Pub day!!!

Kaboom!!! 🍻

In today's Friday Five, we talk to one of the masterminds behind the Warren Zevon-inspired 'Bad Intentions' anthology (coming 7/7, pre-order now), @kmwriter01.bsky.social Read the back story to this anthology and learn abt Michael's other writing andrewcareaga.com/2026/06/26/f... #WritingCommunity

Coming tomorrow!! A sneak peek at the opening of my story. It's in the middle of the anthology, which is the best position. Peak position. No pressure to be the first and set the mood, not the last to be the final taste of the collection. Right in the sweet spot. 😁

How 15 writers, an artist, and one sometimes-grumpy editor built BAD INTENTIONS together. open.substack.com/pub/michaeld...

✔️ Fixed inflation ✔️ Exposed Epstein’s cronies ✔️ Showed Iran who’s boss ✔️ Saved Team USA from defeat So tired of winning! ⚽️ 🇺🇸

Yep. As always, everything he touches turns to shit. ⚽ 🇺🇸

Film in a hot climate. My ten highlights from Cinema Ritrovato Festival 2026 in Bologna, Italy. andrewnette.substack.com/p/heat-and-f...

I doubt Washington ever said “America First.” I’m pretty sure he said “No Kings.” #4thofjuly #nokings #ifyoudon’tputthesetwotogetherypu’recelebratingwrong

Old Hollywood Fantasy Casting ~ July 4th Edition ~ Washington: Gary Cooper Jefferson: Joseph Cotten Hamilton: Kirk Douglas Adams: Lee J. Cobb Franklin: Charles Coburn

Does ACT OF VIOLENCE qualify as counter-programming on the eve of a certain patriotic birthday? Or is it fitting, given how many of our national illusions have been shattered lately? Either way, one of the best entries in TCM’s Summer of Darkness series airs tonight. #TCMParty

Shout-out time! Congrats to… 🕵️‍♀️ @meproctor.bsky.social 🕵️‍♂️ @nkolakowski.bsky.social 🕵️‍♂️ @joerlansdale.bsky.social …and all the other 2026 Shamus Award finalists! thrillingdetective.com/2026/07/02/t...

Issue 16 of Rock & a Hard Place on sale now! Check out my story about an elderly butcher losing his mind, but not his muscle memory: www.amazon.com/dp/B0H6KK2XX2

Robert Taylor was the WASP version of Clark Gable, the version that can’t change a carburetor. #TCMParty #StandByForAction

Traitor Vic - My Warren Zevon-inspired story is over at the Literary Garage today. A big thanks to them and KC for giving it such a good home!

Lovely gift from the missus.

After OUT OF THE PAST airs tonight, Eddie will showcase a pair of underrated gems: RAW DEAL and MOONRISE. The two films are linked by their release year, 1948, and the aura of self-inflicted doom that permeates them like a slow-developing poison. Worth staying up for. #SummerOfDarkness #TCMParty

There’s always a whiff of Preston Sturges in Carlotta Dale’s dialogue, which means it’s way better than mine—and probably yours, too. Her latest piece is up at @literarygarage.bsky.social. @carlottadale.bsky.social literarygarage.com/the-lost-lou...

One of the great noir films: OUT OF THE PAST (1947) screens tomorrow night at 8pE on TCM. Join the watch-party! #TCMParty ^JW

Somehow in the past thirty years, “myriad” has nonsensically evolved into “a myriad of…” #NotANoun #PetPeeves

Political spin is annoying, but it’s a feature of robust democracies where persuasion is the goal and facts are unavoidable. In our current moment, a spectacular lie gets you much further.

Y’all - instructions from Democracy Docket - how to comment on a really bad proposed USPS regulation restricting delivery of mail-in ballots. Right here ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

How did this not happen? Fate must have been hungover and taking a personal day.

Now that you mention it, Your Holiness, a certain anthology offering fifteen tales of love and redemption recently went to press, and I have it on good authority that this volume now boasts a handsome back cover, revealed here for the first time. May all the contributors be blessed. Pub date: 7/7.

Artist: Mitchell Hooks

My neighborhood movie house. Decent beer selection. 🍺 Photo: Sven Brogren

This Wed at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, @ctmillion.bsky.social and I are cohosting #TheNoirCollective watch party of THE BIG COMBO (1955). It’s one of my favorites, and I could stare at John Alton’s cinematography forever, so Wed can’t come soon enough. See you then! Link to watch: archive.org/details/the-...

My latest Substack, and the first in an occasional series that spotlights favorite but overlooked contemporary noir novels — and tries to pin down the shadowy definition of noir in the process. Thanks for reading. open.substack.com/pub/jimthoms...

I'm writing about AI again. It's also Tuesday again. New on my site, I write about AI and its defenders trying to sell me on it and what all that has to do with Michael Caine and Mr. Potato Head. keithroysdon.com/2026/06/23/a...

Thank you, KC, for welcoming me back to @literarygarage.bsky.social! I love Pink Floyd’s “On the Turning Away,” and always wanted to play with that theme. Finally sad enough to get the story out after watching the goings-on in my home state of MN earlier this year. Give it a read below. 👇

On several occasions, I’ve gestured so emphatically that I actually knocked the drink out of my other hand. According to my wife, this is the most “dago” thing she’s ever seen. Do other Italian-Americans have this problem? 😂

RIP Mark Rothko. You would have loved how the hydrogen peroxide bleach is only turning the Reflecting Pool blue around the perimeter

TCM’s Summer of Darkness resumes tonight with a nice sampling of everything Old Hollywood did right—and sometimes wrong—with noir endings. NIGHTMARE ALLEY softens its source novel’s finale, SCARLET STREET stays wonderfully bleak, and THE KILLERS ends with a joke. All great films, though. #TCMParty

Find someone who loves you the way this man loves adjectives.

When this man promises to "release the full files," we know we can trust him.

FIFA and Donald Trump were made for each other.

This Wednesday at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT: our #filmnoir watch party of I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941). We'll be leaving it to this week’s host, @vanstanwyck.bsky.social, to make all further announcements. Please join us for what promises to be a very special party; link to watch below. 😊 #TheNoirCollective

Cover reveal for my new novel, HEAVY SUGAR, out January 2027 from @sohopress.bsky.social! Love this art so damn much. More dope here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/828881...

Those relentless passions. Always getting us in trouble, aren’t they?

“You hate people. Because, really, you’re *afraid* of them, aren’t you? Always have been, ever since you were a little tyke. You’d rather snuggle up in a chair under the lamp and read.” “There’s a lot worse things I could be doing.” —Dialogue from Robert Bloch’s PSYCHO.

Ghibli, 4ºC, someone: get this cartoon rolling!

There ain't enough disinfectant in D.C. for this job. Citizens in Maryland and Virginia are rounding up the Clorox as we speak.

"Benjamin, get away from that door..."

“Starts bad, gets worse.” This famous definition of noir should be stamped on Jason Starr’s fabulous crime novels like a surgeon general’s warning. HARD FEELINGS, which traces the downfall of a salesman with a rocky marriage and a traumatic childhood, was my latest read. A brilliant, brutal ride.

Wonderful work from Glenn on two top-tier crime pictures directed by Richard Fleischer — both on Warner Archive, if you couldn't make it to the Film Forum's series. Glenn's substack is an essential subscription for anyone who's serious about their film love.

It's Marilyn Month on TCM. She doesn't play a huge role in CLASH BY NIGHT (1952), airing tonight, but it's a riveting, near-perfect film. Stanwyck, Ryan, and director Fritz Lang were rarely better. Bottoms up! #TCMParty

“Starts bad, gets worse.” This famous definition of noir should be stamped on Jason Starr’s fabulous crime novels like a surgeon general’s warning. HARD FEELINGS, which traces the downfall of a salesman with a rocky marriage and a traumatic childhood, was my latest read. A brilliant, brutal ride.

Why does my productivity lag? Because roughly half my time is spent having this argument. 😂

The scene in which Greenstreet charmed the entire world. Would be a legend forever after. #TCMParty