Beth Barany (she/her/they)

Romancing the Subplots Fall 2025 masterclass Checkout page for Romancing the Subplots Fall 2025 masterclass.

"Romantic subplots can feel like magic when they work."

Learn the secrets to crafting authentic love stories in your fiction.

Join book coach Gala Russ for a hands-on workshop, Nov 15–16 9am PT.

Sign up: bethbarany.thrivecart.com/romancingthe...

Our universe's oldest galaxies were hot messes Our universe's oldest galaxies were hot messes

May I offer you some space news in these trying times? 🧪

Launch Day for HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY! Welcome back, and hallo, new readers! This is it! The US launch day for HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is February 4th. I’m amazed and relieved to get to this...

Launch day for HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY! So relieved to make it this far.
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH
buttondown.com/surekhadavie...

Text: #notjustaliens. Chenoa Tremblay, Radio Astronomy / Astrochemistry. Background: Starry night sky. Inset: Photo of Chenoa Tremblay.

Text: Dr. Chenoa Tremblay is a project scientist at the SETI Institute with joint appointments at Breakthrough Initiatives, the University of New Mexico, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets in front of it.

Text: At the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico and the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, she leads a team that processes radio astronomy data in real time, simultaneously with standard telescope operations. Background: Starry night sky with graphics of a star and exoplanets.

SETI Institute logo. Graphics: (top) Black hole. (bottom) radio telescope dishes at the Allen Telescope Array. Background: Starry night sky.

@chenoachem.bsky.social is a project scientist at the SETI Institute with joint appointments at Breakthrough Initiatives, the University of New Mexico, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

#Astrobiology #SpaceScience #SETI #NotJustAliens #SometimesAliens

PETITION: Stop Trump's Attack on the Library of Congress We need to show that Americans will not stand for yet another attack on our institutions. Sign the petition today!

Trump is now attempting to fire the head of the U.S. Copyright Office in retaliation for a report that suggested some copyrighted works used to train generative AI models would likely require licensing.

action.everylibrary.org/locpetition via @everylibrary.bsky.social

Paracetamol (Tylenol) is one of the most effective and safe painkillers ever discovered. Keep within the recommended dose. Take it in pregnancy if you need to. It has been shown in MANY studies not to cause autism. 🧪

176. Bailey Lang's Habits of Mind for Writers - How To Write The Future “So the habits of mind are: curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility, and metacognition. So that's a whole lot of terms. Metacognition is typically the one where people go, huh, I don't know what you're...

Neurodivergent writers: your writing practice doesn't have to look like anyone else's. Need both structure and novelty? Set up a system, then blow it up every three weeks. That's not failure—that's working with your brain, not against it. www.buzzsprout.com/2012061/epis...

176. Bailey Lang's Habits of Mind for Writers - How To Write The Future “So the habits of mind are: curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility, and metacognition. So that's a whole lot of terms. Metacognition is typically the one where people go, huh, I don't know what you're...

Writing is magic. You're creating worlds and ideas that didn't exist before. Stories foster connection, build empathy, and show us how to move forward. That's how we write the future—together. www.buzzsprout.com/2012061/epis...

175. Tricking Yourself into Writing Habits with LA Bourgeois - How To Write The Future “I am a horrible little goblin like that, and it's just what happens. So I have to trick myself and the ways that I trick myself are to really let myself see what I want to create.” - LA BourgeoisAbou...

@bethbarany.bsky.social asked me to be on her podcast, How to Write the Future!

Listen and let me know if I made an entire fool out of myself or not. Or even if I helped in some small way....

Radical thought.

Procrastination isn't wrong or bad.

It just means your energy is off doing something else. What is that?

Inquire within.

The within is your Self.

Do NOT put Donald Trump on any U.S. currency! Rarely in U.S. history have living presidents minted their image on U.S. currency. Trump wants to change that.  In October, it was reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled plans f...

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: sign.moveon.org/petitions/u-...

Reinstate Jimmy Kimmel and stop caving to authoritarian censorship! Kimmel wasn’t fired for his remarks on Kirk—he was fired for using his platform to expose and critique our government. Enough! We especially need large corporations, with the money and influence they ...

Kimmel wasn’t fired for his remarks on Kirk—he was fired for using his platform to expose and critique our government. Enough! We especially need large corporations, with the money and influence they have, to fight back. sign.moveon.org/petitions/ki...

Grayscale map showing the location of the earthquake outside of Concord, California. The map also shows the intensity of ground shaking, represented by different colors on the map. In this case only weak or light shaking was felt.

M 3.5 - 8 km E of Clayton, CA

Did you feel it? Report it! earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

I didn't feel it but my head's fuzzy as I've been sick so...

Thanks!

Square podcast logo: blue background, yellow, neon-light-style unfilled letters, “5AM”, across the top, with StoryTalk in white just below; bottom half of logo is a black mug with steam rising from it.

Screenshot from a newsletter page titled “5AM StoryTalk.” Three-quarter-angled headshot of a woman with dark hair, smiling, and a headshot of Sir Patrick Stewart as Locutus of Borg: deathly pale, almost greenish skin, and a prosthetic across the right-hand side of his face with a glowing red light in the middle. Text beneath: Bonus episode: Surekha Davies talks Star Trek: TNG’s “The Best of Both Worlds.” Subtitle: The historian and “Humans: A Monstrous History” author discusses a seminal piece of art from her life – two of the greatest “Star Trek” episodes…

I spoke with screenwriter and novelist @colehaddon.bsky.social about the links between politics and pop culture, the entangled history of humans and monsters, and (in a second episode) an iconic double episode of #StarTrek #TNG. 1/

💙📚 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #politics #HAMH 🧵

Publishing is Broken, But it Doesn't Have to Break Us You’re not the problem. The system is rigged against you, but you don’t have to stay stuck playing a game you were never meant to win.

I just backed Publishing is Broken, But it Doesn't Have to Break Us on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/rus...

A New Opportunity & Nine Modern Day Muses + Their Bodyguard The next book in our series for Thriving Creatives and an opportunity for a Creative Writing Professionals Apprenticeship

Our next Book for Thriving Creatives is this imaginative and wise book by my KMCC teacher, @jbeansky.bsky.social - Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard!

Plus, a new opportunity from @bethbarany.bsky.social and an announcement of a new direction for this newsletter.

See you after the click!

Writing About Writing About Writing Writing book reviews and tools

I've got a writing book problem: When I have a book writing problem, I pick up a writing book, and since writing is hard I've read dozens of writing books in the last decade. This is my attempt to make sense of them.
#writing #booksky 💙📚

Creative Writing Professionals Apprenticeship Program Checkout page for Creative Writing Professionals Apprenticeship Program.

Stop waiting for the perfect moment + start building your creative career!

Launching the Creative Entrepreneurship Apprenticeship:

12 weeks to turn your love of writing into a sustainable business as a book coach, editor etc.

Enrollment closes Sept 12.

bethbarany.thrivecart.com/creative-wri...

Pay WNBA Players What They Deserve! We, the undersigned fans, allies, and supporters of the WNBA, stand in full solidarity with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) during negotiations for a new Collective Bargain...

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: sign.moveon.org/petitions/wn...

An image of The Promised Queen book cover and a quote from the book: The Promised One had arrived exactly when the prophecy said she would, only no one had said she'd have a knife in her chest when she did.

THE PROMISED QUEEN is out today! If you like fantasy, romance, romantasy, adventure, action, thievery, double crossing and sexytimes… you might like it. You can buy it here: mybook.to/TPQ

“They called Sigrid Schultz ‘the dragon from Chicago.’ She called it doing her job.
I spent years digging into her story—an American reporter who told the truth about Nazi Germany long before anyone wanted to hear it.  Now, The Dragon from Chicago comes out in paperback Aug 26th.
www.PamelaToler.com

Deadline to apply is tonight to the Next Step Critique group Fall 2025 cycle.

Yes, this. The world needs our light and joy.

Next Step Critique Group: Your Publication Journey Starts Here · Writer's Fun Zone Are you ready to take your writing to the next level? Are you ready to commit to your dream of becoming a published author? Then apply for the Fall 2025 Session of the Next...

For writers ready for feedback in a peer group, supported by an instructor and fellow fiction writer. Deadline to apply: this Friday, Aug. 22nd.

writersfunzone.com/blog/2025/08...

#amwriting #amediting

Editing my podcast ep with the fab illustrator @pkpaintings.bsky.social

You can always grab a copy of this… just sayin

All these old grumpy White dudes on cable news outraged at what’s happening in this country but they empowered this man.
This is what happens when you only consider yourself.

Signed,

A Black woman who cares about people outside of my community

Stand down federal law enforcement in DC In an unprecedented and unwarranted move, President Trump declared that he’s taking over the Metropolitan D.C. police and sending the National Guard into the city. DC needs Congress to do everything i...

Be in solidarity with DC Communities! QUICK SIGNATURE: action.momsrising.org/sign/DCFeder... via @momsrising.org #Democracy