Barry Lyga
@barrylyga.com
650 followers 120 following 2.4K posts
Author. Reader. Recovering comic book geek. New York Times bestselling author of the I HUNT KILLERS trilogy and the upcoming BRIDEKILLER! Monthly: barrylyga.com/newsletter
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barrylyga.com
How could Nura NOT see that coming???
losppodcast.bsky.social
Episode 887 – Canucksgiving 2025: Those Emerald Eyes are Shining!
It’s Canucksgiving, so we’re looking back at an episode from 15 years ago this week! The Subs check out Legion of Super-Heroes #303, and the return of the Emerald Empress!
paulfrench.ca/losp/?p=3486
barrylyga.com
That

(*sigh*)

sounds like white people all right…
elienyc.bsky.social
The whites are literally arguing it's literally *unconstitutional* if they're not OVERREPRESNTED in Congress.
angryblacklady.blacksky.app
Just so everyone is clear, the main issue in the Supreme Court voting rights case tomorrow is whether it's racist against white people to enforce the Voting Rights Act.

I'm dead serious. We live in incredibly stupid times.
barrylyga.com
Thanks! I’ve been thinking this for a while — thanks for giving me an excuse to rant intemperately! 😅
barrylyga.com
Apparently, the Gen Alphas are using "gnarly" to mean "good."

THIS

SHALL

NOT

STAND!!!
barrylyga.com
...that decision had ramifications beyond merely swapping out "ed" for "s." What does it mean that story is NOW? What does it mean that there is no time for reflection?

Anyway, like Willow implies: It's misused more often than not, and I think its spread has given present tense a bad rep. 5/5
barrylyga.com
Second of all, many stories are written in present tense purely to artificially ramp up the tension and make a slow story seem propulsive.

It's a cheap, cynical trick to mimic immediacy and propinquity where there is none.

When I wrote in present tense, I really tried to think of how... 4/
barrylyga.com
...in past tense.

BUT MOST AUTHORS DON'T EMPLOY THEM!

Most present tense prose is GARBAGE because instead of considering how the present tense changes the structure and pacing of the story, authors just change "ed" to "s" and call it a day.

Which is a criminal fucking waste of potential! 3/
barrylyga.com
...of present tense. Present tense allows the skilled writer to hold back certain information, but also compels the projection of other information, whether or not it's reliable. There is an immediacy and a tension to present tense that, properly employed, can do things that are just impossible...2/
barrylyga.com
I don't think there's any inherent superiority to any particular tense. BUT...

My problem with the proliferation of present tense usage (as someone who's pubbed something like half a dozen books in present tense) is twofold.

First of all, most writers aren't exploiting the strengths... 1/
gwillow.me
We like to pretend the endemic use of the present tense in modern fiction is a stylistic choice. But usually it's a cheap way to disguise mediocre prose, lack of structure, or both. It's like a row of showy petunias planted along a house to disguise cracks in the foundation.
rachelfeder.bsky.social
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
barrylyga.com
It drives me INSANE when they do this with Trump's tweets/truths!!!

"I haven't seen that."

"Oh, OK, well it's a tweet and I just read it to you, so what do you think NOW, asshole???"
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
I don't understand why U.S. reporters so regularly seem to let politicians get away with 'I haven't seen that' about stuff a) they obviously know and b) is directly relevant to their job. Did they sign some kind of agreement never to ask a follow-up question?
atrupar.com
REPORTER: We know the president moved forward with mass layoffs. We're also learning there were significant cuts to staff at special education services. Are you comfortable with those cuts?

MIKE JOHNSON: I haven't seen the specifics of that and I don't know
barrylyga.com
Forty years ago.

I feel like we've all seen its true face now. #bronzeage #comics #watchmen #comicbooks
Reposted by Barry Lyga
cwolfe007.bsky.social
These fucking goons are the weakest, shitiest humanity has to offer. Who raised them? I've asked dozens of times, do they enjoy this? Do they think they're heroes? One thing I wish upon them - accountability and that their identities are well known ASAP.
redsky.pirhoo.com
Northwest Chicago Suburb: ICE Agents Rip 15-Year-Old Girl from Car, Slam Her to Ground She Screams Im 15! as Man Kneels on Her Neck

Link | Subreddit
Northwest Chicago Suburb: ICE Agents Rip 15-Year-Old Girl from Car, Slam Her to Ground She Screams Im 15! as Man Kneels on Her Neck
www.reddit.com
barrylyga.com
My childhood is screaming.
barrylyga.com
That’s just offensive.
barrylyga.com
Every time I see somebody walking down the street, shouting into their speakerphone, I wanna slap it out of their hands. 🤬😤
barrylyga.com
This page is a masterclass in how to build, release, then REbuild tension…

In ONE page!
barrylyga.com
In retrospect, back in 2021, we should have just given him a billion dollars in exchange for him giving up his citizenship and let him move to Russia or Saudi Arabia.
victoriadahl.bsky.social
Watching him destroy the country to steal more money for him & his rich, evil friends makes me wonder wtf people thought “a businessman running the country” would look like. Have these people never once taken a breath in the US? Please never trust your brain again. It’s bad.
Reposted by Barry Lyga
barrylyga.com
Remember: For October, The I HUNT KILLERS ebook is on sale! For a mere $1.99, you can delight to the horrors and the bloodshed from the comfort of your own screen! Bodies? Slashed! Prices? Slashed!

Here are links:
barrylyga.com/amazing-octo...
Reposted by Barry Lyga
barrylyga.com
I assume by now you've all heard that I did NOT, in fact, win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Whatever. Congratulations, Laszlo. 🙄🙄
barrylyga.com
This is why we can't have nice things.
audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
Honestly it was like

This just in: The prize went to a democracy activist, not the guy murdering random people in the Caribbean Sea

[Touches earpiece]

The democracy activist says they're glad the guy murdered random people in the Caribbean Sea. Now they're dedicating the prize to the murder guy.
barrylyga.com
Coming soon from the same writer: "Bruce Springsteen's BORN IN THE USA is actually about the misery of Vietnam veterans, not a pro-America anthem."
wsj.com
Compared to Dylan and Springsteen, country-music legend Johnny Cash can seem deeply uncool. It took time for me to appreciate his profound, plainspoken strength, writes Jon Fasman.
Essay | Can We Finally Give Johnny Cash His Due?
Compared to Dylan and Springsteen, the country-music legend can seem deeply uncool. It took time for me to appreciate his profound, plainspoken strength.
on.wsj.com
barrylyga.com
"Make America Subpar, but Tolerable Again"