Hello. I am Francis. I write some stuff. 🙂
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~~ This page last updated: September 5, 2026 ~~
Writing
I have just published a new zine of my short story “Map of the Lost City of Uatdan Wuchke”! It’s an interactive fantasy story in which you, the reader, must draw the map. The zine includes a fold-out drawing surface for readers to use while they read. You can order it online on etsy.
Reading
I’ve put my utopia/dystopia reading list on indefinite hiatus as I’ve been reading and writing a lot of short fiction over the past several months. In fact, I’m trying to read every issue of Clarkesworld this year. Like most magazines each issue is a mixed bag, with most stories being mediocre, an occasional total dud, and an occasional really great piece. I’ll list some of the stand-out great stories here as I come across them.
“Down We Go Gently” by M.L. Clark. The son of a space trader is taken down to the merchant streets of Peludo, his first time on a planet. Great immersive, grounded worldbuilding. Simultaneously delivers on sense of wonder and authenticity.
“Three Fortunes on Alcestis as Told by the Fraud Baeliss Shudal” by Louis Ingliss Hall. A (fraudulent) fortune teller is asked to foretell the future by reading the entrails of a destroyed planet. Other types of divination, both common and exotic, are discussed and enacted. It’s really all just aesthetics/thematics, none of the divination is instrumental to the plot because of course the character really is a fraud, but it’s very well executed aesthetics/thematics, and pretty inventive.
“You Are Invited to Our SPRING CELEBRATION” by Thoraiya Dyer. Story narrated by an alien who is made of rocks and precious stones. Really delightful, imagistically compelling aliens with a pretty well-thought-out culture and narrative voice.
“The Potential Side Effects of Roleplay Stimulation Therapy” by Claire Jia-Wen. A teenage violinist prodigy has lost their ability to play after a car accident, and undergoes an experimental VR simulation-based treatment to try to regain it. I’m a sucker for an obsessive, self-destructive artist character, and this story beautifully draws one out.
“The Floating Republic” by Rebecca Campbell. Novella about a mining colony on a far-flung planet which is virtually abandoned when war breaks out between Earth and Mars. Thirty years later the war has concluded and the colony is set to be reintegrated into a newly formed company. Absorbing worldbuilding and moody, meditative tone.
Etcetera
I have been a big fan of Xrafstar (formerly known as Porpentine) for a while, since I read With Those We Love Alive back in 2019. They recently put out a short visual novel game, Money for Girls: Amortized, and I’m obsessed. Here’s some fanart I did of one of my favorite moments.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to recommend this game. I think it is not nearly as repellent (complimentary) as some of Xrafstar’s works, but it’s still got piss and blood and sparkly guano and self-harm and so on,, I think really just watch the trailer and if it stirs some feelings in you you should check it out.
Good Websites
- Public Domain Review – Insightful essays, marvelous collections
- Rice-Boy.com – Home to Evan Dahm’s webcomics. The best webcomic website
- Xrafstar – Nice Cancer!
- Let’s Go Back to a Website!
- The Cable Car Home Page – 25-year-old website still going strong. Yes!
- The Anarchist Library – Simple interface. Downloads in any format you could desire. Bookbuilder. Wow
- Center for the Study of the Public Domain – Website looks old enough to be in the public domain itself. That’s how you know its good
- LOW←TECH MAGAZINE – Solar-powered website. Link might not work if it’s too cloudy in Barcelona
Francis Bass 