D M Gordon

The Low Down on Book Publishing 2 M books were published during the 20th Century in the U.S. 2 M books are now published every year. 80% of these sell under 100 copies. If you sell 100+ copies, you are in the top 20%. If you sell 1000 copies, you are in the top 6% Per Michael Castleman for The Author’s Guild.

Just saying.

YouTube video by John Manchester Composer SLOW TRANSFORMATION - Innocent Recorders, Harp and Orchestra with Lovely Plein Air Watercolors.

An inducement to soften, let out breath you might not know you are holding. Three minutes is a long time to pause on Bluesky... but... enjoy... The art of Eric Kaye and music of John Manchester.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ur4...

YouTube video by Sheldrick Trust The Rescue of Tytan, A Gentle and Brave Orphaned Black Rhino | Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

These babies, and the people who raise them, the patience, the expertise, the years, the love it takes, to return them to the wild.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXOy...

tree top in the far left corner, a delicate dappling of clouds

Sometimes I should remember to look straight up. What was over my head.

It's here! Pub Date Friday, and this week's new arrival is this beautiful memoir about a Chinese-American woman born in the US but raised in China, and coming back to the United States to live her immigrant story. Survival and triumph through strength.
@karinkjensen

Filling the frame, on a granite background, a wicker basket, white paper towel and a mound of round, brown biscuits.

A practice batch of buttermilk biscuits—for a friend's cowgirl breakfast with the launch of her West Texas novel.

This, from Suzanna in Ireland this morning, almost as good as the "maa-maa-maas" of her ewes, and her horses galloping, and her pack of helper dogs of all sizes, including a cat or two, not to forget her dung beetles.

November 5, 2025 New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a member of both the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, began his victory speech last night with a nod to Eugene V.

This. This is America. Take her back. Move her forward.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-5...

Love this. Can feel the zingy energy limb to limb.

Thanks for the reminder. I had to learn this, had to be taught (by my husband) when once I said I hate November. A reminder to see the muted beauty, the reds and purples and gray-blues.

I love when Bluesky transports me, no better than this moment: a thatched roof, warthogs grazing green, green grass, scooching on their knees, small lawn sculptures, a kitten watching, a sign, "Dream, Explore, Discover." Love it. Thank you, Kate Loves A Walk!

🤗❤️🤗

Amen.

little grey bear on gray stairs, gray wall, white baseboard.

Something about Brio's bear....

How cool is that? Thank you.

a small red, red Japanese maple against muted fall colors, a snippet of stone wall, dead leaves on a driveway, an old rhododendron in the foreground.

Went looking for happy this morning on Bluesky, needing it, but this hour, found a tsunami of hate, anger and frustration as deep as I scroll, emotions running high...and how not?

Sending something to pause upon. A burst of late color.

Yes, for the writer you are, yes. You might have to skim a few spots, Victorian attitudes towards women & gypsies, & histrionic moments, not too many, not out of place for the times. But the invention & imagination, the structure, the POV, Van Helsing's marvelous convoluted ESL, all wonderful. LMK.

Rides

Day 3 of 30 Poems in November, a fund raising effort for The Center for New Americans, providing support & legal help for immigrants & refuges. Many efforts, antidotes—this is one. Contributing is a feel-good small deed...

cnam.org/civi/pcp/inf...

Though 30 poems? Not small, it turns out. 3 down.

Bonnard! So happy to think of him this morning, to have this painting to contemplate today. Love this.

I miss him. Echoing Christopher Webb, I'm glad he's back and saying what needs to be said by leadership.

I'll try to carry this with me today, longer than the moments it takes to post, come back to it, again & again with my crushed American heart. Peace, ru posts,

p
e
a
c
e
☮️
peace
peace
peace
say it
breathe it
pray
meditate
scream

I otherwise feel powerless.

The remodel of the Lincoln bathroom in gold and statuary marble.

"“They were careless people,” F.Scott Fitzgerald wrote of the Gatsby set, “they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

Reposting because...beautiful...and also this feels like home to me, in some inexplicable way, and even though the path is leading away.

Jack O'Lantern face lit in the dark, looking a little demonic?

Why "Jack-o-lanterns"? One possibility, an Irish folk tale about Jack who tricked the Devil, cursed to wander earth, forever denied heaven or hell, given a burning ember from hell to light his way, which he placed inside a carved-out turnip. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern."

Book Cover. Bram Stoker. Dracula. Red background. Pale man in a black cape. A full moon, a blood red castle.

Didn't plan it, but tonight, deep into winter dark, unseen creatures screeching and scritching in the woods, coyotes howling, far from costumed children seeking candy, I'll finish Dracula, spectacularly inventive in 1897, so much we now take for granted. It's been a trip.

A Halloween decoration, the statue of Liberty as a skeleton, draped in ghostly green rags, with The Constitution and a lowered torch.

A picture worth 1,000 words.

#Constitution #StatueOfLiberty #Halloween #America #MourningInAmerica

Here’s a cute bug!

Love these. Thanks!

My grieving American heart can pause here a moment, breathe, hear the silence of the snow, feel the existence of these two people under their umbrellas.

White fluffy dog, two big eyes, Luna peering over a laptop screen.

My Office Assistant has returned from her break.