iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 7h

He had a second job anyway and it wasn't going to be hard to replace the retail one so he quit. We couldn't applaud him on the way out but we wanted to. 😂

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 7h

Legendary moment back in my retail days: a coworker politely asked a woman to ask her kid to stop sweeping everything off the shelves and she went ballistic on him, until finally he said, "bite me, lady!" She complained, the GM ordered him to call her and apologize, but he would not do it

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 8h

The book binding and printing press elective art course I took in college continues to have more usefulness in my work and personal life than anyone expected! XD

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 8h

I'm repairing an old beloved book for my sister, and sighhhh do you remember when hardcovers were actually still properly sewn together and had nice fabric on the covers, not just a block of glued-together pages wedged too tightly into paper-covered cardboard? This is from the 70s

Close up of the spine end of a book block out of its cover. You can see how neatly the signatures have been sewn together

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 30/09/2026

Every once in a while I think I'd like to be better at drawing, but I already have my craft that I spend hours a day on XD so I admire from afar haha

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 29/09/2026

This whole thread. I'm around sixth graders now and there is a world of difference between the boys who like and respect girls the same as the rest of their friends and the ones who don't

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 29/09/2026

my pathetic grandpa's deck has no cards, kaiba

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 29/09/2026

Fighting for my life driving against the rising sun while my kid blasts Yu-Gi-Oh memes over the car speakers

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High Priestess, Low Patience @cheriepriest.com · 29/09/2026

this is tonic masculinity + semiotically clever as hell 👍

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 27/09/2026

People were googling "is joe biden running?" the day of the election, and I think that got a wee bit more media coverage than "Choosin Texas"!

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 27/09/2026

We were very tired planning this year so it is CostCo's finest 😂 but they do not disappoint!!

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 27/09/2026

Ahhh that was a good day. It was also 100 degrees outside so, much like Frodo, I gradually shed all of my outerwear as the journey went on. No cute pics at the end but here is Faramir coveting a roast chicken

Roast chicken in a serving dish in foreground, and Faramir on a big screen in the background looking on approvingly

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 24/09/2026

Omg 💀 Ok I have to pick this up haha

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Undertow Publications 🇨🇦 @undertow.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Publishers and Editors! I'm taking subs for Vol. 3 of the award-nominated "Best Weird Fiction of the Year" til end of the year. Writers! You'll get a chance to submit your 2026 stories in January. bestspecfic(at)gmail.com

Esteemed Editors and Publishers,

I am now taking submissions of original 2026 short fiction projects — magazines, anthologies, single-author collections — for consideration in The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Vol. 3. (Publishing Sept. 2027). Vol. 1 is a World fantasy Award Finalist.

I am seeking material first published this year, in 2026. To be clear, only weird fiction FIRST published in 2026 is eligible for inclusion in this volume. I will accept translated work as long as the first English-language publication was 2026.

Stories should be between 500 and 17,499 words. Audio only stories are also ineligible, unless they also appeared as text.

Publishers and editors are encouraged to send electronic or digital copies, via the email address below. (I am not accepting hard copy submissions.) ePubs are preferred, but I will also accept text files (Word), Mobi, or PDF. Please do not cherry-pick selections. Send the entire book, journal, or magazine to:

bestspecfic@gmail.com

Thank you for your time and kind consideration.

Warm Wishes,

Michael
--

Michael Kelly / Publisher / Editor-in-Chief
undertowbooks@gmail.com

Undertow Publications
https://undertowpublications.com/

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 24/09/2026

Ahaha these are my favorite kind of notes. Always felt real galaxy brain when I plugged them in, but then comes the reckoning

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 24/09/2026

I just keep coming back to "these are the kind of guys making major world decisions for us"

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 24/09/2026

I don't usually dunk on these things but I'm really losing it over this one

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weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

God, grant me the courage to change the things I can and incredible new powers to change the things I can't.

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 24/09/2026

Not to be a brag, but my 9yo knows her times tables AND all our phone numbers 💅

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 24/09/2026

Four Autumn Movies The Lady in White October Sky Addams Family Values Penelope

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Robert Hill @vonotar.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This column at Reactor has turned me on to SO MANY anthologies that I've fallen for short-form fiction all over again. I encourage anyone who follows me to go find some short stories to read.

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 23/09/2026

Hey you... you could have more weird stuff... or more Sam stuff... or both weird stuff and Sam stuff... if short fiction is what your heart desires :3

Copies of The Best Weird Fiction volume 2 and Rabbit Test and Other Stories perched atop a fence overlooking a greenish canyon

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 23/09/2026

Oh rad I got a readalong!! This is great

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Liana Brooks @lianabrooks.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Writers used to be able to live comfortably off the sale of a short story or two a month. Authors like Terry Pratchett made enough money selling silly fantasy books in the 80's that they quit their day jobs. That doesn't happen any more.

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 22/09/2026

Yassss. Because they are the best!!

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 22/09/2026

Gosh it was this or Windows 95, I can't remember now. I do remember that upon acquiring dial-up internet, I immediately used it for its proper purpose: looking up facts about cheetahs

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 22/09/2026

The toys especially drive me bonkers. My kids will want a completely ordinary toy, TO PLAY WITH, and then we can't find it because they've all been scooped up and tossed online for double the price. I'm not paying it!

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 22/09/2026

Sweating a bit in advance over the copy edits I'm going to receive for the current project, because a character is losing her mind, and I just don't think you use commas and clauses properly when you're losing your mind

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Corey Brickley * Blight's Hollow Dot Com @coreybrickley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

hmmm Sam Altman reminds me of a certain other dystopian business exec obsessed with the illegal procurement of Hugging Face

Paul Reiser's slimy business executive character Carter Burke in the movie Aliens

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Keira Perkins @thatkeira.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Have you ever been at a concert where the music has transformed you to something else, something fierce and powerful? Remember that feeling. Hold it. Then imagine a man there that keeps grabbing you by the hips despite your “friendly” efforts to make him stop. You get to kill him in this poem.

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Matt Simon @mattsimon.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Khaw, Wise, Ha ... Undertow serving banger after banger ... buy their stuff!

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K.M. Veohongs @kmveohongs.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

yes, I have been to the big in-person cons and yet somehow FoF has the BEST programming in terms of breadth and depth that I’ve ever seen. Please donate!

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Cislyn Smith @cislyn.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

There's a long way to go before we reach our fundraising goals. Every single dollar helps, is meaningful, and goes to supporting great things - no fee contests for beginning professionals in writing and illustration, Con or Bust grants, and the convention itself. Help us keep doing cool things. <3

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Thomas Ha @thomasha.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

shitty little sentence that makes no sense but i just like the sound of it

bilbo looking down at ring with smile, then serious grimace showing resolve to keep it, hesitance to give it up

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 19/09/2026

Regularly quote Dr Spaceman: Because everything about this is disgusting!

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Sandy Parsons @zazzeaux.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 18/09/2026

Ahaha I'm losing it. I get the unmitigated joy of explaining this to my husband later when he pops on the rerun, thank you for your service 🙏

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 18/09/2026

Imagine the Walken sex doll staring at you with ill-disguised disdain the whole time

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 18/09/2026

I'm losing it over the one second silent voicemails. I have to listen for at least a second to find out that nope! It's nothing! And now I haven't clicked delete fast enough so I have to start over in the menu! Leave me alone!!

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Samantha (Sam) Mills @samtasticbooks.com · 18/09/2026

I think a raccoon reboot is in order!

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