Crepuscular rays, an awesome guest contribution, and completion satisfaction

Aug 13, 2026 2:36 am

Adriana Kantcheva
Dispatches from a writer of what-ifs.

Hello, ,

It's summer here. It's hot, it's dry, and then it's even hotter. My routine is out the window because of the school holidays. That's a little hard for the obsessive writer in me.

Thankfully, Hugh from Turn & Work has come to my rescue by taking some load off my shoulders and assembling a fantastic list of short story and music recommendations. That might sound self-serving because one of the stories he suggests is by yours truly, but even so, I can't diminish how much I respect Hugh's taste.

Turn & Work (website and newsletter) is a place I continuously return to for tidbits of interesting cultural and bookish news, and I have discovered there so much good music—music I would have never come across otherwise. So, without further ado, below are Hugh's picks, followed by some of my more regular newsletter items.

Reading and music: Hugh's picks

Hi there! I'm Hugh, and I run a site called Turn & Work. Adriana is a writer that I follow closely, and publishing her work and recommendations at Turn & Work has been a real highlight. Over the past couple of weeks I've put together some reading recommendations and a few records that I love.

Flash Fiction

"Contraction" by Adriana Kantcheva

This was Adriana's submission to Turn & Work, and it's one of the best stories we've published to date. The double-entendre in the title is a brilliant, slow reveal. It's one of her few stories that isn't speculative fiction.

"Vestigial" by Emily Rinkema

Emily Rinkema's story about two sisters learning about each other over dinner at the Olive Garden is shocking, funny and heartbreaking, and it'll take you about two minutes to read.

"Supplicant" by Amy DeBellis

Amy DeBellis hit my radar with a harrowing and distressing piece of creative nonfiction about contracting long Covid, and her story about some guys on a night out has a shocking turn in it.

"I'll Never Forget That Lightening" by Travis Flatt

The only speculative fiction story we've published at Turn & Work (I should get on that, I guess) - Flatt's paranoid dystopia is the setting for an affecting story of love and devotion

"You're Supposed to be a Big Girl, Virginia" by Kate Arnold

Kate Arnold is half of the prolific and weird Dead Anyway (more on that below). Her haunted house story was one of the first we ever published, and remains one of my all-time favourites.

Music

Slow Death of a Good Girl by Hiqpy

A Dutch band led by Abir Hamam, whose stunning vocal and knack for drama will remind you of David Bowie.

Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon by Soot Sprite

An indie-rock protest record inspired by the writing of Rebecca Solnit. Probably my favourite album of 2025.

The Deadmans

Bandleader LaurenSage Browning is a playwright first, a songwriter second, and never actually appears on the songs from the band she founded. It's alt-pop with a literary, dramatic bent, and it's super catchy.

The Warning by Telenova

When Adriana signed up to receive a custom playlist from Turn & Work, this was the first artist she responded to. Telenova's second album is a dark, sophisticated pop record about one band member's relapse, and it gets more compelling with each listen.

Kicking at Tombstones by Dead Anyway

Kate Arnold's band is modern beat poetry. Her layered and literary lyrics combine with dynamic and complex production from her bandmate Marc Symonds. The result is like nothing else I've heard in modern music. This album is a bit of a greatest hits collection, and they published a terrific companion lyric book.

This is the kind of stuff we're always seeking out at Turn & Work, and if any of it resonates with you, please come check us out. If you sign up for the newsletter, we'll make a custom playlist for you too.

What I’ve been up to

Spurred by the menace of the oncoming school holidays, I managed to pull on a few important threads:

My current novel project is ready for a beta-read and sent off to readers.
I've started working on submission materials to send to agents (hopefully by the end of the year).

Also, the short story I've been working on is awaiting final changes after a beta-read by a generous friend of mine.

Excerpt from unpublished work

She remained by the window, mesmerized after Anton had long skulked down the street. It'd been a while since her heart had stirred with purely esthetic admiration. She lived in a gradient between gray and lighter gray, the shoots of color and life she remembered noticing earlier no longer evident since she stopped singing. But the vivid red of Anton's sleek reptilian skin punched through the numbness.

(From the above-mentioned short story)

A recent snapshot

I love the look of crepuscular rays as much as I love the sound of the word "crepuscular."

(Crepuscular rays at sunset emanating from behind a cloud in a somewhat cloudy sky above a harvested wheat field with electric posts on the horizon.)