Liesa Abrams

A bright spot of good news to end the week!

We've been sitting on this for a year and are stoked to talk about it. Jorge and I wanted to write THE CAT PROPHECIES: CLAW QUEST and show all the beautiful things about Colombia, and we're very fortunate Labryrinth Road wanted to publish it. We can't wait for everyone to meet Tito and the gang.

Do any of the professors or journalists or teachers also get their jobs back or nah

"I understand that the hospital may be required, depending on actions taken to implement the President's Executive Orders, to cease offering certain care procedures or medications, and that such cessation could happen at any time and without any advance notice."

🚨! My friend found this caveat in an ER consent form she was pressured to sign before reading (see alt text for the highlighted sentence of concern). EVERYONE needs to speak up on this—a president’s executive order could stop an ER from necessary treatment?? @aclu.org

If, like me, you are a mother who took tylenol at some point during pregnancy and have a child with neurodivergency, please remember during any fake science announcements today that fake science doesn’t become more real just when it’s directed at our most vulnerable pressure points. 💙

Spoon Saving Social Media Tips and How to Resist Online The current political landscape is having a devastating impact on the health of those within the disability community. A look at how we can save spoons and leverage our unique powers to resist.

Tomorrow RFK Jr and Trump plan to announce their “big news” about autism.

Nothing they do is rooted in science, disability awareness or common decency.

Remember to protect your digital space.

Safeguard your spoons.

Check on one another.

Lean into the community for support

This GF apple cake is here to remind you that tonight through Wed is Rosh Hashanah, & next Wed evening through Thurs is Yom Kippur. For many Jewish people, these are the most sacred holidays of the year. Please don’t schedule meetings w/ Jewish colleagues or expect email replies on these days!

a man with blonde hair wearing a knight 's armor smiles for the camera ALT: a man with blonde hair wearing a knight 's armor smiles for the camera

If I were to host a watchalong of A KNIGHT'S TALE with a no-holds-barred Sir Callie Q&A in October would anyone be interested?

Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way The mainstream media seems entirely uninterested in explaining Charlie Kirk's work.

Mainstream pundits have instantly sanitized and ignored Charlie Kirk's core political project and its impacts. He has been remembered by the mainstream press as someone they merely disagreed with, a debate me-guy whose words and actions had zero consequences:

www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...

I still believe in middle grade. I always will.

I want the humor to come from the absurdity of existence and the emotion to come organically from the confrontation we all experience at that age between reality & fantasy (in all senses).

I still want authors to write MG series that are messy, vulnerable, packed with wonder & heartache, with the realness of being a kid and the emotional urgency of every single core relationship and decision in your life at that age.

I can speak to what is working out there & what isn’t, & why I think they are or aren’t. But I also have one clear thought/feeling apart from every strategic insight—

There are a lot of articles this week about the middle grade category. I have so many thoughts on this topic, as both a longtime editor of some mainstay middle-grade series, and a parent of a 12-year-old.

If you’ve ever compared unvaccinated kids to vaccinated kids, you’ve seen the former are more likely to die.

This is a five-alarm fire, except the fire is our government and what’s burning is our collective safety and wellbeing

On the same day the FDA restricted access to COVID vaccines, the CDC director was sacked and top CDC scientists are resigning.

And it’s barely been two weeks since an antivax conspiracy theorist fired 180 bullets at CDC headquarters.

None of this is making America healthier. What a disaster.

Who watches the birdwatchers

I guess I'm not surprised, but this fucking sucks and is fucking horrible, so call your reps, clang the pots and pans, make noise.

Is it me or are similes reproducing in manuscripts lately like gremlins doused in water? (😉) I am finding myself slashing more of them than ever & distracted by them in submissions. Authors: be judicious w/ similes. Make them count, & trust your descriptions to do the work the rest of the time!

Picture of my in a black and pink ensemble in my lobby with a matching pink N95 mask.

Taking a page from @runwithskizzers.bsky.social and reminding you that you can do anything you’d normally do while wearing a mask to protect yourself and others. (#SaturdayLibrarian here and visiting my extremely immunocompromised mom at the rehab center.)

Because editing yourself TEACHES YOU HOW TO EDIT. And also write! When you have to take out all the "justs" and "reallys" yourself, you're aware of not putting them in there the next time you write. This is the whole process. This is the whole point of the practice of writing.

Brooklyn!! Come see @itsladarrion.bsky.social at Taylor & Co. Books next Friday night!!

❤️

NYT recommends @shauniedarko.bsky.social’s creepy mystery with themes of anti-bullying & identity, SCHOOL FOR INVISIBLE BOYS, for kids going into middle school! “Haunting and heartfelt.” This one was also a NYPL Best Book of the Year and a Bank Street Best Book. 💙

Alex is here for us. ❤️

Pretty stunning, right??

It would be a very good time to start masking unless you’re ok with small children dying for your convenience.

Beautiful day to sit by the water and devour the ARC of this wonderful read from a debut author, which also happens to be @emilyshapiro24.bsky.social’s first solo acquisition for Labyrinth Road!

❤️❤️❤️