Scott Writes

DARK MATTER x REIGN OF FIRE Skirra—like dragons sans cosplay makeup—open gates between worlds with a breath. One man falls through a gate into our world to be rescued by an earlier refugee and her adopted sister. On the run from the military, they race to reopen skirra's gate to home. #WIPPIT #A #SF

I've mentioned before I've updated my contracts to make sure everything in the production of my books is done by humans and not "AI"; if you're wondering what such a thing looks like, here's a clause covering that from a recent contract.

Officially official! My first novel RICOCHET will be published by @tachyonpub.bsky.social and edited by @jhameia.bsky.social. All thanks to agent @hannahnpbowman.com

This was interesting: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Finished the first draft of my latest novel. I put it in the virtual drawer to marinate and not look at for six weeks. But it calls to me in the dark night like a lost love visiting my dreams. Give me the wax or tie me to the mast, because it's song is maddening, and the rocks are sharp like teeth.

Annual desert bloom in New Mexico where seeds are dispersed via wind propagation. They're hard to get out of your yard once established.

Not quite enough to even be conversational at less than 5 minutes a day learning, but I'm tryin'. ¡El español es muy diabólico!

Anti-Prime Day starts…NOW! 🥳 Today through midnight on 10/7, enjoy free shipping site-wide, all while supporting local, independent bookstores.

Of ALA's 150 most-challenged books list, many I are not a genre I care for. If you do, go read one. I'm checking out some that are new to me. Of the rest, they're likely challenged because they're popular. >6500 were challenged in the last year, up from 70/yr 2001-2020. ala150.org/alas-anniver...

October. 80+° today in Portland. Christmas decór is out at Costco. Thinking of Spring, myself.

Such a font of knowledge. Such knowledge of fonts. Just my type(face).

This is true for any kind of writing—for any kind of art for that matter. It's the hard work that makes inspiration worth something. Let it flow through you as well.

See the world, they said. What could go wrong? (Long, glorious thread. Personally, a little jealous to have missed the adventure.)

Weeks after 9/11, a few planes flew again, something remarked on out loud. Upon doing so, my kid, 2 years old at the time, asked if it was going to crash. The greater heartbreak would be if we forgot what we lost: lives, a sense of safety, some might say our naīve complacency, and our innocence.

I like to think of meteorological data as a cross-genre form of publication. Weather forecasts are science fiction. Specifically cli-fi. Current conditions are current events. It's on news broadcasts. Historical data is true crime.

Personally, I'd prefer "Food. No adjectives added. Never had 'em. Never will." (And yeah, "no" is an adjective, but I've already spent too much time on this joke to contrive better phrasing. Food is like that.) xkcd.com/1774

Lake Flacid.

Rough Draft vs Final Draft

I feel like the kids who did poorly in science and history class are trying to get revenge on the kids who did well at science and history class and now we’re all going to die

while you were away... I submitted three different works to five different agents/editors. Sure, it's Sunday, and I just hit send, but how rude that they haven't responded yet.

Sometimes, I wake in the middle of the night and think, maybe my name is a curse word in another language. Then I wonder if people curse with my name in English. I know I do.

youtu.be/NSuSyZ92Cjg?...

Cleaning up a manuscript before sending it off and tripped back into revision hell. First, "this is horrible," then, "man this might be really good," swinging back to, "what are words." In my day job, we say you eventually have to shoot the engineer and ship the product. With a good sharp pen...

Pleased to finally announce... Abdication, the last Southern Reach novel! "There will come the days of the watcher, the drowned woman and the shadow of a man who keeps falling apart with each step, but first comes the moment the birds appear at night from the gaps between the stars, far from home."

Super useful. I figure a lot of us here in the Sky know this stuff already, but it might be handy to hand to parents, grandparents and pals who are less technically minded. www.librarian.net/NoToAI/

A later revision: The concise and exact use of words in writing or speech is the soul of wit.

Polonius: Brevity is the soul of a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humor. —William Shakespeare, early draft of Hamlet, Act II, Scene II

A delightful thread of #writersproblems

It's a triple-threat! Thrilled to reveal I'm working with @blackstonepub.bsky.social & @andrews-wilson.com to bring my next action thriller #TASKER + new editions of #AIRSIDE & #DARKHORIZON to the US! Big thanks to @jamesfarner.bsky.social & the @awfulagent.bsky.social team for all their hard work!

Sunday services start at 11am ET. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FZy...

Read somewhere that Sony is no longer going to ship games for the Play Station on CD/DVD. Apparently new games will only come out on vinyl.

On this day, 2019. Enjoy.

Ah, solstice. The (too-) longest day of the year in a run of too-long days. Below the equator, YMMV.

Happy Dad's Day to everyone who's ever had one, present or not.

You know it's the first day of summer when Costco puts out the Halloween merchandise.

How to tell if your eggs are farm fresh.

Just what should (and shouldn’t) go in a #query letter bio? Getting personal, in this week’s “Dear Sir or Madam”. #WritingCommunity michaeltkuester.com/2026/05/24/d...

PSA. If you're binge watching Veronica Mars on Netflix, watch the movie before watching season four. That is all.

Currently querying THE SLOW BURN! LOVELIGHT FARMS X THE LOVE HATERS, perfect for agents who love Emily Henry's banter and Abby Jimenez's exploration of complicated family dynamics. #questpit #q #a #r

ALTERED CARBON X SCYTHE When you're rich Insurance ensures you immortality. When you're poor you ensure someone else’s. That didn’t happen to Jake. He should've died, his body claimed by an Insured. Instead he inherits the life and identity of the murdered Father of Immortality. #wippit #A #SF

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City X Bad Boys… This is ALL THINGS RICOCHET 🧟‍♀️sapphic enemies to lovers 🧟‍♀️zombie uprising 🧟‍♀️gov’t conspiracy 🧟‍♀️secret agents 🧟‍♀️”if you save everyone, who saves you” #WIPPIT #SF #LGBT

Tai’s in trouble. The ship has a 1-star rating, the crew aren’t speaking, and the criminals who want them dead are hot on their trail. If they want to keep everyone safe, Tai will have to introduce their human partner to their old-money family. It's going to be a hard decision. #WIPPit #SF #LGBT

Bayle, the butler, is determined to help turn his employer's antique orbital into an academy. Nora is determined to protect her cottage from a corporate land-grab. If they put their heads together, they could solve each other's problems.❤️ Unfortunately, it may also tear them apart.💔 #WIPPIT #R #SF

When chemist Erin Raincrow discovers her employer means to use her fertilizer formula to create chemical weapons, she runs away with the super soldier clone that came to kill her to a solarpunk PNW to finish her formula and save the world from starvation. #WIPPIT #A #SF #R #Spec #OWN #FBW

#WIPPIT #SF #A #HA #FBW The Rothwell Incident - ET meets THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH at an acid house party in Northamptonshire in 1988. A wild adventure featuring space rubbish, illegal raves, shady Met Office personnel, and that weird friend who always seemed like he was from another planet.

#WIPPIT #SF #FBW Survivor Song X Speed of Dark As a deadly virus sweeps across the world, the few survivors begin to realise they are all neurodivergent. If these remaining Mis-Shapes make it through the Neurotypocalypse, can they build a new world, where they fit in, to benefit everyone?

#InReverse: After getting shot, the only way to save Meg's life is to switch the direction she travels through time using a Time Reverser. Meanwhile, she starts to form feelings for the married woman helping her adapt to life in reverse. #TimeTravel #Action #R #SF #LGBT #A #WIPPit 🕓🕒🕑🕐🕛