I have a fun micro Halloween story up over on IG today at @mugshot_writers2, curated by @stephanieaustin.bsky.social. Give it a quick read.

Yay @ladiwoods.bsky.social !!

Washington, D.C.'s vending machine LitBox distributes books, with a serving of hope as local writers struggle with arts funding cuts. n.pr/4nYSLHq

I gave a barista, a young woman, my name for my order, and she said, "My mom's name is Stephanie." And I said, "That means she was born in the 70s/80s. Stephanie is a dying name. You don't know any baby Stephanies, do you? DO YOU?" And the barista said, "I need to help the next customer, so...."

Had the incredible opportunity to lead yesterday’s DNRS panel, “What We Write About When We Write About Arizona,” with Arizona authors Oscar Mancinas, @stephanieaustin.bsky.social, @sabrinahicks.bsky.social, and of course, Arizona Poet Laureate, Alberto Rios!

Thank you everyone who came out to Rift Wine Bar & Taphouse last night! And thank you to all the other readers for making it such an awesome experience! @stephanieaustin.bsky.social @mdbell79.bsky.social @shipraagarwal.bsky.social @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social @sabrinahicks.bsky.social

What a joy to hear Phoenix writers read this afternoon : @mdbell79.bsky.social @stephanieaustin.bsky.social @shipraagarwal.bsky.social @sabrinahicks.bsky.social @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social @jonathanin2k.bsky.social !!! 👏👏👏👏

Tomorrow!

Next up in my all of 2025 interview series is with the fantastic Jonathan Ames. Author of books such as YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (made into a film by Lynne Ramsay.) He also wrote the fantastic HAPPY DOLL series @jonathanames.bsky.social Click on the link to read mrbullbull.com/newbull/the-...

Been bopping around online looking for second-person essays and found "Second Person" by Christine Boyer from a few years ago. I guess lately I'm just really into meta stuff? Anyway, second-person in essays > second-person in fiction? tahomaliteraryreview.com/selections/f...

Save the date! Next Saturday will be the 1st Desert Grit Reading Series at Rift Wine Bar & Taphouse in Scottsdale! Oct 4th at 3 PM! Readings from @mdbell79.bsky.social @shipraagarwal.bsky.social @sabrinahicks.bsky.social @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social @stephanieaustin.bsky.social And me!

Wonderful to attend a reading by @andrewporter01.bsky.social and @sallywenmao.bsky.social moderated by @mdbell79.bsky.social at Changing Hands in Tempe yesterday. And it was great to see you @stephanieaustin.bsky.social @sabrinahicks.bsky.social @rudribhattpatel.bsky.social @karakahnke.bsky.social 💜

I learned SAD GROWNUPS was removed from consideration for Kansas Notable Books (along w other books the deciders worried might endanger future federal funding). This isn't a bitter post. More sad that libraries feel compelled to make choices like these in these censor-y times.

Thank you again Melissa!

Please join us in congratulating our Best of the Net 2026 Nominees! Good luck everyone!

This story nails it in every single way.

Oh, the newest story on Short Story, Long, from @ambersparks.bsky.social, reminds you of one of my fave stories of all time? 🥹

Arizona friends, I’ll be reading with Sally Wen Mao as part of Virginia G. Piper Center Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at Arizona State University in Tempe. September 25, 2025 at 7 PM at Changing Hands Bookstore, followed by a conversation moderated by @mdbell79.bsky.social!

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

I just found out that REFUSE TO BE DONE is going into its 8th printing! I've heard so many stories from writers whose projects have been helped along by this little yellow book over the past three years. Nothing makes me happier!

so important to be hot AND funny AND sad

If you are in the Phoenix area, come see us October 4th at Rift! We're gonna read, and we're gonna hang, and we're gonna have a good goddamn time.

Have spent the last few days with a rad back to school cold, and healed myself by drinking tea and binging The Lazarus Project, which apparently ended after season 2. If there is a petition to get a season 3 going, will happily sign. (Also, swear I'm thinking in a British accent now).

Some advance praise for my debut novel, IN THE DESERT, coming March 3, 2026 from @cowboyjamboree.bsky.social . Many thanks to @sabrinahicks.bsky.social , @jmcm.bsky.social and @caseystegman.com . Every blurb made me cry! (joy)

Huge congratulations to Melissa for her book All and Then None of You!

Last chance to RSVP to hear an amazing line up of women writers! This Saturday, Sept. 6, 11 a.m. CA time. RSVP by scanning the qr code or visit melissafloresandersonwrites.com for the link.

Well! I did not make it into the TX book festival, but you win some/lose some. That said, I’ll be doing book tour stuff in Dallas and Austin between 10/31 and 11/5. If anyone is nearby and/or wants to try to do a reading together, or is a fun Texan to meet, pls be in touch!!

oh hi, we're opening for submissions tomorrow, Friday 9/5! 200 cap & we'll stay open until filled. mark ur calendars 👇

Happening THIS Saturday! I'll be reading and celebrating Melissa's book!

I have a new tiny story in @havehashad.com today about fleeting connections. thanks as always to @aaronburch.bsky.social, one of the best editors around, & to all of you who read this one ♡ 💀 🪦 ♡ www.havehashad.com/hadposts/our...

What to do when your podcaster says you need ketamine but your doctor refuses to prescribe it.

The good news about having a novel come out next year is I'm replacing my old anxieties and fears with NEW anxieties and fears.

Monster-fucker romance gives me hope for the world because it takes a special kind of resilient optimism to look at the awful state of humanity and think, “Yes, people are terrible, but I’m not giving up on dating. If Mothman exists, I’m totally going to find him and bang him.”

The meta thing WORKS. This story is almost like hearing the writer's process, and it's the process itself that gives the story the depth. The meta makes the nostalgia which gives the story the big kick? Read and you'll see what I mean. It's good.

Beyond thrilled to be in Ruby's pages. I hope you check it out. 🥧🍄🍾

IT'S HERE! ALL AND THEN NONE OF YOU by @melissacuisine is out today from CJ Press 🦋🕷️🐜🐞🔥: www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/all-and-then...

Brevity is now open for submissions! 📣 We are currently reading personal essays of 750 words or fewer in any style or subgenre. Writers whose perspectives have been traditionally underrepresented in publishing are especially encouraged to submit! Guidelines: brevity.submittable.com/submit

Second this - Brother and Sister Enter the Forest is an amazing novel.

holy shit, this @stephanieaustin.bsky.social story is so good!! SOMETHING I MIGHT SAY was one of my fave nf books of a couple years ago, but this is my new fave thing by stephanie. it's gets my current possibly biggest rave: i'm jealous I didn't get to pub it. mrbullbull.com/newbull/fict...

“Riffing on each other. It was fun, I think, or not. Maybe the truth is.." “When people are sad or broken, you aren’t supposed to make them feel better. You’re supposed to be like, ‘Shit’s fucked, and I see you.’” @stephanieaustin.bsky.social @mrbullbull.bsky.social mrbullbull.com/newbull/fict...

“John and I were like that. Riffing on each other. It was fun, I think, or not. Maybe the truth is that we never respected each other.” Come for the pop culture, stay for the voice. A new short story by @stephanieaustin.bsky.social

I do sometimes practice in the mirror how I'll react if I'm out in public and *the* news alert comes through.

Enjoy the long weekend y'all. Then come back on Tuesday and snag @melissacuisine.bsky.social's ALL AND THEN NONE OF YOU, out from CJ Press on Tuesday, 9/2 🔥

Beavers pause while chewing trees to listen for movements so that the tree doesn't fall on them.

"He opens the first Time Life book we get in the mail on UFOs, a secret from my mother before she finds out and burns it..." Both these little stories are FIRE @lumchanmfa.bsky.social

Been writing this novel forever, and each time I went at the revision, I'd try to modernize it. Take out the cigarettes, put in the vapes and phones. Then last summer, around that awful prez debate, it was like, maybe I just want to go back to the 90s. The cigarettes went back. Phones came out.

"I’ll think about how Johnny Cash wasn’t such a great father himself, cheating on his wife, and all the drugs and alcohol, to hear the stories they tell about him now, versus how I can’t imagine my father ever snorting and shooting up on anything in his life..."

he'll always be dead in our hearts

So, I have a pub date for my novel BURN, a coming-of-age set in the late 90s. 2.3.26