I think I have finally fought back spider mites on a plant for the first time. I think I’ve gone through the whole Hero’s Journey in the process 🥲🥲

My new plant has spider mites?? In _this_ economy??

What a heartwarming way to round out the year! I can hardly believe“Soul Food” shares a list with all these stellar SFF and Horror stories. I know I’m going to devour the rest of the works on this list too :’)

Hey, you! Yes, you. Deadline for registering to vote in NYC is tomorrow. If you’re eligible make your voice heard!

It’s that time again. Here are 2 pieces that have stuck with me over the past few months! The Repeat Room by Jesse Ball. Grim and uncomfortable and a delight to read. Whale Fall of Yours by M. M. Olivas. The kind of piece you have to stop and sit with after you’ve finished. Whew.

If you could summon the Crossroads Man, what might you make a deal for? What might you be willing to lose? My short story “Soul Food” is out in FIYAH today along with so many other incredible pieces. You can check it out here :’)

I’ve been lucky enough to workshop this piece! It’s got such a gorgeous lush world and the tension between Vesper and Ireika? arthur-clenched-fist.jpeg

I'm so honored and excited to share I have a new story in @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social coming out this October! Look at this incredible cover! Cant wait for y'all to read it :')

“A hallmark of being a Black child in advanced literature classes is the ability to separate the art from the artist, even before you know you’re doing it.”

That feeling when you lend someone a book and they come back and ask if you have the sequel??? Unparalleled.

A few more books joined my “writing goals” shelf in the first half of this year: Kaikeyi by Vishnavi Patel. I love a complex woman character. Unabashed anger? Battering down double standards?? Gimme. How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. 1 word. P r o s e.

📚 Since 2022, the @BrooklynPublicLibrary has offered free eCards to teens nationwide facing book bans in their local communities! ✊🏾✨ 📖 Parable of the Sower by @OctaviaEButler 📖 The Hate U Give by @angiethomas 📖 Gender Queer by @MaiaKobabe 📖 All Boys Aren’t Blue by @GeorgeMJohnson

So I just started listening to Writer’s Routine. And I cannot believe that the Anthony Horowitz of my beloved Magpie Murders is the SAME Anthony Horowitz that wrote the Alex Rider series. Talk about a callback!!

One aspect of being chronically ill is I know, indisputably, what the best sick at home show is. Taskmaster. It is funny. It requires 2 brain cells max. You can pass out and wake up and not feel you’ve missed a thing.

Decided to learn how to sew. I’m definitely not picking up another hobby to purchase all the supplies for and abandon in 3 months. But I am enjoying picking out several patterns and pinning fabric stores and ooooh notions!

Listen closely. Hannah is one of the most talented writers ever. And I mean ever. Go read all her stuff, she has linked to a lot of beautiful work on her profile. It’s the best thing you’ll do with your day! (Also give her more awards they’re so well deserved!!)

I want super flowery speculative fiction. Give me the most vivid violet prose but with magic and time travel. Apparently some of these books are hiding in the Fiction TM genre but how do I tell them apart? Just read every back copy from a-z?

Me having an ardent debate at work at 4:59 pm. Then 🕔 (🍕)

I know writing a novel is a rollercoaster of emotion but what if it was just nice and flat? I have an idea —I wrote the idea— I didn’t cry about the complexity of the idea—I finished the idea Just. So nice. So flat.

I just downloaded the Bookshop.org app!! Excited to try out e reader alternatives to the Big Online Store

My theory is 83% of people who love their jobs do super niche things that only a handful of the population can possibly do. Like “Panda barber” or “food mosaic artist”. Out here like “I’m super happy also my joy is impossible to reproduce!”

I really want the New York Times to do a “which house did they pick” but for the nyc rental market. Did they take the cosy sunny unit with 0 closets? The large unit that with 2 windows both facing a brick wall? Or the huge sunny affordable one a 35 min walk from the subway?

Has anyone figured out the balance between wanting to write tons of snarky skeets and wanting the kind of privacy that is living in a cabin by a pond, writing all your work via typewriter and shipping it to your editor in a box? Bc if so pls share lol

Why don’t we have a workplace comedy about airports yet? With an operation this complex I’m sure there’s some shenanigans that you could wring 4 seasons of laughs out of

Okay who made the little claymation frog to go with Bad Bunny’s new album? I’m o b s e s s e d this lil guy is so cute

Finally I get to make a “announcement” in writerly fashion! Thrilled to share I’ll be attending Futurescapes in Florence, Italy this May!! So excited to work with the incredible Ali Fisher. Already loved her thoughts on Writing Excuses and the idea of getting them in person?? 🥹

The holidays are almost upon us! Time for all writers to overestimate how much time we’ll have to write because we’ll have a “break”

Currently in bed. Plan is to get dressed, fed and to a coffee shop in the next hour. This is my Everest.

One of my fave writer habits is my “goals” bookshelf. It’s those books where I think “wow I hope I write like this one day” A few from mine: Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, Jade City by Fonda Lee. What’s on yours? #booksky #authorsky

The older I get the more I realize that cats have been setting the example the whole time and I just haven’t been listening. Have you ever tried to cross a cat’s boundaries? Did you try more than once?

Idk why no one told me about the bedtime hack that is short stories?? I’ve gotten a few old copies of those “Best American” anthologies and I tuck myself in every night with 6k fantastic words, an awesome resolution, then 😴

This weekend I’ve been watching Leverage after a suggestion from my writers group. It’s great when writing research is also wild, good time. Anyone else have unexpected fun comps for their work? #writersky #authorsky

Finally accepted I’m done with the bird app. Looking for friends who read and write sff. I’m a writer hoping to query my first novel next year. In the mean time, I’d love to hear what y’all are reading and writing! 💙📚 #blackbooksky