M.S. Vernon
@micahsvernon.bsky.social
Writer. Stories in The Deadlands, Orchid's Lantern, and 3AM Magazine.
Finally read Waiting for Godot. Love that Beckett wrote a play where a character kicks the shit out of a James Joyce stand-in while implying they're essentially the same person.
December 30, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Finally read Waiting for Godot. Love that Beckett wrote a play where a character kicks the shit out of a James Joyce stand-in while implying they're essentially the same person.
Having posted this and having read The Waste Land a few times now, both in full and in fragments, both in scrutinising the words and in falling into the rhythm of each of its passages, I can confirm that I have, indeed, fallen in love with it.
From Mary Karr's preface to the Modern Library Classics edition of The Waste Land:
"Read it first for joy. Shut up your head's claptrap and open yourself to fall in love with it. Treat it like a first date, which should begin with ignorance but also with hope."
"Read it first for joy. Shut up your head's claptrap and open yourself to fall in love with it. Treat it like a first date, which should begin with ignorance but also with hope."
December 26, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Having posted this and having read The Waste Land a few times now, both in full and in fragments, both in scrutinising the words and in falling into the rhythm of each of its passages, I can confirm that I have, indeed, fallen in love with it.
From Mary Karr's preface to the Modern Library Classics edition of The Waste Land:
"Read it first for joy. Shut up your head's claptrap and open yourself to fall in love with it. Treat it like a first date, which should begin with ignorance but also with hope."
"Read it first for joy. Shut up your head's claptrap and open yourself to fall in love with it. Treat it like a first date, which should begin with ignorance but also with hope."
December 25, 2025 at 11:49 PM
From Mary Karr's preface to the Modern Library Classics edition of The Waste Land:
"Read it first for joy. Shut up your head's claptrap and open yourself to fall in love with it. Treat it like a first date, which should begin with ignorance but also with hope."
"Read it first for joy. Shut up your head's claptrap and open yourself to fall in love with it. Treat it like a first date, which should begin with ignorance but also with hope."
Sometimes—rarely, but sometimes—the popular consensus is right. A Love Supreme is really just untouchable. Many Coltrane albums come close but none reach perfection the way this does: youtu.be/ll3CMgiUPuU?...
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme [Full Album] (1965)
YouTube video by Jazzaddict 98
youtu.be
December 25, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Sometimes—rarely, but sometimes—the popular consensus is right. A Love Supreme is really just untouchable. Many Coltrane albums come close but none reach perfection the way this does: youtu.be/ll3CMgiUPuU?...
I have simply not seen any artsy literature people concerned with hating romance at all.
December 25, 2025 at 7:30 AM
I have simply not seen any artsy literature people concerned with hating romance at all.
Watching A Complete Unknown. A lot of scenes of people being suddenly struck with awe while Timothee Chalamet plays a song but unfortunately the effect doesn't work on the actual audience because he's always just playing Bob Dylan.
December 25, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Watching A Complete Unknown. A lot of scenes of people being suddenly struck with awe while Timothee Chalamet plays a song but unfortunately the effect doesn't work on the actual audience because he's always just playing Bob Dylan.
An essay I wrote in 2018 after playing Death Stranding. I never ended up publishing it anywhere, so it's here now, unedited and as badly written as 2018-me could muster. @captainfez.bsky.social might enjoy it.
habitualblood.wordpress.com/2025/12/24/d...
habitualblood.wordpress.com/2025/12/24/d...
Death Stranding and the Hum of Wires
Disclaimer: this essay was originally written in 2018, and remains unedited from that time. If it sucks, blame the Me from seven years ago. I won’t revise their work. “The very first sound th…
habitualblood.wordpress.com
December 24, 2025 at 1:12 AM
An essay I wrote in 2018 after playing Death Stranding. I never ended up publishing it anywhere, so it's here now, unedited and as badly written as 2018-me could muster. @captainfez.bsky.social might enjoy it.
habitualblood.wordpress.com/2025/12/24/d...
habitualblood.wordpress.com/2025/12/24/d...
Of course, Joe said it much better than me.
"Just put garbage on the page and fix it later" - no, you need to actually be thinking, feeling, and composing as you write. Placeholders that lack clear intention will derail the cumulative narrative impact. Details matter. Always Be Crafting.
what is your least favorite piece of writing advice and why? 👀
December 23, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Of course, Joe said it much better than me.
"Just write your first draft"
I fundamentally disagree with banging out any old nonsense just to edit or build from it later. If your first draft is shit, you're building from a foundation of shit.
I fundamentally disagree with banging out any old nonsense just to edit or build from it later. If your first draft is shit, you're building from a foundation of shit.
what is your least favorite piece of writing advice and why? 👀
December 23, 2025 at 10:26 PM
"Just write your first draft"
I fundamentally disagree with banging out any old nonsense just to edit or build from it later. If your first draft is shit, you're building from a foundation of shit.
I fundamentally disagree with banging out any old nonsense just to edit or build from it later. If your first draft is shit, you're building from a foundation of shit.
Maybe one day all my fragments of scattered fictions will be brought together to make something whole.
December 23, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Maybe one day all my fragments of scattered fictions will be brought together to make something whole.
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
But tonight Lv1 is alive and in the west
highlands with his herd. It is a perfect
winter evening: the moon rising over
the ice fields, the snow in the wind.
And as he stares into the skybox, there
is 1/50th as much health as usual.
highlands with his herd. It is a perfect
winter evening: the moon rising over
the ice fields, the snow in the wind.
And as he stares into the skybox, there
is 1/50th as much health as usual.
December 17, 2025 at 4:08 AM
But tonight Lv1 is alive and in the west
highlands with his herd. It is a perfect
winter evening: the moon rising over
the ice fields, the snow in the wind.
And as he stares into the skybox, there
is 1/50th as much health as usual.
highlands with his herd. It is a perfect
winter evening: the moon rising over
the ice fields, the snow in the wind.
And as he stares into the skybox, there
is 1/50th as much health as usual.
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
the good that you do persists in this world
December 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
the good that you do persists in this world
My wife is raising funds for her friend Omar and his family in Palestine, please consider donating: gofund.me/73e75f786
Donate to Help Omar and his family survive in Gaza, organized by Lilly Jane
Hello! My name is Lilly and I’m from Melbourne, Australia. I’m organising this fun… Lilly Jane needs your support for Help Omar and his family survive in Gaza
gofund.me
December 13, 2025 at 5:25 AM
My wife is raising funds for her friend Omar and his family in Palestine, please consider donating: gofund.me/73e75f786
Genuine inquiry for Australian literati folk: on a scale of 1-10, how bad of an idea would it be if I wanted to start a small publishing business for weird Aus litfic?
December 9, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Genuine inquiry for Australian literati folk: on a scale of 1-10, how bad of an idea would it be if I wanted to start a small publishing business for weird Aus litfic?
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
A lot of journals that say they're open to weird fiction mean like this
November 28, 2025 at 5:58 PM
A lot of journals that say they're open to weird fiction mean like this
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
Missing from the book piracy debate is any mention of predatory academic publishing conglomerates like Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, De Gruyter Brill et al: all of which are massively profitable and don't pay anyone (authors, peer-reviewers) who made the bulk of their money extorting libraries
November 26, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Missing from the book piracy debate is any mention of predatory academic publishing conglomerates like Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, De Gruyter Brill et al: all of which are massively profitable and don't pay anyone (authors, peer-reviewers) who made the bulk of their money extorting libraries
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
oh now we are talking about writing salaries? My contribution: No one* has ever made money from it. Don't romanticize the past. There are zillions of examples of destitution in the archives of your faves!
*except a couple, here and there, randomly
*except a couple, here and there, randomly
November 26, 2025 at 12:09 AM
oh now we are talking about writing salaries? My contribution: No one* has ever made money from it. Don't romanticize the past. There are zillions of examples of destitution in the archives of your faves!
*except a couple, here and there, randomly
*except a couple, here and there, randomly
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
Ideas are not like property, Jefferson thought. They don’t work on a scarcity model—He who receives light from my candle does so without lessening my light. Jefferson opposed copyright laws.
November 23, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Ideas are not like property, Jefferson thought. They don’t work on a scarcity model—He who receives light from my candle does so without lessening my light. Jefferson opposed copyright laws.
"Tell me, is it true the a bad artist suffers as greatly as a good one? There were many performers at the Hotel Schuyler, but they gave no hint of suffering from the failure of their art. Perhaps the art had changed its name and came to their minds as something else—employment."
Elizabeth Hardwick
Elizabeth Hardwick
November 23, 2025 at 4:36 AM
"Tell me, is it true the a bad artist suffers as greatly as a good one? There were many performers at the Hotel Schuyler, but they gave no hint of suffering from the failure of their art. Perhaps the art had changed its name and came to their minds as something else—employment."
Elizabeth Hardwick
Elizabeth Hardwick
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
Psyched to announce my new novel, Boyhood, coming April 2026 @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social
geni.us/Boyhood
geni.us/Boyhood
October 30, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Psyched to announce my new novel, Boyhood, coming April 2026 @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social
geni.us/Boyhood
geni.us/Boyhood
In which I argue that Bridgerton Season 1 is pro-eugenics:
habitualblood.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/l...
habitualblood.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/l...
Love and Regency Romance: Pride and Prejudice vs. Bridgerton (S1)
“I preve thee, love, with adversite, Quia amore langueo.[1]” Anonymous, Quia Amore Langueo[2] In his philosophical inquiry of love, Simon May contends that love — in the Western world, at least — i…
habitualblood.wordpress.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:48 AM
In which I argue that Bridgerton Season 1 is pro-eugenics:
habitualblood.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/l...
habitualblood.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/l...
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
"But if a human soul can be defined as a structure of memories, if to 'read' an object is somehow to gain access to what it remembers, then how can we begrudge it a soul?"
- Pynchon, Shadow Ticket
- Pynchon, Shadow Ticket
October 9, 2025 at 9:33 AM
"But if a human soul can be defined as a structure of memories, if to 'read' an object is somehow to gain access to what it remembers, then how can we begrudge it a soul?"
- Pynchon, Shadow Ticket
- Pynchon, Shadow Ticket
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
A defense of literary style, and why style is a lot more than just "pretty sentences"
countercraft.substack.com/p/style-is-m...
countercraft.substack.com/p/style-is-m...
Style Is More than Sentences
In defense of style and the infinite possibilities of storytelling
countercraft.substack.com
September 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM
A defense of literary style, and why style is a lot more than just "pretty sentences"
countercraft.substack.com/p/style-is-m...
countercraft.substack.com/p/style-is-m...
Reposted by M.S. Vernon
THE LAW OF BONE AND SINEW IS HERE
BE THERE OR BE CRUSHED BENEATH OUR BOOTHEELS
darkwatcher.bandcamp.com/album/the-la...
BE THERE OR BE CRUSHED BENEATH OUR BOOTHEELS
darkwatcher.bandcamp.com/album/the-la...
The Law of Bone and Sinew, by Dark Watcher
8 track album
darkwatcher.bandcamp.com
September 12, 2025 at 12:40 PM
THE LAW OF BONE AND SINEW IS HERE
BE THERE OR BE CRUSHED BENEATH OUR BOOTHEELS
darkwatcher.bandcamp.com/album/the-la...
BE THERE OR BE CRUSHED BENEATH OUR BOOTHEELS
darkwatcher.bandcamp.com/album/the-la...