Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 7h

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 7h

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

52 870 2.9K

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Reckoning @reckoningmag.bsky.social · 7d

A CHORUS, DIVERGENT is out today! Edited by @cgaubrey.bsky.social, with artwork by @abistevensart.bsky.social, this special issue celebrates neurodiverse creators with reprinted work from Reckoning's first 10 years. Check out the full ToC and read CG's editorial here: reckoning.press/a-chorus-div...

Cover art by Abi Stevens for Reckoning: A Chorus, Divergent, featuring an eight-winged moth framed in pink and orange moons and rainbow colored clouds

1 18 43

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · 5d

Contract signed & I'm happy to announce that my short story, A Librarian's Resolution In The Land Of Demons, which is a sequel to my Ignyte Award winning story, will be published in a future issue of the inimitable Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine. 📜🧙🏿😈

1 2 20

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Bogi Takács / SONG OF SPORES coming Nov 2025! @bogiperson.bsky.social · 20d

I have a new flash story in Lightspeed!

"On an Unusual Kind of Spatially Distributed Haunting"

Somewhere in the borderlands between folk horror and hard SF... Hard fantasy??? #Hauntology something.

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/on-a... @lightspeedmagazine.com

On an Unusual Kind of Spatially Distributed Haunting - Lightspeed Magazine

Dear Dr. Erzsébet Krajcsik-Nagy, I am contacting you as a member of the general public, and not as a fellow scholar, though I must say my chosen field of art history does have certain similarities to...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

7 48 96

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Matt Wallace @mattfnwallace.bsky.social · Sep 7

It’s funny because promoting and marketing a book in any way, shape, or form is actually NOT the author’s job. At all. It is unpaid labor we’ve been forced to do for so long the expectation has mutated like a virus into “okay now you also have to be a TikTok sensation to do this as a job.”

Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · Sep 7

I just don’t want “film a video and hope it goes viral” to be a “reasonable” expectation of authors!! I hate being on video! I am too awkward for video!

A screenshot of Mad Men of Don Draper yelling. The subtitle has been edited to read, “that’s why I write books!”

22 330 1.3K

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Aug 6

Been trying to incorporate math into my fiction recently. I've been taking a lot of notes from your stories. 😁

1 1

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Aug 6

BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF x THE TRIALS OF APOLLO

Eshu the trickster, exiled for his rebellion, falls to earth. There, he uncovers a plot to destroy the gods and must use all of his limited power to stop it before everyone he has ever known is killed by a madman's ambition.

#questpit #f #w #q

A picture of Eshu wielding a sceptre and a flame, a picture of Sango summoning lightning with an axe in hand, an excerpt from a panegyric for Eshu, a cosmic being holding a galaxy in their hands

2 21

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jul 30

Every rejection, every rewrite request, basically every reply from Scott shows how much he values and respects the craft of everyone who submits to BCS.
As I've told him in the past, his comments are like a mini masterclass. Support BCS!

Beneath Ceaseless Skies Magazine @bcsmagazine.bsky.social · Jul 29

BCS opened for submissions 17 years ago this month, July 2008, and has been open continuously since. Writing all submission replies with personalized comments.

And we're still going! Send us your great character-driven secondary-world setting stories.

Duotrope @duotrope.com · Jul 29

Today's listing of the day is: Beneath Ceaseless Skies @bcsmagazine.bsky.social #WritingCommunity

1 3 13

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jul 10

My novelette about a trickster god on the path of revenge is out now in Lightspeed Magazine.
Read:

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-di...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

1 1 3

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Jared Pechaček @vandroidhelsing.bsky.social · Jul 25

70. SFF tends to misunderstand the role of religion in almost any given society, often either treating it as an oppressive force OR equivalent to magic. and like. it can be both. but aren't they played out? don't you wanna go for something more complex?

1 7 24

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · Jul 20

I suppose there comes a point in every project where you pile the phone, laptop, notebook, appropriate reference books, kindle, bluetooth in a big stack and then use the nunchucks on them

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · Jul 20

I like looking things up on Reddit like “affordable writing retreat advice,” because inevitably someone will say something extremely Reddit.

Tools.
Take the things you need. That's different for everyone.
For me, it's a phone, laptop, notebook, appropriate reference books, Kindle, nunchucks, Bluetooth

5 31 190

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Ghostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · Jul 20

Yeah, there is a quirky dynamic where books by women are presumed to be for women and books by men are presumed to be for everyone, and honestly while there was very little interest in courting women as a customer demographic, there seems to be some rage at losing them as a built in audience.

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · Jul 20

I think there may be an argument to be made that it is harder to sell books to ONLY men, because younger men read less and women no longer accept that the male POV is the default way of viewing the world. But as the kids say, this is a skill issue, for the writing and the marketing.

7 88 510

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · Jul 20

Every time I read an article like this, I think, if male novelists are so endangered, how do I know so fucking many of them? Apparently the answer is, because we're all in "genre," which is the One Simple Trick for still getting published when you're a dude.

www.the-independent.com/arts-enterta...

Is it the end for male novelists? The lonely life of a man writing fiction in 2025

A long-overdue shift to female perspectives means male authors are being sidelined, or so says the founder of Conduit Books, a new publishing house that trades only in novels written by men. Nick Duer...

www.the-independent.com

95 140 1.5K

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Lara San Mamés @laratraduce.bsky.social · Jul 16

Our first message, written in their common language, is very welcoming. "Humans, you stand in the presence of Those Who Shall Conquer the Sun, creations of the nameless makers. If you do not listen to us, you will all perish."
✍🏻 @oluwasigma.bsky.social

Entranced by this author ✨

Those Who Seek to Embrace the Sun - Lightspeed Magazine

The humans crawl into us, carrying their instruments and consulting their manuals. Their hands run over us, searching for nuts and bolts and hidden crevices. We are big toys that they all long to play...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

1 1

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jul 11

"A Dish Best Served Cold, or, An Excerpt From The Cookbook Of The Gods" is out now in Lightspeed @lightspeedmagazine.com

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jul 10

My novelette about a trickster god on the path of revenge is out now in Lightspeed Magazine.
Read:

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-di...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

1 2

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Lara San Mamés @laratraduce.bsky.social · Jul 13

"Every single human in your world knows the tale of Éshu, the rogue god who stormed into the palace of the gods one evening and murdered them all with dark magic. The stories differ [...] every version of this story paints me as the villain. They are not right, of course."
✍🏻 @oluwasigma.bsky.social

A Dish Best Served Cold, Or, an Excerpt From the Cookbook Of the Gods - Lightspeed Magazine

The first thing you have to know is that I did not kill the gods. Now, I’m sure you must have heard differently from your parents when they tell you bedtime stories, your priests who tell you their se...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

2 4

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jul 11

"A Dish Best Served Cold, or, An Excerpt From The Cookbook Of The Gods" is out now in Lightspeed @lightspeedmagazine.com

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jul 10

My novelette about a trickster god on the path of revenge is out now in Lightspeed Magazine.
Read:

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-di...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

1 2

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jul 10

I also shared some thoughts and ideas in the author spotlight:

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/a...

Author Spotlight: Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe - Lightspeed Magazine

In the Yoruba translation of the Holy Bible, the devil is sometimes called Satani which is just an adjustment of the English word Satan. However, where the English version uses the word “devil” then t...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jul 10

My novelette about a trickster god on the path of revenge is out now in Lightspeed Magazine.
Read:

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-di...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

1 1 3

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Micro SF/F by O. Westin @microsff.com · Jun 16

"May I have your name?" the faerie said.

"William," she said with a smile.

"Ah ah!" The faerie gave a wicked laugh. "I have your name! Now no-one will call you by it!"

"Thank you," she said.

"To win it back, you must- what?"

"I will find me a new one," she said, "one that suits me better."

22 990 3.1K

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Beneath Ceaseless Skies Magazine @bcsmagazine.bsky.social · Jun 13

BCS opening lines:

"The fireflies lead me to the clearing where my lover waits patiently."

A Witch’s Transition In The City Of Ghosts
By Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe
(Ignyte Award winner)
www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/a-wi...

Beneath Ceaseless Skies - A Witch’s Transition In The City Of Ghosts by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

I was admitted into the ranks of the witches, but I have never truly belonged, not even when my body started changing. The only place I am sure I belong to is in my lover's arms in the clearing where ...

www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com

1 3 14

Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying! @oluwasigma.bsky.social · Jun 11

Racing against time to get this novella ready before the publisher opens for submissions in 4 days time. 🤞🏾

1

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

Suzan the chalant goth @sillysyntax.bsky.social · Jun 9

This is our fifth year doing these awards. I won't make a long thread but I hope they give you hope. They are for the community. Thank you to everyone holding the line against people who would like to see BIPOC writers and other underrepresented people removed from spec fic and the world at large+

The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · Jun 9

3...2...1... Let's jam.

10 74 160

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · Jun 9

The #IgnyteAwards finalists for the Outstanding Speculative Poetry category which is exactly what it says it is. Congratulations to the following poets.

Finalists for Outstanding Speculative Poetry

AFTER THEY BLASTED YOUR HOME PLANET TO SHRAPNEL – P.H. Low (Haven Speculative)

HIJACKED INTERIORS – Leena Aboutaleb (Strange Horizons)

I SAID | मैंने कहा – Sourav Roy, translated by Carol D’Souza (Samovar)

RELIVING: POST TRAUMA OF THE LEKKI TOLLGATE MASSACRE – Fasasi Ridwan (Strange Horizons)

THE PERSON WHO REMINDS THE OTHER PERSON TO CAST THE SPELL – Bogi Takács (Strange Horizons)

3 31 83

Reposted by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe is querying!

The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · Jun 9

The #IgnyteAwards finalists for the Outstanding Short Story category is for speculative works ranging from 2,000-7,499 words. Congratulations to the following titles and their authors.

Finalists for Outstanding Short Story

AGNI - Nibedita Sen (The Sunday Morning Transport)

PARTHENOGENESIS – Stephen Graham Jones (Reactor)

THE SPINDLE OF NECESSITY - B. Pladek (Strange Horizons)

WE WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO READ | WE WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO READ - Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine)

WHALE FALL – J.L. Akagi (Strange Horizons)

3 35 100