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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

@michaeljriser.com

2.4K followers 620 following 6.5K posts

Editor, horror/dark fiction author of religious trauma. Former editorial Screen Rant, Goomba Stomp, managing editor AOG. 怖い話の作者。（日本語ＯＫ）Read stuff: https://michaeljriser.com (he/him) pfp: smiling man with beard and mustache banner: devil statue in a garden

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · Sep 5

I have a brand-new* website! Also a #horror newsletter! Yes, now for the first time you too can read words on the internet! Deep-fried in religious trauma, topped with whipped blasphemy, served on the corpse of a dead god—just for you. 🖤👻

michaeljriser.com/bookruptcys-...

An icon for horror author Michael J. Riser's website, showing a black and white pile of skulls. Over the central one appears his name in red letters with a white outline.

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 18h

That is gorgeous!

Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 18h

Good news for your ICE FOIA requests: Judge orders ICE agents in Chicago to 1) wear body cameras and 2) keep them on.

Cite this order if and when the agency tells you it has no records responsive to your request for body worn camera footage.

Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 20h

Ellis also says she's modifying the restraining order:

"All agents who are operating in operation midway blitz are to wear body worn cameras and they are to be on."

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Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

House Judiciary Dems @democrats-judiciary.house.gov · 18h

NEWS: After the Trump Administration shutters websites for Inspectors General, Judiciary Democrats launch a new resources page to empower whistleblowers to continue reporting on government corruption.

OIG Website Repository

In an effort to cover up waste, fraud, and corruption in government, on October 1, the White House shut down websites for at least 28 Offices of the Inspector General (OIGs)—federal government watchdogs that root out waste, fraud, and corruption in the federal government and save taxpayers more than $50 billion every year. By shutting down these websites, the White House has attempted to prevent the American people from having access to reports detailing OIG findings of this Administration’s waste, fraud, and corruption.

democrats-judiciary.house.gov

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 18h

if you shower with boiling water, can you cleanse yourself of the things you've seen on the internet? asking for a friend

Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

Corey Farrenkopf @coreyfarrenkopf.bsky.social · 1d

Guess who got to do a little unboxing tonight :)

Wicked pumped to get to hold The Writhing, Verdant End!!!

It’s an eco horror split anthology with me, @ericraglin1992.bsky.social, and @tiffmorris.bsky.social in it :)

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Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 20h

The punk ethos has always been about mutual aid and community. We *know* our systems and institutions will fail us; that’s why we’re punks. “Pick someone up in the pit” is much more than literal, and especially when we’re most down in the shit, we need to remember that.

Sydney Bauer @sydney-bauer.com · 21h

Good morning I’m in @theverge.com profiling @ekkoastral.bsky.social @jael.bsky.social and some other cool trans musicians who are bringing the organizing energy they learned from being trans online to music venues across the country. These musicians are meeting the moment.

The DIY and IRL energy of punk rock mutual aid

Bands like Ekko Astral are bringing the urgency of online solidarity into the mosh pit.

www.theverge.com

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 18h

I am deffo the opposite, it's like running my soul against a cheese grater. Though I shouldn't be surprised, I'm not a reality TV person. I was pretty surprised I got anything out of the first season, which had more heart than I expected (also Giannina ... )

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 19h

Fun fact: DIVINE APPETITES addresses this, and features my own take on some of these Biblical concepts ...

Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 1d

Why Real Biblical Angels Are Creepy, Beastly, and Hardly Angelic

Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe in angels, at least according to a statistic often cited in recent years. But what, exactly, comes to their minds — or those of any other believers around the wo...

www.openculture.com

Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

Undertow Publications 🇨🇦 @undertow.bsky.social · 19h

From writer Matt Cardin (via facebook).

Especially if you're a weird/cosmic horror author, but actually if you're any kind of author, ignore any accusations or criticisms that your work is guilty of purple prose. For one thing, stylistic maximalism is awesome. For another, "too much" is a matter of taste and sensibility—and whatever counts as mainstream stylistic sensibility among readers these days can be problematic.
This sensibility is a descendant of the latter twentieth century's unfortunate war on literary style in favor of the anemic, streamlined "styleless" prose of much mass market pop fiction. Additionally, the ongoing, epochal shift away from a literary, book-centric culture to a visual culture dominated by screens has blunted not only many people's readerly expectations but their actual readerly ability. In other words, if your prose seems purple, it's not your problem, it's theirs.
The upshot is that you should write how you want. Say it exactly how you want to say it. If you're accused of reaching for every adjective or adverb in the dictionary and beating your ideas to death in ten words when five would be enough, take that as a badge of honor. Maybe your version of eschewing surplusage and identifying just the right word that makes the difference between lightning and a lightning bug is simply out of phase with the current culture—and that's fine.

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 19h

Christ, I couldn't bring myself even to be in the same room with it on after season 2.

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Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

Joe Koch @horrorsong.blog · 19h

Includes my new story JAR OF ARMS.

Carson Winter @carsonwinter.bsky.social · 20h

COVER REVEAL AND RELEASE

WE WILL SPEAK AGAIN OF THE RED TOWER is a tribute anthology of stories inspired by Thomas Ligotti’s “The Red Tower” and it’s out NOW: dl.bookfunnel.com/zum1k2dg9b

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Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

Joshua Chaplinsky @jchaplinsky.bsky.social · 21h

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 20h

Thank you. This is a huge problem for my family. I can't even afford to use the insurance I actually have as it is, let alone if this happens.

👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 20h

It would seem so. I played around with things when all this tech first came out, and was like, "why do I feel vaguely ill looking at all this?" It really hasn't changed.

👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 20h

Don't presume to mock me. This is my representative, not yours, and I'm more concerned about people being assaulted, kidnapped, and held in camps, along with Congress being unlawfully bypassed. This is a fine thing in a vacuum, but we have far more urgent needs I want my senator encouraged toward.

Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

Bill Amend @billamend.bsky.social · 1d

Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 1d

Yeah, I get it sometimes even looking at AI-generated images, weirdly. I really don't know why, but it's a thing.

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 1d

They've done several, actually. The latest came out in June.

👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 1d

Just found out they're showing Prince of Darkness in theaters again ONLY TODAY. 😭 Then immediately afterward found out my local theater is ACTUALLY SHOWING Good Boy.

Okay, universe, you are forgiven. I am placated.

👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 1d

You get to see this IN A THEATER? D:

👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 1d

Not if they ever want to sell another book to literally fucking anyone.

Reposted by 👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

Joe Koch @horrorsong.blog · 1d

If I told you there might be a sudden *free* new release out tomorrow, would you be excited? Would you try to deduce the nature of it from a hint?

ELKNFEDR beside scribbles of red, grey, black

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 1d

First season I thought was okay. Everything else I hated, like vehemently. I don't think Ryan Murphy and I would work as friends. (Super cool title sequences though.)

👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 1d

Great. How about the many other ways the law and Congress are being violated? How about the treason? How about the assaults on American citizens?

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👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑 @michaeljriser.com · 1d

Kaleidotrope can't possibly have been around this long. What, 15 years? More? There's just no way. Magazines can't do that, they're made of fairy dust and blow away at the merest zephyr.