Auston Habershaw
@aahabershaw.bsky.social
Science Fiction/Fantasy author and English professor; shorts in Analog, F&SF, BCS, and elsewhere. Author of The Saga of the Redeemed and If Wishes Were Retail and also Faceless Galaxy; website aahabershaw.com
Repped by @awfulagent.bsky.social
He/Him
Repped by @awfulagent.bsky.social
He/Him
Pinned
Get IF WISHES WERE RETAIL!
A heartwarming comedy about a genie selling wishes in a failing mall! On sale now!
Amazon: a.co/d/7Ft53dI
Barnes and Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/if-wishes-...
Bookshop: bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...
Tachyon (publisher): tachyonpublications.com/product/if-w...
A heartwarming comedy about a genie selling wishes in a failing mall! On sale now!
Amazon: a.co/d/7Ft53dI
Barnes and Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/if-wishes-...
Bookshop: bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...
Tachyon (publisher): tachyonpublications.com/product/if-w...
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
It's the same re Covid vaccine. That's why saying Long Covid can come from the Covid vaccine is wrong, as there's no infection.
No, you can’t get the flu from the flu vaccine.
The temporary side effects that you might feel after getting the vaccine are your immune system reacting to the inactive proteins from the surface of the virus.
The temporary side effects that you might feel after getting the vaccine are your immune system reacting to the inactive proteins from the surface of the virus.
What doctors say about one of the biggest flu shot myths
“The influenza vaccine shows the immune system what potential components of the virus it should focus its efforts on,” one expert said.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 29, 2025 at 12:40 AM
It's the same re Covid vaccine. That's why saying Long Covid can come from the Covid vaccine is wrong, as there's no infection.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
Harriet Tubman's Boston - Tubman's connections to Boston run deep and long. She drew some of her greatest support from friends and allies here. With their help, Tubman raised funds to sustain her work in the fight against slavery... www.nps.gov/articles/000... #Boston #HarrietTubman
Harriet Tubman's Boston (U.S. National Park Service)
www.nps.gov
August 12, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Harriet Tubman's Boston - Tubman's connections to Boston run deep and long. She drew some of her greatest support from friends and allies here. With their help, Tubman raised funds to sustain her work in the fight against slavery... www.nps.gov/articles/000... #Boston #HarrietTubman
BLACK FRIDAY SALE!
Hey, gang! Tachyon Publications (my publisher) is holding a 30% off sale today! This included all copies of my hilarious contemporary fantasy, IF WISHES WERE RETAIL!
If you haven't snagged a copy, now's your chance!
Use code YEAREND30 at checkout!
Hey, gang! Tachyon Publications (my publisher) is holding a 30% off sale today! This included all copies of my hilarious contemporary fantasy, IF WISHES WERE RETAIL!
If you haven't snagged a copy, now's your chance!
Use code YEAREND30 at checkout!
If Wishes Were Retail - Tachyon Publications
“Irresistibly fun and funny, with a ton of heart and depth! This is the kind of book that sneaks up on you and sticks with you!” —Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop I...
tachyonpublications.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM
BLACK FRIDAY SALE!
Hey, gang! Tachyon Publications (my publisher) is holding a 30% off sale today! This included all copies of my hilarious contemporary fantasy, IF WISHES WERE RETAIL!
If you haven't snagged a copy, now's your chance!
Use code YEAREND30 at checkout!
Hey, gang! Tachyon Publications (my publisher) is holding a 30% off sale today! This included all copies of my hilarious contemporary fantasy, IF WISHES WERE RETAIL!
If you haven't snagged a copy, now's your chance!
Use code YEAREND30 at checkout!
Got a whole book/series of books in part inspired by this movie. I also haven't written it for fear of a disastrous release.
Treasure Planet was released 23 years ago today... and literally takes us off in this magnificent shot. ✨
November 27, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Got a whole book/series of books in part inspired by this movie. I also haven't written it for fear of a disastrous release.
This whole thread is a perfect encapsulation of the writer's dilemma, but this specific part is particularly notable.
This isn't really about me, but I'm a Sunday Times bestselling author who had a big advance on my first book and a reasonably successful debut and my financial situation looks like this:
a cartoon dog is carrying a box on a train track
Alt: A gif of the scene from Wallace and Gromit: The Wring Trousers where Gromit is riding a toy train and frantically placing track down in front of the train so that it doesn't derail
media.tenor.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:59 PM
This whole thread is a perfect encapsulation of the writer's dilemma, but this specific part is particularly notable.
I do exactly that, every single semester. Most of my students appreciate it, but the ones that don't, hoo boy.
Also doesn't help that I'm actively at odds with many of my colleagues, too.
Also doesn't help that I'm actively at odds with many of my colleagues, too.
This is why OpenAI is selling so aggressively to education at all levels—they want to create entire generations of users incapable of reading, writing and thinking without ChatGPT to hold their hands
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
To bear out this rosy projection, HSBC assumes that OpenAI will become "as ubiquitous [...] as Microsoft 365" (345mm users worldwide) while bringing in 10x the number of users (3bn).
November 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
I do exactly that, every single semester. Most of my students appreciate it, but the ones that don't, hoo boy.
Also doesn't help that I'm actively at odds with many of my colleagues, too.
Also doesn't help that I'm actively at odds with many of my colleagues, too.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
a cancer nurse in a state I've never been to told messaged me and said that reading out Rice Truck aloud as it happened was the only day in her entire 14 year career on chemo ward that nobody cried and it's probably the best compliment I will ever get in my life
What is the best compliment you ever received? Putting aside whether or not you believed it.
November 27, 2025 at 1:21 PM
a cancer nurse in a state I've never been to told messaged me and said that reading out Rice Truck aloud as it happened was the only day in her entire 14 year career on chemo ward that nobody cried and it's probably the best compliment I will ever get in my life
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
Among white people, the correlation between racial resentment and their voting decision is much, much stronger than between educational attainment and political alignment.
In fact, if you control for racial resentment, education polarization basically disappears.
In fact, if you control for racial resentment, education polarization basically disappears.
November 27, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Among white people, the correlation between racial resentment and their voting decision is much, much stronger than between educational attainment and political alignment.
In fact, if you control for racial resentment, education polarization basically disappears.
In fact, if you control for racial resentment, education polarization basically disappears.
My favorite answer to this question is in Kings of the Wyld by @nicholaseames.bsky.social
Has anyone ever questioned why there are so many angry monsters to attack you in RPG video games from a worldbuilding perspective?
I get their "game" function. I just find it amusing that these games present worlds where you have to be able to fight bats and mutant gophers and what not.
I get their "game" function. I just find it amusing that these games present worlds where you have to be able to fight bats and mutant gophers and what not.
November 27, 2025 at 2:58 PM
My favorite answer to this question is in Kings of the Wyld by @nicholaseames.bsky.social
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
November 27, 2025 at 2:30 AM
"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
I think we can safely say that the Leavitt's brother called ICE on his ex, the mother of his child, and I have to say: I have no desire to respect, find common ground or share the country with these monsters.
“After Ferreira was detained, Dos Santos Rodrigues said Michael Leavitt Sr. and his father, Bob Leavitt, reached out to her.”
“‘They just kept saying, ‘Tell her to self-deport,’” she recalled. “Self-deport to where? Brazil is not her home.’” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/26/m...
“‘They just kept saying, ‘Tell her to self-deport,’” she recalled. “Self-deport to where? Brazil is not her home.’” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/26/m...
‘Brazil is not her home.’ Mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, brought to US as child, detained by ICE. - The Boston Globe
Bruna Ferreira, 33, was brought to the United States as a child in 1998. She is now in removal proceedings in Louisiana.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:54 PM
I think we can safely say that the Leavitt's brother called ICE on his ex, the mother of his child, and I have to say: I have no desire to respect, find common ground or share the country with these monsters.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
Translation: "If you don't use AI then the guys using our chips can't pretend to make money and can't pay the loans they took out to pay for the original loans they took out for all the money they're not making and it all falls apart and we can't sell chips to fuel the money they're not making."
November 27, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Translation: "If you don't use AI then the guys using our chips can't pretend to make money and can't pay the loans they took out to pay for the original loans they took out for all the money they're not making and it all falls apart and we can't sell chips to fuel the money they're not making."
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
Best experience I had publishing a story was with @bcsmagazine.bsky.social
The editor of @bcsmagazine.bsky.social once said this:
"...don't bend your own style so far that it saps the individuality that your voice in my opinion has. A vivid and unique sense of voice to me is a rare and precious thing, that makes a writer's fiction come alive."
That's stuck with me.
"...don't bend your own style so far that it saps the individuality that your voice in my opinion has. A vivid and unique sense of voice to me is a rare and precious thing, that makes a writer's fiction come alive."
That's stuck with me.
November 26, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Best experience I had publishing a story was with @bcsmagazine.bsky.social
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
My thoughts on AI anything, really.
November 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM
My thoughts on AI anything, really.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
The problem with ICE is not that it's targeting people who aren't criminals. The problem with ICE is that it's an unaccountable secret deportation police. It cannot be reformed under a better president. It can be made less terrible, but the instrument of repression remains for the next tyrant.
November 26, 2025 at 5:04 PM
The problem with ICE is not that it's targeting people who aren't criminals. The problem with ICE is that it's an unaccountable secret deportation police. It cannot be reformed under a better president. It can be made less terrible, but the instrument of repression remains for the next tyrant.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
As @gregsargent.bsky.social points out, Trump *has* given illegal orders.
But he’s also so allergic to democratic ideals that the very idea of a military (or any other institution) that serves the people rather than the ruler is totally illegible and incomprehensible to him.
But he’s also so allergic to democratic ideals that the very idea of a military (or any other institution) that serves the people rather than the ruler is totally illegible and incomprehensible to him.
November 26, 2025 at 4:53 PM
As @gregsargent.bsky.social points out, Trump *has* given illegal orders.
But he’s also so allergic to democratic ideals that the very idea of a military (or any other institution) that serves the people rather than the ruler is totally illegible and incomprehensible to him.
But he’s also so allergic to democratic ideals that the very idea of a military (or any other institution) that serves the people rather than the ruler is totally illegible and incomprehensible to him.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
The current US government's ongoing commitment to destroying the US tourism industry is of course not its worst feature morally, but it might be the weirdest.
The Interior Department has announced it will charge $100 per head for non-US residents to visit the most popular 11 national parks.
Stupid and self-defeating. Millions have visited those parks and left with with affection for America. No more, except those who can afford $400 per family per park.
Stupid and self-defeating. Millions have visited those parks and left with with affection for America. No more, except those who can afford $400 per family per park.
November 26, 2025 at 12:36 PM
The current US government's ongoing commitment to destroying the US tourism industry is of course not its worst feature morally, but it might be the weirdest.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 PM
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
Yup. Authors should talk more about how most of us make a living not writing so we can live to write. I'm very lucky to get paid for 9 months of university teaching (with benefits), which allows me to write during not-teaching times. Otherwise advances & royalties are too small & rare. 🧪📚✍️ #Booksky
I know we know this, but authors need to get better at talking about how they actually make their money. Stop pretending it's from the books.
November 25, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Yup. Authors should talk more about how most of us make a living not writing so we can live to write. I'm very lucky to get paid for 9 months of university teaching (with benefits), which allows me to write during not-teaching times. Otherwise advances & royalties are too small & rare. 🧪📚✍️ #Booksky
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
Hell yes.
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Hell yes.
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
Good thing there wasn’t a corrupt Big Ozone able to prevent this recovery from happening, or a corrupt president in the pocket of Big Ozone pretending the problem wasn’t real.
NASA, NOAA Rank 2025 Ozone Hole as 5th Smallest Since 1992 - NASA Science
The ozone hole over the Antarctic was small in 2025 compared to previous years and remains on track to recover later this century. The hole this year was the fifth smallest since 1992, the year a land...
science.nasa.gov
November 25, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Good thing there wasn’t a corrupt Big Ozone able to prevent this recovery from happening, or a corrupt president in the pocket of Big Ozone pretending the problem wasn’t real.
I perfer:
5: Bromance Goes Sour Thanks to Child Murder
4: Teddy Bears Fuck Up Nazis
3: Farmboy Radicalized by Space Garbage
2: There's Only One Bed: Space Edition
1: Everyone Gets an Awesome Death
5: Bromance Goes Sour Thanks to Child Murder
4: Teddy Bears Fuck Up Nazis
3: Farmboy Radicalized by Space Garbage
2: There's Only One Bed: Space Edition
1: Everyone Gets an Awesome Death
Top 5 "Star Wars" Movies, Definitive List:
5. "A New Coma"
4. "The Wisdom of Space Muppet"
3. "Revenge of the Return"
2. "Space Bikini"
1. "I Am Your Father"
5. "A New Coma"
4. "The Wisdom of Space Muppet"
3. "Revenge of the Return"
2. "Space Bikini"
1. "I Am Your Father"
November 25, 2025 at 4:18 PM
I perfer:
5: Bromance Goes Sour Thanks to Child Murder
4: Teddy Bears Fuck Up Nazis
3: Farmboy Radicalized by Space Garbage
2: There's Only One Bed: Space Edition
1: Everyone Gets an Awesome Death
5: Bromance Goes Sour Thanks to Child Murder
4: Teddy Bears Fuck Up Nazis
3: Farmboy Radicalized by Space Garbage
2: There's Only One Bed: Space Edition
1: Everyone Gets an Awesome Death
There is something about space opera and its obsession with designing bigger and bigger guns.
You'd almost think it were primarily an American-derived genre...
You'd almost think it were primarily an American-derived genre...
if you don't blow up at least one galaxy is it even space opera
November 25, 2025 at 2:59 PM
There is something about space opera and its obsession with designing bigger and bigger guns.
You'd almost think it were primarily an American-derived genre...
You'd almost think it were primarily an American-derived genre...
Reposted by Auston Habershaw
Re: previous post - People who steal art of any kind are assholes, full stop. If *you* deserve to be paid for your labor, so do I - and so does everybody else; this means writers, visual artists, musicians, and every other category of People Who Make Things.
November 25, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Re: previous post - People who steal art of any kind are assholes, full stop. If *you* deserve to be paid for your labor, so do I - and so does everybody else; this means writers, visual artists, musicians, and every other category of People Who Make Things.