I try to reverse-psychology the algorithm in a process I call giga-humble obscurity-maxing.

If you didn’t need shelter and your food needs were solved by an hour of photosynthesizing a day, what would you choose to do with your time?

Okay, this really warms my heart. (Though I always recommend buying from your local bookstore.)

This was a very thoughtful (and thorough) interview from Bookstr. I appreciated the opportunity to talk about my eclectic writing and interests. bookstr.com/article/stra...

When I greet nature as family, a tree, a smudge of lichen, the invisible complexity of the sky, I feel a reciprocity of love. When I reach for wonder as a receptive student, I always find it reaching back.

What is the horned wolf of the Catskill Mountains? #cryptid youtube.com/shorts/FdmAK...

I adore Kevin’s books. This is so kind.

Character art by Marc C. Green based on my new Appalachian cryptid novel Strange Animals.

Actually, “Gila Monster” is the name of the mad scientist who created the lizard.

I feel like unicorns should be real and deer should be myth.

Thinking about fire stations and mental health. Comparing priorities and how we deal with crises.

Other writers won’t tell you this…

Do you know about Strange Animals?

Promoting a book is weird because I don't always trust my own imagination and now I'm supposed to invite people to wander around in there.

Thank you Ms. Woolard, my 5th grade teacher, who first inspired my love of poetry and writing. She read Mary Oliver to me. She gave me the first book that ever made me want to write fiction (My Side of the Mountain). (1/3)

“Missouri hair museum” also sounds like a devastating and hyper-specific insult.

Go ahead and high five yourself in the mirror, just don’t expect to know which one of you initiated it.

Do you know about Strange Animals?

Rainy day thought. #poetry

It’s vital, every so often, to become suddenly awake and walk barefoot from our warm homes and stand in the cold rain just to remind ourselves that many of the established borders of our lives are not made of iron bars, they are made of choices.

Amazing creature art by Nat Hues based on my new novel Strange Animals. Coming soon. Info in bio. Ballantine Books @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social

Writer milestone! I have a poem in a biology textbook! I’m really delighted by this. (Thanks to Margaret Riley and Princeton University Press for reaching out.)

Do you ever coincidentally read two books back-to-back that feel like they are in conversation with one another? It's a cool feeling. Sorta like my experience of the book is wholly unique in a very specific way.

'Choose to build something wonderfully imperfect.' Some truly excellent advice from @jarodkanderson.bsky.social's Something in the Woods Loves You, which is about nature, and mental health, and recovery, and life. I am enjoying it very much. Rationing out the audiobook over weeks, for reflection.

I stayed up too late reading The Haunting of Hill House and now I'm sleepy. Who is responsible for this!?

I feel like people who don't like candy corn don't understand how to eat it. You're not supposed to chew. You just swallow it with water, like a pill.

Capitalism often works to convince us that value is tied to exclusivity, that a thing isn’t special unless someone is keeping you from it. How magnificent is a dandelion? A bit of moss on a broken sidewalk? How inadequate is commerce as an instrument to measure the wonders of our world.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my memoir and sent me a screenshot! I rolled some dice and selected a couple winners of signed copies. (I'll likely do this again, so save a screenshot when you leave a review.)

The same universe that crafted koalas and quasars and crocus petals authored the mind reading these words. Don't let intimate knowledge of your own life rob you of the dignity and wonder you are owed.

If red state schools accept this we are going to get a two-tiered system of higher ed. One set of states will be based in empirical reality and the other will be subject to the whims of a conspiratorial movement that is increasingly detached from facts.

Some amazing character art based on my new cozy, creepy, cryptid novel Strange Animals. This illustration is by the amazing @egallagher.bsky.social. Prepare to meet the horned wolf (and many other strange creatures) this February.

Starting to make friends with editing as a fun puzzle is helping me get over the perfectionism that makes my first drafts so difficult. All that room-for-improvement in my first draft is just a little gift to a future editing session.

Still a little time to get this in.

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

If you enjoyed my memoir, could you take a moment and write a review on that one very popular retail website? You know the one. DM me a pic of your review for a chance to win a signed copy. I'll randomly select a winner at the end of next week.

Finally. October. The 8th month. We can finally begin the festival of the octopus. (This joke brought to you by the Etymology and Cephalopod Awareness Council of Ohio)

If you enjoyed my memoir, could you take a moment and write a review on that one very popular retail website? You know the one. DM me a pic of your review for a chance to win a signed copy. I'll randomly select a winner at the end of next week.

Treat every moth struggling against your kitchen window like it is the soul of a dear friend you never chanced to meet. Treat its frantic flutters as your own panicked breath caged inside your ribs and starving to find gentleness in the dark. (1/2)

Living next to a cemetery, sometimes people ask if I see ghosts. The short answer is, "no." But I do have backyard fires and I do put out an extra chair. Sometimes, I feel like someone has joined me, sitting quietly and feeling the warmth. (1/2)

My new novel has the three c's. Cozy. Cryptids. Cosmic-Horror.

Looks like there is a deep Amz Prime deal on my book Something in the Woods Loves You today.

Hey, if we’re collecting medical recommendations from people without science backgrounds, I’d like to hear Kid Rock’s thoughts on ADHD. Maybe I should swallow a Lego skeleton fig to scare the microplastics out of my blood or something?

Gray tree frog came to visit tonight.

Trump is aggressively ignorant. He does not learn, actively resists it, and has surrounded himself with people who enable his stupidity.

I am the pond. My thoughts are the fish swimming beneath the cattail shadows. My fears are the frogs, floating weightless, their pointed faces parting the lily pads. My hopes are the dragonflies, warming themselves on a willow branch, mirrored in the still water. (1/2)

Thinking about this passage from @jarodkanderson.bsky.social’s “Something in the Woods Loves You” as I continue my job search. When I was younger and journalism was less broken, I used to find a sense of purpose in my work, because it *meant* something to me. I don’t know the last time I felt that.

Van Hollen: "Those who cave in -- those like ABC who cave in -- what they do is give the bully an even bigger appetite. When they appease they bully, they put all of us at risk."

I keep receiving obviously AI-generated emails trying to sell me various services. Like, you couldn't even be bothered to write an email. Why would I ever want to be your client or trust you to exercise judgement/expertise on my behalf?

Sure, I'm an emerging writer. I've been publishing for awhile, but I do love to emerge from stuff. Swamps. Leaf litter. Dark woods. Odd daydreams. Emerging is kinda my thing.