Samantha (Sam) Mills

@samtasticbooks.com

3525 Followers 599 Following

SFF Author | Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, Compton Crook winner | Hugo, World Fantasy finalist | Repped by Lisa Rodgers | RABBIT TEST AND OTHER STORIES out now! (she/her) www.samtasticbooks.com Newsletter at https://subscribepage.io/samtasticnews

Cover for The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills, featuring a stylized mechanical wing in shades of gold, copper, red
5 people posing in front of a TV, dressed as Mel Brooks characters: Frau Blucher, Dr. Frankenstein, Igor, one of Robin Hood's Merry Men, and a Spanish Inquisitor
Gif of that bit from the end of Poltergeist (1982) when the mom is about to run down the hall and the hall stretches out impossibly longer
This pigeon is some kind of disco dinosaur, with long white legs that have feathers fan out like bellbottoms, gray wings, and a ruffly black chest.
A pigeon with a white head and long white tail peeking out from black wings and a high black ruff of feathers like a vampire's high-necked cloak
A squat, round pigeon that is all black, with a spray of feathers on top like helicopter blades
A small tuxedo cat perched on a bathroom counter, front paws clutching a small wooden bowl to his face
Screencap from Mad Max: Fury Road in which Max is pointing off camera and saying, "Uhh, that's bait" except the quote is now "Uhh, that's Cthulhu"
Email subject line: "The Most Dangerous Thing About Rabbit Test and Other Stories Is Not the Time Travel, the Devils, or the Floating Libraries It Is That Readers Searching for Emotionally Devastating Speculative Fiction Still Have Not Found This Collection"
Screencap of bottom of email: "Lillian Roberts Book Marketing Professional P.S. The free audit takes roughly an hour on my side and costs absolutely nothing. No pressure. No obligation. Just a clear picture of where discoverability is quietly limiting a speculative fiction collection with extraordinary long-term literary word-of-mouth potential. Reply with the word “audit” and I will begin."
Cover for Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills, featuring the title in bold white and pink font with silhouettes of a rabbit and a pregnancy test
Cover of Great Illustrated Classics version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame featuring Quasimodo looking down on the city from a perch between gargoyles
That one gif of Keith David in I don't know what movie shouting WELCOME TO HELLLL and then fire erupts around his car
Gif from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when Richard Dreyfuss is fervently shaping his potatoes and says "this means something"
Promo graphic: Memorial Day sale, 20% off May 22-25, use code MEMORIAL20
Cover for Tea and Treachery at the Infinite Pantry by Jo Miles, featuring super cute kitties, teapots, and sweets in a ring around the title, below a castle
Balticon graphic listing Sam's events: Saturday 1pm a reading in James Saturday 2:30pm a signing in 5th floor lobby Saturday 5:30 Smashing Genres Together panel in St. George Sunday 4pm a kaffeeklatsch in Club Lounge Monday 11:30am The Structured Pantser panel in Mount Washington
Some of the most powerful stories in the brilliant, genre-spanning debut collection from Nebula Award winner Mills (The Wings upon Her Back) focus on the contentious relationships between generations. The stunning title entry, for instance, toggles between the past and the future to track the progress and deterioration of abortion access in the United States. Then there’s the brief but impactful “Laugh Lines,” presented in the form of a eulogy for the narrator’s mother that doubles as a paean to disability rights. These speculative pieces resonate deeply with the current moment, teasing out the many possible ways climate disasters and fascistic politics may shape humanity’s future, all while keeping an eye to the communities that support each other behind the scenes. Elsewhere, Mills delves into fantasy, in stories that are no less pleasurable and heart-rending. In the haunting “Adrianna in Pomegranate,” a grief-stricken magician tries to reanimate his dead daughter, and his ex-wife must intercede before he succeeds, while the bittersweet “Spindles” tells of an eight-year-old princess and her pet bear who embark on a quest to save their land from alien invasion. Even the shortest of these tales packs a powerful punch.
In her brief and charming “Afterword”, Mills accounts herself more of a born novelist than a creator of short fiction. And yet this volume shows she has all the chops and sensibilities to produce one thrilling and unexpected tale after another. With luck, readers will continue to enjoy a full ration of both states of the storyteller’s art from this thriving and growing new talent.
It’s perhaps the clearest example of Mills’s fascination with combining different nar­rative modes and conventions, a fascination that permeates these stories even as Mills never loses focus on the memorable characters who, as Meg Elison says in her appreciative introduction, remind you of “people you’ve known all your life.”
Promo graphic for Rabbit Test and Other Stories, featuring the book against a pink backdrop cut by a heart monitor line, along with a quote from one of the stories: "There is a future in which we are fighting and struggling and self-caring our way through the apocalypse, and every day there is something terrible but also something lovely."
Poster for O Brother Where Art Thou showing three men in prison stripes escaping into a flat landscape
Interior of Rabbit Test and Other Stories. On the left, a mostly blank page with a silhoutte of a rabbit hopping along a heartbeat line at the bottom. On the right, the opening page of "10 Visions of the Future" with heartbeat line above the title
Graphic listing 2026 Hugo Award Finalists for Best Short Story. "10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days" by Samantha Mills, Uncanny Magazine. "In My Country" by Thomas Ha, Clarkesworld. "Laser Eyes Ain't Everything" by Effie Seiberg, Diabolical Plots. "Missing Helen" by Tia Tashiro, Clarkesworld. "Six People to Revise You" by J.R. Dawson, Uncanny Magazine. "Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim, Clarkeseworld.
Sam grinning and holding up a copy of Rabbit Test and Other Stories
Screencap of my bluesky feed. It is blank with a red "forbidden!" bar at the top
Rachel Weisz as Detective Angela Dodson in Constantine, all wet from being dunked into seeing the Other side, about to find a demon's coin at the back of a bowling alley
Whoopi Goldberg singing in Sister Act, an array of nuns behind her
SAM'S APRIL/MAY CALENDAR Wednesday April 22, 10:30am Pacific: a virtual event with the Cushing Memorial Library's Science Fiction & Fantasy Research Collection Curator, Jeremy Brett! signups at tamu.libcal.com/event/16519400 Sunday April 26, 3-5pm Pacific: I'll be reading with Justin Feinstein at the free SF in SF reading series at the San Francisco Public Library's main branch, 100 Larkin Street Saturday May 2, 2pm Pacific: I'll be in conversation with Justin Feinstein at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego! This is the best way to order signed books. They'll ship to you if you can't make it in person. Friday May 22 - Monday May 25: I'll be Guest of Honor again at Balticon in Baltimore, Maryland! I'm handing off the Compton Crook Award to this year's recipient (to be announced)
Cover of Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills, featuring title in big bold pink and white font, inset by silhouettes of a rabbit and a pregnancy test
Cover for Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills, featuring the title in big bold white and pink font, inset with silhouettes of a rabbit and a pregnancy test
Screencap of a spellchecker suggestion box. The word being flagged is "pre-ordered." The suggestions are: per-ordered, ore-ordered, pee-ordered, pr-ordered, re-ordered."
Cover for Rabbit Test and Other Stories, featuring the title in bold white and pink font, inset by silhouettes of a rabbit and a pregnancy test
Screencap from Artemis II feed showing exterior of the craft with the caption, "Great roll, bitch Roger, roll, bitch See the darkness in front of them?"
Promo graphic: preorder Rabbit Test and Other Stories and receive the chapbook edition of the short story "Rabbit Test." March 31 to April 7. While supplies last. Order directly from tachyon publications dot com
Bright blue sky over a strip of turquoise ocean and a deep stretch of sand. Sam's at the beach!
ARC of Rabbit Test and Other Stories held up outdoors against a sunny sky and bright green leaves
Little Carol Anne from Poltergeist turning back to look at her parents while the TV statics away behind her. They're heeeere!
The cast of Farscape (sorry, I mean Friends!)
TEXT OF PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW: Some of the most powerful stories in the brilliant, genre-spanning debut collection from Nebula Award winner Mills (The Wings upon Her Back) focus on the contentious relationships between generations. The stunning title entry, for instance, toggles between the past and the future to track the progress and deterioration of abortion access in the United States. Then there’s the brief but impactful “Laugh Lines,” presented in the form of a eulogy for the narrator’s mother that doubles as a paean to disability rights. These speculative pieces resonate deeply with the current moment, teasing out the many possible ways climate disasters and fascistic politics may shape humanity’s future, all while keeping an eye to the communities that support each other behind the scenes. Elsewhere, Mills delves into fantasy, in stories that are no less pleasurable and heart-rending. In the haunting “Adrianna in Pomegranate,” a grief-stricken magician tries to reanimate his dead daughter, and his ex-wife must intercede before he succeeds, while the bittersweet “Spindles” tells of an eight-year-old princess and her pet bear who embark on a quest to save their land from alien invasion. Even the shortest of these tales packs a powerful punch.
Photo taken from behind of a large crowd of anti-ICE protesters marching down a city street
GRIEF: Does it ever end? CANCER: I still don't understand the connection between cancer the disease and cancer the crab. Why would they name the disease after the crab? Did they think cancer was caused by little crabs? SEX: Who wouldn't want to look this up at least once?
SELF-DISCIPLINE: I wanted to know what my lack of self-discipline said about my failings. GANGRENE: "Bovine" does not rhyme with "gangrene."
Cover for Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills, featuring the title in bold white and pink font with embedded silhouettes of a rabbit and a pregnancy test
Cover for The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills, featuring a stylized mechanical wing in copper and red
Same over the top review as above with the title included: the Muppets From Space collection
Screencap of an Amazon review stating: "This movie collection is one of my favorites....It is really great..It is a family film...It is fabulous and is a great film set...The film set will show you things not explained anywhere on this Planet.....It is a work of true genius....It is great for the whole family..It will explain thing not known to any President or Pope....You will learn things not know to anyone on this Planet.....It is colorful and is really great.....It is a great family film.....It is like Star Wars....You could search the whole Planet and not find things shown in this film..It is really great..Affordable.."
Photo of two cats sitting in baskets on a desk, with bookshelves in background. The farther cat, a little tuxie, fits easily into his basket. The foreground cat, an enormous black cat, has his sizeable butt in the basket but the front of his body supported by an adjacent stack of books.
White text on teal background: You are now forced to have the same job as the main character in the last book you read. What is the job?
David Bowie in a snazzy yellow turtleneck running away from a blurry pursuer (Trent Reznor) in the music video for I'm Afraid of Americans
It's that meme of a vacant-eyed chihuahua interposed over an image of his traumatic war memories
Uncanny Magazine story tile for Samantha Mills' "10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care For the End of Days" with the opening paragraph, "There is a future in which a hellgate opens off the coast of California. It happens at midnight on the first day of the new year, which is sooner than anyone expected. The waters rise and we are forced to abandon our home, but one of the neighbors has a spare raft we can borrow until the rescue boats arrive, so there’s that."
Year End Sale graphic for Tachyon Publications. 30% off sitewide until end of 2025. Use code YEAREND30 on tachyonpublications.com
Screencap from Addams Family Values: Pugsley in an enormous turkey costume singing EAT ME!
A paper-lined styrofoam container of loaded carne asada fries -- it's when you take a crapton of french fries, and cover them in carne asada, cheese, guacamole, and sour cream. PRIMO SLOP
a room splattered all over in blood (it looks like old videogame graphics??) with the words "caption this with the 2nd to last text you sent"
The cover for Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills (featuring a big bold font with sillhouettes of a rabbit and a pregnancy test in the words) against a hot pink backdrop and the announcement "now on netgalley and edelweiss"
Cover for Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills, featuring the title in a big, bold font in white and red on black background, with outlines of a rabbit, pregnancy test, and heart monitor line going through the text
Sam grinning and holding up a huge board version of the Rabbit Test and Other Stories cover, featuring the title in striking white and red font against black backdrop, with a rabbit, pregnancy test, and heart monitor line through the text
Graphic for invitation: You're invited to Tachyon's 30th anniversary party! Sunday October 5th, 12 pm - 5pm. San Francisco Public Library. 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco CA. Open to the public. There will be raffles! Book giveaways! Plus award-winning authors and special guests Joe R. Lansdale & Samantha Mills.