iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 17h

My favourite book of September 2026 was Everything Will Swallow You by @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social - it was an amazing read! #BookSky

1367

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

There's hope for all of us writing about obscure history - if the eels can hit the mainstream, so can 4000-year-old Mesopotamia goddesses (fingers crossed and pray it happens AFTER the book is published). #writersky

060

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I have a question for writers and readers: what do you think about the unspoken author-reader contract? I dive into it in my latest blog. Would love if you gave it a read and let me know what you think! #WriterSky #BookSky maryralenekeane.com/reader-expec...

maryralenekeane.com

Reader Expectations in a Book Series: The Unspoken Contract

What happens when a book series changes direction? Explore reader expectations, mystery conventions, and the unspoken contract between authors and readers.

150

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Thérésa Hedges @theresahedges.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

✨ RELEASE DAY! ✨ SHARK IS OUT NOW! 🦈 mybook.to/SHARK Here’s what I woke up to this morning! Jon Morgan is an award-winning literary writer with an ego to match. He’s about to discover that success comes at a price. SHARK — available now #BookSky #IndieAuthor #ComedyHorror #ShortReads #Writersky

A writer in a fluffy blue dressing gown holds up the kindle version of her new book in front of her face. Partly because she wants the book front and centre but mostly because she doesn’t like being in photos. And she’s just realised that her iPad screen really, really needs a good clean.

152

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A death in the family and a two-week trip resulted in August and September being a challenge to write consistently. The good news is that next week I will be in a rental on the beach to write non-stop for 7 days! Well, except for walks along the beach of course. #WriterSky

130

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Took a break from writing and went to an art festival! Braving the heat and crowds instead of working on The Hidden Library. Fun outside of writing is also necessary! #WriterSky

160

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

The Publishing Post @thepublishingpost.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Love mythology? Then you're in the right place! We're focusing on American author's interpreations📖 Did you find something for your TBR list? #booksky #writersky #readingcommunity #writingcommunity #fiction #reading #books #mythology #recommendations #TBR www.thepublishingpost.com/post/gods-mo...

thepublishingpost.com

Gods, Monsters and Mortals: How American Authors Are Rewriting Mythology

By Joana Viveiros, Sonali Parida, Sheryl E. Abraham, and Jennifer Riddle

181

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Galileo Dino @murielsdivorce.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Do you think HR will approve my custom ergonomic standing desk set up?? 📚💙 #Librarysky if that's a tag?? #LibraryLife 😁💖

A shot from above two stacks of books, one with a keyboard balanced on top, the shorter one with a computer mouse. There is a computer monitor behind the stacks.

171

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Good and Bad news. Bad - the publisher who requested rewrites? Passed. Good news - my agent is sending the proposal to other publishers. Keep your fingers crossed! #WriterSky #BookSky

060

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Constantine @gcconstantine.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Every. Fucking. Time. #writersky #authorsky #writingcommunity

071

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Hazel E. Baumgartner - HELIRUNA OUT NOW! @hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Both of my books are now in stock at Base Camp Books in Colorado Springs, right across the street from the Palmer Park playground. Go give them a visit!

284

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I have decided...drumroll please...to write the character arcs and basic plot BEFORE I write book 2. Can I leave my past as a pantsy writer behind? Stay tuned. #WriterSky

170

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Gayla In SF @gaylaworrell.com · 15/09/2026

📚 New Book Day! 📚 Excited to bring this one out into the world! "There was something ironic about keeling over dead in front of the "Personal Care and Health" section of Books and Brews, but Nora was a little too freaked out about being dead to enjoy it." a.co/d/09MkDmnt 💙📚 #booksky #writersky

Launch Day graphic showing a paperback and e-book version of The After Afterlife of Nora Iverson along with the words New Release and It's Launch Day. A line of text at the bottom says "Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited".

3224

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Natacha Cole @natachacole.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

My latest on Substack about mindful consumerism and influencer marketing. { Link in bio } —— #writersky

021

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I wrote 1236 words today for a prepublication form for a publisher. It was similar to the book proposal I had submitted, but different enough that I couldn't cut & paste. It's done and sent to the publisher! #BookSky #WriterSky

091

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

A.J. Calvin @ajcalvin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Starting off #SequelSeptember on a high note with This Crimson Ruin by Rebecca Thorne. Think zombie apocalypse, set in an underwater city where there’s very little chance of escape. Lots of action, high stakes, & great characters makes a fantastic read. fanfiaddict.com/review-this-... #booksky

Book review: This Crimson Ruin by Rebecca Thorne
checkmark Apocalypse in the deep ocean
checkmark Time is running out (literally)
checkmark It was all a lie...
checkmark How far would you go to protect those you love?
Read the full review at FanFiAddict.com

0189

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

With every revision of my book The Hidden Library, I use the word "that" less and less. The word search in the first version? 825 thats. That's a lot of thats. #WriterSky #BookSky

090

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

What a character Margrey Kempe must've been 600 years ago — adored by some, reviled by others, always in trouble. Maybe she really had Jesus on her side. If so, he was a terrible friend, always getting her into trouble and even jail, but at least he kept her from being burned as a heretic. #BookSky

071

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

NC Sayers @ncsayers.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Me: I completed two chapters for two different stories! Also Me: Crap. I’m only two chapters into a novel’s first draft with more than two dozen to go. #WriteSky #WriterSky #amwriting #AmWriting #Writingcommunity

131

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

David T. Moses @davidthormoses.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Today I hit 6000 words in #SunmakerSon. A bit slow today, since I’m tired and watching both my boys. #writingupdate #writers #SAHD #writersky #amwriting

252

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Gail Anderson-Dargatz @anderson-dargatz.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

My hometown launch! Shuswap friends, please join me Sept. 11 at the Salmon Arm Library for this free event as I celebrate the release of The Atlas Keeper. Writers, bring your questions about writing and publishing! Hugs to those who share! #TheAtlasKeeper #canlit #IReadCanadian #Writersky

054

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Favourite part about being writer? Inventing worlds and then populating that world with characters who experience joy and grief and anger. Suffering is also popular in my worlds. What about you, fellow authors? #WriterSky

010

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Brian LaRossa @brianlarossa.com · 18/06/2024

Books are ad free. AD FREE. This glorious feature is largely undercelebrated imho.

37777185

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Here's a fun fact about Magdalena, the archeologist in The Hidden Library - all her socks are magenta, and she wears a baseball hat with Elmo on it. #WriterSky

010

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

What book would you like to read if you stepped in a hidden library filled with women's works from the last 4,000 years? I wrote a PDF where you get to see a few of the books you can find in my speculative novel, The Hidden Library - I would love for you to check it out! maryralenekeane.com

020

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Rae Radford @raeradford.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Oh yes, there will…. #BookSky

1375506646

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I'm finding it challenging to explain when something is a flashback without putting a date on it. Do people really think "I remember that Tuesday, three years and two months ago, when..."? It would be so much easier to slap a time stamp on it, but, alas, my editor doesn't approve. #WriterSky

100

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Enough politics this morning. Here's something Odyssey-adjacent I wrote a few years ago & published in LitHub this week, a meditation on Penelope's powers at the loom and possibly the first thing ever to compare her to a hip-hop dj.

“The Liquid Birds”

Pēnelopē (Πηνελόπη) is usually understood to combine the Greek word pēnē (πήνη), “weft,” and ōps (ὤψ), “face,” which is considered the most appropriate for a cunning weaver whose motivation is hard to decipher.

Penelope finds when she unweaves the shroud—
that she was making for the father of her husband,
who of course is absent and has been for years—
that when she undoes what she wove in this time
she can unweave all time that has passed and by
weaving a different pattern can shift the present
and as she weaves warp through weft, thread by thread
she finds mastery and after much practice can
unweave better than she ever wove, can unweave
her marriage back before she ever met the man
can hover with threads added and subtracted
in the passion of their first years, make one night,
one kiss, happen over and over, and then she can
unweave it all so that their marriage bed, famously
made from a rooted tree, is not yet a bed, the tree
only a sapling, crones become maidens, eagles, doves
drop from the skies to find the nests they left

723438

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Finally, the edited manuscript of The Hidden Library is in the hands of my editor. Eight chapters deleted, five new chapters about the villains, and writing tightened. I'm very proud of what I created. #WriterSky

130

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I finished all the revisions requested by a publisher and sent them to the editor. Hallelujah! That's a weight off my shoulders. #WriterSky

030

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

After experiencing the mind-blowing interior chamber of the Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland, we visited the gift shop. I had no idea the book I bought, "Inside the Neolithic Mind," would change how I understood our ancient past and help me write The Hidden Library. #WriterSky #BookSky

A hand holds a book with many colored tabs attached to pages. The title of the book is Inside the Neolithic Mind. The authors' names are above the title: David Lewis-Williams & David Pearce. A quote is below the title: 'A literary and scientific tour de force' NATURE

0110

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Just gonna go ahead and share this again, 'cause it keeps being annoying relevant.

A poem and a drawing. The poem starts at the top left of the page, is titled "Humanities" and is made up of a set of 6 haikus. The first and last ones are on the left side of the page, but haikus 2-5 are increasingly indented, The text of the poem reads:

Who needs history?
Literature? Languages?
Art? Philosophy?

These can only help
you to better understand
our humanity.

Best to let machines
read your books. And write your books.
Do your art for you.

You will never need
to think. Never need to learn.
You’ll learn to like it.

And when the end comes
you’ll have never burdened your
soul with any growth.

Someone selling this
sees profit in destroying
your humanity.

-- John Wyatt Greenlee

The drawing is at the top right. It's a black and white ink pen drawing made of abstract shapes and lines. It might look like a tree made of bird heads.

217861

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Fun fact about Tanna Wright, a main character in The Hidden Library. She considers chocolate to be her fifth food group. Unfortunately, the library doesn't have any chocolate. I feel terrible for her (as I eat chocolate while writing her story). #WriterSky

040

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I'm writing a blog series about books by women authors who might/probably/did exist before vanishing. I wrote a piece on the books I wish still existed, but I'd like to know what you wish you could read. Other than Sappho's poems & Mary Magdalene's gospels, what books are you interested in? #BookSky

Image of a library with a half open door set into the book shelves. The Books of the Hidden Library: What if the greatest library the world never knew preserved the voices of women lost to history? www.maryralenekeane.com

090

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

A publisher wrote a list of changes they'd like to see in The Hidden Library and strongly urged me to resubmit. Happy happy! We're moving along! #BookSky #WriterSky

1100

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Do you have a memoir hiding inside you? If you've been wondering if and how you should start a memoir, head to my blog and have a read! I'd love to know what kind of memoir you'd be inspired to start. (The more outlandish, the better.) maryralenekeane.com/how-to-start...

maryralenekeane.com

How to start writing a book about your life - Mary Keane

Learn how to start writing a book about your life with creative memoir ideas, themes, journals, and storytelling tips to uncover your best stories.

120

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I'm so proud. Today I wrote 2714 words. Two chapters on the rise of the villains of The Hidden Library. One of the chapters is so chilling that my husband is now worried. #WriterSky #BookSky

080

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I talk a lot about the Camino I walked in 2022, but did you know you don't have to go all the way to Spain to do your own pilgrimage? You can get started right at home. I created a free guide on my website that details how to do it. Give it a read if you'd like! maryralenekeane.com

A picture of two hands held up in prayer. 7 Steps to Create Your Own Pilgrimage, A Guide inspired by medieval pilgrim guides, modern simplicity, and sacred intention. www.maryralenekeane.com is below the hands.

010

Reposted by Mary Ralene Keane Writes

Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🎃 🌑 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 12/07/2026

I’ve never forgotten the editor who scrawled “smelt is for metals!!” on a piece of my work. It wasn’t very good work, and many of her other comments were valid. But that one was stupid.

Screenshot:

Jamie Jones @jamiejones139
"As far as words go, 'crying' is louder and 'weeping' is wetter. When people explain the difference between the two to English-language learners they say that weeping is more formal, can sound archaic in everyday speech. You can hear this in their past tenses-the plainness of 'cried', the velvet cloak of 'wept. I remember arguing
once with a teacher who insisted 'dreamt' was incorrect, dreamed the only proper option.
She was wrong, of course, in both philological and moral ways, and ever since l've felt a peculiar attachment to the t's of the past: weep, wept, sleep, slept, leave, left. There's a finality there, a quiet completion, of which 'd' has never dreamt."
- Heather Christle, from The Crying Book

1013123

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Fave June Book: "The Heroine's Journey" by Maureen Murdock. Murdock asked Joseph Campbell why there was no Heroine's Journey & he said because women are home. Murdock's response to that nonsense: we aren't someone's home - we're adventurous honey badgers fighting for family & home. #BookSky

A blonde woman with sunglasses on her head is showing a book to a small goat. The book title is "The Heroine's Journey" by Maureen Murdock.

070

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

The hardest part of storytelling for me is dialogue. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read that I should go to coffee shops and study how people converse. So I decided to see how well that advice actually works. Read my blog post to find out! maryralenekeane.com/storytelling... #WriterSky

maryralenekeane.com

One of the hardest storytelling elements for me to write?

Learn why writers can't simply copy real conversations and how storytelling elements transform everyday dialogue into compelling fiction.

010

Mary Ralene Keane Writes @marykeane.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

A publisher asked me to add more backstory for the villains of The Hidden Library. This means new characters, new motivations, and new edits to accommodate the changes. Hmmm, who has pissed me off lately? You may be the next villain in my book. #WriterSky

031