from being ground face-first in the dirt.

The UK cover of THE SLANTWISE HISTORIES by Alix E. Harrow

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Like Water" by @emlinden.bsky.social in Issue 25 of @havenspec.bsky.social This tale of language and sacrifice reads like a newly discovered folktale, one you might expect to hear around a campfire on a late summer evening. I'm off to read everything else by Linden. havenspec.com/fiction/like...

havenspec.com

Like Water, Haven Spec Magazine

"Like Water" by E.M. Linden

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"This Is Not My Timeline" by @jrdawson.bsky.social in @reactorsff.bsky.social Melancholy but beautiful, like so many of my favourite short stories are. Reading this one hurt. reactormag.com/this-is-not-...

reactormag.com

This Is Not My Timeline - Reactor

A queer couple escapes persecution by buying a home in an almost identical dimension.

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Birdguts" by @estrubbe.bsky.social in Issue 28 of @fusionfragment.bsky.social I've been loving the fiction Fusion Fragment have put out this year. "Birdguts" stayed with me because of Strubbe's knack for combining the wonderfully weird with the wonderfully human. www.fusionfragment.com/issue-28/

fusionfragment.com

Issue #28

“Birdguts” by Erin Strubbe: speculative biologies / eating stones / maybe the norm isn’t the norm”Chutes, Slides, and Ladders” by Allison Wall: surviving the board gam…

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Time for me to share a tiny selection of some of my favourite short stories I've read recently*! ✨ *in the past few months

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Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 09/09/2026

Just learned that Category Is Books, a lovely queer bookshop in Glasgow, has been targeted by transphobic violence, & is fundraising to cover the costs of a smashed window & roller shutters. I hate that they have to do this & would love to see them meet their goal.

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Category Is Books Get Shutters!, organized by Category Is Books

For the past eight years, Category Is Books has been able to comfortably oper… Category Is Books needs your support for Help Category Is Books Get Shutters!

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Morning Womble! I'm in the middle of a few things at the moment, but primarily reading The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros for a bit of Welsh post-apocalyptic fiction.

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Small Wonders @smallwondersmag.com · 26/08/2026

Guess who's opening to Original Flash Fiction on September 1st?! This magazine! We'll be open for the month of September, and once the portals to slushlandia have opened, you'll be able to submit here: smallwondersmag.com/submissions/

smallwondersmag.com

Submission Guidelines - Small Wonders

Small Wonders is looking for original flash fiction (1,000 words or fewer), reprint flash fiction, original poems, and reprint art.

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The audiobooks of Lois McMaster Bujold's World of the Five Gods being unavailable to purchase with credits on Libro FM is my villain origin story

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I've only read the first chapter so far and I'm already so in it 😌

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Happy Sunday, Womble! I think I have to accept I'm not ready to leave the Realm of the Elderlings and dive into Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb.

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Dolly just wasn't enough for one week, huh? RIP to this legend, who will always be both Long John Silver and Nigel Thornberry to me.

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Lou Morgan @lmorgan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The sassiest Lord of Darkness, and the absolute best ever to do it. Tim Curry forever.

Tim Curry as Lord Darkness (who is basically the devil with horns and hooves and everything) in Legend, pouting

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

This is so lovely, and a reminder to myself to read more translated poetry.

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Anyway, all this to very selfishly say that if you like queer tragedy, my sapphic horror "As Sweet" is in the latest issue of @penumbricmag.bsky.social and is available to read online. (TW for allusions sui*cide) www.penumbric.com/currentissue... 6/6

A painting of a woman lying on a bed in a white dress, surrounded by white, red, and pink roses. White text in the top left corner reads:

Deep down, Pearl and I both knew she was going to come home in a box.

"As Sweet" by Jess Gofton
Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine
Vol X, Issue 2

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

queer stories to explore whatever it is they want to explore. There's so much queer joy in fiction out there, and we need it now more than ever in our current political climate, but that doesn't mean they're the only stories that are allowed to exist. Or that they're the only stories we need. 5/?

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

what I want - as I think we all do as readers - is choice. A smorgasbord of queer fiction, please and thank you. And this is without getting into the privilege of being someone who can demand only happy queer stories, as if there aren't authors out there who need to be able to write tragic 4/?

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

everyone else has to stop reading them, too. I don't like funny fantasy, in the vein of Terry Pratchett, and that's purely personal taste. It doesn't mean I think no one else should get to read fiction like it. This isn't to say I want every queer book I pick up to be a tragedy either, 3/?

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

We need to be able to separate stories that fall into the "Bury Your Gays" trope from stories that are about queer people and are sad and are still incredibly well done. If you're a reader that doesn't like sad stories, that's totally fine, you don't need to read them. It doesn't mean 2/?

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I feel like I've been seeing a lot of, "we don't need sad queer stories anymore" takes going around lately, and it'll never not annoy me. As a queer person who loves bittersweet and tragic stories as much as I love joyous stories, I don't want to see a lack of sad stories about queer people. 1/?

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Happy Sunday, Womble! I've somehow gobbled up four novellas this weekend in the wake of my Liveship Traders hangover. Think I'm going to reach for some nonfiction next with Thou Savage Woman by Blessin Adams.

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Emily C. Hughes @emilyhughes.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

if there's a writer you like, and you'd like to keep reading that writer's work, *you need to pay for their work*

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Huge congratulations to E.J. Swift!! 🎉 Also many congratulations to the other five nominees, including @solarisbooks.bsky.social's own @rainewilson.bsky.social—if you've already read and loved WHEN THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN, it's time you got your mitts on THE SALT ORACLE for more excellent cli-fi

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Thrilled that my sapphic horror short story, "As Sweet", is in this issue! 🥀 👉🏻 www.penumbric.com/currentissue...

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Happy Sunday, Womble! I stayed up until ridiculous o'clock to finish Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb, which was excellent. Going to pick up some Middle Grade next to cleanse my palate with Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans by Isi Hendrix.

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The Arthur C. Clarke Award @clarkeaward.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Looking for weekend reading inspiration? 📚 Check out the Clarke Award shop page supporting independent booksellers 👉 uk.bookshop.org/shop/clarkea... Includes our 2026 shortlist + wider book recommendations, collections & non-fiction from Clarke Award nominated authors! 🚀

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Kameron Hurley @kameronhurley.com · 07/08/2026

This was incredible. I thought I was getting a dark cottagecore domestic thriller and it ended up being a feminist cottagecore Library at Mount Char???? I haven't had one hit me this hard with that visceral "oh shit, it me" gut punch in a very long time. Just wow. Don't sleep on this one #booksky

Cover of Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist. A sheet stares at you

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Mine's a very recent read for me in Bethany Jacobs' Kindom Trilogy!

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

This stupid, unfunny joke brought to you by my niche obsession with Robert Curthose 📖: Conqueror's Son by Katherine Lack

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Jess Gofton @jessgofton.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Even medieval monks struggle to identify AI

That letters and seals were forged and used for personal advantage at this time there is no doubt. Lanfranc himself was deceived on one occasion when a monk came to him from Normandy with a letter purporting to be from the Archbishop of Rouen. After the ploy had been uncovered, he wrote in distress: 'I assure you categorically that he brought a letter sealed with your seal, which I know well; in that letter (if it was genuine) you urged me to receive him honourably . . . all this I have done out of affection for you . . . I am greatly astonished if the letter he presented was a forgery – how could he have got hold of such a great man's seal to make his tale look true?'

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