#SFFChat My editor, Oliver, did this wonderful reading of the first little bit of my upcoming novella! He really elevated it and I'm so grateful. www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1MD...
E-mail: stevehughwestenraATprotonDOTme Author of questionable taste. Trans. Book reviewer. #SFINCS judge. #SFFChat Academic expert on monsters. HWA. He/him https://beforewegoblog.com/author/steve-hugh-westenra/ linktr.ee/SteveWestenra NO AI
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#SFFChat My editor, Oliver, did this wonderful reading of the first little bit of my upcoming novella! He really elevated it and I'm so grateful. www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1MD...
I vaguely remember there being shooting!
They do! I think that's probably at least a big part of why I like them
Definitely into those types of works as well (though I've only engaged with a couple of the ones you listed)!
Howdy! My name is Andrew. I’m in the middle of trying to finish a retrofuturistic biopunk noir! I love many subgenres, but I have a love for bleak, slice of life sci-fi set against super dramatic backdrops or background conflicts: Alien, The Employees, The Martian Chronicles, Tau Zero #SFFChat
chased us on motorcycles. But I got bored during the chase so I let the trolls catch and kill me so it would switch to another dream, haha
couldn't remember what the silver sand actually was or why it was important, but I was dead set on writing the story and decided it was a riddle and it was snow. 🤣 I used to dream about Stra Trek pretty often. One time I was on the playground with Captain Janeway and some others and then trolls
#SFFChat Q1: Dreams I've done both many times! There's a scene in The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle that I dreamt, and when I was ~12 I dreamt this whole high fantasy quest story called The Silver Sand in which a group of intrepid adventurers had to search for . . . the silver sand. When I woke up I
will generally hook me into picking up a work!
I like epic fantasy similar to ASoIaF, but also really poetic elegiac work like Gormenghast. I really really like darker, experimental stuff-- Jeff VanderMeer's a favourite, but also Nalo Hopkinson. What I like runs the gamut! I do like very character-focused stories, and claustrophobic settings
#SFFChat Intro: Hello, SFFChat! I'm the host. I write books. I like all kinds of subgenres! For me, execution is more important than anything if I'm honest. I do tend to gravitate more toward works with high/deep stakes (not "high" as in world-ending, but rich and personal).
Here is the exciting thing!! Oliver reads the first little bit of my novella, The Barbarian at Dream's End aloud! He did an absolutely fabulous job.
I'm so curious about Amanita Heights!! Are things made of different kinds of mushrooms (and other fungi)? E.g. enoki, chanterelles, etc?
BEAUTIFUL cover. Very well done!
As you know, I'm participating in the hot wet queer summer jam, and produced this short little soul bite of a book, a bit over 20k. It will be out end of this month on KU. 🌈❤️ Cover dream and draft by me, final genius artistic touches by @bjornlarssen.com (as ever!)
I've been having more trouble with it lately as well
Reservoir & Moon Song, two of my lit short stories, are now free. books2read.com/u/bQg1Lw books2read.com/MoonSongshort
Here is the exciting thing!! Oliver reads the first little bit of my novella, The Barbarian at Dream's End aloud! He did an absolutely fabulous job.
My average is probably 2.5-3, but I have some really short chapters and some really long ones.
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Ahhhh! You're so close
I'm really excited to read this series!
I've always wanted to go to an ice hotel!
#Septopolis 3: Aesthetically, my biggest inspiration for Europa City are penitentes, a natural phenomenon of icy/snowy spires on Earth also hypothesized to be common in the "tropics" of Europa (where EC is) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peniten... The City of Spires" is one of EC's other names. (1/6)
#SFFChat - Day 4: Snippet: Beginnings From the eventual TETK sequel, For One Night Only. D :
#WIPSnips - "Coffee" Surprisingly little of it in any of my work (I guess because I'm hoarding it all for me 😅) This also contains what is objectively the classiest reference in the book
Happy birthday!
I love hearing people's interpretations--it's fascinating what's potentially there and we don't even think about it
I hadn't thought of it that way, so that's really interesting!
Stay safe!!
Yup!
It's here! And here's Nikki's book!: storyoriginapp.com/universalboo...
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hey canadians! here's something politically actionable you can do about the payment processor censorship! sign the petition #CanPoli www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...
Thank you!!
Thank you!! I think I'm too nervous to write straight-up historical fiction. I do have a weird Egyptian asceticism monk story that I started and didn't finish though
My MA thesis “AROMANTIC FRANKENSTEIN” is now my Gothic WIP. You can read more about my explorations of platonic desire, queer experience, and religious de/reconstruction through retelling Frankenstein here: #HorrorWritersChat (cw: religion) worrydollsandfloatinglights.wordpress.com/2025/03/02/w...
It was indeed! I am very pleased. 😁
And Ashtaroth, my unfortunate MC, looking typically swamped in his clothing (that I didn't design super well, ahaha).
Drawing of Qwella! I always pictured her looking like Wunmi Mosaku, but even though I used a reference for her face she turned out nothing like her. 🤣 Still pretty happy with the drawing, even if the outfit didn't turn out exactly how I wanted either (and she looks too thin, I think).
Margaret is split into her ambition, love and fear as an unexpected side effect of rapid weight loss. Will the three sides of Margaret survive living together? A body horror fairytale. “All of Me” 🩸📚 📢📚 💙📚 ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Link below
Please follow my project to bring this dream to life! I need all the followers I can get! 📢📚 🪐📚 #queerwriters #indie #mythology www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...
Eeeeeee! I just got sent a thing I can't talk about and that is Very Exciting.™️
Fear not! It's exactly the kind of spoiler I appreciate!
I actually haven't seen it yet!! I really need to watch it (though its lukewarm reception was what had delayed me, haha)
“Puppeteered by his stalker, searching for his mother, and debating whether it’s possible to queerbait yourself, Tyler comes to realize that it doesn’t matter so much whether you believe in monsters, if they believe in you.” 👀 This sounds like a good time.
Thank you!! I really appreciate that ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you so so much!!!!
I’m very excited to reveal the cover for my next book, Astral Stalker! Made by me. #booksky #authorsky #artsky #promosky
Pretty happy with how this turned out 🤣 From The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle as usual books2read.com/u/boB9YL steve-westenra.itch.io/the-erstwhil... #transhorror #indiehorror #queerhorror
Oh, nice! Now I kind of wonder if I saw it and have just forgotten because it's been a long time. I saw most of Tennant's run
I'll have to check that out as well! I haven't watched Doctor Who in a while but used to enjoy watching it with my parents. I always loved that it balanced horror, humour, and sci-fi
Yesssssss. Angela Carter!
#HorrorWritersChat My scifi horrormance is available for pre-order! After crash-landing, a musician must fight for survival against the elements and hungry creatures while navigating precarious relationships with human-like aliens whose language and customs he can't understand. amweald.com/fires
#HorrorWritersChat I have written a sci-fi story with time travel. What made it horrifying was people could only survive in the future by coming back and living in our era, thereby creating a time loop, and a crisis (has the human race actually died out if they can't live in the future?)
That's such a cool concept!
#HorrorwritersChat Thanks so much, Eryn! ❤️ My novel about a cryptid-hunting YouTuber may be a comedy, but I'm told it's quite poetic as well, and it plays with prose/form quite a bit! books2read.com/u/boB9YL Review: queensbookasylum.com/2023/11/09/t... #indiehorror #indiebooks
Always a great #horrorwriterschat 🖤 I always suggest horror readers start with my first collection, Next Door. 13 eerie tales, one of them true. All the places linktr.ee/kdbwrites
Thanks Eryn, and sorry for being late! Having talked about MR James and what we'd write together I think it's only fair I share a link to a collection we might well have written together... in spirit #HorrorWritersChat
Awesome questions, Eryn! We've talked historical horror a lot tonight, and I've mentioned M.R. James and Charles Dickens. These titles are inspired by these great ghost story writers. bsky.app/profile/chao...
#HorrorWritersChat I got: A scifi and fantasy discord server: discord.gg/zNVETSVC A website: theodoresnapdragon.com A tumblr: transcendragon.tumblr.com A writing poll tumblr: www.tumblr.com/writerpolls Old (but fun!) UQuizzes that I’ll be adding to soon: uquiz.com/mYpoZs and uquiz.com/uSdebr
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Oooo! Yes!! My mom wrote a historical fiction MG set during the Black Death when I was a kid
#HorrorWritersChat Given my current horror novel is far future scifi, this is funny for me. I do have an answer, though! The Black Death period is awesome for horror. I wrote a historical horror fantasy short “Shared Hunger” in that time, but I kept the history details vague due to limited knowledge
*waves to you in France*!
I have a purpose!! 🤣 I'm super late because I got tied up with a work thing and then left this open without hitting "post" by accident, haha
#Horrorwriterschat I don't know that he'd like me much as he was likely a super repressed and self-loathing queer person, but ignoring that, I think we could create some truly bizarre and satirical/textured/existentially dreadful folk horror
keep it highly conceptual. Something like: what if the different organs in your body were constantly "time travelling" and aging/regressing at different speeds. I guess that's basically the premise of Old, which was absolute garbage though, so 🤣
#HorrorwritersChat I'm so picky about time travel! I love it as a concept, but it's very easy for me to hate. I find a lot of it thinks it's much smarter than it really is and that's a quick way to annoy me. I think I'd probably therefore either do something very very goofy (but horrifying) or
#Horrorwriterschat Oooo! Don't give me this power--I will abuse it! 🤣 I think it'd be cool to do some more ancient and Late Antique horror! You don't run into it very often (though I'll always sing the praises of Adam McOmber's Jesus and John to the high heavens).
Hello #HorrorWritersChat ! I’m from St. Louis, MO (an underrated Spooky City in my personal opinion). I don’t really like comparing myself to famous writers, even dead ones. Readers are free to make comparisons as they see fit but I’m not comfortable with it myself.
Leonora Carrington's such a fascinating writer (and underread)!
I love the interpretation of it as physical similarity, haha
Hey hey! I'm Michael, I write queer cosmic and supernatural horror and sci fi. I grew up in Appalachia, and though I *DO NOT* claim to be as talented or as skilled as this candidate doppelganger, but a role model who definitely influenced me is Manly Wade Wellman. #HorrorWritersChat
Hello!!!
🤣🤣🤣 That would have been so much more exciting!
If anyone's looking for an affordable eBook-only cover, here are a few examples (no AI): ~$50 US with up to two revisions.
This was so much fun to work on! Thank you for commissioning me!
storyoriginapp.com/universalboo... 💙📚👀😱📢📚 🩸📚 Selma is getting the creeps where she’s house sitting… @stevewestenra.bsky.social did the cover ^^
the desire to digitally burn my MSS. 🤣
Hello #HorrorwritersChat! I'm Steve--academic, horror author, and book reviewer! We don't necessarily write super alike, but I've always felt a kinship with Nikolai Gogol ever since a professor during my undergrad recommend The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol to me. I also periodically fight
Thanks so much! I'm really close to being done
Finished my first commissioned eBook cover and I'm really happy with it! ; - ;
I'm afraid it ultimately didn't go too well 🤣
Absolutely!
To be honest I'm not even sure where to start! It may just be something that's not for me (much as I admire it)
Same here
OMG!!!! YESSSSSS
Thank you! I think I may need to try to learn how to use computer drawing programs before I attempt anything, ahaha
That's so cool!! That's the kind of fun thing I'd like to do--make really bespoke stuff
all
fully know what a vector is (I thought it was a style of art that involved a lot of warping and lines that gets done by/in the computer, but from the tutorial I watched it just seems to mean the coordinates are scaleable without losinng definition, so not a specific style exactly). I can't code at
I could try! I'm worried it also won't look exact. I suspect it may not be the art for me, as I'm too clumsy to draw exact things, but I also have OCD that means I get really annoyed when I can tell they're wrong 🤣🤣🤣 So I may actually just be creating a new torture device for myself I still don't
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Love the oldschool horror game vibes this one's giving!
of practice, ahaha
I've got a bit further and downloaded another program called Calligraphr that you seem to need to use fonts in Inkscape! It's going better, but you do seem to need to be able to draw with a mouse, which I find impossible. I'm not sure how I'd make a really exact font this way without schooling/years
Canva has "apps" and "tools" that purport to do a lot of those things, but 99% of them seem to be AI
Very fair! My trouble now is that I have in mind exactly what I want, but lack the terminology to know what to find, or can only find it on sites that use a lot of AI (so the source is suspect), or I want to do things like add a gradient and I have no idea to make those kinds of changes. D:
I'll at least hopefully discover how it works! I genuinely have no idea how people make new letters/designs 😅