Amanda J. McGee

Hello, new followers! I'm Amanda, and I write #specfic, most recently A RIVER WIDE (out now!) from @interstellarflight.bsky.social and "Viridian" in A SINISTER QUARTET from @mythicdelirium.bsky.social.

also ALSO we're open for novella submissions right now more info here: www.neonhemlock.com/submissions

The Apex Magazine 2027 Kickstarter is currently at $11,636 with 11 days to go. We need another $9,364 to hit our funding goal and secure another year of Apex. Can you help us get there? www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

Thanks NetGalley for a copy of @amcgeewrites.bsky.social’s ‘A River Wide’. 🌊🗻 Finished this Appalachian-set novella on the plane and enjoyed it! Fast-paced, and the magical realism played well with themes of familial love, nature, and emotional turmoil. I love seeing witchcraft in books!

Today is one of those days where I can tell I have used up most of my juice for the week and I am going to have a hard time producing more things. Please tell me something entertaining to combat my malaise.

this october instead of donating to us, THE DEADLANDS we're asking you to please considering donating to help our #1 editor in chief @ecatherine.com with the bills stemming from her ongoing hospital stay. no coin fundraiser only fundraising Elise 🖤🖤 pls join us + spread the word

Made it to the new part of this book that I wrote, so now we get to transcribe for a while instead of revising line by line. Huzzah!

Inside me there are two wolves....

If you missed my reading yesterday, the recording is still up on Twitch and soon it will be over on YouTube (details to come). We had such a lovely time! www.twitch.tv/csecooney

Someone told me that a peer spoke very highly of me professionally at work recently and I felt honest-to-goodness surprise, which just goes to demonstrate how significant my imposter syndrome is in all aspects of my life.

TOMORROW AFTERNOON! Join us for a spooky reading hosted by @csecooney.bsky.social Oct 4, 3-4:30 PM Eastern www.twitch.tv/csecooney Line up below!

Reading, and writing, are holy. I love reading novels because they tell me something. They say: "this is what someone believed enough to dedicate months or years of their life to say." This is just as true for the trashiest pulp as it is for the highest literature.

There are many things I experience in a day that I cannot share on social media, which is good! But it does at times make me wonder how to engage here.

Witchy Links & Lineup! @zzclaybourne.bsky.social @edenroyce.bsky.social @christaqua.bsky.social @virginiam.bsky.social @amcgeewrites.bsky.social @asakiyume.bsky.social @emmajgibbon.bsky.social @stgibbon.bsky.social @nadiabulkin.bsky.social @atsayre.bsky.social csecooney.substack.com/p/october-4t...

It's 10:44 and I have a deep desire to eat snacks.

Our subscription drive is still going and is now 70 new subscribers short of its goal. We had hoped to reach that in time for our 20th anniversary issue in October so we could give everyone their raises as part of that celebration. It's going to be close. clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/

I hate it so much

Every coping mechanism for staying organized and on-track that I have collapsed in August and I've spent September picking up the pieces. Who knew that having three major life events in the space of two weeks might affect my ability to brain?

Had a wonderful time at my book launch event yesterday. Thanks to everyone who came!

The problem with eating lunch at 11 am is that it is 2 pm and now I am hungry.

A sadde thinge that we have to worke arounde alwayes ys that the quiet, steadye, patient labor and kyndenesse required to holde up the worlde and keepe us all goinge ys nevir a newes item. Unshowye, ordinarye, hard-won skill at the job you must do for othirs to get on. The greatest honor ys ther.

This Sunday is my in-person book launch at Second Cafe in Downtown Roanoke. All events on my site: amandajmcgee.com/upcoming-eve...

What a week. What a year.

Oh, I'm so pleased by this review of @amcgeewrites.bsky.social's A RIVER WIDE by @cemeterydance.bsky.social! I loved this novella, and TIS THE SEASON! What season, you ask? THE SEASON OF THE WITCH! (Appalachian witches, in this case.) www.cemeterydance.com/extras/revie...

"...a quick, stunning, and eerie read..." (Cemetery Dance)

"Beneath the trees the temperature drops. Aisling is left shivering, her boots swishing through the dewy grass. She barely feels either. Now that she is here, lead fills her limbs. She wants to turn around. She’s good at doing the things she doesn’t want to do. Always has been." #writinglunch

Check out my Big Idea essay on Scalzi's whatever blog! whatever.scalzi.com/2026/09/08/t...

Me absolutely rewriting this book line by line. Feeling like Gimli in Two Towers.

Accepting that I am terrible at book promo and that also I am not going to stop poking at it with a stick.

Mark your calendars! Sun, Oct 4, 3 PM-4:30, I'm hosting a WITCHY READING on my Twitch channel, featuring: @zzclaybourne.bsky.social @edenroyce.bsky.social @christaqua.bsky.social @virginiam.bsky.social @amcgeewrites.bsky.social @asakiyume.bsky.social @emmajgibbon.bsky.social & Steven T Gibbon

Y'all!! A RIVER WIDE is out on Monday! Yes, you read that right - Monday. Not Tuesday. MONDAY! bookshop.org/p/books/a-ri...

I've been up since 6 am. My most productive brain time is in the three hours after waking. It is 9:45. I am out of juice. The workday has just begun. Moms with kids in school, how do you function?

May her memory be a blessing. 💔

Remember that if you got the Moderna Covid vaccine, you have Dolly Parton to thank, she gave the largest individual contribution toward their research to make it possible.

I can't believe Dolly Parton is gone. Like legitimately feels weird.

Yes, indeed, I am doing events this fall. All details more accessible on my website at amandajmcgee.com/upcoming-eve....

There is a story the bees used to tell, which makes it hard to disbelieve.

Every astrology app: "Leo, the eclipse is going to fuck you up." Me: "No kidding..." *cries in my cheerios*

I had a moment and wrote a small screed on the other site. www.threads.com/share/E8VcMb...

If there's a thing I hate more than cleaning up admin tasks that other people have left disorganized I don't know what it is. I am not a person who enjoys tedious administrative stuff (people do exist who do!) and yet I apply myself to try my best. It offends me to clean up after someone worse.

Past me really f*cked around and wrote "They go to the next village or something here" in this draft, and I am not happy with her.

I have a cold. I am not used to being able to take cold medicine, and forgot that people could effectively mask their symptoms and just move through life. Modern medicine is wild.

Saw a lovely little flicker in the backyard this morning, probably migrating through and taking advantage of the freshly weeded flowerbed. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northe...

I am due to update my event swag. Everyone on threads wants buttons. Are the people on threads loquita or do you actually want buttons?

Every night as his father carries him from the bathroom to the bedroom, my toddler points at the attic access and announces: “We’re not going up there today.” I am beginning to worry about what might be up in my attic.

Quite possibly need to take up a hand task to be able to not reach for my phone all day and think my own thoughts. What non-word-based hand tasks could I take up? Knitting is high up there...but I feel like I've tried and failed that one a few times now.

I, a writer, have no idea how to quickly summarize the level of chaos that is happening in the dayjob office right now.

This is reminding me of Paolo Bacigalupi's Wind-up Girl, but with books instead of fruits.