People at the next table hearing about The Good Place for the first time. truly we all do live in different worlds

Building a syllabus for my workshop inside a women’s pod. It is an act of care, even tho I am always rushing. Because of high turnover I can reuse familiar ones but am now drawing more examples from work written in my groups, than published poets—sometimes with both.

Gender studies on the ground in Minnesota.

This week wrote about “awe” with folks in recovery, and my own piece was about having a niece & nephew—new kin! Then in the jail brought a bunch of seed words, and a lot of us wrote about time and life.

In my experience the people who are the most awful about and to children also are disgusted by disabled adults--and their needs and vulnerabilities. Its fundamentally an atavistic fear of dependence in a culture that fetishizes hyper individualism; and a very dangerous fear it is, too.

As long as I’ve been able to read, I’ve always hated the US for its hypocrisy and cruelty, claiming superiority while inflicting violence and exploiting everyone, but today…

Just heard someone pronounce the current hot trend in books as “roMANtsy” which I misheard as all the YA were romance-y now but officially love this as the pronunciation of romantasy

So my flavor of anxiety involves skipping to finding the silver linings of bad things that haven’t happened yet, how about you?

This week's Thursday snippet comes from my enemies-to-lovers fantasy rom-com Enchanting the Fae Queen - which arrives in just over 2 months! Preorder now: stephanieburgis.com/books/enchanting-the-fae-queen #romancelandia

What’s your hometown slop? Sorry to expose you, Boston, but don’t pretend this isn’t real, my mom was far too enthusiastic about it

Just found out my 2026 birthday is on a Tuesday… because Ann Leckie’s new book is coming out on my birthday!!!

TFW all your best laid plans apparently hinged on a good night’s rest

I wrote about how RFK Jr is making health worse for millions of Americans. He's slashed research and healthcare, and replaced them with "hAvE yOu TrIeD YoGa?" Link & free link in thread. There are impeachment/removal proposals in both the House and Senate. Tell your electeds to boot this guy out!

I have been working through a reread of the Kate Daniel series and every mention of Julie manifests physical pain that there is no follow up to Blood Heir yet. 😭

Sometimes I worry I’m too literal minded for the Captcha image verification but so far it’s always been a glitch of the actual computer in the equation. The day is yet coming, I fear.

I so enjoyed this & the dynamic of MCs with very public, cultivated personas that are safe to set aside with each other (whether they mean to or not!)

Today at the grocery store I asked an idiotic question of the customer service desk person but luckily they didn’t know the answer so when the super obvious answer came up in the system (distilled water is in the bottled water aisle) I just felt like a small part of the greater humanity.

“This isn’t the America I know” Black People:

In a subset of Murphy’s Law, the good free stuff is on the side of the road only when you have no time to stop 😩

In a little under two weeks’ time, the Canarviers will arrive to steal your hearts! Make sure you get your thieves! RSVP to an event near you (it MATTERS!) Preorder, do those magical library holds. The thieves are counting on you! www.penguinrandomhou...

Radical self acceptance this week: buying 4 of the deodorant I like on Ye Evil Webbed Site as the company is clearly being axed 😢

Thursday the 11th! @matociquala.bsky.social and @ceruleancynic.bsky.social in South Hadley! Join here: www.odysseybks.com/event/elizab...

read this. i spent most of it in the weird semiground between "rightness and wrongness are subjective perspectives" and "what the fuck is wrong with Kiwis" and then at the end it was made clear that the answer was, as is so often the case, "the British"

Self-accommodation sometimes is answering “so what?” when your brain says “but we could tolerate this sensory thing yesterday!?” It’s good to finally articulate that as a NEED and not a lapse.

Reading the Temeraire series has forced me to look up information about the Napoleonic Wars. I knew very little, including how *successful* he was at taking territory before his downfall. Weirdly comforted by this information, both for Temeraire and myself??

Hmm. Does this habit of stories about someone Accidentally In Charge come from being an eldest daughter of a “traditional” family? …No, no, surely not.

The amount of times I have to stop and think about which way Western books open after wrapping one for a Blind Book Date is pretty startling. The again, left and right is a challenge for me in general so it’s probably not manga-poisoning!!

Incredible new Omid Memarian interview with Vida Rabbani, a formerly imprisoned Iranian journalist who "created a language of resistance through painting. Using bedsheets as canvas, smuggled brushes, and colors brought in tube by tube, she documented the intimate textures of carceral life."

There are some great reviews out there but here’s my bite size staff-pick. (Goes unmentioned in it but I *loved* how Anja is not so into the people but the problem of poisoning.) www.odysseybks.com/book/9781250...

I just opened both AgentQuery and a dating site so apparently I’m feeling like being deflated & anxious about something new today!

If you can’t make your own strength to carry on, storebought is fine

Yesterday I realized as I walked up to the jail that the day’s earworm progression had gone from CHVRCHES to the Emotional Damage remix of Pompeii to the ACAB TikTok sound and that I needed to regress to CHVRCHES pretty quick before I got myself in trouble 😅 Thanks Vimes-knows-ACAB Tumblr post!!

So humid my eyebags are sweating today, so I’ve gone to stea-er, utilize the public service of AC!

Today’s words have been eked out like digging a trench with a straw but there’s still more of them than yesterday!

Tachyon's 30 year anniversary bundle includes two of my Birdverse books - Yoke of Stars (World Fantasy finalist!) and Geometries of Belonging (Le Guin Prize for Fiction finalist!) for all your Birdly needs. www.humblebundle.com/books/tachyo...

Yet. Another. Fake. Literary. Agency: Writers Literary. Among other things, totally false claims about authors and books repped, and images of supposed staff are stock photos. They're sending out fake publishing offers to writers writersliterary.com

Sometimes in customer service someone has to play the incompetent idiot a colleague is rescuing the customer from. Sometimes you kind of deserve it.

My heart sank about the sailing because of my current WIP, but I had an inkling…

Good morning ReaderCon! Will join you after I’m done committing crimes against coffee stirrers in pursuit of brown-bagging meals at a hotel. #readercon2025 #readercon

Saw this coming up from a fellow writer, glad it’s being exposed!

I am not going to move fast on this, but a thing I would like to do is find people who have experienced having someone write a fictionalized character who strongly represents them into fiction, with or without permission. I don't think I've talked to others who have experienced it. RT welcome.

A reminder that this goes on at @bookshop.org until July 11th! Here's a proposed to-do list: 💸 Give money to independent bookstores 🖤 Support a small press 🚫 DON'T give money to billionaires 📘 Have a paperback freely delivered to your door 🚀 Get on a journey back to Earth on a doomed spaceship

If you can’t make your own will to live*, store bought is fine *toil

Tag yourself, I'm "Doltclous"

Bood Food, bood MOOD!

Glad midsommarafton till alla som firar! Happy midsummer to everyone who celebrates it (looking at you, fellow Swedes!) To celebrate, I'm sharing my most midsummery story: "Hare's Breath", from Shimmer. www.shimmerzine.com/hares-breath/

My new MG fantasy novel comes out in two months! Please consider pre-ordering! You can order signed/personalized copies from Lofty Pigeon Books: shop.loftypigeonbooks.com/item/fDcyhWd...