If anybody’s in Wisconsin this spring and wants an imaginative break from the cold (or not!) I’m doing a workshop as part of my Write On, Door County residency on February 17:
writeondoorcounty.org/inspire_even... #booksky #writing
New year, new book, new gear ✍️ I've got six months to get a fresh draft down on paper and I'm writing it all up in the newsletter and annual subs are cheap as hell through January 9, come getcher writing bites ✨
open.substack.com/pub/mlriodis... #booksky #writing
Saw three different articles this morning about how print magazines and other physical media are making a comeback, and to this I say YES. FUCK YES. If the backlash to the tech bro bullshit is a return to analog and tangible connection I am HERE for it.
Christmas came early and IF WE WERE VILLAINS ebooks are on sale for $2.99 across platforms -- today only! 🫖 #booksky @flatironbooks.bsky.social
Loved doing this craft chat with The Creative Independent about sensory writing and the tricky sophomore novel
thecreativeindependent.com/people/autho...
#writing #booksky
Listen. “Maybe I should go to grad school!” is a normal response to the times of crisis we’re living through as lovers of letters, but take it from a person who sacrificed a decade of her life and her physical health for a useless PhD:
That’s the devil talking.
Exactly
It was $11 and it's out of print! 🤓
Really love to see the team behind this cover get the credit they deserve! Thanks to @lithub.com.web.brid.gy and @simonbooks.bsky.social ❤️ Curious what goes into the cover conversation? I did a whole post about that.
open.substack.com/pub/mlriodis...
#booksky #coverart
Brooklyn! Hot stuff just dropped at both Books Are Magic locations and @barnesandnoble.com Atlantic Ave 🎁 @simonbooks.bsky.social #booksky
New York! Came up to stuff your stockings with signed stock ✨ HOT WAX, IWWV, and GRAVEYARD, check @strandbooks.com @bnunionsqnyc.bsky.social and @mcnallyjackson.bsky.social Soho (and tomorrow some stops in Brooklyn)! #booksky #nyc @simonbooks.bsky.social
Get lit this holiday season and support some indies, it's the gift that keeps on giving 💜 @bookshop.org @simonbooks.bsky.social bookshop.org/info/2025-gi...
Recovery read-a-thon book 12: If We Were Villains by @mlrio.bsky.social
I'm still trying to process this one. Hit me hard on so many levels. Talk about a book hangover. Not sure I'll ever recover.
#readit #ifwewerevillains
So glad it found you at the right time. Thanks for reading x
It's the question I get most often and I finally got around to it: where do stories come from? open.substack.com/pub/mlriodis... #booksky #writing
Grateful to be featured in @electricliterature.com again this year and pleased to see them standing on their values. Why not consider donating to support continuing literacy in these very scary times? electricliterature.com/every-writer... #booksky #books
A writer at work must and will always have at least three beverages on the go at once
Refreshed the research shelf today and work on Book 4 is well underway (where are my fellow noir nerds at) #booksky
I recently did a high school classroom visit to talk about IWWV and by far my favorite feedback was "she has a great sense of humor and I didn't think I would find a person with a PhD in English literature to be funny." My child, nobody survives that without an appreciation for black comedy.
Hell yes thank you for writing such an absolute banger!!
text: The Staircase in the Woods, by Chuck Wendig Some readers may dismiss horror, or other genre fiction, as cheap entertainment based on its shelving alone. Wendig has never written a book that wasn’t entertaining, but he’s never written a cheap one either. His latest novel, The Staircase in the Woods, looks squarely at the darker facets of human nature, and it never eschews the grotesque for the sake of good taste. (Birthday cake with a side of severed thumbs, anyone?) The premise intrigues from the start: Five teenagers climb the mysterious staircase of the title, and only four come out of the forest. Decades later, the survivors agree to try to find their friend—but they’re not certain about what actually happened back then, or what will happen when they return. The longer you spend in Wendig’s haunted house of a novel, the deeper you probe into the troubled minds of his characters—and this fine, freaky psychodrama will keep you up past your bedtime.
Whoa hey now -- STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS gets a shout-out in The Atlantic courtesy of @mlrio.bsky.social -- !!
I have a strong preference for the, let's say, plot-forward novel, as does @mlrio.bsky.social. www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
Thank you so much! ❤️
Oh, thank you!
Big thanks to @readbookpage.bsky.social for naming HOT WAX one of their best books of 2025, "a passionate novel that takes readers on a turbulent joyride while exploring both the glory and the gore of live rock ’n’ roll." www.bookpage.com/best-books/b... @simonbooks.bsky.social #books #booksky
One fun thing about being a writer is the life of surprising synchronicities, like this Blondie doppelganger spotted in my neighborhood. Fiction can follow you around like that for ages after the fact. (In other news, if you also like hot cars, you should read HOT WAX.)
