iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Did I mention that I’m featured in this month’s Lone Star Literary Life? I don’t think so. Whoops. 😬 I blame launch month fatigue. So… read it! lonestar-lit.com/september-20... #kidlit #mg #shorterbooks

lonestar-lit.com

September 2026 -

011

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

It’s rare for a debut to pull me in (or, for that matter, my 11yo, who wouldn’t let me have the book back once she started it) as well as this one did. Fantastic book that makes me excited to see what R.A. Dines does next. Read my interview with her here: joshweissroessler.com/2026/07/23/a...

000

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

@lonestarlit provides an amazing service to the Texas literary community. (They’ve also published 2 articles by me. I may be biased.) The June issue just landed with “empower” as the theme. My contribution: writing screenplays improves storytelling skills. Take a look: lonestar-lit.com/june-2026/

100

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

“There’s that line in The Body by Stephen King: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12 – Jesus, did you?” I think that’s true of books, too. I don’t think anyone loves a book like a kid loves a book.” —from my interview with @megbmore.bsky.social tinyurl.com/cezbyekk

011

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

It’s a horror, right? I mean, I didn’t click on it but that seems obvious and inevitable, almost as much as OPERATION will be about horrifying medical experiments.

110

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Pins and needles, pins and needles….

010

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

It’s a fantastic read. A “quiet” sci-fi that sneaks up on you and explores some really resonant themes.

010

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

I’m honored to be featured in the April issue of The Lone Star Literary Life Magazine. This month’s theme is GROW, so I wrote about the growing and changing reader tastes I’ve seen in my son and how we need to pay attention to that on a bigger scale as writers.

110

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Since my MG sci-fi will hopefully be published this year, I’m going to choose to believe the story of a kid taking on adult robbers and winning is a positive sign for the book and not a heads up that I should invest in a security system.

000

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Thanks! Every step of this is terrifying, but gotta keep pushing forward. Fingers crossed.

010

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

My past 3 mos? I came alive again after a soul-questioning hiatus. Decided to go the indie route. Began writing book 2 in a series. Started posting on socials regularly. Applied for an SCBWI grant. And my unpublished MG novel won the highest award in a (deliberately) low-tier contest. #kidlitchat

110

Reposted by Josh Weiss-Roessler

kidlitchat @kidlitchat.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

TOPIC: It's quarterly check-in time! Time to bask in the accomplishments of the last three months--or breathe a sigh of relief that you've managed to *get through* the past three months. Either way, share what's been going, career-wise, since September! #kidlitchat

12124

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

There’s one I wish I could watch again for the first time. Curious to hear your thoughts after you finish the whole thing.

010

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Wait, wait, wait — beginnings, middles, AND ends?

120

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

I had a college prof who loved to use a bicycle analogy. Every piece has an important function, and it's something you can learn by learning what each piece does. #kidlitchat

130

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

i imagine game development has to be really interesting because you have to think in so many... dimensions? I don't meant that literally, but hopefully you get what I'm saying. The story and the gameplay/etc. have to support each other in ways that traditional stories don't worry about #kidlitchat

120

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

I tried to replicate this in the outline for my current WIP by highlighting the various storyline beats in different colors when they appeared in the doc. My goal with the smaller ones wasn't to be super accurate, though, just to make sure I had a beginning, middle, and end to work with. #kidlitchat

020

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

I can't. I've tried, but if I don't have train tracks I tend to meander all over the place and never come up with anything coherent. My secret (that's still kind of a mess) is that I allow for track changes :) #kidlitchat

140

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

I mean, this is kind of what TV writers rooms do -- or used to, at least. Literally have a bunch of beat cards in different colors for the various storylines and put them up on a big board and move them around as necessary. It can be effective. #kidlitchat

360

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

My outline kind of IS my zero draft, which is why I want to keep improving it. The goal is always to focus on story, story, story, but lots of other stuff tends to seep in there. Not sure why I haven't done an actual beat sheet. Did them for scripts. They they feel wrong for novels. #kidlitchat

140

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Interesting. Even though I have a separate outline file and draft file, I like copying the outline into the pages and then just kind of using/erasing as I go. (I also tend to insert dialogue and other lines that occur to me as I'm outlining, so it's useful to be able to refer to them.) #kidlitchat

010

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Few things are more frustrating than breezing along with the outline, then reaching a point in it where I'm like, "Okay, that makes story sense, but from a practical standpoint how/when/where does this stuff actually happen?" #kidlitchat

110

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

I want to get better at including chapters in the outline. They may change in the draft, but the blueprint helps immensely. #kidlitchat

030

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

That being said, I both tend to stray from that structure as the work evolves and, no matter how thorough my outline seems at the start, find myself discovering frustrating gaps and things that stop me dead once I'm writing pages. #kidlitchat

030

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

So far I have been a Save the Cat person as far as structure, which probably makes sense with my formative professional writing experience in film/TV. Nothing will teach you story faster than writing a screenplay, because there's not room for much else... if you do it well. #kidlitchat

170

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Last week I got to interview R.A. Consell, author of the MG/YA fantasy series Stealing from Wizards, about his books and writing life. Check it out at the comment link. #AuthorInterview #YAFantasy #MiddleGradeBooks #WritingCommunity #TeacherReads #LibrarianLife #BookRecommendation

140

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

To be fair, it was the lowest form of pandering 🤣. #kidlitchat

020

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Not just a KidLitCat, a symbol of unity in these divided times. Dogs and cats living together indeed. #kidlitchat

140

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

It's the frustrating catch-22. I don't want to release a book into the wild without a semblance of an audience... but it's hard to get one when you don't have a book for them. I'm trying different things. Offering free shorts. Book recs. Interviewing an author I like later this week. #kidlitchat

040

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

I basically come here for the Tuesday kidlit chats :) Other than that, I might pop in once or twice a week. #kidlitchat

040

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Whether it's finding people on social or wherever, I'm just trying to figure out how to build a mailing list when I don't (yet) have anything to sell. I JUST started giving away a free short, but I'm basically getting hundreds of people going to the form... and have had 2 friends sign up #kidlitchat

150

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Agreed. It makes sense for followers to really not matter. I've "had" a Twitter account since 2012 or something, but barely used it until a few years ago and was shocked to discover I'd magically gained 700+ followers :) #kidlitchat

020

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

To be fair, the author who shared this with me and went hard into IG posting this year before her first book came out is now getting something like 300k KU words read per day and 75 ebooks purchased/day. So... amazing results for her. And she works for it. But ugh. #kidlitchat

030

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Yeah, I've been told number of followers doesn't even matter anymore. It's all about reaching the right people to get lots of engagement. #kidlitchat

140

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

The thing I learned that was truly helpful/disheartening was that you train the algorithm on your audience not just by who you target, but by what posts you watch and interact with, as well as who your followers are. So, Uncle Bob who followed you but never interacts? Killing your reach. #kidlitchat

250

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

But obviously that's not guaranteed. You still have to hit the right audience at the right time and blahblahblah. I don't mean to downplay it. Some people are incredible at using social. But it's exhausting. #kidlitchat

040

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Yeah. She actually paid for one of the courses you always see being advertised and said it really helped and was eye-opening, but I can barely keep up with trying to post 3x/week. Which, BTW, is supposed to be "holding steady" (i.e. no growth). 4-5=slow growth. 6-7=faster. #kidlitchat

230

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Oh, man. Trying to post on IG and TikTok for followers and (the holy grail) NL signups, but it has been tough sledding. Actually had a huddle with a writer the other day who does AMAZINGLY well on IG and she has me ?ing if I should restart with a new account I haven't "trained" poorly. #kidlitchat

110

Josh Weiss-Roessler @boregenerations.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

And... I'm going to have to take off, because our 13-year-old actually just asked to watch TV with us, which never happens. 😍 #kidlitchat

1130