Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
Writer, teacher. Out now: APPLESEED, a novel (2021, @marinerbooks). REFUSE TO BE DONE, a guide to novel revision (2022, @soho_press). He/him.
Pinned
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
· Sep 8
I just found out that REFUSE TO BE DONE is going into its 8th printing! I've heard so many stories from writers whose projects have been helped along by this little yellow book over the past three years. Nothing makes me happier!
Reposted by Matt Bell
cover! synopsis! preorder! out in feb!!
"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"
autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"
autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
November 13, 2025 at 5:55 PM
cover! synopsis! preorder! out in feb!!
"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"
autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
"Blending autofiction with fantasy, meta with magic, and earnestness with absurdity, 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 presents a recognizable but also magical world where we ask, if nothing is real, then why not have as much fun as possible?"
autofocusbooks.com/store/p/tacoma
Reposted by Matt Bell
Love this piece on "box-words" in SF, using examples from EMBASSYTOWN, which I happen to be reading now and am loving. Mieville has a unique knack for making it a readerly joy to puzze thru the neologisms!
For this month's newsletter, I wrote about inventing neologisms and what Ursula K. Le Guin called "box-words," with examples from China Miéville's excellent novel EMBASSYTOWN. Includes an assist from Samuel Delany, who helped me see how to introduce terms to readers without unnecessary exposition.
#57: Worldbuilding with Neologisms and "Box-Words"
China Miéville, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel Delany
mattbell.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Love this piece on "box-words" in SF, using examples from EMBASSYTOWN, which I happen to be reading now and am loving. Mieville has a unique knack for making it a readerly joy to puzze thru the neologisms!
Reposted by Matt Bell
Cover reveal! Introducing The Bedtime Emptying of Our World by @joelhans.com, winner of the 2024 @mooncitypress.bsky.social Moon City Short Fiction Award. Set to release February 3, 2026: Preorder link coming soon.
Fabulous cover art and design by Elisabeth Anderson Art & Design.
Fabulous cover art and design by Elisabeth Anderson Art & Design.
November 24, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Cover reveal! Introducing The Bedtime Emptying of Our World by @joelhans.com, winner of the 2024 @mooncitypress.bsky.social Moon City Short Fiction Award. Set to release February 3, 2026: Preorder link coming soon.
Fabulous cover art and design by Elisabeth Anderson Art & Design.
Fabulous cover art and design by Elisabeth Anderson Art & Design.
Spent yesterday morning rereading Denis Johnson's TRAIN DREAMS, before watching the new movie adaptation in the evening. A pretty perfect day spent with one of my favorite books.
November 24, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Spent yesterday morning rereading Denis Johnson's TRAIN DREAMS, before watching the new movie adaptation in the evening. A pretty perfect day spent with one of my favorite books.
"I was like a turd inside someone who’d accidentally swallowed an engagement ring: I was nothing, yet I carried something uniquely special." —Alissa Nutting, Unclean Jobs for Girls and Women
November 22, 2025 at 5:41 PM
"I was like a turd inside someone who’d accidentally swallowed an engagement ring: I was nothing, yet I carried something uniquely special." —Alissa Nutting, Unclean Jobs for Girls and Women
Went for a rare-for-me late afternoon hike today, complete with trail beer. A perfect November day in the desert!
November 22, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Went for a rare-for-me late afternoon hike today, complete with trail beer. A perfect November day in the desert!
I've finished drafting all my novels in fall/winter, and I don't know if it's because of some quality of light or temperature this time of year or if it's just the memory of having done it before, but I feel myself sinking deeper into the book with each gray day, even here in usually sunny Phoenix.
November 21, 2025 at 7:03 PM
I've finished drafting all my novels in fall/winter, and I don't know if it's because of some quality of light or temperature this time of year or if it's just the memory of having done it before, but I feel myself sinking deeper into the book with each gray day, even here in usually sunny Phoenix.
It was such a pleasure to celebrate the launch of @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social's debut novel A HARVEST OF FURIES last night at Changing Hands in Phoenix! A fantastic reading and a great conversation.
November 21, 2025 at 4:30 PM
It was such a pleasure to celebrate the launch of @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social's debut novel A HARVEST OF FURIES last night at Changing Hands in Phoenix! A fantastic reading and a great conversation.
"Interior voices which are or become wildly erratically exterior" is so good! (From Joy Williams)
November 20, 2025 at 7:48 PM
"Interior voices which are or become wildly erratically exterior" is so good! (From Joy Williams)
Reposted by Matt Bell
For this month's newsletter, I wrote about inventing neologisms and what Ursula K. Le Guin called "box-words," with examples from China Miéville's excellent novel EMBASSYTOWN. Includes an assist from Samuel Delany, who helped me see how to introduce terms to readers without unnecessary exposition.
#57: Worldbuilding with Neologisms and "Box-Words"
China Miéville, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel Delany
mattbell.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
For this month's newsletter, I wrote about inventing neologisms and what Ursula K. Le Guin called "box-words," with examples from China Miéville's excellent novel EMBASSYTOWN. Includes an assist from Samuel Delany, who helped me see how to introduce terms to readers without unnecessary exposition.
This is tonight! Please join the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative online or in-person for "Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond"!
Two weeks from today, the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative will host "Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond," our final workshop of 2025, with speakers @jennahanchey.bsky.social and Tanvir Akhtar Ahmed! Free and open to the public. Join us in-person in Tempe or on ASU Live!
Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond | ASU Events
In this workshop, our speakers will use speculative thinking, literary criticism, and fiction writing to explore what resistance looks like in both our real world and in the imagined worlds that refle...
asuevents.asu.edu
November 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
This is tonight! Please join the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative online or in-person for "Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond"!
"Franz Kafka once called his writing a form of prayer. He also reprimanded the long-suffering Felice Bauer in a letter: 'I did not say that writing ought to make everything clearer, but instead makes everything worse; what I said was that writing makes everything clearer and worse.'" —Joy Williams
November 19, 2025 at 2:01 PM
"Franz Kafka once called his writing a form of prayer. He also reprimanded the long-suffering Felice Bauer in a letter: 'I did not say that writing ought to make everything clearer, but instead makes everything worse; what I said was that writing makes everything clearer and worse.'" —Joy Williams
Felt a little bored and listless this evening. Finally thought, Screw it, I might as well work on the book some. Sat down and immediately cranked out a little monologue that opened something up in my understanding of the book. Whew! More boredom please!
November 19, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Felt a little bored and listless this evening. Finally thought, Screw it, I might as well work on the book some. Sat down and immediately cranked out a little monologue that opened something up in my understanding of the book. Whew! More boredom please!
Reposted by Matt Bell
Tomorrow!
Two weeks from today, the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative will host "Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond," our final workshop of 2025, with speakers @jennahanchey.bsky.social and Tanvir Akhtar Ahmed! Free and open to the public. Join us in-person in Tempe or on ASU Live!
Resistance in Speculative Fiction and Beyond | ASU Events
In this workshop, our speakers will use speculative thinking, literary criticism, and fiction writing to explore what resistance looks like in both our real world and in the imagined worlds that refle...
asuevents.asu.edu
November 18, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Tomorrow!
For this month's newsletter, I wrote about inventing neologisms and what Ursula K. Le Guin called "box-words," with examples from China Miéville's excellent novel EMBASSYTOWN. Includes an assist from Samuel Delany, who helped me see how to introduce terms to readers without unnecessary exposition.
#57: Worldbuilding with Neologisms and "Box-Words"
China Miéville, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel Delany
mattbell.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
For this month's newsletter, I wrote about inventing neologisms and what Ursula K. Le Guin called "box-words," with examples from China Miéville's excellent novel EMBASSYTOWN. Includes an assist from Samuel Delany, who helped me see how to introduce terms to readers without unnecessary exposition.
"The professional poet remains unincorporably alien... Selling poems provokes thought about what their value is and who can measure that... Adequate pay calls forth an adequate poem." —Anne Carson, The Economy of the Unlost
November 18, 2025 at 6:51 PM
"The professional poet remains unincorporably alien... Selling poems provokes thought about what their value is and who can measure that... Adequate pay calls forth an adequate poem." —Anne Carson, The Economy of the Unlost
Maybe only in arid Phoenix would a runner be excited to get caught in a sudden downpour five miles out, then hauling all the way back home in a woefully inadequate hoodie. A fun (but blurry!) way to start a November day!
November 18, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Maybe only in arid Phoenix would a runner be excited to get caught in a sudden downpour five miles out, then hauling all the way back home in a woefully inadequate hoodie. A fun (but blurry!) way to start a November day!
"Sleepchains" by Anne Carson: "Here we go mother on the shipless ocean / Pity us, pity the ocean, here we go."
November 17, 2025 at 4:46 PM
"Sleepchains" by Anne Carson: "Here we go mother on the shipless ocean / Pity us, pity the ocean, here we go."
It's been a beautiful couple of days for running up in Flagstaff, despite lingering wildfire smoke from nearby prescribed burns.
November 15, 2025 at 4:54 PM
It's been a beautiful couple of days for running up in Flagstaff, despite lingering wildfire smoke from nearby prescribed burns.
"The book was a challenge, a secondhand paperback crammed with huge and violent emotions in small crowded type on waterlogged pages..." —Don DeLillo, Zero K
November 14, 2025 at 6:34 PM
"The book was a challenge, a secondhand paperback crammed with huge and violent emotions in small crowded type on waterlogged pages..." —Don DeLillo, Zero K
"In effing the ineffable, language fails, has to fail, should fail, and should go on failing, loquaciously failing. Failure is the aim, an apparently aimless aim, which shoots at a target it cannot see, cannot know, and cannot even conceive." —Simon Critchley, Mysticism
November 14, 2025 at 4:12 PM
"In effing the ineffable, language fails, has to fail, should fail, and should go on failing, loquaciously failing. Failure is the aim, an apparently aimless aim, which shoots at a target it cannot see, cannot know, and cannot even conceive." —Simon Critchley, Mysticism
Reposted by Matt Bell
(Non)Fiction Friday: "I tried listening to whale songs and podcasts filled with monotone, meandering stories that would put anyone (except me) to sleep."
From ASU English professor @sarahviren.bsky.social's essay about a soothing British radio show @nytimes.com: ow.ly/IQhJ50XptaW #ASUHumanities
From ASU English professor @sarahviren.bsky.social's essay about a soothing British radio show @nytimes.com: ow.ly/IQhJ50XptaW #ASUHumanities
November 14, 2025 at 3:53 PM
(Non)Fiction Friday: "I tried listening to whale songs and podcasts filled with monotone, meandering stories that would put anyone (except me) to sleep."
From ASU English professor @sarahviren.bsky.social's essay about a soothing British radio show @nytimes.com: ow.ly/IQhJ50XptaW #ASUHumanities
From ASU English professor @sarahviren.bsky.social's essay about a soothing British radio show @nytimes.com: ow.ly/IQhJ50XptaW #ASUHumanities
Without serious effort, I can only remember 30-40 pages at once, about the length of a long story. 230 pages in, when I flip back through my draft, it's as if someone else wrote the pages—and today I felt a weird wonder at glimpsing that other's process, even though he's me too, or used to be...
November 12, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Without serious effort, I can only remember 30-40 pages at once, about the length of a long story. 230 pages in, when I flip back through my draft, it's as if someone else wrote the pages—and today I felt a weird wonder at glimpsing that other's process, even though he's me too, or used to be...
Reposted by Matt Bell
NEW EPISODE OUT TODAY! I talked to art historian and curator @brigittevdsande.bsky.social about war, art, fiction, disasters, imagination - join us: issues.org/not-now-but-...
Not Now, But Soon: The Art of Portraying War
Brigitte van der Sande discusses how art humanizes the victims of war and spurs action, and how imagination can be a force for resistance.
issues.org
November 11, 2025 at 9:07 PM
NEW EPISODE OUT TODAY! I talked to art historian and curator @brigittevdsande.bsky.social about war, art, fiction, disasters, imagination - join us: issues.org/not-now-but-...
In my 42-person worldbuilding class—a general studies elective—we read five novels and write about 45 pages of fiction. Yesterday, as we discussed book 5, I told my class how the national media constantly says college students can't read whole novels. And then we scoffed and laughed and got to work.
November 11, 2025 at 7:27 PM
In my 42-person worldbuilding class—a general studies elective—we read five novels and write about 45 pages of fiction. Yesterday, as we discussed book 5, I told my class how the national media constantly says college students can't read whole novels. And then we scoffed and laughed and got to work.