I got the acknowledgements, author's note, and dedication for Rugosa out to the publisher last night. Expressing gratitude in public is surprisingly complicated. Patreon blog post for subscribers:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/153755396

#AmWriting #AmPublishing #SFF #Fiction

Hugo Awards nominations end this week! I have four works for consideration for various categories: DOOMFLOWER, ATACAMA, TO WONDER AND STARSHINE, and the BSFA finalist for younger fiction (Lodestar consideration), THE SECRET OF THE SAPPHIRE SENTINEL, writing as J. Dianne Dotson. Thank you so much for nominating!
Here is a full list with all the details:
https://jendiagammon.com/2025/09/21/2025-awards-eligibility-post-for-jendia-gammon/

#awards #foryourconsideration #bookstagram #sff #horror

One week ago:

Alaine was on the bridge, shadowing Suri the navigator. She was only a couple of years older than him, but still called him "kid" like everyone else aboard.

"OK kid. Let's see your plan" she held out her hand for his PDU.
He handed it over asking "Why head for an uninhabited system, though?"
"There's a good market for the fabrication units just beyond. We could stop off at a couple of other planets first, but if we take the short-cut, we can arrive in time for a big industrial fair at their capital."
"So we stop off once, refuel from an iceball or gas giant, and carry on."
"Yep. OK, look at my calculations now" Suri pointed at her screen.

"I think I must be getting the hang of astrogation. That looks identical to mine!" Alaine exclaimed excitedly.
"Not so fast kid" the screen changed "This is the calculation I did last night."
"Wait, so what was the other one?"
"That was what I thought you'd do."
Alaine's face fell "I'm not getting it am I?"
Suri grinned "It isn't too bad, kid. You made the same mistake I would have made two years ago. Wencell, the navigator before me pulled the same trick on me. Off you go, and compare the two. Tell me where you went wrong over dinner."
"Yes Ma'am."

Alaine went back to the cabin he shared with the other spacehand, Yaani, and sat at the desk, going over the calculations. After about half an hour he found his error - he'd gotten the mass wrong for one of the outer planets. A minor error, but one that would have placed them light-weeks away from their intended destination. Not a fatal error, but it would have cost them most of the time they were trying to save.

Yani came in, all 80 kilograms and 110cm of them. Yani could also bench over 400kg, having come from a high-G world. "Whatcha got there, kid?"
"Suri's nav calcs for the next jump. I was shadowing her."
"She put up what she thought you'd do?"
"Yeah. I'm to tell her where I went wrong at dinner."
"You got an answer for her?"
"Yep."
"Good on ya. It took me nearly a week when she did that to me. I just ain't got the head for astrogation."
That made Alaine feel a little better. Mind you, Yani had an almost instinctive sense for cargo packing, and was usually working with Engle, who acted as the Load Master.

He wrote up his error in detail, ready for dinner.

#SF #SFF #SciFi #microfic #tootfic #microfiction #IAmWriting #ShamanSpace

#PennedPossibilities 965 — What is your MC’s reaction when someone close to them is sick or injured? How do they behave? (Minor spoilers.)

Bolt, my day angel MC, has demonstrated that she will step up and do something a lot in the current story, if I include "sympathetic to" in the "close to them" category. It's one case where her not thinking through what could go wrong works in her favor to make her seem slightly heroic instead of somewhat cowardly. In one case, she rushes a guy via the metro to Health Services because he won't let her fly him there. This is despite the fact that she's a shadow citizen. Because she's in the mob, she's ditched her government ID—she can't even collect basic income—but it's better than being arrested for her crimes. Even so, she risks it to get him cared for. She manages to wiggle out of having to ID herself at the clinic, and sees that he is mended. He still leaves town. Being beat up by her coworker in the mob turns out to have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

I am so happy to say that, thanks to student interest, we are planning to revisit #TheHungerGames books this Summer-Fall in SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) #online via #SignumUniversity. With enough demand, #TheHungerGames series of modules will be offered again! It's open for voting now.

May the odds be ever in our favor. 🏹

https://youtu.be/Tlwojys1CR0?si=ZaYdjoDqyzcvmdf2

Info: https://blackberry.signumuniversity.org/space/modules/0930/

#Dystopia #SFF #YoungAdult #YALit #ScienceFiction #Books #Bookstodon #Resist