Kayleigh Diaz
@kleighdiaz.bsky.social
610 followers 940 following 1.7K posts
Mother, educator, bibliophile. Aspiring author with a penchant for acquiring entirely too many old books. 📚
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kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Thanks, Charlie! ❤️
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Okay but don't tell Shrimp that 😂😅
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
It's the simple things. ❤️
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
😂

Seeee, I'm not *entirely* mean to the apocalypse children. I bet she even gets some ice cream! 😅
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Oooh secret. 👀

That art is so cozy and sweet. ❤️
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Woohoo! Love fire. 😅

Thanks, Jim. 😊
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Yaaayy! Thanks, Sam. 😊
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
“If you’re going to tell a story about the end of the world, the end is not the real story. The real story, the one that needs to be told, is the story of what’s worth saving — what’s save-able about us.”
Justin Cronin on Why We Read Tales About the End of the World | Waterstones.com Blog | Waterstones
The author of The Ferryman and The Passage talks about the allure of apocalyptic literature.
www.waterstones.com
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
#WIPSnips | hope

Who says there's no hope in the apocalypse?

(Context: Shrimp doesn't speak.)

From my post-apocalyptic #WIP w/ a misfit trio of kids.

#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #amwriting
Writing snippet: “You can't just go!” she cried. “After everything, after [redacted], you're just gonna leave?”

He turned to walk away. 

“Shrimp!”

He paused for a moment as the waves crashed against the shoreline. Then he turned back, laid a hand on her cheek, and a kaleidoscope of images shot through her mind—twisting, turning, combining—only to be reassorted, shuffled into something new.

A swath of land, ribboned with streams; a cloudless, cerulean sky; tree branches dipped in frost, a blanket of clean snow resting atop the forest floor. A single, white buck in a clearing, its head turning toward her through a silent drift.

And then people. Not solitary, hunted, bedraggled or starving. Faces aglow, flush with radiance, brimming with life—both old and young—but all of them, all of them surrounded by others. This is community, she thought as they whipped through her mind. So many, so many. This is family. These are friends. This is humanity. This is love.

And more. Sensation. The warmth of a blanket, the scent of roasting food, the sound of music and laughter, enough that she was dizzy, drunk with it, like she'd lived a thousand lives in little more than an instant.

Then the kaleidoscope narrowed and collapsed into a single, crystalline scene: a woman with freckles dusting her cheeks, laugh lines etched at the corners of her eyes. She looked down at an infant, cooing in her arms…

He lifted his hand, and she was brought back to the cold present, the crashing waves, bits of sand peppering her cheeks.

“What was that?” she whispered.

He took her hand, traced the letters on her palm.

Hope.
Reposted by Kayleigh Diaz
4nikkolas.bsky.social
after millions of views and shares of my Portland Frog art. (thank you all🙏🏾) I got requests to highlight priests, and chickens, and Chicagoans, and T-Rexes, and more… all of us who refuse to bend the knee. so this is for US.
𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚕.
𝚆𝚎 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗.
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Ew no don't come here, it's bad here.

Wait till the orange dude is gone. At our WIPSnips convention 😅
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Yesss, quality assurance ✅

Grits & hummus...hm. Not quite as smooth. I prefer hummus. 😅
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
👀 what'd he do?? ❤️
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
The South does have some good food...
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Thanks, Charlotte! It was #SummerOfStory where I first posted this, of course. Miss it ❤️

This story is the most fun I've had with writing. I actually do some lighthearted stuff in this WIP, which I don't usually do 😅
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Damn, what a rollercoaster of emotions. 😅

I was all, Sabbat, why?! And then, "You'd never allow for anything else." 🥹❤️
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
#WIPSnips | (un)welcome ✨vibes

Lennie likes to talk. 😅 Posted part of this in a prompt game, but not WIPSnips, I think…

Origin of Shrimp. 🦐

From my post-apocalyptic #WIP w/ a misfit trio of kids.

#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #amwriting
Writing snippet: “Mama won't let you in. She won't even let in a stray kitten, let alone a full-grown kid.” He tilted his head in question, and she added, “Well, not full grown, but y'know.”

She watched as he carefully set the cricket back in the jar, then offered him a piece of the burnt meat. He wrinkled his nose, and she shrugged, taking his share.

“Alright, well, I know you don't talk, but I gotta call you something other than ‘kid.’” She took a bite and gestured to the jar. “Hey, how about cricket? Or crick? Nah, nevermind, that sounds like you got a crick in the neck.” She narrowed her eyes, scanning him up and down.  “But you're small. Say, what about shrimp? You ever had shrimp and grits?” Her stomach roiled. “Mama made it, once. Well, it wasn't real shrimp—come to think of it, I don't know what it was—and the grits were…gritty, I guess. But it sure as hell beats this.” She tugged at the leathery meat, grimacing as she worked it between her teeth. She swallowed with effort and grinned. “What d’ya say, Shrimp?”

He stared at her.
kleighdiaz.bsky.social
Wait till TOMORROW in Texas, Sam 🙄😂
Reposted by Kayleigh Diaz
thorbenson.bsky.social
Not surprised by this. Frogs can lay up to 5,000 eggs at a time. There will be more frogs
adamchicago.bsky.social
The frogs have landed in Chicago!
Protestor in a frog suit and an anti-Ice sign with what I believe to be a Pokémon character on a street corner in Rogers Park.