Hit a huge milestone* in the new novel this week. *Talked about hagfish and brine pools
Sheldon Costa
@sheldoncosta.bsky.social
Writer and miniaturist. Author of THE GREAT WORK Conjunctions | Georgia Review | Electric Literature | Michigan Quarterly | Swamp Pink He/him https://www.sheldoncosta.com/
Heard u like stories about wounded men going on quests to escape their grief, only to find themselves confronted by the inevitable decline of their rapacious civilization bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
The Great Work
An alchemist and his teenage nephew pursue a legendary river monster across the nineteenth-century Pacific Northwest in a desperate quest to conquer death, blending literary fantasy, folklore, and sup...
bookshop.org
Being brave and reposting praise because I do need clients/a job 😅 (thank you Lindsay ilu)
Editing
I was formerly an editor at Quirk Books (2021–2025), specializing in gift and lifestyle nonfiction as well as genre fiction, and the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature (2017–2021),...
jesszimmerman.com
thank u, hexed@lindsaykingmiller.bsky.social · 2mo agoI haven't been online enough to know why everyone is talking about editors but I will never pass up an opportunity to mention that @jesszimmerman.com is a truly brilliant editor and working with her is a gift. She makes you dig deep and work hard, but it's so fucking worth it.
Here is Graham gloating about "killing all the right people." Just in case you see anyone try to do the whole "we should have decency for the dead" nonsense.
Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the Labubus herself
Erik Hane@erikhane.bsky.social · 3mo agoWrong to the point of malpractice
Actually think this was one of the movie's greatest weaknesses. Trying to imagine a group like this operating in a (presumably?) post-9/11 America so thoroughly strains credulity that it makes the whole movie kind of feel like a farce.
Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 6mo agoThe main way this movie deviated from reality in depicting this kind of leftist urban guerilla group is that is showed them being relatively effective and competent.
Lot of people seem to think it's stodgy to ask a film that drapes itself in the aesthetics of radical politics to have something meaningful to say about those politics beyond "the children are the future"??
Altman's "intelligence as a metered service" captures the AI moment well—it's an attempt at the formal subsumption of ever-finer microrealms of human labour embedded within capitalist production. You already have an underpaid email job but what if you also had to pay the machine to write your emails
If you’re considering asking an AI slop golem for help with your writing project, why not ask me, a real person who is good at this, instead?
Editing
I was formerly an editor at Quirk Books (2021–2025), specializing in gift and lifestyle nonfiction as well as genre fiction, and the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature (2017–2021),...
jesszimmerman.com
Hey, if you're feeling like life has passed you by and you're too old to start something new, remember that John Brown was 55 before he killed his first pro-slavery settler in the Kansas Territory. It's never too late to follow your dreams.
Sitting down to write, the thing I supposedly love and have dedicated my life to:
We asked @shaykauwe.bsky.social for her best book of '25, the book she'd love for Xmas & her anticipated read of '26. Read the full article: https://geni.us/SolarisBks2025 to find out why she picked @sgj.bsky.social @kealakendall.bsky.social & @sheldoncosta.bsky.social! https://geni.us/killingspell
"We weren't meant to live like this." No. Every day I sit down and absorb my computer's beatific glow and immeditately know I am exactly where I need to be. My little brain wallows in infinite dopamine like a pig in its beloved mud. I am at peace.
New essay out with @lithub.com.web.brid.gy about how making Little Guys helped me come to terms with the publishing world
One Man’s Trash: Reflections on a Failed Novel
I started trash bashing three weeks after it became clear to me that my first novel was not going to sell. I’d tried to be honest with myself, from the moment the manuscript went out on submission,…
lithub.com
I loved this @sheldoncosta.bsky.social essay on "failure", and am excited for his novel The Great Work. "I felt an odd sort of ambivalence about whether the book would be published. Obviously I was nervous, but a rejection in my inbox no longer sent me spiraling. I’d done all I could, after all."
One Man’s Trash: Reflections on a Failed Novel
I started trash bashing three weeks after it became clear to me that my first novel was not going to sell. I’d tried to be honest with myself, from the moment the manuscript went out on submission,…
lithub.com
Sheldon Costa@sheldoncosta.bsky.social · 10mo agoMy book The Great Work comes out today! Still can't quite believe this is a thing that is happening. Special thanks to my extremely talented editor @jesszimmerman.com and my wonderful agent @carolineeisenmann.bsky.social, both of whom were steadfast champions for this very weird novel.
#TheGreatWork by @sheldoncosta is featured in our #newbooks wrap on youtube!! watch: youtu.be/pcox9OUZIKw buy the books: bookshop.org/lists/n... #booksky @Quirkbooks
Listen: Jess edited my book and it got starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly AND it was an Indie Next pick. Coincidence? I think not! If you're working on a writing project I guarantee Jess will make it better!
Jess Zimmerman@jesszimmerman.com · 10mo agoPeriodic reminder that I’m doing freelance editing right now! I have experience in both fiction and nonfiction and offer a range of services from coaching to line editing to query letters—reach out if you have a project but are feeling at sea! www.jesszimmerman.com/editing.html
the November horror shopping list is live! feat. new titles from @laurelhightower.bsky.social @christinahenry.bsky.social @sheldoncosta.bsky.social @lormaggot.ca @peterclines.bsky.social @vlatinalondon.bsky.social @beatriceiker.bsky.social @drewhuff.bsky.social @victormanibo.com & more!
All the New Horror Books Coming in November 2025
November 2025’s new horror books, featuring titles from Oyinkan Braithwaite, Laurel Hightower, Christina Henry, Peter Clines, Beatrice Winifred Iker, Drew Huff, and more!
readjumpscares.com
Psyched for this one—Sheldon and I were MFA cohort-mates in a cohort full of genius weirdos but I was always exceptionally excited to see what came out of his weird brain and the sidelong occult grandness of its sensibilities; really delighted to roll around in that for a whole-ass book
Sheldon Costa@sheldoncosta.bsky.social · 10mo agoMy book The Great Work comes out today! Still can't quite believe this is a thing that is happening. Special thanks to my extremely talented editor @jesszimmerman.com and my wonderful agent @carolineeisenmann.bsky.social, both of whom were steadfast champions for this very weird novel.
How am I celebrating the launch of my book, you ask? Same as any author: by admiring the tiny diorama I made depicting a scene from the first chapter:
Happiest of publication days to this utterly singular, extremely good novel. An adventure story, an exploration of the rotten heart of the American frontier myth, a tender meditation on male friendship and making a family, and a truly freaky novel about alchemy and hunting a giant salamander.
Sheldon Costa@sheldoncosta.bsky.social · 10mo agoMy book The Great Work comes out today! Still can't quite believe this is a thing that is happening. Special thanks to my extremely talented editor @jesszimmerman.com and my wonderful agent @carolineeisenmann.bsky.social, both of whom were steadfast champions for this very weird novel.
My book The Great Work comes out today! Still can't quite believe this is a thing that is happening. Special thanks to my extremely talented editor @jesszimmerman.com and my wonderful agent @carolineeisenmann.bsky.social, both of whom were steadfast champions for this very weird novel.
The Great Work by Sheldon Costa: 9781683695059 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
“Not to be missed.”—Booklist “A moody, atmospheric, and singular novel which navigates corners of American history through the complicated territory of horror, the monstrous,...
penguinrandomhouse.com
Happy pub day to The Great Work! So proud of @sheldoncosta.bsky.social and his weird, dark, charming, picaresque child
The Great Work by Sheldon Costa: 9781683695059 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
“Not to be missed.”—Booklist “A moody, atmospheric, and singular novel which navigates corners of American history through the complicated territory of horror, the monstrous,...
penguinrandomhouse.com