Happy Monday from someone who needs you to know (because too many people seem to think this is normal):
AI is not your friend.
AI is not your therapist.
AI is not your doctor.
AI is not your lover.
AI is collecting your data.
AI is pattern-matching your work.
AI is just a program.
In Barcelona in October, I bought a drawing titled, “Alone,” that makes me deeply uncomfortable in a delightful way.
The artist, Cirro Marra, is having a show at the same gallery beginning March 5, and if I could, I’d go back there and buy everything.
artquemy.com/producto/il-...
There’s some great reading across all the finalists. Thrilled that we are one of them.
24.02.2026 18:26 — 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0Oh damn, that’s this weekend! Ugh I’m sorry to miss you!
25.02.2026 04:44 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Hope you got some water from the fountain, too! That Bay Area water is too soft…Colorado’s tastes just right.
22.02.2026 03:08 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0🙋🏼♀️ It me.
10.02.2026 03:06 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I also hope they take their own advice and instead of playing golf with their friends, they just ask ChatGPT to tell them how the game would have turned out.
06.02.2026 21:22 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Turns out I’m still angry about the five old men in Indian Wells who told me that doing an MFA was stupid because I could just “ask ChatGPT to write my book for me.”
Wherever they are, I hope they’re having shitty days.
BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.
01.02.2026 21:10 — 👍 35213 🔁 17413 💬 2299 📌 2251I’m FT employed again, which means it’s time to up my monthly donation to @aclu.org because I still believe in the parts of America I always have believed in.
01.02.2026 19:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Thrilled that On Fire and Under Water is a Finalist for the Best Anthology Derringer Award!Congrats to the other five well-deserving finalists also! This is an honor and I’m so happy for everyone at @rhppress.bsky.social and our 15 contributors for making this anthology such a great success.
01.02.2026 15:47 — 👍 46 🔁 17 💬 11 📌 1My heart is in Minneapolis
30.01.2026 23:02 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Exactly.
30.01.2026 22:59 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0And also well-moisturized.
30.01.2026 04:13 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
That’s stacked bedside table, primed for historical mysteries and ennui, methinks.
#takemeapart #myyearofrestandrelaxation #cipher
It’s the best way, but damn if it ain’t the hardest!
29.01.2026 21:56 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Ditto
29.01.2026 18:14 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com
27.01.2026 16:45 — 👍 17315 🔁 6915 💬 503 📌 329
Ian Austin, an Army veteran, was arrested for protesting ICE in Minneapolis. But he’s continued protesting. Senior reporter @julialurie.bsky.social spoke to him.
“When they say, ‘Why would you be out here?’ How the fuck could I not be out here?” he says. “My nation is under attack."
#Authors, it’s time to have a conversation about the #publishing world’s reliance on #microsoftword. We can’t be fighting stolen data in LLMs on one side and then feeding all our drafts into a different company’s database. It’s absurd.
And the UI sucks.
And is messes up spacing.
Let’s leave it.
Thanks to @curtisippolito.bsky.social for editing our stories, @rhppress.bsky.social for publishing them, and to @gabino.bsky.social for giving me a pep talk about how to conduct a round-table convo in front of an audience 🤓📚
26.01.2026 16:18 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Puja Guha, CE McKenna, and Raymond J Brash at the Highlands Ranch branch of the Douglas County Libraries in front of a sign for their Crime Fiction Author talk.
It was so cool to have my very first live speaking event for the anthology ON FIRE AND UNDER WATER this past weekend. My friends @pujaguha.bsky.social and Raymond J. Brash joined me to chat with Douglas County readers about climate change, crime, and revisiting our favorite places through words!
26.01.2026 16:18 — 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 1Snowpocalypse!
25.01.2026 16:18 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Tomorrow, I’ll be chatting with my friends Puja Guha and Raymond J. Brash at the #HighlandsRanch branch of the Douglas County Libraries! If you’re looking to dive into interesting #shortstories, come see us at 2pm!
#fiction #crimefiction #authorevent #colorado #publishing
go.dcl.org/event/14969853
It’s disgusting. It’s inhumane. It’s illegal.
But here’s something a friend in #Minneapolis told me this morning that made me hopeful:
“They picked the wrong city bc they’ll never break our commitment to each other. They’re weakening themselves across the country the more they entrench here.”
Very interested in following this case. It recently took me over a year to find a fulltime job and many rejections came in the middle of the night on weekends - sent automatically.
I even wrote an essay about it: www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2025/11/thri...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/b...
Learn more at go.dcl.org/event/14969853
20.01.2026 21:29 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Don't forget to check your local libraries for opportunities to meet new readers. Our Sister @ce-mckenna.bsky.social is part of an author panel on Sunday, Jan. 25, at the Douglas County public library in Highlands Ranch. Check it out! #sistersincrime
20.01.2026 21:28 — 👍 3 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
I’ve always thought that insecurity was one of the most dangerous and fueling states a human can be in.
What we are seeing on the world stage now is exactly what I’ve always feared. Insecure men are tearing the world apart because they don’t see we would be stronger together.
What a fucking wreck.
He called me once to tell me that he is going down a slide and he’s never spoken on the phone while going down a slide.
There’s so much awful happening in the world but I was part of that first in a six-year-old’s life and man oh man…
