S. L. Barrett

My satire, non-topical newspaper newsletter (try saying that five times fast) is now live! Today's post is free, so check it out.

Please subscribe and share, because word of mouth > algorithms. #writingcommunity #amwriting #humor #satire

Welcome to The Dissociation Gazette! You signed up on purpose, right?

Read the Welcome post!

thedissociationgazette.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

And here’s where to search: publicrecords.copyright.gov

What we are:
-silly
-full of existential dread
-your #1 news source for things that don't matter
What we are not:
-topical
-credible
-real
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I'm launching a weekly Substack newsletter! I started writing silly, darkly humored, fictional news stories as a way to cope with my anxieties about EVERYTHING, and I just kept going until I had enough for several months of publication. Now I'm sharing it. Check it out! #amwriting #writingcommunity

Image description: a gray cat lying on a teal blanket on a bed with his back to the camera. In the top left of the picture, a paper shopping bag for Watermark Books & Cafe in Wichita, KS sits in front of him. To the right, four books are laid out on the bed: All Fours by Miranda July, Fire Exit by Morgan Talty, Swimming Shelter by Al Ortolani, and a collection of Joan Didion essays.

Neville is jealous that he couldn't go to the sidewalk sale at Watermark with me today, but he also can't read.

If you need a break, click on #bloomscroll.

🌸💐🌺🌹🌷🌻🌼🪷🪻

The other day, I made the conscious decision to take a break from writing my dystopian novel to instead finish drafting my campy murder mystery novel because, well... *looks around* mental health reasons. #skywriters #writingcommunity

Me: I'm making really good progress on this section of my novel, but I'm still struggling to tie things together.

My brain: Here's an AMAZING idea that will solve all of the problems!

Me: Yay!!

My brain: ...but it requires a complete rewrite of the 10k words you have in the section so far!

Me: 😐

I wrote* over 1,000 words in my WIP today!

*including a 700-word passage I copied over from a previous draft (I'm still counting it!) #skywriters

I have been STRUGGLING with one of the narrators in my novel in progress for over a month, and yesterday I had an epiphany: make it horror.

I’m A Psychologist Who Specializes In Narcissists. Here’s What We Need To Do To Stop Trump. "The same patterns that destabilize families destabilize democracies."

www.huffpost.com/entry/psycho...

Image description: six large choux buns cooling on a wire rack, which is sitting on a white quartz kitchen countertop with black veining.

This is the best that I have made choux buns since the first time I made dairy-free cream puffs, when I had beginner's luck and thought to myself "cream puffs aren't so hard." It took a year and eventually adding another egg to the choux dough to get back here. But I did it! #foodsky

I'm thinking about reading War and Peace. I calculated that if I read 30 pages a day, I can finish it in a month. I did that with Anna Karenina and it worked, but it was also 2018 and I was much more motivated back then. O, to be young and pre-pandemic...

Anyone else feel like screaming today or is it just me? And by today, I mean constantly.

Thanks! I've been writing this one off and on since 2014. It's time to finish it.

I finished the 2nd draft of my novel!!!

Now onto the 3rd draft 😂😭📝

#writingcommunity #skywriters #writersofbluesky

Meta's Massive AI Training Book Heist: What Authors Need to Know  - The Authors Guild Today, The Atlantic published a search tool that allows authors to check if their works are in LibGen, an illegal pirate site AI companies copied for their AI systems. This is a similar tool to the on...

Good news for fellow authors disheartened by your books being illegally used to train AI;

"If your book was used by Meta, you’re automatically included in the Kadrey v. Meta class action in Northern California..."

And @authorsguild.bsky.social has some practical steps you can take.

Hey, an occasional reminder:

Should you be fighting fascism here in the US? Yes, you should!

Are you the one who decides how best you can do that? Yes, you are!

Should the people who decide that you're not doing it right (i.e., the way they want you to) fuck off into the sun? Yes, they should!

I got a copy of Kindscher's Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie, and I'm happy to report that my two favorite plant names in the book are Bastard Toadflax and Panic Grass. Both of them grow throughout most of the U.S. That is all.

Naming a character implies to the reader that they'll need to remember them later for some reason. If they're just there to add dimension to a scene and don't actually have impact on the story, I wouldn't name them.

I had to write a brand-new section of my novel, and once I finish it I'll be finished with this draft of the whole thing.

I have been half a chapter away from finishing it for like 2 weeks 😂

I know exactly what needs to happen but I keep trying to do everything else except write it. Like clean.

Yeah, it's something you have to work up to.

Acupunture really helped me, & it's great because all you have to do is lay there. My insurance even covered it. Basically the needle penetrates into the muscle to release tension better than massage. My acu even hooked up a tens machine to the needles.

Yoga Sequences • Jason Crandell Yoga Method by Jason Crandell Search through more than 25 yoga sequences by Jason Crandell to inspire your home practice and your yoga teaching.

I have arthritis in my lower back: taking up yoga helped my quality of movement significantly. I downloaded a couple of yoga sequences from Jason Yoga, of all places. Scroll all the way down.

Also, acupuncture helped me a lot to get to the point where I could do yoga.

jasonyoga.com/blog/yoga-se...

If you're 60, 69.1% of all job growth since your birth occurred under Democratic administrations.

If you're 45, that number is 74.7%.

If you're under 30, the number is 100%.

LAST DAY TO REGISTER!!! #skywriters #writingcommunity

I think this period of American history should henceforth be known as the Reign of Error.

Our online fiction critique group starts NEXT WEEK! All experience levels welcome. Check out writepittsburgh.com/events for more information on the workshop and your instructor (me!). #skywriters #writersofbluesky #writingcommunity #amwriting #fiction #amwritingfiction #writingworkshop #writinggroup

4 spots left! Join our online fiction critique group to get feedback on your work. Starts Feb 23rd. #skywriters #amwriting #writingcommunity #fiction

Also, I'm a speculative author myself, as well as classically educated in literary fiction, so you'll get plenty of well-rounded feedback from me.

How the “Subversive Genius” of Kendrick Lamar Sent Trump Home a Loser The Philadelphia Eagles and Kendrick Lamar’s collective of geniuses made this the Super Bowl we needed.

Trump was so mad last night, he stormed out after the halftime show and cancelled the penny. Seriously. www.thenation.com/article/soci...