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We just passed 20% of our goal! If you're looking to stock up on LGBTQ+ Gothic, Horror, and Dark Fantasy Books, this is the Bundle for you--you can't beat $10 for 32 titles! itch.io/b/3931/lgbtq... #booksky #writesky #horror #gothic #fantasy

A promo showing 10 books:
My Lord - L. B. Shimaira
This Is How Immortals Die - Nicole Hidalgo
Born of Scourge - S. Jean
These Murky Hells - Rosie Forest
Confined - Nikki Flynn
Lemon Balm - Artemis Quinn
Fools Rush In - Sarah Clowder
The Fealty of Monsters Volume 1 - Ladz
Her Bloody Creature - Samara-Jade Sendek
Shadow & Flame - Sylvie Helstaff

A promo image showing 11 books: A Sharper, More Lasting Pain - Alex Harvey-Rivas
A Flame in the Night - Morgan Dante
Flesh and Bone - Arden Powell
The Cryptic Parade & A World Unfurling - Dan F. Bispo
Woman of Sorrow & Blood - Dianna Gunn
Dark Heart of Ilmoure - Cara N. Delaney
Blood on the Snow (Argentum in Aqua #1) - Finn McLellan
Farewell to Humanity - Stuart Tudor
Lantern - Burgundy Athena Pendragon
The Devouring - A. M. Shilling
The Mistress of Rosehorn Hall - Zack Prince

A promo showing 11 books:
Reforged - V. S. Holmes
The River Devours the Moon - Kaya Skovdatter
Bludeye Beach - Eliwood S. Gheist
A Haunting at Hartwell Hall - Rachel Bowdler
The Backwards Knight - Matthew Siadak
Manor of Shadows - Joachim Heijndermans
Hotel of Lost Souls - H.S. Kallinger
Fear the Wood, Thin the Trees - Jeremy Rayne
Yelen & Yelena - C.M. Rosens
The White Ribband - Mason Hawthorne
Books and Bone - Veo Corva

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Mason @masonhawthorne.bsky.social · 18h

Creepy, queer, and just ten bucks! OOooOOooOOO!!!

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Kaya Skovdatter 🏳️‍⚧️ (She/They) @gothgreenwitch.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Looking for something to darken the mood? Come wander blackened, misted wood. Follow shadowed path and footfalls of those surely just ahead, round bend and bracken. 32 books for $10. All suitably seasonal. (And then some.) Including my own The River Devours the Moon:

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Artemis Quinn 🏳️‍⚧️🎨📚 undead & thriving 🦇👻😱 @vampireantihero.com · 03/10/2026

'Tis spooky season and this undead soul is thriving. Check out this itch.io bundle! The LGBTQ+ Gothic, Dark Fantasy, and Horror Bundle has over 30 stories in it for $10! Only available until the 17th, so make sure to grab it now! itch.io/b/3931/lgbtq... #AQPromo

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Jeremy (he/ them) 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @jeremyrayne.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

If you want to get my book, Fear the Wood, Thin the Trees, alongside a frankly silly profusion of other awesome queer books perfect for the season, look no further! That doesn't say $10 does it?! It does! itch.io/b/3931/lgbtq...

LGBTQ+ Gothic, dark fantasy, and horror bundle!
Get over thirty books for just $10.
Oct 3-17.
The background is a dark, spooky forest with no undergrowth.

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Nicole "Ashrah" Hidalgo 😈🧄👻 @sayaashrah.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Today begins the LGBTQ+ Gothic, Horror, and Dark Fantasy Book Bundle, kindly organised by @vsholmes.bsky.social, where you can get This Is How Immortals Die and 31 other books for only $10! 🔥😈 A great way to celebrate the season! 👻🎃 itch.io/b/3931/lgbtq... #Books #BookSky #QueerWriters

Banner for the LGBTQ+ Gothic, Horror, and Dark Fantasy Book Bundle. From October 3 to October 17.

A few of the books included in the bundle, including my own, This Is How Immortals Die.

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Sarah Clowder (she/they) @sarah-clowder.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I'm in this awesome bundle along with a ton of other great writers 🎃

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 04/10/2026

Getting a little misty eyed over humans and connections and the stories we tell ourselves and each other. How we've all had the same fears and desires across the eons of human history.

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Joachim Heijndermans @jheijndermans.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The LGBTQ Gothic, Dark Fantasy and Horror bundle is live, with 30 books for $10 over on Itch. So much great work, including my own Manor of Shadows, My Lord by @shimaira.com and Shadow and Flame by @sylviehelstaff.bsky.social and many more. Find it here itch.io/b/3931/lgbtq...

Several of the books included in the bundle, including Woman of Sorrow and Blood by Dianna Gunn

A slew of books in the bundle, including Manor of Shadows by me.

More books in the bundle, including Shadow and Flame and My Lord.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 03/10/2026

Dig into everything creepy and dark: I joined 30 other speculative fiction authors for this LGBTQ+ Gothic, Horror, and Dark Fantasy Book Bundle. Get all these titles for less than filling up your tank, so stay home and read! 10/3 - 10/17 itch.io/b/3931/lgbtq... #booksky #writesky #fantasy #horror

A promo image with a dark, foggy forest as the background. Text reads: LGBTQ+ Gothic, Dark Fantasy, and Horror Bundle! Get over thirty books for just $10! Oct 3 - 17

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 03/10/2026

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Sophia_Nyx 🐰 @sophianyx.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Name a TV Show that stars a Woman.

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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 30/09/2026

I think every trans person on this website should drop everything and read this immediately. Some of the worst social media backlash I've had lately has come from trans people who are mad at me for telling trans people not to panic over the current political situation.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 29/09/2026

Today's word for #WIPSnips is "well." From my messy contemporary horrormance, THE DEVIL, HE KNOCKS. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #horror #booksky

An excerpt from THE DEVIL, HE KNOCKS written in black on white with the word "well" highlighted in grey. Excerpt reads: “Where were you?” he looks at the rifle over the man’s shoulder.
Hunting.
“It’s not hunting season.”
So, he wasn’t hunting out there, at least not any doe. Asher thinks back. Elias driving the Boisverts away, his traps and cameras. Did he know the body was there? This whole time? Was he the one who buried it? Was he the one responsible for the death?
How well, truly does Asher know him? Does he know him at all, at the end of the day? There’s no tone nor inflection to hear in his voice, though Asher would like to think he’d become intimate with the flickers of expression, that they were more honest than any tone.
Is that why Elias brought him here? Crippled him? But he could leave at any time, technically. He could whistle for Oakley and limp down the long, long winding two-track that served as Elias’s driveway and see where it joined a proper road and then keep limping until he found his way to the center of Grenmont.
He watches Elias’s hands, gentle and sure and scarred. So capable of violence. He can tell, in the easy way the man handles the knife, how he handles the gun.

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kay ⟡₊ ⊹🌙 @pawmi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

i hate gen ai so much it sneaks into everything

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Valerie A. Traina @v3ndettaval.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

YOU MUST READ THIS by journalist and author Sarah Kendzior‼️🤬😱👇

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Ian Haramaki 🏳️‍⚧️✨ @cometkins.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Writing is hard sometimes. What parts of it always feel easy to you? #WritingPrompt

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 12/09/2026

There’s a boy I talk about, when others share stories of childhoods, or of teenage escapades. Except he, technically, never existed. An essay on transness, alienation from past iterations, and the stories we create about ourselves. vsholmes.substack.com/p/if-neither... #writesky #booksky #lgbtq

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x @slightwright.blacksky.app · 18/09/2026

You really just have to be scared and do shit anyway. That’s the only way you will ever grow.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 18/09/2026

Continuing my literary emotional destruction, I started listening to WE BURNED SO BRIGHT yesterday.

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Tessa Hastjarjanto @tessahastjarjanto.com · 17/09/2026

Indie fantasy readers, your time has come! You can vote for your top indie fantasy/sci-fi books/series. Let's shake things up :) www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/co...

reddit.com

From the Fantasy community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the Fantasy community

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Riley Black 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦕 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

My latest prehistoric tale book art by @korybing.bsky.social poster by @emmalerae.bsky.social 10.27.26 Tyrant Lizard Queen She’ll eat your heart out. Pre-order now us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Alt text by Emma LeRae - A fake 80s style horror movie poster for the book Tyrant Lizard Queen by Riley Black. It features a Tyrannosaurus rex named Snaggletooth stalking through the cretaceous forests just as the evening sets in. The sky is reddish orange and the forest and the rex lie in blue shadows. The forest floor is moss covered and there is a Torosaurus skull from a previous kill soon to be swallowed up by the moss at the rex's feet.

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Abigail Larson @abigaillarson.com · 15/09/2026

A cruel love, strange love 🩸

Illustration from "Carmilla" depicting the vampire Carmilla caressing Laura while she sleeps fitfully. There are large windows in the background with dark red drapery.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 15/09/2026

Doing "month," yesterday's #WIPSnips, since I don't yet have today's "exterior." #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #booksky #horror

“They find him? Find out what happened?” Rico asks this time. His tone’s gentle. That doesn’t help.
Enoch swallows, shakes his head. “No. Never have. This is a small town, and people talk. Everyone talks. The stories spread like fire. I always thought if half the people spreading rumors looked for him, we’d have found him in time for dinner. Before we had a search party, we had three stories about why he left and another six about how he died. He got too drunk and did something stupid. He owed money and was killed. He owed money and offed himself. He owed money and ran away. You get the theme. The searches were sent out, then called off not even a month later.” Twelve days later, August 16th, a Friday, so the searchers could enjoy their weekend. “Pretty early on that they stopped looking for a man and started looking for a body.”
Rico grimaces in sympathy. He’s thinking of all the ways a body can be changed from that of a living man’s in the elements of late summer. Enoch knows he’s thinking these things, because Enoch thought them for those twelve days, spinning thoughts filled with bloated floating things and putrefaction and bursting bellies and scattered, scavenged pieces.

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Dax, sapphic fantasy author @daxaeterna.ink · 13/09/2026

Shadow Daddy High Lord of the Night Fae as an Allegory for Compulsory Heterosexuality

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Literally Miguel 🇻🇪 @literallymiguel.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Dakosaurus andiniensis, the shortest-snouted sea-croc and one of my favorite fossils everrrr And Geosaurus, first named as an unusually large species of modern Lacerta in 1816, it was an emblematic fossil animal during paleontology's early history throughout the 19th century

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 12/09/2026

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Duke @jgduke.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

This is what I want to say when grad students come into my workplace talking like AI is their bestie. Or worse (!!), when the fucking Dean of the Graduate College sends out emails now. I swear the mf doesn't write his own emails anymore. It's pathetic! Genuinely and literally pitiful.

Wait, you're saying you're an adult and you can't write an email? You are a grown ass human being and you can't read a paragraph or two without being bored or overwhelmed? You're a fully functioning adult and you can't sit for 5 min with your own thoughts in silence?
Bro, you should be embarrassed. That is embarrassing. Legit, you should be ashamed of yourself! Bragging about using AI is bragging that you're incompetent. You shouldn't be proud of being a fool. Wtf.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 12/09/2026

The 9/12 word for #WIPSnips is "wedge" which I had to hunt through all three current WIPs to find! So, from my winter island murder wives: #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #booksky #gothic #fantasy

An excerpt written in black on white, with the word "wedged" highlighted in grey, reads:

She races along the strand, feet aching with every blow upon the rounded stones. Up the winding trail, past the washed-out mouth to the lighthouse, through the snarl of winter-naked branches and to the station, wedged as it is in the throat of the harbor. It is only when she sees the stretched shadow of Markus that she stops.
He glowers down at her from the landing. “Where have you been?”
She doesn’t have an answer, and wavers on her battered feet.
He blinks and looks down at them, resolve faltering just a bit at the sight of her stone-torn soles. “Where is Billie?”
There is an answer she could give to that one, but it isn’t one he wants.

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Alex Larkspur 💛📚🌻 @applesncinnamon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

🌼 Sweet & Wild 🌼 💛MM Fantasy Romance ☀️A Sunshine MC 🍯A Cozy Adjacent Setting 🍃Forest Magic 🌳Spirits in the Woods 🐝Witches 🌻Healing and Growth Sweet & Wild: books2read.com/u/bzNng9 Itch: applesncinnamon.itch.io Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/alexlarkspur... Art by: @kalimpaszmadar.bsky.social

Terran, a man with tan skin, dark brown and green hair, and antlers lifts Micah, a man with light skin, blonde hair, and a straw hat as they kiss. There are flowers and trees behind them

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 11/09/2026

Just finished listening to WHALEFALL by Daniel Kraus and holy shit. Wow. That one will stick with me. My father's death was also a whalefall. #booksky

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Nicole "Ashrah" Hidalgo 😈🧄👻 @sayaashrah.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

And that's why she's one of the best: her passion for the world and characters is always a joy to watch, both on- and off-screen. More characters deserved to be played by people like her 💜* *(not a rant... okay, a very tiny, discreet rant)

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 10/09/2026

Today's #WIPSnips word for 9/10 is "teeth." An unnerving scene from my new project, THE DEVIL, HE KNOCKS, where the main character finds glass in his food. Unfortunately this bit was inspired by a real experience! #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

An excerpt written in black text on white with the word "teeth" highlighted in grey. Excerpt reads: He takes a bite, a big bite, chewing quickly, with no regard to choking or hiccups, desperate to refuel before he forces himself to clean the next room. He’s hunched over the sink, shoveling forkfuls when his back teeth come down on something hard and a moment later pain erupts across his gums on the right side, between his molars and cheek.
“Fuck,” he mumbles with his mouth full, working the hard, sharp thing from his mouth with his tongue and spitting it into his palm. Glass. A thick brown shard from the bottle of a beer bottle. He swears, throwing the plastic plate across the counter, where it slides then tips over onto the floor with a splat. He spits and spits, afraid to swallow, to chew, and when his lungs burn and black spots show at the corners of his vision it’s only then that he even dares to breathe, ragged and shaking.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 08/09/2026

About 22K words into this book and I THINK I might finally know what the hell it's about. Maybe.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 03/09/2026

So the vibes of this manuscript seem to be "if I think I've gone too far, go farther."

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I wrote about a group of Black dads who are building community by meeting up for yoga, and a instructor who randomly drives up to people on the street for on the spot yoga sessions

huffpost.com

These Black Men Are Forging Meaningful Bonds Through Yoga

A yoga session for Black dads takes place on Saturdays at the Barack Obama Presidential Center.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 29/08/2026

On sub: THE PASSING OF EIR LAHREN, folkloric fantasy + gothic romance with weird death and weirder sex. Snarky sapphic scifi archaeologists: vsholmes.com/nel-bently/ Bloodthirsty gods & broken heroes: vsholmes.com/blood-of-tit... Essays, reviews: vsholmes.substack.com #booksky #writesky

A promo image on a dark space background showing the six-book scifi series the Nel Bently Books (Travelers, Drifters, Strangers, Heretics, Fugitives, and Emissaries) and the tagline: Snarky, sapphic scifi archaeologists in space.

A promo image on a dark forest background showing the articles and essays V. S. Holmes has written:

HOW TO CREATE COMPELLING SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY STORIES
Authority Magazine

Dreadfully Comforting: Finding Solace in Horror
Horror Tree

What 2020 taught me
Readers Entertainment Magazine

MORAL DISABILITY: HOW VILLAINY LOOKS WHEN YOU’RE THE MONSTER
Sirens Essays

THE RESURGENCE AND POWER OF SUBTLE SCIENCE FICTION
File 770

You Can’t Miss The Library: Disability in SFF Worlds
Top Shelf Magazine

Writing Great Representation when it’s Not Your Own
Go Indie Now

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 28/08/2026

There’s something strange about the last, desperate gasps of summer, long days slowly waning, heat exhaustion and sunburns and thirst turning us all to mad dogs. The day job is full of rock dust and rust and a haze of flies. vsholmes.substack.com/p/dog-days-a... #writesky #booksky

vsholmes.substack.com

Dog days and heliacal rising.

An end-of-summer check in, EIR LAHREN updates, and my newest fascination.

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 27/08/2026

Submissions are open to my LGBTQ Gothic, Fantasy, and Horror ITCH.IO Bundle! Closes Sept 25th For pieces written by someone under the 2SLGBTQIA umbrella or that features a major character that identifies as such. forms.gle/uQhSYf2iuGPA... #booksky #writesky #gothic #itchiobundle

forms.gle

LGBTQ Gothic, Fantasy, and Horror ITCH.IO Bundle Sign Up

BUNDLE DETAILS Bundle runs Oct 3rd - 17th Equal revenue split (to the nearest integer, as allowed by itch) < 50 authors to allow equal split 1 Submission per account Submissions close Sept 25th REQUIR...

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C. Bukowski @thishurt.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Television used to MEAN something in this country. 🧐

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genna @genna.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Is this hardback books only? This isn’t super meaningful, as in 2002 hardback represented nearly 100% of first-run book sales. Now they’re only 70-80% (rest=eBook) For some genres/authors, that’s flipped. you would have to see advances, royalties and revenues to get a sense of where authors are at

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James McLeod @jamespmcleod.ca · 27/04/2026

This feels like a chart that authors might have some feelings about.

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#DVpit - Diverse Voices Pitch @dvpit.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#DVpit EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Join us for our #DVParty September 25-29, 2026! #DVParty is a pre-event to celebrate and highlight your projects before #DVpit! Go to dvpit.carrd.co/#dvpartypredv for rules & more info!

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V. S. Holmes @vsholmes.com · 15/08/2026

Belated✨ quote post! introduce yourself! ✨ Name: V Pronouns: He/Him Fav fantasy creature: ghosts or nachtmerrie Fav book last year: The Bear Fav book so far this year: You Weren't Meant to Be Human Current fav movie: Queer Current fav show: Six Feet Under or HR Season: Winter ... and a gif/meme!

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