J. Ashley-Smith
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spooktapes.bsky.social
J. Ashley-Smith
@spooktapes.bsky.social
Author of dark fiction. Shirley Jackson Award winner. Co-host of the Let The Cat In podcast. Also: father, insomniac, moth dust gatherer. he/him. spooktapes.net
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
🏆🎃THE ATTIC TRAGEDY by J. Ashley-Smith: Forget jump scares. This Shirley Jackson Award-Winning novella is pure, slow-burning gothic dread. The perfect atmospheric read for a dark Halloween night.

https://smpl.is
/adxux

#Horror #GothicHorror #Ghosts @J. Ashley-Smith
October 28, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Privileged AF to get my grubby mitts on an ARC of this near-future fever dream. Avail yourselves of a copy - and a pair of knee-high railroad spike boots - the split second it drops!

@kkoja.bsky.social @meerkatpress.bsky.social

meerkatpress.com/books/dark-m...
September 18, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
Fantastic thread, thank you! 🙏🏻 I loved “The Beautiful Thing You One Were” by @spooktapes.bsky.social in Bourbon Penn. I also have a FUBF “Bird’s Eye View of the Old City” (magpies again) upcoming in Drabblecast in a few months 🖤

www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/33/the...
J. Ashley-Smith > The Beautiful Thing You Once Were > Bourbon Penn
Perhaps I should have been surprised when the magpie first spoke. Strange as it may seem, I had become quite used to the mimicries of those curious backyard birds, with their pristine black-and-white ...
www.bourbonpenn.com
August 18, 2025 at 11:09 PM
This David Lynch episode of Sesame Street is the worst.
August 6, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Separated at birth?
July 15, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
Spooky writer friends, if you have a project @australasianhorror.bsky.social mentorship program applications are open until the 17th! 👻

australasianhorror.com/mentorship-p...

I had a fantastic experience being mentored by @spooktapes.bsky.social in 2022 and blogged about it if you want more info:
Mentorship Program
2025 AHWA MENTORSHIP PROGRAM IS OPEN TO APPLICATIONS The AHWA Mentorship Program is open to applications for 2025. Applications will close at midnight on Thursday, July 17th. Offers will be sent to…
australasianhorror.com
July 14, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Undertow’s Best Weird Fiction of the Year is the gold standard anthology for strange stories - I’m so glad it’s back after what seemed a lifetime. Delighted and honoured The Beautiful Thing You Once Were made it into the list of notable stories, alongside some of my favourite authors of the genre.
Impossibly, I've made my selections for The Best Weird Fiction of the Year. Will announce the contents soon. Here, though, are 20 other stories I found quite notable, to be acknowledged in the book.

undertowpublications.com/shop/best-we...
July 11, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Life goals
May 19, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
Weird fiction people? Legends! 🖤

Thinking also about the writing advice I got from my amazing AHWA mentor @spooktapes.bsky.social back in 2022 to imagine your ideal reader (singular) when revising, and the effect you want the story to have on them, which I still find really helpful today
find your niche
May 14, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Delighted to learn my tragic, magic realist magpie love story – The Beautiful Thing You Once Were – has been shortlisted for an Aurealis Award. Some stories you just love irrationally, and this one broke my heart over and over as I wrote it... 1/3

Ping: @bourbonpenn.bsky.social
April 16, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Editor: Love the book, Leo. It’s another masterpiece. But do you really need the 2nd epilogue?

Tolstoy: Stet. How else will my readers understand my book’s themes without an essay to explain them?

Editor: Ok. Let’s say we keep the 2nd epilogue… does it really need all 5 chapters?

Tolstoy: Stet.
April 13, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
#womeninhorrormonth CALVARIA FELL by @CatSparx & @KaaronWarren blurred so many genre lines. And horror was one of them. Salute to these two talented authors!

https://smpl.is/8sbjz

#CatSparks #KaaronWarren #CliFi #WeirdFiction #DarkFantasy #Horror @Kaaron Warren @Cat Sparks
March 19, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
SKIN is a very intense book about love, art, pain and letting it all go, and if @lostmirror.bsky.social didn't make me laugh so hard this would have been a very serious portrait 💀 And @meerkatpress.bsky.social has the presales now plus incredible swag #queerhorror #industrial #art
March 12, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
My stuff from last year in case you're voting for awards and need a reminder of stuff!
March 12, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
Congratulations to Joel Dane's THE RAGPICKER, a Foreword Indies Finalist | Science Fiction. An amazing book and we are so happy to see it on this list!

https://smpl.is/a3lmo

#forewordindiesaward #JoelDane #DarkSciFi #Dystopian @Joel Dane
March 10, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
I don't, in a million years, think my novella will garner enough votes for a Hugo nom. I'm not deluded. But I do know it is a damn good book, & worthy of your time. And to paraphrase Bilbo: why shouldn't I, have a crack at the prize?

(Ballot closes March 14).
It's Hugo nomination time and my novella, Ghost of the Neon God, is eligible. The reviews haven't been bad at all. So if you've read it, enjoyed, and are voting, then don't forget to nominate. Cheers.

#hugoawards
@titanbooks.bsky.social
March 10, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
Huge congrats to Seb Doubinsky's THE SUM OF ALL THINGS, a Foreword Indies Finalist | Fantasy. We love this book & are excited to see it on this list.

https://smpl.is/a3lhw

@SebDoubinsky.bsky.social #SebDoubinsky #ScienceFiction #forewordindiesfinalist
March 10, 2025 at 10:56 PM
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the Czech playwright Václav Havel, who became President of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution. Despite Soviet oppression, Havel continued to write in spite of the dangers, hiding his growing manuscript in a hole in a tree.
March 2, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Poor Google is a tad unsettled by my current research...
February 27, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Fungal content.
February 14, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
Bookmail!
Ariadne, I Love You by @spooktapes.bsky.social
(Arrived today, @meerkatpress.bsky.social ❤️)
#booksky

For more: meerkatpress.shop/products/ari...
January 30, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
this may be my favorite bookshelf ever. Not to mention the southern reach trilogy which we didn't publish but love. @spooktapes.bsky.social I like the way Ariadne looks on this shelf!
January 30, 2025 at 7:18 PM
When you leave your 15yo alone at the beach for an hour…
January 26, 2025 at 11:54 PM
From the vault! @malskene just uncovered a lost video (c/o @alskene) of my first gig with Superfine, circa 1995. Lambchops, Lennons, and a naked chin. Thirty fucken years, man... (Time has not been kind to that ponytail.)
January 19, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Saturday morning, the kids led a family conversation about who was our GOAT. When they asked me, I had no idea (I always falter when someone asks me my favourite anything). Then I opened the paper and saw that David Lynch was dead, which answered the question for me.
January 19, 2025 at 10:25 PM