Richard Z. Santos

This place is in my neighborhood and it's spectacular!

I love this book festival and I love both these books! Stay tuned for more schedule details. Full lineup here:

sabookfestival.org/meet-the-aut...

WLT On the Craft & Business of Writing Join the Writers’ League of Texas for a special WLT On the Craft & Business of Writing program, featuring two presentations and plenty of time to mix and mingle with fellow writers. This …

Come hang out with me, Rachel Starnes, and The Writers' League of Texas at the Pflugerville Library this Sunday. We'll be hanging out starting at 1030 and will talk shop after that. Free!

writersleague.org/calendar/wlt...

It's amazing how much of the writer's life is just anxiously waiting to get an email.

WLT On the Craft & Business of Writing Join the Writers’ League of Texas for a special WLT On the Craft & Business of Writing program, featuring two presentations and plenty of time to mix and mingle with fellow writers. This …

Come hang out with me, Rachel Starnes, and The Writers' League of Texas at the Pflugerville Library this Sunday. We'll be hanging out starting at 1030 and will talk shop after that. Free!

writersleague.org/calendar/wlt...

A man asked me last night what publishing needs to do for literary fiction to begin appealing to men again. I said, as nicely as I could, that, with over 2,000 books published every Tuesday, of which many would appeal to men, it’s not a publishing problem, it’s a men problem.

Bc he warps time, I was thinking about Dylan's standards era. "Was that a COVID project or something?"

No. Eleven years. Shadows in the Night came out eleven years ago. With four albums worth of material AFTER that one.

I really hope Flanagan et. al release the number of submissions they get for Views from the Overlook. I'd put the over-under at 1,000.

"In his masterful FILTH EATERS, Romo conjures a vampire epic across epochs and continents that would’ve shook Vlad, Dracula, Nosferatu, and Lestat to their bones, culminating in a Mestizoavatar of the undead who completes an occult destiny—to save the world. Try to be un-shook."
--John Philip Santos

Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall?

One of the vocab sentences Z came up with this week is: "There are too many axes in this grocery story."

But like are there?

The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus

The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus is really messing with me. I can't tell if it's brilliant or hopelessly flawed. That question itself makes it exciting.

The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus

The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus is really messing with me. I can't tell if it's brilliant or hopelessly flawed. That question itself makes it exciting.

There must be a betting market for SOTU length.

This one really messed with me

Reading at Random with Virginia Woolf by Frances Lindemann February 18, 2026 – In Woolf’s final, unfinished manuscript, she employs a “methodology of disorder” that enables “that state of mind in which it seems possible to us to write the book, not to read it.”

The last paragraph in this piece about Virginia Woolf is so great. The whole piece is great, but the ending that looks at a photo of her when she was 11 is perfect.

www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/02...

If the band doesn't do a full-length commentary then what even is media for?

Looking at every use of "just, then, that, would" and reworking those sentences honestly let me cut like 200 words

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.

This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

Seeing Jesse Jackson just walking down the street in DC by himself, and seeing him see me seeing him, was one of those "Oh, I live here now" moments.

I am so all about this

A still from Picnic at Hanging Rock. A hand stabs a knife into a heart shaped cake

I hope everyone's Valentine's Day watching of Picnic at Hanging Rock went well today!

When the Viking ad says "unpack once" I started paying attention

Like all great writers I'll be spending the evening working the Math Pentathlon table at my daughter's elementary school.

Thank you!

The opening: "A pair of light brown aviator sunglasses was the redhead’s only disguise. An amateur, Edwin thought. She didn’t even bother to dye her cherry-red hair. The woman’s attitude disappointed Edwin. People didn’t take this stuff seriously anymore."

Cover of the Feb/March Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Twists and Churns: Ashley Ruth m Bernier, John M. Floyd, Marilyn Todd, Jospeh S Walker

I have a short story in the current Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine!

I tried to write a PI story for the first time, and things got a little weird. It's called "A Trail Job." Pick it up!

elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/current-issue/

There's a little airstrip over there, which isn't really an explanation for the larger question.

The UFO folks are going to love this. Everyone else, probably not so much.

This is...a lot. El Paso isn't some tiny village with only an airport that handles single seaters.