How to celebrate Banned Books Week: Read up on your local candidates for school board (and learn how to read between the lines--scarier candidates in my district basically speak in code); vote for the ones who will protect the freedom to read; encourage your friends & neighbors to do the same.

There is a mosquito IN MY HOME and it is October 🤬

I *really* want more reporting on this because the book was pretty heavily vetted by lawyers in advance of publication….

LOLLLL

It always makes me laugh when I get business spam for “streamlining your payroll” or “simplifying HR”. It’s just me! The cat gets paid in treats.

Truly excellent autocorrect error in the manuscript in currently editing: persona non gratis. #amediting #editing #independenteditor

As if I wasn’t already super excited to vote for Zohran, he does a video featuring Nellie Bly, one of my personal heroes 🤩

The continued belief that somehow *this* basket will be the one to contain the explosion of toys in my living room is my version of Lucy and the football.

The problem with being from New England is getting momentarily excited about things like this and then remembering that they mean the *original* York.

Econ! It was listed a social science at BU, and I took Anthropology (which I loved). Tell me why this film major couldn't have taken Economics for my math credit!

I email with a lot of strangers, and I am begging you: if your full name is not obvious from your email address, please sign your email with same! It's awkward AF to write back otherwise!

Every September 11, I reread this wonderful @colsonwhitehead.com piece. It's my own personal memorial. It's about 9/11, but it's also about our city and how it changes. www.nytimes.com/2001/11/11/m...

Emailed a client to let him know I was “diving into” his manuscript today and he replied “let me know if you need a flotation device” 😆🛟

Books I bought on my vacation! Portland, Maine is such a bookstore town and I love it 📚

Editing a novel set partially in Morocco, and all I want to do is order the good pita and hummus from Zaytoons. Making do with Wegmans, and it’s not the same.

Dolly Parton has sent my daughter a new book every month for years as she does for thousands of children. She help fund the development of the Covid vaccine. She’s not a billionaire. I think as non wealthy people it’s hard to even imagine how much billionaires *could* be doing with their money.

if you can set up a recurring donation of any amount to your local food bank, it's a really great time to do so:

If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages

Did you know it rained in New York??

What a cool story! The Brooklyn Allergist’s Office That Was Once Home to a Spy www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/r...

Good morning, for your summer reading pleasure, here are my cozy mystery recommendations, a category I've come to believe is the most radical of all of the crime & mystery subgenres. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/b...

This is a terrible idea!

I keep seeing clients writing in Pages, and with all love I have to say WHY. I too love my Mac! And complain about Word! But this is not the answer. This is madness.

word whose Brit spelling is better than the Yank spelling: armour word whose Brit spelling looks like it sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball: manœuvre #copyediting

Music of the Holocaust, a musicology/history class abt music made during and as reaction to the Holocaust. Did you know music was composed in the camps? I didn't! I took it in 2004 and probably think about it twice a month to this day.

I have long loved the Pocket app, which allows you to save articles to read later, but it is shutting down. I need a new app, or my open tabs will be out of control. Do you have one? Help me!

Every single time I hear about a child being shot, or blown up, or starved to death, it absolutely wrecks me and truly do not understand the how anyone could think “well, it’s ok if *these* kids die”.

The outfielder’s ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ when he realizes it’s a home run

This is so good. I really value Anna’s perspective on publishing. If you’re not a subscriber to the Neon Substack, you should be!

If the (wildly popular) governor of Kentucky can say this with his whole chest then what excuse does the (wildly unpopular) governor of California have?

Sometimes writing is just staring at the wall or playing a mindless phone game or doing laundry. Sometimes editing is *also* these things. This post brought to you by working on how to fix this scene by emptying the dishwasher.

The two greatest evils known to mankind, A.I. and the person directly in front of you in line at the post office, have finally teamed up. We’re done.

New Yorkers, get ye outside! The weather is PERFECT. I’m sitting out here drinking hot tea! There’s a gentle breeze! The temp is moderate!

This is absolutely perfect. No notes!

Happy Friday, Word has decided that "chapter" is a French word, no matter how many times I make the entire manuscript English. Mon dieu!

Finished an edit yesterday so I finally went to pick up my @maris.bsky.social preorder! V excited to dive in 🔥

Hello, future pickles!

Went to a Women's Media Group event last night, and at the end they put out baggies so people could take home the leftover catering instead of binning it. I love this! More event should do this. I'm currently enjoying some leftover cheese. 🧀

My favorite genre of internet discovery is “fun words/sayings in another language”

Finally not too hot to edit outside!

Rolling Stone continues to teach a masterclass in headline writing www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

can we please just have more book reviews instead of these weird pieces about whether or not straight white men can still read or publish novels

You are cordially invited to our Anti-Prime Sale, where every purchase will financially support bookstores, NOT billionaires 🥳

Apropos of nothing, I just discovered an incredible English aristo name: William Lancelot Redhead. Sir Redhead!!

They finally made the milk from that hotel

I gotta say I find a lot of AI discourse around higher ed very confusing. "if ChatGPT can write your essays is college even worth it?" did people think math teachers were assigning problem sets because *they* couldn't figure out the answers?

Once again at the playground, listening to a man in the park learn the saxophone. I used to play the sax, love the sound of it, but I gotta say: it’s not going well. 🎷

Here is an excellent, incredibly touching reminder of how important -- life-saving -- LGBTQIA+ books can be for readers. Everyone deserves access to them. #PrideInOurBooks