Join Joyce Carol Oates, Sadie Stein, and Rachel Syme at the 92Y as they celebrate Daphne du Maurier and AFTER MIDNIGHT https://bit.ly/428xRNf

THE STOLEN CROWN by Tracy Borman is "an enthralling and detailed window into royal family drama" according to this great review on @publisherswkly.bsky.social! www.publishersweekly.com/9780802165909

The settlement has entered preliminary approval. Congrats to the plaintiffs Andrea Bartz, Kirk Johnson, and Charles Graeber! Wondering what's next? We're here to help you navigate the process. authorsguild.org/news/authors...

800 detainees are missing after being held in Alligator Alcatraz in July, showing no record of their location in ICE’s database. Other detainees have been mistakenly deported or sent to detention centers thousands of miles away. The cruelty is the point.

It’s Rapture o’clock in Australia. Over here in California, I just drove to the airport—everything looks fine so far…but, with all these driverless cars, how will we even know it’s the Rapture? Just sayin’

We are so excited to announce the #BannedBooksWeek honorary chair for 2025: legendary actor/author/activist GEORGE TAKEI! "Please stand with me in opposing censorship, so that we all can find ourselves — and each other — in books.” bannedbooksweek.org/legendary-ac... @georgetakei.bsky.social

Okay so I grew up evangelical, liberated myself, moved to that beautiful den of iniquity called California—but I still remember my scripture when it comes to the Rapture: “They know not the day nor the hour.” The Bible calls those who predict the date false prophets. So don’t sell your RV just yet

Money talks. Disney had to listen. But the damage to Disney’s reputation for collaborating with authoritarianism & capitulating to the attack on free speech will not be easily repaired. I can’t wait to see what Jimmy says on his first day back. This is a moment for writers to stand up & be counted.

Hey Bay Area, here’s your chance to do a little middle-of-the-night public science homework!

Hey Bay Area, did you feel that? This one was a rattle, not a jerk or a roll. In 20+ years here, I think this is the first time i’ve experienced an earthquake like that.

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

President Johnson, in a November 9, 1968 letter to the Smothers Brothers: “It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists . . . May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.”

Turned in a book to my agent today. Now I get to tackle a tiny portion of my TBR and RA (read again) pile. Yay!

Pete Buttigieg WARNS America: “They didn't stop at the law firms. They didn't stop at the Universities. They didn't even stop at the comedians. They are NOT going to stop until they have TOTAL POWER!."

STEWART: “Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether— we’re the banana peel in the coal mine… authoritarians are the threat to comedy, music, art, thought… progress.” Nailed it.

Just so I'm clear: TV host says we should kill every homeless person? No big deal TV host says the right must "go to war" with the left? Pfft. TV host says the government is cracking down on critics? Well, the government cracks down on him for the criticism. Free speech, everyone.

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

It's about fear and intimidation.

Jimmy Kimmel condemned the shooting, yet ABC still discontinued his show to please the would-be king. In this administration, free speech is only for the few, and no one is safe from retribution.

The @AuthorsGuild reports that the Anthropic settlement of $3,000 per infringed title will be divided between author and publisher—so the amount the author receives per book will vary. authorsguild.org/news/what-au...

We're so excited to announce that THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER) by Rabih Alameddine is on the @nationalbook.bsky.social National Book Awards for Fiction longlist! Read about it in @newyorker.com here: www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

Facebook settled up & it was so anticlimactic.

Sometimes I have to turn on the tree lights to get my writing going.

I have written and deleted a lot of posts but I keep thinking about how the brutal assassination of Minnesota State senator Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark, and their beloved dog Gilbert in June did not prompt this same level of calls for empathy, sympathy, and flags at half-mast.

MN state representative Melissa Hortman & her husband Mark should not have been murdered. MN State Senator John Hoffman, his wife Yvette, & Gabby Giffords should not have been shot. Charlie Kirk should not have been murdered. We should not have to accept gun deaths. They are unacceptable. Period.

Aww, a lesser goldfinch couple drinking from the bird bath. First date?

We must end the scourge of gun violence in America. We also need to have honest conversations about the ways internet platforms profit from fear, hatred, and division. Both are vital to the future of this country.

Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures and Wellcome Leap commit $100M to accelerate women’s health research and close long-overlooked gaps worldwide.

Fellow Scorpios, can I get an amen? From The Cut: "The New York Times has a new report claiming that the astrological sign you’ve made such a crucial part of your personality might not be your actual sign. Scorpios, I know this will be particularly devastating for you." @thecut.com

"We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent." —Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Someday someone will invent an app that will help me decipher my handwriting. #editing #writing

This is huge. Anthropic has agreed to pay 1.5 billion dollars to authors whose books it pirated to train AI--about $3,000 per pirated work. Read the AG FAQs for authors to learn how to know whether you are part of the settlement. #authors #copyright

Line editing. Just 394 pages to go. #amwriting #booksky

When states have to organize to fight RFK/Trump's anti-vaccine policy, a policy guaranteed to kill Americans, we've gone post-Orwell. Kudos to California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii for standing up for science and trying to keep their constituents alive with the West Coast Health Alliance.

you'd think the governor of illinois basically going "we're being invaded by an authoritarian" would be something you'd see real easy on the front page of most everything an hour later

Why aren't we all talking about Trump claiming that he used to see AI-generated stuff when he was a baby?

Orwellian: when the 79-year-old president claims in all seriousness that he's been seeing AI since infancy and every Republican behind him nods as if it's the truth. Actual quote: "I saw something as I was growing up, since I was a baby til now, I said 'Who did that?' and it was AI-generated!"

Trump can't stop talking about crime in Chicago, but Birmingham, Alabama has a much higher per capita murder rate than Chicago. Memphis has the highest per capita murder rate of any metro area in the country. Why isn't he sending the National Guard to red states? usafacts.org/articles/whi...

THE ADJUNCT by Maria Adelmann should be required reading for MFA &. PhD candidates considering a life in academia-a brutally honest sendup of the academic gig economy, wherein adjuncts do much of the heavy lifting for poverty wages. A campus novel sans the tweed & ivy @simonandschuster.bsky.social

Netflix just gave Gavin Newsom 2 million for the redistricting fight and made a deal with Sesame Street. New episodes will air there and the backlog of old episodes will Be free to watch. Netflix picked a side. I will keep my subscription.

This article on the crazy cost of a trip to Disney World reminded me: the few times we visited Disneyland Paris we rarely waited in line. Parisians don’t “get” DLP. You can do a whole Paris vacation including crowd-free DLP for the price of a trip to DW or Disneyland. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...

Water (life) returning to a dried river bed after a good rain.

A federal court ruled that ANTHROPIC illegally copied MILLIONS of books to train its AI. All authors and publishers whose books were downloaded by Anthropic from pirate websites are subject to receiving compensation. This could involve your work. For more info: authorsguild.org/news/anthrop...

I just cleared a paper jam from my HP laser printer & it feels like the nineties all over again. #amwriting

Article I Sections 9 & 10 of the U.S. Constitution—which limit presidential power over tariffs and protect habeas corpus—have disappeared from Congress’s website. They claim a coding error is to blame.

"Writing is hard. There’s no question about that. And the more you do, the longer you’re in this game, the harder it gets." JT Ellison on live-writing a book, the challenges authors face throughout their careers, and more. www.writersdigest.com/live-writing...

He didn’t like the factual data showing the bleak jobs market, so he fired the messenger. We go deeper Orwell every day. He also pressured the Smithsonian to remove his name from the display on impeached presidents. Erasure of date, facts, & history is Fascism 101 (aka Project 2025).

The Hawaii News Now live reporting on the tsunami, where the meteorologist explains wave movements and the appearance of the water in real time, is a reminder how crucial it is to public safety to have experienced scientists with a deep local knowledge. #hawaii www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/07/29/t...

Strange times when the San Mateo coast a is under a tsunami warning for the second time in a few months. Thinking of our westerly neighbors...stay safe, Hawaii.