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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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

A chapter, for sure. I stop noticing it after a para or two.

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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 · 15/05/2025

Ha ha, yup. Still writing for Cody. ❤️ (Thanks, Celia!)

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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

It was pretty close for me. (Didn't recognise that I would always put Libs bottom on principle, but otherwise all good.)

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

It's now made of carcinogenic sugar alternatives, sawdust and my childhood tears.

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

It's the 30-year anniversary of the Awards, too, so doubly special to get a nod. Congrats to all on the shortlist, especially the many good friends and colleagues! (I'll spare you all another round of multi-tagging – know that I love you all and think you're ace.) 2/3

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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

They’re fucking awful. What were we like as kids that that shit tasted like fucking ambrosia?

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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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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

So glad it arrived safe and sound!

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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

Thank you so much, Em. Appreciate the shout out.

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

We simply went ahead and did certain things that we felt we ought to do, and that seemed to us decent to do, nothing more nor less."

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

Later, describing his role as a dissident, Havel wrote: "we never decided to become dissidents. We have been transformed into them, without quite knowing how, sometimes we have ended up in prison without precisely knowing how…

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

When he was at last imprisoned, the only writing he was allowed was a single two-page letter to his wife each fortnight, every word of which was closely scrutinised and censored by the prison guard.

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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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J. Ashley-Smith @spooktapes.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Thanks so much for sharing! (Hope you enjoy it.)

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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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