Rebecca Summerling (she/her)
LightNews LightNews
banner
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Rebecca Summerling (she/her)
@rlsummerling.bsky.social
580 followers 400 following 840 posts
Writer and reader of the strange.
Assistant editor at Seize the Press. Associate editor at Violet Lichen Books
My stories can be found in The Dark, Nightjar Press, Interzone, ergot.
www.rlsummerling.com
Banner art by John Chrostek
Posts Replies Media Videos
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Thanks to Rex for spotting this one! Necropolis contains 5 stories about strange, decaying cities and is now available for purchase at Hexagon's patreon!
@alexfox.bsky.social @omersarae.bsky.social @nightgleaming.bsky.social @improbablerex.bsky.social and Victoria!
cover art by @warls.bsky.social
Necropolis cover showing an orangey red shell of a building that has been taken over by funghi
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
I made an awards eligibility post! I always feel a bit embarrassed doing these, but I'm really proud of these stories and extremely grateful to the editors who've published them
A medieval style heart surrounded by devils. Inside the heart reads: R.L Summerling 20205 THE Dancer’s Dozen ergot. - Jan 2025 His Most Feared Constellation The Dark - April 2025 Through Narrowing Veins Nightjar Press June 2025 Vanitas Interzone - June 2025
November 7, 2025 at 2:27 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Closed out Halloween season with a talk on magic in medieval manuscripts. Bye ghosts, I love you
London month of the dead sign with dapper skeleton
November 1, 2025 at 4:34 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Fascinating talk with Iain Sinclair and Tom Bolton to celebrate the reissue of Lud Heat at Swedenborg House tonight! Included a mention of @nicholasroyle.bsky.social!
Stephen Coates, Iain Sinclair and Tom Bolton on stage in front of an audience
October 22, 2025 at 8:29 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Lakes and trees and cinnamon buns. A beautiful week in Helsinki ❤🇫🇮
A lake reflecting clouds and surrounded by trees A cinnamon bun and cup of coffee
September 26, 2025 at 6:46 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Weekend reading: The Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison
A copy of The course of the Heart on a red blanket
September 13, 2025 at 7:58 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Sharing my nightjar press chapbook again! Plus a little snippet about a mysterious missive that begins the story. Available to buy here nightjarpress.weebly.com/through-narr...
Chapbook page reads "Shortly after the end of things, the electrical appliances began humming. My ear became attuned to the varying nuances of the noise each device emitted. The Roberts radio, dust-covered and shedding its burgundy leather, was the loudest. It relayed a set of instructions, which, I quickly discerned, were on a loop. I dedicated my time to decoding the missive onto the back of an envelope using a pen emblazoned with the name of my wife's tennis club that she had left on top of a half finished shopping list." On a yellow table cloth with shellducks Through narrowing veins cover against a green wall
September 8, 2025 at 4:29 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
What I'm reading for #spinsterseptember. My first Brookner!
A kindle showing the cover of Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner against a green wall
September 4, 2025 at 7:06 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Publication day for my Nightjar Press chapbook! Through Narrowing Veins is a story of illness through the lens of cosmic horror. You can buy it now through the @nightjarpress.bsky.social website, alongside many other excellent titles (I've read loads and I love them)
Rebecca holding a copy of her new chapbook
July 31, 2025 at 1:33 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Popped into Gay's the Word today and look who I spotted! @lindzmcleod.bsky.social
The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod facing outward on a bookshop shelf
July 22, 2025 at 5:03 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Mary Butts crowd rise up
Black and white photo of the book Armed with Madness by Mary Butts
July 22, 2025 at 5:22 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
June 18, 2025 at 10:55 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Weekend reading
A scruffy second hand copy of Cherry by Sara Wheeler
May 10, 2025 at 9:33 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
So so true! This one just really got me
April 12, 2025 at 5:40 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Just a reminder that this story is now free to read on The Dark's website!

www.thedarkmagazine.com/his-most-fea...
His Most Feared Constellation by R.L. Summerling He looks out of the caravan window. Filthy night. The hour is late; freezing cold bed sheets make sleep impossible. A relentless, suffocating winter and the weight of the snow draws the world down around him. Three sugars, he thinks. He strikes a match and lights the little gas stove to make his cup of tea. No dinner tonight, so he’ll have three sugars. Three sugars and, go on, a little milk. At least this time of year it doesn’t go off so quickly. He whistles an old Christmas carol, one he remembers from long ago. Lully, lullah, thou little tiny child, Bye bye, lully, lullay.
April 4, 2025 at 9:55 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Here's some excellent news from me! I have a new story in this month's issue of The Dark! It's called "His Most Feared Constellation". In a desolate corner of junkspace, a man makes a cup of tea while he waits for his daughter to visit ✨❄️
Front cover of issue 119 of The Dark depicting an apocalyptic yeti (I think!)
April 1, 2025 at 9:29 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
As if I weren't excited enough to see Hildur Guðnadóttir in concert, they've added Mica Levi playing one of my favourite songs off my most listened to soundtrack. AH!!
March 19, 2025 at 3:36 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Obsession is what it comes down to. It is difficult to think without obsession, and it is impossible to create something without a foundation that is rigorous, incontrovertible, and, in fact, to some degree repetitive. Repetition is the ritual of obsession. Repetition is a way to jumpstart the indecision of beginning. To persevere and to begin over and over again is to continue the obsession with work. Work comes out of work. In order to work you must already be working. —Richard Serra
March 14, 2025 at 10:29 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Trying to distract myself from 2025 as follows:
The "I just got to get through this week" meme, but "I just need to write my book" instead
March 7, 2025 at 11:16 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
A birthday book haul
3 books: The mushroom at the end of the world Say nothing Strange pictures
February 11, 2025 at 10:46 AM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Cinnamon and cardamom cookies (recipe from my niece)
Totoro biscuit on a red decorative plate
February 3, 2025 at 5:43 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
*Big sigh* Vive la révolution
January 29, 2025 at 8:42 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
I love him so much, so relatable
Sassoon is depressed because he went to a bad concert and fell over in the street and tore his trousers
January 27, 2025 at 4:41 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
Absolutely delighted to receive my contributor copy of Pissoir #2 which contains my story Enjoyment. Possibly the bleakest thing I have ever written! So glad to see this one in print @salopress.bsky.social Get your copy here! www.salopress.com/store/pissoi...
January 22, 2025 at 1:24 PM
rlsummerling.bsky.social
If you're in London, I thoroughly recommend Kyoto at the soho place theatre. Fast paced political drama about Don Pearlman and the attempt by the big oil companies to derail agreement at COP3 in 1997. 28 years later and bureaucracy still stands in the way of any meaningful change for the future
January 18, 2025 at 8:33 PM