iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I saw that too!!! Very interested in how it was expanded into a full novel….

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

My mid-year check in on my favorite reads from the first half of 2026 . . . hell of a year so far.😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

I can’t believe we haven’t talked about this….loved everything about that show.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

May’s reading wrap up and spotlights on my top three favorite reads of the month….three all time classics for me😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Day 25, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay Thanks for the reread all…y’all are the best😎 “The Leaf-Sweeper” by Muriel Spark The unexpected story of the short lived Abolition of Christmas😎 “But perhaps you don’t know how repulsive and loathsome is the ghost of a living man.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Ditto to your sentiment…ai feel the same!

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Day 24, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Thieves Who Couldn’t Help Sneezing” by Thomas Hardy A perfect little Christmas Eve tale with adventure, peril, wit, and a hero’s triumph. “I can conjure up a tempest in a cupboard…”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Day 23, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Anaheim” by Jennifer Croft Masterclass in the potential of the form…four or five short stories alone within this single story, bravo. “Misuse was the wrong kind of waste. Use and abuse. The right kind of waste was lavishing everyone around you with life.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Day 22, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The One With The Multiverse” by Josh Riedel Are memories and nostalgia the actual multiverse?? “It’s easy to forget where you are in towns like this. You can be in one place and believe you’re somewhere else.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Day 21, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Wars and Winters” by Hannah Pittard Entitled, toxic ‘masculinity’ with the inevitable side of insecure fragility. “He hadn’t even given me a noun.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Happy National Short Story Month all. If you’re looking for some collections to pick up and celebrate this month, I’ll humbly recommend each of these five star collections😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I think he’s somewhat of a metaphor for the narrator’s conscience and/or life before coming into that chaos world.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Day 20, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Things Eric Eats Before He Eats Himself” by Carmen Maria Machado An entertaining Monty Python-esque parable about our unchecked modern consumerism and the unfillable void. “The jump between murder and cannibalism is, somehow, smaller.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Day 19, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Chris Cornell” by Damian Tarnopolsky “The Russian soul is a dark place.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky “Later on I served time as an editor, and discovered the compromised way books came into the world with their teams of midwives.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Still impressed by all that the author is able to pack into this short story…a novel’s worth of ideas, plot, and ruminations.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Day 18, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Exhibition” by Alexandra Wuest So much packed into one story: art, appropriation, empathy, anxiety, apathy, boredom, and much more. “Instead it reminded her of a sunrise, which on second thought, she realized, must be a pretty nice way to see oneself.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Shenanigans at Tropic Thunder last night, Phoenix’s newest punk tiki bar😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Suuuch a great story, could not love this more.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Day 17, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “You Again” by Seth Fried This story was like the perfect cup of tea or your favorite song, a tiny slice of perfection that you futilely hope will last forever, but know that it’s fleetingness is part of it’s allure. “Mistakes would need to be embraced.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Day 16, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Conversation Over The Holidays” by Jessica Westhead Timeless in portraying the middle aged experience, the anxieties, and banalities, and small graces. “everything around them and beneath them felt so solid and sturdy, but now it wasn’t like that anymore.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Agreed….it felt like the story just ran out of gas.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Day 15, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Down Burned Road” by Jacqueline Baker Had trouble connecting with this story, thought I did appreciate the author’s descriptive powers. “Yurig seemed to Carrie to have come from nowhere, from no place and no time. Attached, it seemed, to nothing.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

🤣🤣🤣🤣. I have to say, the number of quotes we’ve duplicated just cements why we are such good friends😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Day 14, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Lottery” by Adam O’Fallon Price His one redeeming trait was acknowledging that his wife was smarter than he was. “One in 300 million is another way of saying that something is not going to happen...”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Day 13, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Crown Derby Plate” by Marjorie Bowen “I like to say I believe in ghosts so I don't get haunted by one.” - Ella Henderson “…the lonely house with the grave in the garden was dreary enough around which to create a legend.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Day 12, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Shopping Cart” by Christopher Boucher The secret life of trolleys…. “But by then I was in a silent room in my mind. I looked around that room for words - “No thanks,” or “OK,” or anything at all - but I couldn’t find any.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

You were right!! Great memory!

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Day 11, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Children Of A Careless God” by Elizabeth Gonzalez James Wow…the script for The Secret Life of Pets 3 got DARK🤣🤣🤣 Another gem of a story “He wished he’d stayed asleep, that he’d lived a few more moments in the honeyed comfort that he was cared for and loved.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Day 10, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Tardy Suit” by Thomas Pierce Feels even more apt now.. Talk about a story for our times…felt very art imitating life, with a little Doctor Who fantasy / social commentary sprinkled in for good measure. “Didn’t always do right thing but this time did, hoping.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I was so obsessed with that film for about five years after its release…must have watched the deluxe DVD edition a few dozen times. The dual, intermixed storylines told in alternating chronological direction is still genius to me.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Great quote pulls…I feel like a third of that story is just gorgeous quotable sentences.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Day 9, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “What To Call You” by Casey Plett Loved, loved this story…felt like Bukowski, The Velvet Underground, Kathleen Edwards, and just a pinch of Cormac McCarthy

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Day 8, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Ham” by John Jodzio Just your typical, garden variety story about eagles, processed meats, infidelity, larceny, and the American Dream, and I loved every word of this gonzo work😎🦅🍖🇺🇸 “The guilt has eclipsed the fun.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Day 7, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Renovation” by Kenan Orhan Jewel of a story, luxurious w/ descriptions & imagery, dense with revelatory antecedents, & playful with magical realism. “Now I am in a foreign country, crawling on the floor of the ocean without bones built for the pressure.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Stop copying me on the quotes!!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣💜

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Day 6, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “For John” by Kim Fu Loved this story🏆 “He felt suddenly certain that he would never be able to explain why he found it beautiful, and she would never be able to explain why she found it ugly, and they would remain fundamentally unknowable to each other.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Day 5, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “My Smell Journal” by Katya Apekina Smell is supposed to be the strongest of the senses, mnemonically, and I loved the idea of the journal. “He say, New York feels like a phantom limb.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I don’t have that copy….I tend to find that kids and YA literature are not my jam . . . I really have a hard time connecting with it. But don’t let me stop y’all from doing a group read for that…I’ll cheer you on for the sidelines!!🙌🙌🙌

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I’ll be in for a 2023 reread come December….

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

This one is going to take some time to come to terms with. . .

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Live look in at me getting the H & O email. . .

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Day 4, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Vandring’ by J. Robert Lennon Perhaps the first great short story I’ve read of/from the Covid era. Captured many of the dispirit elements from that period & the aftermath, and yet still offered a glimmer of hope. “I felt cheated both by and out of death.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Agreed…not my favorite. Interesting idea, but didn’t quite come together for me.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Day 3, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #shortstories “Eat Pray Click” by Ed Park The clandestine ghost in the literary machine . . . “Basically, he longed for a text that wasn’t set in stone, something more akin to a living organism - a story with free will.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Day 2, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Hookup” by Katherine Heiny The things we own often end up owning us… “It’s possible that she brought laughter and lightness to this apartment. But then again, maybe not - she was Hungarian, after all.” Encapsulates so much of what I love about short stories

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

That is a great line😎😎😎😎

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