iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by M.J. Jones

John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

In light of some magazines pulling scummy things on creators lately, I’m doing a little thread on short story rights. I don't want anybody getting taken advantage of. Also, if you're new, this stuff can be confusing!

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

My dad got my bike out of storage and brought it to college for me, and was promptly recognised on the street by a friend and read the riot act for being a helicopter parent 😂 Needless to say, they were lucky if they got a weekly email out of me.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Parents show up to matriculation?!

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Usman T. Malik @usmantm.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Elise Tobler, editor of the fabled SHIMMER magazine and now THE DEADLANDS is hospitalized after cancer and an infection. She made SFF an inclusive, interesting place and broke out many authors. Help if u can gofund.me/6ea1bf7a4

gofund.me

Donate to Help Support Elise While She Recovers, organized by Sean Markey

hello. friends if you're reading this, you're likely a Friend of The Deadl… Sean Markey needs your support for Help Support Elise While She Recovers

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Jen Donohue @authorizedmusings.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

the Apex Magazine 2027 kickstarter is at $7113 out of their base goal of $21,000 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 at $22,000 we get a STRANGE OCEANS anthology (I want that) at $26,00 we get an ESL/EFL special issue (I want that) at $31,000 we get MORE APEX (I want that) www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

kickstarter.com

Apex Magazine 2027

An award-winning digital literary journal of science fiction, dark fantasy, and horror.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Vague skeet vague skeet vague skeet!!

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I don’t read aloud for an audience that often, but it's amazing what pretending not to feel embarrassed and deliberately catching the eye of a couple of audience members can do!

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Elizabeth Anne, PhD @lacksauthority.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

never the wrong time for this classic

Screenshot of a tweet by @RobbtKraft reading “scientist: "does everyone here know what Watson and Crick discovered?"
me from back of room: "Rosalind Franklin's notes"”

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I was clueless but I'm glad it's a happy reason!

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East Anglia Bylines @eastangliabylines.co.uk · 04/10/2026

A 3,500-year-old Bronze Age landscape near Peterborough is in a race against time. Flag Fen’s waterlogged archaeology is threatened as peat dries out. Now £700,000 will fund urgent excavation and conservation.

eastangliabylines.co.uk

Funding secured to unlock the secrets of Bronze Age Flag Fen

A major new excavation at Flag Fen Archaeology Park near Peterborough will investigate one of Britain’s most important Bronze Age sites

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I'm still recovering psychologically from the Covid booster I got at the chemist's in December 2021. I'm pretty sure I didn't get all the way through the sentence "Hi, I'm here for the booster?" before I was vaccinated and out the door again, Pfizer boosted and slightly dishevelled.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I love Saxon garnet work. It's stunningly intricate and so rich in texture and colour

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Oh God, the worst of all possible options

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Kathleen Jennings @tanaudel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Since it came up in conversation recently, here is my "Some Ways to Retell a Fairy Tale". I really want to do a little illustrated book of this one day. reactormag.com/some-ways-to...

reactormag.com

Some Ways to Retell a Fairy Tale - Reactor

There's more to “once upon a time” than meets the eye...

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This would be *gorgeous* illustrated, and I would 100% buy that book

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Sharing this as a public service announcement, because I was on the point of leaving the house when I remembered I had a submission to make and my soul almost exited my body in an attempt to get back to my laptop faster than my actual feet can move. Strange Horizons submissions are open!!

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

How long has it been since I read In Other Lands? Too long, that's how long.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Holy shit, wow! I don’t think I've ever cracked the top 10% and I have a relevant degree 😂

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Nigella Lawson @nigella.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Thank YOU. I believe profoundly that the only correct response to pleasure is gratitude rather than guilt

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

That is a peak sibling expression 😂

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Perhaps lovehoney reviewed their data for statistical outliers prior to further analysis this year?

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Perhaps they are all now ordering to boxes in Henley instead, out of worries about anonymity?

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

For personal reasons I DESPERATELY need to unknow this fact, but I fear I will instead remember it literally forever

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Kaleidotrope @kaleidotrope.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Kaleidotrope re-opens to fiction and poetry submissions three weeks from today, October 18. It will be open for just one week, closing after October 24, and won't re-open again until some as yet undetermined time, probably in 2027. kaleidotrope.net/guidelines/

static.klipy.com

Monet X Change: Get Ready, Honey!

Alt: Monet X Change: Get Ready, Honey!

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,/It isn’t just one of your holiday games...

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Smile, it’s Friday! 😃 Meet ‘The Oldest Smile in the World’ a tiny face that’s been smiling for some 7,400 years! Carved from oak during the Mesolithic, this small human figure was found in 1966 in a layer of peat during dock construction at Willemstad in the Netherlands. #FindsFriday #Archaeology

My photo shows a human figure roughly carved from dark brown oak wood during the Mesolithic period about 5,400-5,300 BC. It is 12.5 cm tall with a long body with two finger-shaped indents on the right hand side (left in my photo), suggesting it was made to be held in the hand. The stylized head has deeply carved eyes, nose, and open mouth. The triangular shape of the mouth makes it look as if the figure is smiling, leading to its description as ‘The oldest smile in the world’. It is displayed against a black display case background at Landesmuseum Halle in Germany where the figure is currently on loan for the ‘Shamaness’ exhibition. It is part of the permanent collections of Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, Netherlands. It was found in a layer of peat in 1966 during the construction of a dock at Willemstad, North Brabant, Netherlands.

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

so today I learned that Canadian engineers take a sacred oath written by Rudyard Kipling which is *clearly* worded to bind them as defenders against the fae. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calling...

en.wikipedia.org

Calling of an Engineer - Wikipedia

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Sweep slowly until flash-blinded by the reflection off the lenses?...

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 23/09/2026

I think once black clad men are interfering with rescues at sea, we are past "legitimate concerns". Once they're attacking boats, and risking the lives of everyone on board, it's just thuggery. The Home Secretary's statement is on the side of criminals. There's no other way to read it.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I have more than once panicked that I was not wearing my glasses and put them on, only to realise - as the world in front of me blurs to a pea-souper fog - that the reason I am not wearing my glasses is that I am wearing my lenses. A whole new level of "WHERE are my GLASSES?" "On your face"

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Kate Strasdin @katestrasdin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The c19th aesthetic obsession with all things ferny, scrolls across the brocade of this c1887 gown, the green panels interspersed with dashes of greenery around the bodice and layer of skirt. Some fancy smocking completes the decorative display #museumatFIT #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

A view of the bodice of a late 1880a dark sage green bustle dress showing its high plain collar, smocked central section and then white silk brocade with a green fern design creating a lapel effect

Full length view of the dark sage green silk bustle dress which shows how the white fern decorated brocade sections break up the green at the bodice, waist, cuffs and underskirt

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I literally just finished a Poirot short story in which Hastings makes some money on the Stock Exchange and takes Poirot on a weekend minibreak, where Poirot solves the theft of some jewellery to keep himself amused and offers to pay for their next minibreak with the proceeds!

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Read Indie Fantasy.com @blog.readindiefantasy.com · 20/09/2026

Are you an indie author with a SFFH novella? Then SFINCS is now open for submissions! We've judged this contest in previous years and love reading your novellas!

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is *the* most adorable tradition. I do not have enough open bottles of champagne in my life to borrow it for baby gift knits, but I wish I did!

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Madeleine Fjäll @madeleinefjall.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

✨And the unicorn sweater is finally done ✨

Image of me in my unicorn sweater i have been knitting on and off since February like an insane person

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Translunar Travelers Lounge @translunartl.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Translunar Travelers Lounge will be opening for submissions for Issue 16, scheduled for February 2027. We are looking for speculative fiction stories of 5000 words or fewer. Full details are on our submissions page: translunartravelerslounge.com/submissions/

translunartravelerslounge.com

Submissions

Broadly defined, the type of fiction we are looking for is “fun”. [Go to Submissions]

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

They intended to bite the hand that feeds them, but due to size constraints, the foot is more readily available.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

100%. Her mother is a negative space like the others' - they have the roles they have because their mothers died - but I think we don't know what happened to her. I find that odd - Emma's intensely interested in Harriet's family, and there are hardly any mothers in Austen we know *nothing* about.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I really like the Romola Garai adaptation of Emma for the way it immediately shoves three children losing their mothers - Jane Fairfax, Frank Churchill, and Emma Woodhouse - under your nose, and forces you to recognise that they all start out with that same terrible thing in common.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 10/09/2026

You know, when you find out that the art you like is made by people you've learned hold views you find wholly repugnant, I don't think you need to disavow ever having enjoyed the art. It's okay to acknowledge you liked or loved that art, but are now putting it aside. That was then, this is now.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

We've all been there. Someone fetch this cat a coffee.

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M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I have arrived at the point where I schedule a little scream after every session of submitting fiction :)

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