Ow, this thread. Right in the heart. It drives me crazy, because I am presently - after writing professionally for 25 years - *better than I’ve ever been* and I’m still out here producing/releasing new projects by the skin of my teeth. But I’ve had a long career with many ups and downs, and (1)

I have just DNFd yet another debut novel that read like a first draft--often incoherently overwritten, inconsistent characters, agonising pacing. Great idea and obvious talent but in need of a brutal three-page dev letter they didn't get, so now the book will tank & the author will probably give up.

Authors are ALSO being pushed to write faster and faster because they need to eat. You can't survive on even a book a year anymore, let alone one every FIVE. As an author, the financial pressure of the sausage grinder is real.

A DETAILED DISCUSSION (sans forbidden photos alas) OF THE SOCKS bsky.app/profile/hari...

Okay look, I like a cerulean sweater as much as the next girl who picks her lumpy sweaters off the discount rack, but the reason I started rolling my eyes at the whole concept of FASHION is because of shit like THIS. (Which popped up in an ad for me.)

Every so often bluesky makes me smile.

AHA! OR BLACK! This picture shows how they work better than the other. They're thigh highs with fringe!

Brilliant

I almost applied to an anthology until I read the submission page more closely and noticed wording that implied they plan to claim perpetual exclusive ownership of the work, including reuse of the comic, film and television. DO NOT sign away your rights for a few hundred bucks.

This side hustle does actually PAY THE MORTGAGE 😆 Check out why I've had subscribers here for 10+ years.

Since they tried to bury it, you know what to do. Video: xcancel.com/patriottakes...

Thread. 🧵 (1/x) On the superiority of water as the primary decontaminant for tear gas and peppery spray on skin and eyes. To make it clear to people, this is a thread. Some of you are not clear on the concept. I will reply this with another post and mark it with a number in (x). And so forth. (1)

Congrats to all the winners!

The thing that depresses me about AI is that it poisons everything you read with doubt. I read a certain amount of pretty trashy self-pub ebooks. I like them. Even when they're not very well written. The author has released their dogs of freak and fascination, and whatever the book is, it's honest.

Since Google revealed its plans for an AI search overhaul, visits to our "No AI" search page have tripled…and they’re still rising! Want to make it your default on Chrome or Firefox? Grab our No-AI extensions and banish AI-assisted answers, chat, and AI images. (1/3)

Yeah. This guy is a liar, seeking to justify his lazy incompetence. I have never used AI. It is neither seductive, nor valuable.

Just blocked an account for demanding a storied author write on Bluesky differently than they do. One, everyone gets to post on Bluesky the way they want to, including in all emjois if that's their thing. Two, THE ACTUAL FUCKIN' HUBRIS of telling a writer with decades of experience how to write.

My only contribution to today's discourse... When I was a kid, I just wanted to read good stories. Didn't care my Hardy Boys or Three Investigators books were all older than me. Wasn't confused when Spidey or Doctor Who referenced something historical I'd never heard of. I just wanted good stories.

The cool thing about bread and circuses this go round is that it isn't for the people, it's for the president.

I got sprayed by a skunk once when I was a kid. Sometimes I swear I still smell it on me.

TOMORROW — Saturday, May 23, at 2:00 pm — is the launch party for THE DOWNLOADED 2: GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE in TORONTO at the Prehistoria Museum, 333 Yonge St. #2 (one-half block north of Dundas on the west side of Yonge on the second floor). Join me and the T. rex for a fun event!

San Diego, I’ll be at @mystgalaxybooks.bsky.social tonight at 7pm with Moses Ose Utomi— come and hang out with us and get a book signed. 💙📚 mystgalaxy.com/51926Roth

I honestly haven't enjoyed books in a long time. I can't remember the last time I was up until like 4 in the morning reading. Turns out, I'm a big ol' slut for supernatural/sci-fi romance. One has to be non-human. This is the rule.

SEATTLE PEOPLE! Come out Wednesday night to Third Place Books Ravenna, 7pm. I'll be in conversation with Laura Cranehill about her debut novel, WIFE SHAPED BODIES. Folks, this book is so, so good. www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/laura-...

Mantra when submitting manuscripts: The worst thing you finish will always be better than the best thing you didn't.

Trademark extortion scheme alert! 2nd example I've seen of identical email, tho sent out w/ different names/addresses/company names. Goal is to scare writers into responding so they can be pressed to pay big $$$ to "preserve their rights". Needless to say, this is not how trademark or copyright work

Just delivered the next revision on REGULAI, the sequel to NAVOLA.

This editor impersonation scam is extremely widespread at the moment writerbeware.blog/2026/03/27/w...

I got one of these, allegedly from Dina Davis at Hanover Square, but with an AOL address. One up from the one a few months back from a guy claiming affiliation with a real publisher but with a name not found on their staff list. Hilariously the text of the email was almost word for word the same.

I got one from Simon & Schuster chief editor. The reply address was gmail.com domain, but to an untrained eye it looked almost reasonable. These are everywhere now.

Revising. Revising. Revising. Revising. Revising. Revising. Revising. Revising. Revis...

Since it's come up, I really do think people have forgotten just how monumentally shitty it was when every square inch of public space smelled like a fucking ashtray

People often frame this as "cigarettes will kill you" which yeah. True. But first they'll attach you to an oxygen tank and leave you gasping and barely able to walk, a pale half-alive zombie for your last decade while all your friends who didn't smoke live and laugh and sing and climb mountains.

I spent fifteen years as a community organizer. I know how movements die: not from external threats (though those are real), but from exhaustion. From the grant that doesn’t get renewed; from the grandma carrying way more than her share of the work who has to take a step back because of her health.

If you want the spicy stuff, the deleted scenes, the worldbuilding deep dives (and the power to vote on what happens next)… that's what paid subscriptions are for. Come ruin things with me? sentencebender.substack.com/embed

I have a #Colorado favor to ask. Is anyone going between Trinidad and Metro Denver soon? If you pick up a bottle of the world’s best salad dressing — Nana & Nano’s — from the Italian market/restaurant in Trinidad, I’ll treat you to a bottle! (I have the major payment platforms.)

I propose Colorado’s 2nd state motto (after “Nil sine numine”) be: “Our arrival into Denver will be bumpy, folks, so we’re suspending cabin service early.” In Latin (Google Translate) “Adventus noster Denverium inaequalis erit, amici, itaque officium vecturae in conclavi ante tempus suspendemus.”

Many years ago, when I had far fewer followers, I asked the universe for help identifying a panel I clipped from a comic during our first trip to the UK in 1977, but had no luck. Being a romantic, I carried it in my wallet until it was in tatters, and would love to replace it. Can you ID the comic?

The Merry Perrys were driven from Texas by a combo of hurricanes, sea level rise, and drought. But their true origin was always denial and simple refusal to plan. Solutions exist everywhere. We're just too stuck and dumb to invest in them.

Didn't realize it was 420. Trying to decide if that's all the excuse I need today.

This Is Just To Say I have turned off the AI features that were in the update and which you were probably hoping to monetize Fuck you they were stupid so unnecessary and so annoying

Wild

Weeeeeeee

Oh wow. I feel this one in my BONES www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Great news from the wonderful Pat Cadigan: “In case you couldn’t hear me partying here in London, I beat terminal cancer. I kicked its ass down the stairs, took its lunch money, and threw rocks at it as it ran away crying. I don’t have cancer any more.”

I have 92 works stolen from me listed in the Anthropic settlement database. Why would I steal from something that's stolen several million words of mine?

May be just me, but beyond all else there is something life-denying about the AI/techbro fetishizing of ‘making art should be EASY!’ We want to cherish our creators, value their work. What they bring us, how they enhance our lives, what they mean for human capacity, not ask which AI they deployed.

Using AI would defeat the entire purpose and pleasure of writing. I have no more interest in using AI to write than I have interest in letting another person run a marathon for me. The arrival isn't the point, nor the beauty of it.