Bringing this up again to spread the word. People aren’t getting their SNAP (food benefits) come November 1st. This is disastrous. This feeds poor, unhoused, and disabled people. Our voices are small and it’s hard to get people to notice our struggles. So many people will starve without SNAP

I know fundraising is rough, but if Larry C can pull in $290K in a month, I think Black woman led Black African translations could be given a few words by some of the big accounts after seven months of global pleas for help. Know them? Can you ask? Send the direct link? They wouldn't listen to me.

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

This is SO good. Next time you've got a couple hours, watch this... it's all about what I'm trying to do with my storytelling. I especially like her point about how these stories EXIST but we have been trained to ignore/minimize them. Embracing new ways of telling story is one place to start.

❗It's Banned Books Week. If you live in the USA, support freedom to read by encouraging Congress reps to back a resolution. Use link to "Contact Your Member." www.congress.gov/.../house-re... H.Res 797 breaks down the onslaught of unconstitutional government censorship in school & public libraries.

Sometimes it's a job for a Dick. Could you use a laugh? What about one with a bit of gently furious edge? This brother-sister audiobook on #Kickstarter is not yet funded. Please let people know. www.kickstarter.com/projects/att...

If you called/wrote lawmakers to urge the USA's Institute of Museum & Library Services to remain funded, THANK YOU, this month saw two hurdles cleared! But this article also reveals hurdles (votes) pending. See next post for NEW online letter campaign link!✍️ www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Vote for Fiscal Year 2026 got delayed--please take a few minutes to send this form letter to your House rep asking them to fund libraries (via Institute of Library & Museum Services). Rural & tribal libraries are in particular danger of closing w/o action.😬 app.oneclickpolitics.com/campaign-pag...

“when we focus on everything that can go wrong, on just the doom and gloom narrative, it seems like there’s nothing that we can do – when in fact there are lots of things that we can do, both on the large scale and on the small personal scale.” fivebooks.com/best-books/t... #solarpunk #books

I am still so tickled that THE WORKING is in this 5 best #solarpunk books. Hope you'll read it. fyi, I donate all royalties to #climate #justice organizations. Consider reading all these #books plus seeking out other #hope filled climate fiction.

👀 **IF YOU LIVE IN OHIO, look for petitions to put anti-discrimination measures on the ballot to update the Ohio constitution: one for the Right to Marry (including LGBTQ+ citizens), one for the Equal Rights Amendment. See OhioEqualRights.org for fuller explanation and/or volunteer opportunities. 😁

@parseconfluenceink.bsky.social This thanks is late, but Confluence 2025 was delightful. Great panels, readings, and turnout, wonderful volunteers and consuite, and as ever such great opportunities to chat with writers and publishers and take workshops. My library is fuller, my heart also. 😁

You can't teach U.S. history without "divisive" narratives. Slavery wasn't "unifying." The Japanese incarceration wasn't "unifying." The anti-immigrant Operation Wetback (real name) wasn't "unifying." It's history's job to tell the truth, not cover up past racism to pave the way for future racism.

Yay! 15% to enabling The Crocodile Doesn't Hunt! Heading over to the convention center now. I'll keep telling people, if you can, hope that you will too!

Keep fighting for USA libraries! Link to quick, simple petition to ask your House of Representatives member to fund public & school libraries, HERE from ALA: app.oneclickpolitics.com/campaign-pag... You may want to mention the Return on Investment for public libraries is $4.50 for every $1 spent.

‼️USE LINK to speak against cutting Institute of Museum & Library Sciences before July 21, please! Includes names of folks on "Labor, Health & Human Services, Education, & Related Agencies Subcommittee" to contact who'll vote, & links to data on why IMLS is vital. view.e.bookriot.com?qs=c64aa8ce8...

Grateful July 1st Gov. DeWine vetoed a budget bill provision to require OH public libraries to segregate books "related to gender identity or sexuality" to an "18 or older only" area. APPALLED he also had to veto withholding funds for youth homeless shelters if they used kids' preferred pronouns.😱

IF YOU VOTE IN NORTH CAROLINA & voted in November 2024, please check if your name or the names of any family are one of the 60K votes being challenged by Republicans. If so, confirm ASAP with your Board of Elections. You only have two weeks! The website to check is linked here: thegriffinlist.com

It's almost time! The Narratess Sale is an opportunity to grab a bunch of indie books for low prices (or even free!) In honor of the event, all of my books will be available for $1 on itchio here: whistberry.itch.io Also part of an itchio Narratess horror bundle here: itch.io/b/2942/narra...

There's still time to sign up, get a free ebook of thrilling tales, and receive behind the scenes news from the world of Whistberry! Next newsletter goes out tomorrow!!!

IMPORTANT THREAD FOR THOSE ATTENDING THE APRIL 5TH PROTEST IN COLUMBUS, OHIO. please share! 🚨 🧵 Statement from Columbus 50501 Organizers: "As we approach our April 5th day of action, here is some information to keep in mind for anyone attending the protest in Columbus at the Ohio Statehouse.

If you live in Ohio, PLEASE contact Speaker of House Matt Huffman & your district's House Rep BY TUESDAY APRIL 8! Ask them NOT TO CUT the PLF (Public Library Fund) via HB 96. It'd be devastating fund loss but mere 1.75% of Ohio's revenue. Has LGBTQ+ censorship & trustee term limits too! www.olc.org

The Dow dropped 1,600 points in six hours.

I have tariffed the penguins that are on Heard Island and which you were probably assuming did not export goods forgive me they were taking advantage of us so cunning and so cold

We aren't "approaching" autocracy. We're not "on the road" to dictatorship. We're not "sliding" toward a Constitutional crisis. We are here. We have been here. The moment already came and went. And the road back out narrows by the hour.

Anyone who's following me should be following this account. Don't let the name deter you - this isn't about painting on a smile, but about staying aware of the solutions and innovations worldwide that often don't make the U.S. news cycle.

Going to Capricon in Chicago? My panels: Saturday 10am - Tricksters and Morally Complicated Beings Saturday 1pm - Cities as Characters (Mod) Saturday 2:30pm - Speculative Poetry Reading Saturday 4pm - Working Class SF (Mod) Sunday 10am - Three Sentences to Unlock. Your Plot (workshop)

Register for Cleveland Concoction by Feb 8 to get the discount! https://www.clevelandconcoction.org/registration.html

Look at this gorgeousness! I feel so important! https://www.clevelandconcoction.org/guests.html Please come to Cleveland ConCoction March 7-9 so they feel they made a good choice!

Hi! I'm an aerospace engineer/scifi writer! I write about body-possessing aliens, flying saucers, and a secret, underfunded government project set in the recent (receeding) past: bookshop.org/p/books/righ...

This is the one. It’s not the only correct argument in this thread but it’s the one with mass appeal, which is to say you don’t have to know anything about trans people to go “hey yeah”

Introducing the new set up. Come see it in person this weekend at the Michigan Oddities and Horror Expo.

Also? A lot of us are, in fact, members of the communities being persecuted and oppressed in this country and deciding you won't buy from American creators will cut off one of our means of survival.

Weird how not a single one of the newspapers and magazines that have been breathlessly churning out "cancel culture" thinkpieces for the past four years have managed to use the word "censorship" at all to describe the most rapid and comprehensive campaign of mass-censorship in recent US history.

Trump has deployed active military to help round up migrants and put them into detention camps. The military forced us out of our homes at gunpoint in 1942 because we were considered possibly disloyal Americans. They sent us to internment camps for four years. History is repeating. Pay attention.

I'm sorry, but "they took over the whole federal payments system, fired the career staff, and won't let anybody see what they're doing" is not a situation in which you wait for more information. It's a situation in which you assume the worst. There's no explanation for it other than rampant crimes.

A lot of things on my mind, unsurprisingly. What I can distill from it is... Are you dividing or are you gathering? No, really. *Really.* You want to play in these times, are you whispering, shushing, dampening, averting? Or are you loving out loud with your whole heart. Time to choose.

Haven Spec Magazine's Kickstarter is now live! Our goal is to raise $4500, and we cannot do it without you, so please subscribe, pick up some swag or a critique, and spread the word! www.kickstarter.com/projects/hav...

Are you in Cleveland? Want to learn to write more beautiful prose?  Consider signing up for my prosaics workshop at Literary Cleveland! https://www.litcleveland.org/classes-workshops/prosaics-writing-more-beautifully

warm lines save lives. please share 💖 credit ig: @/inclusivetherapists

SHARE WIDELY. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one. (1/3)

@confusionmi.bsky.social Fun end to convention w/ "Cut-Throat Flash Fiction" which became Dan Stout & comic artist extraordinaire @bchcomix.bsky.social riffing stories between them, saving the day w/ dolphin 'milking' & literal cat detectives & kid alien ambassadors!😂Uh, also 'RIP' spacefaring fam.😯

@confusionmi.bsky.social "Writing is Resistance" panel so timely--thanks, @catsteinbooks.bsky.social @stephanieloree.bsky.social @stephcampbell.bsky.social (spelling?) @sarahhans.bsky.social @reasie.bsky.social & Christian Klaver.✊"Humor is the fastest way to empathy" & "Spite is a great motivator!"

@confusionmi.bsky.social Further thanks for wonderful read-alouds at 50th ConFusion go to @catsteinbooks.bsky.social @dragonsroost.bsky.social & (hoping I got handle right) @katespina2011.bsky.social ! To @antoncancre.bsky.social & I think @ecwolfe.bsky.social (?) at least I got to hear you sing! 😮🎶

@confusionmi.bsky.social Giving away secrets & hot takes & solid plotting advice on twists & foreshadowing & when spoilers are 'not a buzzkill' at the "Spoilers and...Surprise" panel were @reasie.bsky.social @1cdaigle.bsky.social & J.D. DeLuzio--thanks, everyone! 🫢

@confusionmi.bsky.social What separates short stories, microfiction, flash fiction, & novellas...& how do you know what length & detail to aim for? These questions & more fielded by experts @dragonsroost.bsky.social @antoncancre.bsky.social & @ecwolfe.bsky.social (*hope I got last handle correct).🤔

@confusionmi.bsky.social As the well read panelists noted, from rampant Tudor roses to the notorious Emu War of '32, "History is Stranger Than Fiction." Thanks for the bizarre blasts from the past, @dragonsroost.bsky.social @reasie.bsky.social Anna Carey & Lloyd Williams!

@confusionmi.bsky.social Thank you, Monumental Confusion staff who made it possible this year, & authors whose readings I got to enjoy! @reasie.bsky.social @scalzi.com @stealthygeek.bsky.social @yarntheory.bsky.social @jimchines.bsky.social @edebell.com & Dan Stout & Marsalis author of BLUE TOPAZ. 🤩

@confusionmi.bsky.social Thanks for another delightful (and indeed Monumental) ConFusion! Great staff & guest list & con suite (so much tea) & games room & panel topics & events like karaoke (with an encore session). My library thrives thanks to everyone who participated. 😁