Fortunato (coughing): You’re certain the Criterion Closet is down here Montresor (picking up a trowel): Definitely. Have you thought about your picks yet

Jim* is a well-known hater of fun

Anybody wanna get a little musical this holiday season?

Oh man! Okay! So! Buddy comedy? Love story? Prayer? You got it. Don’t let the crude title fool you - this sweet story has the biggest chunk of my heart, and it’s yours now. I’m so, so proud of this one. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it 😊 open.substack.com/pub/ashortst...

Steely Dan is the perfect band for unemployment

Hmm

are you okay babe you’ve barely touched the novel your author bio says you’ve been working on for years

Resurfacing to share a recent nightmare-turned-poem, published by Don't Submit via Expat Press. Western Massachusetts is a spirit place expatpress.com/a-plane-hits...

Red states get unquestioned support, blue states wait to be punished. A federal decline so clear one should assume it's on purpose.

Michael Palin's travel shows

Ceremonial Congress alert www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/u...

A weird kind of goofy but ultimately earnest game about death was never going to fly in the wake of the incredible run that was FF6-FF9

Day two of Elvis' gospel records and yeah he really was the best to ever do it

Whew

The Corbyning will continue until morale improves

Pushing health networks further into the hands of private equity is the point, sorry gang

Writing about the economy

Support your local bookstores

It's publication week for my first poetry collection. If you read poetry, you might dig it. If you don't but still want to support me and my press (the wonderful @matchfactoryeds.bsky.social), your library might want it.

You say heatwave, I say firefly paradise

So much of war is storytelling

I'm sure the strategy of trying to break Iran into more easily controlled pieces will go well

There is always one more time

Blessed by a strong mountain breeze, yes, please, come right in through my wind tunnel apartment

Lemmingway

I don't miss alcohol

I have three new prose poems over at Thirty West, all inspired by dreams Here's one of them thirtywest.substack.com/p/three-dreams @thirtywestph.com / @mpmcsweeney.bsky.social

Rereading Yates

A good short story is the backdoor entry to heaven

Hey I published something! dailydrunkmag.com/2025/06/10/i... I’m Starting This Small Press to Showcase Exciting New Voices and I’m Shutting It Down Because It’s Way Too Much Work – The Daily Drunk

I've got a hometown poem-square up on my extremely irregular Substack, inspired by @havehashad.com 's square call (I didn't make it aboard in time) mpmcsweeney.substack.com/p/seagreen-s...

Love waking up from a night of dreams that amounted to "you fail as an artist"

My debut poetry collection is now available for pre-order from @matchfactoryeds.bsky.social, a great new press. I'm thrilled to be in their first round of releases! Check out all their books, and here's the link to mine if you're interested:

I'm only here to post replies to one account, but I have it on good authority that you all are doing a great job, keep up the good work

don't be mean to me i will Beep at you

Oh, hello, Bluesky people. A new story of mine was recently published by the wonderful @xraylitmag.bsky.social and I meant to post it here but then didn't, so here it is, a story about the dreams, the local news, and western Massachusetts. xraylitmag.com/city-desk-by...

Back on here for a bit to see what happened to my literary nemesis

a great story by Michael McSweeney @mpmcsweeney.bsky.social !! 'City Desk' is about a reporter who gets paid to write about dreams. after getting carjacked, fired, & having a bunch of strange conversations, dream & reality start to feel like they're blending. xraylitmag.com/city-desk-by...

Writing for fun

Finally going deep into Aaron Copeland's work, long overdue

Yep

Prose

I am emerging from a great and unknown illness

Have always thorougly enjoyed @mitchnobis.bsky.social's poems, someone should put them in book(s) form(s)

This hotel pool is fixing me

Reading short fiction posted on here

Disappointed in myself

Thinking about funding an annual literary prize