Marijean Oldham

Friday Night Writes tonight at @ndbookshop.bsky.social Come share your stories, poems, or songs. 5 minutes! Sign ups at 6:45pm

NEWBIES ONLY Submit if you've never managed to hit one of our open windows. If I catch you repeating, I'll be very cross, I will reject you and leave a permanent note on your file. Loose guidelines: any genre, prose length < 1200 words, poetry up to 5 poems or 3 pages. Yours, @crowjonah.com

open now to 45 of you who've never submitted to HAD before!

but did the juice freeze before it fell? (Hope you're OK! That sounds bad!)

If you haven't yet, read this amazing piece by @djpoissant.bsky.social in @cincinnatireview.bsky.social 💙

Ok, it took me a minute to untangle all that. Charts! We need charts. I’ve learned what we had is called a double rebound, and in fact my husband’s grandparents divorced and married another couple they split up so I guess it’s family tradition.

Lol no, there were some years and some feelings in there.

My husband's ex-wife is the ex-wife of my ex-husband, but that's not a secret. Everyone knows that.

My grandmother's older sister was a half-sister and the product of an affair with a Spaniard (which is such an exotic story for the time.)

I think it stems from local people booking rooms for parties and trashing them (college students, perhaps). I think there are other, better ways for hotels to handle this.

I booked a local room once and when I arrived to check in, they refused the booking based on my zip code. It was very upsetting. I had to leave and find another hotel that would take me. I'm assuming other people would have this terrible experience, made worse by weather and travel challenges.

Right! Yes, I stayed there once when the rest of the family had the flu and I had a book launch I couldn't reschedule. I think that's one of very few! Thanks for the reminder.

Blue flier for the 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction prize. Theme: Family. Guest Judge: Camille U. Adams. Jan 1-31st. $5/story. $700 in prizes.

🚨The 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction contest is now open!!

flash-frog.com/submit/

What Charlottesville hotels allow people with local zip codes to book a room? I know that many don't, but ahead of this storm, and already without power, some of us might need to relocate.

Flyer for SmokeLong's off-site reading at AWP. Image of hand held megaphone overlays cutouts from thesaurus for the word "flash". Text layer: SmokeLong Quarterly AWP 2026 Off-site reading. Meet the SmokeLong eds. Thursday 03.05 6-8pm Old Major, 900 S. Carey St. Baltimore Free entry

Hello, #AWP Bluesky. We are having a reading event at Old Major in Baltimore on Thursday March 5, 6-8pm. It is free. A lot of us will be there and we would love love love to see you. 💗🏳️‍⚧️⚡🌈

woohoo! Can't wait!

A woman reads at a microphone in front of an audience in a charming, independent bookshop.

It is FRIDAY, and it is the first Friday of the month! That means tonight is FRIDAY NIGHT WRITES, the open mic night for writers of poetry, prose, and song at @ndbookshop.bsky.social I get to GUEST HOST tonight, so come see me and give us 5 min. of your best stuff. Signups at 6:45pm.🔥📖

Yay, Fiona!

Congratulations to all the writers on the NiF long list! Overjoyed to see my work listed here 🤞🏻😍👀

Fifeville moves one big step closer to having a community-owned grocery store, and it wants the city's help Plans are moving ahead for a mixed-use development in Fifeville that will include a grocery co-op and low-cost housing, but residents need city funding to get the project to the finish line.

Great article on the improving potential for a grocery co-op in Fifeville. I wanted to donate to help their chances a tiny bit so I found their site: secure.actblue.com/donate/cvill.... Crossing my fingers this actually happens!

www.cvilletomorrow.org/fifeville-mo...

Fifeville moves one big step closer to having a community-owned grocery store, but it needs the city's help Plans are moving ahead for a mixed-use development in Fifeville that will include a grocery co-op and low-cost housing, but residents need city funding to get the project to the finish line.

Fifeville is another step closer to having a grocery store www.cvilletomorrow.org/fifeville-mo...

Good news!

Hey all,

The Onion is accepting applicants for our writing, video and graphics fellowships.

Fellowships last six months, pay well, and provide full benefits.

You can apply at theonion.com/fellowship.

Tomato Season by Marijean Oldham To avoid canning, we ate the tomatoes as they ripened, in sandwiches, on pasta, in pie. We ate tomatoes until our tongues ached with the acid, and still we reached for more. The August heat was giving...

An honor to be nominated for Best Microfiction for Tomato Season 🍅

www.dipitylitmag.com/post/tomato-...

Inbox: “UVA Emergency Alert: ACTIVE ATTACKER with a gun reported in area of Shannon Library 160 McCormick Road. RUN HIDE FIGHT” #UVA

Registered for #awp26 in Baltimore this week, which feels like a big deal. See you there?

ULI Virginia: Solving Homelessness in Charlottesville | ULI Virginia

ULI Virginia is hosting Solving Homelessness in Charlottesville on November 19 virginia.uli.org/events/detai...

We had a challenge one summer with the then-middle-school-aged children to use it in conversation with other people. My husband was very good at this.

A Normal Kid

This is what we mean when we talk about the importance of opening lines in flash. "Emmie, my nine year old daughter, knows how to hotwire a Kia." bendinggenres.com/a-normal-kid/ Read this goodness from James Keith Smith: A Normal Kid. #flashfiction

We are all dude. My grown kids call me dude and now that I'm a grandmother, people ask me what my grandma name will be, and I say, "probably Dude."

Writing in Vermont in the Fall Ochre and vermillion, maple-flavored, and crunchy

Writing in Vermont in the fall (I highly recommend!) open.substack.com/pub/marijean...

new new: "Franchise," by Elise Blackwell: wigleaf.com