The Pulp Tarot has spoken and says that I’m running myself ragged and I’m on the verge of burnout if I don’t take care of myself and refill my well. TLDR, I need to put on my own oxygen mask before helping others.

Static and stimulation detox.

Probably not the best book to be reading in the work cafeteria. 🤷‍♂️

Summer gazebo office is now operational.

Spenser loves museums and one of the reasons we like to go together and he hates going with other teenagers, is because we both love to linger and observe and absorb the art before moving on. I love looking at brush strokes up close and pencil marks and sculpture creation marks.

I love notebooks, I love planners, and I love organizational systems that might finally be the one to work for me, so it was only a matter of time before I joined the bullet journal cult. So far, this one looks like it might stick.

Finding out Elaine May worked as a secretary for a PI —a PI that she was stronger than and afraid of hurting when he hit on her — lights up so many different parts of my creative inspiration centers.

This is one of my favorite books of Laura’s a recommend everyone read it. The world is on fire and entertainment is important. Entertainment that is fun and makes you think without being overbearing is even more important and incredibly rare.

Executive editor of a crime fiction line. I’ve done a ton of freelancing, and I’ve had a couple of opportunities to work on new publishing imprints but neither worked out long term. I gave up the dream of working in publishing a while ago, but I still think about it once in a while and sigh.

Ribbit, ribbit.

I loved this book. It could have easily been a hackey, cynical “literary thriller” or worse, a too slick calculated grab full of brilliant plotting but no soul. Instead its messy and human and elegant and wonderful and inevitable.

This book is a gold mine of inspiration and instruction and creative companionship. It’s like 50 little hits of On Writing or Bird by Bird or Kurt Vonnegut interviews mixed with the vibes and joy of the early 2000s lit blog scene.

I loved the book this is based on and can’t wait to watch it. I really wish American TV execs would get their heads out of their assess and start making more of this stuff instead of it always being Europeans who make it.

I can’t believe today is this kid’s last day of school. He’s the sweetest, kindest, most helpful person I know and I’m proud to call him my son. Now I need to go bawl my eyes out.

I'm just one person trying to compete in a busy algorithm but still hoping to remind you that 1000 Words of Summer starts this coming Saturday, May 30. Our ninth year of writing 1000 Words a day alongside thousands of other people for two weeks straight. 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/about

I highly recommend everyone read @doctorow.pluralistic.net’s excellent book ENSHITTIFICATION which explains this type of thing in great detail. It wasn’t as depressing as I expected because he also lays out a very clear path to combatting it and gives examples of where it’s happening.

It’s past the point of ridiculousness how closely @joebrosnan.bsky.social’s tastes match mine, but this is even freakier. This sounds like the novel I wanted RIOT LOAD to be but wasn’t mature enough to pull off. Can’t wait to read this one.

I always loved the fact that the movie Runaway Bride and Richard Gere’s character were based on a real Sport Illustrated columnist. I feel about Sports Illustrated the way I feel about Deadspin, they did some great journalism that just happened to be about sports and are greatly missed.

Well that hits too close to the bone.

When Harry Met Sally and Grogu

With as whacked out as wealth inequality is in this country and as tone deaf as the billionaire class is, I’m surprised we’re not drowning in Robin Hood-style ”ethical” heist books and movies.

This has signature @johnrogers.bsky.social heist written all over it.

Everything you need to know about 1000 Words of Summer is right here. Starts two weeks from TODAY on May 30. Are you in? 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/p/1000-words...

I read something about a cool idea a teacher was doing. She embraced AI and had the students use it to write something and then they all got together and talked about why it was bad and didn’t work.

Yeah, it’s been that kind week, month, year…

I was excited to get a copy of @ryanslowell.bsky.social ’s upcoming first novel and its the kind of book I didn’t think they made anymore. It’s short and nasty and funny and violent and a paperback original. Highly recommended.

Yes, modern technology limits a lot of what authors can do to move their plots forward, but it also opens up incredibly fertile avenues to creativity like this.

Laura is one of the true masters of using alt text in amazing and inventive ways.

Drop your crime fighting Angelicans.

I don't recall any previous transformative technologies that had to be sold to the public so hard. No one in 1999 was going, "Guys. Cell phone? It's coming, whether we like it or not. I think it's important, FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY, to learn about cell phone. So that we're not left behind!!"

I’ll take Signs of an Impending AI Bubble Popping in an Almost Hilariously Identical Way as the Dot Com Bubble for $1000.

Drop your crime fighting Catholics.

A billion dollars is the socio-economic equivalent of a loose nuke, and we should work to prevent the acquisition of the former with the same urgency and ruthlessness we use to prevent the acquisition of the latter.

I’ve always wondered this. It’s like back in the print heyday being unable to buy a single issue of a newspaper or magazine and being forced to subscribe just to read an article you want. That would seem ludicrous, but somehow makes sense digitally?

@jordanharper.bsky.social just can‘t help getting the news headlines to do his book publicity for him. A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE coming April 28.

Dammit, now I need to watch I’LL BE ME again. I wasn’t planning on crying tonight…

Best Star Trek crew. Wrong answers only.

I think there’s a pretty stark demarcation before Bridget Jones’ Diary and after.

These are the sorts of managers who make everyone come into the office for performative collaboration and productivity without having a clue how to actually lead.

Barnes & Nobel is having a preorder sale right now, including my next novel A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE. So take some of that money you saved from the Criterion flash sale and buy yourself some Literature™️

Detroit to Orlando.

Always nice to jump on LinkedIn demoralized about the job search and see a video from the company that laid me off crowing about their nearly $1 billion profit last year.

We need more publishers between the under-funded, under-resourced micro presses run by people with tons of passion and zero business sense and the major presses run by conglomerates with too much business sense and zero passion. I’ve been a part of a couple operations that tried, but it’s hard.

This weather definitely doesn’t feel like the beginning of ever single disaster movie ever. Not at all.

This feels representative of a lot of the problems with the larger media today. They want the freedom and respect that comes with being an objective journalist, but they also want the access and feel good appreciation that comes with being an insider. They ultimately end up betraying both sides.

Me too. I think there’s an element where we want to feel like that even at our worst we’re still redeemable. I mean, at least we’re not a professional killer.

“The US economy has LOST jobs since April 2025. Total job gains since from May 2025 to February 2026 are now -19,000,” Navy Federal chief economist Heather Long wrote. “Companies are not hiring in the face of all of these headwinds and uncertainty. And even healthcare is starting to slow down.”

Yes! And plays and poetry and comic books. Also look at art and listen to music and see live theater And puppet shows and drag shows. Experience all of the arts and let yourself be immersed and inspired.

This requires a longer bit of writing to really explore, but in our society we talk about “the dignity of work”, and that’s a mistake. People, I think, don’t emotionally crave *work*, they crave to *make*. To make a change in the working some individually pleasing way, physical, emotional, social.

Alvin Simon Theodore Dave