Journalists: please stop saying the US declared war on Iran or any variation thereof. The US didn’t. Trump did, and he did it with an end-run around Congress. Trump is a lame duck President. He is not synonymous with the US. Your inaccurate language encourages him and others to think he is. Stop.

Seeing stories go from “received” to “in-progress” on Submittable. #amwriting #writingcommunity #writing

I love when a book review intrigues and delights in equal measure. Added BLOB to my TBR list!

Do you remember the enormity of hope’s swell? How we’d wake up with it stretching our ribs, filling us, pushing its way out, too big to keep to ourselves. How can we bring that kind of hope back? That’s the challenge we need to meet — and soon.

In NYC? Here’s something to do.

Respectfully, everyone should be a little more feral about supporting libraries. #booksky #library #bookgoblin

@bsky.app Could we please have mute reposts by user, and maybe the ability to remove followers without a full block?

There’s a reason Jane Smiley said “if you want to write, keep your overhead low.” Books aren’t free!

We’ve been applying the facepalm incorrectly.

Good morning, USA. Anyone else hoping we’re liberated soon?

Huh. I’m lying in bed reading Stanchion and wishing I had ice cream. Small world.

All of them. 💚

Think about Nabokov’s “Pale Fire” or Danielewski’s “House of Leaves” or Woolf’s stream of consciousness. There are no rules if what you’re doing captivates. Be true to your story, even if that means tearing up the rulebook. Make it work.

Naomi Elias interviews Camonghne Felix about her new book, “Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom." They talk about the poetic form as a blueprint for resistance. buff.ly/M92IVVh

Writers, please, please stop despairing over this article. Just as other social media platforms drive up engagement through outrage, Slate needs eyes on ads (which pay more when you’re logged in) and is farming anger with articles like this.

Me to my dog on Daylight Saving change day: It’s not time yet! My dog: Time is an artificial construct as clearly demonstrated by the callous indifference with which humans deviate from a chronological pattern or alter schedules based on defunct concerns now embodied in an archaic tradition.

I say this as someone on immune modulating medications for life that make me highly susceptible. Many, many people are on these due to autoimmune conditions or chemo, and you wouldn’t know by looking. But measles titers can go down (mine did) but since it’s a live vaccine we can’t have another shot.

I just read a woman complaining about her car being totaled by an uninusured driver. Earlier she’d posted that she didn’t believe in requiring measles vaccinations. That people like her don’t grasp the parallel here is 99% of our country’s problem.

You, in another decade.

This is what’s happening. Why don’t more people recognize that?

Matt & Judith have established a bibliocinephile’s dream store. Go shop!

@discontinuedfoods.bsky.social Do your archives include a frozen thing from Birdseye that you’d stir into milk? It was in the 1970s, came in a plastic tub like ice cream (but wasn’t ice cream) and I think they had chocolate, peanut butter and maybe strawberry flavors?

Arrest the goddamn president

Wankiness. Sometimes a made up word just fits.

Another proposal by billionaires to forever alter what the rest of us live with, in ways we can’t stop, and in which they profit at our expense? Hell yes, I’ll jump through hoops to comment.

Added to my TBR list.

Just did this today with a story that’s fought me all week. I have six other projects going. I’m going to let this one stew a bit. (That’s what long baths are for, after all.)

She’s busy guarding me from the Vet and I have some news for her.

Do yourself a favor: do not check your 401(k) this week. Unless your name is Pam Bondi and you think fiscal growth insures against moral accounting.

My favorite poems take me to an inevitable point which, had I not read them, I might not have taken time to articulate. It becomes a shared moment between you and the poet, a welcoming of sorts: “It’s not just you.” This one, which @diehoren.bsky.social mentioned today, is a new favorite.

My son gave me a bite of his Big Arch Burger today and I don’t blame that McDonald’s CEO at all. 🤮

I do not like this gen AI I do not like what it implies I do not want it in my art I do not think it makes you smart I do not want it in my games I do not like its goals and aims I do not want it in my books I do not like the way it looks I do not like it, I don't care I do not want it anywhere

I usually skip introductions. You probably do too. But don’t skip @legroff.bsky.social’s intro to this Flannery O’Connor collection. It’s a brilliant meditation on an author of such unwavering faith, she could simultaneously subvert it and explore sin’s consequences. I love watching Lauren think.

Just got off the phone with my Southern Baptist 94 y/o father and 89 y/o (former nun) step mother who referred, quite respectfully, to “him or her, or maybe they are them — I hope they let us know so we use the pronouns they prefer” and I am honestly so proud of how my folks have grown up.

Kind of weird how the GOP says gun ownership is all about personal responsibility but drinking iced coffee with sugar is a matter for governmental control.

I’ve never related to a graphic story character more in my life.

Anyone else DNF more books these days?

How I arrived on BlueSky. You’ll notice there’s no applause. Ingrates. 😂

Anyone asked Bondi if she’s seen the Dow?

Thinking of Gardiner’s concept of “the dream” and the tension between telling the story you want to tell and telling it in a way that keeps the reader dreaming. The best writing accomplishes both, but getting to that point takes work. +

Earlier: “I wish there was a song we could sing to remind certain people they did, in fact, vote for the evil force that’s about to bankrupt them just as it did their morals.” Then five minutes ago I remembered this fine tune.

That rash looks a lot like a radiation therapy burn. In other news, my husband had a similar one and was equally bat shit crazy when his glioblastoma was crowding out the rest of his brain.

Oooh a mezzanine!

I found a full box of my favorite pens while tidying my desk this morning and it feels like the universe just blessed my week.

Imagine how wonderful the world would be if everyone just minded their own damn business.

Adverbs. Overwriting. Too much bad dialogue.

Very impressed by my upstairs neighbor’s marathon nighttime showers. This one is now at 90 minutes. I’m tempted to wait until they’re done then knock on the door: “Excuse me, do you happen to be a writer?”

I didn’t read as much as usual last month. I wrote two short stories instead. Curious what March holds.

Looking forward to reading this one about a woman who creates a being as a repository for her knowledge, but a mysterious murder and a suspicious AI cover-up drag them both into a brewing revolution that could shatter civilization’s final stronghold.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Pre-orders are open now!

Lovely serendipity to sumble on @toddedillard.bsky.social’s poem in @southernreview.bsky.social on this quiet Sunday morning as I catch up on journal reading.