Do any of the professors or journalists or teachers also get their jobs back or nah

🚨! My friend found this caveat in an ER consent form she was pressured to sign before reading (see alt text for the highlighted sentence of concern). EVERYONE needs to speak up on this—a president’s executive order could stop an ER from necessary treatment?? @aclu.org

If, like me, you are a mother who took tylenol at some point during pregnancy and have a child with neurodivergency, please remember during any fake science announcements today that fake science doesn’t become more real just when it’s directed at our most vulnerable pressure points. 💙

Tomorrow RFK Jr and Trump plan to announce their “big news” about autism. Nothing they do is rooted in science, disability awareness or common decency. Remember to protect your digital space. Safeguard your spoons. Check on one another. Lean into the community for support

This GF apple cake is here to remind you that tonight through Wed is Rosh Hashanah, & next Wed evening through Thurs is Yom Kippur. For many Jewish people, these are the most sacred holidays of the year. Please don’t schedule meetings w/ Jewish colleagues or expect email replies on these days!

If I were to host a watchalong of A KNIGHT'S TALE with a no-holds-barred Sir Callie Q&A in October would anyone be interested?

Mainstream pundits have instantly sanitized and ignored Charlie Kirk's core political project and its impacts. He has been remembered by the mainstream press as someone they merely disagreed with, a debate me-guy whose words and actions had zero consequences: www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...

There are a lot of articles this week about the middle grade category. I have so many thoughts on this topic, as both a longtime editor of some mainstay middle-grade series, and a parent of a 12-year-old.

If you’ve ever compared unvaccinated kids to vaccinated kids, you’ve seen the former are more likely to die.

This is a five-alarm fire, except the fire is our government and what’s burning is our collective safety and wellbeing

On the same day the FDA restricted access to COVID vaccines, the CDC director was sacked and top CDC scientists are resigning. And it’s barely been two weeks since an antivax conspiracy theorist fired 180 bullets at CDC headquarters. None of this is making America healthier. What a disaster.

Who watches the birdwatchers

I guess I'm not surprised, but this fucking sucks and is fucking horrible, so call your reps, clang the pots and pans, make noise.

Is it me or are similes reproducing in manuscripts lately like gremlins doused in water? (😉) I am finding myself slashing more of them than ever & distracted by them in submissions. Authors: be judicious w/ similes. Make them count, & trust your descriptions to do the work the rest of the time!

Taking a page from @runwithskizzers.bsky.social and reminding you that you can do anything you’d normally do while wearing a mask to protect yourself and others. (#SaturdayLibrarian here and visiting my extremely immunocompromised mom at the rehab center.)

Because editing yourself TEACHES YOU HOW TO EDIT. And also write! When you have to take out all the "justs" and "reallys" yourself, you're aware of not putting them in there the next time you write. This is the whole process. This is the whole point of the practice of writing.

Brooklyn!! Come see @itsladarrion.bsky.social at Taylor & Co. Books next Friday night!!

NYT recommends @shauniedarko.bsky.social’s creepy mystery with themes of anti-bullying & identity, SCHOOL FOR INVISIBLE BOYS, for kids going into middle school! “Haunting and heartfelt.” This one was also a NYPL Best Book of the Year and a Bank Street Best Book. 💙

Alex is here for us. ❤️

Pretty stunning, right??

It would be a very good time to start masking unless you’re ok with small children dying for your convenience.

Beautiful day to sit by the water and devour the ARC of this wonderful read from a debut author, which also happens to be @emilyshapiro24.bsky.social’s first solo acquisition for Labyrinth Road!

And Labyrinth Road has *two* books on the NYT list this week, as Dragon’s Apprentice stays on the middle grade paperback list for a 4th month straight!! Never gets old to see the name of the street from my painful childhood immortalized next to books that can help other kids escape hard times!

Publishing has so many painful moments— time to celebrate a happy one!! 🎉

ICYMI! This is a thrilling reunion for me and Brandon, and exciting news for all fans of epic fantasy. 💙

Five years after I packed up 20 boxes of books when I left my old job, I am finally unpacking & loving the reminders of all I published at Simon Pulse. Eternally proud to have worked with Christa Desir on these stories that challenged stereotypes and saved lives.

Happy #BookBirthday @itsladarrion.bsky.social! So thrilled for readers to see how Malik’s story deepens in this second book, & all the crucial themes woven into an action-packed story of magic & resilience. This is a book to inspire the kind of conversations we should all be having. 💙

I’m going to reiterate this, and add to follow the accounts of Andrea’s wife, poet Megan Falley. I am floored daily by the wisdom and human truth pouring freely from Megan—about grief, love, & the Why of everything. It’s kind of the only thing making any sense to me right now.

If you were alive in the 1980s, this is among the most wonderful & truly incredible things you have ever witnessed in your lifetime.

Always so hard to communicate this reality!

The three kinds of plots (IMO) are Conflicts (one entity vs another), Mysteries (a search for something), and Lacks (a protagonist needs something to be fulfilled). If you can figure out which one you’re writing, it will help clarify your inciting incident, climax, & everything in between.

From the vault! 25 years ago, the once and future YA editors Liesa, Kieran, and Wendy all hung out in the same book series as writers… 😉

4/ As a result, an estimated 3 million children are expected to lose SNAP benefits. That’s 3 million kids with less access to nutritious food during the most important years for brain development, growth, and long-term health.

3/ The changes also slash federal funding to help states run SNAP. That means delays, red tape, and a lot more people falling through the cracks. And it gets worse: the bill eliminates SNAP’s nutrition education program—the piece designed to actually help families make healthier food choices.

2/ SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is now subject to the same harsh rules hitting Medicaid: new work mandates, more reporting hoops, and stricter eligibility checks that will force people out.

1/ Millions of kids could soon lose access to food and health care and barely anyone’s talking about it. A new wave of work requirements is quietly gutting core safety net programs. Let’s break it down. 👇

If your social feeds this week have contained only the world’s horror and none of the profoundly moving words from poet Andrea Gibson, please search their name. In their good-bye to life, and in the depth of love they inspired in their friends, they gave us everything we don’t deserve but need. 💙

Do you know anyone who works in the publishing industry (editors, agents, marketers, etc.) who would be excited to stand with their colleagues against book bans? Encourage them to follow this account for more information about Publishing Professionals Against Book Bans. More info coming very soon!

JFC FFS

This is relevant to our entire industry in about fifty ways at once. See also: why are people.

Stopped in my tracks by this sign pointing out the IMLS absence from #ALAAC25

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

“Once we have accepted that hope is not the only emotion we can work with – we start to remember that an emotion is an experience, not an action. You can let your emotions move you to action…but you are also powerful enough to act on your principles even when they oppose your emotions.”

I can’t even list how many “progressive” people I know dismissed me over the years as I warned over and over that those NYT pieces and a certain author’s prominent stance posed actual danger to trans people. WORDS HAVE POWER. (I say, into a void.) 😭

This review really is fantastic. Gave me some much needed laughs.

Disability rights are trans rights and trans rights are disability rights. We are fighting the same fight. Disabled people can't afford to be transphobic and trans people can't afford to be ableist. We are one and the same.

RFK is hellbent on genocide against anyone with any medical condition. Being trans is a medical condition. They're experimenting with removing trans healthcare first so they can clear a path to do it to everybody else.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell all of you what an incredible writer Sarah Gailey is, but just in case… letting you know about this new book coming.

Including the fourth and final SIR CALLIE installment! This was the very first middle-grade series Labyrinth Road published and I could not be more proud of it or of its courageous author @esmesymessmith.bsky.social who writes with their entire heart. And guess what? This story ends with hope. 💜

The New York Times headline writers now call groups like the AMA and the College of Physicians and Surgeons "pro-vaccine groups." They get more preposterous with each passing day.