Renna’s Crossing Chapter 4: Renna’s Going on a Trip + We Who Bloom in Early Spring
Reading Time: 17 minutesKyle ducked his head as a spinning flapjack narrowly missed him. He brandished a batter-covered spatula at Derek. “Cease fire at once! You know that’s against the Breakfast Geneva Code!”
Adventures of Mmuo
Reading Time: 4 minutesA pagan’s curse, said in jest, comes back to haunt her.
A Taste of Evil
Reading Time: 4 minutesAn old vending machine serves up more than just a stale Devil Dog.
A Bend in Space
Reading Time: 4 minutesSometimes you need to travel a long way to find yourself.
The Dark Side of Sweet Corn
Reading Time: 8 minutesThe corn field across the road had always been a part of the landscape, a quiet presence that whispered in the wind and marked the seasons with its growth. This year, though, something was different.
Renna’s Crossing Chapter 3: The Visitor, Twelve Years Prior
Reading Time: 11 minutesSomething from the direction of the forest made them turn about sharply, muscles tensed, a reflex with no apparent trigger. Mab put her thick, gnarled hand upon Job’s shoulder. “A bad visitor. Reeking of sulfur and forgotten hate.”
The Curio Shop
Reading Time: 4 minutesA blind man makes a deal with the devil that doesn’t work out as he had hoped.
The Oracle at Delphi
Reading Time: 14 minutesThe salesman of a device that predicts the immediate future finds himself in the pitch meeting of his life when he’s taken hostage by a trio of armed criminals.
Blood and Saltwater
Reading Time: 2 minutesA mermaid’s lament over her murdered lover, and her call to wage war against those who killed him.
Come Back Yesterday
Reading Time: 7 minutesA man learns of his destiny when he discovers the body of the mother he never knew. A letter left at he scene is hard to believe.
Renna’s Crossing Chapter 2: Renna’s Room
Reading Time: 12 minutesSurely Job had a Reason for coming to see her, with lots of Relevant Information and perhaps even some Responsibilities. She didn’t know, so she was nervous. She wanted them to speak first and get on with it.
Act of God: In The Beginning
Reading Time: 6 minutesEarth is facing a coming ice age. Humanity has marshaled its technology and resources in an attempt to delay the great cold; a diversion necessary to maintain hope for the people. But some few know the truth. There is little hope left on Earth. But there may still be hope in the stars.
Our God is a Jealous God
Reading Time: 12 minutesA woman seeks healing at an isolated ranch in the southwest. It goes as expected until it doesn’t.
Providence Will Provide
Reading Time: 4 minutesNaima has everything she needs, and everything she wants, and more besides. Providence does just what it says: whatever you need, it provides. Coming here was the right thing to do, the best thing. Coming here was the only thing that made sense. Coming here was Naima’s idea, after all.
car·niv·o·rous
Reading Time: 19 minutesA detective investigating a string of gristly murders comes face to face with an unimaginable horror.
The Crystal Egg
Reading Time: 24 minutesA man becomes obsessed with crystal egg and the mystical town captured inside it.
Date Night
Reading Time: 3 minutesOur heroine has fangs, fur, and an agenda.
Dueling Map Apps
Reading Time: 4 minutesA road trip through Southern Quebec becomes chaotic when multiple navigation systems start bickering. With his wife asleep, the driver is caught between OnStar’s Southern drawl, Google’s British precision, and an unexpected voice from FordPass, turning a simple drive into a comedic tech showdown.
Renna’s Crossing Chapter 6: Rainy Day Bird Cafe
Reading Time: 14 minutesRenna’s quest for knowledge takes her to a hidden library, and the path to its doors reveals a town’s strange undercurrents.
Where Old Wood Decays
Reading Time: 5 minutesA timeworn witch, the last of her coven, fights her young replacement to cling to the post she’s held for centuries as the steward of the Mother Tree.
Shrinking
Reading Time: 5 minutesA woman goes home to visit her parents, even though every visit causes their house to shrink.
Toddler’s Tidy Tale: Every Mother’s Dream
Reading Time: 3 minutesA weary mother’s wish comes true when her toddler’s toys mysteriously start tidying themselves. As she embraces the magic, she soon learns that all enchantments—like the holiday season—must come to an end.
Renna’s Crossing Chapter 5: Gift From the Magi
Reading Time: 25 minutes“Magic may be held by any hand and bred by any soul. That was one of your grandmother’s most insistent lessons. It is all just a matter of discipline, and passion.”
Shadowed
Reading Time: 9 minutesA cable network host of the paranormal, Dr. Knute Quinn, ignores his old professor’s warnings about investigating shadow creatures, monstrosities much more aggressive and dangerous compared to the more passive shadow figures, dedicating his premiere second season telecast to the subject . . . with horrific consequences.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Feb. 28, 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 has alien conspiracies, a magic-wielding space mercenary, a girl who can talk to dragons, and a private eye looking for a killer werewolf.
10 Most Anticipated Fantasy Books of 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesThis year is bringing the bangers for fantasy readers! Here are 10 fantasy books we’re looking forward to reading this year.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Feb. 21, 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 sexy books by USA Today bestselling authors, apocalypses, and dinosaurs.
Broadening Our Horror-izons: A Look at Foreign Indie Horror Films
Reading Time: 5 minutesWe’ve picked out a few low-budgeted, independent, foreign horror films popular amongst genre fans that offer a buffet of assorted cultures and styles.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Feb. 14, 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 several romantic books by USA Today bestselling authors!
10 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi Books of 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesA new year often means new releases! At MetaStellar, we’re very excited about what 2025 is going to bring, so we took a deep dive into the internet and found several gems. Here is our curation of 10 science fiction books we’re definitely pumped to read this year. Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto I only […]
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Feb. 7, 2025
Reading Time: 12 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes two visions of the dystopian future, a sexy romantic fantasy, and magic-wielding detectives.
Act of God Review: One Man’s Journey to Save Humanity
Reading Time: 4 minutesJan Byron Strogh’s novel Act of God presents a simple premise: What will happen when Earth becomes inhabitable? In the novel, the apocalypse comes in the form of ice spreading from the poles towards the rest of the world. And because ice has frozen all fertile land, humanity now faces not only extreme climate change, […]
Writing Advice of the Week
Telling The Two-Sided Story
Reading Time: 7 minutesPlaying with dual POVs or timelines? Here are questions to ask to make sure a two-sided storytelling approach is right for the story you’re writing now.
3 Tips for Tight Writing
Reading Time: 5 minutesLearn three ways to tighten your writing on a technical level by reducing fat, remaining consistent, and using parallel constructions for reader ease.
Use Reader Feedback (Without Losing Your Mind)
Reading Time: 5 minutesExternal feedback — from beta readers or editors — will help you see your blind spots so you can fill them and meet reader expectations while staving off overwhelm.
Writing Humanity in the Digital Age
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe best stories live on the edges of movements, as if the authors who pen them take up silent calls to action and then rally their readerly troops for battle.
ESSAYS
3 AI tools I use regularly that aren’t ChatGPT or Midjourney
Reading Time: 4 minutesI use Otter AI, Canva, and Notion nearly every day, and here is why other writers should, too.
The multiverse: how we’re tackling the challenges facing the theory
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe idea of a multiverse consisting of “parallel universes” is a popular science fiction trope, recently explored in the Oscar-winning movie Everything Everywhere All At Once. However, it is within the realm of scientific possibility.
AIs ‘learn’ by creating mini-AIs and it’s super weird but also very cool
Reading Time: 3 minutesAccording to a paper released last fall by researchers from Google, Stanford, and MIT, large language models learn new information and concepts by creating new, miniature machine learning systems on the fly.
Distant star TOI-700 has two potentially habitable planets orbiting it – making it an excellent candidate in the search for life
Reading Time: 5 minutesNASA recently announced the discovery of a new, Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star called TOI-700.
NEWS
Adobe’s Firefly will be a Midjourney killer for book cover art
Reading Time: 4 minutesAdobe Firefly’s images are almost as good as Midjourney, the interface is infinitely better, and artists will get paid for their training data. The beta is open now, and it’s looking extremely promising.
WGA backtracks on anti-AI stance, as long as writers get credit
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Writers Guild of America, which represents screenwriters, is backing off on its anti-AI stance, Variety reported today.
Google falling farther behind in AI race
Reading Time: 5 minutesEdge, Opera and Brave all now have AI built in. Google’s Chrome is not even in the race yet.
Adobe, Nvidia announce ethical AI image generation
Reading Time: 4 minutesAdobe and Nvidia both announced AI image generators today — Firefly and Picasso, respectively — that do not use artists’ work for training data without their permission. Both companies also promise to pay artists for work generated in their signature styles, as does Getty Images.
Study: Writing occupation will be most affected by AI
Reading Time: 3 minutesAccording to research released today, the more high-level and creative your job, the more likely it will be to be disrupted by AI. Top of the list? Writers and authors — with up to 100 percent of their jobs likely to be affected.
GPT 4, Claude, and Alpaca all went live this week and yes, we need to worry
Reading Time: 8 minutesIt was a big week for AI news these past few days. GPT 4 was released on Tuesday, Midjourney 5 was released on Wednesday, and Alpaca — a $600 clone of ChatGPT — was released on Monday. Yes, you can now have your own large language model for less than the cost of new phone […]
Midjourney 5 released with more aspect ratios, photorealism
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe fifth generation of the super popular Midjourney app is out, and it’s more photorealistic and better at hands and faces.
AI work can be copyrighted, if human creativity was involved
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe US Copyright Office issued a ruling today that AI-generated content can, in fact, be copyrighted — as long as a human being has contributed work to the end product.
ON WRITING
10 ways Claude AI can help you self-edit your book — for free
Reading Time: 16 minutesClaude AI is the single best editor I’ve tried so far. And it can do a whole book at a time. For free.
Book editing with AI: Code Interpreter vs. Claude — there’s no contest
Reading Time: 8 minutesAnthropic’s Claude beats ChatGPT hands-down when it comes to analyzing full-length books.
Best free Canva fonts for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror
Reading Time: 6 minutesMore than 70 great free fonts for Canva ebook covers for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres.
Midjourney’s new zoom out feature great for book covers
Reading Time: 7 minutesMidjourney adds zoom out feature, which is great for creating art for book covers.
Adobe will indemnify customers against lawsuits
Reading Time: 2 minutesAdobe promises to cover any legal costs that companies might incur as a result of using their AI-powered image generation tools.
Claude AI can read and analyze an entire book at once — here’s how to use it
Reading Time: 19 minutesClaude can read a 75,000-word book and identify structural and style problems. It can also create outlines and character sheets.
Authors can now use WordPress to create newsletters — and get paid for them
Reading Time: 3 minutesWordPress.com now lets authors get paid for their newsletters.
Adobe adds Firefly’s AI image generation to Photoshop
Reading Time: 7 minutesAdobe has added Firefly’s AI image generation to Photoshop so that you, or your cover designer, can create book covers using commercially-safe AI image generation.