iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 3h

Every year, I write a Halloween story on fallen leaves and post photos of them, a sentence at a time, on my blog. The story will conclude on All Hallow's Eve. The first installment of AUTUMN'S END is up at: floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2026/10/autu...

floggingbabel.blogspot.com

AUTUMN'S END (Part 1 of 31)

. Above: Every year, to celebrate the season, I write a Halloween story which Marianne and I then copy out, one...

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Cocktail Hour! Tonight: French Blondes , served with crackers and egg salad. A fresh new flash fiction for garnish.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Pegana Press is down to 7 copies of their letterpress illustrated edition of Robert W. Chambers' "The Repairer of Reputations" from THE KING IN YELLOW. A pricey, beautiful book, issued in an edition of 65, which is smaller than most Dragonstairs Press chapbooks run. peganapress.om/robert-w-cha...

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The always spooky Jean Auguste Girard.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The Great Lexicographer has renamed artificial intelligence. It is now "super intelligence." Please adjust your writing accordingly.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Amazon Prime offers the January-February issue of Asimov's for $18.00 plus $4.99 shipping. Or issue 3 for $24.99 with free shipping. Kinda depressing, really.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yesterday, a gallon of diesel cost $6.60 here in Roxborough. Today, it's $6.90.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A little belatedly, I've put "City of Mists," the thirteenth Mongolian Wizard story in the pie closet.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I idly asked a search engine if Dolly Parton drank wine, and it replied, NO, DOLLY PARTON DID NOT DRINK BLOOD. I honestly never imagined a woman that busy could spare the time to be a vampire.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

On my blog, I write about The Illuminated Man, a critical biography of J. G. Ballard by Christopher Priest and Tina Allan. It's not quite a review, but it should be enough to tell you if it's your sort of thing. floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2026/09/not-...

floggingbabel.blogspot.com

Not Quite A Review of The Illuminated Man by Christopher Priest and Nina Allan

. I am not sure what to say about The Illuminated Man: Life, Death, and the Worlds of J. G. Ballard , which I've just finished reading. It'...

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Anybody here old enough to remember when there were treaties to prevent the weaponization of outer space? Well, that was when we didn't have the capacity to deploy them. www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

The US Air Force Secretary says the weapons are necessary to defend the country against enemy action.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Have you noticed how, with age, common household items take on personality?

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Putting a couple of ragged old pulps in the Wee Free Library. In a coverless 1948 copy of Astounding, I read an Ole Doc Methuselah by Rene Lafayette. Dear lord, but it was awful in so many ways!

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I filled in the next round of paperwork for the Anthropic settlement. All as expected. Except that a musical theater actor claimed one of my novels. Hoping, apparently, that I hadn't bothered.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

This is a lifer! A white morph great blue heron.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

While I slept last night, I worked out the entirety of the next leaf-writing story, roughed out the Solstice chapbook stories for Dragonstairs, and made serious progress on a collaborative project to be announced later.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

There's a several-second-long black stretch at the beginning of this clip. But it's a very funny French commercial. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNd_...

youtube.com

CANAL Plus - 'March Of The Emperor'

YouTube video by EuroRSCG

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A lovely day, topped by a double rainbow like the cherry atop the whipped cream.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

More work on the Dragonstairs chapbook.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Marianne Porter, at work on her next Dragonstairs Press chapbook.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Things Ellem Klages picked up in the bookstore.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Things Ellen Klages picked up in the bookstore.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Sitting in a waterfront restaurant in Bath, Maine, today, I saw a bald eagle catch a fish and fly off with it.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

While Marianne works on her next Dragonstairs Press chapbook, I'm prepping for our annual leaf-writing.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Marianne has started work on her next Dragonstairs Press chapbook.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I almost never say "Only in America," but where else would they be selling Chicken of Liberty statuettes?

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Watching MOGAMBO. The white stars are boring. But in the background are hundreds of Africans doing the scut-work, paddling canoes, singing songs... And I wish there's been a "making of" video interviewing all of them, asking about their lives and what they thought of the film crew.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

And RED DOG is no longer on sale! Marianne's thanks to everyone who participated.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

And at the three-hour mark, there are five copies yet unsold.

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Michael Swanwick @michaelswanwick.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Six copies unsold at the two-hour mark.

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