Michael Walker

Hello! This is the first official post of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers as we join the Blue Sky platform.

We're a volunteer-run, non-profit organization that promotes the craft, business, and love of writing.

We look forward to connecting with you!

#authors #writers #books #publishing

Likable Characters Are a Scam Writing Advice Remix with RIVER EAST, RIVER WEST author Aube Rey Lescure

A great Substack post by Craft With Cat on the "scam" of likability in characters.

katjolewis.substack.com/p/likable-ch...

Ayotte vetoes Republican-backed public school book ban bill The book ban bill vetoed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte would have allowed parents to request books, films, and other items that depicted nudity and sexual contact to be removed from their child's school.

Proof that pressure, and op eds, and phone calls, and public dissent WORK: www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025...

...adding: Reading Write Through It now. Love it!
This book is a gold mine, instructive and friendly! It will be even more so when I'm ready to query.

From AI: "r/men is described as "a subreddit for men to talk about masculinity, "...to align with aspects of the "manosphere", a group that include men's rights activists (MRAs), incels, Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), pick-up artists (PUAs), and father's rights groups." Incels is new to me...

Bill derided by authors as enabling book banning heads to Ayotte's desk • New Hampshire Bulletin If New Hampshire adopts a law to make it easier to remove books from school libraries, “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult could be one of them.

Book Banning Bill on Governor Kelly Ayotte's desk in New Hampshire:
newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/05/21/b...

Boat dock for your next ten-day writing, music, art retreat next summer.

I live to serve.

Fun Book Person (@alexmiller77.bsky.social) Author of White People on Vacation (Malarkey Books, 2022) and some other things. Taking up space in Denver https://alexmillerperson.weebly.com/

I loved reading Alex Miller's” White People on Vacation,” a novel from Malarkey Books. Started on coast-to-coast flight and couldn’t stop reading.
#alexmiller
#malarkeybooks

Clearly, many cuts above the rest!

Book Jacket Bracket – Weekly Book Cover Tournament A reader-powered book cover tournament. You vote for your favorite. The winner ascends. Celebrate design. Discover new books. Help worthy stories rise.

Super cool development: Just found out Boxcutters is one of four new release contenders in the Book Jacket Bracket, where you judge book covers for aesthetic/design!

This is extra hype for me because I designed the cover!
If you dig it, you can vote to boost it!

bookjacketbracket.com

Clearly, many cuts above! Go vote for John!

Feed your writer friends.

Like many of them, I eat affirmations late at night like forbidden candy hiding under a gathering of good intentions beside my keyboard.

The struggle is real.

Hi. We met at AWP. I wanted to read the types of books Malarkey published and you suggested Still Alive, which I read and loved, but I loved White People much more. I started reading on the plane to Boston and didn't stop. I'm running out of characters, but best to you, michael@walkerplays.com

I don’t know what malaise means and it’s making me feel vaguely uneasy

Eastern Frontier Educational Foundation

Norton Island was very cool. Maybe 12 cabins on an island w/ writers and artists. Great food & art vibes. All day & night alone in your tiny cabin writing if you want.
easternfrontier.org/how-it-works

Silence is best. Next, the "Rain" app. Next, classical music.

I'm experiencing bouts of severe Brain Pollution and require an enema.

Word of the day: "oooff"

She put down her pen and closed the manuscript and computer file.

"Oooff!" she said.

Two Mourning Doves, beige soft-looking birds with long tails and pink feet, sit on top of a shepherd's hook bird feeder that is decorated with a metal bird. The doves are sitting so close to each other they are touching, which is super cute and why I took a feeder picture in some random neighbor's yard.

The bird photos will continue until morale improves

Eastern Frontier Educational Foundation The Eastern Frontier Educational Foundation manages the Norton Island Residency for Writers and Artists, a one-of-a-kind arts residency off the cost of Jonesport, Maine. Information about 2022 residen...

Pass this on to a writer you know. Norton Island residency is fabulous. Applications open until March 31.
easternfrontier.org

My top tips for AWP Los Angeles Practical advice if you're headed to the country's largest writing conference next week.

#AWP25 Los Angeles - see you there!

Tips for success and survival from Courtney Maum.
open.substack.com/pub/courtney...

I was thinking maybe "Literaryish Man."

Stage director, José Quintero (1924-1999), was a guest lecturer at Brandeis when I was taking my playwriting MFA. I opened his book today for the first time in 25 years and was surprised to see he had dedicated it. I don't remember if I knew that. Either way, a fond memory and nice surprise.

Philip Seymour Hoffman Day. It's been 11 years since today, then. I wish we could all see his shadow again

@aoc.bsky.social I read and watch the news every day. We all do; we're probably not sitting on the fence on issues. If you're going to (re-)post a constant stream of toxic repetition, I'll have to snooze you. I came to bsky to escape that... for creative writing, inspiration, and surprising art. Ok?

I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world.

Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO

I agree. Wait 'til you see Diary of Anne Frank.

Continue editing the manuscript or enter the HGTV Dream Home contest...
Kind of a toss-up, right?