Melanie Dusseau

Joyful aspects of querying:

✍️ Researching agents. I love their personal, bookish stories. The manuscript wish lists that light you on fire.

✍️The little thrill of hope when you hit send.

✍️ Putting off grading to examine QT stats just long enough to conclude you might be a "maybe."

#amquerying

Book Broker: an interview with Kerry D’Agostino A good manuscript catches my attention right away and does not let it go. I am most drawn to voice-driven narratives, where I find something relatable about the protagonist right away, and I find…

Book Broker: an interview with literary agent Kerry D'Agostino

"It is very clear when we receive a manuscript that is an early stage of drafting."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

"These violent delights have violent ends."

#AI #ActorsGuild #HumanRights #Shakespeare #Westworld

I wish Query Tracker had an after hours lounge where insomniac writers in different time zones could meet to laugh and cry together. 💙📚

#AmQuerying #Authors #TradPub #WritingCommunity #WriterLife #WriteSky #SpecFic #WriterSky #ParanormalRomance #RomanceWriter #BookSky #Gingers #WritingProf #Romance

The Normalization of Book Banning This report offers a window into the complex and extensive climate of censorship between July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

It is a joy, privilege, and responsibility to create reading lists for my students. It's also more important than ever to stand against censorship and in solidarity with academic freedom in education.

#EduSky #RightToRead #PenAmerica #anticensorship #readbannedbooks

pen.org/report/the-n...

@juliebwriter.bsky.social Sure! In addition to Psalm & Murderbot novellas, we're also reading Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera and Flowers for the Sea by Zin Rocklyn. Novels are Day Zero, A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World, and The Handmaid's Tale.

My Weird Tales lit class is tearing through several novellas, and they are the perfect length to capture the reading attentions of college students.

If you haven't read Becky Chambers, you ought to. Next up: book 1 of Murderbot by Martha Wells. *Squeals in Sci Fi*

#novellas #writingprof #readmore

Why I Cannot Represent AI-Generated Work It has its uses but not in fiction.

Exactly what I have been telling my creative writing students. I am glad to see this kind of messaging on more and more literary agents' submission guidelines.

#EduSky #creativewriting #amquerying #humancreativity #AIResistance

@ecniumata.bsky.social

erinniumata.substack.com/p/why-i-cann...

AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...

I feel this way about socialslop, too. Imagine that? Automation is not only unethical; it deskills with a vengeance.

#AIResistance #AIRefusal #HumansDoItBetter

hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g...

Pssst: wanna read banned books with me in a red state? Knock twice. Bring booze. Password: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

#ALA #ReadHumanAuthoredBooks #CelebrateYourRightToRead #EduSky #writingprof #amquerying ✍️🚫🤖

bannedbooksweek.org

America, when will you be angelic?* When will you take off your clothes?

*Ginsberg doesn't use a comma in a direct address, but I do. 😀🇺🇸🚫🤖

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/...

Also: every academic integrity policy should include discussions of these lawsuits. Education's post plagiarism crisis should look this right in the face. Remember when we objected to using others words this way? When we didn't ask students and colleagues alike to stomach this stunning hypocrisy?

Judge approves $1.5 billion copyright settlement between AI company Anthropic and authors A federal judge on Thursday approved a $1.5 billion settlement between artificial intelligence company Anthropic and authors who allege nearly half a million books had been illegally pirated to train ...

Hard working writers. Creatives toiling in education, our craft hacked by unethical tech. Writers who hustle for every reader. Nobody poets. Debut novelists. Bestsellers. Indie authors. Syntax wizards in nonfiction. Cover artists. I see you. I stand with you.

#Human

apnews.com/article/anth...

Advice | Sometimes We Resist AI for Good Reasons Why higher ed needs to listen to the contrarians in setting policies on using tools like ChatGPT in faculty work.

Excellent piece in the Chronicle by Kevin Gannon about AI resistance in higher ed.

#EduSky #AIResistance

www.chronicle.com/article/some...

Little pep talk after hitting send on new queries.😬❤️ #amquerying #writingcommunity #romanceauthor #poetwritingprose #publishing #perseverance #writingprof #hopeful

Cool news: I'm leading the Ireland & Scotland study abroad trip at my uni again in 2026! Travelling research, here I come. #inspired 🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Trying to temper the bruising rejection of the querying process with bright spots. Proposal to AWP accepted. New poetry forthcoming in Villain Era; flash romance sold to Woman's World.

This should be a balm, but I still feel shattered. Why are y'all such sadists, fiction writers?

#amquerying

Will your press be at the bookfair? If so, offer to do a signing. If you haven't submitted a proposal for an official panel or reading, there are usually lots of great "off conference" readings. Just writer friends or lit mags meeting informally but creating events/invites on social media.

California issues historic fine over lawyer’s ChatGPT fabrications The court of appeals said 21 of 23 quotes in an opening brief were fake. State authorities are scrambling to grapple with widespread use of artificial intelligence.

Sycophant bots don't know the law. LLMs are not research partners, oracles, or editors gifted in rhetorical analyses. They can't generate passably unbiased text. Let's not call it writing, mkay?

Lawyers: if college students have to disclose their AI use, so should you.
www.ijpr.org/law-and-just...

A bright spot in the bruising process of querying is noting how many literary agencies have AI disclosures and outright bans in their submission guidelines.

A legion of writing profs, writers, & artists in academia stand with the publishing community in resistance.

#amquerying #AIRefusal #EduSky

I've washed and reassembled the duvet cover, and I intend to submit this as the sole artifact for my mid-tenure dossier. My mom supervised and I did it wrong.

What do you want from me, academia? Another heartbreaking paranormal romance? More poems written in the blood of gingers?

#writingprof

My manuscript is the one in the delicious, genre-bending powder blue jumpsuit on the end. 🤩🇮🇪🩵

#amquerying #MSWL #publishing #writinglife #romance #debut #poetwritingfiction #GrumpyIrishWerelion #mountaincore #Celtic #paranormal #fantasy #WitchesFightingPatriarchy #analogresearch #folklore

QueryTracker: the manuscript.

Genre: cosmic horror
Vibes: obsession; darkcore meets hopepunk
Wish list: commercial but make it cross-over, literary, book club, with genre flair. No vampires.

If you need me, I'm overthinking if my query might be a life-affirming maybe.

#amquerying #MSWL #romance

#HumanAuthor #ResistRobots #touchgrass #RedheadsDoItBetter

It does! Even Valley of the Dolls font. Swoon.

Wuthering Heights is the original grumpy/brain fever trope. Why is everyone dissing this adaptation? So. Many. Cheekbones.

Come with me on Valentine's Day? You know you want to. And if you don't: I'll haunt you, brute. ❤️

#romance #windswept #tropey #notguilty #bronte #takemymoney

Just to be blunt, if you want Wired and 404 and The Verge to employ reporters who understand the memes on bullet casings and can connect them to gaming culture while having the legal and support resources to deal with waves of harassment when we do it… you have to subscribe and pay for the work

School of Grok Professors and academics discuss how A.I. has invaded their classrooms, whether it’s incompatible with the aims of higher education, and their recently published open letter calling on universities to...

Thank you, @iankrietzberg.bsky.social for giving space to voices of AI resistance and refusal in higher ed. I was happy to be a part of this vital conversation.

#EduSky #AIinEdu #AIResistance

🚫🤖

puck.news/why-teachers...

Also, hug a librarian (but not in a stalker-y way).❤️📚

#EduSky #BannedBooksWeek #ALA #RightToRead #ReadForYourRights #LibrariansAreSuperHeroes