iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Hey #BookSky! The Language of Birds is here to pre-order! ✨🐦 Mira has always loved birds, but finds that people are a more confusing animal. When a new boy at school loves trees the way she loves birds, with help from the birds, Mira finds a way to connect that transcends words.

242

Reposted by Jon-Erik Lappano

Quill & Quire @quillandquire.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Q&Q 2025 Fall Preview presents the picture books we’re most excited about this fall, featuring a debut from Howie Shia, Award–winning illustrator Jacques Goldstyn and fan favourite Yolanda T. Marshall. This fall’s slate of picture books has something for every reader. bit.ly/3J1MRFG #kidlit

031

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

“Mostly, the kids at school left Mira alone. So she spent recesses sitting under a maple tree, feeding seeds to a crow.” 🐦‍⬛ Sharing a snippet from THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS, available to preorder now 😊 Illustrations by: Zach Manbeck DEC/2025 Random House Studio. #picturebook #booksky #kidlit

0130

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Just over 8 months to wait ... but in the publishing world, that feels like tomorrow! Thrilled to share the cover of my next book THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS, illustrated by #ZachManbeck & published by Random House Studio. A story about friendship & connection, in the many forms it can take! #CanKidLit

Book cover of THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. An illustration of a young girl with a peaceful expression, holding a luminous, golden bird in her hands fills the cover. Illustrated by Zach Manbeck.

1121

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Excited to share the #coverreveal for my next #picturebook THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS! Illus. by Zach Manbeck. Landing in bookstores 12/16/2025. Available for preorder now! penguinrandomhouse.com/books/740739/the-language-of-birds-by-jon-erik-lappano-illustrated-by-zach-manbeck #kidlit #kidsbook #birds

050

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Their minds are ever-blooming gardens to be sure! Your greeting will mean the world :)

120

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Great to see you here! We're such fans in this household -- your The Girl Who Drank the Moon and the Ogress and the Orphans both have a special place in our daughters' hearts! ✨

120

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

This looks and sounds beautiful!

110

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Our Zoe, Queen of the cats, has the most luminous green eyes. I’m certain she can travel between realms. We all show her great deference.

Macro shot of a luminous green cat’s eye, framed by silver fur

060

Reposted by Jon-Erik Lappano

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

My writing process is usually: a) I got this b) well, fuck c) wait that part was real good d) wait no that part sucks e) I am a god of this place f) the fuck is this shit, who do I think I am, why am I here g) oh man I just figured it all out h) mistakes were made I) existential dread

508145271538

Reposted by Jon-Erik Lappano

Neil Renic @ncrenic.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Two stages of writing: 1) This shouldn't take too long 2) Oh no

561370837004

Reposted by Jon-Erik Lappano

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Can you feel that frost on the air yet? ❄️ Here’s a book for cozy winter nights, about a hopeful child and a long-forgotten song to call the snow home. #kidlit #snow

021

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Realizing my latest picture book draft would work better as a middle grade, my latest middle grade draft would be better as a graphic novel, and my 120,000 word literary fiction should really have just been an email.

050

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

I really hope the cure for walking pneumonia is chicken parm

120

Reposted by Jon-Erik Lappano

David A. Robertson @davidarobertson.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Since I’m new on here, wanted to share my next book. “ALL THE LITTLE MONSTERS” is a mental health memoir, out January 21. Preorder: www.harpercollins.ca/978144347240...

0182

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Thank you for putting this list together! I’ve followed all 😊

110

Reposted by Jon-Erik Lappano

Helen Kubiw ❤️ 🇨🇦 📚 @hkubiw.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

For those interested in following #Canadian authors & illustrators of books for young people, I just created a starter pack. I probably should have broken into several but it'll be a good start for those who want to follow great writers & artists of books for children and teens. go.bsky.app/2Ys743U

5206

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

If even just 1% of my followers decide to buy one of my books, I will have sold… *calculates* 1 books

120

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Sweet potato gnocchi sounds delightful 😘 👌

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

It’s #FungiFriday apparently, so I’m wishing a very good day to these most formidable fungi. A few favourites I’ve encountered in the near northern Ontario woods.

Delicate mushrooms resembling tiny parasols grow on a log on the forest floor.

Two purple bolete mushrooms emerge from pine needles and moss on the forest floor

Yellow fungi stand together in a carpet of emerald green moss

A single rust coloured bolete mushroom sits in morning sunlight on the forest floor

020

Reposted by Jon-Erik Lappano

Destenie Nock, PhD @destenie.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Started this starter pack with energy justice & climate justice folks. Let me know who I should add to it. go.bsky.app/HXiuKJ5 (P.S. yes this is my way of finding my friends that migrated to bluer skies) @costasamaras.com @menrywy.bsky.social @leahstokes.bsky.social @sidersadapts.bsky.social

89477148

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Oh that sounds amazing! Officially adding a pasta class in Italy to my bucket list. And yes, the pasta was delicious! Bonus points that the kids loved helping. Using the hand roller is super fun and harkens back to the play-doh days! 🍝🤌

000

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

We’ve been making our own pasta and it’s so satisfying!

250

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

My manuscript in my head vs my manuscript first draft

020

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Good morning! Anyone else dreaming of that first snowfall? SONG FOR THE SNOW, w beautiful illustrations by Byron Eggenschwiler, is a story about Freya, who misses the winters that used to blanket her town in snow. With a snow globe and an ancient song, she tries to call the snow home. #kidlit

150

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

This one is a core memory for me. Cemented a key part of my identity

Book Cover of More Spaghetti I say by Rita Gelman. There is a monkey in a wide red brimmed hat eating copious amounts of spaghetti.

“Oh no I can’t play I can’t play with you Freddy.” Not now, can’t you see? I am eating spaghetti.

010

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Deep in my dad era. Reliable heel hole in black socks. Same three outfits for decades. Forever fixing the same rattling doorknob.

110

Reposted by Jon-Erik Lappano

John Green @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Having experienced them all: Bluesky > Threads > Staring into the middle distance in longing > the emptiness inside > twitter

523575241

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I passed the furious coronae of dying stars, gas giants and asteroid belts, I hurtled toward rainbowed ribbons jetting out into the darkest space for light years, until I came to a small planet at what I imagine was the centre of the nebula.

000

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

All I wanted was the bag of peas, but it was impossible to ignore the magnetic pull of this nebulae. It was all I could see, an expansive sort of myopia that simultaneously blocked out the world and opened up an entire universe. I felt like I was floating, no, shooting toward it at high velocity

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

reflexively, I screamed, and then, becoming immediately self conscious, I attempted to parlay the scream into a sneeze, to avoid making a scene. “Aah! choo!” “Bless you!” I heard someone say from a few aisles over. I now gazed at the grapefruit-sized nebulae, awestruck and unable to move.

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I say otherworldly, but I should specify that I can’t be certain whether it originated in another world or not — but it was a colour and hue that I wasn’t accustomed to.. it was an electric sort of bluish purple, like a nebulae growing before my eyes, beside the last bag of peas

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I was certain the woman I’d just passed in the aisle had seen me fall, and so I leaned further into the freezer, to appear as though I was looking intently, or even passionately, for frozen vegetables. It was at this point that I noticed the otherworldly glow coming from the back of the freezer.

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Embarrassingly (but not surprisingly given the little amount I’ve been sleeping lately), a bout of vertigo seized me and I stumbled headfirst into the open freezer, falling into a pile of bagged corn.

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I was looking for the frozen peas. I like to cook them in the way my Nonna taught me — with garlic, olive oil and a bit of stock. It seemed the shelf was empty but I saw a lingering bag toward the back of the freezer. I reached in

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

When I emerged from the basement, morning light seared my eyes. In the kitchen, the eldest (13 yr old) feral hominid was already waiting, flanked by two glaring felines who demanded paté. "You look rough," she said. "Yes," I said, pouring her a black coffee. "Maybe you should get more sleep."

000

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

By this point, I was dreadfully tired. But the sick adrenaline and rheumatic damp of the air meant sleep would be impossible this night. I crept back through the gap in the wall, tiptoeing past the mice who I worried would smell the stolen babybel on my breath, and returning up the basement stairs..

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

"I didn't hear nothing." "Anything." "Good point. If we're going to pull this off, we can't get sloppy with our grammar." "Midnight then." "Midnight. Tomorrow." The voices ceased. I waited, nose to the floor, until all I could hear was the sound of my own heart palpitating in arrhythmic beats.

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

"Midnight," one voice said. "Will the moon be out?" "We've got the bodysuits. Form fitting and black. We can evade the moonlight." There was a gruff sound of male agreement and I choked on the babybel cheese. "Did you hear something?" I swallowed, pressing my face into the clay.

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

They were talking with some urgency, it sounded like they were arranging a meeting of sorts. The voices were human, gruff, certainly of men who were more man than I, likely with muscles and everything. I kept quiet and curled into a ball in the dark, listening intently as I chewed the babybel cheese

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

I waited, with breath held, and stuffed a babybel cheese into my mouth, which I had stolen with slight-of-hand from under the mouse queen's nose (something I would undoubtedly have to atone for later). The sound behind the wall stopped. But in its absence I heard muffled voices...

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Storage room is not the right word, it was more of a mud-walled chamber, with a packed clay floor. How I had not been aware of this space below my own home was not a surprise, I tend not to pay attention and am mostly preoccupied with obtaining hay, food & bedding for the animals that live upstairs

000

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

So I squeezed myself through the gap, my pyjamas picking up centuries of dust, slime, and viruses along the way, shuddering to think that I might not be able to return back the way I came if the passage did, indeed, lead to a dead end. Thankfully (or not) the passage soon opened up to a storage room

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

I pleaded with her, but only for a moment, for I could see in her eyes (& in the many hundreds of eyes of her rodentine colony) that I was not welcome here either. She lifted a delicate paw & pointed to a shadowed gap in the stone foundation, just large enough for my diminutive frame ...

100

Jon-Erik Lappano @jelappano.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

The mouse laughed then (I assume it was laughter, though it could also have been an expelling of breath akin to a cough, perhaps due a respiratory affliction from living in a cobweb filled corner of a centuries-old house) She explained with a great chattering of her teeth that I couldn't sleep there

100