“As the smoke spiraled out her nostrils, she took the cigarette from between her lips and squeezed the glowing end between her dead fingertips.” S.A. Cosby, King of Ashes #SundaySentence

The thing about being first-generation college was that no one we knew had any idea what the hell we were supposed to be doing there other than taking some classes and hoping they added up to a grand theory of our lives. #SundaySentence from the brilliant The Payback by Kashana Cauley.

Now we were in a different story with a more violent plot and a worse end than we’d thought. MERCY by Joan Silber. #Sundaysentence

He was perceptive only when he sensed that other people might be judging him. SWALLOWS by Natsuo Kirino #sundaysentence

Lauren Morrow’s debut novel “Little Movements” explores being a Black artist in a space not built with you in mind, and the toll of constantly having to prove your value. (@cherrylousy.bsky.social)

Frost Zone Stories Book 2, including terrific stories by @jennyhart2001.bsky.social @dianedooley.bsky.social @malcolmtimperley.bsky.social @camdenscorner.bsky.social Nick Young, Michael Penncavage, Kay Hanifen, D Thomas Minton, @kenfoxe.bsky.social Ann Wuehler and @maureenow.bsky.social

I’m in this.

Illinois, you elected a real one.

If you're a reporter, please stop referring to RFK Jr and his cronies as "vaccine skeptics." They're not skeptical. Skepticism would be fine. Skeptics look at evidence and can be persuaded. These people are extremist anti-vaccine cranks, and that's how news organizations should describe them.

“She was like a powerful atmospheric depression that squeezes every puff of smoke out of chimneys and casts winter smog over cities.” Olga Tokarczuk, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT (coming 12/2/25) #sundaysentence

Men in khaki work clothes will pry loose the slats of Reba's Grill, where the owner cooked in her hat because she couldn't remember the ingredients without it #SundaySentence

He recalled reading, long ago, that falling asleep in the snow was the most pleasant form of dying. “Deer” from TALES NOCTURNAL by Tim Foley #sundaysentence

I missed tonight's @storyhour.bsky.social live webcast so I listened to an earlier one featuring @victorianations.bsky.social & @premeemohamed.com, w/ guest host @rebelsam94.bsky.social Two beautifully quiet but decidedly weird stories. youtu.be/j3BBQLNw9Kk

My story is within!

Closing the TOC for book 2 - which will be available in 4 days - is @maureenow.bsky.social Maureen O'Leary's chilling tale "The New Winter" - something is roaming the neighbourhood... #litmag #quiethorror #shortstories books2read.com/u/3JMW5A

Night and Day edited by @datlow.bsky.social is officially out today! Do you prefer your terror shrouded in darkness or caught in the bright, stark light? www.simonandschuster.com/books/Night-...

This much is granted for an hour: That we are young and tender, That I am bee and you are flower, Honey-mouthed and swaying slender. ~Countee Cullen from “To One Who Said Me Nay” That’s my poetic #SundaySentence for this week—what was YOUR favorite sentence?

She had to be careful, even now, as she shifted up to fourth gear on the open highway again, to not reinfect herself with that sticky, toxic terror that life—this life, which gave you the beautiful, sparkling world— squashed you like a gnat. BUG HOLLOW by Michelle Huneven #sundaysentence

Listen to @maureenow.bsky.social and @naomijwilliams.bsky.social discuss Sacramento Noir with Annmarie Kelly on Wild Precious Life evergreenpodcasts.com/wild-preciou...

Marriage is between two people. There is no studio audience. AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by @tayari.bsky.social #SundaySentence

A community’s first responsibility is to protect its children. The ones we have now and the ones we will have. #sundaysentence THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia E. Butler

Much of Eddie’s own life felt like that, a botched and risky present that the future dragged into a pattern. #sundaysentence #mercy #joansilber #counterpointpress #netgalley

Humiliation and I got up together every morning, brushed our teeth side by side in my bathroom mirror, and went off to the grocery store for inspiration. THE PAYBACK By Kashana Cauley #SundaySentence

She no longer possessed the brazen, desperate courage of herself at seventeen. THE BOG WIFE by @kaychronister.bsky.social #sundaysentence

PLEASE REPOST! "Uncanny Magazine Is Looking for Submissions Editors Once Again!" buff.ly/7Ol5DQu

@matthewkressel.net and I are raising funds to keep this venerable institution alive. Info here: www.gofundme.com/f/fantastic-...

"...stepping out into the caesious morning light, trying to make sense of this new city, with gables on all the doorways, and serpentine streets with peculiar names..." Andrew Bertaina, The Body is a Temporary Gathering Place (2024) #SundaySentence (Or fragment, but too good to not feature caesious)

Great turn of phrase by R. F. Kuang's The Burning God: "Let them think of us as dirt, Rin thought. She was dirt. Her army was dirt. But dirt was common, ubiquitous, and patient, and necessary. The soil gave life to the country." #SundaySentence

Two thousand more years of snail cream and you will see a woman’s brain through her face. THE COIN by Yasmin Zaher #sundaysentence @catapultbooks.bsky.social

The tree doesn’t shudder before lightning strikes it—not even the tallest pine sees that fire coming “Childhood Confession for Zagajewski’s ‘Illustrious Caesura’” MY HERESIES @alinaetc.bsky.social #sundaysentence

He was the one who needed it--he needed to work, to avoid living at all costs. I don't blame him. Work is easier than life. - Luiza Sauma, Flesh and Bone and Water #SundaySentence

I’m told I’m supposed to promote my writing here?? not just post pictures of my dog??? idk seems wrong but I’ll try it my story collection Night Beast is for fans of Kelly Link and Carmen Maria Machado it has: gay sex, sleepwalking, slime molds, soulmate timers & more bookshop.org/p/books/nigh...

And when the capacity for love expands, so does life itself. SEE: LOSS. SEE ALSO: LOVE. by Yukiko Tominaga #SundaySentence

"I Heard My Son Kissing a Girl" by Yukiko Tominaga electricliterature.com/i-heard-my-s...

I love this guy.

Now, look, I’ve been accused of a “literary Rickroll” here, but the truth is that after leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest, the Danube enters a region of singular loneliness and desolation, where its waters spread away on all sides regardless of a main channel, and the country beco

It's new story day! My stilt walking, mushroom hunting, found family story set in a post-apocalyptic flooded cityscape is published in F(r)iction! Purchase ⬇️ or at Barnes & Noble. There's a little preview of my story here: frictionlit.org/still-waters/

#SundaySentence Thunder can intuit, and her action is the music caused by lightning. heart berries ~Terese Marie Mailhot

The morning sun baptizes both sinner and saint alike. S.A. Cosby, King of Ashes #sundaysentence #booksky #books 🎵 Pair with: Wait For It 🎵

Life grabs you in its jaws like a bear and all the flailing around and the screaming you do while it eats you, that’s what we call free will. THE LAST KING OF CALIFORNIA by Jordan Harper #SundaySentence

"You don’t get ghosts from a past you don’t care about." Brandy Shillace, ‪ @bschillace.brandyschillace.com “The Framed Women of Ardemore House” #SundaySentence 💙📚

"For all of us, the moment will come when we will realize that none of the things we achieved by looking the other way and keeping quiet mattered...Live not by lies." - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (1976 - 2024), a quote found in a Substack post by David Dark #SundaySentence

Not everything was so close to extinction. “Mother’s Wolves” from HAUNTED ECOLOGIES by @coreyfarrenkopf.bsky.social #sundaysentence

Donald Trump just signed a bill into law that'll kick 17 million people off their health care and make it harder for families to put food on the table. Republicans sold you out so billionaires can get even richer. We won't let them forget.

Thank you, wonderful Maureen, for this! And I can't wait for your new novel!!!!!!

Ursula craved solitude but she hated loneliness, a conundrum that she couldn't even begin to solve #SundaySentence

My #sundaysentence for this week is from Model Home by @riverssolomon.bsky.social "Maybe my mother is God, and that's why nothing I do pleases her." (That was the opening sentence, too; well played.)

I was skeptical of my mother hawking her own life plan, for occasionally I heard her go into the bathroom, lock the door, and scream. THE WORDS OF DR. L by Karen E. Bender @karenebender.bsky.social #sundaysentence

"My friend has just started going into graphic detail about his sex life, and I’m sex-positive and want to celebrate anyone comfortable in their own body, but I’m hungry, and perhaps there’s an internalized homophobia that I haven’t fully examined in therapy..." (via @mcsweeneys.net)

their covers, man. every time. this one freaks me out so good.