These scams have just exploded in the last few months. I get at least 2 or 3 every week. This article covers them all. #amwriting #writingcommunity writerbeware.blog/2025/09/19/r...

Well, I guess I’m a writer. Are you? #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

While hundreds of VOA journalists are sidelined, a small crew of ~100 works nonstop with minimal resources—including Persian colleagues worried about family in Iran. We just want to return to full operations and produce journalism, not propaganda. #SaveVOA @pwidakuswara @spj-posts.bsky.social

I thank Mae and Don Swan every day for teaching me to read and love books. Sadly, it doesn't happen much anymore. #reading #books #education www.freep.com/story/sports...

Friends, I am blessed. I've found the secret to changing my life - not love, money, writing, or any of that other boring stuff. Thanks to the good folks at the New York Times, I know it's SALAD DRESSING!!!!!! As one of my journalism professors once said, "Stop the f****** presses!"

All hands on deck, folks. This will effectively eliminate all books by queer authors and about queer lives, even books with secondary characters, books where the author or a character uses they/them pronouns. This bill will erase identities and harm kids. And it won't stop at public schools.

For decades VOA’s Afghan service has been a beacon for those living under repressive or dangerous conditions. At its peak, it broadcast 24/7 in Dari and Pashto. Today, under Kari Lake’s leadership, the service only broadcasts for 2.5 hours a week. Call on Congress to restore VOA.

Those little ideas sometimes produce very big things. Like “Brokeback Mountain.” #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

Why I love this magazine: Mary Gaitskill and David Sedaris in the same issue! #NewYorker #writing

Ten years ago a deranged Uber driver murdered six people and wounded two more in Kalamazoo Michigan, my hometown. One of the dead was Mary Jo Nye (bottom left), who I knew in the 70s. More at mlive.com. It's a f**k*** disgrace that we do nothing to stop these killings. #KalamazooStrong

Maya Angelou left us long before AI was invented but she got it right. #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

A deadly hurricane bears down on the Gulf. A longtime resident makes a fateful choice. Read my new story "An Uncloudy Day" published by the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature: deadmule.com/david-swan-a.... #amwriting #fiction #hurricanes #GulfofMexico

Can men write female characters? Read this author's tips on creating characters who are nothing like our own selves. #amwriting #writingcommunity janefriedman.com/writing-beyo...

Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other outlets spread American values for 80 years. Now they’ve been mothballed. By Joshua Muravchik of @thefp.com.

Enthusiasm is contagious. So is every writer’s acquaintance: doubt. Don’t let it infect your pages. #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

For #BlackHistoryMonth, PEN America has curated a reading list of books that have been banned in public schools across the country. Titles range from classics like Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to picture books about self-love and the history of rap. bookshop.org/lists/black-...

As @VP visits #Azerbaijan, we urge the administration to demand the immediate and unconditional release of detained journalists and political prisoners—including @VOANews journalist Ulviyya Ali. Silence is not an option. #FreeThemAll #SaveVOA

Like any job, writing requires tools. Some are physical, but the most valuable come from the author's mind and heart. Read more in my new Substack post. #amwriting #amquerying #writingcommunity #writerslife open.substack.com/pub/daveswan...

“Patsy Widakuswara—a seasoned veteran of VOA—finds herself at the heart of a legal battle over the future existence of the Voice of America.”

Beckett probably thought of himself as a failure. Some people agreed. But who remembers what they said? #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

Well, this is interesting: men are more willing to read stories with female main character than women are to read stories with male main character. I confess I would have predicted the opposite. #booksky #authorsky news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...

A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.

GET YOUR GODDAM HANDS OFF MY BALLOT #fultoncounty #georgia www.ajc.com/politics/202...

These words demand attention. “In a real sense this is holy ground, consecrated by blood spilled here. The cost is high, and so I had to be here to stand in the very place where this tragedy unfurled… I think we’re at a defining moment for our country…” ~ Rev Warnock Take a moment, so much more…

Words for our time from a legendary jazz musician. Open it. Push it. Create something. Create some more. #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

Rest in Peace Alex Jeffrey Pretti🙏🏾 The VA ICU Nurses send him off right 💔

Lots of ice on the neighbor's trees. Hope the branches don't fall on the power lines. #WinterStormFern

[nods] newrepublic.com/article/2055...

Amnesty has issued a report about rising #authoritarianism & #humanRights violations in #USA, incl enforced disappearances, restrictions on #freeSpeech incl the media, increased #corruption, militarisation of law enforcement, mass surveillance, weakening of rule of law www.jurist.org/news/2026/01...

The people who lost the Civil War have been rewriting and lying about our history for 150 years. Trump is doing the same thing. Read more in my new Substack post: open.substack.com/pub/daveswan...

Coming soon to my shelf. #mystery #mysterywriters

John Lydon said “Anger is an energy.” It doesn’t have to be anger, but it’s got to come from deep down inside. #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

If Thomas Paine were alive today, he'd write something like this. #resist #nokings www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

If there is a special Hell for writers it would be in the forced contemplation of their own works. —John Dos Passos

#Epstein #EpsteinFiles

Posts from Minneapolis residents read like they'll be read in voiceover in a Ken Burns-like doc one day

Instead of staring at the screen, just knock out something that might, possibly, somehow make sense. Keep the fingers moving and the brain in gear. #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

Great news for honest journalism and free speech. #VOA #savevoa

Like detective stories? Check out this crazy tale of fearless environmental private eye L. G. Green investigating a massive oil spill that might be from a long-lost German submarine off Florida. open.substack.com/pub/daveswan... #fiction #humor #florida

In an alternate reality, VOA Spanish would have covered the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro comprehensively, providing context and history to 100 million audience members in Latin America. Instead, we’ve crossed over to The VOA Twilight Zone.

Make it viral.

You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today. This could be you.

If you write for yourself, you’ll always have an audience. You’ll also get better and find a lot more fans. #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

Atlanta-area writing folks: this is one of the many benefits of joining the AWC. #amwriting #writingcommunity

Working on your New Year's query list? Lots of possibilities here. PS: have a happy one! #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife #amquerying

All of the top 10 books borrowed through the public library app Libby were written by women. And Kristin Hannah's The Women was the top checkout in many library systems around the country.

What will your voice tell the world in the new year? #amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife

Great little thread about Die Hard. The single greatest stage performance I've ever seen live was Alan Rickman in "Les Liasions Dangereuse" on B'way. and it turns out Joel Silver saw it too, which is how Rickman was cast.

#amwriting #writetip #WritingCommunity #writerslife #amquerying #ChristmasEve #HolidaySeason