Slip

Slip

Reading Time: 4 minutesThe plan failed, or I wouldn’t be here assisting a paramedic as he straps my corpse onto a gurney. Confusing? Yeah. Try being me.
Life In 2050

Life In 2050

Reading Time: 32 minutesThis novel is a pastiche of the classic novel by George Orwell 1984.
All In The Game

All In The Game

Reading Time: 4 minutesIn a battle-ridden world, lives are spent like currency, and one soldier tries to understand what happened to his comrade.
The Rarest of Contraband

The Rarest of Contraband

Reading Time: 4 minutesThe best thing about running the ship’s laundry was the many nooks and crannies to hide contraband. I had powder, of course, and weapons, the bread and butter of any smuggling outfit. But a month ago things changed when the hyperdrive malfunctioned.
Gods and Monsters Installment 45: Love Without Compromise

Gods and Monsters Installment 45: Love Without Compromise

Reading Time: 5 minutesHe will miss the fog and the light on the Bay. But he hungers for the solace of the Redwoods’ towering shadows. He needs to hear waves break endlessly on wild rocky shores.
Imaginary Children

Imaginary Children

Reading Time: 24 minutesA lonely, powerful woman takes part in a risky experiment that allows her to see visions of the children she could conceive with certain men—strangers whom she would find deeply attractive. She becomes obsessed with finding a man who is triggering visions of one child in particular.
Theory Into Practice

Theory Into Practice

Reading Time: 4 minutesStealing the space station was the easy part.
From an Ixil, To a Gringo

From an Ixil, To a Gringo

Reading Time: 4 minutes“Juana has stopped ageing,” the village elder tells Theo as they step towards the distant shack. “She ceased about five years ago. Said she couldn’t grow any older without dying. And if Juana dies, there’s no telling what Edna might do.”
The End Is Nigh: Gods and Monsters in Retrospect

The End Is Nigh: Gods and Monsters in Retrospect

Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe release of the final installment of Gods and Monsters is only a week away, so we now invite you to look back on the story and hear from King herself about what the writing and publication process has been like for this unique and thrilling novel. 
Red Jenny and the Pirates of Buffalo

Red Jenny and the Pirates of Buffalo

Reading Time: 25 minutesIt is a time our children will know better. The sloth and frivolousness we wallowed in has left them a world with new players in different positions, where the spotlight has shifted and those that were once proud are now desperate. In this new world, the North American center of political and economic power has moved up above the 49th Parallel, and the relationship between the old and new superpowers is not as warm as it had been before.
Gods and Monsters Installment 44: Premonitions of Endings

Gods and Monsters Installment 44: Premonitions of Endings

Reading Time: 5 minutes“Tarantulas are loners, like you,” says Ryo, resting a weightless hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “I was a loner too. Perhaps if I had it to do over… But that’s foolish talk. I don’t, I can’t. I don’t know if you can, but…”
Company Man

Company Man

Reading Time: 3 minutesSam was a company man. He was exactly what the company needed and what the company wanted. That is what made him so disturbing.
Tuning

Tuning

Reading Time: 11 minutesA mother who is frustrated with her teenage daughter comes across a magical object that can repair items. She wonders what effect the object might have if she used it on her daughter.
Let the Salt Decide

Let the Salt Decide

Reading Time: 4 minutesZeke looked out a kitchen window, into his backyard. Waves crested and lapped the shore, leaving salt-soaked artifacts in their wake. The sea always has a say.
Gods and Monsters Installment 43: Predator and Prey

Gods and Monsters Installment 43: Predator and Prey

Reading Time: 8 minutesRiver enters Bert’s. In spite of himself, his heart leaps at the sight of Pam. He wants his heart to be stone. He wants never to have met her. But wishes are overrun by desire. Love triumphs over fear.
Slip

Slip

Andrea GoyanJan 16, 2025
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe plan failed, or I wouldn’t be here assisting a paramedic as he straps my corpse onto a gurney. Confusing? Yeah. Try being me.
Life In 2050

Life In 2050

James MusgraveJan 13, 2025
Reading Time: 32 minutesThis novel is a pastiche of the classic novel by George Orwell 1984.
All In The Game

All In The Game

Dick NarvettJan 10, 2025
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn a battle-ridden world, lives are spent like currency, and one soldier tries to understand what happened to his comrade.
The Rarest of Contraband

The Rarest of Contraband

Reading Time: 4 minutesThe best thing about running the ship’s laundry was the many nooks and crannies to hide contraband. I had powder, of course, and weapons, the bread and butter of any smuggling outfit. But a month ago things changed when the hyperdrive malfunctioned.
Gods and Monsters Installment 45: Love Without Compromise

Gods and Monsters Installment 45: Love Without Compromise

E. E. KingJan 7, 2025
Reading Time: 5 minutesHe will miss the fog and the light on the Bay. But he hungers for the solace of the Redwoods’ towering shadows. He needs to hear waves break endlessly on wild rocky shores.
Imaginary Children

Imaginary Children

Janet StilsonJan 7, 2025
Reading Time: 24 minutesA lonely, powerful woman takes part in a risky experiment that allows her to see visions of the children she could conceive with certain men—strangers whom she would find deeply attractive. She becomes obsessed with finding a man who is triggering visions of one child in particular.
Theory Into Practice

Theory Into Practice

Jeff CurrierJan 6, 2025
Reading Time: 4 minutesStealing the space station was the easy part.
From an Ixil, To a Gringo

From an Ixil, To a Gringo

Reading Time: 4 minutes“Juana has stopped ageing,” the village elder tells Theo as they step towards the distant shack. “She ceased about five years ago. Said she couldn’t grow any older without dying. And if Juana dies, there’s no telling what Edna might do.”
The End Is Nigh: Gods and Monsters in Retrospect

The End Is Nigh: Gods and Monsters in Retrospect

Sophie GorjanceDec 31, 2024
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe release of the final installment of Gods and Monsters is only a week away, so we now invite you to look back on the story and hear from King herself about what the writing and publication process has been like for this unique and thrilling novel. 

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REVIEWS

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 17, 2025

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 17, 2025

Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes apocalypses, witches, and romantasy from a USA Today bestselling author.
Best Speculative Fiction Books Read in 2024

Best Speculative Fiction Books Read in 2024

Reading Time: 3 minutesAnother year has come and gone, and I thankfully never had reader’s block. I even surprised myself by out-reading my own reading challenge.  From yours truly, here are the best speculative fiction books I read in 2024 in no particular order. Disclaimer: Most of these were not published in 2024. Ansibles, perfiladores y otras máquinas […]
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 10, 2025

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 10, 2025

Reading Time: 11 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a magical hairless cat, a serial killer on the loose in a steampunk London, a telepathic monkey on a distant planet, and a girl who is admitted to a magic academy despite the fact that she has no obvious magic.
Our Share of Night Review: Horror, Legacy, and Everything in Between

Our Share of Night Review: Horror, Legacy, and Everything in Between

Reading Time: 3 minutesMariana Enriquez is mostly known for her short narrative. We included her in a little list to keep spreading the Halloween cheer last year. Our Share of Night, for its part, is a big, chunky girl. It is also Enriquez’s most ambitious novel to date that keeps her style intact and introduces more horrors and […]
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 3, 2025

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 3, 2025

Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a human discovering a long-lost Earth, elves and vampires, time-travel romance, and a solar flare that could destroy humanity.
Snow White and the Huntsman: The Power of Gesture

Snow White and the Huntsman: The Power of Gesture

Reading Time: 2 minutesA look at the power of gesture in establishing resonance and character evoked through the interplay of acting, scriptwriting and direction with brilliantly woven callback scenes as the heroine Snow White shows maternal grace to her nemesis Ravenna. Snow White protects herself, heart and kingdom, while holding on to the grace of who she truly is, relating with love and innocence even at the end of a tough battle with a selfish antagonist.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 27, 2024

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 27, 2024

Reading Time: 13 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list is all romantasy with two USA Today bestselling authors.
The Werecleaner Review: Werewolves Against Capitalism

The Werecleaner Review: Werewolves Against Capitalism

Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of this year’s surprises is The Werecleaner. You play as Kyle, a janitor at a corporate company. But — you’re actually a werewolf!

Writing Advice of the Week

Generate Story Ideas with Tarot (Here’s How)

Generate Story Ideas with Tarot (Here’s How)

Fallon ClarkJan 12, 2025
Reading Time: 6 minutesTarot cards offer powerful ways for creative people to generate story ideas and work through storytelling issues, including character development and problem-solving challenges.
Add a Writing Ritual to Your Routine

Add a Writing Ritual to Your Routine

Fallon ClarkJan 5, 2025
Reading Time: 5 minutesRecognizing opportunities to introduce rituals and modify our routines for the better can help us create writing habits that stick.
Winter Is For Writing

Winter Is For Writing

Fallon ClarkDec 29, 2024
Reading Time: 6 minutesIf during this time of year you’re thinking, “I need something to do,” January is the perfect time to stop wandering, set goals, and adopt new writing habits.
Writing Fiction Scenes that Work

Writing Fiction Scenes that Work

Fallon ClarkDec 22, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutesWorried about lackluster scenes? Something feeling broken in your story? Return to basics and think through what a scene is and what it can and should do for your story.

ESSAYS

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will push space travel further than any private mission has before

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will push space travel further than any private mission has before

Chris ImpeySep 6, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutesPolaris Dawn pushes the envelope of civilian space travel in 2024, but at what cost?
Studying lake deposits in Idaho could give scientists insight into ancient traces of life on Mars

Studying lake deposits in Idaho could give scientists insight into ancient traces of life on Mars

Robert PatalanoJul 19, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhile NASA researchers are directly combing the surface of Mars for signs of life, scientists are also using a site here on Earth to approximate ancient environmental conditions on Mars.
ChatGPT and the movie ‘Her’ are just the latest example of the ‘sci-fi feedback loop’

ChatGPT and the movie ‘Her’ are just the latest example of the ‘sci-fi feedback loop’

Rizwan VirkJul 12, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutesScience fiction and technological innovation feed off each other in an ongoing back-and-forth that can play out over decades.
Everything a writer needs to know about AI (for now, at least)

Everything a writer needs to know about AI (for now, at least)

Maria KorolovMar 21, 2024
Reading Time: 6 minutesI want to know what’s really going on with AI. And, as a writer and journalist, I have a personal stake in figuring out what’s happening because I have a strong feeling that my whole career is on the line.

NEWS

Fall 2024 Original Fiction Submissions Period Opens October 1!

Fall 2024 Original Fiction Submissions Period Opens October 1!

Geordie MorseSep 20, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe fall 2024 submission cycle for original speculative fiction begins on October 1 and closes at midnight on October 31. We’re looking for your best enthralling, imaginative, or bone-chilling original fiction stories, as long as they’re 1,200 words or fewer.
Shadow the Hedgehog, bathed in red light. Image source: Paramount Pictures

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Looks To Fully Embrace Its Video Game Source

Terrence SmithAug 28, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is taking a darker approach than the previous two films, but still boasts quite a few laughs and Easter eggs for long-time fans of the blue hedgehog.
Hugos awarded, Emily Tesh and Ann Leckie take top honors

Hugos awarded, Emily Tesh and Ann Leckie take top honors

Maria KorolovAug 12, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutesEmith Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory and Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch won this year’s Hugo Awards for best novel and best series.
Sci-fi tractor beam comes closer to reality

Sci-fi tractor beam comes closer to reality

Maria KorolovAug 2, 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutesIn a breakthrough that sounds like it’s straight out of a science fiction novel, researchers have successfully created a tractor beam using twisting light beams.
Hugo awards votes disqualified

Hugo awards votes disqualified

Maria KorolovJul 23, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Hugo Awards, set to be awarded on August 11, has disqualified nearly ten percent of the votes cast this year due to fraud.
All images for this post have been created with Adobe Express, which only uses fully licensed images for training data and pays artists for their work.

16 best love stories from MetaStellar

Benji BlackwellMay 8, 2024
Reading Time: 8 minutesDive into 16 enchanting tales of love that transcend time, space, and even the boundaries of reality, plucked right from the pages of MetaStellar.
SFWA Announces 59th Nebula Awards Finalists

SFWA Announces 59th Nebula Awards Finalists

Maria KorolovMar 16, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has announced the finalists for the 59th Annual Nebula Awards.
MetaStellar is Accepting Flash Fiction Submissions for Spring 2024!

MetaStellar is Accepting Flash Fiction Submissions for Spring 2024!

Geordie MorseMar 4, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe spring 2024 submission cycle for original speculative fiction runs from March 1st and closes at midnight on March 31st. We’re looking for your best enthralling, imaginative, or bone-chilling original fiction stories of 1,200 words or fewer. Please visit our flash fiction submission page for full details and the online submission form. Accepted authors will […]

ON WRITING

How creatives can survive AI — lessons from a $1 trillion industry that’s fully at risk

How creatives can survive AI — lessons from a $1 trillion industry that’s fully at risk

Maria KorolovMar 30, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesThere’s a $1 trillion industry that is about to be decimated by AI, and they’re spending billions to figure out how to survive. Any writer, artist, or editor can use their strategies.
Why Adobe Firefly is the only AI image app I recommend — and how to use the latest features

Why Adobe Firefly is the only AI image app I recommend — and how to use the latest features

Maria KorolovMar 28, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesAdobe Firefly, which is only trained on fully licensed images and pays artists, has added some new features that make it even easier for authors to create illustrations.
The best free* books to help you battle procrastination

The best free* books to help you battle procrastination

Maria KorolovFeb 11, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesHere are nine books on Amazon with tons of positive reviews that will help you finish your writing project — and are free to read with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
The Do’s and Don’ts of building a book trailer in the age of AI

The Do’s and Don’ts of building a book trailer in the age of AI

PJ CaldasJan 7, 2024
Reading Time: 5 minutesHow to steal Hollywood’s marketing tricks and develop trailers for print novels.
Claude AI doubles reading length, ups accuracy

Claude AI doubles reading length, ups accuracy

Maria KorolovNov 21, 2023
Reading Time: 2 minutesAnthropic’s Claude can now read texts up to 150,000 words in length, double its previous limit — and its accuracy is now better, as well.
Adobe upgrades Firefly for better images, vector graphics

Adobe upgrades Firefly for better images, vector graphics

Maria KorolovOct 10, 2023
Reading Time: 6 minutesAdobe announced a new version of its Firefly image generation tool today at the Adobe Max 2023 conference.
Canva sets up a $200 million artist compensation fund

Canva sets up a $200 million artist compensation fund

Maria KorolovOct 5, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutesCanva announces a $200 million fund to compensate artists for AI, adds new AI features.
James S. Corey, Brent Weeks, Ann Leckie, and other authors teach free virtual writing course

James S. Corey, Brent Weeks, Ann Leckie, and other authors teach free virtual writing course

Maria KorolovOct 1, 2023
Reading Time: 5 minutesOrbit is offering a series of writing advice sessions from some of the top names of the industry. The sessions, which start on October 11, are completely free and cover everything from inspiration to planning to the actual writing.