a certain kind of liberal has a cycle of being confidently wrong, coming to the right conclusion way too late, forgetting all the people who told them they were wrong in the first place, never reflecting on it or learning any humility, and then being confidently wrong again to start the cycle anew

And these posts never come with a mea culpa like "I should have listened to the people I brushed off as hysterical" bsky.app/profile/chan...

I lowkey have things to say about people considering dystopia and alternative realities less speculative than other speculative tropes

My cat knows not to mess with the tablecloth, but he did it anyway and tore a big hole in the fabric, which he then stuck his head through. Of course he got stuck and ended up panicking, and twisting the cloth tighter around himself, and the only way out was with my help. Seems like a metaphor.

anything taken by force will not be had with ease

I am feeling a need to be more uncompromising. Too many people have not been told No enough, and despite the clearly negative ramifications of their behavior, they continue it.

You can’t fix autism because autistic people are not broken.

It’s such a task to maintain your sense of self when you’re dealing with people who have actually lost their damn minds

When I first started reading black literature, I was so in love with it that I hadn’t fully considered how many people either don’t know it or don’t truly enjoy it. Sometimes I sense a hint of hostility towards it, or a desire to discipline it — even from people who consider themselves well-read.

Things aren't good. Now is the time to try lots of different things.

The sciences understand ‘culture’ as a constructed environment in which life grows.

Formulas aren’t useful everywhere — gotta be careful about applying formulas in a way that smothers potential. That seems to be one of the great trials of Western culture.

John Lee Hooker with a diagram of the evolution of the Blues.

Motherfuckers begging to say shit suddenly ain't got shit to say. Sad.

My mom often says (translated from Twi) “we are meant to do some of it, not all of it”

I think I’ve got to officially see my short fiction as secondary to the novel project — if a story lands somewhere, cool, but my mind should be immersed in the novel

You may notice patterns in who is quick to assume anything they haven’t heard of must not exist

It’s terrifying, how often people only do something if an authority tells them to — no curiosity

Why am I expected to go to hell and back just to get my kid an appt or register them for school. Yet others can decide "hmm I don't really care about other human beings" and be empowered to act as an entire contagion at every one else's expense.

gotta make plans to roll around in some mud one of these days. I feel too clean.

Itch and Steam got a bunch of us thinking; we need a catalogue where creative (esp. NSFW & Queer) works are less vulnerable to censorship. A storefront we won't be delisted from. One giving us the autonomy to sell our stuff our way. So we're making Conjured Ink. You can join us. https://conjured.ink

Congratulations to @lizawemakor.bsky.social for LOVING SAFOA getting shortlisted in the BEST LESBIAN ROMANCE category of the @lambdaliterary.org awards 📚 (And congrats to all the nominees!)

I’m honored that ‘Loving Safoa’ is on the shortlist for Lesbian Romance! Congratulations to everyone listed here; I’m excited to expand my reading list. 🌈

We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Lambda Literary Awards! lambdaliterary.org/2025/07/anno...

The outpouring of love for Andrea Gibson is really something to behold

“Whether one really loves God can be determined by the love borne toward others.” Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev

Toni Morrison said that fascism “changes citizens into taxpayers—so individuals become angry at even the notion of the public good...It changes parenting into panicking—so that we vote against the interests of our own children; against their health care, their education, their safety from weapons.”

This whole country is a scam

If I were to scream something rn it’d be “no one’s paying attention to where they’re going”

It’s kind of silly to me when ppl apply generational discourse to things like the aesthetics of animated films, because it’s adults who are determining the aesthetics of the films, and it’s not guaranteed that they are studying what children are organically being drawn to when they choose aesthetics

A culture that has a short memory, at best, or engages in active erasure, at worst, for when someone is right, or more, has foresight…yet a long memory for when someone makes a mistake…is never gonna be a culture where people are okay with admitting mistakes, regardless of what the cost is.

10 days left !

"Avila Beach" by Z.D. Dochterman, our final story from Issue #12, is now free to read. This is a surreal story featuring crazy stuff like severed body parts, giant man-eating plants, a minotaur, an eerie government compound - but also very normal everyday things like the cops being utter shits.

FIYAH #35: Black Isekai is now out and available for download! Some amazing stories came from this fun theme. Get yours here: fiyahlitmag.com/issues/issue...

P.S. Never feel cringe about getting deep with your writing, trying to say something meaningful to you and hopefully others. Fuck that bro. You're not being pretentious or anything anyone else might say. Nothing is for everyone, but don't let anyone hold you back from thoughtful work.

Obligatory "it's my birthday; buy my book" post bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The NYT and other mainstream outlets have ALWAYS been mouthpieces for power and upholding the status quo. When we told you they weren't trustworthy, we weren't just making things up. There is a history of the fourth estate being just another part of the system.

The most depressing part of it all are people who still think we are where we are because people couldn't make themselves ignore genocide during an election. You make me weep for humanity.

I would guess that 17 year olds in Uganda and South Africa could probably tell you about as much about the nuances of US demographic categorizations as 17 year olds in the US could tell you about social categories in Uganda or South Africa and it's weird that people apparently think otherwise

What if we as authors/actors/culture creators just--collectively decided that the NYT is no longer the paper of record? Stopped submitting books for review? Stopped giving interviews? Stopped using their pull quotes on our dust jackets and in our advertising? Stopped submitting op-eds?

Every day, repeat to yourself: It's not coming - it's already here. It's not going to happen - it's happening. It's not what will we do when - it's what are we doing while.

I don’t love marketing speak descriptions of books that boil them down to lists of tropes. As a reader, I like descriptions with sentences, multiple sentences that give you an impression of how the book moves, how it uses language, what happens in the story.

Feast on the latest review from @cypayseur.bsky.social! Featuring work from @strangehorizons.bsky.social, @flashfictiononline.bsky.social and yours truly! @lizawemakor.bsky.social's "Schadenfreude" & @lpkindred.bsky.social's "Prayers for the Next World" get a nod!!! 🔥 locusmag.com/2025/07/stra...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

I’ve hesitated to post about Loving Safoa in a Pride Month TM way because Pride marketing carries expectations of escapism, but: Loving Safoa is a semi-escapist, definitely political and erotic sapphic / lesbian vampire novella. #lesfic #sapphic #queerwriters www.neonhemlock.com/books/loving...

the flowers in the yard have aged into weeds— an appropriate metaphor for this summer. same plant, different season.

I also can't help but wonder what the long-term social impact will be. How can a society that doesn't value thinking function?

just a reminder: I am an authenticity reader and preliminary editor. I would love to make your manuscript sing. hit me up!