Hi, friends...I need your sleuthing help! I have been trying to track down a creepy/surreal children's book that I loved as a kid, but can't recall the title. It would be PERFECT for this time of year. All my searching efforts have been futile, but maybe you can help. I'll describe it below!

Quite a few of the wildflowers are still hanging in there despite this chill.

Whew! Got a bunch of emails sent today and didn't accidentally offer to seduce anyone else. I'd call that a win.

No, autocorrect. I was trying to type an email to an editor saying "I'd love to send you a manuscript," not "I'd love to seduce you." 🤦‍♀️

I have a very cuddly cuddle buddy.

So many folks in my mentions feeling terrible for not being able to protest today b/c of disability, illness, or mental health: GIVE YOURSELF GRACE It’s GOOD for us to find as many ways to fight as possible. The bigger the variety of resistance the better. All you have to do is anything. That’s it.

The ability to remove your post when a hostile account quote-tweets you is a great feature of Bluesky. To do it, go to their quote-tweet of you, click on the three dots in the bottom right, then click “detach quote.” It shows up as “removed by author.”

I’ve talked to my agent, my students, my colleagues, all of them about how I believe it’s important to let protagonists be messy! How are we supposed to navigate this hellscape of a reality and learn to find beauty in it if we can’t forgive? Don’t make room for mess? And where better than stories?

A big part of my sanity-making block policy on Bluesky is that I block anyone who is being a total asshole to people (whether me or others) regardless of ideology or affiliations. I don’t need that in my feed or my life, and thus far it has served me well.

Me warming up for the big block party this weekend once I see which of the troll accounts makes it through my blocks and filter words on BS. I’ve needed to tighten up my muted terms list anyway, so this will be good exercise.

Me every morning when the alarm clock first goes off.

I suspect the wildflowers won’t last much longer, but a few are still pushing on bravely.

ACTION ALERT‼️ Cache County library is in danger of being defunded‼️ Council member George Daines will be proposing a budget at the Cache County Council meeting on Oct. 29 that will defund the Cache County Library completely. Speak up with us. Sign the petition: docs.google.com/forms/d/1eiH...

I’ve been posting reminders on Bluesky about drinking water, eating lunch, touching grass (or flowers), and going for walks in the afternoon mostly as a reminder for myself. Today felt especially dreary with the rain all day, so it was helpful to get up and move.

Snow on the tops of the mountains already, but I’m sure it’ll get to the valley sooner than I’d like (though probably a few weeks out still).

Going for a walk on a stormy evening.

I’m surprised how many of the wildflowers are managing to hang on, but it has been rather rainy and not too cold the past few days.

I have no idea what the trending topic USMNT means but I'd like to pretend it stands for US Mutant Ninja Turtles and it's about teams of ninja turtles facing off against each other.

I was going to bring some food to my desk to eat while I work, but then I remembered that there is currently a monster sleeping under my desk who loves chicken and can sniff it out even while dead asleep.

Oh autocorrect. You outdid yourself today. I was trying to type that a manuscript includes "back matter that..." and it changed it to "backwater tea." Please no. I really did not need that visual while I'm drinking tea right now.

I thought the cat was hungry, because he kept coming up to my chair and meowing, so I went to get him food. Oh no, he just wanted to steal my spot. The moment I stood up to get him food, the little snot jumped onto my chair instead.

If you ever get an email from me with my name misspelled in the signoff, don't worry, I just can't type my own name correctly most of the time. 🤦‍♀️

Afternoon Status Check If you're feeling tired/groggy/cranky right now, have you recently: 1. Drunk water 2. Eaten lunch or a healthy snack 3. Stood up from your desk 4. Taken a short walk 5. Looked away from your computer screen No? Then do one or several of those and you'll feel better.

Watching a Chinese drama about a woman who does what she thinks she has to to get the man and the life she wants and then when she realizes it isn’t worth it she . . . just walks away from it all. I’m eagerly anticipating getting to the walking away from everything episodes (not quite there yet).

after millions of views and shares of my Portland Frog art. (thank you all🙏🏾) I got requests to highlight priests, and chickens, and Chicagoans, and T-Rexes, and more… all of us who refuse to bend the knee. so this is for US. 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚕. 𝚆𝚎 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗.

I seem to have caught some kind of stomach bug, which is honestly the perfect kind of bug to have for a weekend of catching up on reading manuscripts and editing. (This is what I’m telling myself now; please reading gods, let this manifest.)

There have been a couple of convos here on Bluesky this week that reminded me that in sixth grade we read some of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsinger book AS PART OF OUR TEXTBOOK. Like, how much more 90s can you get than introducing 11 year olds to the greater world of Pern books without warning.

I’ve always been a bit of a chaos agent, tbh. But I am so excited for December now.

Same. Though I've got two piles: requested manuscripts and published books I want to read. I usually only touch the second one while driving (audiobooks are a lifesaver).

I can always tell when I'm really tired because I start having issues with typoing homophones.

Now that #DVpit is over, writers might be wondering what happens next. Well, from the agent side, things are about to get brutal. First there is the flurry of requests. For some projects, that means those who get in their quickly (i.e. building their client lists) have the advantage.

I got sucked into work and forgot to check back in on #DVpit, so I’ll be doing a few late likes. If I 💜 your pitch, see my pinned post for info and the link to submit a query. Or if you want to learn more about me before submitting, my personal website is michellewitteliterary.com.

Holy crap, everyone, I am >< This Close to feeling like I might almost kinda be getting caught up on important things that need to be done. Oh, there's plenty of little things that still need attention, but the big important tasks . . . I will cry in relief when I'm not constantly playing catchup.

Apparently today is a "thanks so much!" kind of day where I feel like I need to be extra peppy in my email signoffs so people know I'M REALLY EXCITED TO BE IN YOUR INBOX. REALLY.

Today is yet another day filled with email. Let's see how long I can go without my eyeballs exploding out of my head. Though in a few hours I'll take a break to step outside and see how the few remaining flowers in my wildflower garden are faring. Some of them are pretty tough despite the cold.

the answer to the trolley problem is not to pick who to sacrifice, it’s to dismantle the system that led to an unsafe trolley crossing. if any part of your morality strategy involves picking a group to let die on a hill, throw the entire strategy out. it’s wrong.

I'm a literary agent because of social media. Maybe I would've anyway, but it was a clear path from becoming friends with @thejeanmartha.bsky.social on Twitter, her selling my nonfiction books, then one day emailing me asking, "Have you ever considered being an agent? I think you'd be good at it."

I get it, Toad. I really do. Can we have, like, a do-over on today? Go back to bed and start again?

Even though I'm currently closed to submissions, I’ll be checking out #DVpit today. If I like your post, please use the link below to submit your query, first 10 pages of the manuscript, and sample images (for illustrated projects). Thanks!

I kept hearing kitty snores but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, but then I remembered oh yeah, he has a bed under my desk. Duh. Time for me to go to bed as well, apparently.

This post is getting shared a lot, but it's inaccurate. Bob Ross donated most of his paintings to PBS stations to use in pledge drives to raise money for stations, which is why the estate auctioning paintings now is so appropriate, because it's what he would have done to raise funds for PBS. 1/?

There are still some flowers holding on despite the chill weather.

I keep finding typos in my posts and my brain is absolutely fried . . . and then I realized I haven't had dinner yet. Maaaayyyybbeee I should fix that so I can think once again. 🤦‍♀️

I've actually discovered some great reads when reviewing the slush because writers kept using certain titles as comps and I was curious. For example, @maryaverling.bsky.social's The Curse of Eelgrass Bog kept showing up as a comp in MG queries, so I knew I had to read it to find out why. #kidlitchat

This is what Bob Ross did with all of the paintings from his shows anyway, so I imagine he'd be very supportive of this move. He never made money from the paintings or the show, just from the painting supplies he sold in craft and art stores.

Question for tech people: I'm having issues with spam filters not allowing messages through when I attach a file if I haven't previously had an email convo with that person. Someone suggested I send a link to the document file instead. Would that also trigger the message to be filtered to spam?

Hiring on my team! Looking for someone passionate about comic books and graphic novels, marketing, and the book and library markets. Happy to answer any questions about the role! careers.wbd.com/global/en/jo...

Today was a day for pot marigolds, as they seem to be one of the few flowers still thriving in the chillier weather.

I was going to put on the new TS album so I know what everyone's talking about . . . but then I saw Rachael Yamagata has a new album out and I'm listening to that instead. Excellent choice, I must say. If you aren't familiar with her, she's one of my go-to musicians for chill music while working.

Someone wants to say hi, how are you, why no pets for the good kitty?