Shannon Sanders

Sometimes you go a year without hearing Teena Marie’s “Square Biz” and then sometimes you hear it three times in 24 hours and both feel incorrect

I wish I had seen this advice before I spent time fretting over this very thing!

I think it’s worth it to wander around at the book fair!!

Oh I’ll text you!!

I’ll be at AWP (first time!!) but only for Friday/Saturday due to kids/work. Do I have any friends who want to hang out Friday night or point me to where you’ll be hanging out??

Stupid AND evil. AND, not OR.

This was so incredible to me

Oh welcome back!!

Come listen to me and two cool writers talk about scene-crafting!

Join us!

Today we finally have all three kids at school for the first time in many days, and let me just say that oh hey it’s already time to go pick them up

This is the actual best-case scenario. Enjoy!

Ooh wonderful!!

Boosting this!! There are still a couple weeks to apply. It will be very fun

Every one of my mom friends is struggling intensely with the cumulative effects of all these unexpected snow days. Nobody tell them that (according to the perfect mothers of social media) you are a monster if your kid prefers routine to disruption, or your boss expects you to get work done sometimes

I’m confused because you didn’t say “having a few people over for dinner is expensive,” you said that throwing an event that people would recognize AS a party…nvm

So I hate when genAI evangelists write those long screeds saying things like “Human artists, keep creating! No one can replace your human creativity!” because it feels so evilly condescending, but—are they also saying that because they need us to keep replenishing their data sets 😬

I love A24 and contemporary elevated horror, and Midsommar was my favorite movie of the 2010s, and so I am extremely saddened to report that I loathed Bring Her Back. I had such high hopes

Oh yeah!! So many new possibilities

Wait. WHAT is this???? Why are we entertaining people’s fanfic when it comes to vaccines 😭

A very relatable piece about one of the uglier sides of motherhood.

I will say that 99% of the time when I am feeling like another mom has solved something that feels unsolvable to me, I dig a little deeper and determine that the answer is either money or screen time. Almost always one of the two.

Delish

This makes me so deeply sad

A drop? But I also love stinger

🥰🥰🥰🥰

Yay!!!

The Great Wherever: A Novel One of Esquire's 22 Most Anticipated Books of 2026One of Publishers Weekly's 10 Most Anticipated Literary Fiction titles for Spring/Summer 2026One of Literary Hub's and BookPage's Most Anticipated Books of 2026The dead are relentless gossips, or at least these dead are.An impulsive and heartbroken woman inherits her father’s share of a Tennessee farm that is rich in family secrets and occupied with busybody ghosts in this sweeping family portrait.At thirty-two, Aubrey Lamb is stumbling through adulthood. An underpaid gig worker in Washington, DC, she’s grieving the end of a serious relationship and the recent loss of her father. When Aubrey learns she has inherited his stake in a sizable Tennessee farm she sees an opportunity to get out of the city—and to erase a mounting pile of debt.Watching her arrival with great interest are four ghosts—Aubrey’s ancestors, who’ve staked their own claims to the farm and who never hesitate to pass judgment on the mistakes made by the living, whether romantic, financial, or sartorial. As Aubrey reconnects with her living family, another story unfolds in parallel: the history of the land, beginning with its purchase by Thomas, Aubrey’s great-grandfather and one of the first Black landowners in his community. Though Thomas hopes to give his children a homestead on which they could flourish, the land proves to be a burdensome inheritance. Over the years, it turns the Lambs against one another, culminating in a catastrophic tragedy that splinters the family and echoes through the decades. Now, as the clock ticks on a potential sale of the farm, the ghosts fear expulsion from the home they’ve made, and Aubrey must weigh the hopes and burdens of her forebears with the very real needs of her future. An expansive family saga told with a wry and distinctly modern voice, The Great Wherever is at once grand and intimate; it explores the ways we learn to define ourselves through and against our family, how we carry on after loss, and how the past lives on in all of us.

Today is my birthday! I had a good year overall, even if the US did not, and one of the best things to come out of it was this book, which I’m very proud of. If you’re so inclined, here is a preorder link from @loyaltybooks.bsky.social, my favorite local indie:

loyaltybookstores.com/book/9781250...

Lest anyone be scared away by the term, “advanced” here mostly means that you’re familiar with workshop, will submit something that meets the specs, and will treat our group with respect!

In this six-week fiction workshop, each participant will workshop a short story or novel excerpt of up to 5,000 words, with discussions focusing on elements of fiction such as story structure, character development, exposition, and dialogue. We’ll zoom in on practical revision ideas that help participants to meet their individual writing goals, including submitting for publication. Depending on interest, we’ll also engage in craft exercises such as close readings of published short fiction. We’ll meet on Zoom from 7–9:30 each Tuesday night from April 14 through May 19. Come prepared to be thoughtful, kind, and open-minded about others’ submissions! This class is limited to 10 students and is designed for writers with workshop experience. Tuition includes a 30-minute meeting with the instructor.

I’m leading a workshop this spring! 10 spots, hope to see you there: