'Tis the season: I thought of two horror story ideas this afternoon and I'm scaring myself thinking of possible endings 🦇

Sharing again for my #booksky friends! Check out Jesi Bender's luminous novel CHILD OF LIGHT. Set in 1896 and obsessed with love and electricity, it provides an important perspective: Technological progress doesn’t make us any less human. 📚💙 from @whiskeytit.com kateblackwood.com/2025/08/love...

I couldn’t get away from butterflies this month. They were suddenly everywhere, so I started to pay attention. kateblackwood.com/2025/09/the-...

CHILD OF LIGHT, Jesi Bender's new novel, is out this week. It’s marvelous – historical fiction set in Utica, NY with a story about electricity at its center ⚡ Check it out and support this independent press! kateblackwood.com/2025/08/love...

A beautiful review by @katenblackwood.bsky.social of the stunning new novel out this week by Jesi Bender, from @whiskeytit.com! I agree 💯 with Kate that it's marvelous. Get yourself a copy and support this independent press! kateblackwood.com/2025/08/love...

"For the better part of a year, Monet got up at 3:30 am and painted haystacks." A writer walks through the Art Institute of Chicago and this is only one of the insights we get. I'm bookmarking this Substack for return visits. from @juliafgreen.bsky.social writingisjoy.substack.com/p/my-kind-of...

Never bring nonfiction about the arctic on vacation to Albania. Especially if it’s a library book. I'm trying to decide what to read on vacation –  blog post kateblackwood.com/2025/07/what...

The most thoughtful examination of AI I've seen 👇 ... and I hope to come across more of this. From Cornell Media Studies and the World According to Sound.

Committing to a group pulled my novel draft across the finish line. Same thing with my latest marathon. #5amwritersclub #amwriting #running #IllinoisMarathon kateblackwood.com/2025/04/pace...

Sally, the box turtle who's lived in the garden outside my house for 30 YEARS (we only moved in 9 months ago -- did not know a turtle came with the house), emerged from her winter hybernation hole this morning 🌞 We gave her a worm party. #reptilepetsofbluesky

Sweet, sweet Virginia. I drove there and back from Illinois in three days with my mom last week for a family funeral. A sad occasion, but we sped headlong into spring and had some exciting moments together. I think the break added some perspective to my writing #5amwritersclub 🦋

“I don’t dream about hot planets,” my three year old told me. “I only dream about Earth.” His preschool astronomy education is proving that my adult astronomy knowledge is nowhere near complete. New blog post with fun fridge art and Voyager 2 planet photos! kateblackwood.com/2025/03/i-do...

Good morning #5amwritersclub 🦋🍃

Good morning #5amwritersclub ✏️

Good morning -- is #5amwritersclub still here? I've been on a roll this week.

Happy new year, everyone! I began 2025 by going for a run in an unfamiliar city AND NOT GETTING LOST. Predicting a year of taking on navigational challenges and breaking out of old paths?! I want it to. Today, I embark on a new year of writing. I'm with you in spirit if you're doing the same. ✏️

“We could all stand to be a little less fearful and a lot more joyful as we go about the work of our daily lives.” Author Sarah Sawyer in Chapter Break substack, who also says: “I love to write but sometimes I don’t have a lot to say…and that’s fine.” Same! www.chapter-break.com/p/the-import...

Yesterday, I cooked all afternoon and ruined two of the three projects by forgetting baking powder in a cake & by leaving an entire batch of a meat dish out on a counter overnight. Now I'm writing, happy that a novel can't go bad no matter how many attempts it takes to get it right. #5amwritingclub

Wow, I peep back into Bluesky 🦋 after five days of travel and it's like a big old family reunion here! Hello everyone : ) Good to see you.

Good morning, #5amwritersclub... How has your week been?

“Bluesky is an echo chamber!” Our Reply: Echo chamber? Nah, we prefer to call it surround sound for facts.

Time and courage. Give me time and courage. (A writer's prayer.)

If you could do undergrad all over again, what would you major in? Me: theater and eastern European history...but that might change tomorrow ; )

Is my #5amwritersclub out there this morning ☀️

A little bird (@jsavrankelly.bsky.social) told me this is where the writers are. I'm a writer and runner hoping to find positive community. Hello and let's connect!

one of the funnier book to screen transformations is frankenstein's monster being a silent, lurching creature when in the books he just cannot stop giving melodramatic monologues? he talks SO MUCH about like the ineffable human spirit & poetry and the movie monster is like "gruhhhhhhh"

Breaker Box xkcd.com/2848

old comic ☎️

I want something. It's small -- frivolous, even. Tangential. After a few days of trying to beat down the desire for this small thing, I finally just asked for it. The answer might be 'no.' There might not even be an answer. But I tried, and that's part of the way toward a 'yes.'

Day One of precious writing vacation: it took a while to shift into fiction mode, but I had a solid mid-day check in with a Novelist Friend, made a Plan, and ... sketched my way into a New Chapter. (cracks fingers) More fun tomorrow.

Looking ahead to the coming week: I'm taking a week of vacation TO WRITE, joined by the two other members of my novel support group.

Hello, blue place! It's good to be here, looking for fiction, journalism & running community. I'm in Bar Harbor, Maine, getting ready to run the Mount Desert Island marathon tomorrow. That's my kid pushing his own stroller in the background. As good as any introduction I can give.