Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Aug 13

Absolutely ghastly public toilet, the kind that forces you to hover. My new phone suddenly became a wild, slippery thing in my hands.

Never have I wished more for a rubber glove...

1

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Aug 8

Wild horses and wild young girls convene and merge, a sun-drenched tale that sprang fully-fleshed to run roughshod through my imagination. Really can't quite call this one fiction...

Thank you to @smallwondersmag.com for having "The Horses and Ponies of 8th Avenue" aboard. I hope you enjoy!

Small Wonders @smallwondersmag.com · Aug 8

Come thundering through a transformational summer in today's story, "The Horses and Ponies of 8th Avenue" by @jennifleck.bsky.social :

smallwondersmag.com/...

The Horses and Ponies of 8th Avenue - Small Wonders

One June we became ponies and horses, all of us aged nine to twelve years old, most of us girls.

smallwondersmag.com

1 3

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Aug 2

Contract signed, so I can announce happily that my horror story "The Foundling" will be appearing in the Spring 2026 issue of Chthonic Matter Quarterly!

Let me tease in advance: just because something's cute and free doesn't mean you should take it home. 😉😱

2

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Aug 2

Are we able to submit one original and one reprint in this window/call if we have a reprint pending from the anthology 2025 call? (Your guidelines seem to indicate yes, but Moksha told me no. 🙃)

1 1

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 27

Preorders are now open for Modern Mummies from Cat Eye Press. Fresh, new horror tales, including one by yours truly that's sure to create a "buzz"... *wink-wink*

It'll be just the book to tuck into cozily as summer breathes its last gasp! 🐝🍯

Grab your copy today from @cateyepress.bsky.social

Cat Eye Press @cateyepress.bsky.social · Jun 23

The mummies are coming... To a new horror anthology from Cat Eye Press!

We're so excited to share the full cover of our latest anthology, Modern Mummies, by the one and only @valhal.bsky.social. You can also now preorder your copy through our website: cateyepress.com/store

1 6

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 23

Special thanks goes to @heartlines-spec.com for first launching my story "Legs, Scopulae, Pedipalps, Fangs" into the world. So great to see it rise to ride again in Hexagon's Best of anthology. 🕷️🕸️🛸

Heartlines Spec @heartlines-spec.com · Jun 17

Thrilled to see Legs, Scopulae, Pedipalps, Fangs by @jennifleck.bsky.social from Issue 6 included in this anthro antho

Check for creepy crawlies and then read these stories 🪳🕷️🐞

Hexagon SF Magazine @hexagonmagazine.bsky.social · Jun 17

Year’s Best Arthropod Short Fiction Vol. 2 is now available on our Patreon! Featuring arthropod stories from @eclosionk2.bsky.social, @mmschreier.bsky.social, @kswalkerwrites.bsky.social, @dianadima.com, @akatherineblack.bsky.social, @jennifleck.bsky.social, and Pauline Jérémie! 🪲🐛🐞🦀

1 4

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 23

Yay! Year's Best Arthropod Short Fiction is here, with a quickly-skittering tale from yours truly nestled among other great authors (and their things-with-many-legs). Thanks for having me aboard, @hexagonmagazine.bsky.social!

Hexagon SF Magazine @hexagonmagazine.bsky.social · Jun 17

Year’s Best Arthropod Short Fiction Vol. 2 is now available on our Patreon! Featuring arthropod stories from @eclosionk2.bsky.social, @mmschreier.bsky.social, @kswalkerwrites.bsky.social, @dianadima.com, @akatherineblack.bsky.social, @jennifleck.bsky.social, and Pauline Jérémie! 🪲🐛🐞🦀

Cover of Year’s Best Arthropod Short Fiction Vol. 2 includes vintage art of beetles, dragonflies, and a grasshopper.
Edited by JW Stebner
Featuring stories by Black, Dima, Jérémie, Kwiatkowski, Lesh Fleck, Schreier, and Walker.

2 4

Reposted by Jennifer Lesh Fleck

Matt Kendrick @mattkendrick.bsky.social · Jun 12

"I don’t have a terminal illness. I have an interminable one. Decades still ahead, predictable ones in which my body fights with itself, breaks itself down"

This piece from @jennifleck.bsky.social spoke to me so deeply. Not enough flash being published about the reality of long-term illness.

Flash Fiction Online @flashfictiononline.bsky.social · Jun 6

Kicking off June with Jennifer Lesh Fleck’s “The Island Toward Which I Row and Row, Yet Cannot Reach Alone,” a piece about tech-enabled living for a young woman with a disability

@jennifleck.bsky.social
#writingcommunity #ownvoices #scifi #technology

www.flashfictiononline.com/article/this...

This Island Toward Which I Row and Row, Yet Cannot Reach Alone

Friday night. My older sister points a beam at my bedroom ceiling so the sky appears: charcoal edging to violet, clouds in layered bruises, starlight peeping through the gaps. Claretta then directs…

www.flashfictiononline.com

1 5

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 7

This was a nice surprise! "Vestigial" is in this latest fiction round-up, as is my TOC-buddy from the same issue of Inner Worlds, @hannahgreer.bsky.social!

Give us a read! (After perusing content warnings, ahem. :))))

Turn and Work (Hugh) @turnandwork.com · Jun 6

The Shortlist for June 6:

Turns out I'm a huge fan of Abbie Barker.
Three of her stories in ‪@jmwwjournal.bsky.social‬, Gordon Square, and Berkeley Review.

All the links here:
(...cont'd)

The Shortlist for June 6, 2025 - turn and work

Three stories by Abbie Barker, plus Mike McHone, Jennifer Lesh Fleck, and Hannah Greer

www.turnandwork.com

2 6

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 7

I'm glad it translated/resonates...I felt a lot of trapped pain leave me, writing that one. Sometimes you just gotta go dark and brutal to get'er done properly. 🖤

1 1

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 7

Actually, it can be listened to on the @creepypod.bsky.social podcast, and their narrator did a bang-up job! It's the second of two stories in the episode that aired September 18, 2023.

1

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 7

I finished it, begrudgingly, but only because somebody I loathed back in the day baited me, claiming I couldn't manage it.

I prefer Foster Wallace's short essays in "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again."

1 1

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 7

People are totally weirded-out and also enjoying* my horror story that just dropped in Inner Worlds! Give it a read, if you dare.

*I don't know if that's the correct word...maybe appreciating? Enduring, mind and soul remaining mostly intact??

Inner Worlds @innerworlds.bsky.social · Jun 7

"Now, as the moon rose at last in all its fullness and my pain reached a zenith and edged past it, I arranged all the small mirrors so I could see deeply into myself."

Read "Vestigial" by @jennifleck.bsky.social (note those CWs):

inner-worlds.ghost.io/vestigial-je...

#horror #horrorfam

Vestigial by Jennifer Lesh Fleck

Such messes my spouse left behind. Our finances in tricky tangles. Closets, drawers, cupboards sloppily stripped. All the good LPs: gone.

inner-worlds.ghost.io

2 2 8

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 6

www.flashfictiononline.com

Flash Fiction Online

Bold. Brief. Beautiful. Fiction in Fewer Words.

www.flashfictiononline.com

1

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jun 6

Honored to help launch the June 2025 issue of Flash Fiction Online! My story is now available to read for free (direct link in comments).

Thanks again for having my tale aboard, @flashfictiononline.bsky.social!

Flash Fiction Online @flashfictiononline.bsky.social · Jun 6

Kicking off June with Jennifer Lesh Fleck’s “The Island Toward Which I Row and Row, Yet Cannot Reach Alone,” a piece about tech-enabled living for a young woman with a disability

@jennifleck.bsky.social
#writingcommunity #ownvoices #scifi #technology

www.flashfictiononline.com/article/this...

This Island Toward Which I Row and Row, Yet Cannot Reach Alone

Friday night. My older sister points a beam at my bedroom ceiling so the sky appears: charcoal edging to violet, clouds in layered bruises, starlight peeping through the gaps. Claretta then directs…

www.flashfictiononline.com

1 1 2

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · May 30

Yay! It's pub day!

Check out my creepy little heartbreaker "Vestigial" and 11 other fine tales in this brand-spanking new edition of Inner Worlds, issue #7. (Gorgeous cover, too.)

Inner Worlds @innerworlds.bsky.social · May 30

🌸💀✨️ Issue 7 is out now! ✨️💀🌸

12 stories ready to break your heart, make you wince, fill you with bittersweet longing, or just make you kind of uneasy. You will feel things.

inner-worlds.ghost.io/issue-seven-...

#SFF #Horror #SpecFic #Fantasy #ScienceFiction #SpeculativeFiction #FlashFiction

Magazine cover with pink masthead, featuring a drawing of a hand reaching upwards towards green light, against a glitchy black background.

1 4

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · May 27

"Mums the word" no longer, lulz.

Super thrilled to announce I've got a creepy tale dropping soon in this exciting new anthology...check out the TOC!

More to come... 🍯🐝☠️

Cat Eye Press @cateyepress.bsky.social · May 26

We’ll be revealing more information about Modern Mummies (including the cover and preorders!!!) in the coming weeks! In the meantime, check out some of our authors below! @uteorgassa.bsky.social
@byronwk.bsky.social
@chrislavigna.bsky.social
@ccskeleton.bsky.social

2 3

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · May 20

Yay! It's nearly here...you won't want to miss this issue, with a great TOC that includes a little wicked tale full of heart by yours truly.

Inner Worlds @innerworlds.bsky.social · May 19

🎉 TOC time! 🎉
Issue 7 is almost here, featuring stories by
@safiyacherfi.bsky.social
@cjsubko.bsky.social
@cheysectoplasm.bsky.social
@trailofleaves.bsky.social
@chadgayle.bsky.social
@sylvie-althoff.bsky.social
@nicholeon.bsky.social
@jennifleck.bsky.social
@hannahgreer.bsky.social & more!

Grand Mal by Mary Buchanan
The Human Lifecycle by Hannah Greer
To Count in the Jeweled Weaver’s Court by Nichole L. Lightner
What to Fear on a Jungle Road at Night by Andrea Ferrari Kristeller
A Certain Kind of Love by Chad Gayle
On The Sixth Night at The Crystal Castle by Cheyanne Brabo
Deliver by Safiya Cherfi
Flash/Flash/Flash by C.J. Subko
The Nineteenth Smile by Hien Nguyen
Vestigial by Jennifer Lesh Fleck
What We Cannot See by Louise Hughes
Come F*** Yourself by Sylvie Althoff

1 3

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · May 4

Super stoked to join this Year's Best anthology full of great authors.

I may have been teased for "playing with bugs" as a kid. Well, well...wouldja look at me now! 🕷️🕸️🛸

Hexagon SF Magazine @hexagonmagazine.bsky.social · Apr 30

I’m incredibly excited to announce the authors for Year’s Best Arthropod Short Fiction Vol. 2! 🦋🐞🐜🪲🦗🪰🕷️🦀
@akatherineblack.bsky.social
@dianadima.com
Joshua Green
Pauline Jérémie
@eclosionk2.bsky.social
@jennifleck.bsky.social
@mmschreier.bsky.social
@kswalkerwrites.bsky.social
#invertefest

The cover for Year’s Best Arthropod Short Fiction Vol. 2 features several beetles, dragonflies, and other arthropods in a specimen drawing style. The names of the contributors are included on the cover.
Edited by JW Stebner
Black, Dima, Green, Jérémie, Kwiatkowski, Lesh Fleck, Schreier, and Walker.

2 6

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Apr 21

Free to read:

neondystopia.com?p=100043221

The Beating Room – Neon Dystopia

neondystopia.com

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Apr 21

Happy to share that my short story “The Beating Room” is this month’s featured fiction selection on Neon Dystopia! What if today’s “smash rooms” are taken a few steps further by the wellness industry?

cw: consensual physical violence

Link below! 💥🥊

1

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Feb 18

Super nice words about one of my recent tales...always a treat to encounter! Check my story out in this month's Cosmic Horror Monthly.

Paul R. Panossian @paulrpanossian.bsky.social · Feb 15

@jennifleck.bsky.social's enchanting prose breathes fresh life into ancient mythology in "Venus Looks Coldly over Her Shoulder" in February's @chmmagazine.bsky.social

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Feb 18

Aw, thank you for the shout-out and kind words! The germ for that story appeared for me so long ago and has persisted fir so long, it had to eventually be allowed to fruit into a full-fledged tale.

1

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Feb 3

Back working again with Cosmic Horror Monthly. And if you subscribe to their newsletter, my story is one of the free selections this month. Monstrous romance meets artistic ambitions gone mad!

Thank you, CHM! 🖤

cosmichorrormonthly.com/subscribe/

Subscribe - Cosmic Horror Monthly

Subscribe to receive our premium monthly magazine featuring the best in new cosmic horror and weird fiction! Read fiction from […]

cosmichorrormonthly.com

Jennifer Lesh Fleck @jennifleck.bsky.social · Jan 23

The long-leggity beasties have breached the paywall -- check it out:

Legs, Scopulae, Pedipalps, Fangs by @jennifleck.bsky.social is now free-to-read!

Venture deep into the forest, don't get lost, don't trust the spiders.

www.heartlines-spec.com/legs-scopula...

Legs, Scopulae, Pedipalps, Fangs

Legs, Scopulae, Pedipalps, Fangs by Jennifer Lesh Fleck

www.heartlines-spec.com

1