This past weekend, the Geek Gab podcast hosted Benjamin Cheah, known to Castalia House readers as Kai Wai Cheah, to talk about the short fiction revolution heating up on Steemit, a new blogging platform that offers considerable advantages to writers. In this podcast and in his thoughts afterward, Cheah describes these advantages:

Steemit offers three main advantages. First, with the content committed to a decentralised blockchain instead of a centralised server, a Steemit blog is inherently resistant to external attacks and disasters. Second, no external party can alter the blockchain after commits are made, allowing users to bypass censorship laws and agencies. Lastly, Steemit helps users monetise content that they would otherwise post on social media for free.

The incentives built into the Steemit platform incentivises everyone to write more, upvote more, comment more and keep improving their writing standard. It’s a virtuous cycle that rewards those who invest time and energy into mastering the craft and understanding the system.

For readers, Steemit provides another venue for your favorite writers, allowing them to earn money for their hard work without hiding it behind a paywall. Which means there’s more fiction readily available for you to read. Maybe your favorite writer is serializing a new story there right now. And there are a host of new writers testing the waters as well. Plus, on 14 February, Benjamin Cheah and the SteemPulp writers will unleash their first coordinated fiction campaign: SWORDS OF SAINT VALENTINE.

Saint Valentinus of Terni was a priest, a healer, and a hieromartyr. As a priest, Saint Valentine offered aid and succor to Christians in a time when persecution of Christians was a long-standing policy of the Roman Empire. As a healer, he restored vision to the blind daughter of Judge Asterius, who had held him under house arrest. When taken before the Prefect of Rome and Emperor Claudius II, he refused to recant his faith. He was tortured, beaten with clubs, and on 14 February 269, executed by decapitation. That day became the Feast of Saint Valentine.

Today, we call it Valentine’s Day.

In honour of Saint Valentine, the SteemPulp community cordially invites all Steemit fiction writers to participate in our first open call: SWORDS OF SAINT VALENTINE.

Give us pulpy tales of love or chivalry. Preferably love and chivalry. Give us romantic love and chivalric romance. Gallant knights and fair princesses, fantastic magic and strange technologies, gentle healers and steadfast clerics, cruel emperors and fearsome beasts, unwavering faith and unbreakable honour. No genre restrictions but one: the story must fit the pulp aesthetic.

If such tales of adventure and romance appeal to you, make sure to visit Steemit on Valentine’s Day. Meanwhile, to learn more about Steemit fiction and SteemPulp, check out the Geek Gab podcast below: