Bailey

I really need to get back to writing, but the world continues conspiring against me.

@brecht_dp Starting on the writer's path is less intimidating than the painter's or sculptor's. Your school years lend a sense of familiarity, of preparedness. It appears less steep than the others. Only after setting upon it do you discover it is a deceptively long and arduous road.

Ever wonder why you turned to writing, and not painting or sculpting or music?

@BethanyJarmul Congrats! Looking forward to it

After four years & 27 attempts, I have secured an acceptance from Chestnut Review!!! (Their tagline is "for stubborn artists," and I think they mean it! 🤣) My poem "Five Trees Marked for Removal" is forthcoming in their summer issue. I can't wait to share it with you all! 🎉

@Dean_James_1 @LeadingReport The tweet was about math scores, not literacy

@LeadingReport Mississippi and Louisiana are focusing on literacy and a returning to a more traditional, phonics-based approach! Just another area Blue states could learn a thing or two from RED states!

BREAKING: Mississippi, Louisiana fourth- and eighth-grade math scores surpass New York and California in 2024, per NAEP-adjusted results.

It never is! Oh. Wait. You mean *your* book. In that case have more confidence in your work! All your dreams are achievable!

@TBQuarterly Thanks to grad school, horribly

Everything is such a nightmare. How y'all doing over here? How's your writing going?? How is it out there in the trenches? We open 4/20 for our annual issue!

@goodreads Yes! I joined a work LGBT+ book club that started a few months ago. It's been uh... fun? Idk it's mostly virtual between different locations... and the election gave everyone a weird vibe... so...

Are you in a book club? How long has it been going?

@XiranJayZhao Maybe translate as Heavenly Tyranny. Separate it from the individuals so it can apply to either

I really need help with this focusing thing

This writing thing? It’s a war of attrition. Keep at it.

@TBQuarterly Saving the date

4/20

@ulriklykke I think history has already demonstrated corporate colonialism to extract a nation's wealth is bad, actually.

@kctorawrites Yes, I do, but I am also not a character in a book.

I have "oh" and "well" at the beginning of too many dialogue lines. Do you say those as much as I write them? I think I do, which is why I write them. #WritingCommunity

This year I will finish my first novel! 😤 (Well, at least a rough draft of it)

@LinardosAkis Still struggling with that second bear. Maybe a third one will be just right.

@duryea_writes I think they all have their tricks. Some things that were crucial for me were periods of strict minimum daily word count, and embracing the chaos of the first draft like a child about to make a fun mess--i.e. shamelessly

2024 writing report - 41 stories accepted - 14 poems accepted - Published over 30 pieces at Apex (2x), Strange Horizons, Gamut, Heartlines, Flame Tree, Radon, Tales to Terrify, among others - 174.947 total words written. I'm exhausted 🛏️

Seeing a book you love prominent on a store shelf is like running into an old friend at a bank: by the make of her handbag, you identify her promotion, reminisce in the queue - no time for coffee, you both have other engagements - but still, privately, you celebrate her success.

Finally realizing it is not that I cannot write but that I have been mentally abused into believing I cannot.

@WearySky @TheLincoln Maybe my school system was just less Homer-phobic, but I recall we read parts of the Odyssey in at least 3 different years in school, watched a movie adaptation, and then another year watched "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Guy from England who thinks Homer's The Odyssey is from America:

@TheLincoln People are not really treating the Odyssey as an esoteric piece of literature... are they?