Joshua David Bellin

Exactly!

#TimeTravelAuthors 8/5/25

In MYRIAD, main character Miriam Randle (code name "Myriad") works for LifeTime, a company that sends "travel agents" back in time to reverse crimes that have been committed.

It doesn't always go according to plan.

Agreed. I think the more the writer knows, regardless of whether it physically shows up on the page, the more real the world feels.

#TimeTravelAuthors, 8/3/25

The biggest deletion in MYRIAD was a chapter's worth of trauma theory presented in the form of a paper written by one of the characters. I hated to cut it because of all the research I'd put into it, but I had to for the sake of the story. Only bits of it survive.

Yesterday, my son and I drove to Cleveland to watch the Guardians game. Before we went to the stadium, we stopped at the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. I guess it was a Guardians and Gardens trip.

Cool story idea! As a writing professor, I sometimes wish I could fall back into the pre-AI era...

#TimeTravelAuthors 8/1/25

I've been too busy lately writing another (non-time-travel) novel to participate in the fun, but it's finished now so I'm jumping back in. Thanks as always to @juliebihn.bsky.social for hosting!

MYRIAD is a time-travel murder mystery set in my hometown of Pittsburgh.

I'm no great Nature photographer and my phone's camera isn't so hot either, but I think this picture of a dragonfly from my trip to Maine came out okay.

For my 60th birthday, my son bought us tickets to see Toto, Men at Work, and Christopher Cross. He knows me so well!

Maybe because my old roommate visited this week, I decided to re-read "On the Road," which I first read in college. It wasn't for me then and it still isn't for me now, though it does have some beautiful individual lines: "The stars folded over the sleeping countryside."

Hanging out with my college roomie at PNC Park. (The Pirates, astonishingly, won.)

Thanks--I was pleased with that innovation too!

I'm doing my annual file drawer clean-up, so pardon the posts on the stuff I'm finding.

These drawings are a good 15 years old, when my son was into something called "demon hunters" (I never asked if it was a TV show or if he made it up) and we spent an afternoon drawing characters.

"I tell people—students of mine, other writers, anyone who will listen—that the common denominator among successful authors is not whether you have an MFA, it’s not who you know. It’s who kept showing up and doing the work."

Yellow Dog Ghost Town (or, perhaps, Goat Town) near Pittsburgh.

No, because when I drew him, I was working on a novel set during his time in college. But then I aged up, and so did he!

Maybe I'll be able to reveal more soon...

I came across this doodle I drew years ago of one of the characters from my recently completed novel. It's set on a college campus, and this is him as a student, though the novel takes place 40 years later.

My latest novel is in my agent's hands! Hopefully, I'll have some good news to share before year's end.

Yeah, let's chat via email when you're done. I'm interested to hear your take on the way I handled time travel, and social media's not ideal for complicated conversations!

Glad you're liking it so far. If I did my job right, the story will continue to surprise (and possibly disorient) you throughout.

A Nation's Story: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech titled “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” a call for the promise of liberty be applied equally to all Americans. Douglass’s speech empha...

Great day to read Frederick Douglass’ brilliant speech-

“What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”

nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stor...

Novice writers, maybe. Pros listen to criticism and learn from it.

Baby moose (calf? mosling?) at Baxter State Park.

We will use their horrific agenda to turn voters against them by the millions in the midterms. And yes, there will be midterms. Don’t even think about voicing defeatism and doing their work for them.

Family fun on Katahdin.

With my wife on Mount Katahdin.

We didn't reach the summit or even come particularly close, but we did have a fun (if difficult) 7-hour hike up and down Mount Katahdin.

Some pictures from Baxter State Park.