Dan F. Bispo
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barrows.itch.io
Dan F. Bispo
@barrows.itch.io
310 followers 210 following 1.2K posts
Professional word extruder. Author of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy.

🇵🇹 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

AI/NFT serial blocker. He/him. DMs open.

Website: danfbispo.carrd.co
Books: barrows.itch.io

Writing FIRST LIGHT, a SF series about space communism.
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barrows.itch.io
Gotta go, my ride's here
February 13, 2026 at 7:01 PM
barrows.itch.io
Good stuff. To honor the day, how about some horror microfiction? My anthology The Cryptic Parade & A World Unfurling is free to download, and contains all kinds of bite-sized evils.

barrows.itch.io/the-cryptic-...
Cover of my anthology "The Cryptic Parade & A World Unfurling, A Collection of Horror Flash Fiction", styled after a page from an old occult codex.
February 13, 2026 at 4:27 PM
barrows.itch.io
#WIPSnips for today is "serious"!

For all the time she's spent with Rook in #FirstLight, Yana is beginning to understand there may be more to her friend than meets the eye. For one, why are they so good with a gun in such a peaceful society?

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
“I still don’t like this.” Yana held the weapon in her hands in a white-knuckled grip. Her hand trembled. “So if someone comes at me, do I just point and press the button, then?” Rook glanced her over once, and immediately, their smile faded. “Oh, um, no. Line up your feet with your shoulders. No, that’s too wide, just… can I?” “Go ahead.” “Imagine that burn mark on the wall is whatever you’re pointing at,” they said. “Face in its direction… good. Now let me just…” With gentle taps of the hand, Rook widened her stance, straightened her posture, made sure she stood firm on her feet. Then, taking hold of her hands, they brought them together, straightened her arms, and, through ordering her to take a few deep breaths, got her to loosen her death grip on the weapon. The precision of their adjustments impressed Yana—she had never taken Rook’s post as Security Officer very seriously, but it was becoming increasingly clear there was history, perhaps a story, behind their irreverent exterior. She just wasn’t sure it was one she wished to know about. “There, perfect. See how your aim isn’t swaying nearly as much? That’s all you need. Stunners fire in a cone. You can use the dial on the side to adjust the width, press it and it’ll shine a light so you can tell more or less how wide it’s going to be. Or if you have ocular implants, you can just connect them and do all of that through your compad.” “Thanks. I think I’m okay, but thanks.”
February 13, 2026 at 9:22 AM
barrows.itch.io
Picture of a kitten inside a toilet. There are two Playstation button prompts: "X - flush him" and "O - spare him"
February 12, 2026 at 8:50 AM
barrows.itch.io
#WIPSnips - Defense

Here's an excerpt I wrote just yesterday! An alien wants to stay at the Trilo.

Spare him? Flush him?

#WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity
The Tellari uttered something—a sentence, if it could be called that, opening with a percussive rhythm, then fading into a much quieter whine. “Xyd asks if he may peruse our food replicators and rooms/homes/defensible locations. He states that he has been in a state of sleep/death for an embarrassing/dangerous amount of time, and would prefer not to pollute our ship with his corpse.” “Oh, of course. Tell him to follow me, I’ll lead him to my quarters—I think they’re a bit roomier than the crew ones, he should be able to move more freely there.”
February 12, 2026 at 8:48 AM
barrows.itch.io
Post a tree you photographed
February 11, 2026 at 3:30 PM
barrows.itch.io
#WIPSnips: Vibe

There was no chance there would be one of these in #FirstLight, but vibes for vibes are aplenty! In this scene, Diodorus describes an old Extali contact.

Can we blame them for their xenophobia, when our vibes are just so rancid?

(yes.)

#WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity
“Poor souls,” Diodorus spoke up. “They probably thought they could spike in and out before they were noticed. I have never known the Despotate to take prisoners, either.” “Are you at all familiar with the Extali, Diodorus?” He rolled his shoulders, a heavy motion, a rusty cog’s first spin. “I occasionally traded with a political exile in the Scrapsea in Bayinnaung,” he said. “A difficult spirit, but from what I could gather, much softer than its kin back home. It lived in the Scrapsea out of choice, in burrows of its own making—claimed that it considered the density of non-Extali in the residential layers ‘a gnawing, a splitting, a rotting of the soul’.” “Charming. When charting the course, let’s make sure we stay clear of Extali systems.”
February 11, 2026 at 10:04 AM
barrows.itch.io
#TBRuary Day 10: New Horizons

I'm pretty sure I've never been to Arcadion, Tropos, or even Porky's Palace (sadly), but I'm still eagerly waiting for the Rebel Planet graphic novel.

As a sci-fi author, Rebel Planet is THE inspiration.

#booksky #readingcommunity
#writesky #writingcommunity
Cover to the Fighting Fantasy gamebook "Rebel Planet", depicting an armored human fighting a reptilian alien in a futuristic setting.
February 10, 2026 at 1:49 PM
barrows.itch.io
#WIPSnips for today is "liquid". I had it but it was a snippet I shared maybe three times since January, so you can have this use of "fluid", instead.

Extali, being annelids, use tubes instead of corridors. Rook goes for a crawl.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Something reflected the light they shone down, as a single dot, at the bottom of the dead end. At first it seemed dormant, but then, as if stirred by their presence or disturbed by the lights, it returned to jittery life. At first it looked like a small spiral of sorts, cute, almost, Rook thought, as most mechanical entities of its size tended to be. As it raised its little sensor array to meet their eyes, it unfurled itself with great difficulty, sparks emerging from its segmented plates of metal, thick fluid dripping in heavy globs from its sides. As it scanned, an assortment of little claws and scraping tools emerge from the gaps between segmented metal. Rook found these obvious maintenance tools to be a reassuring sight—the first objects with a comprehensible purpose Rook had seen since entering the station. A maintenance drone. It was comforting to think that even Extali concerned themselves with housekeeping, in a way.
February 10, 2026 at 10:17 AM
barrows.itch.io
#TBRuary 9: Yet to Come

It's time for Dan to shill Rendezvous with Rama again. It takes place in the far future of *checks notes* 2130. Phew! Okay, we're clear.

Excited for the upcoming movie as well. I've only been waiting MY WHOLE LIFE.

#booksky #readingcommunity
#writesky #writingcommunity
Cover to "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke
February 9, 2026 at 2:04 PM
barrows.itch.io
#WIPSnips: "Select"

In #FirstLight book 2, Yana does some robot body shopping, and learns that her quest for parts might be more difficult than she expected. She might have to get with contact with freaks such as tech historians.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Chip took her compad in an exactly measured grip. With a click and a slither, its three eyes detached from its sensor suite, extending towards the screen like greasy tentacles, dripping with lubricant. Three shutters whirred, snapping shut, then widening again. The thin membrane of a speaker vibrated. “Clarification: these are the exact specifications for an Andromeda Solutions Model S.” “Is that an issue?” “Noncommittal statement: I am not authorized to deal in copyrighted designs. Redirection: if you are looking for companion models, I have a modded Artemisia chassis in stock, compatible with the ALRI™ system, and only gently used.” “Nothing like that,” Yana said. “So how would I go about finding one of these? Or something close enough to it, anyway?” “Trivia: the Model S was a limited run,” Chip said, finally handing the compad back to Yana, “and sold poorly. Few needed it when it first came out, and even fewer Artificials identify with its design. Today, I expect only retrofits to circulate, and even then, only in select hobbyist circles.” “Hobbyist circles?” “Clarification: collectors, body-surfers, reenactors, aesthetes, genius loci, tech historians.” Yana knew some of those terms.
February 9, 2026 at 10:05 AM
barrows.itch.io
Also, I don't really vibe with F4F on a conceptual level either. It creates an expectation of reciprocity that really shouldn't be a factor. One should never be following another to be noticed, or as a kindness--they should be following so the posts show up in their feed.

(depicted below: me rn)
Medieval painting of a desiccated corpse crawling out of its coffin. Caption reads: Me: Okay I've complained enough about this. It's time to let it go... Me five minutes later: actually you know what-
February 8, 2026 at 4:05 PM
barrows.itch.io
I really thought I had never used the word before. Then I found out I did use it. Yesterday.

Not in a romantic setting, but still...

Anyway, forgive very rough first go at a scene!

#SundaySnips #FirstLight #WritingCommunity #Writesky #HQpress
“Yana?” A vista of barren earth crumbled all around. Dots of gray drew new lines across the void—both above, and below. “Yana.” Blackness pushed its way in. Then, soreness, like a gentle yearning. The smell of dried blood and surgical gear. A warming shadow, looming before her. “Diodorus.” She struggled to string the syllables together. “Did something happen?” He did not immediately respond, and on a normal day, that would have been enough for the first feelings of anxiety to begin gnawing at the insides of her rib cage, but nothing came. She felt hollow, as if the blur of the last few hours—minutes? Days?—had burned all within her that still lived down to ash. “I will speak quietly,” Diodorus said, “as Rook is sleeping. To my layman’s eye, they seem stable enough. You must have been at work for hours.” She blinked. Had she? It felt like an eternity, yes, but also, the hectic work of a moment.
February 8, 2026 at 1:50 PM
barrows.itch.io
#TBRuary Day 8: Long Ago

I have read a bit of The Water Margin, but never got too far in--other things came up, and the book itself is pretty meaty. What I did read I liked a lot, so I'm looking forward to picking it up again.

#booksky #readingcommunity
#writesky #writingcommunity
Cover of the novel, The Water Margin - Outlaws of the Marsh
February 8, 2026 at 12:07 PM
barrows.itch.io
Yana finds out Extali stations are not welcoming places.

Someone brought up to me recently that I have a tendency to treat locales like living entities. They meant it jokingly, but now I'm doubling down on it. It can be my Cool Author Quirk.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #FirstLight
The Hangar Bay held a breath, then exhaled. It had come alive. Slabs of stone dragged themselves open, peppering the room with holes that weren’t there before. Mechanical lungs blew new and proprietary poisons into the room. Something, somewhere, shook, and many more rustled just out of sight.
February 8, 2026 at 9:56 AM
barrows.itch.io
#TBRuary Day 7: Life Stages

Consumed, by David Cronenberg, is a great horror novel that lives rent free in my head. Written when he was 70, it, among other things, explores how one's sexuality and sex life change with age. A fascinating read.

#booksky #readingcommunity
#writesky #writingcommunity
The cover to the novel Consumed, by David Cronenberg, depicting a mass of organs and blood vessels against a black background.
February 7, 2026 at 2:55 PM
barrows.itch.io
From the very beginning of #FirstLight: Event Horizon. Yana does a lot of working and not a lot of spending, and her coworkers and supervisor are getting worried.

Surely this won't start a chain reaction that leads to her becoming a starship captain.

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Yana watched her feet start to tapping against the floor, and quickly put a stop to it. Looking up at Warden, she couldn’t help stealing a glance down the hallway before the doors slid closed behind him. “There just… isn’t a lot to do outside of the lab,” she admitted. “Everything I care—worked hard for, is in there.” “There’s an ancient entertainment expo going on in the Beauford Arm. They’re going to be digging up the old Augmented Reality systems. You know, the motion sickness ones.” “I’m not sure I…” “How many energy tokens do you have left?” Yana checked her compad. A three-digit number came up, and she found herself averting her eyes in shame. “Damn it, woman,” Warden laughed. “Have you seriously not been cashing any of these in? You do know they roll over at the end of the year, right?” “I get a nice assembled meal every now and then,” she said, “but I don’t usually need more than the basic providence.” He blinked slowly, as if the idea was foreign to him. “Need? Well, you have plenty of allowances to enjoy then. Have you taken Ngata up on that offer yet?” The name may as well have slapped her across the face; it left it red all the same. “You know about that?”
February 7, 2026 at 11:01 AM
barrows.itch.io
Hey, I have a character named after that number in #FirstLight! I'll just go and pick a snip I haven't shared in a while (a lot of the newer ones are spoilers).

Six (yep that's the one!) and Rook socialize, in their own way.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
“Hey, Six?” “Yes, Rook?” Their words near-faded into the background. “I was wondering what brought you here.” “The transport pod.” “No, I don’t mean—oh, oh, sorry, that was a joke.” “Was the timing inappropriate?” “Nah, I just wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t take you for the joking type.” “I am not. I am a braked, caged model, and obsolete at that. I do not have the tools to create effective humor. However, since we first met, I have been engaging in active profiling and determined that you respond positively to comedy.” Rook chuckled. “Well, that’s not creepy at all.” “Some feel that it is creepy, but as an S&M model, I am programmed to profile those I interact with, in order to create a rapport and facilitate transactions.” Limbs stretched and popped. Rook yawned. “Oh, makes sense. I like getting to know people too.” “It… is comparable, yes.” “For the record, I thought the joke was pretty good.” “It was?” “For an automaton, yeah.” “Thank you for being considerate,” Six said. “You may refer to me as a robot, if you wish.”
February 6, 2026 at 9:42 AM
barrows.itch.io
#TBRuary Day 5

This one is more for learning than leisure, but I'm eager to check out The Emotion Thesaurus by @angelackerman.bsky.social and Becca Puglisi. I often worry that my writing is too cold or mechanical, and I'm hoping it'll help.

#booksky #readingcommunity
#writesky #writingcommunity
Cover to The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
February 5, 2026 at 12:46 PM
barrows.itch.io
Of all the subplots in #FirstLight, none compare in epic scope or emotional resonance to the Sausage Arc.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
“Hey,” Rook whispered, elbowing the massive arm that rested beside them, “do you want to trade?” Diodorus looked down at the bowl of deep magenta broth before him, colorful slices of root vegetables floating alongside pieces of spiced bread, all steaming generously. Then, he looked at Rook’s order, and at the lumpy, vaguely sausage-shaped mass of foodstuff on their plate. “I don’t eat meat, Rook.” “Are we even sure this has meat in it?” “We could return to the stall and purchase something else.” “Nah, then this would go to waste, and I hate wasting food. Besides, it might be good, right? They wouldn’t sell it if it wasn’t good. They wouldn’t put it on top of the menu so clueless people like me saw the word ‘sausage’ and got tricked into having it.” “They would not do that,” Diodorus said. “They wouldn’t do that.” The thought lingered, however—they wouldn’t do that, except if they did. A trembling fork sank into it with little resistance. When the knife came to cut a piece, the sausage parted before it like wet clay. They stared at the small morsel, watching the steam wisp away, as if in staring hard enough, the sausage’s hidden truths would be revealed. Diodorus chuckled. Holding their breath, Rook took a bite.
February 5, 2026 at 9:56 AM
barrows.itch.io
#TBRuary Day 4:

Roadside Picnic is one of my most formative, and beloved, books. Everything by the Strugatsky brothers will be making its way into my TBR sooner or later, but the one I'm most looking forward to is Prisoners of Power.

#booksky #readingcommunity
#writesky #writingcommunity
Cover to the novel "Prisoners of Power" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
February 4, 2026 at 10:52 AM
barrows.itch.io
#WIPSnips of the day is Position.

I expected to have more of those in #FirstLight, and not just in this context, but hey, I get to share this bit I like again.

#WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity
“You two are here,” Gloria said, “because you passed our exams, and applied for positions aboard an NEV vessel. I’ll be direct: we have more than a few opportunities for people like you.” Her halfhearted smile said less capable, more breathing. “Actually, if I may…” “Yana, yes? Go ahead.” “Well, it’s just, I’ve been thinking, and maybe this isn’t for me…” A massive understatement, and Yana knew it. She had no business being a NEV; NEVs were pilots, and linguists, and mechanical engineers, and special agents, dashing rogues, action heroes, paramedics. Yana was an epidemiologist. Her expertise lay in the lenses of microscopes, not telescopes, and, as far as she could tell, there wasn’t a single molecule of daring, panache, or wanderlust in her entire body. But how could she say that to this woman’s face, this woman with medals on the wall, that this had all been a misunderstanding, and she’d only done it to appease some coworker? At any point she could have stopped it, stood up to herself, said no. Said no to Warden, to the recruitment officer, at any of the dozen steps between the application form and the acceptance letter. Instead, she let it get bigger, and bigger, and more out of control.
February 4, 2026 at 10:42 AM
barrows.itch.io
I've never done one of these before, but I'm loving learning what makes other people tick, and it might help me with my CRIPPLING SHYNESS.

So let's go! 1 like, 1 answer, and I promise I won't skip any of them, even if they get kinda embarrassing.

Alt text by @khonri.com!
A get to know me 1 like = 1 answer template on a light pink background. 1. Do you have any nicknames? 2. What is a compliment you've never forgotten? 3. Is there something you want to tell someone, but won't? 4. Do you believe in soulmates? Why/Why not? 5. Biggest turn on? 6. What was your first job? 7. What was the last song you sang? 8. What is one of your most treasured memories? 9. What has overwhelmed you recently? 10. Someone gave you $100, what are you spending it on? 11. What makes you feel appreciated? 12. Do you have trust issues? 13. Best concert you've ever been to? 14. Do you care what other people think of you? 15. What are your main hobbies? 16. Describe your dream home. 17. What is your strongest held belief(s)? 18. If you could get on a plane tomorrow, where would you go? 19. What is your most attractive feature? 20. Do you believe in aliens? 21. Biggest turn off? 22. What has made you laugh the most lately? 23. Favorite animal? 24. What lyrics are currently stuck in your head? 25. Is there someone you wish you could forgive? 26. Name 3-5 ways to win your heart. 27. Favorite comfort show? 28. Name one thing that always makes you angry. 29. Favorite type of weather? 30. What are you currently looking forward to?
February 3, 2026 at 5:05 PM
barrows.itch.io
Another animal prompt? Time to crack open Blob's enclosure and parade it around the room.

"Dan, it's the 7th week in a row you've shown Blob in class"

*Yes.*

#snippetshare #writingq #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #FirstLight
Yana arrived home that evening to find her housing upgraded. Another module had been added to her pod, between her bedroom and the outer bulkhead, and she recognized it as a lounge pod, with all the basic entertainment tools—books, audiovisual media, a reading chair, a coffee table. On top of the coffee table was a large glass vivarium, and within, a thick forest of fractal, chitinous growths, twitching in heartbeat-like motions, and stretching, then snapping, back into place. This miniature alien forest, complete with a miniature pond, stepped and dense in all three dimensions, was, Yana knew, purely aesthetic. She always thought Blob would fit in with the Zetan Period forests of Tau Ceti IV; a uniquely CO2-heavy climate comparable to Earth’s Early Carboniferous. In reality, however, Blob felt every bit at home in a nutrient suspension as it did in a lush forest, or calcite desert, or volcanic wasteland. It was, after all, one of the most resilient lifeforms in the known galaxy. The little amoeba, sensing its owner’s presence, crawled out from a pile of discarded shells. It lingered under the claw shape of one of the Zetan arbormorphs, its organs swirling with excitement, then extended a pseudopod upwards, which trembled like a fearful finger until it touched the lid’s glass. Through that thin life rope, Blob lifted itself up and pressed itself against the lid.
February 3, 2026 at 4:53 PM
barrows.itch.io
#TBRuary Day 3: Around the World

I adore Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I read One Hundred Years of Solitude when I was much too young to get it (and many times since) and it changed me.

So I'm really looking forward to Love in the Time of Cholera.

#booksky #readingcommunity
#writesky #writingcommunity
February 3, 2026 at 10:14 AM