"Secret Shadows"
Egg Tempera
Created 2015
By Scottish Painter Colin Fraser (b. 1956)

#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

This is their second anthology! I can’t wait to read it!

So happy to receive my copy of the Ghost Parachute anthology! It’s gorgeous and I think I know almost all of the wonderful writers in here!

White Cat, Black Dog: Stories Stories

Y’all! The White Cat Black Dog ebook is currently 1.99 on all platforms. If you buy from bookshop.org, you can pick which indie bookstore you want your money to go to. 🖤🐈🖤

Photo of the author Emma Sloley, a brunette woman smiling next to a image of the book cover of The Island of Last Things, bearing an illustration of a black jaguar and a woman's hand against a yellow background

Palm Springs peeps! I'm doing an event on Tuesday April 14 from 10:30am-12:00pm at the Welwood Murray Memorial Library in downtown PS. I'll be sharing some stories, reading from The Island of Last Things, and signing books. Come and say hi! #booksky 💙📚 www.palmspringsca.gov/Home/Compone...

So amazing. Did I read recently that the law about becoming a Canadian citizen changed? My grandmother was born and raised in Nova Scotia....Just asking.

Things that help calm the nervous system, quickly:

- Box breathing (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4, repeat)
- Immerse your face in cold water (activates mammalian dive reflex)
- Humming (stimulates vagus nerve)
- Exercise (anything helps, outside even better)
- Impeachment and removal

Thank you, @claudineliterary.bsky.social, for this thoughtful review of The Clarity of Hunger!

Michael Czyzniejewski | Visitation

I have a new story up in @claudineliterary.bsky.social! Thanks to @dehardy.bsky.social and her crew for publishing this piece in their fab new issue!

www.claudineliterary.com/michaelczyzn...

Anna, students are reading this story this week! So excited.

Thank you, Kelly! I should have clarified that these are story drafts but what you say still very much applies. Keep a document of your darlings!

So, say you're a writer, and you've been writing and revising for *years*, what might you say to that newish writer who is afraid to revise because they do not want to "ruin" the magic of that good first draft?

I have techniques already, but I'm looking for inspiring words!

I'm so sorry for your loss. I was talking just yesterday to a good friend, and she mentioned she was going to a service in a few days, and the details were similar. It turns out that this is the same person, and my friend knows you. I hope you find peace.

How to Differentiate Stories from AI Slop AI can’t dig into what situations feel like and what they mean to our characters and their hopes for the future—or what they mean to readers.

I have found this to be true: AI cannot give context to a story.

writershelpingwriters.net/2025/09/how-...

I was just looking into this the other day! Would love it for Massachusetts--and for all states!

SENTENCE It's as if you'd woken in a locked cell and found in your pocket a slip of paper, and on it a single sentence in a language you don't know. And you'd be sure this sentence was the key to your life. Also to this cell. And you'd spend years trying to decipher the sentence, until finally you'd understand it. But after a while you'd realize you got it wrong, and the sentence meant something else entirely. And so you'd have two sentences. Then three, and four, and ten, until you'd created a new language. And in that language you'd write the novel of your life. And once you'd reached old age you'd notice the door of the cell was open. You'd go out into the world. You'd walk the length and breadth of it, until in the shade of a massive tree you'd yearn for that one single sentence in a language you don't know. --Tadeusz Dąbrowski (Translated, from the Polish, by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.)

This

Come join Tommy, Myna and me at Uncharted!

Nothing compares to how much you learn about your own writing while reading stories from the submission queue.

Great timely thread on writing by @rpmirabella.bsky.social!

Here's an info sheet for the new MFA program in Creative Writing at Missouri State University! Drop us a line if you have questions, but we are looking for students for THIS FALL for a fully funded program!

Why am I tearing up? This is everything.

Love to see it!

Stunning lineup!!!

From the Bookshelf March 2026

The March installment of From the Bookshelf is now live! This month's writing prompt is inspired by Shirley Jackson's "Of Course."

cherylpappas.substack.com/p/from-the-b...

Plans for proposed ICE facility in Merrimack, N.H., won’t move forward, governor says - The Boston Globe The announcement comes after months of protest and pushback from Merrimack residents over the proposal.

The Trump administration has scrapped plans to convert a warehouse in Merrimack, N.H., into an immigration detention facility, according to Governor Kelly Ayotte.

OMG you are describing my life. I think it will take only two hours to grade and prep. Then it’s 6:30pm on a Saturday.

I felt that, too! The the sun felt so strong, I could imagine being on the beach.

A lifelike statue of a brown dog is positioned on top of a car in a parking lot.

Spotted this morning while walking the dog. What is the story here?

I remember you! I'm so happy to hear you loved the class. I miss teaching those workshops. Just love your story and will look out for more from you!

"On the road towards the ocean…"

Ooh, I love this choose-your-adventure fairy tale by @amadolaila.bsky.social!

Oh, I love this!