Gang. We need to stop with the AI tools and take a breath. Research shows they flag up autistic people's writing as AI, for starters. I just ran my 2019 matchbook story The Diamond Factory through this popular one and it said it was 73% AI. This was published 3 years before the release of Chat GPT.

36 rejections in a row, followed by an acceptance from a dream journal!

Linda Maceri@lindamaceri.bsky.social · last mo.

I've been so inspired by Sage's Project. I got 0 rejections in 2023, 2024, and 2025 because I didn't send a single thing out. Right now I'm at 34/100, which might sound kind of sad, but it's much better than 0. I just need to figure out something to do when I get to 100/100.

I've been so inspired by Sage's Project. I got 0 rejections in 2023, 2024, and 2025 because I didn't send a single thing out. Right now I'm at 34/100, which might sound kind of sad, but it's much better than 0. I just need to figure out something to do when I get to 100/100.

Sage Tyrtle 🇨🇦@sagetyrtle.bsky.social · last mo.

Sushi Rejection Project Update! I'm at 29 / 100, which is edging ever closer to my record of 35 / 100. I know it's because I'm deliberately throwing my hat into some very fancy, high ranked #LitMags but sometimes it's hard to remember. I'm sending out my #WritingCommunity #WritersOfBluesky

I'm finding amazing stories in Milk Candy Review's archives. @ericscottryon.bsky.social has made brilliant use of repetition in so many stories. I love how in this one it starts as gentle social commentary and slides into something much darker. #archivechallenge

We Worry For Cats ~ by Eric Scot Tryon

The scream of the alarms can be heard for two city blocks. So we flee our apartments, those boxes that stack atop one another like Legos. Eleven stories in total. We flee our apartments grumbling a…

milkcandyreview.home.blog

"To understand Dolly, you have to read her as a writer. Writing her own story was the most radical, precise way to define herself in a world that kept trying to fit her into a box."

Opinion | Loving Dolly Parton Was Easy. Understanding Her Was Hard. (Gift Article)

She didn’t see herself as a saint; she identified as something we needed even more: a writer.

nytimes.com

I love the complexity of @lumchanmfa.bsky.social's work. In Kona Boy Made Good, a local hero dies a public death. But it's not about defeat. It's about kindness bigger than myth. Part of her collection Bitter Over Sweet. #archivechallenge milkcandyreview.home.blog/2022/07/07/k...

Kona Boy Made Good ~ by Melissa Llanes Brownlee

There’s a picture of me somewhere, wearing a space suit. My little brown bob, grown out from the last time I got ukus, dusting the metal ring around the neck hole. I couldn’t believe how heavy it w…

milkcandyreview.home.blog

When your timeline is filled with queer folks and brown/Black people singing the praises of and loudly mourning a 1940s-Tennessee-born white Boomer lady, welp. She was pretty goddamn extraordinary, you can assume.

Thomas Hardy would like a word. Specifically this one.

I read this last year but it stayed with me so I read it again for @smokelong.bsky.social's #archivechallenge. It's deadpan on the surface but devastating underneath. Nothing certain by @mattkendrick.bsky.social in Milk Candy Review. milkcandyreview.home.blog/2025/11/20/n...

Nothing certain ~ by Matt Kendrick

The day the sun forgets to rise, Mr White sits down for breakfast at precisely twelve minutes past seven. This is in the dining room. It is Tuesday. His Tuesday breakfast is a soft-boiled egg opene…

milkcandyreview.home.blog

A catalog of invented deaths that gets more devastating and more frantic the longer it goes on. The last one undid me. The Story Where the Mother Dies in Childbirth by @emilyrinkema.bsky.social in Milk Candy Review. #archivechallenge milkcandyreview.home.blog/2025/03/20/t...

The Story Where the Mother Dies in Childbirth ~ by Emily Rinkema

In Alice’s stories the mother always dies. Or is dead already. Or is absent in a way that suggests, to the perceptive reader, that she is likely dead. There are mother figures, maybe a step-mother …

milkcandyreview.home.blog

I've never read a story where sound is used so effectively. Absolutely loved "Noise" by David Galef in Milk Candy Review. milkcandyreview.home.blog/2026/07/30/n... #archivechallenge

Noise ~ by David Galef

Listen, it’s not as if I caused the accident, just that I was standing right there at the Maple Avenue intersection when a giant lady started screeching and clapping her metal hands, that’s how it …

milkcandyreview.home.blog

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland. And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

Kyle Cassidy@kylecassidy.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I’m constantly astounded at the sheer level of artistic production coming out of Iceland. Novels, movies, music. Amazing.

A baby on a bridge over a river. And a story that lets the reader's fears take over. Gorgeous work by Kenny Mitchell in Milk Candy Review. #flashfiction #archivechallenge milkcandyreview.home.blog/2026/06/18/f...

FIFTY-SEVEN HOURS ~ by Kenny Mitchell

I tossed the used diaper, I buckled the seatbelt, I put my daughter into her stroller, I checked four times to make sure I put my daughter into her stroller, I lowered her visor, I pressed the lock…

milkcandyreview.home.blog

I held my breath in suspense in this story by @lindamaceri.bsky.social in @vestalreview.bsky.social and then she knocked me out with the ending. www.vestalreview.net/my-mother-lo... #flashfiction #archivechallenge

My Mother Loves to Tell the Story about the Time She Almost Lost Me at the Movies — Vestal Review

vestalreview.net

The opening of this story grabbed me, and the story completely lives up to it: "It’s moments like this that Aldous is glad he didn’t get custody of Athena in the divorce. Look at her: gone from bundle of joy to bitch, just like her mother, in only sixteen years."

Linda M. Bayley@lmbayley.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I have a new Aldous story in Elegant Variations by @stanchion.bsky.social today! Many thanks to Jeff Bogle for selecting it, and to my group mates in @smokelong.bsky.social Summer 2025, where this was born. #FlashInTheFeed www.stanchionzine.com/post/best-ne...

I love stories about stories. “That’s the story I told myself, at least.”

Vestal Review@vestalreview.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The same tale to different women.
Read “The Story,” by Marty Dwyer. vestalreview.net/the-story

I'm thrilled to have my story "My Mother Loves to Tell the Story about the Time She Almost Lost Me at the Movies" up today at Vestal Review. Thanks to all the workshoppers in this year's SmokeLong March Micro Marathon at @smokelong.bsky.social for all their help!

Vestal Review@vestalreview.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Issue 68 is out! vestalreview.net/issue-68 Here’s what we’ve got for our June 2026 issue: Stories by Avitus B. Carle, Salena Casha, Thom De Jesu, Marilyn Duarte, Marty Dwyer, Heather Emmanuel, Travis Flatt, Timothy Goodwin, Kip Knott, Linda Maceri, Andrea Marcusa, Cheryl McDonnahugh, Meg Pokrass +

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.

I was just thinking this morning how this story has almost vanished from the news. Every Democrat in Congress should be following Pramila Jayapal's example, drawing attention to this outrage.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal@jayapal.house.gov · last yr.

NEW: If Republicans won’t conduct oversight of Trump’s unconstitutional and cruel immigration policies that kidnap and disappear immigrants of all statuses, I will. Today’s Shadow Hearing will focus on how his actions are destroying U.S. families and communities.

“Mom married Hurricane Gerald because her first marriage was too peaceful, too boring. That’s what she told my dad when she divorced him: he never shouted.”

Literary Mama@literarymama.bsky.social · last yr.

"Mom married Hurricane Gerald because he was strong. Passionate. Because he was too big for the car, too big for the house, too big for an office job. Mom married Hurricane Gerald because she loved the lazy swirl of his clouds." Read @sagetyrtle.bsky.social's story, "Fighting Wind":

That is one resourceful killer crab!

Merriam-Webster@merriam-webster.com · last yr.

*crab-walked

the next time someone says we have to focus on the economy and not the ‘culture war’, tell them to go to fucking Omaha

Taniel@taniel.bsky.social · last yr.

RESULT: Omaha's Republican Mayor Jean Stothert just lost to her Democratic challenger John Ewing. Stothert, who was running for a fourth term, resorted to anti-trans ads and messaging around who uses bathrooms in the final stretch of the campaign. Ewing will be Omaha's first Black mayor.

"His depression hidden, like black mittens tucked into the pockets of an overcoat, a hint of sadness pooling under his eyes."

bsherm36.bsky.social@bsherm36.bsky.social · 2y ago

It feels surreal, but I'm beyond thrilled to have "Mud Pies" in @smokelong.bsky.social, along with new work from @shiramusicant.bsky.social & @quickasaflash.bsky.social. Thanks @christopherallen.bsky.social and @lumchanmfa.bsky.social for the fun interview. www.smokelong.com/stories/mud-...

I have nothing to add, but this is must-read thread.

Hunter Walker@hunterw.bsky.social · 2y ago

So, I am going to be honest with everyone here, over the past couple years I have had a bit of a personal evolution on trans issues. I have come to a place of *unequivocal* support for trans people. I would like to share my thinking as I hope it will prove useful.

I'm a bit stunned by these headlines. Today I would not expect to see a headline about a "Trump mob." Something vague about "Capitol protests" or "DC demonstrators." There's was a brief moment when words mattered. And then suddenly they didn't.

Seth Abramson@sethabramson.bsky.social · 2y ago

Never forget.

Are there actually no knitters at the NYT?

Word choice is another place where left and right aren't fighting on a level field. The right takes words the left has used for itself -- liberal, progressive, woke (even "politically correct" was a new left joke) -- mock them, twist them all out of shape, and then sell their version...

digby@digby56.bsky.social · 2y ago

Isn't there an equivalent word to "woke" to describe the right wing? "Fascist" works but it's too old fashioned and too academic. Something in the modern vernacular is called for but I'm just not conversant enough in that to know what it might be. Ideas?

Quote this with who you’d be in Star Trek

a man and a woman are standing next to each other and the woman says i share your discomfort with social gatherings .

Alt: Tuvok and Seven are standing next to each other and Seven says i share your discomfort with social gatherings .

media.tenor.com

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 2y ago

Quote this with who you’d be in Star Trek

Today's date always makes me grieve. This morning I listened to Greg Brown's "Brand New '64 Dodge" and wondered if it could mean anything to people who weren't alive on November 22, 1963. Beautiful, slant storytelling. Feels like a haunting flash fiction set to music. youtu.be/Y1bG_Gpfi0s?...

Brand New '64 Dodge

YouTube video by Greg Brown - Topic

youtu.be

Certain people, growing out of trauma and exhaustion which I fully understand, believe there’s some power... in saying, “yeah, since when does Donald Trump follow the law!?!?” ... A better answer, both more effective and more dignified, is to say, “Okay, let’s see you try.” GIFT LINK

The Most Pernicious Anticipatory Obedience Hides in Plain Sight

In the waning days of the 2024 presidential campaign Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos became the target of widespread and deserved disgust for nixing The Washington Post’s policy of endorsing presidential…

talkingpointsmemo.com