SIGH.

But I do have hope for humanity. (Cheers to another semester coaching amazing young humans in a course on Interpersonal Dynamics.)

This is a truth I am willing to work with. If I start now, I think I can have something coming out of the oven when the kid gets home from school.

The best part of coaching is when you tell someone what you, yourself, need to hear. (In this case, that stability and resilience are absolutely not the same thing.)

And what am I doing? I'm reading poems with an open heart, I'm trying to find the clarity to write, I'm sending stupid little gifs to my friends so they know I love them.

oooooh....this one's gonna be good....

In this quiet little moment, as I am drinking a second cup of coffee and trying to muster willpower to do my job and mundane things today, I am suddenly fixated on how often my kid has seen me cry in the past year, the last two days especially.

It took an extra coffee and a mid-afternoon ice cream sandwich, but I think I'm going to make it through today.

"In my village, they bathe a blue, / red-crested rooster with a garden hose. / He struts and spreads his wings / and has no patience for little things like me." From "The Vegetarian," a new poem by @shettyvu.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/56WEUXx

OK. This is cool. I'm so excited for a chance to celebrate some of the poems I read and loved this past year.

I have just set the alarm for the first time in weeks and I think it would be a) unseemly and b) freak out the cats if I threw an temper tantrum with actual kicking and wailing on the floor...but it might still happen.

I'm both happy to see a new year and wildly unready to come out of my cocoon of liminal time.

Starting the year with a complicated one - featured today on Poetry Pause @canadianpoets.bsky.social : poets.ca/a-bell-is-a-...

For romance and sci-fi fans, you can now request SHOESHINE BOY & CIGARETTE GIRL by @cornellwriter.bsky.social on @netgalley.bsky.social. Details here: www.netgalley.com/catalog/book... #books #scifi #sff #romance #scifiromance

Taking a moment to treasure our Best Microfiction nominees! Congratulations to: Devan Murphy @shanaross.bsky.social Carter Lappin Veronica Tucker @susanllin.bsky.social

I would deeply love to need less time staring into space. I carve out time to write, but the time it takes to re-establish connection with my heart and all the words in my brain...it's increasing. I can hear the digital handshake screaming and failing like it's 1990 and I'm trying to get online.

So close to entering the liminal time between years...

ooooh...👀

Rob Reiner: “Silence in the face of authoritarianism is complicity. Speaking out is a patriotic act. Democracy doesn’t defend itself. It requires participation, vigilance, and courage from ordinary people."

Happy Hannukkah. (Oh, how very much is packed into that small statement, how uneasily the layers mingle. Let's stop killing each other and make more light in the darkness.)

So cool.

Say what you will about the complicated social dynamics that produced Cole Porter...but close to 100 years later, damned if those tunes are not still catchy and infectious.

My poor kid is in the middle of his high school production...and losing his voice after a week with the flu. On the one hand, there's only one way to really learn resilience. At the same time UGH, my poor baby.

Not to toot my own horn, but...also, why not? I have finished my prep (after six weeks of planning) for a retreat I'm running tomorrow, and it's gonna be GREAT.

Ooooh, I love a good insight survey...

It's Used Book Sale Day at my library, and I do not care if I have not finished my pile from last quarter, the only restrictions I will place on myself are that I must be able to carry my own purchases back to the car unassisted.

I spent three days last week putting together an eligibility MEGA POST for @strangehorizons.bsky.social, with all the people and work within it that's eligible for awards in 2026. I hope you'll check it out, click on some things, and consider putting your faves forward 🥹 Thank you, and here's to 26!

I'm so giddy - still - to be in this kind of company. The whole issue is lush and complicated. Find some time to sit with all these works, as a curated experience. You'll be glad you opened yourself that way.

Today is a split pea soup kind of day. (I cook peasant comforts with roots in all sorts of geographies and cultures...but this one is mine.)

Here goes...

Get in, reader, we’re going shopping. Browse the shelves but buyer beware in @shanaross.bsky.social’s new poem “I have been to the market.” kaleidotrope.net/autumn-2025/...

"...we understood the gifts of our animal to be limited, short-term wonders." Underneath the gorgeous fabulist verse, memento mori - this piece is just layered down to the nerve tissues.

THIS.

December 1, and I feel like a movie robot whose battery has run out. (WALL-E, Baymax, take your pic...but the indicator is flashing red, I've got to sit down, and...every task on my list seems insurmountable. Please send mojo and kind encouragement?)

The new issue is out! Need a break from the holidays? We've got aging druids, adorable bee-cats, vengeful weather witches & more. www.lunastationquart... #ShortStories #WomenWriters #SpeculativeFiction #Fantasy #SciFi #Books #Reading #Writing #Magazines

Super exciting to have a poem sneak into a flash roundup as a "bonus" recommendation - I'm blushing! And wow, such good company - what great stories.

<groans appreciatively> This story is SO GOOD. What a love story to home(s)...

This one made me feel all the things...

@jaclynf.bsky.social - you must see this! (I suspect it's gonna be exciting to other people too. Who doesn't love a little unexpected Austen?)

love what he said in French.

This is a great list - my library holds are now sagging with new weight...

For your consideration:

In case you missed my middle of the night posting a couple of days ago...I'm so grateful to have these pieces out in LIT: www.litmagazine.org/love-in-the-...

writers take note - new outlet sprouting/unfurling...

*stares pointedly* This is a political poem. (I'm so grateful to @thedeadlands.com for the platform)

Three hybrid pieces - an urgency of love and connection: www.litmagazine.org/love-in-the-...

Game 3 of the World Series will continue until morale improves.

Am facilitating a full day retreat for 50 people tomorrow - have done all the prep, am now just in that zone of nerves-but-somehow-need-to-sleep...and whether I'm celebrating or have flopped spectacularly, it'll be behind me by dinnertime tomorrow.

art speaking to art is one of my favorite modes of conversation...

My story "The Mountain" now lives again on the Bulb Culture Collective. Read about the end of the world! Climb a mountain! Say goodbye to time!