February 2026

Winter has officially arrived here in Massachusetts, with about two feet of snow from the huge storm. Of course, this was much easier for us to deal with than the freezing rain and ice that fell farther south. It was cold enough here that the snow remained light and fluffy, and New England is better equipped to deal with winter weather events than the southeastern states are. Although we do wish more of our neighbors would clear their sidewalks, all the streets were drivable as soon as the snow stopped (at least for northerners with snow tires).

We also wish more of our neighbors would make actual paths that connected to their driveway or their next-door neighbors' sidewalks.

We are now closed to fiction submissions until July 1st, and look forward to reading your stories! We received 282 during this most recent January submission period, up from this time last year (257) but down from July (304). As of right now, we plan to accept eight, though this always depends on our monthly Patreon funding (if you aren't already a subscriber, please consider signing up!)

Due to a significant recent increase in our monthly Patreon income, we'll be increasing our maximum allowed word count for fiction submissions in July, to 10,000 words (from 9000). Going forward, it will depend on where our Patreon funding is whenever we reopen (so you should probably keep an eye on it if you're working on a longer story).

Keep in mind that 10,000 words will be the maximum, not the minimum--or even the recommended--length. Although we did publish several long stories in 2025 (between 7500 and 9000 words), your chances really are much better with shorter ones. (Most of what we publish is between 3000 and 6000 words; and if we think your story is dragging on a bit after the first couple of pages, the likelihood of our reading all the way to the end anyway is much, much higher for stories under 3000 words.)

ARISIA

Kristin enjoyed Arisia this year, even though Donald had to work and couldn't join her. Despite the fact that Arisia is possibly one of the last two science fiction conventions on the planet to require masks (the other one is also in Massachusetts), the party scene is slowly starting to recover. (By which we mean that Arisia used to be famous for parties pre-COVID, and now has some once again.) It helps that party hosts get to set mask policy for their own events, and that most went with "mask-optional".

Kristin did not make it to the House of Toast party, which was stricter about masks than one might expect, given that the theme of the party is eating toast. (It's like flying in 2021, where you're supposed to keep your mask on except while actually putting toast in your mouth.) Though that wasn't why she didn't go; there was just a really long line, and Kristin is a food snob who makes all her own bread from scratch and can't get excited about pre-sliced grocery store bread with mass-market toppings.

They do have the best party advertising, though.

Arisia is less focused on books and reading than the Boston area's other principal science fiction conventions, Boskone and Readercon. In past years, it had enough attendees that there was still a significant literary track despite being more of a party convention. While this is less true these days, we think it's still worth attending for people who mostly want to talk about writing and literature if they live in the area, as long as they're willing to wear a mask most of the day (if not, Boskone is the one that's dropped the mask requirement).

Unfortunately, they're taking 2027 off to give their volunteers a break, but hope to return in 2028.

COMING SOON!

For our February story, crime fiction author Charlie Kondek is back with "The Murdering Hour", in which an embittered Detroit medium starts to realize that the spirits helping her scam wealthy clients might have their own agenda. Available to read here on February 23rd; or, if you sign up for our Patreon at $3+/month, you can read it over there right now!

If you like that one (or want something to read while you wait), Charlie's first story with us, "The Gift", is still available as well.

Thank you for reading, and stay warm! We hope to announce our March and April stories in our next monthly update, as well as our progress in reading the January submissions.

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