"I can't afford to support my favorite author right now, I—" Reviews. Reviews are free AND they are a gift to authors that can keep on giving (i.e., exposure, marketing, algo boosts, etc.) Please, give the gift of reviews to your authors this holiday season. It really can make a difference!

Merry Christmas! I know this can be a difficult time for many, so I hope everyone has the best day they can. ❤️🎄🎁 Here, have a virtual cookie! (We have a marathon baking session every year, and this year we made about 875 cookies. 😁)

Which writing craft skills are most important for great storytelling? jamigold.com/2025/12/what...

Can great storytelling save a story with imperfect craft? If so, how can we improve those skills? jamigold.com/2025/12/what...

Given how hard it is to define "good storytelling," how can we improve our skills? jamigold.com/2025/12/what...

Everyone talks about improving our writing craft skills but what about our *storytelling* skills? Are we just stuck with our level of "talent", or can we improve those skills too? jamigold.com/2025/12/what...

This whole thread, and what it means for real writing vs AI. 👇❤️

100% this. If you can't find joy in the act of writing, and feel euphoria after editing several drafts into exactly what your thoughts had in mind (or close to it), then I really suggest you don't become a writer. The idea, the thoughts, are nothing without execution. The work is the thing.

Halloween weather was perfect here, and it was a Friday night, so we got... *drum roll* 1500 kids -- not a typo 😆 We ran out of candy despite spending a lot. Only neighbor I saw that *didn't* run out had bought 17 Costco bags of candy. 17!

Okay, the skeletons and I are ready for Halloween! 😁 ☠️ #Halloween #Skeletons

Just had to explain to our vet that "No, Sugar can't come in for teeth cleaning surgery next Friday because Halloween is her favorite holiday." 🤷‍♀️ Yes, our dog has a favorite holiday. This formerly abandoned dog loves all the pets and attention from the trick-or-treating kids (and their parents). 😍

Yay me! I got my Covid (and flu) shot today at Costco, and I rewarded myself with their new Chocolate Caramel Brownie sundae. 😆😋

Okay, I can agree with this.

Just noticed that one of my favorite books is on sale at Amazon! 😍 The Fifth Season by @nkjemisin.bsky.social www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

@wendysparrow.bsky.social Do you have this already? I saw it and thought of you. 😆 www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZY2N9V

Hey authors, the official list of Anthropic works is available for searching. secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

Important info on scams for authors here.

Dessert mode ACTIVATE: Best pie: pecan Best ice cream: chocolate moose tracks Best donut: chocolate creme-filled, chocolate frosted, yeast donut Best bar: 100Grand candy Best cake: Costco's old recipe for 7 pound All-American chocolate cake Best other: baklava Look, it's not *all* chocolate! 🤣

Hello I have a late Monday (standing friend time) and so I am just getting around to reading about the Anthropic settlement. There have been no orders filed and the transcript isn’t available so I have to go by what the reporters said.

Quick Tip: You can control who replies to your post on Bluesky. Just tap the 🌐 icon on your post to choose: everyone, followers, people you follow, mentioned users - or turn off replies entirely ✨

Even though I don't post much on any social media right now, I do lurk-read. And Bree is one of my favorite follows because she's never lost sight of the *social* aspect of social media. This thread summarizes what keeps me here even on my bad days. 👇😍

Friends, if anyone on here sneers at em dashes being used in professional writing as a sign of AI, I'm just going to beg you to read anything from the BEFORE days. The reason AI overuses em dashes is that the people it stole from overuse em dashes. It was trained on 15 of my solely-em-dash books.

Authors: If you found out that your publisher(s) failed to register with the U.S. Copyright Office, we can help. We provide ongoing legal assistance to our members and advocate for their work, particularly in the face of ongoing AI-related theft.

I am lightly horrified by how many people have now looked up their books and found out their publishers (who often were required contractually!!!!) just... didn't register the copyrights on books. Not all of them! Just sporadically! This is not just one publisher, I've seen all the big ones now.

Today is the day authors are learning how many of their publishers straight up blew off registering copyright and I feel like that deserves a class action suit of its own if it costs everyone their settlement money from the Anthropic suit... 😒🤬

Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!

Hey, I have had some questions about who is allowed to file. Here is the class certification:

As a pantser, this truth applies to my drafting process as well. 😆 Alt Text for RT'd image: "Very few writers really know what they're doing until they've done it." - Anne Lamott

"If your books were uploaded to LibGen/fed into the LLMs, add your name to the potential class action lawsuit by tomorrow." Details: LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a... Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au... (This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)

Wendy is one of my most favorite authors, and her newest book is currently free! 😍

This is me. I am bad, like *really* bad, about email, and I'm sorry. I try, but I also know myself well enough to know that any improvement I make is temporary. 🤷‍♀️

Wow, this was a fascinating read. How LLM chatbots and psychic cons convince people that they're the real deal.

The best dev editors are not trying to make your book into something they, personally, would have enjoyed more. The best dev editors see what you were trying to do and tell you where you messed up, so you can make the best version of YOUR book. It is a rare skill and, as Courtney says, SOLID GOLD.

This is a great thread, but I want to add that you need to understand dev editing BETTER if you’re self-publishing, for a number of reasons. First, you’re hiring your editor, and you NEED to be able to understand if your editor is doing a good job.

Check out these great dialogue tips!

Yes! The "require alt text for images" setting has helped me so many times, because otherwise I will not remember. 🤣

I've loved the humor in this series! I'm hoping to have time to start the latest book this weekend. 😍

Why are these all me? And I feel like I "masked" for so long by figuring out how to avoid issues. The same with my Psoriatic Arthritis diagnosis. My "Huh, and I don't even have psoriasis" turned into "Oh, I guess I learned how to avoid triggering my psoriasis when I was 8 years old." 😆

Ha! That *is* funny timing: Unbeknownst to me, Wendy released the next book in her series on the same day I talked about her series in my blog post. 😆 (I hadn't told Wendy about my post in advance either.)

It feels pretty wild that Jami and I didn't actually plan this, but I love that she mentioned this series on her blog today. It's a great article.

On my blog today, I'm sharing examples from the Love, Gaiian, and Monsters series by @wendysparrow.bsky.social for how we can keep our series fresh... and readers reading. 😁 jamigold.com/2025/06/keep... #WritingTips

Don't miss my latest Resident Writing Coach guest post with Becca and @angelackerman.bsky.social 😁 I'm sharing a bunch of tips for how to ensure readers don't quit our series! writershelpingwriters.net/2025/06/cont...

Okay, my surgery recovery has had so many setbacks that I signed up for the Finch self-care app to keep me going. 😬😆 I picked a micropet just for you! Tap this link or use my friend code FHKSC8X7TN7 to join and add me as a friend! app.befinch.com/invite_v7/vxmL

The reason generative AI is so popular with wannabe creatives is best illustrated by something every pro writer has encountered: getting pitched an idea by someone saying "You write it and we'll split the profits!" because they think the idea is what has value, not the writing. The opposite is true.

decades of cyberpunk fiction, and I don't believe a single writer fully predicted how embarrassingly stupid so much of AI was going to be

I finished this series in a week and a half, just inhaling all the addictive fun. As I'm currently laid up, trying (and failing) to recover from major surgery, I credit this series for what remains of my sanity. It's *that* enjoyable! 😍

I have this bad habit of abandoning my releases in favor of new, shiny books I'm working on. None of them have been abandoned so hard as much as my rerelease of The Teacher's Vet because I was running behind and had a Halloween release to do. It's free right now. #Ad www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHCCZPX5

I know a lot of people who could fall for this, and it might have been me if I hadn’t seen this thread.

This. But especially the bathing thing... 😬 youtu.be/1VtL3shHRns?...

Happy "A french bookstore fights Bree & then everyone else in publishing on the internet while Notre Dame burns" day to all who celebrate it.