My oldest niece turns 26 today, which feels fake because she’s basically my sister with different paperwork. Evidence: my extremely responsible bottle-rocket supervision…

Just got my Scream tix!

Doctor’s office waiting room. The receptionist softly singing along to Purple Rain. Everyone pretending not to need saving…

February mornings always feel like the world is deciding whether to keep going…

I do the same thing with time. Every Maudlin House post goes up at 3:15 AM because I’ve always been weirdly obsessed with The Amityville Horror.

I let certain dates decide things. February 11 is my oldest niece’s birthday. So that’s when Winesburg, Ohio comes out. Some days feel marked long before you understand why…

Realizing the artist experience is spending half your life making beautiful things and the other half politely dealing with people...

Described here as “soft-hearted with a Chicagoan’s acerbicness,” which I think might be accurate… Talking Maudlin Classics and the strange persistence of making books. open.substack.com/pub/zonamote...

It’s the semiannual search for my copy of Devil in the White City because my bookshelf organization system is just vibes…

The Dawson’s Creek song has been stuck in my head all morning and I’ve never seen a single episode. Feels more like a haunting than nostalgia...

I have a new girlhood as werewolf story out in @maudlinhouse.bsky.social today. Give it a read? maudlinhouse.net/when-we-haun...

"It just fills the air so it doesn’t feel like I’m rotting in a questionable jar in the back of the fridge." Wonderful sense of character and tone of voice in this piece from @mallorysmart.bsky.social in @bulbregion.bsky.social

My cat sleeping under the covers like she pays rent…

Being a woman in the lit scene means every message comes with a second draft in your head titled “Does this sound bitchy or just honest.”

Starbuck kept me up all night because she randomly decided it was playtime. Coffee is my personality until further notice...

ICYMI: I published a short story yesterday about Bates Motel, talking to someone who isn’t there, and pretending the TV is a kind of love. It's up at @bulbregion.bsky.social Reader discretion: Mother has opinions. bulbregion.com/We-All-Go-a-...

I’ve been rewatching Bates Motel for months. Somewhere along the way my intrusive thoughts started answering to “Mother.” Apparently this is how some of us cope... -new prose, @bulbregion.bsky.social bulbregion.com/We-All-Go-a-...

“Somewhere along the way my worst intrusive thoughts, the barnacle ones, started answering to Mother. Not as a joke. Not as a metaphor.” Mallory Smart (@mallorysmart.bsky.social) stirs the Bates Motel-Psycho pot with her stupendous prose in The Bulb Region today. bulbregion.com/We-All-Go-a-...

Something new has been unlocked from Hipster Poetry Vault. 2016 was a choice... malsmart.substack.com/p/existentia...

It’s offensively cold out and I’m expected to participate in society…

Therapy quote of the whatever…

Tonight at The Midnight Realm…

So this is “when hell freezes over.”

It doesn’t arrive as belief. It arrives as explanation… open.substack.com/pub/malsmart...

I’m in my “do the work and log off” era…

If you’re wondering whether it’s acceptable to get bubble tea when it’s 15 degrees out: Yes. This is the Midwest…

Season 4 finale…🎧 Alexandra Naughton. open.spotify.com/episode/0ymx...

Poetry behind a curtain at a neighborhood bar. Tarot by the fireplace. A room built for listening. I wrote about it… open.substack.com/pub/zonamote...

Tonite at The Midnight Realm…

Early internet writing was messy. That was the point.

RAGE is shared. RAGE is thankful. In a world where algorithms and egos push and pull people like the wind, I’m happy to express gratitude and thanks to the people who inspired me, encouraged me to write, and the journals that published my work.

Season 4 finale. Alexandra Naughton on fear, growth, internet eras, and why writing is still how we make sense of being alive. Sometimes that’s enough. 🖤

Woke up to Starbuck staring at me like I owe her money and an explanation for capitalism…

Wish I could write about my complicated relationship with my home with as much razored precision as Mal does. Nobody is a keener observer of the Midwest. Her essays are absolutely worth your time.

Tarot reading today. The Tower. Apparently it’s collapse season…

The Italian edition of my novel The Swallows of Lunetto, translated by Angela D'Ambra, has arrived. Thanks to my US fiction publisher, @maudlinhouse.bsky.social, for first seeing this book about the real hearts that make the thing we call history. And thank you to my Italian publisher, iQdB.

Tonite at The Midnight Realm…

Snowy Saturday so I stayed inside and let Mormon true crime take the wheel…

I’ve written a lot about Midwest rot as a feeling. This piece is about where that feeling came from. open.substack.com/pub/malsmart...

Silence wasn’t a failure. It was the design. malsmart.substack.com/p/containmen...

A few nights after Christmas, in that lawless week before January. I wrote this as a dispatch from Gallery Cabaret. open.substack.com/pub/zonamote...

It’s live. Lake Markham on writing, attention, and why certain choices only make sense while you’re inside them. Listen now…🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/4yiN...

I love how nighttime makes me feel like I should fix my entire life or eat Nutella straight from the jar. No in between.

“It was just this never-ending cycle of stupid 22-year-old decisions.” Lake Markham on leaving, running out of money, and realizing later what that time actually gave him.

The scariest thing about late night is realizing how reasonable your worst ideas sound…

Lake Markham. Second to last episode of Season 4 of Textual Healing. Coming this Saturday…🎧

Got so used to one piece getting rejected that I forgot to check its status and realized it was accepted yesterday. Love this for my nervous system…

New episode of Textual Healing is live. Mike Corrao on yearning, design as invasion, and the moment before everything breaks…🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/48o1...

2025 moved fast. A lot of writing landed in ways I didn’t expect. The next projects feel louder already.

Person Heaven by Andrew Graham Martin maudlinhouse.net/person-heaven/