iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith

C.H. Pearce @chpearcewrites.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Great night last night at HBD Lost Souls mag at Gang Gang cafe with Ben O’Mara, P.S. Cottier, @kaaronwarren.bsky.social, @aarondries.bsky.social, @spooktapes.bsky.social, Jenny Sawer, MC @captainamerico.bsky.social, and Dan Power! I am still thinking about these stories… and those hip gnomes 👀 🦴 😱

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Meerkat Press @meerkatpress.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

I want one!

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Check out this amazing book bundle of Shirley Jackson Award winners and shortlistees. Some excellent titles on the list (including my novelette, #TheAtticTragedy from @meerkatpress.bsky.social). Get on it!

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

So, I rescued a turtle this evening. How’s your day going?

J. Ashley-Smith, smiling, holding a turtle.

Turtle making its way towards the water of Dickson wetlands.

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C.H. Pearce @chpearcewrites.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Great night at Lost Souls’ The Horror of Care with readings by @kaaronwarren.bsky.social @spooktapes.bsky.social Ben O’Mara @aarondries.bsky.social MC @fionnmacpherson.bsky.social & music by Jenny Sawer at Gang Gang cafe! Incredible stories & a privilege to listen to Ben’s nonfiction piece 🖤

Ben O’Mara, Kaaron Warren, J. Ashley-Smith, Jenny Sawer and Aaron Dries in conversation at Gang Gang cafe

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Canberra PPL... your friendly reminder that @kaaronwarren.bsky.social, @aarondries.bsky.social and I, will be reading at Gang Gang cafe this coming Wednesday, alongside a whole bunch of talented Canberra folks. Get in on the action!

Poster for upcoming event: The Horror of Care.
Text reads: "Readings and music with Aaron Dries, Ben O'Mara, Kaaron Warren, Joseph Ashley-Smith, and Jenny Sawer. 6.30pm, 18 Feb 2026, at Gang Gang Cafe

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Oh yeah – I straight up fkn LOVED this book! Get on it if you dig good things.

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Meerkat Press @meerkatpress.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

🏆🎃THE ATTIC TRAGEDY by J. Ashley-Smith: Forget jump scares. This Shirley Jackson Award-Winning novella is pure, slow-burning gothic dread. The perfect atmospheric read for a dark Halloween night. smpl.is/adxux #Horror #GothicHorror #Ghosts @J. Ashley-Smith

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Privileged AF to get my grubby mitts on an ARC of this near-future fever dream. Avail yourselves of a copy - and a pair of knee-high railroad spike boots - the split second it drops! @kkoja.bsky.social @meerkatpress.bsky.social meerkatpress.com/books/dark-m...

J. Ashley-Smith holds up a copy of Kathe Koja's new novel Dark Matter.

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C.H. Pearce @chpearcewrites.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Fantastic thread, thank you! 🙏🏻 I loved “The Beautiful Thing You One Were” by @spooktapes.bsky.social in Bourbon Penn. I also have a FUBF “Bird’s Eye View of the Old City” (magpies again) upcoming in Drabblecast in a few months 🖤 www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/33/the...

bourbonpenn.com

J. Ashley-Smith > The Beautiful Thing You Once Were > Bourbon Penn

Perhaps I should have been surprised when the magpie first spoke. Strange as it may seem, I had become quite used to the mimicries of those curious backyard birds, with their pristine black-and-white ...

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

This David Lynch episode of Sesame Street is the worst.

Scene from Twin Peaks - The Return. An enormous black kettle spewing steam, and the numbers 4, 8, 5, 5 and 1.

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C.H. Pearce @chpearcewrites.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Spooky writer friends, if you have a project @australasianhorror.bsky.social mentorship program applications are open until the 17th! 👻 australasianhorror.com/mentorship-p... I had a fantastic experience being mentored by @spooktapes.bsky.social in 2022 and blogged about it if you want more info:

australasianhorror.com

Mentorship Program

2025 AHWA MENTORSHIP PROGRAM IS OPEN TO APPLICATIONS The AHWA Mentorship Program is open to applications for 2025. Applications will close at midnight on Thursday, July 17th. Offers will be sent to…

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Undertow’s Best Weird Fiction of the Year is the gold standard anthology for strange stories - I’m so glad it’s back after what seemed a lifetime. Delighted and honoured The Beautiful Thing You Once Were made it into the list of notable stories, alongside some of my favourite authors of the genre.

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C.H. Pearce @chpearcewrites.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Weird fiction people? Legends! 🖤 Thinking also about the writing advice I got from my amazing AHWA mentor @spooktapes.bsky.social back in 2022 to imagine your ideal reader (singular) when revising, and the effect you want the story to have on them, which I still find really helpful today

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Delighted to learn my tragic, magic realist magpie love story – The Beautiful Thing You Once Were – has been shortlisted for an Aurealis Award. Some stories you just love irrationally, and this one broke my heart over and over as I wrote it... 1/3 Ping: @bourbonpenn.bsky.social

Street mural of a magpie speaking with an old lady with green skin who may or may not be a witch (she has a pointy nose)

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Editor: Love the book, Leo. It’s another masterpiece. But do you really need the 2nd epilogue? Tolstoy: Stet. How else will my readers understand my book’s themes without an essay to explain them? Editor: Ok. Let’s say we keep the 2nd epilogue… does it really need all 5 chapters? Tolstoy: Stet.

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Meerkat Press @meerkatpress.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

#womeninhorrormonth CALVARIA FELL by @CatSparx & @KaaronWarren blurred so many genre lines. And horror was one of them. Salute to these two talented authors! smpl.is/8sbjz #CatSparks #KaaronWarren #CliFi #WeirdFiction #DarkFantasy #Horror @Kaaron Warren @Cat Sparks

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Kathe Koja @kkoja.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

SKIN is a very intense book about love, art, pain and letting it all go, and if @lostmirror.bsky.social didn't make me laugh so hard this would have been a very serious portrait 💀 And @meerkatpress.bsky.social has the presales now plus incredible swag #queerhorror #industrial #art

Woman in black with silver hair, laughing her head off while holding a book and two small paper prints and a sticker and wooden bookmark

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Kaaron Warren @kaaronwarren.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

My stuff from last year in case you're voting for awards and need a reminder of stuff!

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Meerkat Press @meerkatpress.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Congratulations to Joel Dane's THE RAGPICKER, a Foreword Indies Finalist | Science Fiction. An amazing book and we are so happy to see it on this list! smpl.is/a3lmo #forewordindiesaward #JoelDane #DarkSciFi #Dystopian @Joel Dane

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T R Napper @trnapper.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

I don't, in a million years, think my novella will garner enough votes for a Hugo nom. I'm not deluded. But I do know it is a damn good book, & worthy of your time. And to paraphrase Bilbo: why shouldn't I, have a crack at the prize? (Ballot closes March 14).

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Meerkat Press @meerkatpress.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Huge congrats to Seb Doubinsky's THE SUM OF ALL THINGS, a Foreword Indies Finalist | Fantasy. We love this book & are excited to see it on this list. smpl.is/a3lhw @SebDoubinsky.bsky.social #SebDoubinsky #ScienceFiction #forewordindiesfinalist

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the Czech playwright Václav Havel, who became President of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution. Despite Soviet oppression, Havel continued to write in spite of the dangers, hiding his growing manuscript in a hole in a tree.

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Poor Google is a tad unsettled by my current research...

Google telling me that 'Help is available' and sharing the number of Lifeline Australia.

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generalsheenanigans @sheenalouisef.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Bookmail! Ariadne, I Love You by @spooktapes.bsky.social (Arrived today, @meerkatpress.bsky.social ❤️) #booksky For more: meerkatpress.shop/products/ari...

Ariadne, I Love You by J. Ashley Smith. Cover by Tricia Reeks of Meerkat Press. The cover shows skeletal remains.

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Meerkat Press @meerkatpress.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

this may be my favorite bookshelf ever. Not to mention the southern reach trilogy which we didn't publish but love. @spooktapes.bsky.social I like the way Ariadne looks on this shelf!

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

When you leave your 15yo alone at the beach for an hour…

Sand sculpture of a naked man with his head covered in sand.

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

From the vault! @malskene just uncovered a lost video (c/o @alskene) of my first gig with Superfine, circa 1995. Lambchops, Lennons, and a naked chin. Thirty fucken years, man... (Time has not been kind to that ponytail.)

Superfine on stage at the Hallamshire Hotel, circa 1995. Steve Pih and Mal Skene on Guitar. J. Ashley-Smith on bass guitar.

J. Ashley-Smith on bass, age 19. (With a notable – and disturbing – absence of facial hair.)

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Saturday morning, the kids led a family conversation about who was our GOAT. When they asked me, I had no idea (I always falter when someone asks me my favourite anything). Then I opened the paper and saw that David Lynch was dead, which answered the question for me.

Patricia Arquette in a black limo - scene from David Lynch’s Lost Highway

Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rossellini in a scene from David Lynch’s Blue Velvet.

Naomi Watts and Laura Harring in a scene from David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive

The giant and Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 13/11/2023

How it started. How it’s going.

Vangelis recording the Blade Runner soundtrack.

MacReady with ice in his beard and a flaming bundle of dynamite.

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 09/11/2023

My 9yo knowing the lyrics to The Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’ is, it turns out, equivalent time-wise to me at his age knowing the lyrics to ‘All Shook Up.’ And if that doesn’t make you feel like a crusty old fucker then I don’t know what will!

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 08/11/2023

Thinking about this aphorism from E.M. Cioran: “Write books only if you are going to say in them the things you would never dare confide to anyone.” An impossible ideal? Or an essential first principle?

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

“The Measure of Sorrow is full of parents and children lost in a world of darkness, grasping for meaning and connection, and often using the latter as a proxy for the helplessness of the human condition writ large… www.seizethepress.com/2023/09/04/g...

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

Just gleefully backed this awesome project. If you dig comics, kooky space adventures and cannibalism, I suggest you get in while the getting’s good. (And the rewards are damn fine too!)

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

The mighty @meerkatpress.bsky.social are now on BlueSky! Give them a follow, then grab yourself some books with this awesome Halloween deal. meerkat-press-shop.fourthwall.com

Meerkat Press Halloween Sale – All books 20% off with code HR23SCARE. meerkat-press-shop.fourthwall.com

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Simon Strantzas @strantzas.bsky.social · 18/10/2023

Happy 5th birthday to my collection, NOTHING IS EVERYTHING, first published by Undertow Publications in 2018 and still available (in both hardcover and paperback editions). undertowpublications.com/shop/nothi…

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 16/10/2023

Been in that post book-launch slump for a while now, so am stoked to see The Measure of Sorrow getting some love. Absolutely floored by these words from Aussie horror legend @alanbaxter.bsky.social (which features way less cursing than the DM he sent me after throwing the book across the room).

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 24/09/2023

Introduce yourself with some jobs you’ve done apart from the one you do now: - art museum attendant - musician - pot washer - telephone interviewer - filing clerk in the room of forgotten things

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 22/09/2023

I stumbled across a fantastic (and appropriately grim) review of #TheMeasureOfSorrow in issue 90 of ASIM... “J. Ashley-Smith deals in a specific kind of pitch blackness... He allows his characters to be their flawed, hideous selves while keeping heroism like a bauble, forever out of their reach..."

Cover of The Measure Of Sorrow by J. Ashley-Smith

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Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 21/09/2023

Behind the scenes of Destroy All Monsters

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

“Australian gothic with a good dose of cosmic horror… these stories are poignant reflections on broken relationships and the insurmountable distances between us.” Wonderfully insightful (and generous) review of #TheMeasureOfSorrow www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

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