you will be visited by the three ghosts of insomnia past present & future

all I want for christmas is to finish writing this collection in 2026 & to still love it after revising it a hundred times & for it to be a book I can hold in my hands

I have a new story in Short Story Long! many thanks to @aaronburch.bsky.social, a wonderful editor who always makes my writing better, the incredible Zoë Petersen for her beautiful original art, & all of you who take the time to read this one ♡ ashortstorylong.substack.com/p/a-love-sto...

forgot to hit "publish" on this yesterday. wrapping up the year on Short Story, Long with some lists — some more best & fave stories of the century (so far) this week, and some of our fave story collections of 2025 next week. check out some of these faves! add some of your own in the comments!

thinking fondly of the DEAR (drop everything & read) hours in school when we were kids & wishing we could still have that happen as adults, all at the same time no matter what we’re busy doing

a writing residency at the diner from twin peaks. you only leave your booth to go on walks in the woods for inspiration & then the trees warn you to write again

I have a new short story in the wonderful Terrazzo Editions today called “Maybe Mary” & I’d be thrilled if you give it a read. so grateful to amazing editor Gina Nutt. you can find her interview with me here too www.terrazzoeditions.com/terrazzomag/...

I have a new story in @havehashad.com today! my third one 💀 🏚️ ✨ grateful as always to editor @aaronburch.bsky.social for providing a wonderful home for my words + to all of you who read it ♡ www.havehashad.com/hadposts/the...

I have a new tiny story in @havehashad.com today about fleeting connections. thanks as always to @aaronburch.bsky.social, one of the best editors around, & to all of you who read this one ♡ 💀 🪦 ♡ www.havehashad.com/hadposts/our...

I have a new story in Short Story Long today! it’s about the mystery of people you come across often but can’t truly know. many thanks to wonderful editor @aaronburch.bsky.social, Zoë Petersen for the lovely art, & any of you who read it ♡

Here they are as promised! A new batch of prompts for 2025 from me to you with love & gratitude. 🎁 Give 15 minutes a day to your writing during this busy season and start 2026 with 15 fresh drafts or at least some glimmers. Use January to polish and send off. ❤ open.substack.com/pub/artoffla...

a cornfield maze where to get out, you have to finish writing your novel instead of just posting about it

babe go back to bed it’s sleepy girl winter. time to hibernate

my ever growing stack of books I want to read is becoming impatient & starting to lean ominously

another TACOMA blurb, from Colin Winnette! autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma

It's one month until Every Galaxy a Circle comes out! So a thread of why you might want to pre-order it:

Honored to be in the latest issue of @southerninreview.bsky.social. Definitely get yourself a copy to read all the amazing work. Link to issue: secure.touchnet.net/C21706_ustor...

✨A new episode has arrived!✨ Where does the Time Pirate go on a Friday night? Why, her favorite place, of course! Watch ‘Episode 3: Le Buffle of ‘The Time Pirate Who Waits Ashore’ to find out more. 🕰️ youtu.be/i8sXqjaTDJo #thetimepiratewhowaitsashore

I have a new story in one of the very best mags on earth @hexliterary.bsky.social. This is for the 90s kids and recovering addicts and everyone else. Love you.

Today's the day! I have a little essay in here about watching Night Gallery as a kid. This delicious anthology would make a great holiday gift. Thank you Grace R. Reynolds, Wendy Dalrymple & Alison Flannery. And thanks of course to @brigidsgatepress.bsky.social 🖤

& she’s buying a stairway to offline

I still cannot help but read the bride and groom in the ninth iteration as a secret, tenth life. And the oak tree is so perfect. What a lovely story.

A bit late to this haunting story but so glad this was on my feed! "We had forgotten to even consider the possibility that he’d been out in the world living a whole layered life, as specific as it was mundane, and bearing no resemblance to the ones we’d idly imagined and invented for him."

anyway. go read a short story or a chunk of a novel today. enjoy a piece of art. maybe even buy a drawing or painting! reach out and tell an artist how much something they made meant to you.

“After exactly 1 week, 2 days and 17 hours, the number began to decrease. 1801. 1779. 1643. Historians were consulted on significant events of those years. 1385 threw everyone for a loop.” @ramccafferty.bsky.social in @bendinggenres.bsky.social bendinggenres.com/the-digital-...

Delighted that @unchartedmag.bsky.social nominated Thoe Who Run for a Pushcart 🥺

Really thrilled to have a piece in the fantastic new issue of @templeinacity.bsky.social. It's called "God Is Trapped In The Verizon Helpbot." Thank you to @eireneeleni.bsky.social for giving this one a home, and I hope you like it.

Oh man! Okay! So! Buddy comedy? Love story? Prayer? You got it. Don’t let the crude title fool you - this sweet story has the biggest chunk of my heart, and it’s yours now. I’m so, so proud of this one. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it 😊 open.substack.com/pub/ashortst...

lol I love short stories so much, especially the people who read & write them, so I’ll just keep writing these collections of my silly little stories anyway 😌 🫠

my new thing is to stop at the park on my walk, sit on a bench, & read a short story or start to write one. take breaks to look at birds & clouds. it’s the best

So incredibly proud of everything on SSL. The "most popular" 3 of the year (per whatever weird substack metrics, lol) — from @ambersparks.bsky.social, @anniejowrites.bsky.social, @amystuber.com — are an esp strong trifecta; they belong in all the year best anthologies. ashortstorylong.substack.com

“This is the one in which their paths never cross. It is unclear what their opinions of each other would have been had they ever met.” One couple, nine different lives in which they orbit, meet, and possibly fall in love. Fabulous story by @anniejowrites.bsky.social in Short Story Long!

When a story is so wonderful and you wish you had been the one who had written it! #writingCommunity

Here's my new fave @keersteemack.bsky.social.

fun fact: writing is the most effective way to end up having written an entire book someday. unfortunately not many people know this

love writing at night. it’s like forget craft, anything goes. morning me will deal with revising all this

Oh! I just remembered I have a Zoë Petersen gif for @anniejowrites.bsky.social's beautiful Short Story, Long story, “A Love Story Told in Nine Lives”!! Didn't really have place for it, so it's a "social media bonus"! ashortstorylong.substack.com/p/a-love-sto...

get in losers we’re going to go look at the big gorgeous moon

If you love a small press, check out these 100 notable small press books from 2025!

Timeline hopping provides the structure for this beauty by @anniejowrites.bsky.social

Beautiful!

Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of my debut, I'M NOT HUNGRY BUT I COULD EAT, being spat out into the world. So grateful to the readers and supporters, to the friends I've made through its existence, to the nights of laughter and crying and drinking and eating that fueled it and my writing.

✨ A new episode has arrived! ✨ What does a Time Pirate do when she’s stuck on a bus for a long winter-dark morning commute? Watch Episode 2: Route 301 of ‘The Time Pirate Who Waits Ashore’ to find out! 🕰️ Also, a first attempt at trying to have other people in my films! youtu.be/sk73_mfRS98

Excited to have new flash up at Ghost Parachute ghostparachute.com/issue/decemb...

Bird doodles

Interested in interviewing me about my upcoming book, Every Galaxy a Circle? I can talk about writing speculative fiction, why short stories are the best, monsters, baking, outer space, and more. Wow what an interviewer's dream!

oh, hey, that's me! this was a fun one. glad pithead loved and accepted and pubbed it, honored they nominated it. pitheadchapel.com/the-bowling-...

Well @bookshop.org still has free shipping today! Here are some of my favorite books I've read so far this year which would make great reads for you or gifts for a reader in your life! First @joshdenslow.bsky.social Magic Can't Save Us. A delightful and strange story collection

Y’all!