Mark your calendars! The next BBB at Barrows happens OCT. 17 @ 7pm -- back to a normal Tuesday schedule! Join us for sips, stories, & a salon-like atmosphere with readings from @matthewkressel.net @cwroseauthor.bsky.social @crissachappell.bsky.social & #PaulaBomer! 📚🎙️🧉 More: BrooklynBooksBooze.com

Today’s walk. A splash of autumn color. 🍂

The new hotness is review spammers using "AI" to synopsize one's new novel to make it look they read your book and can offer you a useful service

Who me?

The Armour-Stiner (Octagon) House. This is one of the most magical homes l've ever visited.

A Florida friend in Prospect Park.

Thanks Nippon Photo Clinic for repairing my Pentax K1000 ...a special camera l've had since I was sixteen.

The most alarming thing about the internet is how it kills our capacity for delight. People spend hours scrolling glass-eyed through content that brings only crumbs of amusement. Real joy is found in the real world: in reading, in starlight, in birdsong, in service to others.

Rockaway Beach, my heart ❤️

Page proofs submitted! Look for my new YA thriller (set on the Space Coast) next summer! 🚀 @regalhouse.bsky.social

“Horror is a genre that gets kids interested in reading, and they should be allowed access to these books”: children’s librarian Taylor Hunsberger reflects on the ways that horror novels provide children with a vital testing ground to face their real-life fears buff.ly/cmkklRN

We are over the moon to have signed a contract with Crissa-jean Chappell for our third book together - the #MG spooky novel GHOST TEETH, coming your way in the Summer of 2027! #mgbookchat

Bookish news!!!!! 🐝 👻 Crissa-Jean Chappell’s middle grade debut, GHOST TEETH, in which a thirteen-year-old and his eccentric cousin try to break a curse involving witches, enchanted bees, and their family’s own brand of “Gray” magic, to Jaynie Royal at Regal House, for publication in summer 2027.

Fireflies are back in Brooklyn!

“Spaceships everywhere.” That’s what I scribbled in my little red notebook. When I begin a new novel, it always starts with a place. Titusville grabbed my heart and imagination. I’m deep in edits now. But I can’t wait to share NEVER LEAVE ME ALONE next year! 🚀 (📷 Harlan Erskine)

A very green kind of day in Green-Wood.

The subway to the beach always reminds me of Spirited Away.

English Station (1924). New Haven, Connecticut

Final grades are (finally) done. ✨ ⭐️

If you’re a pantser (not a plotter) you might have a “zombie graveyard” of deleted scenes. Most of the time they never end up in the completed draft of a book. But I dug up some zombie parts and discovered that they fit in exactly the right place.

Last class! All that’s left to do is = grade a stack of finals. And now…Dr. Chappell has left the building….

Caturday

The first days of May

Green-Wood is very green today.

Who me?

beers + writerly conversation = the solution to a long week (almost spring break!)

I am happiest when I’m in the mountains.

Such a fun day (and a big crowd!) at the Poughkeepsie Children’s Book Festival.

breathe

being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:

Find your books on the pirate site LibGen? Don't despair, DO SOMETHING! 1-Join the Authors Guild who, with bestselling authors, has instituted a class action lawsuit. There are other things you can do, so join! 2-Share this link with all your writing friends and the writing community. 3-FIGHT BACK!

Today, @theatlantic.com published a search tool that allows authors to check if their works are in LibGen, an illegal pirate site AI companies copied for their AI systems. Here's what you can do: authorsguild.org/news/meta-li...

Worm moon. Another long week. Grading a mountain of midterms (the robots are back again). And my stupid cold won’t go away. Risotto please.

Another long week. A paper copy of my next book is off to my publisher. Sunflowers and sushi.

Staten Island, you fascinate me. The abandoned chewing gum factory. Seagulls munching on bagel crusts. I love it all.

I dragged out my 8os Polaroid camera this weekend and here's the only pic that sort of looks okay. Maybe a light leak? Or expired film? Who knows.....

A long Wednesday that feels like a Monday. Time to hug the lions.

I love notebooks and the smell of ink and paper. But yeah…my phone is currently filled with paper airplane style notes for a messy draft in progress. And it glows in the dark. #kidlitchat

It snowed. Where else would I be?

Who me?

Children’s book authors and illustrators gathered in New York City last weekend for the annual SCBWI winter conference to discuss the state of the children’s market https://buff.ly/4hxdleL

Dialogue should reveal character…it’s a personal perspective of the world. #kidlitchat

TOPIC: "How do I write dialogue that sounds current but without references that date it instantly?" #kidlitchat asked. "Or if I'm writing historical fiction how do I know how kids and adults sounded back then? Share your ideas, questions, and tips, please."

A great day at the SCBWI conference…talking to so many wonderful teachers / librarians who visited us at the Authors Against Book Bans table! And maybe I can figure out how to fold these booklets like a 90s zine…

What a beautiful snake, @melissaescobarart.com. Happy Lunar New Year. :) Thank you again for creating all the amazing #PBParty contest graphics. You are so talented!

Today. Early morning Zoomy class (my last / 4th class of the week). Then a little writing time before I jumped in the train for the SCBWI reception in midtown. If you’re going to the conference tomorrow, I’ll be at the Authors Against Book Bans table. Please stop and say hello! ✨

Read. Read books. Reading books is resistance. Buy. Buy books. Buying books is resistance. Share. Share books. Sharing books is resistance. Celebrate Celebrate books. Celebrating books is resistance.

favorite writing spot