Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chuck Wendig

@chuckwendig.bsky.social

76K followers 2.6K following 11K posts

I like apples. I post photos. I dig birds. I write books. The next book is THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS, April 2025. Yes, I'm cringe. What do you want from me, I'm a 48-year-old dad and my brain is a mouse-eaten shoebox.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · Nov 20

As I am a writer and must peddle my wares lest I die in the abyss, hey! In April 2025, THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS emerges from the fog and the trees and if you wanted to pre-order it from your favorite local bookstore -- or get signed, personalized copies from Doylestown Bookshop -- that'd be nice.

Cover reveal for Chuck Wendig's THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS, listed as Coming April 29, 2025. On the cover a spiral staircase rises through eerie mist in a dim forest of crooked trees. A crow sits on the railing of the staircase. DEL REY is the publisher. Cover design by The Boland Design Co.

Text: A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . .

150 230 1.6K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Wendy N. Wagner 🎃 @wnwagner.bsky.social · 2h

Portland peeps! I'll be at Powell's City of Books tonight with the fabulous @jennykiefer.com to interview her about her new book, CRAFTING FOR SINNERS. Come find out just how dangerous a craft store can be!
www.powells.com/events/jenny...

Jenny Kiefer in Conversation With Wendy N. Wagner Event

The Legendary Independent Bookstore

www.powells.com

10 31

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 2h

Good riddance to #RussellVought. The pain and suffering he has brought to so many Americans is unforgivable. www.merkley.senate.gov/schumer-merk...

Schumer, Merkley, Murray, Peters Call On Trump Budget Chief Russ Vought To Resign - Merkley

Washington, D.C. – Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and US Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice-Chair of the Senat...

www.merkley.senate.gov

12 22 120

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 @danifroom.bsky.social · 4h

This has been *confirmed*: so not only did this make it through dozens of levels of decisions where no one spoke up to say "this is unethical and looks like shit", it's also so bad it was instantly spotted by thousands of people like me who in a split second said "hey that looks like shit".

Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 @danifroom.bsky.social · 15h

Someone tell me Disney didn't just use a bunch of fucking AI slop for the new Wonder Man show

Wonder Man screenshot featuring merchandise which appears to be decorated with AI slop.

4 71 200

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 3h

heck yeah love my @effinbirds merch

1 23

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 3h

The apple reviews continue because they must to fulfill the ancient bargain.

Today: this affable dipshit of an apple, the Suncrisp.

Apple Review #12: Suncrisp

Yes, I have seen Apple Rankings, the website. No, I didn’t write it. (It’s written by comedian Brian Frange.) No, I don’t like it. Yes, I don’t like it because in part he st…

terribleminds.com

4 15 200

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Daniel Kibblesmith @kibblesmith.com · 3h

Dude I’m calling it, Thiel is cooked. He accidentally dropped a Tangible Detail. Most people didn’t know he existed and now he’s The Billionaire Who Thinks That One Piece Is Jesus.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 6h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

14 52 310

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

TheSocioPhi @thesociophi.bsky.social · 17h

Mash up bands:

Chumbastank

Jake_Vig @jakevig.bsky.social · 20h

Mash up bands:

Foo Sisters

Jake_Vig @jakevig.bsky.social · 20h

Mash up bands:

Van Fighters

12 4 78

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Rob Delaney @robdelaney.bsky.social · 9h

In all the horrible news Israel & the US generate when they work together, it is instructive that I learn that Israel’s strike on Qatar didn’t even kill the Hamas officials it was allegedly targeting *from an article about how Trump will personally profit from the ceasefire.*

Mohamad Bazzi @mbazzi.bsky.social · 23h

An underreported aspect of the Gaza ceasefire: The business deals that Trump's family made with Gulf Arab states gave Trump a personal stake in restraining Netanyahu — my piece @theguardian.com | www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

2 59 270

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 16h

Me?

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 16h

On a first go it’s all vibes — it vibes weird. Feels uncanny. As you look closer stuff doesn’t move right and stuff seems to work improbably.

1 6

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 17h

I could tell this was AI right from the get-go but it’s like with the Terminators — every generation makes it harder and harder to tell. And that’s scary.

"How" @myoneandonlykat.bsky.social · 21h

Timeline cleanse!

14 30 220

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 17h

The Trump administration on Saturday scrambled to rescind layoffs of hundreds of CDC scientists who were mistakenly fired on Friday night in what appeared to be a substantial procedural lapse.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...

Trump Administration Is Bringing Back Scores of C.D.C. Experts Fired in Error

www.nytimes.com

110 360 870

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 19h

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

400 5.8K 19K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 1d

A library director in Wyoming who was fired two years ago because she refused to remove books with sexual content and LGBTQ themes from a library's children and young adult sections has just been awarded $700,000 in a settlement. t.co/EA5L1kOZfV

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/us/wyoming-library-settlement-book-bans-terri-lesley.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwdGRjcANWLXdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHhlnY6nKj_j4zuP3VjNSstXWBaV1t8-sPQ5C3b_jS6WN...

t.co

150 1.9K 8K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Andrew Perfors @perfors.net · 1d

Heartbreaking reading, but this Reddit thread gives a sense of the relentlessness of the horror inflicted by ICE, and the damage being done to so many innocent people that doesn't make the news.

From the AskReddit community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the AskReddit community

www.reddit.com

4 230 540

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 20h

Dems floated a narrow bill to fund the military, which can’t move because the House isn’t in session. Meanwhile, DoD is now going to spend funds not appropriated by Congress to ensure military paychecks continue.

POTUS now both commands and provisions the military. Unconstitutional and SO dangerous

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.
A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC
News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

87 1.4K 3.6K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 22h

Per CDC source: At internal leadership meeting this afternoon, it was shared that 1,257 people were RIF'd at CDC. Number may not be final. Apparently, chief of staff was unaware that RIFs were going to occur so not clear who is making decisions. (Short 🧵)

88 1.5K 3.3K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Talia Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 20h

im rewatching The Shining for the millionth time and while i think the book does some things better (getting us into Jack's head) the book is a story about a good man swallowed by ghosts and Kubrick's story is about a family annihilator, and thus much, much scarier

69 94 1.7K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Dr. SkySkull @drskyskull.bsky.social · 20h

This sounds pretty illegal, but who knows if that matters

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 21h

www.politico.com/live-updates...

5 16 95

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 23h

“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument

260 5.1K 17K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 22h

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY: Make your voices heard. Join us in a peaceful protest across our country against the most corrupt, deceitful & criminal Administration in U.S. History. We say NO KINGS, NO CROOKS, NO SPRAY-TAN CONMAN! 👎

Check for a location near you at: www.nokings.org

#BeThere 👍

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

www.nokings.org

280 3K 10K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 22h

This is a really good article, and as an inveterate shitposter, I keep asking where the adults are.

I don’t *want* to be protesting! I don’t *want* to be arrested for standing up to oppression!! I want a boring government that works and takes care of everyone and I can go be stupid online!!!

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 1d

I have a theory www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming

The Frog is owning the president.

www.theverge.com

32 250 1.7K

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 22h

Anyways I’m gonna go canvass for Prop 50, make sure to vote YES if you live in California

14 49 650

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Jimmy Gaspero @jimmygaspero.bsky.social · 23h

Almost through the audiobook of the so far excellent The Book of Accidents by @chuckwendig.bsky.social and my favorite line has to be “Oh, fuck. Sheetz.” As a Wawa man myself, I felt that in my soul.

The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig cover.

1 3 37

Reposted by Chuck Wendig

Emily Galvin-Almanza @galvinalmanza.bsky.social · 1d

Seriously, Judges *do no do things like this*

They don't give their opinion to the media

They don't criticize how SCOTUS works

This is them breaking the emergency glass, folks
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders

www.nytimes.com

48 1.2K 3.1K