Maureen Aitken

It's publication day for The Patron Saint of Lost Girls!
You can get your copy through my website or from your favorite
#bookseller
maureenaitken.com

#survival #thepatronsaintoflostgirls #midwest #maureenaitken #domesticlife #shortstorycollection #readingcommunity #literaryfiction #availablenow

The Patron Saint of Lost Girls Award-winning stories about growing up and finding resiliency amid uncertainty. In 1970s and '80s Detroit, the city wrestles with an u...

I’m thrilled that my collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, is available for preorder through the links below. Thank you to Wayne State University Press for this beautiful reissue!

wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814352465/
www.amazon.com/Patron-Saint...

“I suppose you are scared too because you read poetry.
Each of us decided to dig a hole in the ground to reach out to
the other hand of our fate.”

From The Rules of Blind Obedience by Amirah Al Wassif

This reads like a memoir and poetry. Lovely.

Painting of red poppies in seven differently shaped clear glass bottles on a shelf or table top

Lucy Culliton, contemporary Australian artist, known for her paintings of landscapes and still lifes #WomensArt

MicroMonday #14 My Mother, the Former Bank Robber by Gary Duncan My mother, the former bank robber, keeps a claw hammer in her handbag, just in case. She says she’s never had to use it, except that one time. She s…

It’s the Monday short you need from Gary Duncan in @fictivedream.bsky.social.

#writingcommunity
#flashfiction

fictivedream.com/2025/07/07/m...

Many thanks to everyone at
The Missouri Review for selecting my short story as a finalist for The Perkoff Prize!

The story will be published in August.
Congratulations to all of the winners!

missourireview.com/contests/per...

#writingcommunity
#fiction
#shortstory

Sly Stone, Family Stone Architect Who Fused Funk, Rock, and Soul, Dead at 82 Sly Stone, the wildly inventive musician and head of Sly & the Family Stone who fused rock, funk and soul, has died at age 82.

“Stand, in the end, you'll still be you
One that's done all the things you set out to do
Stand, there's a cross for you to bear
Things to go through if you're goin' anywhere.”

RIP Sly Stone🥺
#slyandthefamilystone

www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

This is such a beautiful and wise piece. It moves through like mapping new territory.

Thank you, Elizabeth.😊
That is “Scavengers.”
It means a lot that you remember it years later.

Wayne State University Press (@WSUpress) will release a new edition of my collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, this September.
Many thanks to the Wayne State University Press team for the new cover.
#shortstory
#flashfiction
#writingcommunity
#fictionwriter
#5amwritersclub

Day 4 of #1000wordsofsummer complete.
I’m watching inspirational athlete interviews to stay limber.
@jamiattenberg.bsky.social.

anderust + swedish.wanderlust 19h Norway just evacuated a student from Harvard-not a war zone, but an American university. As someone who now resides in Sweden, I find it hauntingly symbolic. The "land of the free" was never truly free-just expertly packaged. When Nordic countries start extracting their citizens from Ivy League campuses for safety, it's not just a red flag. It's a siren.

Congrats!

😊

Thank you, Michael! This story came from a @sfreligh.bsky.social class. 😊

Many thanks to
@mczyzniejewski.bsky.social and @mooncityreview.bsky.social for publishing my retelling of Hopper’s “Summer Evening.”
First of two pages below.
#writingcommunity
#writer
#readersofbluesky

MicroMonday #6 Vampira Tutorial by Meg Pokrass I was sleeping over at my best friend Sheila’s and Fright Night was about to start, which meant being glued-together scared. We were combining our sleeping bags when…

Wonderful piece by @megpokrass.bsky.social in @fictivedream.bsky.social.

fictivedream.com/2025/05/12/m...

“Just calm down and let people enjoy chatgpt.” Sorry, no. I find it creepy that folks are treating a machine that mimics human speech as their friend / therapist. It is feeding you lies. It is destroying your thinking abilities. Shut it off. Talk to other humans. Go outside.

Congratulations!

ICYMI - my May #CraftArticle - which I promise will be the last time I bang on about climbing stairs!!! (can't believe I was still in the midst of that this time last week 🤪)

Congrats to Ben Tanzer for the publication of After Hours, a fine book about his father, grief, and the power of film.

It’s still wildly impressive. Congratulations! 🎉 🥳

Wonderful news!

brad listi (@bradlisti.bsky.social) author of books. host of the otherppl podcast. in-depth interviews w writers. hermit. good at walking. https://linktr.ee/bradlisti #booksky

Here’s a gem resource for writers:

@bradlisti.bsky.social of @otherpp.bsky.social podcast talks with @janefriedman.com about the business of writing.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

#literaryfiction
#flashfiction
#writingcommunity
#fiction

“SLY LIVES!” It just gutted me for the right reasons: yes, Sly Stone is the beautiful being I remembered and yes he made the music we believed in when we needed it most. Those incandescent sounds are more amazing now.
Long live Sly Stone.
#SlyStone
#SlyandtheFamilyStone
#Questlove
#documentary

That is amazing.

Looking forward to this reading!

You won!!!
Congratulations, @spoutpress.bsky.social!

Happy Birthday!🌟🥳🎂

Now is a time of perceived powerlessness for many, of despair, when things feel truly hopeless and meaningless.

It is in these moments when small kindnesses mean so much.

Check on people. Help strangers. Tell people you care.

It’s trite, but even little lights shine brightly in dark times.