Jay Castello 🌻
@jaymcastello.bsky.social
freelance culture writer 🍏 book & game editor ☕ narrative designer 🎲 short (& long) fiction author 📚 ace attorney podcast host @turnaboutbreakdown.bsky.social 🌈 basically if it involves words i'll do it 🌙 jaycastello.com 🦢 they/she
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Jay Castello 🌻
@jaymcastello.bsky.social
· Mar 28
Jay Castello
jaycastello.com
📌
i'm Jay and i'm a storyteller in like 15 mediums:
📰 journalism & crit on media, internet culture, & fandom
📼 often available in video & podcast form
🔍 editing on books, articles, & games
🌌 published fiction author
🌒 other, weirder things
more details: jaycastello.com // jaymcastello @ gmail
i'm Jay and i'm a storyteller in like 15 mediums:
📰 journalism & crit on media, internet culture, & fandom
📼 often available in video & podcast form
🔍 editing on books, articles, & games
🌌 published fiction author
🌒 other, weirder things
more details: jaycastello.com // jaymcastello @ gmail
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
editors
November 10, 2025 at 6:48 PM
editors
recently i described my work as not an email job but a job of conducting elaborate rituals in order to get good emails and i can't stop thinking about it. anyway i just went into a fugue state and did 90 minutes of fiction submissions
November 10, 2025 at 8:33 PM
recently i described my work as not an email job but a job of conducting elaborate rituals in order to get good emails and i can't stop thinking about it. anyway i just went into a fugue state and did 90 minutes of fiction submissions
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
Sometimes I wonder if our many years of jokes about writers hating writing and doing anything but writing, etc, have convinced people that the writing part is the hurdle and the goal is just to have a thing in hand. But I am here to tell you: the writing is the best part. The act is the thing.
November 9, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Sometimes I wonder if our many years of jokes about writers hating writing and doing anything but writing, etc, have convinced people that the writing part is the hurdle and the goal is just to have a thing in hand. But I am here to tell you: the writing is the best part. The act is the thing.
[staring down a slippery slope] I'm not gonna read along with this. but it can't hurt to check if my dad would let me borrow the silmarillion
Let's make it official:
SHELVED BY GENRE's next unit, spanning ALL of 2026, will be a delve into the depths of modern genre with J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION.
If you don't have those, you can grab them through our Bookshop:
bookshop.org/lists/shelve...
SHELVED BY GENRE's next unit, spanning ALL of 2026, will be a delve into the depths of modern genre with J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION.
If you don't have those, you can grab them through our Bookshop:
bookshop.org/lists/shelve...
Shelved By Genre
These are books discussed on the podcast Shelved by Genre!
bookshop.org
November 9, 2025 at 4:27 PM
[staring down a slippery slope] I'm not gonna read along with this. but it can't hurt to check if my dad would let me borrow the silmarillion
on the one hand, only 950 words. on the other hand, the word "pokemon" doesn't hit until graf 5.
i've got an insanely complicated piece in me about pokemon za's take on the anthropocene
November 8, 2025 at 9:44 AM
on the one hand, only 950 words. on the other hand, the word "pokemon" doesn't hit until graf 5.
talked to my dad for 45 minutes about beech forest ecology for my next unwinnable piece
November 7, 2025 at 7:09 PM
talked to my dad for 45 minutes about beech forest ecology for my next unwinnable piece
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
My 2025 Eligibility post is now live! Holy shit, I had a lot of work out this year. Featuring writing w/ @undertow.bsky.social, @lightspeedmagazine.com, @reactorsff.bsky.social, @nightmare-magazine.com, @criticalrole.bsky.social, @tachyonpub.bsky.social, and more!
buttondown.com/mcahill90/ar...
buttondown.com/mcahill90/ar...
2025 Eligibility Post
Holy shit, I published a lot of stuff this year. Five short stories, one commissioned short story, an essay pamphlet, an article with Writer’s Digest,...
buttondown.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:27 PM
My 2025 Eligibility post is now live! Holy shit, I had a lot of work out this year. Featuring writing w/ @undertow.bsky.social, @lightspeedmagazine.com, @reactorsff.bsky.social, @nightmare-magazine.com, @criticalrole.bsky.social, @tachyonpub.bsky.social, and more!
buttondown.com/mcahill90/ar...
buttondown.com/mcahill90/ar...
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
I wrote about historical fiction and romantic visions of the past in this year's videogames. Read it below!
Ghost of Yotei, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Mafia: The Old Country each, to different degrees, complicate our vision of the past.
Ghost Of Yotei And Other Historical Games Are Rewriting Old Myths
Ghost of Yotei, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Mafia: The Old Country each, to different degrees, complicate our vision of the past
kotaku.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:00 PM
I wrote about historical fiction and romantic visions of the past in this year's videogames. Read it below!
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
ICYMI: "[H]arrier’s life exists as a powerful parallel to a trans person’s process of self-discovery and change."
Feature Excerpt: @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social examines how Disco Elysium's Harrier Du Bois provides a reflection of the transgender experience:
Feature Excerpt: @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social examines how Disco Elysium's Harrier Du Bois provides a reflection of the transgender experience:
I Don’t Want to Be This Kind of Animal Anymore - Unwinnable
You’re not crazy. You’re just different. You have a vast soul. This life is all you have, but it’s still something. You have to keep going.
unwinnable.com
September 26, 2025 at 5:02 PM
ICYMI: "[H]arrier’s life exists as a powerful parallel to a trans person’s process of self-discovery and change."
Feature Excerpt: @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social examines how Disco Elysium's Harrier Du Bois provides a reflection of the transgender experience:
Feature Excerpt: @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social examines how Disco Elysium's Harrier Du Bois provides a reflection of the transgender experience:
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
wrote about coin madness www.theverge.com/games/814111...
The hottest trend in speedrunning is flipping a coin
Unfair Flips isn’t fair, but it is fun.
www.theverge.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:37 PM
wrote about coin madness www.theverge.com/games/814111...
not the point but future class always pissed me off so much as a name. [showing you 30 of the most accomplished, talented people you've ever seen who are currently working in the industry] they might do something eventually isn't that cute? 🥰
November 6, 2025 at 6:19 PM
not the point but future class always pissed me off so much as a name. [showing you 30 of the most accomplished, talented people you've ever seen who are currently working in the industry] they might do something eventually isn't that cute? 🥰
something really funny about getting a rejection phrased as "we've read it with care but have decided not to accept it for publication." could you try reading it a bit less carefully
November 6, 2025 at 5:21 PM
something really funny about getting a rejection phrased as "we've read it with care but have decided not to accept it for publication." could you try reading it a bit less carefully
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
ok i'm gonna park The Reading here for people that see this in a quote tweet and get mad
www.polygon.com/legend-zelda...
www.polygon.com/23922313/leg...
www.polygon.com/legend-zelda...
www.polygon.com/23922313/leg...
Tears of the Kingdom’s ending is its own kind of tragedy
Perpetuating the status quo
www.polygon.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:08 PM
ok i'm gonna park The Reading here for people that see this in a quote tweet and get mad
www.polygon.com/legend-zelda...
www.polygon.com/23922313/leg...
www.polygon.com/legend-zelda...
www.polygon.com/23922313/leg...
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
Something the voice notes in the TotK phone app make me feel certain of is no one hates Zelda like some guy at Nintendo must
July 6, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Something the voice notes in the TotK phone app make me feel certain of is no one hates Zelda like some guy at Nintendo must
autumn pretty cool imo
November 6, 2025 at 3:46 PM
autumn pretty cool imo
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
This is good, and a little brain-breaking
November 5, 2025 at 10:16 PM
This is good, and a little brain-breaking
images you can hear
November 5, 2025 at 10:08 PM
images you can hear
Reposted by Jay Castello 🌻
New article in The Verge about the Unfair Flips speedrunning community!!
www.theverge.com/games/814111...
www.theverge.com/games/814111...
The hottest trend in speedrunning is flipping a coin
Unfair Flips isn’t fair, but it is fun.
www.theverge.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:16 PM
New article in The Verge about the Unfair Flips speedrunning community!!
www.theverge.com/games/814111...
www.theverge.com/games/814111...
wrote about coin madness www.theverge.com/games/814111...
The hottest trend in speedrunning is flipping a coin
Unfair Flips isn’t fair, but it is fun.
www.theverge.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:37 PM
wrote about coin madness www.theverge.com/games/814111...
i have finally finished pokemon za. i think i would have been very mean about this game if i reviewed it
November 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
i have finally finished pokemon za. i think i would have been very mean about this game if i reviewed it
urbain should have crashed the fuck out when you beat him. he should have tried to kill you with a rock
November 5, 2025 at 4:59 PM
urbain should have crashed the fuck out when you beat him. he should have tried to kill you with a rock
there's this new trend in youtube comments were people will put "legendary homepage refresh" as if the algorithm is a gacha pull and it's like. hm. yeah you're not wrong do we wanna do like any introspection about that
November 2, 2025 at 8:17 PM
there's this new trend in youtube comments were people will put "legendary homepage refresh" as if the algorithm is a gacha pull and it's like. hm. yeah you're not wrong do we wanna do like any introspection about that
@austinwalker.bsky.social i'm sure you mentioned it somewhere but what was the strange non-instrument used in the realis soundtrack? you asked people to guess in one of the episodes and I haven't been able to stop wondering
November 1, 2025 at 6:51 PM
@austinwalker.bsky.social i'm sure you mentioned it somewhere but what was the strange non-instrument used in the realis soundtrack? you asked people to guess in one of the episodes and I haven't been able to stop wondering
my absolute pettiest gripe is how much media doesn't understand how the moon works
October 31, 2025 at 3:50 PM
my absolute pettiest gripe is how much media doesn't understand how the moon works
i went to have a little peek at the many nights a whisper steam reviews and this really is it
October 30, 2025 at 8:55 PM
i went to have a little peek at the many nights a whisper steam reviews and this really is it