iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Need a distraction from the massive coup attempting to overthrow our democracy? Try a little light True Crime reading to remind you that in the end, justice prevails (at least in best-selling true crime books)... www.rd.com/list/best-tr... #writingcommunity #booksky #truecrime

rd.com

25 True Crime Books You Won't Be Able to Put Down

Turn on the lights and lock the doors before you settle in with one of these terrifying true crime books. These real-life stories are as scary as it gets.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

My first book piece for Reader's Digest is online, and if you're familiar with the 'listicle' (an article in list form) you'll understand why I always include oddball choices to prove AI is not involved. www.rd.com/list/best-no... #writingcommunity #creativenonfiction #iamwriting #booksky

rd.com

34 Greatest Nonfiction Books Ever, Chosen by a Book Reviewer

Just because it's true doesn't mean it's dull. Discover incredible stories and curious facts by reading the greatest nonfiction books ever.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Maybe you’re here to stay informed. Maybe you’re here for a laugh. But we all have obligations to each other. I just unfollowed an influential writer with a vast fan base who kept explaining why they’re not sharing news. Dude, you have clout! Make 1 out of 10 posts relevant. Silence is complicit!!!

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

I’m curious to see if any other theater critic has ever written a review which basically states, “the show was so dazzling, I forgot I’d just lost my cell phone, credit cards, and driver’s license.” In Syracuse, NY, ”Tina” took all my cares away. www.syracuse.com/entertainmen...

syracuse.com

Landmark’s captivating rags-to-riches ‘Tina’ musical astoundingly recreates Tina Turner onstage (review)

In the tour-de-force title role, Jayna Elise sings, dances, and acts ‘like the real thing.’

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Journalist Jim Acosta and Jennifer Rubin have left legacy media to start their own news outlets. Yet on Substack, a guy who initially subscribed at $7/month said he’s quitting because his 💰 means nothing. I snapped at him, “Be part of the Resistance, not part of the Reluctance.” What price freedom?

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Thank you for the support! The newest book is actually Secret Syracuse: a guide to the weird, wonderful and obscure. That’s got incredible stories and overlooked places to visit and things to do. It’s my favorite so far. I’m also working on a third Syracuse book on food and dining.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Most days I’m reading a book for review. A few times a month I see a theater show for review. Of course, the well-written, well-directed shows win me over. The Syracuse Post-Standard published my review of Primary Trust (2024 Pulitzer Prize in Drama) in today’s paper. #writingcommunity #iamwriting

Newspaper page with the headline ‘Syracuse Stage’s Primary Trust is a quiet gut-punch of a play.’

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Reposted by Linda Lowen

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 24/01/2025

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.” Diary of Anne Frank January 13, 1943

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Thin sheets of ice meet the shore of Lake Ontario and shatter; upended, the pieces stack up, looking like the bristled fur of a threatened animal. Turn up the volume and listen to the cracking… #CentralNewYork near #SyracuseNY

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Nature offers solace, but you have to seek it out. After the election, I came to a cottage on the shore of Lake Ontario, and post-inauguration, I’ve returned, this time to edit a book. Gloomy arrival, glorious morning. The quiet is just what I needed. #writingcommunity #writerslife 📚💙 #iamwriting

View from a lakeside cottage at dusk with ice floes across the surface.

Wood burning stove in the corner of a living room with a view to a deck overlooking a lake at dusk.

View through a window of a lawn overlooking an ice choked lakefront

Cloudless blue sky above a lake lightly iced over.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Next weekend! If you’re in the Syracuse NY area, commute for the 3-day $300 workshop — if you’re from away, stay in Auburn, there’s links. I don’t teach often, but last time I did, a student published a Tiny Love Story in the NYTimes #writing community #writer 📚💙 www.eventbrite.com/e/life-in-sh...

eventbrite.com

Life in Short: Micro Memoir Workshop

Memoir doesn't have to cover decades to tell a story. Sometimes a single moment, vividly depicted, illuminates a life.

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Reposted by Linda Lowen

Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Pete Hegseth has promised to bring warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. “Warriors are people who exult in killing” and “who obsess about honor,” @eliotacohen.bsky.social writes. “Soldiers are different. They are servants of the state. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

theatlantic.com

The U.S. Needs Soldiers, Not Warriors

Pete Hegseth has vowed to bring a warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. It’s a terrible idea.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

In 2022, a picture book — by a 13-year-old about the worst day of her life — was released. I often reflect on our interview and Estela’s poise and courage despite losing her mother. Behind every deportation is a story. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/... 📚💙 #writingcommunity #kidlit #writing

publishersweekly.com

Q & A with Estela Juarez

A letter that Estela Juarez wrote to President Trump when she was eight—describing her mother's deportation to Mexico despite her father's naturalized citizenship and service as a Marine—gained nation...

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

You’ll get there. Use it steadily and we will find each other.

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Reposted by Linda Lowen

Harry Dunn @libradunn1.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Sergeant Gonell @sergeantaqgo.bsky.social sent me this picture. This is his call log. Each call is an automated Dept of "Justice" notification saying "The defendant you testified against is being released from the dept of corrections." Each defendant assaulted him.

Call log showing multiple calls from the dept of justice

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Going there for my birthday. But booking even three weeks ahead, I couldn’t get a table until 7:45!!!

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

The world is changing. Living in a community that celebrates your values and honors your beliefs will spur many to relocate in the months and years ahead. Syracuse is my home—a place I love so much, I write books about it. But these folks cover it every day, far better than I do. Follow them!!

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

I know the folks behind this endeavor, and they include some of the brightest minds, biggest hearts, and most thoughtful storytellers writing about any region anywhere. The fact that they are here, covering our hometown, is priceless.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Central New Yorkers, let’s prove the adage “build it and they will come.” Now more than ever, STEAM education matters to our community. #syracuse #cny #centralny

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Any potential new records for temp/wind chill? If we’re going to suffer and endure, let’s make it count.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Thanks for breaking the librarian stereotype when it comes to the book world. Sex workers are writers, readers, real people as you note…like anyone else.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

I came to your door with soup and bread. I didn’t know you but you were a neighbor in pain: and a little soup and bread, I reasoned never hurt anyone. -Kathleen Norris, Answered Prayers What can we do? This. Make the soup. Bake the bread. Care for others. Write. #writingcommunity #booksky #writers

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Don’t you love it when that happens? For me — when I review books — that last 5% is occasionally where the book goes badly astray.

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Reposted by Linda Lowen

Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

The entire nation of Australia gets it. Media in that country are having to blur what Elon Musk did twice in public today because of laws there regarding the Nazi salute.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

For a number of years, I wrote content for a medical marketing company: blog posts about eye procedures for ophthalmology practices. That was the first to go. AI now writes all that stuff.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

I’m good—I still read a lot of books but it’s work now. So the few books I do choose to read for pleasure are actually delightful because I only pick really good ones narrated by first-rate audiobook narrators. Think Ann Patchett narrated by Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. Top shelf single malt lit!!!

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Reposted by Linda Lowen

Bebe Neuwirth (she/her) @bebeneuwirth.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

And please read the alt text

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

We here in the OC (Onondaga County) feel left out…just another week in the Mighty Salt City for us.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Don’t fear scene and dialogue!!! Some essayists write solely from interiority, describing events instead of living them. Nothing’s sadder than a great blurb and a meh book, the writer telling, never showing. Recreate moments using scene/dialogue, action/reaction. #writing #writingcommunity #booksky

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Jamie, you are far smarter than I am. And much more courageous.👏

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Right? The panic is real and immediate.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

In 2016, I lost a lifelong pleasure: the ability to disappear into words on a page. My concentration vanished. (Anxiety does that.) Reading for fun is now an audiobook. Reading for work as a book reviewer, I’ve retrained myself to focus. But I knew today would be a loss: 2016 all over again #booksky

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Like so many, I’m observing the Meta ban this week. But in the same way my fingers tap in my passwords automatically, even if I don’t physically click the app, Facebook opens many times a day. It’s muscle memory, addiction, and habit rolled into one. And it’s Medusa: if I look at it, I’ll go blind.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

If the account used full sentences, had no misspellings, and spoke reasonably, yeah, it’s a bot.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Thankfully, contemporary children's authors are aware of this and are revisiting the standard narratives to add a more nuanced, dare I say 'woke' story... which is closer to the truth.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

A lot of contemporary children's books reflect what children ARE worrying about... it's not the idyllic childhood of the past...

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

That's something I have never heard from anyone, so you've just made my day.

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

and it's children who will endure the greatest hardships...

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Everything I read is months away from being published. So that's not an issue I have to worry about...

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Linda Lowen @lindalowen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

I'm paying attention because Jim Kwik, author of Superbrain, suggests writing down dreams to decipher their meanings. So no pain, no gain...

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