@thecrumpet
Legally non-blonde / writer of minor repute (I'm in the Congressional record!) / querying 1st novel THIS ENDS NOW / noodlings at meagantheauthor.com / co-host of podcast BAD LIT FRIENDS (@badlitfriends.bsky.social) / recovering English major / Nutmegger
March 7 #WIPSnips – “massive”
Beginnings are liminal spaces. Fates might tip north or south, east or west at the slightest breeze. It's a new fall term for Jenny: a goal in sight, but how’s the wind blowing when she’s sleeping with a professor? A snip from my #WIP “Surface Tension.”
Let it be known: I HATE SOCIAL MEDIA. Forsooth, it is a stinking morass that contains both the delightful (you, friends) and the euggghhhh why am I literate? As writers we're told it's a necessary evil, but I'm evil enough. Also: I disclose I am Usenet years old. #writingcommunity #podcast #writesky
As I'm currently querying, all agents are delightful creatures to me, spotless, peerless. Which is why Kirk and I are asking our BAD LIT FRIENDS listeners for their thoughts. I simply can't think of any criticisms!
Read: I'm busy this week. Help us write our script. #writingcommunity #writesky
Ahhhhh, I like this outsourcing of our script writing to our listeners!
March 4 #WIPSnips – “media”
June 2008: it’s the book launch for the tedious lit fic novel “Harbor’s Edge” by the even more tedious Julian Becker. Jenny and the other Serif interns are here to help—and eat their weight in above-average teriyaki meatballs. A snip from my #WIP “Surface Tension.”
March 3 #WIPSnips – “counter”
Ah, domestic bliss. How easy it would be for Jenny to slip beneath the placid waters of life chez Gregory. No soul death, no ambition thwarted. Why shouldn’t she take what’s on offer, even if red flags are snapping everywhere? A snip from my #WIP “Surface Tension.”
One does not choose the troll life. Nor does one refuse its siren call. #NOTIME4HATERZ
Yes: I am a former internet troll. But it was SO. MUCH. FUN. There's nothing like slipping into the costume of a character you created and with only words you create a world that others believe is real. That others inhabit alongside you, build with you. It's theatre! (I am aware I suck.) #writesky
Hooray!!!
I mean, I said don't follow him but you know you want to. 😂 Who knows what pseudointellectual twaddle he's capable of?
And thank you kindly, m'lady.
I mean, you could always redraft the whole thing, you know, to make it a "why choose." 😇
Personally, the Fabio does it for me as a concept, mostly because I once saw him shopping in the cat food aisles at the North Hollywood Petco. His politics may suck but he's an animal lover!
I mean, I could be writing one of the last chapters of Surface Tension but sure, why not do this instead? Coherent choices? Pffffffffffft.
WHY CHOOSE
BE UNHINGED
(Please do not trust me, I am here with big troll energy today 🥺)
Thank you! At heart, I'm still a forum troll making alt accounts for the sake of mayhem. I couldn't resist.
A Bluesky profile page for Gregory Shipp, Ph.D. (@profgregoryshipp.bsky.social). The header image is a detail from a classical oil painting showing Lord Byron, a brooding male figure in dark red clothing, his chin resting on his hand. The profile photo is of the purported Dr. Shipp himself. The bio reads: "Romanticist. Aesthete. Husband. Scholar. Author: Performed Authenticity (Serif Press, 2022). Misread by colleagues, understood by very few. Not all knowledge is acquired in classrooms. 📚" He has 0 followers, is following 1 account, and has 3 posts. His three visible posts read: "Fascinating how some colleagues mistake mediocrity for collegial spirit. The work speaks for itself. Mine does, anyway." tagged #ByronNeverCompromised #CollegialityIsOverrated #ShelleyAlsoHadHaters #ExcellenceIsLonely "Not all mentorship looks the same from the outside." tagged #AcademiaIsntForEveryone #NotAllProfessors #ActuallyItsComplicated #ActuallyQuiteBeautiful #ActuallySublime "Rules exist for people who need them." tagged #EthicsAreAConstruct #ExtendedOfficeHours #NotGaslightingIfIAmRight. The last post has 2 likes.
WHITE OLEANDER x YOU
I’m so sorry to report that the utterly vile Gregory Shipp of THIS ENDS NOW (currently #querying!) and my #WIP SURFACE TENSION is on Bluesky and he has… thoughts. I DIDN’T SAY THEY WERE GOOD ONES. Please don’t follow him. He doesn’t need the attention. #UnhingedPit #A #W #Q #UP
February 28 #WIPSnips – “walk”
Trust Gregory Shipp to make Blake’s Songs of Innocence way too horny for Jenny to handle in the classroom. Someday I’ll be able to stop writing about this preening, overeducated, oversexed monster but not today! A snip from my #WIP “Surface Tension.”
Elle would have done better eschewing matrimony altogether! Emmett was decidely mid in his near-perfection. Also we didn't need Legally Blonde 2.
(and yes, DMs open for Soph)
A candle label: From the Surface Tension Candle Collection: "Red Flags, But Make Them Sexy" Top notes: Over-steeped Earl Grey, academic toxic masculinity, “The Masque of Anarchy” Middle notes: Emotional collapse, Middlemarch, at least three vodka tonics made with Popov Base notes: Smudged boundaries, Diet Mountain Dew, CORDUROY Smells like: Byron with excellent hygiene. JSTOR printouts. Bad choices. Many, many bad choices. Do not leave unattended. Just like you shouldn’t have left your common sense alone with him. Burn time: Until your therapist quits or ‘til death do you part.
THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY x LEGALLY BLONDE (if Elle married Warner)
SURFACE TENSION candle: for your very worst decisions. Handpoured by an English major in existential crisis. Top notes of regret. Base notes of horniness. Burns clean, unlike your academic record after this. #UnhingedPit #A #W #UP
EMBRACE THE FLUFF
MOAR HOT PINK EVERYTHING
PROFIT FROM INEVITABLE NETFLIX ADAPTATION
Clearly you have identified the path forward. Bravo 👏
He IS a Hollies fan! And a purveyor of dad jokes!!!
As @kirkrafferty.com always says, never a word wasted!
February 27 #WIPSnips – “thing”
Would she, could she make a nest with Gregory? Not every house is a safe harbor. The little sparrow in Jenny’s heart flutters its wings. A snip from my #WIP “Surface Tension.”
That's right. Kill your darlings. Just know where you bury the bones when you're ready to dig 'em up and bring your abandoned book back to life. Who says graverobbing isn't a noble profession??? #booksky #writesky #writingcommunity
Me on Day 57 of 2026.
Long after the dust settles, what will grow from the rubble? Seven generations after collapse, oceans have reclaimed coasts and civilization’s remains are rotting back to the earth. Extreme climate and violent humans threaten a peaceful community hidden in the Green Mountains. Niwa, a gifted yet timid young empath-scholar, is prompted by group vision to lead a perilous and mystical quest to retrieve a rumored key to peace. Using unique psychic gifts, archaic technology, and nature-based survival skills, Niwaju’s group traverses a depopulated but healing landscape to save their people from impending doom. The travelers draw upon their survival skills, varying levels of control over their own unique psychic gifts, and residual tech artifacts, encountering diverse, unique characters on crumbling highways and swollen rivers through the mountains of Appalachia, moody swamplands of “New New Orleans”, and the Rocky Mountains. As she finds her inner resilience, Niwa’s mission becomes about more than saving her People from destruction; it offers humanity a way forward in a world desperately in need of change. Incorporating mindfulness, sustainability, earth based magic, and wilderness skills, this tarot-themed journey offers a vision of hope, transformation, and growth in a narrative adventure guide to thriving civilization’s aftermath, with surprising twists.
a Death tarot card I drew titled "What rises from the ashes" with death on a moped, a sun tarot card, a lovers tarot card, a color Hermit tarot card (I did all the art) quotes: "Every end is a beginning" - Tai Gong Diao "Protect your spirit, for you are in a place where spirits get eaten" - John Trudell a variety of photos from my travels (+one dilapidated shack I did not capture myself) of reflective water in various landscapes and urban decay and plants growing through, swamp, fire, bridges tarot cards from my novel, created by me fantasy map of the US post 60 m sea level rise in background over a sunset sky with leaves growing from dead branches elemental magic visions survival skills climate fiction #clifi indigenous futurism plant medicine meditation wilderness permaculture neotribalism community backpacking post-apocalyptic hopepunk
When marauders menace her village, an empath-scholar leads a tarot-themed odyssey across the climate-ravaged former US to retrieve a key to peace, using meditation powers, survival skills, and archaic tech in the race to save her people.
#CS #A #hopepunk #CliFi #witchsky #WSPit #WIPsnips
Painting of Helen of Troy; abandoned railroad tunnel; a crossbow; a dividing cell; a rocky landscape; soldiers reflected in a pond; silhouette of a hyena; a palace in winter; man in a long coat in a field of flowers
A genetically engineered queen who incited a rebellion and spurned the king for his cousin must escape a ruthless mercenary who has her dead lover’s face and memories. A sci-fi reimagining of Helen and the Trojan War. #WSPit #W #A #SF
Starry sky; a statue of a woman's face with moss on it; dying flowers; a castle on a dark, moonlit night; skulls, a graveyard; a fireplace
An enchantress with forbidden magic must defeat an ancient necromancer who uses the life energies of murdered men to animate his dead lover’s body. #WSPit #W #A #F #H
NOSFERATU x ONE DARK WINDOW
Image: Mood board for Brother’s Keeper WIP: A block of seven images around a central one. Central image: white text on brown background that reads: “Born to be sacrificed: Drowned, shed, burnt and buried, a sin offering for his people. Had he been, all would be free. But he had not, and they weren't. He could never forget it. Brother’s Keeper (working title) A.C. Turek Surrounding images clockwise from center left: column of bonfire, running gray horse, green water, a hand holding a quartz crystal, a view looking up immense tree trunks, a waterfall, a view looking down on a vibrant green forest.
Two brothers—one accursed, one gifted—struggle with the Power of an empathic bond unseen for centuries. As Rushak seeks to escape his curse Drisal must wield it as evil arises to threaten the world. But the prophesied Power returns only once, and the Shining One is … somebody else. #WSPit WIPs #F #A
A nine-panel photo collage arranged in a 3x3 grid. Top row: a red rose held against a gray background; a pile of red, white, and blue “VOTE” campaign buttons; a close-up of a groom placing a wedding ring on a bride’s finger. Middle row: a close-up of a U.S. visa with “ADMITTED NYC” stamped; a navy blue square with the title “Incognito Mode” in serif lettering; an abandoned, shadow-filled room with light streaming through a broken window. Bottom row: the U.S. Capitol building tinted half red and half blue; a person typing on a laptop while sitting cross-legged; and a television control room filled with monitors and production equipment.
LOVE IS BLIND x FAKE ACCOUNTS
🌹 reality TV hero to villain
🗳️ polarized politics in the age of Trump
🛂 immigration awfulness
🕵️ secret identity
💻 internet forum chaos
🤝 enemies to reluctant allies
💔 2nd chance at love
👨👩👧 disapproving in-laws
🏃 running from the past
🔥 redemption arc!
#WSPit #A #W #UP
