This IS the reason I can’t join a book club though. I got an English degree and still read a lot, but assign me a group reading task?? 🔪

Questions to get unstuck: not “what is most logical from what I’ve written before,” but “what hat would be the most funny/huge/wild thing to happen next?”

Is the drug lexapro? Please sign me up. 😂

After a truly stressful day, at least I can say I’m not in the dungeon. Yet.

I’m not just a mom (sneaking protein and fiber into my children’s diet by way of delicious smoothies) I’m a fun mom (once in a blue moon I put whipped cream on top)

listen I know v little about football & its attendant lores all I know is that the sight of men dressed up as knights templar looking v sad brings me joy at an ancestral level

While working on the background color I found I had a delightful color palette. One nice evening I sat outside and painted an ornamental Japanese Maple. #nature #maple #sketchbook #pleinair

Now I’m wondering: why does weird horror so often use the biggest words? Does it help distance us from the real world? (Are they all trying to scare us into using the dictionary more often? )

I haven’t seen anyone in my circles talk about this book so let me pitch you! Sapphic, Lovecraftian, the real horror is Wall Street and the patriarchy. This prose is dense, visual and full of $10 words (Mieville but no grapeyness)

I will follow the Oxford comma to the ends of the earth and back.

Writing while employed full-time while parenting while managing ongoing health issues is really a wild ride. In an “I’m too old for roller-coasters” kind of way.

Writing desk reminders: because it is fun, I worry that it doesn’t matter. Write anyway. #writingreminders #firstdraft #amwriting #writersofbluesky

Writing Desk Reminders: bad art still matters. It makes the world better because EVERYONE should be allowed to embrace their creativity. Also, it’s just a first draft. #amwriting #writersofbluesky #writing

Sometimes I need someone to be my hope keeper. This podcast ep helped today! #creativepeptalk #amwriting #writersofbluesky

Getting my hot-author walk in early today so it doesn’t become a heat-stroke-author walk later. 😂 #amwriting #writersofbluesky

Who else is working on a New Project? So far I have only vibes, but I want female friendship, a hopeful ending, and the beauty of the world to infuse the whole thing.

So I realized yesterday that the plot of the Matrix movies could also be described as: girl gets set up on a blind date by her weird, religious uncle. If she doesn’t like him, the machines win.

The Sun Times’ response to the AI generated summer reading list they posted. chicago.suntimes.com/press-room/2...

Sick. Read a lot in January, though.

Bonus points if the cozy makes us look at those normal-size stakes in a new way through contrast with a magical world! Or a sci-fi world! But the driving tension has to be smaller and ideally there’s LESS trauma than our current reality. 4/4

Even a cozy mystery, where the stakes are a little higher (“solve a murder”) are still achievable by an average human in a way that “give an immortal free will” is not. 3/?

What does make a “cozy” is life-size stakes. So, not “give an immortal race free will,” but “figure out my next career step with the help of my found family.” If the central driver of the action is not a normal-sized stake, it’s not really cozy. 2/?

What makes a “cozy”: my hot take. Too many readers and authors mistake “predictable” for “cozy.” Just because it has a fated mate trope in it and we all know how those play out DOESN’T negate all the trauma. A thread: 1/?

I have been searching and searching for a book series I read in the 90s and could remember almost nothing about — I FOUND IT!! Darkangel, a Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World by Meredith Ann Pierce. Sweet victory. Who else loved these back in the day? #amreading #booksky

Me: why am I reading so slowly? I’ll never make it through my TBR stack this year! Also me: has read 16 books in the first 21 days of the year.

This is probably the closest I’m ever going to get to a flock of birds. Immediately tempted to put a close bird encounter into my book. #amwriting #booksky

What’s that you say? I should write my novel instead of plotting a walking challenge? Hush, I’ll get back to that tomorrow.

I was born for this moment - leading a group of nerdy friends on a very long walk with nerdy fun facts! 🤓📚💀

Yes! I made my own spreadsheet is more detailed than I could find online and YES internet archive came through for me so now I am up on the debate between using maps or textual references to calculate the distances!

I had so many big dreams for 2025. Finish my draft! Revise! It only took one day back at work to realize I need to make them small dreams. Crushed by my inbox. 💀#amwriting #booksky

May your new year be full of library books returned on time! 📚

Our own Christmas miracle. Actual snow that stuck to the actual ground. Brisk air woke me enough to get 1,000 words down!

Robust creativity is a process - I’ll die on that hill. Still, this book is annoying me by the sheer privilege of the artists included. Only one so far has to have a day job and raise kids. Also way too many are morning people 😅 #booksky #amreading

Just finished this one - a fast, engaging book. Killer premise. A little too quick. Great for a weekend full of other social plans, though, when I won’t get any writing done anyway. #booksky #amreading

Too stressed out lately to do much writing, so am reading instead. This riveting piece of journalism makes me wonder: where’s the actual line between “non-murder-y true crime” and just “history book”? #booksky #amreading

“Our ego plays this little trick to keep us from getting started. Instead of allowing ourselves a creative journey, we focus on the length of the trip. “It’s such a long way,” we tell ourselves. It may be, but each day is just one more day with some motion in it” - The Artist’s Way p 139

My 2025 reading goals are to use tags smarter. I want to see which sources I use to get my books and which year I bought them in. Jazzed and terrified about this project 😂 #reading #booksky

I’ve had just such an enjoyable and interesting reading year. Done with 173 books so far, and 32 of them were 5-stars I’ve been trying to shove into others’ hands. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ #reading #booksky

I’m glad I waited almost five years before reading this book. It transports me back to the early months of 2020. The fear, the uncertainty, the surprising way we all made things and cared for one another. The murder of George Floyd. I do recommend the book, though. 10/10. #reading #booksky

My office is the funniest

'Blue Bird on a Plum Tree' - Ohara Koson, ca. 1930s. #JapaneseArt #shinhanga #birds

Found some great new people to follow here!

I’m practically an evangelist for StoryGraph. It’s not owned by Amazon! It gives you pretty graphics! Plan challenges, write reviews! It’s so good it fools me into reading 100+ books a year! #reading #storygraph

I just hit 170 books read for the year and my immediate instinct is: I wonder if I can get to 200!? Then I realized it’s already December 3 and I have a job. 💀 #reading

Coming back from vacation, in the immortal words of James Acaster: “started baking it, had a breakdown. Bon appetit.”

Now my brain is spinning 😂

Suddenly tempted to apply!

Here's my header art, Megatherian, the dark wizard! QRP with your header art, too!