What was the music budget for The Yellowjackets? I mean that soundtrack is bangin’.

Somehow this feels right….

"We're just two lost souls, swimmin' in a fish bowl, year after year." Wish You Were Here-Pink Floyd

i remember walking out of Force Awakens, annoyed with it. And there was a girl, maybe eight, with her mum. The girl was BOUNCING. "Mummy!! I can be an X-wing pilot!!" And THAT was the point i knew my opinion didn't matter for shit. i would die for the right of that girl to be an X-Wing pilot.

There is something so rewarding about watching a person you cannot stand hammering the nail into their own coffin.

My God….I’m today years old and realized where they got Ratchet’s name from!

Look, let me clarify this post….I am not looking for a paid beta reader, so you can just stop.

I submitted my YA fantasy adventure to an small indie publisher a few months ago. No word yet and that’s cool. I contacted them through a social network because I think I’d like to serialize it on Royal Road. I may have committed a faux pas.

Jeez, I mention that I’m looking for beta readers and the sellers come on fast and strong.

So, faded out at the end a little bit. Had to switch over the laundry and I thought I wanted a snack. I didn't. #kidlitchat

My harshest was that we had a housefire and the one thing that didn't burn was a printed out copy of my book. #kidlitchat

And that's another thing...I can take any feedback if it's helpful but if it's just "I don't like this kind of thing and this is why it sucks." #kidlitchat

I did one of the various pitch contests online where and editor gives feedback on your pitch and first pages. I was not happy with the critique. It wasn't helpful just really snarky. #kidlitchat

There's a podcast I listen to where they say if one person says something you can disregard it if you disagree. Two you might need to think and three or more you probably take a good look at it. #kidlitchat

I will confess that I'm not the best "technician" but I tend to focus on plot, voice, structure, etc. #kidlitchat

I'm never a great crit partner/beta because honestly as a English teacher I'm reading so much on top of my own writing, my eyes start getting blurry after a while. #kidlitchat

With said trust comes an understanding of how I work and that's part of the reason I get nervous when looking for critique partners/beta readers. #kidlitchat

Honestly, I do feel like I need to trust the person giving me feedback. Two of my most trusted readers are a friend from HS that offered help and someone that liked my old Livejournal entries and we wound up become friends. #kidlitchat

It's really funny you say this. I have to work really hard at being positive when critiquing student work. I prefer BLUNT honesty. #kidlitchat

Some times I'll ask for a full read, top to bottom while other times I just want a "what do you think?" #kidlitchat

I'm not going to lie, I desperately crave feedback. I had some great betas on some of my projects. #kidlitchat

Look, not like you need any other reason…:but I’m gonna be there!

Query for my fellow writers: how to you break out of a writing slump? Like a really, really bad writing slump? Help!

I go through phases. I’ve been in a reading slump lately that’s paralleled a writing slump. Anyway, I’ve had the hankering to read some chonky book epic fantasy lately.

Countless monster movies, especially Godzilla, though a lot of those were less than 30. Watched loads of the Little Rascals, the Three Stooges and The Twilight Zone.

Today, a colleague at work found out that I published my book. They asked about it and I told them. They then asked me if I’m working on the sequel. I thought that was funny.

So I’ve talked about how I’ve really leaned into being the “writer guy” on staff and focus a lot of what I do in the class on writing. The biggest problem I have is that I love writing so much I can’t wrap my brain around people that don’t. It’s just something I do.

Today I got a message on Instagram from a reviewer that had "reviewed" my book and wanted me to pay them $50 to post it to all their socials. Weird thing is that I did not give them a review copy. I haven't sold a copy of the book this year (bad marketing on my part), so that means they pirated it?

You could make the argument that it's this or Joe Dirt.

Today's authorial rabbit hole: Robert C. O'Brien, he of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM. The animated film was a formative one for me and I remember enjoying the book thoroughly when I did read it. The surprising thing about O'Brien is that he died in 1973 at the age of 55 of a heart attack.

Costco on a Saturday afternoon seemed like such a good idea when my wife said it out loud.

Listening to @isaacfitzgerald.bsky.social talking about men reading on a podcast and indirectly sums up my entire philosophy in getting boys to read, “Let him read some fun shit, let him see themselves in the books…” Once boys reach 12, we stop publishing books for them.

I mean is it a competition?

I was taking a quick inventory of my classroom library today. A few years ago I discovered Alabama writer Watt Key and added several of his books to my library. I noticed today that they are all gone. It makes me smile. I’ll have to get more.

If anyone is interested in the template, DM me and let me know. #kidlitchat

My ultimate goal is to actually write a calendar/schedule for my writing. But I don't think that would honestly work for me. #kidlitchat

It's the expenses part of being a writer that is going to be a stumbling point for me. I'm a mess. #kidlitchat

I rely too much on Gmail sometimes. I was looking for a rejection that I know I got on a sub from a while back and I cannot find it. I know it's in there somewhere. I don't delete rejections on purpose ever. #kidlitchat

And I'm hopelessly addicted to MS Office suite, so that's $99 a year that I'll figure out to write off at some point. #kidlitchat

My notebook folder has been through some stuff! Rome, Florence, Orlando, Boston, Rochester, all over Central New York… #kidlitchat

I do all of my analog writing in old school composition notebooks. I do have a really nice leather cover with my name etched in it that my wife got me a few Father's Days ago that makes it look cooler than it is. And I can only with with Pilot G2 Fine gel pens. #kidlitchat

I do have a separate bank account where the royalties for my self-pubbed book go...trust me it's not a lot....just to keep it separate. I don't have alot of expenses. #kidlitchat

And I use QueryTracker for queries. I've paid for Premium and honesly, it's worth the $25 if you've got multiple projects. I scaled back and I'm just using the free one for now. I may go back when get mutliple new projects. I need to get some new projects to query. #kidlitchat

I don't keep track of daily word counts or pages written but how much time I spend writing. Years ago @mikeheadley.bsky.social shared an Excel template that I've been using for almost a decade now. It's very useful. #kidlitchat

I also tend to be analog for the most part, it's how I plan and how lay out future plans. #kidlitchat

I finished it late on the 23rd. (My wife's family is Italian and Xmas Eve is a HUGE deal!) #kidlitchat

Years and years ago, I was struggling with actually finishing something, so my then girlfriend now wife and her cousin bet me that if I didn't finish what I was writing by Xmas Eve I couldn't eat that night. #kidlitchat

Great topic. I haven't had much to deal with due dates, but I do better under pressure. #kidlitchat

I’ll give one more Star Wars hot take: most of the old EU was meh at best and really bad at worse. Disney was smart to cull the good and cut the chaff, which was most of it.