Austin Dewar

@austindewar.bsky.social

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Writer, reader, monk. Currently employed as a postal worker and bookseller. Learning to write short stories! Likes cool bugs, organizing, philosophy, and speculative fiction. - austindewar.com

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I like a lot of Hemingway's stories, but the authors of BOTH writing workbooks I'm reading (Janet Burroway & John Gardner) keep roasting him in their examples and it's hilarious, like Jim and Pam dunking on Dwight, but it's these old writing textbooks holding a grudge across time and space.

This is awesome, feels so otherworldly and yet close to the heart in how it depicts the contradictions you can face as a worker, weighing short term and long term survival, the masochism that can come with coping mechanisms, deliberating over if and how to become an activist, etc.

The story of my heart, my cyberpunk masochist clowns story, is FREE TO READ NOW in @apexmag.bsky.social!!! “I dress up as a clown and let people beat me up in the alley behind the cybermotel.” Borne of my thesis on cyberclowns and orientalism!!! Do dive in!!!

Writing a fanfic of "A Memory Called Empire" for fun and practice :)

Just registered for the #ClarionWest flash fiction workshop! Been working hard on my own but nothing compares to learning with others and getting expert instruction, so here I come out of hermitage 😂 If you're also participating feel free to reach out, I'm excited to make writing friends!

Heard Ann Leckie bought a new dress... Nordstrom Radch

Short story I'm studying this week: "A Fine Balance" by Charlotte Ashley. Great action sequences, a main character whose one heroic quality is the rarely praised virtue of simply being a diligent helper, and a kickass iteration of Chekhov's gun.

Got to see the 1931 Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde at a local theater. I need to watch more older films cause this was a blast---deeply disturbing at certain parts, but possibly the biggest thrill was Hyde going full goblin mode and out of the blue doing a seriously impressive parkour vault over a wall.

I reviewed Aimee Lim's debut novel, The Spindle of Fate, which comes out June 4th. In this children's horror/fantasy, a vengeful girl descends into the Chinese underworld to save her mom, becoming something of a demon herself along the way. austindewar.com/2024/05/27/s...

The girl who chose violence: The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim (ARC Review -Coming 6/4)austindewar.com Disclaimer: I received an advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book for free for the purpose of giving an honest review. The Spindle of Fate can be purchased here.***SPOILERS*** New author Aimee Lim’s T...

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer: www.instagram.com/reel/C6ozslq...

Dillon 🐸 Biologist, Science Communicator on Instagram: "Audio on and emotions out 😭😭😭 This meant a lot to me. It's #AmphibianWeek and I have so much to share. First, many awesome amphibian conservati...www.instagram.com 8,049 likes, 178 comments - dillonthebiologist on May 6, 2024: "Audio on and emotions out 😭😭😭 This meant a lot to me. It's #AmphibianWeek and I have so much to share. First, many awesome amph...".

Ran into this friendly little guy today!

Visited the Ludlow mine worker massacre memorial in Colorado today. Loved this letter left by a young visitor -- YOUR LEGACY WILL LIVE ON FOR EVER AND EVER AND EVER LIKE 3 TRILLION YEARS ✊ 🔥

The horror of all the Libby books you've had on hold for months suddenly getting delivered at the same time

I haven't even finished reading this and WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK!?!? This isn't a "story," this is a WRITTEN STEREOGRAM! Caroline M. Yoachim has literally (actually literally) discovered a new way to write!!! like the 3D chess of writing holy cow CAROLINE M. YOACHIM PUT VOICES IN MY HEAD!?!?

Editor's Note: This story, "We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read" is one of the most amazing stories I've ever read. I urge everyone to read it, & I'm so excited to finally share it with you all. —John Joseph Adams lightspeedmagazine.com/HowToRead

Cleaned up nature shelves today, before and after 💚 #books #bookselling #organization

Elegantly antlered litodonta 💚🐛 I wish you could post video on here, its weaving head movements are very cool very cute #insects #bugs

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Austin Dewar

There are always three things I conclude when seeing dinosaurs: 1. Jurassic period >>> other periods. Peak Theropods; fight me. 🦖 2. Life in Earth’s history is absolutely terrifying 3. We are 3000% not making aliens weird enough in our SciFi - look at the diversity and weirdness in Earth’s past!

OMG EVERYONE I AM KILLING TIME BEFORE MY TRAIN AND AT THE ROYAL ONTARIO MISEUM AND THEY HAVE DINOSAURS SO MANY DINOSAURS AND I AM IN HEAVEN! 🦖🦕 THEY HAVE MY FAV - ALLOSAURUS! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Lovely poem by Ali Trotta! Like a love letter to fantasy stories themselves and how they infuse our lives with needed wonder and comfort. #poetry #writing

Darlings! I have a new poem out today in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social, and I am excited for you to read it. I hope you like "The High Priestess Writes a Love Letter to The Magician!" #Poem #Poet #TarotPoem #SFF #Writing www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-...

The High Priestess Writes a Love Letter to The Magician - Uncanny Magazinewww.uncannymagazine.com Your magick is this: kindness and shadow, fireflies of hope burning like embers— everything you touch signs a raven song, a fairytale, a reminde...

Inspired by Carlo Rovelli, I wrote about the hidden ecosystems, guerilla warfare, and quantum entanglement of bookshelves. Featuring weird cover art and amateur sociological case studies of how people behave in a bookstore: austindewar.com/2024/05/06/t... #books #bookselling #writing

The Bookshelf Ecosystemaustindewar.com Notes from the Bookstore Sales Floor, Episode 2 Welcome to episode two of Notes from the Bookstore Sales Floor where I, someone who knows little about either writing or selling books (yet!), presume t...

Just started this and excited about the pleistocene the way I used to get about ancient Egypt/Greek myths as a kid. Reads like speculative fiction about the past, history written by a poet. Good rec for weird fic / sff writers to inform worldbuilding, also cool niche vocab. #books #writing #nature

Think this might be a thrush? Don't know much about #birds

This feels like the alivest time of the year ♥️ #insects

These little guys absolutely decimated the sumac bushes #insects #bugs

Fascinated by this thorough treatise on bathroom use at a local cafe, reads like bureaucratic poetry. Especially the concept of "deserting an explicit smell regularly without warning."

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Couldn’t resist.

The grasshoppers have hatched and are so numerous that when I walk barefoot through the field their tiny bodies feel like spring rain on my skin. Weird how gentle they start, and then relentlessly devour until there won't be a leaf left by the end of the summer.

Incredible things happening in the moisture fandom

I want to carry this around like medieval ladies used to hang prayer books from their belts

I'm going to have a poem published in one of my favorite magazines, Strange Horizons!!! I still can't believe it but the check came today so I guess it's really happening!?! 💜

Trying to blog more consistently. In this one I gush over A.K. Larkwood's "the Unspoken Name," how it revisions "Tombs of Atuan" by Ursula Le Guin, and compare and contrast to Tamsyn Muir's "Gideon the Ninth." austindewar.com/2024/04/30/t...

Tomb Writers: A. K. Larkwood, Tamsyn Muir, and Ursula K. Le Guinaustindewar.com The children yearn for the tombs... ***this post contains spoilers for A. K. Larkwood's The Unspoken Name and Tamsyn Muir's Gideon/Harrow the Ninth*** What is it about being a child bride to a dead go...

Trying out this bluesky thing. Cool bug of the day --