Chris DiLeo

Yes, indeed.

Before I read SHADOW TICKET, I need to go back to the beginning. Slow learners unite. #ThomasPynchon

Hey, at least there’s 33 of us to read the new Pynchon…

Hope you dug it. I loved it, was telling everybody to go see it.

Yet when books are run out of school classrooms and even out of school libraries as a result of this idea, I'm never much disturbed— not as a citizen, not as a writer, not even as a schoolteacher... which I used to be. What I tell kids is, Don't get mad, get even. Don't spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don't walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they're trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that's exactly what you need to know. Schools, supported by tax dollars and charged with caring for increasingly diverse student bodies in increasingly difficult and argumentative times, have a difficult responsibility when it comes to the issue of what books to teach in the classroom and what books to keep out. Parents have an equally difficult but less frequently articulated responsibility, which sometimes comes down to a decision to sit down and shut up. Easy to say but often difficult-terribly diffi-cult-to do. Sometimes it's best just to let the kids read the book and trust them to evaluate it sensibly. In other words, trust those fabled "family values" ... the real, working article instead of the vague concept invoked by the politicians. When people feel they must speak out against a book that's being taught or kept in the school library, there should be a review procedure that can be used in a sane fashion. I believe that those who object to certain books should be given a fair hearing, but that they should have to work just as hard to explain what's wrong with a novel or story as a teacher does to explain, in the classroom, what's right with it. No fair coming in with twenty-three curse words and one sex scene highlighted in yellow. Objecting parents or citizens ought to be able to explain, in some rational way, why they feel the book has no redeeming social or intellectual merit. If they can, then fine. If they can't, wh…

@stephenking.bsky.social on banning books. #BannedBooksWeek @bannedbooksweek.bsky.social

Happy Banned Books Week!
#BannedBooksWeek

Episode #168: The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre with Philip Fracassi Podcast Episode · Sley House Presents · 10/04/2025 · 1h 7m

This conversation @sleyhousepresents.bsky.social @pfracassi.bsky.social is fantastic. Really appreciating Fracassi’s points about writing what you want, and the discussion about age was spot-on.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

That’s damn right.

Been writing something I don’t think will ever get published (who knows?), but I’m really writing it because I’m enjoying it. Funny, too, thinking how a reader might negatively react, that only makes me twist the narrative harder in the direction I think will annoy them more. Ha!

Read the new Elmore Leonard this morning. Fantastic. So wonderful to be in his writerly clutches again. PICKET LINE, written over fifty years ago, is more apropos today than ever.

Phenomenal film.

‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘Vineland’— What Paul Thomas Anderson Used and Cut Out of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel What Paul Thomas Anderson kept and left out from Thomas Pynchon's 'Vineland' in 'One Battle After Another.'

variety.com/2025/film/ne...

a picture of a road with the word one written on it ALT: a picture of a road with the word one written on it

It’s the perfect American film for our times. Best film I’ve seen in a long time.

Phenomenal. Loved it.

Seated for ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER.

Stay safe. This is madness.

You read this one yet? It’s good stuff. Anyway, I guess I should rewatch HALLOWEEN now.

How it’s going… @michaelwhelan.bsky.social

Cats got me pinned down.

Was going to head to the movies, but this happened, so I guess it’s reading time.

Tracing The Shape 2: First Blood What does Michael Myers want? It's question we will return to multiple times over the course of our journey together in these essays, because it's unknown and unknowable. Michael cannot, will not tel...

@awalrusdarkly.bsky.social @scaresshapedus.bsky.social
Loving these essays on the movie HALLOWEEN.

matthewjacksonwrites.com/tracing-the-...

(Second essay goes well with the latest “Slasher Nation” @sgj.bsky.social in @fangoria.bsky.social)

The Ten-Dollar Preacher by Chris DiLeo The preacher asks if I’m religious and I tell him I used to be a detective. “Your faith should be in God’s law,” he says, out-of-state accent. “My faith is in myself.” The preacher shakes his head,…

Been in this kind of mood today: shotgunhoney.com/fiction/the-...

Damn right.

Thanks! Highly recommend Eleanor Johnson’s book about horror movies in the 70s.

You can’t preorder all the books all the time, but you can preorder some of the books some of the time. Love this. @michaelwehunt.bsky.social @pfracassi.bsky.social @allymalinenko.bsky.social @sgj.bsky.social and Eleanor Johnson and the Elmore Leonard!

Something for @awalrusdarkly.bsky.social to write about, perhaps…

Starts tomorrow! Looking forward to this!

Want more? Check out my interview with Eleanor Johnson here: open.substack.com/pub/authordi...

Eleanor Johnson on Scream With Me Podcast Episode · Anna Rose Reads - The Podcast · 09/30/2025 · 57m

Absolutely phenomenal episode @annarosereads.bsky.social about a phenomenal book. I got to read an ARC this summer and was riveted. Brilliant work.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Five Questions with Philip Fracassi Slashing Your Way to Success

Check out my interview with @pfracassi.bsky.social

authordileo.substack.com/p/five-quest...

Got these today. Thinking of @sgj.bsky.social