J. Ashley-Smith
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spooktapes.bsky.social
J. Ashley-Smith
@spooktapes.bsky.social
490 followers 240 following 70 posts
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
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Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
meerkatpress.bsky.social
🏆🎃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
spooktapes.bsky.social
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...
J. Ashley-Smith holds up a copy of Kathe Koja's new novel Dark Matter.
September 18, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
chpearcewrites.bsky.social
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
spooktapes.bsky.social
This David Lynch episode of Sesame Street is the worst.
Scene from Twin Peaks - The Return. An enormous black kettle spewing steam, and the numbers 4, 8, 5, 5 and 1.
August 6, 2025 at 5:21 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Separated at birth?
A five thousand year old megalith poses beside author J. Ashley-Smith (who is almost as old).
July 15, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
chpearcewrites.bsky.social
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
spooktapes.bsky.social
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.
undertow.bsky.social Undertow Publications 🇨🇦 @undertow.bsky.social · Jul 10
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...
Stories: The Sea, Like Glass Caesura Hair of the World Their Wings as Powdery As Bones The Beautiful Thing You Once Were The Coalface Way Up in De Middle of De Air Plunged in the Years Absent Below the Lip Wayback The Ferryman The Dying Chorus After We Kill Our Father and Before We Reach the Mainland Brick City, Stick City, Straw City Not All Your Bones Are Yours Warmth Shepherd Not Sheep The Limner Wrings His Hands Dissection of a Mermaid Paraffin Authors: Ainsley Hawthorn Alice Hatcher Aliya Whiteley Avra Margariti J. Ashley-Smith Jack Klausner Jamie Roballo Jeffrey Ford Charles Wilkinson Leslie What Lynda E. Rucker Max D. Stanton Max Franciscovich Nika Murphy Plangdi Neple Sean Padraic Birnie Simon Strantzas Vajra Chandrasekera Wailana Kalama Will VanDenBerg
July 11, 2025 at 3:23 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Life goals
Mary Gaitskill quote: "I would sometimes get five rejection letters in my mailbox at once. The main thing editors would write was that the characters were too hapless, and it was all too depressing."
May 19, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
chpearcewrites.bsky.social
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
mrlovenstein.bsky.social J. L. Westover @mrlovenstein.bsky.social · May 13
find your niche
May 14, 2025 at 12:05 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
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
Street mural of a magpie speaking with an old lady with green skin who may or may not be a witch (she has a pointy nose)
April 16, 2025 at 1:42 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
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
meerkatpress.bsky.social
#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
kkoja.bsky.social
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
Woman in black with silver hair, laughing her head off while holding a book and two small paper prints and a sticker and wooden bookmark
March 12, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
kaaronwarren.bsky.social
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
meerkatpress.bsky.social
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
trnapper.bsky.social
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).
trnapper.bsky.social T R Napper @trnapper.bsky.social · Feb 21
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
meerkatpress.bsky.social
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
spooktapes.bsky.social
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.
Playwright Václav Havel
March 2, 2025 at 12:03 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Poor Google is a tad unsettled by my current research...
Google telling me that 'Help is available' and sharing the number of Lifeline Australia.
February 27, 2025 at 10:51 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Fungal content.
Two puffball-like fungi, one of which has exploded. A puffball like fungus that looks a bit like a sourdough loaf.
February 14, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
sheenalouisef.bsky.social
Bookmail!
Ariadne, I Love You by @spooktapes.bsky.social
(Arrived today, @meerkatpress.bsky.social ❤️)
#booksky

For more: meerkatpress.shop/products/ari...
Ariadne, I Love You by J. Ashley Smith. Cover by Tricia Reeks of Meerkat Press. The cover shows skeletal remains.
January 30, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by J. Ashley-Smith
meerkatpress.bsky.social
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
spooktapes.bsky.social
When you leave your 15yo alone at the beach for an hour…
Sand sculpture of a naked man with his head covered in sand. Sand sculpture of a naked man with his head covered in sand.
January 26, 2025 at 11:54 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
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.)
Superfine on stage at the Hallamshire Hotel, circa 1995. Steve Pih and Mal Skene on Guitar. J. Ashley-Smith on bass guitar. J. Ashley-Smith on bass, age 19. (With a notable – and disturbing – absence of facial hair.)
January 19, 2025 at 11:58 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
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.
Patricia Arquette in a black limo - scene from David Lynch’s Lost Highway Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rossellini in a scene from David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Naomi Watts and Laura Harring in a scene from David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive The giant and Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks
January 19, 2025 at 10:25 PM