Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
Freelance writing about the wild, old and dead. Bylines in NatGeo, SciAm, The New York Times, Texas Monthly, and many other places. Repped by @desir.ee at Looking Glass Literary (fiction) and @benglishhh.bsky.social at Transatlantic (nonfiction)
I'm somewhat reminded of what Al Ewing did with Dario Agger recently over in Immortal Thor, which is in itself somewhat unrealistic, not because the billionaire is a skeletal minotaur but because he's even self aware enough to give this monologue
November 29, 2025 at 11:58 AM
I'm somewhat reminded of what Al Ewing did with Dario Agger recently over in Immortal Thor, which is in itself somewhat unrealistic, not because the billionaire is a skeletal minotaur but because he's even self aware enough to give this monologue
(Don't want a hardcover? PDFs of GHOST DAYS and IN THE SNOW, THE JUNGLE are also on sale for just 3$, which means you can grab this fully illustrated short story collection AND its followup novella for just $6. It's a steal.)
www.asherelbein.com/store
www.asherelbein.com/store
November 28, 2025 at 3:40 PM
(Don't want a hardcover? PDFs of GHOST DAYS and IN THE SNOW, THE JUNGLE are also on sale for just 3$, which means you can grab this fully illustrated short story collection AND its followup novella for just $6. It's a steal.)
www.asherelbein.com/store
www.asherelbein.com/store
Who is GHOST DAYS for? Folks who like clever, steadfast witches; folk tales; spooky stories with a historical flavor; and adventures edged with melancholy. It's a bit Hellboy, a bit The Witcher, and still very much its own thing.
I'm really proud of it.
www.asherelbein.com/store/ghost-...
I'm really proud of it.
www.asherelbein.com/store/ghost-...
November 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Who is GHOST DAYS for? Folks who like clever, steadfast witches; folk tales; spooky stories with a historical flavor; and adventures edged with melancholy. It's a bit Hellboy, a bit The Witcher, and still very much its own thing.
I'm really proud of it.
www.asherelbein.com/store/ghost-...
I'm really proud of it.
www.asherelbein.com/store/ghost-...
While you're at it, Texas followers, you can also buy a copy of DINOSAURS AND OTHER ANCIENT ANIMALS OF THE BIG BEND for $25!
(It's got some really lovely bits of natural history writing in it, and great Julius Cstonyi art!)
utpress.utexas.edu/9781477324639/
(It's got some really lovely bits of natural history writing in it, and great Julius Cstonyi art!)
utpress.utexas.edu/9781477324639/
November 28, 2025 at 1:32 PM
While you're at it, Texas followers, you can also buy a copy of DINOSAURS AND OTHER ANCIENT ANIMALS OF THE BIG BEND for $25!
(It's got some really lovely bits of natural history writing in it, and great Julius Cstonyi art!)
utpress.utexas.edu/9781477324639/
(It's got some really lovely bits of natural history writing in it, and great Julius Cstonyi art!)
utpress.utexas.edu/9781477324639/
Don't want a hardcover? PDFs of GHOST DAYS and IN THE SNOW, THE JUNGLE are also on sale for just 3$, which means you can grab this fully illustrated short story collection AND its followup novella for just $6.
Get your Appalachian historical folklore/horror fix here!
www.asherelbein.com/store
Get your Appalachian historical folklore/horror fix here!
www.asherelbein.com/store
November 28, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Don't want a hardcover? PDFs of GHOST DAYS and IN THE SNOW, THE JUNGLE are also on sale for just 3$, which means you can grab this fully illustrated short story collection AND its followup novella for just $6.
Get your Appalachian historical folklore/horror fix here!
www.asherelbein.com/store
Get your Appalachian historical folklore/horror fix here!
www.asherelbein.com/store
These are pretty naked -- and therefore instructive -- examples of the sorts of defenses that people offer to try and get off the hook
November 25, 2025 at 8:39 PM
These are pretty naked -- and therefore instructive -- examples of the sorts of defenses that people offer to try and get off the hook
Like, this, here? This I think is nonsense. The majority of people who are still fans of Harry Potter are so in spite of (or with no attention to) Rowling's transphobia, not because of it
November 23, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Like, this, here? This I think is nonsense. The majority of people who are still fans of Harry Potter are so in spite of (or with no attention to) Rowling's transphobia, not because of it
Pro-tip: if you want me to engage with you, do not under any circumstances call me "adorable"
November 23, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Pro-tip: if you want me to engage with you, do not under any circumstances call me "adorable"
I understand that the Natural History Museum of Abu Dhabi spent a truly wild amount of money to purchase Stan the T.rex, which makes it all the odder that its mount of two fighting tyrannosaurs is so utterly sauceless
November 23, 2025 at 3:53 PM
I understand that the Natural History Museum of Abu Dhabi spent a truly wild amount of money to purchase Stan the T.rex, which makes it all the odder that its mount of two fighting tyrannosaurs is so utterly sauceless
Like, accuracy questions aside, it's got nothing on the old Osborn proposal
November 23, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Like, accuracy questions aside, it's got nothing on the old Osborn proposal
Oh and also I got ✨married✨
November 21, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Oh and also I got ✨married✨
I encourage you to read her full comments, not because they exculpatory — they absolutely are not — but because they're dangerously close to self awareness about the trap that hasbarists find themselves in.
November 19, 2025 at 4:11 PM
I encourage you to read her full comments, not because they exculpatory — they absolutely are not — but because they're dangerously close to self awareness about the trap that hasbarists find themselves in.
Oh my god she admit it
November 19, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Oh my god she admit it
November 19, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Al Ewing's affection for the Blue Streak is one of my favorite running gags in his lighter cape comics. I laughed when I got to this page turn
November 12, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Al Ewing's affection for the Blue Streak is one of my favorite running gags in his lighter cape comics. I laughed when I got to this page turn
The "bisexual" bit is a very dumb rhetorical flourish! But this, to me, is the meat of what she's saying, and I just find it hard to get het up about her saying "voters, including our base, should feel like we like them"
November 12, 2025 at 12:17 AM
The "bisexual" bit is a very dumb rhetorical flourish! But this, to me, is the meat of what she's saying, and I just find it hard to get het up about her saying "voters, including our base, should feel like we like them"
People are claiming that Sara McBride compare "bipartisanship" to bisexuality. I was curious, so I went and looked at the actual article (which many people did not link.) And I gotta be honest: that feels like the most bad-faith possible reading of her actual comments
www.yahoo.com/news/article...
www.yahoo.com/news/article...
November 12, 2025 at 12:00 AM
People are claiming that Sara McBride compare "bipartisanship" to bisexuality. I was curious, so I went and looked at the actual article (which many people did not link.) And I gotta be honest: that feels like the most bad-faith possible reading of her actual comments
www.yahoo.com/news/article...
www.yahoo.com/news/article...
Hard mode: do not invoke Indiana Jones
November 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Hard mode: do not invoke Indiana Jones
Late-afternoon herping walk! In addition to a ton of narrowmouth toads and cliff-chirping frogs under various boards, I found a handsome and feisty rat snake, a big sleepy whiptail, and a wary diamondback rattler. (Plus a nearby rattler snakeskin which might have been theirs, which I took home.)
November 9, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Late-afternoon herping walk! In addition to a ton of narrowmouth toads and cliff-chirping frogs under various boards, I found a handsome and feisty rat snake, a big sleepy whiptail, and a wary diamondback rattler. (Plus a nearby rattler snakeskin which might have been theirs, which I took home.)
The question in conjunction with the existence of the Least weasel, of course, is this: what is the Most weasel
(Most people would say wolverine, but I think for my money it's the Amazonian giant river otter. They almost clear six feet!)
(Most people would say wolverine, but I think for my money it's the Amazonian giant river otter. They almost clear six feet!)
November 8, 2025 at 10:09 PM
The question in conjunction with the existence of the Least weasel, of course, is this: what is the Most weasel
(Most people would say wolverine, but I think for my money it's the Amazonian giant river otter. They almost clear six feet!)
(Most people would say wolverine, but I think for my money it's the Amazonian giant river otter. They almost clear six feet!)
There are people out here who apparently *cannot grasp* that remarking about or observing something isn't the same thing as being surprised about it. Poor souls! Lost in a world where every other human is a perpetual naif
November 8, 2025 at 5:24 PM
There are people out here who apparently *cannot grasp* that remarking about or observing something isn't the same thing as being surprised about it. Poor souls! Lost in a world where every other human is a perpetual naif
I will not be posting myself from a different era. As far as you all are concerned, I was always this way
November 7, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I will not be posting myself from a different era. As far as you all are concerned, I was always this way
Also, even if you take the most maximally pessimistic view of Jewish history, diasporic thinking has long been -- as my brother wrote recently -- the shield of the Jews. They can't get you all if you're not all in the same place!
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
November 6, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Also, even if you take the most maximally pessimistic view of Jewish history, diasporic thinking has long been -- as my brother wrote recently -- the shield of the Jews. They can't get you all if you're not all in the same place!
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
Look, I'm a natural history guy so I don't want to get out over my skis here, but given the ongoing reproducibility crisis and stuff like this, I have to ask: is Social Psychology... real
November 6, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Look, I'm a natural history guy so I don't want to get out over my skis here, but given the ongoing reproducibility crisis and stuff like this, I have to ask: is Social Psychology... real