TREAD: Will I be attempting
#1000wordsofsummer
this year? Sure! Iโm having trouble putting pen to paper lately (or fingers to keyboard), so maybe this will help. Iโll be using the prompts in my Writing Down the Bones card deck to get the juices flowing๐ Happy writing!
Iโm 28, so Iโm almost there, but can people in their 30s and older please (gently) tell me that itโs going to get better and I donโt need to have figured out my entire life in two years? ๐ฅบ
When I was younger, I wanted an American Girl doll SO badly. I wanted Samantha or Molly, but we couldnโt afford one. For my anniversary, I hinted at wanting Claudie, a new doll being released. When I opened that box and saw that doll, I became a kid again and openly sobbed ๐ฅน
BIG NEWS: Iโm opening a romance bookstore here in Portland, Oregon! Itโs called Grand Gesture Books and itโll be the second Black owned bookstore in the Rose City. While itโll be online for the next couple of months, a brick and mortar is coming ๐ 1/2
And if youโre wanting me to block his name, then Iโm going to go ahead and promptly say this:
Noโค๏ธ
I donโt owe him (a stranger) anything. I donโt owe you anything.
I havenโt talked about it much here, but the employees at Powellโs Books (yes, where I work) are fighting for a living wage and better healthcare. Powellโs isnโt keen on giving us either. Weโre asking folks to read, sign, and share this petition ๐
EDITORS: if youโre somehow interested in an op-Ed about how I spent my summer processing orders and sometimes cancelling orders for a lot of performative white women only for them to still vote for Donald Trump, let me know because my hands are ready and I am petty
I did NOT spend my summer processing orders of anti-racism books for white women for 55% of them to STILL vote for this piece of shit man. This performative act means NOTHING to me.
Oh hey, I told my boyfriend that I loved him today, and he grabbed my hand, smiled, and said โI love you too,โ so this has been a really beautiful Sunday โฅ๏ธ๐ฅบ
Hi, as someone who works with books and has worked with books for the last three years, I BEG of you: please start Christmas shopping now. Popular titles will run out. There are printing shortages. Please be prepared, and please be kind. Iโm not hiding Obamaโs book, I promise!
@TimJDillon
This might be the one of the shittiest take in the history of fucking disgusting, racist shittiest takes. I hope that you never have children, especially if those children have a problem with their weight, because this viewpoint is so harmful and cruel. Comedian my ass.
I will say this though: what he did was annoying and laughable, but hey, if you buy a book, let me know how it is.
But donโt send him hate mail or anything. It isnโt that serious. Itโs more eye opening than anything else.
I did NOT spend my summer processing orders of anti-racism books for white women for 55% of them to STILL vote for this piece of shit man. This performative act means NOTHING to me.
@_xmamabeex
@Koolzai
Yโall are the same kind of people who complain when a man isnโt emotionally available with you. You teach your sons to not show any emotion and then get mad at men for not showing emotions. You canโt have it both ways.
Iโm curious about this: if youโre invited to someoneโs home for the first time (for a party or whatever), do you bring a gift? Like a bottle of wine or a dish or flowers or something? I always try to but I feel like itโs not as common as it used to be
@agoraphobia69
@alyssawaking
@chuggincorn
@nintendo6664
I was bullied in middle school for my teeth and that shit affected me so much. It crushed me. I confronted my bully this past year and sobbed while doing it. It hurt. So this shit still matters.
This Barbieโs job isโฆbooks. Sheโs a Powellโs bookseller and a proud member of her
@ILWULocal5
union. Sheโs union strong! Sheโs fucking good at her job! Sheโs hot and smart! Sheโs not going anywhere! Never mess with a petty Capricorn ๐
I find myself apologizing often because I keep bringing up my boyfriend, but honestly, Iโm happy and heโs very cute and he makes me go ๐ฅฐ, so Iโm going to continue to bring him up. Like, look at this face ๐
Hi, itโs
#IndieBookstoreDay
, which means that if you walk into a bookstore and mention how โAmazon has it for much cheaperโ OR email bookstores to say โAmazon will get it to me much fasterโ, then Iโll personally stop what Iโm doing and find you and fight you myself๐๐ฅบ๐ธ๐พ๐คท๐พโโ๏ธ
Over the weekend, I told my bf that I think that Iโm queer (Iโm figuring some stuff out) and he said, while eating a BBQ rib, โThatโs cool. You can be anything you want as long as weโre togetherโ ๐ฅน
As someone who actually runs the romance section at a very large indie bookstore, let me tell you this: if youโre a bookstore and youโre not stocking romance, then you donโt understand the current culture of the bookstore industry. I canโt keep that section stocked!
Was in a bookstore yesterday in SF and asked the staff where romance would be. "We don't have a romance section." So I clarified, where would I find them, then? In fiction? "We don't stock romance novels." ๐ฅฒ๐ฅฒ๐ฅฒ
๐จATTENTION๐จ If you released a book during the pandemic and you know that it should be in bookstores, but you havenโt seen it yet for whatever reason, let me know and I can take a photo of it if itโs on the Powellโs shelves or not so you can experience that!
A really big ask: So I run the African-American section at Powellโs and Iโm dying to bring in some new titles. Itโs all nonfiction, with some memoirs here and there, but mostly factual. What should I add to the collection of titles? Promote your own too!
@redditships
This is such a white woman problem and I HATE IT. He joined a hate group. Like, you were basically okay with everything before hand before he joined a hate group. Come on, maโam.
HERE IT IS ๐ฅฐ: What started as an angry tweet became something more. In my first ever piece for
@BitchMedia
, I write about how anti-racism books, the white women that bought them (and maybe read them?), and finding out that white women still loved Trump:
Every day, I sell at least three of these books to a white man. For the love of God, read something by a woman or a person of color or literally ANY ONE ELSE. Stay out of business section.
Please look at how pretty I am on this first day of 27 ๐โค๏ธโจ
Itโs my birthday and Iโm just really blessed and grateful that I stuck around this long.
I gotta speak my truth: Carrie Bradshaw isnโt the biggest tv villain. Sheโs messy, insecure, bad with money, and a little selfish, but yโall act like she skinned kittens and made them into a pair of high heels or something. Sheโs a very realistic character. 1/2
I know that I showcased the logo for my new romance store, Grand Gesture Books, yesterday, but I wanted to give it its own moment. My friend Kelsey designed it, and if you donโt know, the book is opened to about the 2/3s mark because thatโs when the gesture starts to get planned.
A man on Bumble isnโt asking me any questions back, and instead of taking it like I usually do, I said โI donโt feel Iike youโre asking me any questions back to get to know me, so Iโm having a hard time determining if you would like to continue this conversation.โ Go me ๐
@jeannakadlec
Oh this times 1000%, which i do wonder if this is one of the reasons why I am reading less? Because I donโt need to escape to another world as much
@j0seph08
@lostblackboy
Literally. A friend and I (both Black women) walked into a Chinese restaurant where literally EVERY (employees and customers) were Chinese. Best food of my life
Iโm really proud of this display because I didnโt want to put the same titles on there. I wanted fresh faces and names. So here they are. Shop the display and find a new favorite author today! โฅ๏ธ
"There are Black authors out there today who are writing beautiful romance novels, gorgeous poems, and heartbreaking prose....They are Black history and most important, they are the present." โ Bookseller Katherine M. on her "It's Black Lit" display.
๐:
I waited 2 hours to get my book signed by David Sedaris, and itโs always worth it because he treats every reader like theyโre the only reader that matters for 5 minutes. And thatโs the kind of author that I want to be.
@DebiVSmith
@thetzechun
I reached out to one of mine (he was such a piece of shit to me) and told him off and he offered me a really nice apology and although I wish that it came from him first, Iโm glad that I got it off my chest
Iโm curious about this: do you think that youโre a good writer?
And when I say โgoodโ, thatโs good to you and whatever way you think of being a good writer as.
I have lived almost 28 years on this Earth, and I can honestly say that I have never felt like more of a bigger failure than I have right now. Iโm so embarrassed, I just want to cry. This week has been rough and Iโm having a really hard time.
I emailed Real Simple a few months ago after my last piece with them published because I wanted them to keep my name in their mind if they needed more lists related to books. They reached out to me this morning and your girl is going to curate a reading list for anti-racism โจ
@mariskreizman
Iโll say that on one hand, I am glad that her books did get people back into reading! On the other hand, I wish that those people would give other books a chance too.
lol loving seeing my white friends posting those โwe will still be a community no matter who we all vote for.โ Like...no, we wonโt. I donโt want to be a part of a community full of people who vote for Trump.
Yesterday, I met Henry Winkler and it was the highlight of my year (yes, even opening a bookstore was less exciting than this moment). He was so nice and so kind and people were ecstatic to meet him. What a perfect night. 13 year old Katherine would be THRILLED ๐๐พ
For my first ever
@lithub
piece, I talked to independent bookstore owners and booksellers about anti-racism books, white โalliesโ, crying white women who just want โto work on themselvesโ. To say that I learned a lot would be an understatement ๐ธโ๏ธ
โDuring the summer of 2020, I spent countless hours helping irate customers cancel their orders of popular anti-racism books.โ
Katherine Morgan (
@blktinabelcher
) on selling books to white โallies.โ
Iโve sold four books so far and I am so happy that I could cry. I just wanted to sell at least one book this week and now, Iโve sold four times as many ๐
Today has been such a lovely press day! Publishers Weekly (
@PublishersWkly
) did a profile on me and then
@rgay
featured my store in her newsletter and says that she โcannot wait to visit.โ ๐๐๐ I put the link to PW in the following tweet if you want to read about GGB!
I finally got the chance to get some new headshots today! This is the outfit that I selected ๐ฅฐ The actual photos were taken on film, so itโll be a minute before I get those images back, but this is enough to hold me over
More information coming next week, but as of today, your girl is officially a small business owner in the state of Oregon! Iโm usually so damn hard of myself, but instead, today, I feel immensely proud instead ๐๐๐
โจWhew, your girl just received a contract for her first ever upcoming PRINT article. PRINT. Like, something that she can go out, buy, and FLIP THROUGH while standing in line ๐ฅฐ
2021, youโre already off to a very good start.
Iโve been working really hard on this project and Iโd love for you to check out my page
@Bookshop_Org
: If youโd like a personal recommendation, let me know! Donโt see your favorite? You can still search for it, purchase it, and Iโll get 10% of the proceeds
@JackOfA18378007
I donโt think that you know what incels are. Sheโs not blaming men for not finding her attractive or demanding that they pay attention to her. A lot of Black women have felt this way, especially in schools where they were the minority. Instead of invalidating, listen to us.
THREAD: Oh, hey! I wrote a lot in 2020 (probably the most that Iโve ever written in a whole year), so here is a thread to celebrate. For transparency, I will also include the rates that I was paid โจ Here we go!
The fact that I met multiple dudes who found me intimidating once they realized that I get paid for my writing and have been published and now Iโm with a dude that tells his friends that Iโm Twitter famous and that I know David Sedaris and heโs proud of me is insane and cool.
Your girl is trying something new to spice up the dating column that she has to write, so help me find a date? So hereโs the basics: Iโm 26. I live in Portland. I love reading, writing, drinking beer, Frasier, my cat Ramona, and bad reality television. Read more in the comments๐
I went to Lush a few weeks back, and felt like I really bonded on the cashier, so I slipped her my number (and told her that she absolutely didnโt need to text me if she didnโt want to; no pressure!) and she texted and we hung out for four hours yesterday and it was really nice๐ฅบ
@muunstar
@agoraphobia69
@alyssawaking
@chuggincorn
@nintendo6664
He apologized for everything. He said that he reminded me, and that he should have never said those things. Mind you, he was a chubby middle schooler so I doubt that things were good for him either. He said that he was grateful that I had reached out.
Oh God, the guy that Iโm going on a third date with just told me that he hiked 10 miles today.
Lord, give me strength. I donโt want to become someone who hikes.
Actually, I lied: 1/3! Iโm really proud of myself for doing all of this and obtaining my LLC too. I hope that youโre celebrate with me today ๐พif you have any questions, please let me know and Iโll answer them on my lunch break today! Happy reading!
@provii8
You act like plus size people donโt know what they look like. Instead of minding your own fucking business, you decided to put your nose into hers. Grow up.
@iSmashFizzle
Ashley, when I opened the package, I started blubbering โyouโ-got me anโAmerican Girl doll?โ And then, when we went to Chicago on our anniversary trip, we went to the big store and I got to see so many things! This is us eating in the cafe too! ๐
EDITORS: if youโre somehow interested in an op-Ed about how I spent my summer processing orders and sometimes cancelling orders for a lot of performative white women only for them to still vote for Donald Trump, let me know because my hands are ready and I am petty