The headache was vanquished and the torment is well underway.

Jae Koyanagi@jaekoyanagi.com · 5h ago

I need to write about the King in Yellow doing heinous shit to my characters. No time for headaches!!

The cancelled-too-soon shows I miss the most: Hannibal (though I did like the ending it got) The OA Kaos Beforeigners Mindhunter

Aud Connelly: finalizing #Dogwood1 😎@audconnelly.bsky.social · 3h ago

The cancelled-too-soon shows I miss the most: Evil (at least they got to rush the ending) Mindhunter (NO CLOSURE)

As promised, the first story of August just went up. It's...sad and dark and I don't know how to feel about it except to say I probably need a hug. Or a drink. www.aaronccross.com/stories-your...

Immortality Ain't What It's Cracked Up to Be

​Here’s the thing about immortality: you need specificity. Say you encounter a genie (as one does these days) and you wish to be immortal. Okay, but what does that mean? Does it mean you grow...

aaronccross.com

So hey, Excedrin, if you'd like to kick in at some point that would be great

If you are using AI/LLM you are not part of our community. We write. You push buttons trying to make a quick buck. That makes you a scammer not an artist.

Listen up! 🗣📣 It's Ange's birthday today! She's an awesome person, a great friend, and a phenomenal writer. If you haven't yet picked up THE DEVOURING, now is a great time.

Ange | Author A. M. Shilling@gunsmile.bsky.social · 3d ago

It's my birthday this week! To celebrate, the eBook of THE DEVOURING is on sale for $0.99 between August 3-9. If you've been thinking of buying it but haven't had a chance yet, now's the perfect time! 💙📚 Links to buy are on my website: amshilling.com/books/the-devouring/

One of those mornings where I'm still feeling half asleep after being awake for over an hour. It might be a two-carafes-of-coffee day

Amarantha with baby Alastor, a loosely colored sketch.

My sentiments exactly. And to top it all off, your AI "art" looks like shit. What's the point?

Delilah S. Dawson@delilahsdawson.bsky.social · 10h ago

Getting real sick of slop midwives pleading for a 'respectful discussion' of AI as relates to the arts. Your use of AI to 'make art' is not respectful. It benefits from stolen art, destroys the planet, and does not make you an artist any more than someone driving 26.2 miles is a marathoner.

Ended today's (first?) writing session feeling good about my progress. Need to give the next part of this sequence of events some thought before I continue. In the meantime, it's time to settle in with A TRADE OF BLOOD. Stoked as hell because I sure missed spending time with Ana and Din!!!

This book is everything it promises

Oleander Craw@oleandercraw.bsky.social · yesterday

If you've any interest in reading a Dune meets Dark Souls queer, dark science fantasy book - Devouring Fortune is now available to request on Netgalley through the end of the month! www.netgalley.com/catalog/book...

I severely underestimated how many new, fictional names I would end up needing in this draft. Going to have to set aside some time to replenish my "unused names" list soon. (I'm not allowing myself any temporary TK brackets in this draft. All things must receive a name!!)

I think one of the big lessons for authors to take away from this Daggermouth mess is to get it in your contracts that no one can feed your work into AI of any kind, even so-called detectors.

Sunsets are so pretty, but whatever you do, DON’T look directly at the sun!! Be safe: look at paintings of the sun instead. I am posting these for your personal eye health. You’re welcome!

All the metaphors about a book being like the writer's baby are accurate, but it doesn't stop there. The instant a writer holds a proof of the latest, it becomes a new lover, a religion, a tiny epiphany, a great, gushing catharsis, and a bit of a lament.

Grisira is too busy being terrified of Deleyora to feel anything else, though she *is* an artist who can't help noticing the elegant lines of his silhouette. Deleyora is taken with her from the start, but can sense her fear and therefore maintains his distance until she seeks him out. (1/2) #SumLuv

📚 Ellie Rhymer! Spaceships and Scoundrels 📚@ellieyellu.bsky.social · 2d ago

Meet cutes don't have to be "cute"! They are a plot device 🧡 But! Let's talk about how they DO feel about each other early on! Is it fairytale love? Is it *lust* at first sight? Hate at first sight? All?? Snips here are welcome (always welcome if you want to answer anything with a snip) 🧡 #SumLuv

Olaniyi Omotayo, Nigerian (1995- ), Empowered Unity 4, 2025, oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 in, private collection

No cheating, post your lock screen! Of course mine is the princess.

Ange | Author A. M. Shilling@gunsmile.bsky.social · 2d ago

No cheating, post your lock screen! My phone is an advertisement for my book. 🥰

"By pathologizing those we dislike, we give ourselves license to exile them." Fantastic essay.

Micaiah Johnson@micaiahjohnson.bsky.social · 2d ago

I was beaten to it by the amazingly generous @mollytempleton.com but yes! The blog I was nervous about yesterday is a reality today. She’s free. She’s long. She contains multiple cat photos. www.patreon.com/MicaiahJohns...

Project Tasman’s crowdfunding is LIVE! Want to get your hands on a sapphic dystopian thriller novel where a woman has to choose who close to her lives and dies? Back now to get the book, exclusive rewards, and support my work as an indie author! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

Project Tasman - A Sapphic Dystopian Novel

Project Tasman is a sapphic dystopian novel that follows Alana Quevedo as she navigates a terrifying government experiment where she has to decide who will live and who will die.

backerkit.com

The only *guaranteed* piece of craft advice I can give -- I mean the advice that is universally applicable -- is that if you kill many other writers and eat their scribere gland (roughly the size of a black-eyed pea, so be careful not to damage it) then your prose will improve immensely

Artists, QRP with your most popular art from bluesky! 🌌

this is a nice comprehensive overview of why substack sucks and some good alternatives.

Sean Killeen@seankilleen.com · 6mo ago

That's 100% why I created leavesubstack.com -- got tired of re-hashing the points; wanted to make a simple 1-pager.

I don't know if Grisira and Deleyora's initial interaction qualifies as a meet cute. It's not exactly a hostile meeting, but it's tense: His species has terrorized her people for more than two centuries, yet he inexplicably saved her life and the lives of her loved ones. (1/2) #SumLuv

📚 Ellie Rhymer! Spaceships and Scoundrels 📚@ellieyellu.bsky.social · 3d ago

"In which somebody runs into somebody else, and then something falls, and they begin to talk, and their eyes meet and they realize they are attracted to one another" —Rodger Ebert Do you have a classic one? Or one that passes 😆 Did you avoid altogether? Snips welcome! #SumLuv

Grisira is an artist and holy woman who was at ground zero of an eldritch event that destroyed her home colony and most of the people in it. Six years later, she's still grieving, and is actively tormented by the perpetrator: an entity known as the Sovereign, aka the King in Yellow. #SumLuv (1/4)

📚 Ellie Rhymer! Spaceships and Scoundrels 📚@ellieyellu.bsky.social · 4d ago

Who are you writing about? What makes a romantic story about them interesting? Note there will not be a character art or face cast prompt, so feel free to do that here if you'd like! Don't forget alt text for images if you post them. #SumLuv

✨COVER REVEAL✨ My current WIP, Alchemical Exiles is slowly progressing towards release. I finished a big milestone today, and perhaps you want to celebrate with me by looking at the *absolutely gorgeous* cover Ambient Pixel Design did for me. Here it is! #WritingCommunity #BookSky #IndieAuthor #Art

Good general tips. As always, look at your words and think as you cut. 💜 some of these will be part of your voice and you'll wanna keep them, but the rest ✂️

📚 Ellie Rhymer! Spaceships and Scoundrels 📚@ellieyellu.bsky.social · 4d ago

Omggg word counts! If you're struggling to get your manuscript under 100k, you don't have to cut chapters, scenes, or dialogue! Here's a short thread of quick and dirty cuts you can find throughout your novel to get your word count down by thousands (or just write tighter prose)🧵

Very sleepy now that today's writing/revision session is finished. I blame the heat. Happy with the work, though--I can already tell this draft is going to be so much more cohesive. A damn good feeling! #writingcommunity

One more month! My debut novel is almost here! The queer Isekai extravaganza known as Savage as You. I'm thrilled to be sharing this! Can't wait to hear what more people think. Savage as You was a labor of love! ❤️ (Backdrop photo by my friend, Reid.) (1/2) #BookSky #DebutNovel #SavageAsYou

My monthly StoryGraph wrap-up for July 2026. There were a lot of great ones! Including several from talented Bluesky mutuals.