Fiona Mossman
@fionamossman.bsky.social
she/her
📖 Writer | Librarian
📍 Edinburgh | Burntisland | Cairngorms
Gleefully geeky. Writes SFF/literary speculative short stories, among other word-things. Loves books, mountains, my cat Mishka & more. 💗💜💙
Find me at https://www.fionamossman.com
📖 Writer | Librarian
📍 Edinburgh | Burntisland | Cairngorms
Gleefully geeky. Writes SFF/literary speculative short stories, among other word-things. Loves books, mountains, my cat Mishka & more. 💗💜💙
Find me at https://www.fionamossman.com
Pinned
Fiona Mossman
@fionamossman.bsky.social
· Feb 28
Myths, Gods & Immortals | Contents Announcement | Aphrodite
We’re very pleased to present the list of stories selected for inclusion in our Aphrodite book! Seventeen stories, all of which are new for this volume, explore the fascinating figure of Aphrodite and...
blog.flametreepublishing.com
"There are other ways. There are other worlds."
I'm excited for you to meet my Aphrodite as she struggles to accept the death of her priestess--Sappho of Lesbos.
Thank you to Flame Tree Publishing for including this story in their gorgeous anthology 😍
blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-goth...
I'm excited for you to meet my Aphrodite as she struggles to accept the death of her priestess--Sappho of Lesbos.
Thank you to Flame Tree Publishing for including this story in their gorgeous anthology 😍
blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-goth...
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
New guest post 📰
Glacier – Garry MacKenzie writes on his new long poem
Read the full post: buff.ly/VdmjNVJ
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky
Glacier – Garry MacKenzie writes on his new long poem
Read the full post: buff.ly/VdmjNVJ
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky
November 24, 2025 at 10:25 AM
New guest post 📰
Glacier – Garry MacKenzie writes on his new long poem
Read the full post: buff.ly/VdmjNVJ
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky
Glacier – Garry MacKenzie writes on his new long poem
Read the full post: buff.ly/VdmjNVJ
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky
Catching up on the free serialised story from @amalelmohtar.com for Book Week Scotland and yup, I'm definitely hooked! A messy queer breakup made messier by a mystery related to the Louvre heist crown jewels? yes, please, more, please!
www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
Book Week Scotland: Amal El-Mohtar in your inbox
Sign up to receive an exclusive serialised story from Amal El-Mohtar during Book Week Scotland.
www.scottishbooktrust.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Catching up on the free serialised story from @amalelmohtar.com for Book Week Scotland and yup, I'm definitely hooked! A messy queer breakup made messier by a mystery related to the Louvre heist crown jewels? yes, please, more, please!
www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
Did you read my post from last week about how contract woes caused me to withdraw an accepted story from F&SF, ending my 54-year quest to be published in that magazine? But wait (as the saying goes) — there's more! Scroll down at the link for an update. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
A dream denied: My 54-year quest to publish a short story in F&SF ‹ Scott Edelman
www.scottedelman.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Did you read my post from last week about how contract woes caused me to withdraw an accepted story from F&SF, ending my 54-year quest to be published in that magazine? But wait (as the saying goes) — there's more! Scroll down at the link for an update. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
I've been missing my previous method of reading short stories by sending them to my Kobo e-reader from Pocket, since Pocket was taken down in August. Now I'm super excited to see that there is a replacement, Instapapers, integrated with my Kobo!
Have I mentioned that I adore short stories? 💃
Have I mentioned that I adore short stories? 💃
November 18, 2025 at 9:27 AM
I've been missing my previous method of reading short stories by sending them to my Kobo e-reader from Pocket, since Pocket was taken down in August. Now I'm super excited to see that there is a replacement, Instapapers, integrated with my Kobo!
Have I mentioned that I adore short stories? 💃
Have I mentioned that I adore short stories? 💃
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
Archaeologist here. For 99.5% of human history (ca 300-400,000 years), we were peaceful (no war). There was conflict and smaller scale violence, but countless studies on the 119 known modern hunter gatherer groups show cooperation, negotiation, and peace instead of conflict. Please read books.
Revenge/physical combat was how people settled things for literally millions of years, it's normal human behavior, we're wolves not sheep, the government project trying to social engineer us and domesticate us into sheep has been unsuccessful
November 17, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Archaeologist here. For 99.5% of human history (ca 300-400,000 years), we were peaceful (no war). There was conflict and smaller scale violence, but countless studies on the 119 known modern hunter gatherer groups show cooperation, negotiation, and peace instead of conflict. Please read books.
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
A togglable "I'm an adult with kids and a job" feature that assumes you only get to play once a week, and dumps a summary of what you were last doing/your current objectives in a corner tooltip on loading a save.
November 11, 2025 at 12:47 AM
A togglable "I'm an adult with kids and a job" feature that assumes you only get to play once a week, and dumps a summary of what you were last doing/your current objectives in a corner tooltip on loading a save.
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
"So long as we regard a tree as an obvious thing, naturally and reasonably created for a giraffe to eat, we cannot properly wonder at it. It is when we consider it as a prodigious wave of the living soil sprawling up to the skies for no reason in particular that we take off our hats."
GK Chesterton
GK Chesterton
November 6, 2025 at 11:10 AM
"So long as we regard a tree as an obvious thing, naturally and reasonably created for a giraffe to eat, we cannot properly wonder at it. It is when we consider it as a prodigious wave of the living soil sprawling up to the skies for no reason in particular that we take off our hats."
GK Chesterton
GK Chesterton
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
"Where am I, and what is the time?" he said aloud to the ceiling. "In the House of Elrond, and it is ten o'clock in the morning." said a voice. "It is the morning of October the twenty-fourth, if you want to know." #Tolkien #BookSky
Image: "Rivendell - The Riders" by @donatoarts.bsky.social
Image: "Rivendell - The Riders" by @donatoarts.bsky.social
October 24, 2025 at 9:00 AM
"Where am I, and what is the time?" he said aloud to the ceiling. "In the House of Elrond, and it is ten o'clock in the morning." said a voice. "It is the morning of October the twenty-fourth, if you want to know." #Tolkien #BookSky
Image: "Rivendell - The Riders" by @donatoarts.bsky.social
Image: "Rivendell - The Riders" by @donatoarts.bsky.social
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
'Before William Wordsworth’s imagination had wandered, lonely as a cloud, and before John Keats’s nib had quivered with notions about nightingales, a Black woman named Phillis Wheatley was circulating a treasury of nature-inspired verse in London.'
Phillis Wheatley, the first Black nature poet | The Observer
Enslaved as a child, the 18th-century writer became the first published Black woman – and a pioneer of nature poetry whose legacy still inspires
observer.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 6:36 AM
'Before William Wordsworth’s imagination had wandered, lonely as a cloud, and before John Keats’s nib had quivered with notions about nightingales, a Black woman named Phillis Wheatley was circulating a treasury of nature-inspired verse in London.'
Excited to read the rest of the stories in this magazine - tucked in it's pages you can also find a story of mine: "Thank You For Feeding The Algorithm Today". Thanks to Penstricken for giving it a home!
Grab your copy of our brand new issue, Machinery! ⚙️ It's full of delicious short #fiction and #poetry inspired by all the different machines and systems that surround us, written by our talented contributors 👉🏻 www.lulu.com/shop/justin-...
#writersky #writing
#writersky #writing
October 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Excited to read the rest of the stories in this magazine - tucked in it's pages you can also find a story of mine: "Thank You For Feeding The Algorithm Today". Thanks to Penstricken for giving it a home!
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
“In the stories of these creatures, we glimpse both our fear of the wild past and our responsibility for the future.” Wise words indeed
The medieval folklore of Britain’s endangered wildlife ‘omens’ – from hedgehogs to nightjars
Medieval people believed that witches would transform into hedgehogs to steal milk.
theconversation.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:28 AM
“In the stories of these creatures, we glimpse both our fear of the wild past and our responsibility for the future.” Wise words indeed
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
I love that the Zoology department was integral to finding text about Merlin that was otherwise invisible to the human eye.
Rare Merlin and King Arthur text found hidden in binding of medieval book
The ‘extremely significant' text was hidden for centuries.
www.popsci.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I love that the Zoology department was integral to finding text about Merlin that was otherwise invisible to the human eye.
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
I wrote a rather long post on FB about taking part in poetry writing classes, or rather a lack of money and time to do so regularly, and I recommended two courses I've found so far that help with all these issues in their own ways. Featuring @marjorielotfi.bsky.social and @helenboden.bsky.social.
September 25, 2025 at 4:34 PM
I wrote a rather long post on FB about taking part in poetry writing classes, or rather a lack of money and time to do so regularly, and I recommended two courses I've found so far that help with all these issues in their own ways. Featuring @marjorielotfi.bsky.social and @helenboden.bsky.social.
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
There's one week left for writers in the North of England to send us their stories!
We're looking for folklore-inspired tales to publish in our first anthology.
It's been a real treat to read all the submissions so far, but we'd love to squeeze a few more in 🙏
carnyxpress.co.uk/submissions
We're looking for folklore-inspired tales to publish in our first anthology.
It's been a real treat to read all the submissions so far, but we'd love to squeeze a few more in 🙏
carnyxpress.co.uk/submissions
September 23, 2025 at 7:29 AM
There's one week left for writers in the North of England to send us their stories!
We're looking for folklore-inspired tales to publish in our first anthology.
It's been a real treat to read all the submissions so far, but we'd love to squeeze a few more in 🙏
carnyxpress.co.uk/submissions
We're looking for folklore-inspired tales to publish in our first anthology.
It's been a real treat to read all the submissions so far, but we'd love to squeeze a few more in 🙏
carnyxpress.co.uk/submissions
Hydrangeas are such a bisexual bush: whether they appear blue, pink, or purple depends upon the environment they're in, but they are capable of all of these colours regardless of how they are perceived.
Today I'm thrilled to have a poem out in 'Bi All Accounts' claiming the hydrangea #bivisibility
Today I'm thrilled to have a poem out in 'Bi All Accounts' claiming the hydrangea #bivisibility
September 23, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Hydrangeas are such a bisexual bush: whether they appear blue, pink, or purple depends upon the environment they're in, but they are capable of all of these colours regardless of how they are perceived.
Today I'm thrilled to have a poem out in 'Bi All Accounts' claiming the hydrangea #bivisibility
Today I'm thrilled to have a poem out in 'Bi All Accounts' claiming the hydrangea #bivisibility
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
"A future where I can live"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_vz...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_vz...
Ursula K. Le Guin: Listening to the Unheard Voices
YouTube video by The Nation
www.youtube.com
September 15, 2025 at 8:09 AM
"A future where I can live"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_vz...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_vz...
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
You are a violent and irrepressible miracle. The vacuum of cosmos and the stars burning in it are afraid of you. Given enough time you would wipe us all out and replace us with nothing -- just by accident.
September 15, 2025 at 9:01 AM
You are a violent and irrepressible miracle. The vacuum of cosmos and the stars burning in it are afraid of you. Given enough time you would wipe us all out and replace us with nothing -- just by accident.
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
Pls Share 👉🏽sign up via Eventbrite to join our FREE webinar on 30.09.25 @ 6.30pm supported by @sgsah.bsky.social with @sorchadallas.bsky.social @rodgeglass.bsky.social & Lucy Lauder - launching a new resource on memoir & biography writing as a tool for research and self-led creative projects 👇🏽
September 11, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Pls Share 👉🏽sign up via Eventbrite to join our FREE webinar on 30.09.25 @ 6.30pm supported by @sgsah.bsky.social with @sorchadallas.bsky.social @rodgeglass.bsky.social & Lucy Lauder - launching a new resource on memoir & biography writing as a tool for research and self-led creative projects 👇🏽
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
Only what is mortal bears life. Only in death is there rebirth. The Balance is not a stillness. it is a movement--an eternal becoming.
September 11, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Only what is mortal bears life. Only in death is there rebirth. The Balance is not a stillness. it is a movement--an eternal becoming.
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
Anthropic has agreed to pay affected authors a record $1.5 billion in a settlement, following its use of pirated books to train its AI. We'll share more details with members in the coming days.
What Authors Need to Know About the $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement - The Authors Guild
Today, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle claims that it downloaded pirated books to train its AI systems—the largest U.S. copyright settlement in history. The parties in Bartz v Anthropic...
authorsguild.org
September 8, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Anthropic has agreed to pay affected authors a record $1.5 billion in a settlement, following its use of pirated books to train its AI. We'll share more details with members in the coming days.
Stoked to be on this longlist! Congrats to my fellow poets 🦊
Delighted to announce the Interwoven #poetrycompetition longlist today, with huge thanks to the judges, who whittled down a phenomenal 700 entries to a longlist of 100 extraordinary poems. Huge congrats to all poets on the list, and thanks to all who entered!
renardpress.com/interwoven-a...
renardpress.com/interwoven-a...
September 2, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Stoked to be on this longlist! Congrats to my fellow poets 🦊
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
Philip Larkin said "What will survive of us is love," but research based on previous collapsing civilizations suggests it's more likely to be inorganic items that can be buried, burned, or struck without significant degradation. Likely what will survive of us is ceramic toilets.
What's your take on the moment we're living through in 50 words or less. [you able to quote post]
August 17, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Philip Larkin said "What will survive of us is love," but research based on previous collapsing civilizations suggests it's more likely to be inorganic items that can be buried, burned, or struck without significant degradation. Likely what will survive of us is ceramic toilets.
Reposted by Fiona Mossman
I haven't posted by #Litmag starter pack in awhile. Find some you love and share this post. Sooner litmags see Bluesky as a viable option, sooner they leave X/Twitter.
go.bsky.app/7cWNC2j
go.bsky.app/7cWNC2j
August 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM
I haven't posted by #Litmag starter pack in awhile. Find some you love and share this post. Sooner litmags see Bluesky as a viable option, sooner they leave X/Twitter.
go.bsky.app/7cWNC2j
go.bsky.app/7cWNC2j
Love it when @cuttinghail.bsky.social gets published in Tiny Wren Lit because it means I get to do a little zine making. The design on these is just gorgeous 🥰
August 9, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Love it when @cuttinghail.bsky.social gets published in Tiny Wren Lit because it means I get to do a little zine making. The design on these is just gorgeous 🥰