Forgot to post writing updates the past couple of days but THE WORDS CONTINUE TO WORD!

HAPPY 1ST ANNIVERSARY!!! To celebrate the occasion, the team put together this piece of artwork that we hope you'll enjoy! ❤️🌹

I'm Mike Chen and this is my favorite post on the Citadel

HEY FELLOW MASS EFFECT NERDS if you want to read a space opera book like Mass Effect that will make you sob ugly tears at the end THIS IS IT. THIS IS THE BOOK TO GIVE YOU THAT FEELING I’M NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY JOKING READ IT NOW

2K WRITING DAY HEYYOOOOOOOOOOOO

THE PHOTONIC EFFECT releases tomorrow! To tempt you into preordering, let's deep dive into the initial pitch of "Voyager x DS9 x Mass Effect" and how its influences all shake out on the characters and world. THREAD (And the all-important preorder links!) www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ph...

Me: *playing Starfield, mining resources in a cave, chilling* No one: No one: Sam Coe: “Do you like caves? I like caves. Honestly, I might love caves. Is that weird?” THE WAY I JUST SPIT A GRAPE I WAS JUST SNACKING ON 🤣🤣🤣

Almost forgot to post my accountability screenshot today BUT THESE 1,373 NEW WORDS EXIST

THE FIRST 10,000 WORDS OF THIS NEW BOOK I'M WRITING NOW EXIST 🎉

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER THOUSAND WORDS

Now that I've finished the outline for my next book (9k words of an outline!) it's time to draft, full steam ahead. HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Nothing makes me feel more like an imposter as when I send one book off to copy edits and start drafting a new one. Suddenly I have NO IDEA how to write a book. What are words? How do stories work? Characters huh? Brain broken? SEND HELP

LOOK HOW PRETTY WE ARE!!! CAN WE PLEASE TAKE BETTER CARE OF US? PLEASE?????

I got THIRTY BETA READERS for my debut self-published novel, and today I'm sharing a deep dive on how I recruited and ran this team with a 70% manuscript completion rate for my steamy psychological thriller 👇 substack.dianaurban.com/p/30-beta-re...

BUT WHAT IF THE ARTEMIS II CREW FINDS A MASS RELAY BEHIND THE MOON? WHAT THEN?

Just spreading the word because I just got this email. This is a very convincing scam/phishing attempt that will come directly from friends who already fell for it, and will try to get you to "sign in" to Gmail to accept the invitation. PLEASE BE CAREFUL.

Okay so I adored Project Hail Mary but PLEASE TELL ME THEY PLAN ON RELEASING THE 3 HOUR 45 MINUTE CUT. I NEED MORE ROCKY. MORE MORE MORE.

To the scammers targeting audiobook narrators by pretending to be ME w/ a fake email: I hope your pillow is lava each night. I hope that chocolate starts to taste like metal, that the pipes in your walls make noises you can't locate, and that the sun's glare is always inconveniently in your vision.

Stephen Colbert retiring from being a talkshow host in this fascist hellscape, which he's done so much to resist, and writing the script for a Lord of the Rings movie, HIS ALL-TIME FAVORITE SERIES, is peak goals and so extra and I love this for him 😭

Me: *publishes four books with Big 5 publishers* Also me:

Long shot but what the heck: Are there any experienced copyeditors out there with availability mid-April, early May who are ALSO authors and would like to barter? I offer book marketing coaching services on Reedsy and could send you my listing for deets if you're interested!

No matter how many times people try to explain it to me, I don't understand how screenwriters can have a union and authors can't.

Today in the NASA gift shop at the Kennedy Space Center they were playing music from Mass Effect and I nerded out SO HARD. Only a niche segment of Bluesky will appreciate this but that’s okay!!!

If Hillary Clinton is the one who takes down Trump over EMAILS it not only confirms to me that we're living in a simulation but also that the programmers have mapped out AN ENTIRE NARRATIVE ARC for us complete with foreshadowing and irony!!!

Art is the heart of humanity Art is inspiration Art is joy Art is rejuvenation Art is hope Art is resistance Stop telling artists and authors to stop doing our jobs. We are essential.

THE FIRST 3,600 WORDS OF THIS NEW BOOK I'M WRITING NOW EXIST

THE FIRST 1,300 WORDS OF THIS NEXT BOOK I'M WRITING NOW EXIST

Playing Animal Crossing again after five years is weirdly unsettling. Like oh RIGHT I found that fossil on March 25, 2020, when I was terrified I might drown in my own lungs, was horrifically low on toilet paper, and was disinfecting bags of Doritos from the grocery store lmao ✨memories✨

I always think my level of burnout and overwhelm will get better once I complete XYZ task or hit ABC milestone, but it NEVER FREAKING DOES. Why don't I learn? It's not about what's on my plate at any moment. It's my inability to say "no." It's social media. It's society's hustle culture. It's ACK.

Trying to get anything normal done right now

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

PSA: If you try to spam me with your author service on WhatsApp I will block you so fast you won't even remember I exist.

Publishing: "it's December nothing's happening we're basically closed weeeeeee" Me: "IT'S SLOW IN DECEMBER SO IT'S THE PERFECT TIME TO REBRAND ALL OF MY MARKETING AND BUILD AN INFRASTRUCTURE TO LET ME SCALE BOTH MY AUTHOR AND FREELANCE BUSINESSES WOOOOOOOOO"

My ENTIRE Spotify Wrapped is Taylor Swift and the score to the video game Expedition 33 and I apologize to no one

FINALLY was able to log into The Game Awards site to vote for Expedition 33. I was about to RIOT if I couldn't. If it doesn't win both Game of the Year and Best Score & Music I WILL STILL RIOT. This game should freaking SWEEP. @expedition33.bsky.social GOOD LUCK!

Just found out the Polish publisher of my book Under the Surface is sending influencers early copies IN BOXES OF ACTUAL DIRT TO REPRESENT HOW THE CHARACTERS ARE MISSING UNDERGROUND IN THE PARIS CATACOMBS

Iiiiiiit’s my birthday! In some ways this year was rough, BUT I wrote a new novel, got to see JAPAN, and started a business that’s already generating steady income. So hey, not too shabby! And next year should be interesting… 🤐😜

This Polish bookstagrammer took the book I wrote (translated!) about four teens who go missing in the Paris Catacombs and COSPLAYED AS THE CHARACTERS IN THE CATACOMBS!!! PEAK AUTHOR MOMENT, I AM DECEASED THIS IS MY GHOST 👻

HAPPY N7 DAY TO EVERYONE WHO KNOWS WHAT THAT IS!!! ... I should go

I HAVE PASSED AWAY, THIS IS MY GHOST 👻 🥹🥹🥹

Girls be like “I needed this” and it's just gerrymandering revenge

WE NEED TO MAINTAIN THIS MOMENTUM FOR ANOTHER YEAR AND THEN ANOTHER TWO YEARS AND THEN FOREVER 🌊🌊🌊

Why do I ALWAYS have to spot the typo THE INSTANT I hit "enter" or "send" or THE INSTANT the "undo" button disappears and not TWO SECONDS beforehand? WHY MUST THIS BE????

🚨Book news! 🚨 My original space opera THE PHOTONIC EFFECT is up on NetGalley! 🚀Voyager x DS9 x Mass Effect 💗A romance with a non-corporeal being ⚛️Lots of fake science 🕵️Multiple conspiracies colliding for chaos 🎸Rilo Kiley saves the galaxy Request now! www.netgalley.com/catalog/book...

I may be a published author of four books but I’ll still use the word “impact” so I don’t have to pick between effect and affect

The No Kings protests are always so comforting because it proves that millions of us still haven’t lost our entire goddamn minds

Just finished Under the Surface by @dianaurban.bsky.social Highly HIGHLY recommend! It was so good, and had a lot of genuine surprises. I loved it and now I have to watch every documentary about the catacombs I can find!

“I think publishers keep setting near-impossible deadlines because so many of us keep accepting them, and we’ve set a precedent that we’ll acquiesce to unreasonable demands. Without a union, we must collectively set new precedents to protect ourselves and each other.”