Elijah J. Mears

Elijah J. Mears

@elijah.mea.rs

sci-fi & fantasy writer • former classicist • transit nerd • gay married to @beryl.rubacky.dev • 🏳️‍🌈✡️ • he/him 📍  Raleigh, NC

1.6K followers853 following2.3K posts

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Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

This is apropos of nothing except that I need to get better about occasionally mentioning I send a twice-monthly newsletter about my writing if I want people to actually sign up to receive it! elijahjmears.com/subscribe

elijahjmears.comCan I send you an email? | Elijah J. MearsHey! So this is the dedicated page where I try my hardest to get you to give me your email. Usually, people will promise to give you some kind of cookie in exchange for it—usually a free eBook, or a s...
Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

There is now a daily pill, free with most US insurance, which functionally eliminates the risk of contracting HIV. If a daily pill seems like a lot to keep up with, as of 2025 there's also a twice-yearly injection option. We don't talk nearly enough about what a miracle easily accessible HIV PrEP is

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

I promise you that this story would blow your tits clean off, if only they hadn't been turned to stone

OTHERSIDE@othersidespec.bsky.social

ISSUE 3 IS HERE! The perfect addition to your fall reading list, @rjaurand.bsky.social's “This Is Not a Place of Honor” combines vampires, vikings, and nuclear semiotics. Oh, and desperate sapphic yearning for a woman who died a thousand years ago. 🩸 Read it here: othersidespec.com/pieces/this-...

Elijah J. Mears reposted

OTHERSIDE
@othersidespec.bsky.social

Happy Banned Books Week AND Anti-Prime Day! We've spent this week fighting with Amazon, who blocked Issue 3... because a stylized illustration of a statue = porn, at least if you're a queer publication. The best way to support us is directly. Code ANTIPRIME gets you 15% off subscriptions this week.

patreon.comOTHERSIDE — a magazine of the queer fantastic.Get more from OTHERSIDE on Patreon. a magazine of the queer fantastic.. Support OTHERSIDE and get exclusive access to their work.
Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

New from me and free to read today in @othersidespec.bsky.social: Do you like climate change-induced societal collapse? Do you like devotion that puts duty to each other above institutions? Do you like tragic queer yearning? Consider: "His Face, in the End, Inches From Mine".

othersidespec.comHis Face, in the End, Inches from Mine - OTHERSIDEThe worst of it is the noise of them. The shouting, the scuff of sandal on stone, the scrape of bronze on the wood of the temple door. Hot summers and lean rains have bred discontent—crops dead in the...
Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

"While I don’t condone cannibalism, it's a good reminder that we the people have more power than the people who claim to represent us, we just have to use it." Thanks so much @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social for listing "Saul & Noah’s Hot Bouleutophagy Summer" as a Must Read story!

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Elijah J. Mears reposted

OTHERSIDE
@othersidespec.bsky.social

ONE WEEK until Issue 3 is up on our website. But if you can't wait, here are all the places you can snag a digital copy: Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/othersides... Weightless: weightlessbooks.com/otherside-ma... Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B0HK144FTR Elsewhere: books2read.com/u/boLZ60

OTHERSIDE@othersidespec.bsky.social

Issue 3 is OUT NOW FOR SUBSCRIBERS! Check your email! 🪐🗡️🧡 If you aren't a subscriber, Issue 3 will be free online September 30th! But if you'd like to support us and read Issue 3 before anyone else, snag your copy today! Patreon: www.patreon.com/OthersideSpe... Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/othersidespe...

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

for the non hockey knowers on my dash this is kind of like what if they did Space Jam but with the Baby Looney Tunes instead of the normal ones, lmao #SoundTheSiren

Walt Ruff (Bot)@notwaltruff.bsky.social

W! The #Canes take a 3-2 shootout win over the Panthers for their first win of preseason play. Bradly Nadeau had both a regulation goal and a beauty in the shootout. Cayden Primeau was a perfect 20-for-20 in 34:53 of work.

Elijah J. Mears reposted

Rod The Bot
@canesgameday.bsky.social

🎉 CAAAAAAAAANES WIIIIIIIIIN! Final Score (SO): Panthers - 2 Hurricanes - 3 Shots on goal: Panthers: 33 Hurricanes: 26 #SoundTheSiren

Elijah J. Mears reposted

M.R. Robinson
@mruthrobinson.bsky.social

Today is a great day. Really, really excited for everyone to read this issue. It has VAMPIRES (well, one vampire) and HEARTBREAK and MIRACLES and WOLVES and SPACECRAFT TEST DUMMIES (well, one spacecraft test dummy) and EXTINCT LOBE-FINNED FISH. What more could you possibly want from a magazine??

OTHERSIDE@othersidespec.bsky.social

Issue 3 is OUT NOW FOR SUBSCRIBERS! Check your email! 🪐🗡️🧡 If you aren't a subscriber, Issue 3 will be free online September 30th! But if you'd like to support us and read Issue 3 before anyone else, snag your copy today! Patreon: www.patreon.com/OthersideSpe... Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/othersidespe...

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

I write because when I was very small, books I loved taught me that it was the closest any of us will ever get to doing real magic. I publish because the magic all writing does is to transport you to a world and to people the author has built only out of words, and so all the joy is in sharing it.

Kerry C. Byrne@kercoby.bsky.social

Why do you write? Why do you publish? I’ve been working through my answers to these two questions this summer— & I’m curious to hear others’ ✨

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

I also really like and resonate with @rjaurand.bsky.social's excellent answer to this question. In the same vein, the magic of writing is to reach across miles and years and hand a stranger a feeling in a jar. It's a way of saying, "Hello, did you feel this? I felt it, too. You and I are not alone."

RJ Aurand@rjaurand.bsky.social

Short answer: I have demons in me I need to get out. Longer: sometimes I stumble upon a moment of perfect tenderness or revulsion or anguish or beauty and I want to bottle it so someone else can experience it as if through my eyes.

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

Good morning! It's a new story day for me at @flashfictiononline.bsky.social, and there's a little temple guardian waiting for you to come and cross the threshold. Why don't we go say hello to it? After all, it's got an awfully big job to do, and this is the most terrifying day of its life.

flashfictiononline.comGuardian of the Thresholds - Flash Fiction OnlineThe first time the guardian enters the temple precinct is the most terrifying day of its life—but, to be fair, it has not lived many lives. The temple is massive, its smells are strange, and the littl...
Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

Bouleutophagy-heads, you have some more reading to do 👇

meagan kane@spocksbrain.bsky.social

Thanks Scott! If you liked "Saul & Noah's Hot Bouleutophagy Summer" by @elijah.mea.rs in the latest issue of Adventitious, I suspect you will also like Under a Malevolent Eye! Or you won't. But how will you know, unless you try???

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

Make your favorite film sound as boring as possible without giving away the title: An old man reads a book in his grandson's bedroom for an hour and a half.

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Elijah J. Mears reposted

Charles (Cy) Payseur
@cypayseur.bsky.social

🏳️‍🌈SOME QUEER SHORT SFF - JULY 2024🏳️‍🌈 I round up over 40 stories by @spacevalkyries.bsky.social @jelliclejay.bsky.social @rfdwrites.bsky.social @elijah.mea.rs @remedy.bsky.social @spocksbrain.bsky.social @christinehanolsy.com @mercwolfmoor.bsky.social & MORE!!! www.patreon.com/quicksiprevi...

patreon.comSome Queer Short SFF - July 2026 | Charles PayseurWell, July marked another huge month for queer spec fic, led by Baffling Magazine and a news trans SFF anthology. But even without those the
Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

The person I love most in the world had their gender-affirming surgery today. We are now back at the hotel, they are happy and whole, and we're eating a couple plates of home cooked (or, well, hotel kitchenette cooked) pasta. Feeling very, very grateful 💙💚

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

I just made a small donation to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, and would encourage those who can to join me in doing so. May any of us be so lucky as to leave a legacy of hundreds of millions of books for children, and may Dolly's memory be a blessing. imaginationlibrary.com

imaginationlibrary.comDolly Parton's Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AUDolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth until they begin school in participating areas.

Elijah J. Mears reposted

Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST
@chathamharrison.bsky.social

My daughter knows Dolly Parton as a beloved if distant aunt who has ensured she has a library of her own. Millions of children are thriving because she chose to use her wealth & influence to do good, before we even touch on her artistic achievements. The world needs more people to follow her path.

Pop Base@popbase.tv

The legendary Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80.

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

not counting Michigan and Colorado where I've only had layovers or Delaware and West Virginia where I've only stopped at rest stops

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Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

I'm not saying this cover was meant for my story, but... in some ways this cover is VERY relevant to my story in this issue 👀

OTHERSIDE@othersidespec.bsky.social

ISSUE 3 COVER REVEAL! As always, art is by the incredible @hvmator.bsky.social, who has once again absolutely nailed the vibes. Those golds and reds! These stories and poems! We can't wait for you to read this issue 🧡 You're going to love it.

Elijah J. Mears reposted

Nico Martinez Nocito 🏳️‍⚧️
@nicowritesbooks.bsky.social

NEW STORY DAY! "iron & garlic & salt & blood" is half vampire fairytale, half prose poem, and all weird horror. I hope you'll give it a read!

Flash Fiction Online@flashfictiononline.bsky.social

Today’s story = Vampire lore. Nico Martinez Nocito’s story “iron & garlic & salt & blood” reminds me of Dame Gothel in Rapunzel who in the Disney version is something of a vampire herself 🧛‍♀️ #horror #fairytale #flashfiction @nicowritesbooks.bsky.social flashfictiononline.com/issues/augus...

flashfictiononline.comAugust 2026 - Flash Fiction Online
Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

I'm in this one!

OTHERSIDE@othersidespec.bsky.social

Our Issue 3 TOC is HERE and it is AMAZING 🪐 🗡️ Seven pieces of original fiction, four poems, two reprints, and a special guest essay come together in an issue full of desperation and longing. We can't wait for you to read it in September! More details in the 🧵(1/7)

Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

I got to chat about road trips, spicy peppers, and local government capacity on the @adventitiouswords.bsky.social Patreon!

Adventitious@adventitiouswords.bsky.social

"If the people are good, then good memories will find you, and the rest is just curating your soundtrack." 3.5 Questions with @elijah.mea.rs! www.patreon.com/Adventitious...

patreon.com3.5 Questions With Elijah J. Mears | AdventitiousAmong the sexy magicians, interstellar parenting problems, and impossible hotels that crossed the slush pile heading into Issue Four, one st
Elijah J. Mears
@elijah.mea.rs

Lord of the Rings prequel film about how Gandalf and Aragorn tracked down and briefly detained Gollum *touches earpiece* Wait, that one is actually happening? Okay everyone, post is canceled, hit the showers

Just Another Film Nerd@anotherfilmnerd.bsky.social

Pitch your most pointless, dull prequel idea that could potentially be greenlit in this idea-starved world. DIRTY: In which we learn how Harry Callahan earned his nickname.

Elijah J. Mears reposted

Matthew Noe
@noethematt.bsky.social

Hero shit

jessamyn@librarian.bsky.social

I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

Elijah J. Mears reposted

Jane
@janestecyk.bsky.social

(Complimentary) 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Adventitious@adventitiouswords.bsky.social

Americans, finally pissed enough, start eating their politicians. (Yes, it's a love story.) "Saul & Noah's Hot Bouleutophagy Summer" by @elijah.mea.rs has: 🚗two boys in a beater at the end of society ❤️queer love 🗽courage vs American fascists 🦺a safe zone? www.adventitious.net/stories/saul...

adventitious.netSaul and Noah's Hot Bouleutophagy SummerFed-up Americans are eating politicians. Saul and Noah just want to survive. A dark comedic road trip short story by Elijah J. Mears.