iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dorothy, a publishing project @dorothyproject.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

As long as I'm thinking about book covers, an anecdote: When we talked cover concepts for APPLESEED, I totally straightfaced told my editor that I wanted to spoof the TWILIGHT cover, but with furred, clawed faun hands clutching the apple instead. I cannot tell you how long we stared at each other...

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Saddened to hear that a writer was contacted by a fake Danielle Dutton (not our very real and human editor) pretending to be asking for work on behalf of Dorothy. We do not solicit work that way (i.e., cold emails). Please help us spread the word?!

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Thinking about book covers today, which also means looking back through my old ones. The painting @edlatalante.bsky.social had done for the French translation of APPLESEED is going to be an all-timer for me!

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Tried to text a hopeful message about politics to my family, but my “fingers crossed!” got autocorrected to “fingers corroded,” which is probably a more accurate political feeling.

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“A goddamn war mace. It was used by Ostrogoths to split skulls. Fucked-up skulls like yours. Got it in the mail. From an Ostrogoth.”

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As the weather finally, finally breaks, is it possible to feel joy running in the desert again?

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A beautiful sky over Phoenix tonight!

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I cannot explain how quickly I bought this. One of my favorite albums from its era. Can't wait, @rockplazacentral.bsky.social!

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

@tobiasbuckell.bsky.social is a fantastic writer and person. If you can help him and his out a bit in what's turned out to be a tough moment, I know it'd be appreciated.

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Sheila Black @sheilafionab.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Desert Nights, Rising Stars is fast approaching. Join a community of writers. Oct. 16-17. 3 days, 75+ sessions + a legendary line-up. Learn more at piper.asu.edu/conference#a.... With @asuenglish.bsky.social

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I've spent the day writing about my dad's dementia for the first time. Just caught myself sitting at the desk with my heart absolutely pounding. Jesus. What a horrible feeling. Including because the selfish, criminal writer part of me that only wants the best story knows I'm on the right track.

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Literally every real person I have ever personally seen reading REFUSE TO BE DONE in public has been on a plane. A curious phenomenon!

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"Kids must coddle their excitements. Soon enough the normies have you surrounded. It’s all barricades, bullhorns. Come out, come out with your wonder abated." —Sam Lipsyte, Home Land

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Every time I read the word “efficiency” (or worse, hear it in a meeting), I think of Wendell Berry: “The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care.”

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A beautiful morning for a long run in the desert!

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As always, but especially today, read good books, not Bret Stephens. Your brain (and your heart, and your soul) will thank you.

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imaginationasu.bsky.social @imaginationasu.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I wrote a book of poetry! It’s called DEATH DOMESTIC, coming soon from @altcurrent.bsky.social. Really looking forward to working with Leah on this.

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Stay tuned on their page for more information on book club meetings and a Q&A conversation with Miéville and @mdbell79.bsky.social about the book in February. Learn more about the book club and register here: asuevents.asu.edu/event/worldb...

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"So we throw out other people’s recognition. What’s left for us to prize? I think it’s this: to do (and not do) what we were designed for. That’s the goal of all trades, all arts, and what each of them aims at: that the thing they create should do what it was designed to do.” —Marcus Aurelius

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Last home game of the season is a win over the Yankees! So ends my first season as a Diamondbacks season ticket holder. (In a pool of friends!) However the next weeks go, I’m so thankful to these friends I share the seats with. Thanks for bringing me in!

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Homemade mapo tofu dumplings and spicy kimchi noodle soup for dinner tonight! Plus a bottle of Asahi and a bottle of sake. A delicious use of an evening.

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Ash Ponders is looking for quick photo gigs @ashponders.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

No one told me how big this thing was. I had to walk home two miles the other day carrying this damn millstone so I’d be ready for @mdbell79.bsky.social’s book club. Whew.

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Ursula K. Le Guin @ursulakleguin.com · 18/09/2026

We'd like your help with something. The one hundredth anniversary of Ursula's birth will take place in 2029. This may seem a long time away, but we’re already starting to think about how to celebrate Ursula’s life and art. We’d love to add your ideas to the mix—there's a brief survey here:

form.jotform.com

Centenary event planning

Please click the link to complete this form.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Roy Kesey is one of my favorite writers, and I can't wait to read his new novel. Winner of Sarabande's McCarthy Prize, selected by the great Ed Park. Go get it!

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Mark Armstrong @markarms.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

My Friday newsletter for @niemanstoryboard.org: @ajmacadam.bsky.social takes us behind the scenes of the newest season of "In the Dark." Plus @alexanderchee.bsky.social on Annie Dillard, and @mdbell79.bsky.social on sequences in storytelling. niemanstoryboard.org/2026/09/18/h...

niemanstoryboard.org

How a magazine story becomes a podcast - Nieman Storyboard

Plus: Remembering Annie Dillard, and the National Book Awards announces its longlist for nonfiction

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

For my newsletter this month, I wrote about adapting Paul Joseph Gulino's Sequence Approach for screenwriting to novels, something that's been massively helpful to me in the past few years and looks like it will be again going forward. Especially helpful if you've got a sagging middle to a draft!

mattbell.substack.com

#63: The Sequence Approach to Novel Structure

Paul Joseph Gulino

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The National Book Awards Longlist for Fiction is live! It’s been such an honor serving as one of this year’s judges. Congratulations to all the writers whose excellent books were selected! If you haven't read these yet, I hope you will in the months ahead. www.nationalbook.org/longlist-for...

• Hannah Lillith Assadi, Paradiso 17
• Kimberly Blaeser, Red Ants
• Edwidge Danticat, Dèy
• Julián Delgado Lopera, Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You
• Louise Erdrich, Python’s Kiss
• Marlon James, The Disappearers
• Valeria Luiselli, Beginning Middle End
• Alexander Maksik, Passengers
• Kenan Orhan, The Renovation
• Morgan Thomas, Mad Eden

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Today I had to cancel class because flooding kept me from leaving home. Several of my students sent me similar photos or videos of where they were, telling me they weren't coming. In 12 years at Arizona State, I have never cancelled a class because of weather. As a Midwesterner, that's astonishing.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

There's only one way in or out of my little neighborhood, and it flooded during the longest monsoon downpour I've ever seen in Arizona. It's been raining since 10:30am. Just started again. My neighbors are kayaking in their backyard.

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It's been raining at my house for HOURS. Just went to leave for campus and the only exit to my neighborhood is under several feet of water. That's new!

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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Every day this week I’ve typed up a poem by someone else before I start writing. Today’s had to be from Annie Dillard. This was published in The Atlantic in 1978. It’s gorgeous.

METAPHYSICAL MODEL WITH FEATHERS
Annie Dillard
What I know of dimension is an old suspicion:
That time is a crack as long
And thin as a wing.
Time is whole and fully fledged alwayss.
We discover its
fullness; we pace it out blindson the wing.
We live in time's quills as senseless as lice.
And the eagle--the ptrel?--and the petrel, Rock Peter walking on water, the petrel Full noiselessly flies. It plies
The created ages; it beats the boundless along, Rising without surcease, spiraling down,
Sliding breastbone bent
and feeling
The inbound curve of the real.
If time cruises the breadth of the timeless, Perpendicular, buoying its wings, then We may guess the style of the rest:
This is the shape of the one god, holy, Who generates the ages, rapt,
Who tolerates time as a hole in his side, A petrel blind and churning. This Is the one god, flailed by wings.
And this is the one time, this raveling hole Swift in god and voiceless, black beat shut.

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Daniel Miller @danielmiller.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Yooo I will ALWAYS sing praise for @bossfightbooks.com -- I have read several, reviewed them, and loved them for years. The books always hit the perfect intersection of video games and CNF. $15 for 20 books is a STEAL. Grab these! I can vouch for @mdbell79.bsky.social's!

fanatical.com

Build your own Classic Video Games Book Bundle Vol 1 | Fanatical

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My brother just reminded me that my second novel SCRAPPER came out eleven years ago today. Cheers to this one! The hardest book to write. I read the first 80 pages of it this spring for the first time since it came out, because I’d felt some thematic continuation into my new one. Still proud of it!

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In my worldbuilding class, we do peer workshops in randomly assigned groups of three that stay together all semester so they can really get to know each other's worlds. As of this fall, the members of one group from a class four years ago or so have all landed in different MFA programs. Pretty cool!

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China Miéville's new novel THE ROUSE is out! In February, I'll be in conversation with him at ASU, where he'll be our Humanities Institute Distinguished Lecturer. If you're local and want to read this 1,200-page behemoth in good company, I'm hosting a six-month book club to get it done. Info below!

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