GESSwrites
I write stories about women getting what they want.
"Unnoticed" short story in #MixedBagOfTricks anthology
Like Meg Gardiner said, "I don't want to do anything else."
Member Pen & Fork and Armadillo Authors Society writers groups
- My story "Unnoticed" is one of 11 short stories written by 11 women writer in the short story anthology #MixedBagOfTricks A Short Story Anthology
- Thrilled to learn from DOJ's argument that the 14th Amendment applied to the "children of former slaves, not illegal immigrants, who didn't exist as a class yet" that modern firearms are not protected by the Second Amendment!
- Former NFL star opens new reading space in South Austin school, amid AISD resource crisis cbsaustin.com/news/local/f...
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- Sigh.
- Reminds me of when I visited Melbourne, forgot I wasn't at home, and thoughtlessly left a tip. The server *chased me down* to give it back and said, "We believe in paying people decently here, miss. You don't have to bribe us for good service." She went off in a huff before I could apologize.
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- "owners said it would raise prices" means that owners will pass on the cost of paying employees a living wage to the consumer because owners will not accept earning fewer profits. (Not salary; profits.)
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- I see the USian tendency you're describing as ingratiating or sycophantic. I wonder if, in situations like having access to formerly upperclass privileges like The Theater, the public mimics the expected appreciation of the finer things without forming personal opinions about the experiences.
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- I agree 100%. The mindset that 1 type of work matters or there's a hierarchy of the value of different types of work is confusing to me. Is that kind of single-mindedness a way of being in the world in general? Isn't it obvious that our social structure is complex so survival in it is complex too?
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- Damn! From being molested during filming True Lies to harassment on Bull 30 years later, can Eliza not work in peace?
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- "These are different groups of people" who ALL need general and subject-area knowledge, critical thinking and communication skills, etcetera, be it attained/fostered in college or university, vocational school, on the job
- The weaponization of therapy speak and accommodation is really going to tank the whole endeavor
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- Added to that... every profession requires knowing "how to think and how to arrange their thoughts into a coherent and persuasive argument." That some people find pop culture a frivolous subject doesn’t discount it as a subject on which to learn/practice the skill of critical thinking and writing.
- Just discovered Querido Trópico; might catch it at @austinfilm.bsky.social Querido Trópico Trailer youtu.be/gKWzZ9O8nJE?...
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- Ooh! Attending the All African Women Poetry Festival in 2026 would be a fantastic @torchliteraryarts.bsky.social field trip. How can we make this happen?!
- Meanwhile, #FoundNBC is...
- Congratulations to our #WGAanimation writers for Peacock's order of 'Ted: The Animation Series'! deadline.com/2025/05/ted-...
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- Glad you're cozy. Hope the infusion goes well. Also, have you considered doing www.window-swap.com?
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- Psst! It's his secret super power.
- The man checked out 50 books on topics that included Jewish history, African-American history and LGBTQ education. Then burned them. www.cleveland.com/community/20...
- On America's anti-intellectualism... www.instagram.com/reel/DJKfBpk...
- Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Who Oversaw National Recording Registry & Gershwin Prize, Fired by President Trump www.billboard.com/culture/poli...
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- The thread started with "I don't care" and that was enough for me to understand.
- I don’t care what Ozturk wrote. It doesn’t matter. This is America. We’re fucking free to have opinions of all sorts. It doesn’t matter. You don’t get to lock up people for bad thought. That’s against the fucking law and morals and fuck every last person arguing that this is a crime. Fuck all of em
- Give Praise: A Celebration of Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston #GivePraise #AmandaJohnston #TexasPoetLaureate youtu.be/581Cvo6PZIA?...
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- Thank you and TPF on behalf of every person you help directly and affect indirectly.
- You know what's better than Da'vine Joy Randolph in a movie? Da'vine Joy Randolph in a movie that you didn't know she was in until you saw her right hand on the screen and then heard her reeling in Method Man from acting da fool . My #CelebrityCrush is still in full effect.
- What's your preferred method of transportation? Me:
- Things I wanted to have known long before now... pluralis majestatis
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- But it makes for a fun trope. "I'm just a girl who was supposed to get off at Nagoya" is one of the best of the #BulletTrain villains lines.
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- Same. It's a helpful feature of messaging.
- How many literary orgs, nonprofits, and journals have you heard from so far reporting that their #NEA #grants have been terminated because their work no longer aligns with the president's priorities? I'm on 3 so far. Surely more will come.
- Four.
- No había necesidad de mentir... pero te enseñaron desde pequeña a tener cuidado y mucho cuidado; cerrar las piernas, aunque te duela, cerrar la boca, aunque te duela, cerrar todo menos el piano y la sonrisa, aunque te duela... - El trasero grande de la muerte, Dorothy Bell Ferrer
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- I will NEVER forget yall protesting outside the legislature to try to get lawmakers to force teachers by police force back into the schools. I want a movie about that. I want a book written about how terrible of parents yall are.
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- Yes, absolutely, "the demands should have been for more relief from government, rather than forcing [ANYONE] into danger" for the sake of maintaining a system xreated to enrich the rich. 😞
- saddest part is they just want babysitters. not teachers.
- Most parents and caregivers NEED schools to "babysit" so that parents can work. In 2020, to keep the economy going, the government sent most people back to work (too soon IMHO) so those parents needed the schools to be open too.
- If I say, "Remember that one scene/episode of #MASH?" which one are you thinking of?
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- This story headline should be "Indian River Sheriff Eric Flowers said Mustapick, of Vero Beach, had been charged in September of 2021 with unlawful sexual activity with minors after a juvenile victim claimed she was forced into a sex-slave contract with him," not that he failed to hire an assassin.
- RE: students using ChatGPT to do their homework
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- Damn, "a rock and a burning hard place" sounds extra grim, but you're likely exactly right. I think people get convinced that convenient is automatically better even though it's sometimes not better and certainly not necessary.
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- "we (conditioned by hyper individualism in the US) seem to so quickly turn conveniences into necessities"! Yes! So much, so easily, so stridently! What IS that? When I switched our family to a paperless kitchen, Hubby would not (still won't LOL) give up paper towels, as though they'rea necessity. 🤷🏾♀️
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- "I had to read Jane Eyre three times in three different courses and write three different papers." This too was my life a few decades back and I had (more than) three distinct ideas to write those papers about, and more once I read Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea as well.
- White cis woman: Today is the anniversary of when my best friend transitioned. Me: (a trans man) Oh, that's great! What are their pronouns? How has their transition been so far? White cis woman.... White cis woman: She's dead. When I say she transitioned, I meant that she died. Me:
- So that means all the Gen Xers here are Sophia? We’ll take it!
- I've noticed a lot of Gen-X loathing over the past few days. At first I was all indignant and wanted to respond to people, but then I thought, in true genx style: "meh, why bother?" I still think those born ~1968 to ~1980 are great, not for accomplishments but for the changes we've lived through.
- "those born ~1968 to ~1980 are great, not for accomplishments but for the changes we've lived through"
- This viral tiktok made me think of a fantastic article by my friend @melaniehamlett.bsky.social “men have no friends & women bear the burden”
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View full threadrage bait is content shared for the sole purpose of upsetting people. i hope my post didn't upset you but if it did i hope you can investigate why that is bc i actually agree w your assessment about how men are socialized but maybe you were too upset to finish the video? bsky.app/profile/ches...
- "but maybe you were too upset to finish the video?"
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View full threadYep. It's scary. And it fuels the beliefs of those who thought it was wrong to isolate, and it may push more into the toxic stew of the algorithms, without the IRL relationships to anchor.
- You are so right. I have for decades bemoaned the lack of PSAs and did so even more during 2020. We could've used a little something.
- Yep. In fall 2021 when the schools here reopened after a year and a half my son (a senior) was a marching band rank leader and said the incoming freshmen didn't know how to be around other people, read the room, follow basic instructions, participate in things that weren't 100% fun and easy.
- Similarly... bsky.app/profile/gess...
- I think about this a lot, and I worry about what will be needed to properly socialize all these puppies. They will not be ready for the work place, and the current situation is not going to make it any easier.
- They won't be ready for not only the workplace but also being adults responsible for themselves, appropriately interacting with anyone they don't already know, building relationships of various types, handling conflicts, and so much more. And they are still not getting the guidance they need.
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- I suspect that most parents were too distressed to help their children through the national (global really) trauma of that time. Parents weren't given any more time/space/support to deal with the situation than anyone. And parents who don't parent (however you define it) wouldn't suddenly do so.
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- Youngest (upperclassman at the time) gave us empirical testimony in the 2021 to 2023 school years that the 9th-10th graders were feral; arguments and fights and weapons on campus (no guns thankfully) every damn day; all lockdown but one caused by students themselves.
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- On a similar note, as per Alexander Chee quite eloquently expressed yesterday...
- Hey, who wants something nice? So I was on tour this month, and when I was doing my event for the Princeton University Library and the Princeton Public Library, I ended up at the graveyard, where I found this gravestone:
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View full threadI mentioned the gravestone to Emma Sarconi, rare books librarian and outreach specialist. I sent her the gravestone, and a week later I got an email. Listen, folks, if you ever have a little mystery on your hands, turn that STRAIGHT over to a librarian. Emma, Amy and Morgan had this in the bag.
- "Listen, folks, if you ever have a little mystery on your hands, turn that STRAIGHT over to a librarian" is both a lesson and a motto for life!
