Don’t tell my mom and dad but this is my mom and dad now.

My new thriller is out NEXT MONTH! It’s about a homeless teen who steals the identity of a missing kid only to go home with his family… and learn they’re the main suspects of the kid’s disappearance

“An engrossing mystery with a surprisingly violent climax” -Booklist

Preorder: linktr.ee/ErikJBrown

If anyone wants to feel old today, stumbled upon this Reddit post this morning and almost turned to dust:

Cover of Athlete is Agender: True Stories of LGBTQ+ People in Sports, edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby. Contributors include: Schuyler Bailar, Erik J Brown, Em Dickson, Isaac Fitzsimons, Karina Manta, Quince Mountain, Marieke Nijkamp, NYC Gay Hockey Association, Adam Rippon, A.J. Sass, CeCe Telfer, Vincent Tirado, Karleigh Webb, and illustrations by Jess Vosseteig.

Philly area! On May 13th at 7pm, I'm launching my next book, ATHLETE IS AGENDER, a nonfiction MG anthology about LGBTQ+ people in sports, at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA. My coeditor, Nicole Melleby, and contributors @erikjbrown.bsky.social and @v-e-tirado.com will be there too! Join us!

Has anyone ever read a book where the main character was called a nickname from other POVs but from their POV they used their proper name?

Is that too confusing? Has any author gotten away with that?

This is what happens when you train AI using AO3 fanfic and don’t omit the omegaverse stuff….

Notes from my editors while working on my dark thriller (out next year):

Edit letter: “This description of [redacted] is quite dark.”

Page 209: “GAAH! ERIK!”
Page 336: “GAAHHH.”
Page 362: “Suggest deleting.”
Page 362: “Suggest deleting.”
Page 362: “Suggest deleting.”
Page 365: “Suggest deleting.”

Early next year! January or Feb!

How do I tell the readers who loved my first three books because they’re cute and sweet (and only sometimes terrifying) that my fourth one is so terrifying my editors had to ask me four times to keep dialing back the intensity in the last few chapters?

It’s a dark thriller about unconditional love.

It’s so damn frustrating to see it happening and no one in power really cares. And he golfs every damn weekend and spends millions of tax dollars to do so but that’s fine, just fire the employees who work from home??????

I’m gonna say it: the tariffs are a pump and dump scheme. It’s gaming the stock market which is why there’s always “pauses” and renegotiations.

Before he announces a tariff, Trump and congress sells their stocks. The market freefalls, when it bottoms out everyone buys, he “pauses,” and stocks go up

That…actually makes it even funnier?

ETHICS?! In THIS trade war????? Couldn’t be me.

Me pitching my books to readers:

Americans once tried to call French fries “freedom fries.”

The Gulf of Mexico will always be the Gulf of Mexico.

I feel like marketing should have warned me…

Let him sell it, hack the website, dox the people who bought it.

VERY random. Especially since my less popular second book was in the first round.

The country of Malaysia has banned nine books in the past two months and two of them are mine…

It’s honestly starting to feel personal. Who did I piss off in Malaysia?????

Oh I did that, too. My family has its own problematic connections with fame:

Anna I’m a white man in America, if I get cancelled I’ll make millions and I’ll have career security until I die and the NYT will write a four page article about how I was an “oft misunderstood visionary.”

So yes. Cancel me.

Unpopular opinion: I just plain don’t like fascism.

And this was last week.

No Man's Sky Worlds Part II Update Trailer YouTube video by HelloGamesTube

The only real complaint is there’s no continuing story with their updates. They do limited time expeditions with a story every few months, but they’ve continuously updated it for the last 9 years for free. There’s a new one they released today I didn’t even know about youtu.be/75bfyy-XkQg?...

There isn’t really one. It has a mythology you can discover through the main quests, but mostly it’s just exploring the infinite cosmos, discovering plant and animal life, building bases, crafting, finding new star ships, and just taking in how pretty it is. They added fishing last year too!

Thank you!!!! 🥰🥰🥰

Scene from novel. Tommy, brown-haired, blue-eyed, wearing a blue and white shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows and a pink apron with a cupcake on the chest area. He covered in flour, and his phone is nestled between his face and right shoulder. Gabe: (through phone) Your film education starts *tonight*. If you're watching something, turn it off. If you're not watching something, bring up Netflix. Tommy: ...I'm in *the middle* of baking bread.

Scene from novel. Gabe, tan complexion with dimples on his cheeks, brown eyes, and slicked back brown hair, wearing a black shirt and grey zip-up hoodie. He holds his phone on the side of his face, continuing the conversation on his line. Gabe: You can *buy* bread. This is *more* important. Tommy: (through the phone, small cartoon of him imposed on the spiky speech bubble has him rolling his eyes) If you knew how *my bread* tasted, you wouldn't be saying that.

Lose You To Find Me - @erikjbrown.bsky.social
www.goodreads.com/book/show/61...
Tommy, a culinary genius, reconnects with an old familiar face, Gabe, after years apart. Memories of Gabe left a profound impact on Tommy in his childhood. But Gabe seemingly doesn't remember Tommy at all.

also fanart!

I got Jennifer Dugan addicted to Fallout 4! It’s fun and has lots of different play styles and branching narratives. If you don’t mind low story but a GIANT sandbox to play in, No Man’s Sky is amazing and they update it several times a yr. It’s not for everyone, so buy it on sale if you do try it.

this is what we mean when we say "our existence is political" not because we make it so, but because everyone else does