It’s officially ✨cover reveal day✨ for my debut sci fi novel BY THE LIGHT OF THE STARS, out this November with @berkleypub.bsky.social!!
I have so much I wanna say about this book and this journey, but right now I am just overwhelmed by shock, gratitude, and awe for how far the story has come. 🪐
White background with black text and a black-and-white drawing of a winged rabbit. Text reads: Sunday, April 26th, 4-6 PM. Bottom Feeder Books, 415 Gettysburg St. Book release and reading. RUINER by Lara Messersmith-Glavin, AK Press. Joined by Cindy Crabb and M. C. Benner Dixon
Can't wait to celebrate RUINER, a new book by @queenopirates.bsky.social! Come for imagined futures that resist the hero narrative, complex relationships between humanity and the divine, deep connection of the past and the present, and so much more! April 26, 4-6 PM at Bottom Feeder Books.
You can try casting spells so that ants infest his TV and ruin the electronics. That's my plan with those damn deer deterrent devices that shriek at a level "above human hearing." There are three of them along my regular walking route, and they are motivating me to learn witchcraft.
White background with black text and a black-and-white drawing of a winged rabbit. Text reads: Sunday, April 26th, 4-6 PM. Bottom Feeder Books, 415 Gettysburg St. Book release and reading. RUINER by Lara Messersmith-Glavin, AK Press. Joined by Cindy Crabb and M. C. Benner Dixon
Can't wait to celebrate RUINER, a new book by @queenopirates.bsky.social! Come for imagined futures that resist the hero narrative, complex relationships between humanity and the divine, deep connection of the past and the present, and so much more! April 26, 4-6 PM at Bottom Feeder Books.
Yuck to this man and his outdoor TV. :(
Against a background of blurry bookshelves, three cutout images: a portrait of M. C. Benner Dixon, the storefront of Blythe Books, and the book cover of The Height of Land. There are plus signs between the imags and an equals sign in the top right of the image, so that they are arranged in a sort of equation.
Against a background of blurry books on shelves, multicolor confetti and balloons fall around the words: "Featured Author! Blythe Books supports local authors by featuring a new author each month. This April, that's me! Stop by the store for a curated selection of used books, books by local authors, and tons of cute stickers and gifts. Visit the Blythe Books online store to support this small business from a distance. 2941 Brownsville Road., Pgh PA 15227 www.blythebooks.com @blythebooks_pgh"
Blythe Books features a different Pittsburgh-local author every month, and this April, I’m honored to announce that it's me! Haven’t been to @blythebookspgh.bsky.social yet? This is a great excuse to go. Or order online! Lots of ways to support local, independent bookstores! www.blythebooks.com
Against a background of blurry bookshelves, three cutout images: a portrait of M. C. Benner Dixon, the storefront of Blythe Books, and the book cover of The Height of Land. There are plus signs between the imags and an equals sign in the top right of the image, so that they are arranged in a sort of equation.
Against a background of blurry books on shelves, multicolor confetti and balloons fall around the words: "Featured Author! Blythe Books supports local authors by featuring a new author each month. This April, that's me! Stop by the store for a curated selection of used books, books by local authors, and tons of cute stickers and gifts. Visit the Blythe Books online store to support this small business from a distance. 2941 Brownsville Road., Pgh PA 15227 www.blythebooks.com @blythebooks_pgh"
Blythe Books features a different Pittsburgh-local author every month, and this April, I’m honored to announce that it's me! Haven’t been to @blythebookspgh.bsky.social yet? This is a great excuse to go. Or order online! Lots of ways to support local, independent bookstores! www.blythebooks.com
Text: My mind is an untamed thing. I have tools of turning my attention to a particular task or question, but if my mind is unwilling, my tools fumble. As often as possible I try to rest my self-regulation muscles and become an observer of my own consciousness; I follow her around, see what she sees
Writing, I suggest, is a tool of attention—and my attention can be as variable as a cloudscape. I like to see what happens to my writing when I let it reflect both my hyperfocus and my squirrel brain. If the goal is to catch the full breadth of the human experience, don't we have to try it all?
Park-like background with books in an apple crate. Text reads: Northland Library Local Author Fair, Saturday, March 28 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. No registration required. Celebrate the talented authors living in and writing about Pittsburgh. Purchase books, chat with authors, and attend author talks and panels! www.northlandlibrary.org/local-author-fair/
Northerly PGH-area folks! I'll be at the Northland Library's Local Author Fair on March 28. The event starts at 10 a.m.—drop by to meet a bunch of amazing authors and maybe even go home with some books. www.northlandlibrary.org/local-author...
Video shows a stream running over mossy rocks. White text reads: "There is joy in art. There is joy in writing. Writing grants you a voice. And it is a joy to use your voice, regardless of what you say is hard or easy, ugly or beautiful." Followed by the cover image for Millions of Suns.
Sharon and I never wanted Millions of Suns to be a clinical craft-of-writing text. Instead, the essays in this collection are heart-forward examinations creativity and art. Millions of Suns has over 50 writing prompts, so you can join us in this joyful, difficult work.
Park-like background with books in an apple crate. Text reads: Northland Library Local Author Fair, Saturday, March 28 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. No registration required. Celebrate the talented authors living in and writing about Pittsburgh. Purchase books, chat with authors, and attend author talks and panels! www.northlandlibrary.org/local-author-fair/
Northerly PGH-area folks! I'll be at the Northland Library's Local Author Fair on March 28. The event starts at 10 a.m.—drop by to meet a bunch of amazing authors and maybe even go home with some books. www.northlandlibrary.org/local-author...
Science fiction has spent decades building permission structure for the broligarchs to put chips in our heads and have "AI replace us" and accept gritty brutalist cyberpunk as "cool!" so maybe... stop doing that?
I feel like we (SF authors) should stop doing that.
(Alt: readers do it for us)
DOOOOooooOOOooo it! Fusion Fragment is a treasure!
February means my book comes out THIS MONTH! We are 16 days away from the release of The Chamos Project. If you like sad gays in space, this book is for you! #WritingCommunity #SFF www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...
The cover is here! The book will be out this fall. A little bit of joy in a bleak time.
Collage of workshop graphics overlaid with the single word, "WORKSHOPS"
Image shows a frosted rosebud and a border of flame. Text reads: "Flirting with Romantasy" "March 7, 10 a.m.–12 p.m., Literary Cleveland, online workshop"
Old advertisement featuring the Remington girl, a bob-haired woman in a white blouse sitting in front of a typewriter, pointing at the viewer. Overlaid text reads "Say What? Experiments in Dialogue" "March 28, 6–8 p.m. online. Hosted by Dream Foundry"
Bright blue background with line drawings of books open and in stacks. Text reads: "Scaffolding Your Novel: Getting your Story from Start to Finish. April 21st & April 28th, 6-8 PM. Virtual. Write Pittsburgh. www.writepittsburgh.com/events."
Ready to work on your writing craft? Some of these workshops are geared towards getting new words on the page, others are about structuring around your writing project, some are skill-building workshops. But they're all online, so you can join from anywhere! Link in bio has registration info.
Friends, go write the books that will be the change.
"You must stop resisting!"
No
"Obey!"
No
"If you don't kneel, we will only get more murderous!"
I know
"You have to stop!"
I don't
"We will only scream louder and do more terrible things!"
and we will win
"MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!!!"
oh, you wish
but it doesn't
never has
"OBEY!!!"
absolutely fucking not
Chatham’s low-res MFA is re-launching!
We offer one-on-one creative writing mentorships, online courses like Travel Writing, Nature Writing, Appalachian lit & publishing, and onsite residencies in Pittsburgh & at Fallingwater! Nature/place-writers, apply!
chatham.edu/academics/gr...
That is exciting! I love genre-hopping. It gives me life.
So happy to have my book included in this roundup of “rewilded” stories. There’s some exciting work being done by writers who keep in touch with their planet!
dragonfly.eco/rewilding-ou...
We just strap ours to the roof and take it through the car wash.
It’s been fun writing this book. My voice when I’m writing as Mir is brasher, bolder, and less measured than usual. I’m taking risks and getting myself and my characters in trouble. But that means the story can run away with its readers, too. And who doesn’t want to be swept away from time to time?
Publishers Marketplace deal report for FIRE POWER by Mir Benitz from Headline. White square of text with a dark blue border.
The deal report for my next novel—written under the pen name Mir Benitz—came out this week. It’s kinetic and swoony and colorful. I can’t wait for readers to get ahold of FIRE POWER. This report doesn’t mention the fact, but the novel is also being published in the U.S. by Little, Brown.
I say risk it. Sounds like an excellent way to introduce hijinks into your life
Five AirFanta 3Pro air filters in mesh bags on the floor near a table and chair at the front of a room. Lots of books on shelves all around.
My wife, @mchristinebd.bsky.social, did a book event yesterday and I tagged along to watch and also set up 6 AirFanta 3Pro air filters to reduce viral transmission. (Five pictured, one more in back. Plug spots limited options.) We both wore high quality masks, too. #COVIDisnotover #AirQuality
Pittsburgh! Come out on 11/4 @ 7 PM to hear from @yumewrites.bsky.social Do you like near-future dystopias, stubborn people, climate fiction, pirates, smart and resourceful female characters, complicated family relationships, and gorgeous writing? Join us! www.riverstonebookstore.com/events/an-ev...
Pittsburgh! Come out on 11/4 @ 7 PM to hear from @yumewrites.bsky.social Do you like near-future dystopias, stubborn people, climate fiction, pirates, smart and resourceful female characters, complicated family relationships, and gorgeous writing? Join us! www.riverstonebookstore.com/events/an-ev...
