I'm the mother of two teenage daughters, so this story hits home. And that ending? 💀 I see you @jenniferhudak.bsky.social ! smallwondersmag.com/piece/echo-s...

Life is wild. 🐝 🐜 🕷️🧬 www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...

I have a room full of framed, favorite literary quotes. This one seemed particularly relevant this week.

I spent a lot of time potty training the new puppy today, which meant more time outside staring at my lawn between rainstorms. Guess what I found hiding in the blades? 🍄 (I promise none of the photos are 💩 😂) Bonus points for anyone who can help me identify them! 🧪 #fungi

Incredibly important news flash: WE HAVE A NEW PUPPY!! ❤️🐶🐾🥳

It’s normally too hot for mushrooms to grow in my yard, but it’s been raining so much this little guy pushed through the soil to say hello. 🍄 #fungifriday

Hey! Are you sure being on social media is what you need right now? Maybe you'd be better served by a book, a Discord call with friends, or diving face-first into a tub of chocolate pudding. If socials are right? Then great. But please be good to yourselves.

In ugly times, beautiful things are still being created all around us. The brightest area in this NASA Photo of the Month is the "Butterfly Star," a young protostar still gathering mass from its environment surrounded by a disc where baby planets may be forming. esawebb.org/images/potm2508a/

I love when I’m “forced” to do research for a short story. This incredible book on a deadly 1996 Mount Everest expedition is a classic, and its reputation is well deserved. It’s made me angry, sad and, above all, amazed at what people will put themselves through to achieve a dream.

Great story by @tiatashiro.bsky.social "When Mark told you he was marrying your clone you said congratulations on autopilot, because that’s what you say when your friend tells you theyre getting married & you had promised to stay friendly after the divorce." clarkesworldmagazine.com/tashiro_07_25/

Good thing we have so many limes (and lemons) on our trees right now. I’m thinking tequila shots might help me process yet another brilliant policy decision coming out of the state of Florida. 😣

👀❤️

Making art is labor. Caregiving is labor. I spent Labor Day doing both and that's a wonderful thing. Whether you're getting paid or not, what you create with your time, effort and love is valuable.

Spitfire sawfly larvae doing their excellent synchronised ward-off-a-predator thing.

That wonderful feeling when you forget you've preordered a book and then it shows up on your porch like a gift from the universe. Congrats @thomasha.bsky.social ! I know I'm going to love it.

It’s new story day for me! “Dislocated” in @flashfictiononline.bsky.social is about a support group for sufferers of long teleportation sickness and certainly has no resonance with real world events. www.flashfictiononline.com/article/disl...

Look what just arrived in the mail. It's sooo pretty! I couldn't help but read the first chapter and I know my nieces are going to love it. Congrats @michelleknudsen.bsky.social !

It's been such a dry year. It's nice to finally get some rain and see things green up nicely.

My favorite thing about Worldcon: How welcoming it was. I watched established authors gush abt other writers' works. I was invited to meals coffee and drinks by talented people who had no reason to do so, other than b/c they were kind and generous. Thanks to all who made my first con a fabulous one!

I’m headed to Seattle for Worldcon this week. It’s not only my first #worldcon but my first con of any kind so if you see me, please say hi. I will be doing my best impression of an extravert but IT'S ALL A LIE.

I loved Elizabeth Acevedo's novel-in-verse "Clap When You Land," abt two young women who find out they share the same father after he's killed in a plane crash. The verse is lyrical yet accessible & the story, inspired by real events, is a perfect mix of scandal, heartbreak & coming of age.

So beautiful! We could all use some uplifting stories and original human art rn.

More vacation pics … I fell ill in Edinburgh, so had to scale back plans, but was on the mend as we moved onto the Scottish Highlands and totally fell in love by the time we got to Isle of Skye. It was so otherworldly, I can’t wait to go back to explore further and linger longer.

I'm starting to catch up after vacation, and it's good to be home, but I'll really miss the light during our golden hour walks through Amsterdam ...

It’s fascinating when two great writers use a similar concept to create very different stories. Like @slashnburnett.bsky.social sky.social and @chrisblake.bsky.social’s recent takes on humans-turning-into-plants-to-repair-the-Earth. 🌱🍄🌹🌲🌎 1/4

Only three more days left to support this amazing magazine! If you want more original artwork and better pay for hardworking staff, now's your chance to help them reach their stretch goals.

Perfection by @aimeeogdenwrites.com. "I can teach a caveworm to dance if he hears the word blue, but that does not mean he has ever seen the sky. And Alan asked .. I am the caveworm in this scenario? And I laughed & said, all over teasing, that he was the sky." strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

I wrote another satire bc I'm the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and I have strong feelings about camps: An Automated Phone Tree for Your Brand New Alligator-Themed Detention Center (That Is Definitely Not A Concentration Camp) Content Warning: totally a concentration camp 1/13

I feel this essay. I wrote some of my favorite stories btween school pickup and soccer practice, doctor visits and endless COVID quarantine. Right now, I’m anxious abt how little writing I’ve done this summer. But sometimes the chaos fuels the work. shanders-red-eye.beehiiv.com/p/microdosin...

Congrats to @maroon-stranger.bsky.social whose story "Lentils for Breakfast" made Reactor's Must Read Short Fiction List. This one warmed my heart, too! reactormag.com/must-read-sh...

I love summer because it means a long visit from my sister and her family. Two weeks of laughter, the BEST conversations, cousin sleepovers & fun activities we usually don’t make enough time for (beach, waterpark, baking, bowling and a "family Olympics"🤣💪). But they’re heading home and I am SAD!

Thank you so much, @laineelise.bsky.social ! You just made my day 🥰🦇

Challenge accepted. Although, as a lifelong Floridian, I can tell you straight out that “Alligator Alcatraz” will be devoured by corruption. infighting and/or incompetence first.

I really loved the twisty, dysfunctional sister relationship in The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes. So much so that I want to read *more* complicated sibling rivalries, love/hate sisters (or brothers), codependencies, etc. Recommendations, anyone? #books #writingcommunity

Jealous of my family member who is at Stonehenge today. (Not so jealous of those crowds tho. 250K yesterday.) Happy Summer Solstice, all!

Self-assigned weekend reading homework. Good so far, although now I'm wondering why I wasn't taught more of this in school. At least it's fun to see what techniques I've been using by mistake/instinct.

This is a great magazine that deserves our support. And if you need a little push, check out the cool rewards, like a poetry class (but only a few spots left 'cause I snatched one), embroidered patches, and signed novels by some Big Deal Authors. 👀 www.kickstarter.com/projects/str...

The husband set up a bird feeder outside and its been a huge hit with the neighborhood squirrels. 😝🐿️ We’ve also been seeing some jays, mockingbirds, a woodpecker, orioles and … some pretty sizable green parrots!

Love @smaychel.bsky.social's poetry in the new issue. Fun yet bittersweet mix of humor & heaviness in "Captain Kirk visits my Daughter’s Ballet Class.” “When they pass I hear him telling her that childhood is an impassable test, and all that matters is how gracefully you’re defeated.”

Photos from last week's trip to DC ... good times! Bummed so much of the Air and Space Museum was closed for renovation but pleasantly surprised by the shout-out to science fiction writers in the moon exhibit. I didn't know Jules Verne predicted a launch from Florida. 🚀🌛

Excited my short story “All You Ever Wanted” is out now in @shoreinf.bsky.social! A mother struggles to stop her daughter from uploading into an immortal digital form — all while coming to terms with the parenting decisions that drove her child into the virtual world in the first place.

Gorgeous cover, great prose ...

Looking forward to this documentary on Sally Ride, especially at a time when so many important people and achievements are being erased. The trailer gave me goosebumps. Premieres June 16. 🚀👩‍🚀🌈🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=C67r...

Only a few days left to sub! Contest closes on June 2! If you're an emerging writer or artist, our annual is perfect for you! Cash prizes & no sub fees. Don't self reject! 💥 Please boost! 💥 Writers: dreamfoundry.org/wri... Artists: dreamfoundry.org/art...

Friends who have mango trees and love to share are the best!

YEEEESSSSSSS! The first issue of @plotthoundmag.bsky.social just landed in my inbox. Can’t wait to dig into it tonight!

Woah! Really cool new videos from the Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory show timelapse adaptive optics views of the Sun's corona. This one is of a solar prominence being shaped by the Sun’s magnetism. I like the choice to color hydrogen-alpha light pink. 🔭🧪

Poignant story with an interesting structure by ‪@andtatcat.bsky.social‬. It already has my brain churning ... reckoning.press/a-taxonomy-o...

I started “A Natural History of Empty Lots” by @christopherbrown to learn to appreciate nature in my city. A few days pass, and I one of my neighbors captures video of a VERY LARGE COYOTE visiting our not-at-all rural neighborhood on their security camera. 👀😲🐺 Coincidence?

Hi, short form poetry...