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Come sell us your dreams as a nightly side hustle,
make oodles of cash as you lie fast asleep;
we’ve got some machines with no fuss and no bustle,
it’s all non-invasive, you don’t have to weep.
Upload all your dreams to our dream-hosting platform,
it’s Web 3.0 and we charge not a fee;
our VR contraption allows interaction
so put up your dreams and let all your friends see.
You shouldn’t dream sweet if you want to go viral
(we mean no offence, but those tend to be cringe);
try scary, try strange, try lucid, try stressful
(but we won’t post the wet ones, no cock and no minge).
Our alg’rithm loves when your dreams can be lucid,
it’s better than Netflix if your dream has a plot,
with action and twists and PG romancing,
we’re trading in volume, so dream quite a lot.
We’ll furnish some drugs to max out your REM cycle:
our bestsellers dream twenty hours a day,
and spend their time waking on checking what’s trending,
some market research before hitting the hay.
Sponsorships favour our best dream performers,
so before you drift off, just think “KFC”;
and we do data mining as you are reclining,
to tailor our adverts to psychology.
We know that all this might sound rather intensive,
but dreamfluencers know to stick to the grind;
each second spent waking can be quite expensive,
so fall back asleep before falling behind.
On balance, you’ll find it’s a glorious living
and we swear to you now, it’s as good as it seems;
you’ll be happy and healthy and handsome and wealthy,
in every respect, it’s the life of your dreams.



J. P. Babb is an author and academic currently living in Toronto. Her debut novel, Reality’s End, is now available from Otter & Osprey Press, and is currently being serialized as a biweekly podcast. Visit her online at jpbabb.com.
Current Issue
7 Sep 2026

Strange Horizons
Strange Horizons will open to general fiction submissions on October 1, 2026, at 3 p.m. UTC! This window will remain open until we hit our submission cap of 1,000 stories. Our maximum word count for this window will be 5,000 words. We offer payment of 9¢/word USD. We do not read simultaneous or multiple submissions. Response time: Our goal is to respond to all submissions with either a hold notice or rejection within eight weeks. We hope to send acceptances or rejections within one month of hold notices. This is ambitious, and we might fall behind schedule. Please be patient
iii. There are no protocols for plotting to kill the King, so Alise talks about killing the King, whispers her plan in the Queen’s ear while they lie tangled in the Queen’s marital bed, Alise’s fingers tracing bruises that should not be there.
missed his mouth; tongue slipped in
but to live in that dusty old apartment house... crawling with Satanists
In this episode of Critical Friends , the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, AJ Odasso and Electra Pritchett join Dan Hartland to talk about popular fiction.
We’re especially happy to announce some new appointments at the Reviews Department.
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By: Aimee Ogden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 6 Jul 2026
Issue 29 Jun 2026
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