We put out a call for #ICEOutForGood vigils 24 hours ago. There are now more than 1000 events taking place across the country this weekend. Find yours: www.mobilize.us?tag_ids=2913...

To be clear: I brook no Genre Wars. I love Fantasy, LitFic, Horror, Comedy, etc. The remedy to genre chauvinism is open-mindedness, not more genre chauvinism.

I've got to work on remembering my dreams again, because lately some of them have seemed like really good story seeds.

My silly parody song idea won't leave my head (and grows less silly by the day) so maybe I should spend my week off working on that instead of any actual projects.

Since everyone has Frankenstein on the brain: more people should read Ahmed Sadaawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad.

New story day! "Phantom View" is about a son caretaking for his father, and discovering a blurry person in all their family photos that he has no memory of. The same figure is in all his dad's paintings--and the figure may be in the house with them right now.

I'll have a proper ghost story for Christmas this year; I'm playing Belle in a production of A Christmas Carol! (And hopefully doing some writing backstage, if I can pick a project to focus on.)

Even if we disregard every other living thing on Earth, humans also need darkness. We need it to prompt our bodies to rest, and we need it for the wonder and joy of looking at the night sky. And, the smallest problem of all, naming this Earendil is a slap in the face. The elves knew to value stars.

whoa october is around the corner! reminder that we'll be open again for novellas soon. more info here: www.neonhemlock.com/submissions

Evergreen post for every writer ever

It turns out, being in a show where I'm onstage for almost an hour and a half makes keeping up a writing schedule hard. I'm hoping I can get back to my short story (and maybe even do some editing) after closing night!

Parable of the Sower really messed with me, but one of the ways it MOST messed with me (in a good way) was its insistence on the inevitability and persistence of change. We're never going back, but also we never WERE going back. This rollercoaster never had a reverse button. Time never does

"We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read" is one of the best stories I've ever read. It's one of only a very few stories that I would give a 10/10. (Yes, I'm very stingy with 10/10s.) At the very least, please make sure to read it! www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/we-w...

Does anyone have any domestic horror recs? Not cozy -- something along the lines of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. #horror #amreading #amwantingtoread

This is something I talk about a lot when I talk about my job. For five years I've worked with preschoolers who have high needs. For the first four, I made about 20k a year, because I was "just" a paraeducator. Now that I'm an SLPA? Over double that. I can maybe afford rent. I'm saving for a house.

It's a wild world—which is why writers rely on community to figure out what's important and what's unusual in our industries. For this first piece in "Writer Beware® Presents: Creators and Their Contracts", we dive into moral rights. What do writers need to know? www.sfwa.org/2025/07/03/m...

Hey folks, this is a super simple one: ALWAYS READ YOUR FUCKING CONTRACTS. (I have an agent and lawyer reading my contracts before they are sent along to me, looking out for my specific interests, and you know what? I STILL read the final before I sign, because it's me bound by the contract.)

As another forgetful person (and someone who takes pictures rarely enough not to have a habit of alt-text yet) this is super helpful!

Happy Pride to Jim Obergefell. bsky.app/profile/eram...

I've never won an award. But! I've been a finalist 21 times, including SIX times for “We Will Teach You How to Read...” which is a finalist for the Hugo, Ignyte, Nebula, Sturgeon, Locus, & Eugie Awards. I'm proud of this story and deeply honored. I'd love for you to read it: tinyurl.com/mry6kpx6

"Do our stories exist to pacify an audience that’s on the verge of taking action by telling them they’ve already done enough? Or are we inspiring people to use their hammers to break and fix and build?" - @sarahgailey.bsky.social. Go break and fix and build. stone-soup.ghost.io/hammer-speech/

📌 "Inertia is a choice. There so many other choice you can make instead." 👇🏽

I still think this is one of the most gutting notes I’ve ever read.

“…We teach children pro-social behaviors… But then, when they grow up…they are often rewarded for many anti-social behaviors.”

Me in the morning: okay, I'm going to be productive today and do grownup things, like sorting my mail and getting my summer online trainings ready Me during the morning: actually let's just do some rp posting and check AO3

"let copilot help you draft" "can gemini write that for you" I have now taken the only reasonable course of action in the circumstances

"Because everyone deserves an education to have a fighting chance against those who would take advantage of them. Because every person deserves the critical thinking skills that naturally follow reading and writing. Every person deserves an education." jesspiper.substack.com/p/the-real-a...

Luddites weren't anti-tech. They were against technology being used by the capitalist class to capture wealth at the expense of the worker. I am a Luddite, and a tech enthusiast. They're not in opposition. I want technology that makes MY life better, not that sells my life piecemeal to corps.

The school year is finally done! Time to actually write and maybe try dipping my toes back into being part of a community.

Congratulations to Uncanny Magazine Interviewer Caroline M. Yoachim! Caroline’s “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” is a finalist for the Best Short Story Locus Award! You can read it here! buff.ly/Er1DU6u

if you’re an artist who ever thought “what’s the point? The world is Hell and I should do something that matters instead” even in an ICE detention center people will treat art as sacred, seek it out, and find joy and comfort in it. You aren’t making art, you’re making hope.

Awash with nerves and afire with pride to share my latest Churchlands story, courtesy of @bcsmagazine.bsky.social www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/here...

After a bit of a dry spell, I've finally gotten a short story picked up! Here's hoping my acting life can pick up too. (Also here's hoping I can hold off on turning this short story into a fantasy epic, at least for a few months.)

I'm active in a couple community theaters (scripted and improv) and those activities either call to good men or help keep them good. Boys (and people in general) need collaborative pretend play!

The time change can be hard on our health. There are more car accidents, strokes and heart attacks this week. People eat more junk food and have more migraines. Here's why — plus tips to help you adapt.

NEW: Public health teams are being gutted by Trump's purge of federal employees, imperiling crucial, lifesaving work. "We are hollowing out our government in a way that is going to hurt people and is going to get people killed." w/ @deldeib.bsky.social: www.propublica.org/article/trum...

This tax season, we're here to remind you about TurboTax's 20-year fight to stop Americans from filing their taxes for free. (Published Oct. 2019)

"We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul." --Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, 1866

ICYMI! Reading for the Uncanny Magazine 2024 Favorite Fiction Reader Poll? Try the short story "Hands Like Gold and Starlight" by K.S. Walker! (@kswalkerwrites.bsky.social) You can read it here! https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/hands-like-gold-and-starlight/

I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world. Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO

Hearts can starve as well as bodies: give us bread, but give us roses. m.youtube.com/watch?v=E6q2...

“It’s difficult to tell if what’s going on is rank incompetence or a willful attempt to throw sand in the gears, but it really could be either, neither reflects well on them.”

"Women who prefer the gown should, of course, consult their own pleasure by continuing to wear it; while those whose preference is a male dress, ought not to be blamed for adopting it." --Complete History of Woman's Suffrage, on 19th century women giving 0 fucks about fashion.

Dropping this free resource because we all need to really pay attention to what we hear and read and see. 20 questions to help with critical engagement: www.michellebelanger.com/ebooks/check...

I had a lot of people asking me so I wrote an explainer: Here's how you can help the incarcerated firefighter battling the blazes in Southern California this week: www.latimes.com/california/s...

Happy New Year

... on January 1st, 2025, both of Dashiell Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON and RED HARVEST will enter the public domain. *fingersteeple* (things that should be space opera?)

American cities remove homeless encampments as part of “sweeps” and take the belongings of the people they move. ProPublica asked them to explain what was stolen from them and how sweeps have affected them. It’s devastating. https://projects.propublica.org/impact-of-homeless-sweeps-lost-belongings/

So last week was too exhausting for me to have any joy or ghosts, but I'm definitely going to talk about my favorite ghost before Christmas is over!