Mainstream newspaper op-ed pages are largely affirmative action programs for mediocre conservatives who could never hack it elsewhere. But it is remarkable how indistinguishable they are from one another. They parrot the same opinions in the same tin-eared, godawful prose. Impossible to tell apart.

I've been wrestling with a few unfinished stories at the moment and was trying to google my way out of trouble, landed on this excellent essay by @thelincoln.bsky.social about the different "engines" that can power a story. lithub.com/on-the-many-...

Today!

Yeah this is not a thing. You might blurb as a favor to someone, but you aren't paid for them. People have a lot of weird ideas about how publishing works.

"a proud MAGA family"

Hey everyone, the secret's out: I'm a part of this and truly had fun writing about the Concepción Sisters and their botánica

Tomorrow!

Seems bad

I find you tend to know instantly if a critique is hitting on something true (normally what you knew already and hoped had been patched over) and when it's bad faith, stupid, or just someone whose taste/politics/values are simply opposed to yours and their hate only reaffirms your work.

Guys, it can be both true that universities violated students' right to protest before AND that Trump's use of state power to control what media orgs say, what universities teach, and to enforce further suppression of student speech (plus deport student protestors!) is a worse assault on free speech

Please consider supporting The Speculative Detective Agency anthology! By donating to the Kickstarter you also get the book at a discount. www.kickstarter.com/projects/for...

Liberals and leftists sniping at each other about what crackdown on speech is "the worst one," meanwhile the right keeps crushing both apace www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Oh well, let's still cram this into every single app, government agency, and university stat and not ask any questions

Counterpoint: decades of political science research have made it clear that there is no real correlation between public opinion and policy outcomes.

NYC people: if you're coming to the Brooklyn Book Festival, swing by the "Beyond the Page" panel with me, @nnedi.bsky.social, and Fernando Flores moderated by @cjfarley.bsky.social ! brooklynbookfestival.org/event/beyond...

The censorship will continue until free speech improves

Okay, @henryholtbooks.bsky.social is not playing around with the new @danchaon.bsky.social novel 👀🎪🍿

also I think a lot of people were hoping he was a groyper so much that they've lost sight of the fact that the revealed info doesn't back up the "left wing radical" claim at all. he doesn't appear to be deeply political and his beef with maga was standard issue "hate and divisiveness" stuff.

D and I'm getting southern Italian, Greek, Indian, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and basically every other Asian cuisine? Pretty no brainer

Some actual reporting on this: www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-...

This is easily the worst time for free speech in my life. Between crackdown on student protestors, Trump admin attacks on journalists and academics, organized conservative cancel mobs targeting random people for mild speech acts... very dark. And the "free speech" pundits are all cowering in silence

His brand of it is particularly garish but all authoritarianism is basically government by spoiled child. No capacity for or interest in any principles. People who are nice to me get treats, people who are mean to me get abuse. I get what I want or I cry and thrash. Embarrassing

Seems bad www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

The censorship will continue until free speech improves

Lawyers clinging to faith in "laws" and "rights" despite the actual realities of 2025 America like a kid refusing to believe Santa Claus isn't actually his mom and dad.

We are the children of the candy you couldn't crush

Okay but it actually truly doesn't get good until episode 5! (though yes I think a skip if you don't enjoy first 1 or 2)

Grok is being sent to the reeducation camp

Attention: fans of SFF and detective fiction! This should be a very fun anthology. I'll have a story in as will @ambersparks.bsky.social @kjy1066.bsky.social and many others. (They're also taking submissions.)

Soon: THE SPECULATIVE DETECTIVE AGENCY www.kickstarter.com/projects/for...

Friends! Support and submit to this anthology - honestly one of the most fun things I’ve gotten to write in ages, and the book is going to be a blast to read

Attention: fans of SFF and detective fiction! This should be a very fun anthology. I'll have a story in as will @ambersparks.bsky.social @kjy1066.bsky.social and many others. (They're also taking submissions.)

Honestly not sure there is anything dumber than believing there is a single "smart stat" that makes you inherently more skilled or more knowledgeable than other people at any given subject or discipline or practice. A very childish way to view existence.

It does feel like our traditional conception of the political spectrum is not useful in analyzing people whose politics are basically meme-fried brainrot 4chan nihilism lolz

He can't even pretend to care

I started this and it opens with the lover's ghost visiting Gilbert to say a bunch of Hallmark cliches, including that nothing Gilbert did was wrong and everything just had to happen as it happened, and then the ghost implores Gilbert to write a new memoir.

Related thoughts countercraft.substack.com/p/scattered-...

NYT on the alleged messages on the shooter's weapon:

When did "quoting a political activist's own words and correctly describing their political positions is offensive!" become some agreed upon rule?

Honestly don't know how anyone who has lived through the last 10 years can still say things like "Stop saying things will get worse. They're already bad!" Things can always get worse, and often do.

Our dystopian present really is very strange.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on the shooting of Charlie Kirk: "Political violence, unfortunately, has ramped up in this country ... I think there are people who are fomenting it in this country. I think the president's rhetoric often foments it."

I do not recommend watching.

August Reading Recap - On my blog, reviews of Metallic Realms, Fonseca, Automatic Noodle, The Bluest Eye, and Beautyland. www.lisaeckstein.com/2025/09/augu...

Any recs for books to read aloud in small stretches? I'm making a habit of reading to my daughter each night, but as she's too young to understand also using it as an excuse to read some good books aloud. (Last two were Beowulf [Headley trans.] and David Berman's poems.) Fagles's Iliad next?

Simply the best slide I have ever seen in a powerpoint presentation care of @premeemohamed.com’s talk at @banffcentre.bsky.social re: Putting the Science in Science Fiction

Related thoughts countercraft.substack.com/p/scattered-...

i think it rocks that all literature coverage in all media outlets has been reduced to incessant conversation about 1-3 nonfiction books by already successful authors

Otoh, these are exactly the type of scientists and people you'd expect to be produced under the society Trump, RFK, etc. are making. Maybe the most accurate part of the Alien franchise in the end...