After riding my new ebike to work every day for the last three weeks I am devastated to share that light exercise in the morning does, in fact, make you feel a lot better.

The venn diagram of people who support generative AI and people who always managed to not do any work in a group project in school but still took the A, is a circle.

Deep in revisions for my debut novel and remembering that the hardest part about writing this book is actually coming up with dozens of social media handles 😫

When I was waiting tables in college, I waited on Joan Cusack and her family. I didn't mention that I recognized her, since she was clearly trying to stay on the DL. She left me a $100 tip and note thanking me for my discretion.

SO. MUCH. THIS. Young people want them. And writers want to write them. Publishing needs to buy them.

Here's the thing that doesn't get talked about enough. It's not actually about parental rights. It's about human rights. Because young people are human. Humans have a right to information about the world they live in. Period. Parents are free to put their own spin on that. But not to withhold it.

The Trump Administration is desperate to have this case dismissed www.everylibrary.org/trump_imls_e... via @everylibrary.bsky.social

Everyone understands that this is DIRECTLY RELATED to the who Depp/Heard thing, right? That that case opened the door to more of this stuff. We all get that right? RIGHT?

This book is starting to show up on a ton of Best of 2024 lists, and with good cause. If you have a kiddo who loves scary stories, @anneursu.bsky.social's NOT QUITE A GHOST needs to be on your bookshelf! bookshop.org/p/books/not-...

Watching the Iowa Opus Honor Choir live stream because my niblings are singing, and right now the 9th grade choir is doing a choral version of Times They Are A Changing and I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

Whenever we make ourselves smaller for them, they just shrink our box again.

The rules are the rules.

"Alex seems to have little patience for those who are... how to say it... not as smart as her." -my seventh grade English teacher

I'm so proud of this year's Chicago Public Library Teen Best of the Best list. Now, more than ever, those of us on this committee strive to make sure that every teen can find themselves reflected in these books. chipublib.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/disp...

Why do I always think a little vacation will fix me when what would actually fix me was not stressing about money for every moment of my life.

👇🏼👀

Oh Hi. I am trying to drastically limit my time online, but I do write about my struggles to find joy in writing and in life that you can read if you want to. open.substack.com/pub/alexfall...

I just need you to know that in Illinois, there are two animals that can be service animals. Dogs, and MINIATURE PONIES.

Oh Hai! I wrote about my querying journey (which just ended! Because I signed with an amazing agent!) and how much I love Hamline MFAC open.substack.com/pub/alexfall...

I wrote a different kind of recap and I loved it so much I think this is going to be my new yearly tradition. open.substack.com/pub/alexfall...

Karen Smith being sworn in to the Central Bucks school board, a district near Philadelphia. For her oath she chose to place her hand on a stack of frequently challenged & banned books. 📚 www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/l...

Families of Central Buck School District were so excited to replace their Moms For Liberty-backed school board they held a tailgate party as their newly-elected school board was sworn in. Among the new board's first actions were reversing many of the anti-LGBT proposals adopted by the ousted board

I wrote about how I'm about to turn 40 and I have no idea what that means or if it means anything at all, so check it out if you want. alexfallgren.substack.com/p/next-month...

While You Were Sleeping is a truly perfect movie. It is facts.

love repackaging those dystopian late-stage capitalist horrors as heartwarming stories

My latest newsletter explores free speech, hate speech, and the debate over "From the River to the Sea." dashkaslater.substack.com/p/what-we-ta...

List 5 famous people you’ve met, but one is a lie Yo-Yo Ma Joan Cusack Neve Campbell Bernadette Peters Bobby McFerrin

When I started at Hamline MFAC I was in awe of every single faculty member (still am, tbh) and they are all wonderful and amazing and supportive and I will literally never be over it.

I will NEVER not be annoyed by people who get all fucking snotty with me while I am actively helping them with something so utterly basic my 3 year old nephew knows how to do it. Especially when they are wearing headphones blaring so loud I can hear it. #librarylife

It's MC day for #FinishUrBookFall so ... Meet Mira! She's the daughter of a prominent momfluencer, and her whole life has been chronicled in humiliating detail online. If she had her way, she'd slater paint on canvas all day and throw her phone in Lake Michigan.

One of the best parts of the WGA deal: AI has now hit a brick wall in Hollywood, *and that includes adaptations.* Based on the deal, AI can't be source material. So if you're a publisher, AI novels or graphic novels or whatever just became that much less appealing because *they can't be optioned.*

Thinking about how much children’s publishing relies on the prestige of certain industry awards for sales and prestige, it sure would be nice if say, the ALA put language into their award qualifications explicitly saying anything created with/by AI was automatically disqualified . 👀🧐🤔

Aesthetic mood board of my beautiful disaster girls for this week's #FinishUrBookFall.

Yay! I'm excited to do #FinishUrBookFall again! I'm Alex and I write books about queer girls doing hard things. I'm hoping to finish final revisions and start querying my YA contemp about the daughter of a momfluencer who sues her mother in order to finally gain control of her online image.

Wondering how you as a regular person not affiliated with a library can fight book bans? Here you go: www.tor.com/2022/03/16/b...

An exquisite show of solidarity.

Via David Beard: Anti-LBGTQ+ activists want to eliminate books by and for queer and trans people from libraries. Librarians stand in their way. "They are not just coming for the books; they are coming for the library and the people and ideas that make libraries possible."

I said what I said. www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/l...

A bomb threat was called into my library the other day. I'd love for the people who are not trying to kill me to get involved in keeping libraries safe and full of free information, please and thank you.

I'm here for him spilling the tea on all his asshole GOP colleagues, but let's be clear - Romney is still not 'honorable.' He's not a good guy. He belongs to TWO orgs that are proudly & overtly racist, homophobic, and misogynistic and BOTH both have the power to ruin lives.

When facing the "All we need is STEM!" approach to education, my usual response is: Developing the vaccine was the STEM problem; distribution & getting shots in arms was the Social Science problem; getting people to trust it & combatting misinformation was the Humanities problem-- which did we fail?

Kaitlyn Greenidge on book bans: "To suppress the books and ideas that trouble us is to suppress the questions children have about why the world works the way it does...These are the types of questions that have brought down empires or remade them..." www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/a448...

Turns out that suddenly having massive insomnia and feelings of anxiety in your body can indicate Long COVID. This disease just keeps getting better and better.

Sure, you can call anyone an instabuy author, but the question is who you automatically look up when the preorder sale hits to see if they've got anything coming.

One of the hardest conversations I have to have as a librarian is when parents want me to tell them if a book 'is appropriate for [insert age] year olds.' I always want to scream my head off that their kid has a right to read whatever they effing want.

What if we got crazy, really mixed things up, and treated artists and authors like human beings who are entitled to their fruits of their labor?

We spend a lot of time telling kids that they can be whoever they want to be, but I think it might be more important to tell them that they can be who they are

My totally unsolicited opinion about FOURTH WING is that there is nothing original in it at all, I saw every plot point coming a mile away, and yet I read the entire thing in 2 days bc I couldn't put it down 🤷 idk bro, sometimes I just wanna read about dragons.

Started putting together a query list for this MS I'm trying to finish and ... I'm already exhausted. Just looking at the trenches/roller coaster is hard right now.