Sage Tyrtle 🇨🇦

Today, we're going to explore family, loss, and connection through the flash fiction collection "Family Night: Stories" by @aniking.bsky.social. What is flash fiction? Is this collection worth reading? Click on this link to find out and more: chick-who-reads-everything.com/2026/10/26/f... #booksky

It's when I tune into the song that I worry. I realize suddenly that for TEN MINUTES I've been like, "Squishy, you are the king of the universe because you are a sweetie boopsie loo loo head, I will do everything you tell me" and it's a lot like when my dad was part of the TM cult in the 1970s.

Question: What's your favourite #IndiePress? I keep seeing articles that are like "AMAZING indie presses to check out" and not bookmarking them and now I would really love to know what presses you adore. #WritingCommunity

Life goals, you bet:

YES. My free time is 100% things that would make 10 year old me happy -- drawing pictures, making my own weird wild clothes, making up stories about people and places who are nice to each other and mean to each other and cry sometimes. (Also, I eat strawberry shortcake WHENEVER I WANT.)

Human made icons and photos that are #HumanMade and MADE BY HUMANS. Attribution required, but that's it. You can use them in your projects: thenounproject.com

Squishy the cat put his head on your shoulder when you've been very good and I WAS very good, I voted in the Toronto elections AND my mayor and city councillor BOTH won handily, I am extremely pleased. (HIS HEAD! On my SHOULDER! I can't even)

I've been hearing from writers that the 4-hour Hermit Crab Flash Fiction Workshop sessions are amazingly productive and intense, but they're a bit long. So I'm offering for the first time a short version: A 2-hour workshop! Sunday, November 8 1-3pm (ET) $50 Join us! substack.com/@cherylpappa...

Why is this photo unsettling? Because it uses defamiliarization. WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN? What JUST happened? Learn more about Horror Without Blood, join me for this 4 week #WritingWorkshop: www.alexandrawriters.org/store/p1105/... Photo by Georgi Kalaydzhiev on Unsplash.

The seriousness of a small child is a never-ending treasure:

There is SO much joy in this photo!

Oh man, books that ruin your bedtime are the BEST:

You can get a lot of mileage out of opposition, but you ultimately have to be for something, too. We are for writers making the books they want to write, not because there’s a trend, or a genre that’s hot, just because that’s the book they want to write. We are for liberation, meaning, and beauty.

Things that ARE as idyllic as people think: * Books that make you cry with joy. * The trill a cat makes when it's running toward you. * The taste of an Ontario peach in August. * A toddler being impressed by your bike. * Frogs chirping at night in the city. What are YOUR recent idyllic moments?

Do not waste your time buying books on how to live with #cats, this is all the information you need:

Why is this photo unsettling? Because it uses defamiliarization. WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN? What JUST happened? Learn more about Horror Without Blood, join me for this 4 week #WritingWorkshop: www.alexandrawriters.org/store/p1105/... Photo by Georgi Kalaydzhiev on Unsplash.

My apartment building does a (non-religious, joking) Halloween Nativity every year and it makes me SO happy. Last year Jesus was a spider, and this year it's a tiny skeleton man wrapped in swaddling clothes. (In December it's just a few wreaths. OH CANADA I LOVE YOU)

Nothing is "inevitable," no matter how insistently repeated. The future IS a choice, no matter how insistently denied.

writing is so silly like oh here let me get too attached to these people I made up & cry over the problems I gave them

Oh man. School would have been a LOT more fun if I'd been brave enough to make these choices:

My apartment building does a (non-religious, joking) Halloween Nativity every year and it makes me SO happy. Last year Jesus was a spider, and this year it's a tiny skeleton man wrapped in swaddling clothes. (In December it's just a few wreaths. OH CANADA I LOVE YOU)

My mom knew more than one woman who'd been involuntarily institutionalized in a mental hospital in the 1970s for the crime of saying things like, "Hey, maybe we can split the housework?" to their husbands.

The Don East trail has been such a huge part of living in #Toronto for me. What glorious captures of a place I know so well.

When I'm feeling discouraged about my novel I remind myself that a fellow writer who read the novella version was so sure it was based on true events they looked up names and places online, which is the best compliment I could hope for. Words: 2025: 16,834 Sept. 23: 35,623 Goal: 80,000 [end]

Here is a painting made by human hands:

Life goals -- treat life like this pup:

Really proud that "Bees, Bees" has been nominated for Best Small Fictions by @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social -- it begins: "Granny invites the bees to her funeral..." www.matchbooklitmag.com/mb/tyrtle/be...

Hey #Toronto people (and Ontario people) check out this grant for #SpeculativeFiction from Augur: www.arts.on.ca/grants/recom...

we saw you from across the library & were wondering if you want to curl up under blankets with tea & all read our books quietly together

Join me Nov. 1 for this #WritingWorkshop to use improv techniques to generate unexpected story ideas, experiment with structure, characters, and build positive tension: writingworkshops.com/en-ca/produc... #WritingCommunity #WritersOfBluesky

Playing with my improv team. Nothing better to remind me that instead of my character remembering things happening in this chapter, those things should BE happening to my character in this chapter.

Yaaaaaaay for @aniking.bsky.social's extraordinary Family Night stories. The titles alone will capture you: "Mother-Mother, Wasp-Mother;" "Sisyphus in Lonesome Town;" "Fellas, Is It Gay;" "The Minotaur's Wife Makes a Map," "Parole Day: Acrylic on Canvas." Brilliant book.

I'm reading for this open mic! Along with the AMAZING @claudiamonpere.bsky.social @andrewbertaina.bsky.social @rgvaughan.bsky.social @tomvowler.bsky.social @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social @happilander.bsky.social @brendaarnold.bsky.social @keithwoodruff.bsky.social @seanmcnicholl.bsky.social

What my kids got up to while I was gone in New York yesterday.

Just a casual 500-foot altitude flex because walking on the ground with the mortals is vastly overrated. 🪶🌿🦉🦅🍁 #OhMyDouglas

A real-life quest, a real-life burgeoning friendship, real-life kindness, READ THIS ARTICLE: #ShareGoodNewsToo

I have a new favourite story opening line: "When Death goes out dancing with ghosts, they wear the black leather jacket that their father used to wear when he rode motorcycles with Lucifer and the gang, before the stroke..." Don't miss Family Night by @aniking.bsky.social, it's an absolute delight.

There's are #Toronto classes at Sharpen Skills on analogue skills including: * carpentry * mending clothes * repairing bicycles * cooking * sewing * photography I went to a camera class yesterday and loved it. Connect with humans IRL here: sharpenskills.ca/who-we-are/

BRAND NEW DISCOVERY -- for a one time payment you will own this dictionary forever! Look up over 500,000 words AD FREE, it works OFFLINE and needs no batteries! The comments are permanently disabled! No pop-ups! JUST! DEFINITIONS! #WritingCommunity

BRAND NEW DISCOVERY -- for a one time payment you will own this dictionary forever! Look up over 500,000 words AD FREE, it works OFFLINE and needs no batteries! The comments are permanently disabled! No pop-ups! JUST! DEFINITIONS! #WritingCommunity

Hey #Toronto, Little Ghosts is a indie horror bookstore that hosts book launches, book clubs, and sells awesome fiction:

I have never been on the verge of quitting writing, no matter how difficult the market was nor how many rejections I got. Honestly if there were no more publishing industry I would write for my friends, or for myself. I am a writer. I make stories with my brain. That's just how it is for me.

This made me smile in #Toronto yesterday: * A burly dog smelling the trunk of an oak tree. * Two burly men holding hands. * A 5' person with a wolf cut in a blazer carrying a bouquet of flowers. * A handmade sign: "We're all just learning how to navigate. It's the best we can do."

Can't WAIT to be part of this online salon on Oct. 20 - I'll be reading one of my stories along with a roster of fabulous writers:

Ooo, Family Night by @aniking.bsky.social just arrived - can't wait to read it!