Richard > Recent Status Updates

Pretty incredible so far. Wanted to be a math professor originally!

By the end of October I’m going to have ten anthologies on Goodreads with my stories - I’ve requested an “Author” page, we will see….

Dragon Soul Press’ anthology “Faerie Contract” was published yesterday! It has my story “The Songs of the Nøkk,” “Songs” is probably best categorized as folk or faerie horror, although the horror is very light. It is full of material about the Swedish “fe”, the Nøkk being one of the Swedish fe creatures, summoned from ponds to play music on the violin.

https://a.co/d/0cBOc0ax

My short story “The Scrapbook Rebellion” was just published in Bewildering Stories. Upwards and onwards.

https://www.bewilderingstories.com/is...

My first science fiction short story, Time Pirates, will be published 6/30 in the anthology Pirate Cove (Dragon Soul Press).

2025 Year End summary of my writing can be found here:

https://substack.com/@richards197859/...

Rather than a status update for each of these like I’ve been doing (although 4 pieces were in books or other publications with a Goodreads entry) I plan on posting just a year-end summary going forward.

My story about the *fae*, “What Waited for Us in the Garden,” was published today by *Eternal Haunted Summer*, in their Winter Solstice 2025 issue. Happy Solstice!

https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issu...

Goodreads is (sadly) banning direct messaging - if anyone ever wants to contact me directly I’m @RichardSPoet on Instagram and RichardSPoet on Substack, X, Blue Sky and Threads.

I’m not sure why Amazon is doing this…. This platform is so civilized….

A couple of my flash sci-fi pieces were published in 365tomorrows.

https://365tomorrows.com/2025/10/25/t...

https://365tomorrows.com/2025/11/22/l...

I’m still waiting for Star*Line 48.4 to be added to Goodreads, but my poem “ Math and the Universe” was an editor’s choice and posted on the SFPA’s website. If you want to review, I will post when it is put up.

https://sfpoetry.org/wp/starline/star...

My story “The Broken Leaf” was published on Freedom Fiction. The website allows reviews if anyone wants to read and review my work there. A couple reviews are already posted.

https://www.freedomfiction.com/2025/1...

“Dreams of the Opera House,” my Lovecraftian homage to architecture and opera, was published today in Mobius Blvd Vol. 24, available here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRNMRW1Z

Geez it’s middle of September and I haven’t met my 2025 goal of reading a single book. On the other one hand I have a 265 page collection of short stories I’ve written. All I do is write these days…. I read 68 books in 2022….

My gothic horror story published today: https://open.substack.com/pub/houseof...

My short story “Eve and the Well” was just published in Bewildering Stories. https://www.bewilderingstories.com/ Hope you all get a chance to read it.

This book is so incredibly good and ahead of its time. It’s really a must read for all. The detail and research and beauty and fascination are beyond anything.

I’ve finished a book of horror short stories and am looking for readers, agents, publishers…. 18 stories in total, if anyone’s interested.

I don’t know if any of my Goodreads friends are into the horror genre but I’m looking for honest readers for a collection of 9 short stories I’ve written. I can’t pay you, but I’m not looking for line items just general input.

30 pages in if JCP had written all his books with such attention he’d be considered one of the greatest of all time.

Wow 6 months of no postings of anything - 2023 was the year of no books. I've had years like that where I just stopped - sometimes followed by a year where I read 200. This time I'm not so sure, too many other life-things have been occupying my mind. Usually in the past I stopped reading because I ran out of things I really wanted to read.

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So begins the Galapagos reading for my upcoming trip. I think I will write reviews after my visit based on how helpful the book was.

LitHub sends me a list of 15 books to get me through the week. I’m lucky if I can finish one book during the week. Do people read books anymore or just see how many they can finish?

Heading to the Galapagos in a month if anyone has recommended reading.

This book is very well written but I know how this story ends. And I’ve already personally resolved the issue. So I could read Schweitzer’s amazing prose just for that but I was reading to learn things as well. So I think I’m done here.

Ever find yourself reading a book and wondering maybe you’ve read before it seems familiar, but maybe it’s just the ideas?

Patti Smith is just about the coolest person who ever lived. And I’m only halfway through this.

A bunch of mediocre aphorisms, another one for the DNF. Trying to pare down the “Currently Reading” list by giving these books one last shot.

This book is crushingly boring, I think I will pass.

Reading “Vivian and Merlin” I felt that “magic transportation” into a world of pure sublime beauty that only poetry can provide. Certain passages were so stirring I went back and read them out loud.