Dear Brain Trust: Please help me to choose the cover for my new novel SECOND FOR THE DEAD. #author #novel #design #writing

The rental guy handed me the keys and said, "Just go outside and start pushing buttons. You'll find it." No car description. No color. No lot number. It got worse from there. Then it got better. jimkeplinger.substack.com/p/i-thought-...

I've added a bit of #FlashFiction to my Substack today. I'd be mighty honored if you gave it a read.

I thought I was done with Utah. Again. Notes on customer service and being seen. open.substack.com/pub/jimkepli...

A man who’s bad with names receives a key from a stranger. He uses it once. open.substack.com/pub/jimkepli...

I launched a Substack called Unfinished Man. Fiction and essays from a writer living a non-linear life, written without pretending anything’s finished yet. It’s live if you want to read along.

"So, what genre is your book?" "Thriller....er...mystery...er, um...upmarket conspiracy thriller?" I'm learning there are questions I dread. I have also learned "just read the damn thing" is apparently the wrong answer. #writing #BookSky

Groovy news: my #FlashFiction “Doors Don’t Whisper” took 1st (Short, Short Story—Military Experience) in the local (Indiana) VA Creative Arts Festival and advances to national judging. Results Jan 2026. A small story about fear, change, and choosing the next door. #VeteransCreativeArts

If you think this new executive order is about making you safer, I’ve got bad news. [thread follows]

This letter appeared in the Bloomsburg PA Press Enterprise this morning. I am assured the writer is who he purports to be, an Air Force veteran.

Dear Dems. This is a reminder that Donald Trump rescinded the ethics rules preventing gifts to executive branch employees. Now would be a good time to propose legislation formalizing the prevention into a law Time to do things that make him react to you. apnews.com/article/trum...

Have you seen this? I'm so proud of our Park Rangers. This was no easy feet.

I just read an article about a record setting cricket match. I'm not sure if I've ever read so many words I knew used in sentences I couldn't make any sense of. I clearly have no clue how this game plays.

I feel like I'm deboning a chicken evertime I rip a chapter out of this novel. It's for the best, I don't want the reader to choke on them, but I hate the blood and guts all over the floor. #WritingCommunity #AmEditing

"Then I watched him dig up a crumpled pack of cigarettes, spear his mouth with one, strike a match on the counter, after missing twice on his thumb nail, and inhale with a lot of very poor nonchalance that he knew wasn't going over." - Raymond Chandler, "Finger Man." Mercy, that's masterful. #write

Love this one!

I thought in November I was ready to #query my new manuscript, I was wrong. I clawed it back, took another pass, and now I'm feeling far better about it. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more! Anyone feeling frisky and wants to make agent introductions, drop a DM, I'd love to chat!

The Weather Channel has named this winter storm "Blair." If the season ends without a "Natalie," "Jo," and "Tootie," I'm going to be very disappointed.

Today is apparently about digging out weak words in this #manuscript. No matter how many I'm certain I didn't write, they seem to gather like Cubs fans in dive bars. #AmEditing

Happy #amediting accident of the week: I realized that a minor character really has legs and needs her own novel and the bones of the outline virtually wrote itself this morning. Once I get the current one to bed, I know where to go next. Hooray!

Creature Commandoes is brilliant. The soundtrack is even better. Gogol Bordello is heavily featured. Finally, "Start Wearing Purple" gets the fight scene it deserves.

Happy Thanksgiving from Big Bang Comics.

Today's editing amusement, I spent about an hour and a half rewriting one paragraph. Obviously, a very important paragraph. This is what I get for reading Raymond Chandler late at night. #WitingCommunity #amediting

Several days into the querying quagmire, I have discovered a far better way to handle chapter one...you know, the most important chapter in the novel. Normally I'm not one to second-guess myself or redo work, but here I am, positive it's the right move. #amquerying #amediting #writingcommunity

This is not surprising me at all. This place has better carpets.

After spending the afternoon banging my head against the manuscript considering whether I should rewrite the first chapter or not, I finally remembered I own a sauna. Yes, that was the right decision. Some days ya just need to sit in a hot box and sweat the story out. #WritingCommunity #Writing

Well, that's genius.

It has begun: The first query rejection of the new manuscript. Fortunately, I developed a very tough skin for these things years ago and consider the first rejection proof that I am now moving forward. So...um...hooray? #amquerying

A frustrating thing for me right now is the media narrative that RFK Jr is just an “anti-vaxxer” when he has said so many crazy things about other stuff over the years. We compiled 10 nutty clips on various topics, which still barely scratches the surface. open.substack.com/pub/meidasto...

Today I have shut down the sun putting together targeted query letters to only the most compatible agents IMHO. Now to wait and see if they agree with my assessment. #amquerying

Ok, I'll say it: Bluesky 2024 feels like Twitter 2012 and I LIKE it. I can breathe. I can find what I want to find. No musky smell. I'm here for it.

Hey #amquerying BrainTrust: The last time I was querying agents we were still sending manuscripts in boxes (we'd invented the wheel, but not discovered electricity yet). What's the best practice for how many lit agents one should solicit simultaneously in the world of email and websites?

Reading about the latest Booker Prize winner and of course the announcement refuses to call this book what it is, instead labeling it a "slim-line novel" and a "space-set story." Anyway, science fiction novellas can be serious literature! No need to be afraid, fancy literary folks.

Join the many, the proud, the hungry masses yearning to be free.

Somedays the mustache gets excited.

Well, I've looked around @bsky.app Nice floorplan, I'll move in for awhile... But I'm changing the drapes. I mean, damn.

Oh look, a blank page. So blue. Abadiabida.