“Lifton described a key psychological mechanism, what he called the “ ‘thought-terminating cliché.’ It’s the switch that mutes any idea that may contradict the totalist ideology. In Trumpism … the fiction that Trump won the 2020 election … served that function.” RIP www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/o...

Rewatching the trilogy and the presentness of this scene--all of it--just sneaks up and wrecks you.

We don't cover our rose gardens in concrete either.

Taken just a few minutes ago outside the ICE facility in Portland that Trump claims is under siege. My message to Donald Trump is this: we don’t need you here. Stay the hell out of our city.

Went to the bookstore to browse and destress (“I won’t buy anything,” I told myself) and had a surprise sighting in the wild. Kinokuniya is carrying If the Stars Are Lit. (Not me carrying three new books to the counter. You’ve got to celebrate somehow.)

This was written during the lockdown, which tbh didn’t really happen in Japan beyond the borders and working from home. Get a shudder thinking about what would have happened had LLMs been let loose during that period.

terror doesn’t always scream

I like that they added “known as” just in case they made you believe in witches.

A reader dmed this week to say they’re using a scene from If the Stars Are Lit in a performance class in audiobook narration. I’m ridiculously honored!

I've had plenty of muttering-to-myself spats with Anthony Lane over the years, but this piece is delightful. This festival is now on my bucket list. @jazzjune.bsky.social for potentially alarming Wong Kar-Wai paragraph.

Pre-orders are now open for Memory and Magic, the debut novel of American author D. M. Beucler - stunning cover created by the amazing Tara Bush! Out Oct 7, 2025. www.lunapresspublishing.com/novels @dmbeucler.bsky.social @tarabush.bsky.social #romantasy #debut2025 #booksfromscotland #bloodmagic

This review took longer than I had hoped to write. But in a good way, there was so much to digest after reading That Very Witch: Fear, by Payton McCarty-Simas And why it is Essential Reading for Horror Fans and Feminists Alike gnofhorror.com/that-very-wi... @lunapress.bsky.social

New Review - a Mountain challenges Death but not quite as you think - a gorgeous novella awaits in The Death of Mountains by @kurellian.bsky.social out now and strongly recommended! www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/9/...

KPop Demon Hunters is like a two-hour “Once More with Feeling” with food cravings.

Owl Dreams #birdart #art #sciart

Pre-orders are now open for Memory and Magic, the debut novel of American author D. M. Beucler - stunning cover created by the amazing Tara Bush! Out Oct 7, 2025. www.lunapresspublishing.com/novels @dmbeucler.bsky.social @tarabush.bsky.social #romantasy #debut2025 #booksfromscotland #bloodmagic

A really well crafted science fiction tale

Just an awesome collection to get hold of

Up before the neighborhood. #5amwritersclub

Pre-order That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film by Payton McCarty-Simas! Explore 7 decades of the cyclical rise and fall of the cinematic witch in American culture and her relationship to feminist movements over time. #AcademicSky www.lunapresspublishing.com/product-page...

And this is a treat of science fiction tale exploring identity and memory If The Stars Are Lit by Sarah K Ellis www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/9/...

A tale full of ideas

Devouring this very moment at the gym. Faintly worried there’s a mub following me on the treadmill.

What she said. Congratulations @singingtotigers.bsky.social ! 🎉 📕

Huge congrats to Ana Sun on her short fiction collection! Just out from NewCon Press (while we are at Milford SF Writer Workshop.) 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 @singingtotigers.bsky.social @milfordsff.bsky.social #speculativefiction #solarpunk #climatefiction #newrelease www.newconpress.co.uk/info/book.as...

I’ve been Wombled!! Thank you for reading If the Stars Are Lit and for this lovely, thoughtful review!! 😻

Post a female character you love.

“We are made to feel special … then we are expected to enjoy a world in which we are not.” This piece by Rachel Kushner should be added to the Gen X canon. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

I dont remember when Jimmy Kimmel said we should "just kill" homeless Americans. Do you?

Ordered a bottle of cinnamon syrup for my tea and it has already improved my life. Also, I can pretend I’m drinking klah.

A teacher in a utopian lit class (in 1984, no less) defended a group of classmates whose idea of a perfect world was one without the gayz. "They always make it your problem," she said.

My earliest Robert Redford Memory is my sister coming out of All the Presidents Men and saying how scary it was when he went “to see Deep Throat,” also beginning its notorious 14 year run at The Aladdin theater. This resulted in some confusion. RIP

Hey! It's midnight on the east coast, so it's release day. Thanks to @undertow.bsky.social for being such a fantastic publisher. Thanks to family, friends, and fellow writers for their support. The short fic grind has ups and downs, but it's a blast. Fricken love what we do. Thanks for reading.

Robert Mitchum was f**king scary, wasn't he? I've now watched both NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955) and CAPE FEAR (1962) and he's just... terrifying. Those films don't need to be graphic to be appallingly threatening. Meanwhile, Gregory Peck: ❤️

My mom is chomping at the bit for this knitting set, which costs a bit over the hundred dollar gift limit. So in hearty compliance with Japan’s retaliation against Tr*mp’s tariffs, I am splitting it into two separate packages. No complaints.

Nileena Sunil in SH today, on Madeehah Reza’s Orphan Planet (@lunapress.bsky.social): "The book’s title ... seems to have two different meanings. It refers to Elif, a literal orphan stuck on a planet, and to the planet Maoira-I itself."

Pre-orders are now open for Memory and Magic, the debut novel of American author D. M. Beucler - stunning cover created by the amazing Tara Bush! Out Oct 7, 2025. www.lunapresspublishing.com/novels @dmbeucler.bsky.social @tarabush.bsky.social #romantasy #debut2025 #booksfromscotland #bloodmagic

Order That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film by Payton McCarty-Simas! Explore seven decades of the cyclical rise and fall of the cinematic witch in American culture and her relationship to feminist movements over time. www.lunapresspublishing.com/product-page...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman adrift in deep space must be in want of a sassy gemel.

Received this beautiful Lumos fountain pen set for my birthday. The present to myself is time to write with it.

FRANK'S FILM REVIEW: MILDRED PIERCE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 Joan Crawford’s career was hanging by a thread when she took on the role of Mildred Pierce. After parting ways with MGM and being branded “box office poison,” she had everything to prove... #FrankGaimari #Crawford franksfilmreview.com/2025/09/12/m...

Baby's first trilogy finally together. 😊

#BusterKeaton warning us not to doomscroll, although he would have had a field day with our smartphones. #SherlockJr

I'm delighted to announce that I have sold a drabble to Manawaker Studio's 100 Word Project. "God of the Gaps" was my response to editor/publisher CB Droege's theme for August of "tooth". I'll post a link to the story when I can.

Maybe not the best month to tackle Crime and Punishment, but I’m very glad I put it on the TBR pile. The humanity is as comforting as the parallels are alarming.

This was so predictable it's banal