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Benjamin C. Kinney

@benjaminckinney.com

3.2K followers 1.1K following 880 posts

SFF writer, neuroscientist, Hugo finalist. Escape Pod 2017-2023. Codex, VP, SFWA. Short stories in Analog, Lightspeed, Sunday Morning Transport, etc. Neuroscience (not under pen name): rehabilitation, neuroimaging, movement control, handedness

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · Apr 24

Hello new followers! I'm not super social-media-active, but I sometimes talk neuroscience and/or speculative fiction. I've got 30+ short stories out in the world (most free to read), here's an intro sampler: benjaminckinney.com/introduction/

Introduction & Selected Fiction » Benjamin C. Kinney - still pruning...

An introduction post for new readers: six selected stories from my archive of 30+ publications.

benjaminckinney.com

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 5h

Nah, it's all good! I know it's about the contract, and I've only chimed in as I thought would be useful to clarify its contents. Your review made me realize I needed to specify the "special projects no longer standard" in my post!

Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 5h

Yes, they got delisted due to Grinder's criteria. Hopefully the new contracts will get them back on the lists.

Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 10h

🫶

Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 10h

Made a small edit to clarify that they've said they're making the "special options" clause optional. If you don't like it, you can skip it. (I decided to take the gamble, but asked for a % list instead of % profits.)

Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 11h

Weird, I know! SFWA freaked out too. Publisher is making it opt-in for future boilerplate, but I decided to give it a shot with this particular story.

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 12h

As I read it, best-of is named as an explicit exception to exclusivity!

Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 13h

New neuroscience short story forthcoming in @analogsf.bsky.social! Which also means a story of - ultimately successful - negotiations with their new publisher.

Includes full final text of my contract for all to use while they finish rewriting their boilerplate.

benjaminckinney.com/analog-negot...

Analog Negotiations & Short Story Sale: Recognition, Memory » Benjamin C. Kinney - still pruning...

Successful negotiations with Must Read Magazines & Analog SF, who will publish my science fiction short story "Recognition, Memory."

benjaminckinney.com

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 1d

Ok, Phoebeatrice.

Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 1d

p = 0.051

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 4d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Reposted by Benjamin C. Kinney

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 7d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 7d

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Reposted by Benjamin C. Kinney

Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 11d

Very excited to offer the internet this novelette about dirtbags, privatization, heavy weather, and a beagle named Henry.

Escape Pod @escapepod.org · 11d

Sure, we all know Buckaroo Banzai's wisdom: "no matter where you go, there you are." In case you'd rather be somewhere else, this week we bring you part 1 of "Here Instead of There" by @matociquala.bsky.social, complete with grade-A cursing! Great for wherever in spacetime you find yourself.

Escape Pod 1013: Here Instead of There (Part 1 of 2)

Waking up sick in a punk house shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody so I don’t know why it always came as a surprise to me. My head throbbed so bad I couldn’t tell the difference between the hangover…

escapepod.org

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Reposted by Benjamin C. Kinney

Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 12d

To cite a really simple example — I think I first heard this one from @lydy.bsky.social — it’s obviously useful to any band of humans to have a few members who can’t sleep at night or stay awake during the day.

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 12d

The benefits of neurodiversity are obvious if people would stop to think about it. Different ways of thinking means that different skills are easier for different people. A mentally diverse population can therefore do much more, learn much more and create much more than a mental monoculture. /1

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 12d

Aw, fluff black kitty💔 I hope she is still here for a murder (and loving) time, even if not a long one!

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 12d

Oh wow! I heard about that years ago, English translation at last??! 👀

Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 14d

SECRET PLANS ARE BREWING

BE PATIENT

VERY VERY PATIENT

MORE PATIENT THAN THAT

MAYBE IT'S TOO EARLY TO MENTION IT

BUT STILL

🕵️🌓

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Reposted by Benjamin C. Kinney

Escape Pod @escapepod.org · 14d

If you're not a supporter of Escape Pod and you're looking to be, lock in your subscription before October 1st, lest you hear the ads crackling against the cosmic microwave background. More details here! www.patreon.com/posts/lock-i...

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Reposted by Benjamin C. Kinney

kelsey jaffer 👻 @kelatonin.bsky.social · 20d

i challenge you to find cooler news today than “despite all odds against American scientific research rn, a CO researcher developed a temperature-stable, single dose rabies vaccine that works bc of particles coated in CANDY & SAPPHIRE, & it could help reduce rabies deaths in places w/o electricity”

Amber Carlson @aecarlson.bsky.social · 20d

Happy (rainy) Tuesday, #Boulder. I've got a new story for you all about a new temperature-stable, single-injection rabies vaccine developed by @colorado.edu researcher Ted Randolph.

www.colorado.edu/today/2025/0...

New single-dose, temperature-stable rabies vaccines could expand global access

CU Boulder engineers have developed a new method for making vaccines that combines multiple, timed-release doses into a single injection that doesn't require

www.colorado.edu

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 20d

But we sing it anyways!

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 21d

Subtly downgrade a band:

A 1975.

Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄 @carturo222.bsky.social · 21d

Subtly downgrade a band:

Stream-enterer.

born miserable @bornmiserable.bsky.social · 22d

subtly downgrade a band:

Some Doubt

Reposted by Benjamin C. Kinney

POKEY THE PENGUIN @pokeythepenguin.bsky.social · 25d

IT IS A NATIONAL DAY OF POKEY!!!

IT IS POKEY, STANDING AMONGST THE GREENERY OF THE LOVELY ARCTIC CIRCLE, STATING: HOORAY!

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Reposted by Benjamin C. Kinney

Dr Kat Day (she/her) @chronicleflask.katday.com · 25d

… and then you delete that sentence because it’s not really serving the story, actually

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 25d

The primary diff between writing fiction and nonfiction is when you write nonfic, you research a topic for 2 weeks and then write 1000 words on it and when you write fiction you research a topic for 2 weeks and get one sentence out of it.

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 25d

Boo, the store lists Aleph and Bet as both out of stock. Any idea when they might be available?

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Reposted by Benjamin C. Kinney

Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 29d

Had fun today setting @inkfoundry.bsky.social as a hub to find my stories - including some previously unavailable online!

I could describe "For Every Bee a Hive," "A Living Planet," "The Successors" & more - but Inkfoundry's tagging system does the job so well 😎

inkfoundry.net/writer/benja...

inkfoundry.net

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 29d

Tagging my stories with "birds aren't real," "hopeful skynet," and "adventure fantasy (but not about the adventurers)" has been the highlight of my day.

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Benjamin C. Kinney @benjaminckinney.com · 29d

I got to tag one of my stories with "birds aren't real" and I am happy forever now

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