Bethany Mangle

Ahh! 🥳 So excited that CONDITIONS OF A HEART is a Children's Book Council Favorites Award winner! #KidsFaves @CBCBook cbcbooks.org/awards-and-boo…

It's finally happened. I am the slow reader holding up my friend's library request... for a series I recommended to her. 😂

@Onjerika This answer hurts my feelings, but I'm starting to think it's the only way. 😂

@BethanyMangle Mornings. Writing first before anything else.

Okay, author parents, how are you finding time to write where you're not mentally exhausted? Between work and baby, my brain is bees by the evening.

@almarquardt Thank you! This is reassuring as we get closer to the one-year mark. It just all feels impossible to juggle some days.

Be patient, and give yourself a little grace. I also couldn't write after my son was born and wondered if I would have to give up writing. When he became a toddler, though, I was less exhausted and found a little time to write. That available time continued to increase (and the brain fog continued to decrease) the older he got. You'll get there, too!

@estherbirdbooks She has been an unbelievably good sleeper from birth, so I don't think I'll get more time that way. Maybe I really do just need to get up early. 🙃

@BethanyMangle It gets easier as they get older and start to sleep better (so that you also sleep more), but the brain fog is real 🥲 I either write in the morning before everyone wakes up or late at night

We’re living in a time where people will do anything to look original except actually be original. Everyone wants the aesthetic of authenticity without the responsibility of it. Everyone wants to be seen as a writer, a thinker, a creator, without ever sitting alone in the dark and wrestling with a blank page until it gives up a pulse. But the truth is, if your words aren’t yours, then neither is your reputation. Most folks don’t care about plagiarism. They treat it like a shortcut, a harmless little theft, or even a compliment. But as an author, I care. I care because your voice is supposed to be the one thing no one can take from you unless you hand it over. We’re losing something vital when we stop valuing the work behind the words. And if we keep pretending that integrity is optional, we’re not just cheapening art, we’re cheapening ourselves. It’s a slow rot of moral humidity that weakens the spine of a whole people. A culture that shrugs at dishonesty eventually forgets how to tell the truth even to itself.

Increasingly being submitted AI-written articles. Even the worst human writing has an abundance of signals about the writer in the choices they make. AI-written pieces give no signals and that is deeply weird to read. Some common features include...

@OGMoonLady I'm actually not a huge fan of it.

@BethanyMangle Don't forget the pork roll

Spending my entire holiday in NJ eating an inhuman amount of pizza, bagels, and Wawa before we go back south. 😅

@bperry_writes We just watched it recently. It's fantastic. I haven't seen Nosferatu yet, though.

Lost Boys, 30 Days of Night, Interview *Caveat with I haven't seen Sinners yet

@bperry_writes @moniza_hossain BETHANY

@moniza_hossain When I realized that if Back to the Future was set this year, Marty would go back to 1995, something inside me broke.

If you’re feeling bad about your novel, please know that I’ve been editing a book (on and off) for almost five years now and I only just realised I’ve been referring to the 90s as being twenty years ago the entire time

@TheBeeMorris @renatyev I'm also in this boat. 😅

@renatyev the holiday from the holiday is REAL! 💯 what kills me is that i specifically cleared my schedule today to get writing done and NOPE 😂

Did I get any writing done today? No. BUT do I feel well-rested and content after a spending a full day lazing on the sofa? Somehow, also no 😰

@camiscribbles I had the same issue until someone recommended speeding up the narration timing. That helped me a lot.

thank you everyone for putting how/why you listen to audiobooks, it's really interesting! i personally find myself struggling to focus, but im realising also i have auditory processing difficulties in general so i don't know why i started this conversation LMAO

I don't understand people who read audiobooks...I put one on and I only remembered like 10 minutes in that I'm supposed to be listening and have not actually processed anything since it began

I have so much respect for fantasy authors after trying to write in a new genre. It's just like, "Is this too weird for a fictional world? Is this not weird enough? Have I spent enough time thinking about birds? How do we feel about soup?"

Nicolas Cage says "protect yourselves from AI." “There is another world that is also disturbing me, and it’s happening right now around all of us — the new AI world. I am a big believer in not letting robots dream for us. Robots cannot reflect the human condition for us. That is a dead end if an actor lets one AI robot manipulate his or her performance even a little bit, an inch will eventually become a mile and all integrity, purity and truth of art will be replaced by financial interests only. We can’t let that happen. The job of all art in my view, film performance included, is to hold a mirror to the external and internal stories of the human condition through the very human thoughtful and emotional process of recreation. A robot can’t do that. If we let robots do that, it will lack all heart and eventually lose edge and turn to mush. There will be no human response to life as we know it. It will be life as robots tell us to know it. I say, protect yourselves from AI interfering with your authentic and honest expressions.”

Stopped in at @BlueCypressBook today. Everything you love about a local indie. ❤️ Go check them out.

@bperry_writes 👀

👀🤞🕯️

I am so excited to share the cover for IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD, which hits shelves February 10 from @GrandCentralPub and is now available for preorder!

Husband accidentally scared me this morning. Him: I thought you heard me come in. Me: The soundtrack for KPop Demon Hunters is VERY loud in my head right now.