I’m gonna start a newspaper and/or magazine just so I can make a “best books of 2025” list and put my own damn book on there

Need a gift for someone who's read everything? Check out LitHub's roundup of 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025! I'm glad to have contributed a handful of reviews of books I loved this year. Thanks @miriamgershow.bsky.social for putting it together. lithub.com/100-notable-...

The 100 Notable Small Press Books 2025 list is live! In 2026, I’ll be taking over the project from the amazing @miriamgershow.bsky.social Want to be a reviewer? Fill out the form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Tell me your debut novel came out this year without telling me your debut novel came out this year.

When a reader and fellow author loves your book enough to name it in their top 3 reads of 2025 😍😍😍 Thanks @dianejosefowicz.bsky.social!

I’m writing so many early-90s Easter eggs into my next novel (which is set in 1994) and damn, is it fun. Raise your hand if you remember when Dr. Carly Manning was buried alive 🙋🏼‍♀️

Remember to shop your indie bookstore and small businesses today! (And really every day that you possibly can.) I personally popped into my local indie bookstore yesterday and signed copies for a friend, plus a few extra. ☺️🎁

Lol jesus, Liselotte, chill out

I finally bought a home printer and used it for my first print job: a rough draft of my next book.

I met an author recently whose recent book was a #1 NYT and USA Today bestseller, and another author whose NYT bestseller was also a major celebrity book club pick, and BOTH still have full-time day jobs. Even for the megahits, this industry is impossible. Be real with yourself before you dive in.

Miami Book Fair was a ton fun!

Every author who published a book this year rn: 380+ great 2025 reads and they couldn’t pick mine?!?!? 😭😭😭

Exclusive: The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika, nooses and the Confederate flag as hate symbols. Instead, the military service will classify them as “potentially divisive” under its new guidelines, which take effect next month. https://wapo.st/4p2HnKY

You gotta be pretty damn evil not to get an invite to Dick Cheney's funeral

How am I supposed to focus on writing my next book when it gets dark at 4:30pm and all I want to do is sleep?

Author rite of passage: I was tagged in a review of my book that said “There are better books out there!” 🙃🙃🙃

We've just opened submissions on a brief call for short solstice writing. Let's see what happens!

Librarians really are amazing people, y’all.

You know what’s the same about a 5 year old and a 15 year old? THEY’RE BOTH CHILDREN.

Two editors, one amazing bookstore. Awesome to see my fellow @necessaryfiction.com editor and general literary man about town @shimmer.bsky.social at my @portersqbooks.bsky.social event last night! 🤩

I’m in Massachusetts for an event tonight. It’s 4:30 and the sun has already set. I know daylight saving time ended but guys this is ridiculous. My cats haven’t even eaten dinner yet.

BOSTON! CAMBRIDGE! See you tomorrow (Wed) night at @portersqbooks.bsky.social with my friend Laura Venita Green! Discussion will include genre-blending fiction and the terror of creepy dolls. Details at the link: portersquarebooks.com/event/2025-1...

DC is so cold today that I had to wear two layers of thick socks and leg warmers with my slippers and sweatpants in my writing office this morning 🥶

Really enjoyed chatting with Sean O'Connor at @macabredaily.bsky.social from a Marriott in Virginia where one of those pop-up carnivals was going full force in the parking lot outside 🎡 Come for Sean’s sweet horror art; stay for my mediocre hotel room art. Super fun one.

The @portersqbooks.bsky.social events email is always welcome in my inbox, but especially so when my pal @bookbent.bsky.social is included. Hope to see some of you on 11/12!

My therapist recently told me that sometimes you can’t see how normalized a toxic or traumatic situation was until you’ve had space from it. I immediately wanted to say, “you mean like the Yellowjackets girls?” but I didn’t want her to think I’ve been working up to admitting cannibalism.

Virginia, today’s the day to cast your vote for Abigail Spanberger for governor. Let’s do this!

These photos, these stories are beyond heartbreaking. nymag.com/intelligence...

Happy Halloween! 🎃👻🖤 Here's every spooky story @necessaryfiction.com published this month in one thread. Kicking things off was "Rainmaker" by @daisyravenel.bsky.social necessaryfiction.com/stories/rain...

Breaking news: More Americans blame President Trump and Republicans in Congress than Democrats for the nearly month-long government shutdown, according to a Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

My book nestling with Thomas Pynchon in the Kramerbooks window in DC. Signed copies are there now!

I’m nerding out tomorrow talking about writing the gothic and genre-blending, horror-adjacent fiction with my friend Laura Venita Green. Come nerd out with me! writer.org/event/dunham...

Do you ever think of just deleting all your emails and starting over?

FANTASTIC NEWS for literary arts orgs and small publishers (both of which have comprised my day job career since I left classroom teaching and bookselling 12+ years ago). Now, let’s hope for a coalition giving grants to individual authors at varying stages of their careers. 🤞 literaryartsfund.org

Join me next week for a craft chat on writing genre-blending, horror-adjacent fiction. Virtual and FREE writer.org/event/dunham...

There’s the post office employee I like. And there’s the post office employee who acts like I’m secretly trying to send a freshly harvested kidney via media mail.

Not possible rain for the High Heel Drag Race 😭😭😭

Join me next week for a craft chat on writing genre-blending, horror-adjacent fiction. Virtual and FREE writer.org/event/dunham...

Spending $120 per year on a Canva subscription might be the best business choice I've made as an author because if nothing else, I can procrastinate by making memes

A haunted house, but it’s just “best of 2025” lists popping up in mid-October and your book isn’t on any of them.

Stopped by the library to pick up a rec from @bookbent.bsky.social and spotted her gorgeous debut there, too!

Get my hot tips on agent querying (which I am very sorry to tell you involves a massive spreadsheet and lots of research) at the link. 😀

Trying to write this morning and instead I’m mourning the loss of a nine-story tall pine tree in my neighborhood that’s coming down. A beautiful tree with decades of history, gone in 90 minutes.

Excited that @brownbaglit.bsky.social will be hosting @bookbent.bsky.social tomorrow at noon EST to discuss her debut novel, The Belles (Simon & Schuster). The novel - dark academia - is hauntingly creepy. Don't take it on your walk in the woods. Better yet, don't go into the woods.

Unreal DC book haul ft. @timstafford78.bsky.social, @bookbent.bsky.social, @writesloud.bsky.social, @darbyprice.bsky.social, and Kristen Zory King!

"After the warning, neighbors showed up and formed a human chain outside the church to guide parishioners home. NBC Chicago found more organizers doing the same for the beginning of the 6 p.m. mass..." www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/c...

*Tomorrow* at Brown Bag Lit: @bookbent.bsky.social will read from The Belles and answer your ?s about writing dark academia, finding the right agent, and surviving the emotional ups and downs of being a first-time author. Get in the mood with this playlist: blog.freshfiction.com/playlist-the...

A 13-year old child stolen from his parents by the police without a word. A mother finds out her son is gone, handed over to ICE, taken to a facility 500 miles away. So many people on the wrong side of history.

We're pleased to accounce that submissions are now open to be read by guest editor @demisty.bsky.social until November 3.