I mean yes he’s correct but also that’s because Tolkien didn’t actual give a shit about writing *anything* about character, the motivation for characters in Tolkien is “be a vehicle for my lore”

We can’t wait for Festival Day THIS SUNDAY at Borough Hall and surrounding areas! 8 stages and 250 publishers. You won’t want to miss our incredible panels and events running from 10:00am to 6:00pm. Visit our website for more info on the #BKBF25 weekend! brooklynbookfestival.org/event_type/f...

When you publish your first book, everyone in your life is so excited for you, and then every book after that is like

I wrote a craft essay for @literaryhub.bsky.social about solo road-tripping and creativity. lithub.com/karen-palmer...

Ah, this takes me back to the good old Twitter days 😢

ICYMI: I wrote a story about nostalgia and parties and the gorgeous wild unseriousness of this life and how sad and good it all is, and it has (almost) nothing to do with politics at all and I do really hope you read it because I wrote it for you ashortstorylong.substack.com/p/your-life-...

I cannot stress enough how much media consolidation under billionaires is not only part of the discussion about censorship, it is THE discussion. Oligarchs don’t care about ideology, they care about money, and if a leader offers them unlimited wealth, they’ll sell their own mother out to get it

This story by @ambersparks.bsky.social in Short Story, Long surprises and moves at every turn. One to read and return to again and again! ashortstorylong.substack.com/p/your-life-...

I just need to know why every news headline right now isn’t Holy Christ Have You Seen This Fascist Shit

Every single day I wonder where the hell all the normal people went and why they aren’t completely horrified right now - and let’s not even talk about the huge hole where the libertarians ought to be

Guys, I could NOT be more excited to have a story published at Short Story, Long, and I honestly really love this story in a way that I think you love just a few stories you’ve written. Maybe it’s the encroaching nostalgia, maybe it’s just the fun I had with the form, but I hope you’ll read it!

There are no quiet parts. Everything is out loud now.

Today the ten year old told me she and her friends are starting a band called The Macbeths

I’ve read a billion books and watched a million films and documentaries about the rise of fascism in Europe in the 30s and I really never thought being one of the fascism noticers would feel like this but here we are

“You look happier” thanks my daughter is entering her Obsessed with Ancient Egypt phrase

Friends! Support and submit to this anthology - honestly one of the most fun things I’ve gotten to write in ages, and the book is going to be a blast to read

Dear Bluesky: I’m a HUGE Halloween person, and every October my husband and I pick out a theme and then watch/read horror stuff in that theme. So this year we’re doing cosmic horror (the obvious picks being Junji Ito, Lovecraft, The Thing, etc) but what film and book recs do you have? Any for kids?

Is anyone else always living a couple of parallel lives in their head that they check in on from time to time or is that just me being a writer

Everything is terrible but you could hang out with me and a bunch of like-minded goths making spooky fiction in October!

Well, my extremely high bar reader husband just said my book was absolutely excellent, and shockingly, a page turner, and also that I should stop apologizing for writing this book, which I will never do because I am from the upper Midwest

Text from the review.

Ok who’s going to the Brooklyn Book Fest next week? I somehow magically get to be a panel with Stephen Graham Jones @sgj.bsky.social and Christine Li, moderated by @tobiascarroll.bsky.social - I truly do think it’s a gonna be a banger if you’re around! brooklynbookfestival.org/event/if-the...

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; Hill House, realizing this, picked up and relocated itself to Seoul.

I think the very online gamer in his bedroom has just replaced the very isolated militia guy in his cabin but it’s the same incoherent, lonely, paranoid ideology as it ever was

I feel so upset by the fact that so many of these same people fetishizing mourning right now have ignored the gun deaths of thousands of children, have just allowed their memories to disappear like smoke in the public mind

I don’t mean to be that guy but I actually think if everybody posted less about politics and current events and more about a bird they saw, we would not be in the actual mess we are in

Finally deactivated my account at the other app - I don’t think it’s safe to be there anymore

Okay one good thing happened this week www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/09...

extraordinary performance by leading media figures today in the very new field of inventing a guy to not be mad at

In case anybody needs it: my daughter wrote a book about a Russian girl and a Ukrainian girl and this is the cover she designed

When I worked long grueling days in retail at Macy’s, putting makeup on rude people and trying to earn something above minimum, I looked forward most to lunch, when I would go to the break room, eat my mall food court food, and read the book and theater review sections of the NYT and the Star Trib

I don’t want to shop for my clothes online at vintage stores I want to walk into a Savers or a Goodwill and find the perfect baby tee that some kid got from summer camp in 1982, the way I used to

The disappearance of faces in Hollywood is so depressing to me as someone whose life revolves largely around films - I need faces in my films, I need big, weird, old, asymmetrical, beautiful, expressive, uniquely imperfect faces

This is so bizarre because no one who loves film will see this, and anyone who would see an AI generated film would never watch The Magnificent Ambersons - but like I guess so much of AI art, the audience is somehow not the point

This is what democracy looks like! A people united will never be defeated. We want federal forces out of DC NOW! #WeAreAllDC #FreeDC

My husband is just sitting here reading my book right in front of me, how am supposed to do anything

Them: Is this book in the room with us Me: actually yes

AFTERIMAGES 4 episodes with writers: - @ambersparks.bsky.social about ALICE - Johana Gustawsson about HIGH HEELS - @wmboyle4.bsky.social about THEY SHOOT HORSE, DON'T THEY? - @ceruleancynic.bsky.social about SLIPSTREAM It's all here: rss.com/podcasts/aft... or there: youtube.com/@franckboule...

I just preordered Happy People Don’t Live Here by @ambersparks.bsky.social from my local indie to cheer up both present and future me. broadwaybooks.net/book/9781324...

Today I picked up a demon child toy with flashing red eyes at CVS in an impulse buy for the 10 year old and I asked the pharmacist to ring it up with my meds and they stared and I said “haha I’m buying it for my little girl” then it turned on and starting singing “ashes ashes we all fall down”

Not exactly holding my breath for House Dems to do a fucking thing to help us www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

I can’t wait - Boston friends, please turn up! So excited to chat with Steve and be back in your city for a hot minute!

Happy Labor Day! Join a union, literally the only force for good change right now!

Just saw Jaws in the theater, which was unbelievably cool and also terrifying? And also confirmed my opinion that it’s Spielberg’s best film, hands down

This review in Reactor is so lovely 😭 reactormag.com/30-more-sff-...

I realize there’s a lot going on right now but I do just want to say that my kid wanted to watch Minecraft last night and we watched it and at the end she turns to us and says, “well that movie sure sucked” and my god, did it ever

It’s Labor Day weekend and that means it’s a great time to teach kids about the context of the holiday. I’ve compiled a list of books for a variety of age ranges that talk about labor and unions. Feel free to add more! #booksky #skybrariona #libraryunions #labor #unions

Hey friends! Happy Labor Day weekend! Forget the sales and join your union friends at one of about a ton of rallies this weekend because workers > billionaires: workerslaborday.org#find-an-event

found this poem in a 2018 file in my notes app

Where was the national guard to protect me from the MAGA lady and her husband screaming at me about my trashy tattoos on the metro today, I ask you