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Aeryn Rudel

@aerynrudel.bsky.social

1K followers 620 following 1.1K posts

Author, rejectomantic blogger, dinosaur nerd, sword enthusiast, SFWA & HWA member. Stories in PseudoPod, On Spec Magazine, Factor Four Magazine, Radon Journal, others. https://linktr.ee/Aeryn_Rudel?utm_source=linktree_admin_share

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · Nov 15

Hey, #writingcommunity! Guess I should do an intro post. So, I'm a former #TTRPG game designer, former magazine and fiction editor, and current short fiction, media tie-in, and #amquerying author. I talk about all that, plus offer dubious writing advice on my blog, Rejectomancy. :)

rejectomancy.com

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 2h

I hear ya. Subsequent drafts and revisions for me are all about REDUCING word count. lol

Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 3h

Hey, #writersofbluesky, when you're drafting a new novel, do you shoot for words per day, pages per day, or something else? I'm a dyed-in-the wool word count guy, and my goal is 2,000 words per drafting day. It gets me a first draft in around three months or so.

#writingcommunity

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 4h

Some say I spoil my Renfield, but I don’t see the harm in it. He does a good job, and I haven’t had to work for my nightly feed in decades. He keeps the blood flowing and cleans up any messes. Least I can do is make sure he's got his favorite #beetles and bugs to snack on.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 1d

I'm #querying a novel, and while I do that, I've started writing a new one. I'm pretty excited about it, to be honest. It's a great premise, but now I have to not fuck it up by, you know, actually writing it. Wish me luck! lol

#amwriting #writersofbluesky

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 1d

“Hey, Sal, why don’t we have a website?”

“Uh, because we’re hitmen, Lucky.”

“Yeah, but without a site, we can’t offer our clients special deals and stuff.”

“Like what? Murder #deluxe? For another grand, we’ll make sure they're EXTRA dead?”

“You always hate my ideas.”

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 2d

When I finish a story and think "huh, that's actually pretty good" it's the absolute kiss of death. My trunk folder is filled with "actually pretty good" and my published folder is filled with "this piece of shit." 😂

#amwriting #writersofbluesky

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 2d

He paints each room a bright color, cheerful red, green, and blue as vibrant as his smile, as dismissively ebullient as the way he answers certain questions. Visitors go from room to room, their own smiles waning as #undertones of grief and regret mute everything to gray.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 7d

I took the kids out this morning, and we strolled beneath a sulfur sky, smiling at the warmth of a radioactive sun. Naomi made #ash angles in front of the burnt ruins of a McDonalds. Oren gleefully chased, caught, and ate cockroaches. A good day at the end of the word.

#vss365 #amwriting

a destroyed city with a fire in the middle

ALT: a destroyed city with a fire in the middle

media.tenor.com

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 8d

Since the tech purge, every swinging dick carries a battle-axe or a great sword. They expect a movie sword fight, a #clash of steel on steel, beheadings and spilled entrails. The look on their faces when they lose a hand to my saber and a tight moulinet never gets old.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks! :)

Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 9d

The ranks and titles in Hell are much like those in a law firm. Evil souls are first chosen from the legions of the damned to serve as parademons, who hope to someday be elevated to the rank of #associate fiend, or even, if they’re lucky, to full partners in perdition.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 10d

He moved to the middle of nowhere, left all his devices, dug out his neural chip, and forwent even electricity. It wasn’t enough. The #advert drones found him anyway and descended on his cabin in a screaming swarm of special offers and once-in-a-life-time opportunities.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 11d

Undeath grants a kind of moral #elasticity that stretches further and further as the years pile on. In your first decade, you live by codes like no innocents, only the deserving, catch and release. By the end of your first century, it’s more don’t get any on your shoes.

#vss365 #amwriting

Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 12d

a man with a beard is sitting on a bed with his hands outstretched and the words `` guilty ! ''

ALT: a man with a beard is sitting on a bed with his hands outstretched and the words `` guilty ! ''

media.tenor.com

Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 12d

It's a little-known fact that vampires can get the blood they need by eating and digesting human flesh. Some of the more twisted among us even enjoy it. Problem is it makes one hell of a mess, always leaves a corpse, and, well, I prefer my blood without . . . #pulp.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 13d

There’s a pond in the the desert a hundred miles east of Vegas, a real #oasis. It’s even got palm trees. The thing that lives in that pond is meaner than a croc with a belly ache, but it’s always hungry, and if you’re quick, it’ll save you digging a hole to bury your hit.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 14d

Oh, yeah, cats can see them, too. ;)

Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 14d

You can spot the folks who've been taken if you look close enough. There’s a shimmer, a subtle #blur around their faces, like you’re looking at them through a rain-fogged window. If you stare long enough, the haze recedes, the veil lifts, and a thousand eyes stares back.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 15d

When a master #vampire is killed, and its spawn become human again, law enforcement is faced with a #conundrum. Former vampires have certainly committed heinous crimes under the influence of their makers, but being a ravening undead monster is a pretty solid insanity plea.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Reposted by Aeryn Rudel

H. Marin @hanmarin.bsky.social · 17d

I humbly offer the #AugurMicros2025 contest forbidden foraging and blissful reawakening. @augursociety.bsky.social

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 16d

The undead that seek psychological remedies to #sublimate their hunger face an uphill battle. However, if they can get past step one—don’t eat your psychologist—there is data suggesting that vampires, ghouls, and zombies can control and even overcome their inhuman urges.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 17d

He’d drawn a symbol on the #escutcheons around each light switch—a pentacle with an eye at the center. All were in the off position, save one. There, the escutcheon had been removed, and Mr. Langley died staring at the overhead light, his face fixed in absolute terror.

#vss365 #amwriting #Lovecraft

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 18d

Of course, the best time to pass as human is Halloween, but that doesn’t mean you can run your monstrous ass out there undisguised. No ghoul, werewolf, or nosferatu can pass real up-close #scrutiny. So get yourself a sheet, be a spooky ghost, and try not to eat too much.

#vss365 #amwriting

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 21d

Today on the blog, we're looking at another installment of my Ten Years of Rejectomancy series. This time, it's year seven, and, unfortunately, regression is the name of the game. Check it out.

#writingcommunity #writersofbluesky

rejectomancy.com/2025/09/24/t...

Ten Years of Rejectomancy: Year Seven – The Whiplash Effect

There’s a phenomena in baseball and other professional sports where a player, usually a rookie, has a fantastic inaugural season, goes into the next season with massive expectations, and then…

rejectomancy.com

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Aeryn Rudel @aerynrudel.bsky.social · 21d

Hey, folks, I have a new #flashfiction story up at @dreamtheorymedia.bsky.social today. Not sure what genre you'd put it in, as it it doesn't feature my usual cast of vampires, demons, and hitmen. Fabulism, maybe? Either way, I had fun writing it. :)

#writingcommunity #writersofbluesky

Dream Theory Media [Subs Closed] @dreamtheorymedia.bsky.social · 21d

NEW STORY: @aerynrudel.bsky.social's new story is now live! "The Other Side of Empty" is an intriguing look at connection and completeness in humans. Art by @doctorofthedead.bsky.social.

www.dreamtheory.media/the-other-si...

The Other Side of Empty

by Aeryn Rudel Art by Arnold T. Blumberg There’s a hole in me. I’m not speaking metaphorically. If I lift my shirt, you’ll see a black disk about the size of a softball just above my belly button. I...

www.dreamtheory.media

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