Holy smokes, folks! My new story, "Second Skin," is live on Wrath-Bearing Tree.

https://www.wrath-bearingtree.com/2024/02/new-fiction-by-jesse-rowell-second-skin/

Controversial and prescient, "Second Skin" is a captivating sci-fi story that explores the themes of immigration, human rights, and betrayal. Read it with empathy.

#scifi #ScienceFiction #MundaneScienceFiction #SecondSkin

Past Adjacent by Jesse Rowell is available online now! Read or listen to audio, humorous hard sci-fi.

https://amazingstories.com/2024/01/past-adjacent-by-jesse-rowell-free-story/

#FreeStory #HardSciFi #scifi #ScienceFiction #PastAdjacent

Speaking of nature and arachnids, one of my favorites is the goldenrod crab spider pictured here camouflaged in the cusp of a creeping buttercup as it sucks the juices out of a black-tailed bumble bee. Poor little bee. Nature is metal.

#spider #bee #GoldenrodCrabSpider #CreepingButtercup

Pending publications, upcoming stories in 2024!

Lots of rejections from publishers this year, all taken in stride, but quite pleased with the stories picked up by publishers. Thank you to all the editors and slush pile readers who pulled my work out of the slurry.

"Past Adjacent," in Amazing Stories Magazine.

"Second Skin," in Wrath-Bearing Tree.

"I Am Not, Until I Am," in CyberSalon.

"Or Every Man Be Blind," in Ab Terra.

#Scifi #ScienceFiction #SpeculativeFiction #Publishing

22 Ideas About the Future: audiobook released on Audible.

https://shorturl.at/benVX

Narrated by Wendy M. Grossman @wendyg, introduction by Douglas Rushkoff, @Rushkoff, includes an essay by @yenooi, and many other authors (sorry, couldn't find all to tag on Mastodon).

The anthology features my story, "The Valens Program," an evocative tale that will leave you wondering if the firewall between reality and disinformation is as strong as we once thought.

#scifi #ScienceFiction #AudioBook

Excerpt from my new story, "And Neptune Wept to See."

"The scarlet plague had covered the world like an ill-fitting blanket, its corners bunched into maroon hues of dusk."

#scifi #ScienceFiction #Neptune #pandemic

Short story finished. “And Neptune Wept to See.” Sending to publishers. Wish me luck!

#SciFi #ScienceFiction #ShortStory #WritersLife

"Capital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks."

What makes this an effective quote? Metaphor.

Metaphor is the partial mapping of a source domain (concrete, specific, familiar) onto a target domain (abstract, general, unfamiliar).

Capital = target domain. Source domains = dead labor, vampire.

What is the conceptual metaphor rooted in Marx's quote that makes it effective? Time is a Devourer.

#KarlMarx #metaphor