Tyler James Russell

After finally watching KPop Demon Hunters with my kids, realizing how much I LOVE titles that just lay out the entire premise. Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. Snakes on a Plane. Swamplandia! Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (no notes on that one, title-wise).

My favorite, courtesy of my wife: JURASSIC PARK REDUX: The dinos make a human park. I envision this as a shot-for-shot remake, with dinosaur lookalikes playing the part of Dennis Nedry, John Hammond, etc. 4/

JURASS-OCALYPSE: A comet - dinos and humans alike are threatened with the end of all things (T-Rex looks at camera and says, with eyes, again??). If you really want to stretch it out, make it a 2-parter. Part 1 is DON'T LOOK UP and Part 2 is THE ROAD, but veloci-dad. 3/

JURASSIC WORLD WAR: That one guy DID make a dinosaur army, which gets into the wrong hands. An upstart warlord threatens global stability, various military factions and strike teams go in, including a group of dino-loyalists. But the dinos are on their own side 2/

Fun as it was, #JurassicWorldRebirth felt more like Jurassic World: Reheated Leftovers. Here are my pitches for reinvigorating the franchise: 1/

"A work reverts to a wild state overnight. As the work grows, it gets harder to control; it is a lion growing in strength. You must visit it every day and reassert your mastery over it. If you skip a day, you are, quite rightly, afraid to open the door to its room."

Moving, which meant the first few days this year I wasn't working on the book. Strange how rusty I feel picking it up again. I'm thinking of Annie Dillard's quote about a manuscript being like a growing lion. If you skip a day, she says, it's scary to open the door.

Not sure how I've gotten this far into my life without reading Michael Chabon. A failure I've happily now rectified.

Look, it's bad enough that generative AI is trying to rob us of our ability to sustain critical thought, but I will DIE before I let it take my precious em-dashes

This has been an emotional, bittersweet week, but right now I’m deeply thankful for so much, and my heart is very full.

Today officially marks my last day teaching at Lewisburg High School after 12 years. While I’m excited about new adventures, this place and the people have meant so much to me. Plus, how can teaching so many brilliant students be anything but an amazing job?

#wheeloftime won Cat and I over completely. Never got the criticism of straying from the novels when the novels are, objectively, pretty loosely paced. Really bummed Amazon’s decided to leave this story incomplete (and focus on the entirely unnecessary Rings instead)

Wasn’t sure what I’d think of #clairobscur, but have LOVED the first hour. The central narrative premise worked a lot better than I expected. Really looking forward to this now!

Not sure why I connected so strongly with the newest #LifeisStrange, a supernatural murder-mystery set in the Literature department of a small liberal arts college…

Haven’t watched the show, but man, #TheExpanse books are a blast. Close 3rd POV (my favorite), with some really generous, natural exposition. Explains everything without ever feeling like you’re getting an infodump. And comes across as totally easy, which means it was really hard

Deep in the editing trenches. I’ve gotten away from posting about stories/narratives I’m loving lately. So here comes a few…

THEY ARE DOING SANCTUARY MOON

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Can't remember the last time a book physically affected me the way this one by @tananarivedue.bsky.social did. Absolutely unforgettable

I'm not at #AWP25 this week, but if you are, be sure to check out the @unsolicitedpress.bsky.social booth!

My daughter was telling me about a "really old movie" she watched. Black and white? Worse. Friends, it came out the year I graduated high school...

The fact that China Mieville wrote this in his mid-20s will never not astound me

Had a fun time finishing #dragonagetheveilguard this weekend, but boy, every single character saying exactly what they were thinking in every single interaction definitely got old. Subtext!

The novel is a sprawling, at times even meandering biography. It’s interesting to see how the musical was able to identify a few key dramatic elements and foreground them, and has left me thinking about how adaptations sometimes feel like another draft of the original. 2/2

After our family has had the #Wicked soundtrack on repeat for weeks now, I just re-read Maguire’s novel. Lots of people are talking about how much darker the book is, but another thing worth noticing is how the musical changed (and in some was, improved) the FOCUS of the story. 1/2

This year, I've been keeping track of my word counts for the first time ever, trying out some of @mdbell79.bsky.social and @jamiattenberg.bsky.social newsletter tips. Here at the end of 2024, I've finished with almost 2 complete drafts of a 500+ pager—over 373k words!

Christmas-time in EPCOT and The Magic Kingdom!

Very happy to be back in PA after a 2000 mile road trip to and from Florida. Disney and Universal, but also found the house I lived in when I was born, and my childhood beach which I have not seen in more than 30 years!

All of my Apple Music Replay is the Gregorian chants I play in the background while writing 😂

I really got sucked into the Gregory Macguire novel years ago, and seeing WICKED in theaters tonight reminded me of everything I loved about it. An amazing theater experience for our whole family

Happy 2nd birthday to my first novel, WHEN FIRE SPLITS THE SKY. A road trip, an apocalypse, and a crumbling marriage, told from both sides. What’s not to love? This book means so much to me—you should pick up a copy to celebrate!

#fiction #novel #dissociativeidentity #writing