Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 2h

For the interactive dark fairytale currently on sub: frost on iron, drought-dry fields under hot sun, the clean salt of a wild sea.
For my sapphic mountain-set romantasy WIP: honeycomb, shady moss, hints of sharp rosemary, butter-laden pastries.

L. D. Lewis, Peach Jolly Rancher 🍬 @ldlewiswrites.blacksky.app · 17h

What would *your* book smell like if you engaged in a mega weirdo scented pages promotional campaign?

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 3h

Breathing through alpaca-fibre scarf this morning, breath misting like dragon smoke, no frost to dance on yet but plenty of crönchy leaves scattering the walkway.
#cozymoment

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 3h

He took 12yo me to see The Backstreet Boys, sat with a tiny flashlight and his book while I shrieked with thousands of other pre-teens, and afterward stood in line to buy me overpriced merch. 🥹 His ears rang for three days.

Ź🖤🥀 @lalaspeaks.bsky.social · 2d

What’s ONE green flag about your father?

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 1d

Her despair grew so great that it burst her breast open and like a bird of fire shattered the stone and broke out into the light of day--the light of day, faint in her windowless room.

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Emma Mitchell @silverpebble2.bsky.social · 13h

Autumnal collection, including little owl feather, seedheads & various lovely things that fell off trees.
Zoom in to the details if you’re feeling stressed-the patterns in nature have been shown to help our brains relax🪶:

A collection of seedheads, acorns, sycamore keys, dried flowers, lichen, a little owl feather & a piece of Baltic amber on a white watercolour paper background

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 6h

💚💚💚

hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 7h

Witchery is relationships. There can be no good relationship without listening. The witch attends the river not just to learn all it has seen as it has carved the land, but to foster a bond with it. For respect starts in hearing others speak their truths. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 6h

Having just finished @tkingfisher.com’s Hemlock & Silver 👀

Girls Running From Houses @girlfleeshouse.bsky.social · 6h

She flees, pursued by reflections.

Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 19h

I love this one. It makes my heart ache

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Night Owling @2probablynever.bsky.social · 21h

I draw green lines in clusters of five on the wall counting down till I see the forest again. Then I paint birds free hand, fiery red cardinals and quiet bluebirds, partly because I need to look at them and partly to say goodbye. I am getting off at my home planet and I will never look back.

Tales & Feathers Magazine @talesfeathers.bsky.social · 1d

On an interplanetary merchant ship, strictly enforced rules and regulations are how a crew survives with ship intact and food properly rationed. Even so, each crewmember is allowed a few grams of paint and personal items for their bunk. What does your cot look like?

#TinyTalesTuesday #WritingPrompt

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 1d

You found the embroidered book at an abandoned reclamation site two years ago, and you should have reported it, but the feel of the linen and thread awoke something desperate inside, and you snuck it on board. It’s given you the names for the plants you dream about, and awakened you to dozens more.

Tales & Feathers Magazine @talesfeathers.bsky.social · 1d

On an interplanetary merchant ship, strictly enforced rules and regulations are how a crew survives with ship intact and food properly rationed. Even so, each crewmember is allowed a few grams of paint and personal items for their bunk. What does your cot look like?

#TinyTalesTuesday #WritingPrompt

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Small Wonders @smallwondersmag.com · 1d

What if your sister died? What would you pay to bring her back? In "Hungry Ghosts," by Miranda Rain, the answer is...well, you'll have to read it to see.

Hungry Ghosts - Small Wonders

The searcher appeared, by chance or by providence, when Min’s sister was not yet three days dead.

smallwondersmag.com

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 1d

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 1d

Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk. Smoky, jazzy speakeasies and dirty alleyways, but also lesbians and demons. 10/10 recommend

Reposted by Angela M Cowan

April Wolfe @aprilwolfe.bsky.social · 1d

Short story collections should be way more popular and marketed better for the short-attention present.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

The English Oak Project @thekentacorn.bsky.social · 2d

Ancient Woodland doesn’t mean the trees are ancient

It means trees have been there undisturbed for thousands of years, & at least since consistent national records started in the 17th Century

It’s the soil that is ancient

The ghosts of the dying & the dead feeding the living

Ancient woodland floor covered in Autumn leaves, seeds and twigs

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 3d

Please click and read through the whole poem. These words 💔

Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 3d

Wow this Bob Hicok poem, “All Together Now” (courtesy of All Poems Daily)

Wasn't Jesus an illegal immigrant?
He just arrived in Israel without papers or history or sex, so wouldn't He be deported today if He were mowing lawns in America? I bet Jesus would mow a mean lawn, and be really good at edging,
and pet your dog if it got loose in the yard and wondered who this stranger was.
And isn't shooting a priest in the head with a pepperball during a peaceful protest the equivalent, by proxy, of shooting Jesus in the head with a pepperball, which, by extension, is the same as shooting God in the head with a pepperball, which, for those of us who don't believe in God, is like shooting the sun, or the moon, or the air in the head with a pepperball, which is easy to do, including for me, even though I only fired a gun
once,
at a steel chicken, who was at a disadvantage and should have been given a head start.
The priest was telling the man who shot him, a federal agent on top of a building wearing a mask, the man, not the building,

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Thomas L. Vaultonburg @wolftwinthomas.bsky.social · 4d

I listen-
what was my heartbeat
is rain
#haiku #poetry

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Girls Running From Houses @girlfleeshouse.bsky.social · 3d

In the glass-fronted bookcase, she finds a treatise on nettles.

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 4d

“Teeth like neglected gravestones”
Just… 👀👀👀
This is so good.

Small Wonders @smallwondersmag.com · 4d

Granny would grin, teeth like neglected gravestones, activating all her laugh lines. “Don’t get old, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

So begins Wen Wen Yang's story, "Granny's Spider," which goes places very quickly.

Granny’s Spider - Small Wonders

Granny would grin, teeth like neglected gravestones, activating all her laugh lines. “Don’t get old, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

smallwondersmag.com

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · 4d

Just bought three back issues and I’m so excited to dive into these stories like a golden retriever into a massive pile of leaves

On Spec Magazine @onspecmag.bsky.social · 4d

She’s right about this. Our stories don’t get stale or go bad. Something we published 5 or 10 or 30 years ago still has an amazing shelf life.

Danica LeBlanc @danicahere.bsky.social · 5d

The good news? Stories don't go bad. Find a back issue, and I know you'll find something in there to enjoy. 5/5

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Bilbo Yaga @bilboyaga.bsky.social · 5d

Many things are being destroyed & the news of it is a psychological & political onslaught.

So it’s important that you create things.

It can be art, cookies, a community pantry, a garden, a mask bloc. It can be beautiful, practical, silly. Just create & share.

It’ll do your brain & the world good.

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

WholesomeMemes @wholesomememe.bsky.social · 4d

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Terri Windling @terriwindling.bsky.social · 6d

"It's all a matter of paying attention, being awake in the present moment, and not expecting a huge payoff. The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses." - Charles de Lint

Photograph: Lottie, a young brown spaniel, on a path through the green and rust and golden magic of the Devon hills.

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Reposted by Angela M Cowan

Apex Magazine (is funding for 2026!) 🎉 @apexmag.bsky.social · Aug 7

It's time to announce the August flash fiction theme! Submerge yourself in some haunting jellyfish lofi because...🐙🐋🫧

August's flash fiction theme is DEEP SEA! 🪼🦑

Heat vents! Whale fall! Doomed sub voyages! Send it all! Submissions are open until August 31st!

www.patreon.com/posts/135291...

12 Hours Of Bloody-Belly Comb Jellies + Ambient Music To Vibe With | Littoral Relaxocean

YouTube video by Monterey Bay Aquarium

www.youtube.com

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Angela M Cowan @angelamcowan.bsky.social · Aug 3

Made it to the actual submittable page this time, but when I smashed the “submit” button 13 seconds later, alas, it was closed.

HAD @havehashad.com · Aug 2

Reminder: this is tomorrow (Sunday) at 11 am (EST)!!

Reminder 2: Electric Boogaloo: these go FAST. like, it'll probably hit the 150 cap in under a minute and then the call be closed. be prepared!

HAD @havehashad.com · Aug 1

~50 hours until this next call!

@megannn-lynne.bsky.social wants your list(poem)s!

Call opens Sunday, August 3rd, 11am, EST.
Capped at 150 submissions.

(sub call in image/alt text/replies)

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