DA BEARS!!!!!!!!!

The results of the WSJ newsroom's experiment letting AI run a vending machine 😂 "It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear. Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared." www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

A fine choice, Webster's! www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/wor...

How to turn off Gmail's ability to read your emails to train its bots: www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

This company wants to pay people minimum wage to train their AI. 👎

Couldn't agree more... thehill.com/opinion/tech...

Hit 50K words on my WIP today!

This weekend! For Chicago-area horror fans 👀 slaythelake.com

Nothing brightens my day like a new Randy Rainbow video 🥰🤩

Up for a tiny writing challenge? The 7th annual 100-word Microfiction Challenge by @nycmidnight.bsky.social kicks off on March 20th! Learn more at nycmidnight.com/100

I've never "won" Pac-Man until today. Thanks, Google. Happy Halloween! 🎃

👀 apnews.com/article/lite...

I hit 40,000 words on my gothic horror WIP last night! Slow and steady. I'm gonna finish this first draft this fall or die trying.

Radio listeners and horror fans! This morning I'm being interviewed on WMFO's Something About the Women. I'll talk about my recently published story "The River's Revenge" and I've selected a spooky set of songs. Stream at WMFO.org or listen live at 91.5 FM in the Boston area @ 11 AM ET. www.wmfo.org

Huge kudos to whoever designed this logo 😍

Check out this cover 😍 The anthology will feature my story "Food Baby," which started life as a horror comedy and morphed into something much darker.

It's time to hit the streets and reject would-be tyrants. See you out there, friends 🇺🇸 abc7chicago.com/post/no-king...

Good www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

When your kid sketches out a few things for horror comedy inspiration 🥰 Love her

Drug names that should have been used for metal bands Panzyga Skelaxin Rezurock Sanctura

Just finished rereading this classic because every now and then you need a book to break your heart.

💯

Up for a short writing challenge? Join me in the @nycmidnight.bsky.social 250-word Microfiction Challenge on December 5th! Learn more at nycmidnight.com/250

Spooky Seasons Greetings

New anthology out now 👀

This is a heartbreaking read. Please, y'all, don't do this. ChatGPT is not a therapist. futurism.com/chatgpt-marr...

RIP Jane

New anthology out now, just in time for spooky season! PRETEND YOU DON'T SEE HER from Kandisha Press features my story "The Painted Man." A painting-in-progress changes when the artist isn't looking... and it seems to be trying to tell a secret 👀 www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRGH4FF3/

This is the home page of HUD.gov right now. Used it as a teachable moment for my kids about government propaganda. I remember when .gov sites were considered reliable sources. Yet another thing this administration has taken from us.

Adriano Kalin is doing incredible work documenting what's been going on here in Chicago.

Happy 50th Anniversary to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the movie that helped make me a creature of the night. "Strange Journey," a documentary about this cult film legend, is in theaters now. If you're in the Chicago area, you can see it at the Music Box Theatre: rockyhorrordoc.com/buy-tickets

Writers: If anyone is looking for a word count tracker for your WIPs now that NaNoWriMo is gone. I have been using TrackBear for a week and I love it. Its interface is intuitive, you can save multiple projects, and it provides the pretty graph that was so motivating to me during NaNo challenges.

Yep

😂😭

Pitfalls of being a writer with a day job working for a PBM: the frequency with which I want to steal drug names for character names. Like "Ocrevus" should be an old Southern man with three teeth, not a multiple sclerosis medication 🤷

You tell em, Burlington Wesleyan! Silk and cotton only!!

👀 Old-school letters FTW... Now I need to look up how to format one because I forgot in the 90s 😂 Seriously though, I'm going to do this. You should too.

"The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other – to disturb, even – is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice." www.wga.org/news-events/...

RIP

Book research question for both parents and non parents. When you (or your partner) got pregnant, did people caution you to wait until you were X months along (2 mo., 3 mo., past the 1st trimester, whatever) to share the news? Non parents, is this something you're familiar with, or no?

Writers be aware of these scams 👀 annerallen.com/2025/09/thos...

9/11 was half my life ago. It was like an earthquake with how many things (physical, social, emotional) it shook and destroyed. Every year I reread the stories to honor those who died, including the first responders who went bravely into hell. www.esquire.com/news-politic...

Last night in my basement I trapped a spider so large that I walked that cup a block away to release the monster so it wouldn't come right back. The kids and I talked about what to name it. The winner: Charlotte Overkill 🕷️

Would you pay to see an AI-generated animated feature film? www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...

Finally seeing Weapons this afternoon. I've miraculously managed to avoid spoilers! Can't wait!

If you ever get the chance to see Jenny Tian perform, DO IT. One of the funniest comedians I've ever seen live. She's even better in person than on YouTube (where I first saw her). A fabulous night at Chicago's Den Theatre and I feel honored to have seen Jenny's first-ever U.S. show!

Going into Chicago tonight (I live one town away) to a comedy club in Wicker Park. My biggest worry? Parking. My smallest worry, so small it's practically nonexistent? Being murdered. Because I live here and I know Agent Orange's tweets are B.S. 🤷

From the GenAI Making Shit Up department. Apparently I have a child named Jordyn that I didn't know about...

😂