New Year's day with a killer book, a swim in ocean and a kebab. Great start to 2026

Perfect!

A few of my fav main characters of all time: Ripley - Alien Vic - NOS4A2 Merricat - We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shara Thivani - City of Stairs Sarah Connor - Terminator *may or may not give similar vibes to the MC's I write

A building consumed by the natural world; the slow seep of green across windows, flowing out into the street.

Announcement: PodCastle Is Trialling a Six Month Submissions Window!! We will open in November and close in April. See our announcement on the website for details. All our usual Submissions Guidelines still apply. podcastle.org/2025/10/17/a...

Battling the tail-end of my manuscript like Sisyphus with that damn boulder. I will persevere

Baby magpie has crash landed in the backyard and parents are closely guarding. Fear I may never leave my house again

Just keep waiting for that scene where the Statue of Liberty comes to life, and all of New York is singing 'Higher and higher' Gimme some of that Ghostbusters goodvibe energy - it's the season!

S&S has launched a romance-forward New Adult imprint, and I am one of the many editors across the S&S Children’s division who is now also acquiring for Scarlett Press! In addition to my kids/teen list, I’m seeking high stakes NA romantasy & thrillers with plenty of spice, yearning, and tension.

Did you know @nightmare-magazine.com turned 13 this month??!? www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/e...

Watched 'Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead' with the kiddos tonight. Implausible though the whole set-up is, I find myself thinking: this is totally believable in the context of a Gen X childhood.

Why otters always be so cute?

I attended Futurescapes (virtually) a few years back and it was such an awesome experience - direct feedback from quality agents, and some of the nicest and coolest spec-fic writers in the world. Definitely worth checking out - they also have some scholarships available. Fond memories 🥰

Make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel I Don't Even Like That

This week on The SFWA Blog... Successfully Talking to the Press About Your Art: Plot It, Don’t Pants It! by Gideon P. Smith. Read at www.sfwa.org/.../successf...

And here it is: a list of all the places celebrating Women in Horror Month! Includes a wide array of features, interviews, events, & more! Please support these Women in Horror Month efforts; this can't exist without the community! www.gwendolynkiste.com/Blog/roundup...

I'm so late to the party that the lights are off and the hosts have gone to bed but GOD DAMN

Today at noon central! There's a free zoom link below where you can come ask me questions about publishing, as specific to your situation as you'd like. Office Hours are really fun and I'm excited to get back into it. Come hang out

The world of publishing is a funny little beast

Just spent money from a recent short story sale on spring bulbs. It's gonna be a nice reminder when they bloom 🌷

Interested in judging for the next cycle of the Ignyte Awards? Applications to join our longlist judge cohort are now open thru Feb 14. No prior experience as a judge is required, but we do need you to be well-read and familiar with what we do. ignyteawards.fiyahlitmag.com/wanna-judge/

Roses are redde Noble are the manatees Yf we wante a bettir future Teach artes & humanityes

A moody sunset on the Murray river. The riverbank, littered with fenceposts and broken bricks, still tells stories of the last flood.

Got my hands on 'I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call' by @wickedjamison.bsky.social - perfect timing for my holiday read! I highly recommend the first book of the duology, 'I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me.' Def one of my favourite books in recent years!

Just squeaking in before the end of the year, my short story 'Light a Candle' was published in Midnight Echo 19: 'On a lonely stretch of beach, two brothers bid farewell to the last bonfire night, only to discover what really happens when you play with fire...'

Congratulations to @andy-c-orange.bsky.social on her debut YA fantasy, DON'T KISS THE PRINCE, out in Spring 2026!

It would be really helpful if the Christmas/ end of year avalanche would just stop for a moment, so I could finish these critiques and maybe *shock-horror* do some writing

writers - no single work will appeal to everyone. sometimes it's about the craft, or the story, or some element... but sometimes? the work is GREAT! and it's just about finding your readers. keep writing! keep telling the stories that are important to you. keep learning. and find your readers💖

My best horror of 2024 list is up at @nytimes.com! This list could’ve easily been 100 books long. What a year. Anyway, free article, so feel free to share! www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/b...

If you see this please share it around. I'm sure I've only scratched the surface, and new people are joining every day. go.bsky.app/Tph1UKe

The puppeteer.

Every unwritten story is a ghost that haunts me.

Lo! An eligibility post! A few short stories you may have missed, plus other SFFH things that I do! Please have a look! www.pronouncedlahra.com/backmatter/2...

A new episode of this most excellent podcast - perfect timing for my day off

There are so many cool books (and short stories) floating around on here!! My wallet may be crying for mercy but... perhaps just one more early Christmas gift for me? Yes?? Yes 😊

The Kraken Sea makes a great introduction to my work and is 25% off during Apex Book Company's Black Friday sale. The Grand Tour collection is also on sale.

The disgust that has greeted news of Spines, a publisher staffed by four apparent manbots with plans to publish 8000 books a year using AI, has made news www.theguardian.com/books/2024/n...

a ruthless predator, alligators will sometimes use jazz hands to lure musical theatre people to their deaths

Well, that's it, then. 17 cities across 3 countries in 6 weeks, ending here at the Miami Book Fair to another packed house in convo w the great Nicola Yoon. I signed thousands of books and Absolution made the NYT, LA Times, Indie Bookstore bestseller lists, along w amazing amount of press coverage.

*door in my house opens on its own* me: fascinating. there must be quite a temperature differential between these two rooms to create that kind of pressure the ghost haunting me: (slamming its head through the wall) i hate you i hate you i hate you i hate you

Killer books indeed! 🖤

Ah, the sweet, sweet sound of a story acceptance in the morning

Love this!🤣

Too many great horror authors on this list to read all their work in one lifetime, but you can follow them all with the click of a button! Includes @sgj.bsky.social, @lairdbarron.bsky.social, @tananarivedue.bsky.social, @chuckwendig.bsky.social, @gabino.bsky.social & more! go.bsky.app/GLNetLS

Thanks Gabino! Tradwife is a fictional true crime-style reconstruction of a mass murder in a Stepford-esque Tradwife community, & I'm hoping it'll get whoever reads it as mad as I am about the grotesqueries of institutional misogyny It's out December 9, but pre-orderable now tinyurl.com/5x5xjtev

I've already talked about my '25 adult horror novel, I'LL MAKE A SPECTACLE OF YOU, so here's my next book. CHARLEY'S HONKY TONK MISSION is my lyrical picture book celebrating Charley Pride, America's 1st Black country music star. Miguelina Milien is the incredible illustrator. Coming spring '26 🎸

Post you from a different era

Here’s some Dan Hillier art to make your Wednesday a little better.

Gotta say, I am really starting to enjoy my Bluesky feed - it's beginning to feel like home. Thanks peeps!