LJ Pemberton
@ljabouttown.bsky.social
Writer's writer's writer.
📚 STILL ALIVE (2024), longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. https://tinyurl.com/y8mt536j
📚 STILL ALIVE (2024), longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. https://tinyurl.com/y8mt536j
Pinned
LJ Pemberton
@ljabouttown.bsky.social
· Jul 22
Periodic reminder that if you read my book and messaged me or made a bluesky posting about it, I'm eternally grateful, and would also be really appreciative of a quick review drop on Goodreads, Amazon, or LibraryThing. I wish these things didn't make such a difference, but they do!
I’ve got this Mets hat that I love but I’m afraid to wear it because someone might ask me about sports and all I know to say is “Man, the Mets. What a disappointment.”
February 15, 2026 at 6:57 PM
I’ve got this Mets hat that I love but I’m afraid to wear it because someone might ask me about sports and all I know to say is “Man, the Mets. What a disappointment.”
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
Try not to feel and live más
February 15, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Try not to feel and live más
Macbeth Supremacy
You may laugh, but the Macbeths are a much better role model for a marriage than Romeo and Juliet. They discuss their problems (killing the king of Scotland), share their hobbies (killing the king of Scotland), and resolve their conflicts (by killing the king of Scotland).
February 15, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Macbeth Supremacy
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply staggering
The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
February 15, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
The startup world has been unregulated futures trading for 30 years. Recently it’s morphed from a con game that had to eventually pan out with a real product (see: Theranos and WeWork) into a con game that never has to materially produce anything. The end goal is wealth stratification itself.
Feels like AI is a wealth transferring vehicle & viewing it through that lens helps me see why tech Barrons put so much effort behind selling AI as the most important thing CEO's better not get caught out on missing. All the while fearing the bubble bursting when we realize it's mostly hyperbole.
February 15, 2026 at 6:07 PM
The startup world has been unregulated futures trading for 30 years. Recently it’s morphed from a con game that had to eventually pan out with a real product (see: Theranos and WeWork) into a con game that never has to materially produce anything. The end goal is wealth stratification itself.
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
We will close out 2026 with an unclassifiable novel by @rogerjva.bsky.social, a magnificent writer who needs to be on more people’s radar!
malarkeybooks.com/store/inacce...
malarkeybooks.com/store/inacce...
The Inaccessible Rail, by Roger Vaillancourt — Malarkey
Publishing in October 2026. Preorder for a signed copy. The Inaccessible Rail , a novel by Roger Vaillancourt, is a set of complete thoughts that aspires to render a pointillist portrait of this new...
malarkeybooks.com
January 4, 2026 at 11:42 PM
We will close out 2026 with an unclassifiable novel by @rogerjva.bsky.social, a magnificent writer who needs to be on more people’s radar!
malarkeybooks.com/store/inacce...
malarkeybooks.com/store/inacce...
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
The Walls Are Closing In on Us is @trentbwrites.bsky.social’s first novel and we’re lucky to publish it. It’s first and foremost a good yarn, after that it is an exploration of American identity, the way you are able to be whoever you want to be, except/until…
malarkeybooks.com/store/thewal...
malarkeybooks.com/store/thewal...
The Walls Are Closing In On Us by Joshua Trent Brown — Malarkey
Preorder a signed copy. This book publishes on March 3, 2026 . In addition to the book, preorders will come with an issue of King Ludd’s Rag No. 20, featuring a short story by Joshua Trent Brown, ...
malarkeybooks.com
January 4, 2026 at 11:30 PM
The Walls Are Closing In on Us is @trentbwrites.bsky.social’s first novel and we’re lucky to publish it. It’s first and foremost a good yarn, after that it is an exploration of American identity, the way you are able to be whoever you want to be, except/until…
malarkeybooks.com/store/thewal...
malarkeybooks.com/store/thewal...
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
The truth is out there, they say. Terrestrial, a novella by @suzyeynon.bsky.social, makes you wonder if it is. Wherever you land, though, if you’ve ever been uncomfortable in your own skin this book is for you.
malarkeybooks.com/store/terres...
malarkeybooks.com/store/terres...
Terrestrial, a novella by Suzy Eynon — Malarkey
May 2026 Preorders will be signed by the author. Cover to come. In Terrestrial , Suzy Eynon’s fiction debut, seventeen-year-old Daisy wishes to escape the small desert town of Mountain Lake ...
malarkeybooks.com
January 4, 2026 at 11:21 PM
The truth is out there, they say. Terrestrial, a novella by @suzyeynon.bsky.social, makes you wonder if it is. Wherever you land, though, if you’ve ever been uncomfortable in your own skin this book is for you.
malarkeybooks.com/store/terres...
malarkeybooks.com/store/terres...
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
Take a gamble on Submarines, an episodic novel about a millennial fuckup in a deadend job who bets on baseball and doesn’t ever know what he’s doing. If you know @mikeandrelczyk.bsky.social you probably don’t need much convincing but trust me it’s good!
malarkeybooks.com/store/submar...
malarkeybooks.com/store/submar...
Submarines, a novel by Mike Andrelczyk — Malarkey
July 2026 Preorders will be signed by the author and shipped out in June/July 2026, accompanied by a bookmark and a bonus micro-chapbook of the author’s poetry. Broke, burned out and paranoid, the ...
malarkeybooks.com
January 4, 2026 at 11:04 PM
Take a gamble on Submarines, an episodic novel about a millennial fuckup in a deadend job who bets on baseball and doesn’t ever know what he’s doing. If you know @mikeandrelczyk.bsky.social you probably don’t need much convincing but trust me it’s good!
malarkeybooks.com/store/submar...
malarkeybooks.com/store/submar...
Have given up on taming my book piles.
February 15, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Have given up on taming my book piles.
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
If every inch of all your homes are filled with books, archive death will be forestalled.
A good bit of this is your fault Mr. @mattseybold.bsky.social because I keep learning about books. I have to read from your podcast.
February 15, 2026 at 3:51 PM
If every inch of all your homes are filled with books, archive death will be forestalled.
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
This early review is a drop of sunshine in an otherwise dark and stormy Jan/Feb. “Stitch takes the reader deeper into a book than any author has ever done before”. Deepest thanks. #books #booksky
My review of The Coast of Everything by @guillermostitch.bsky.social felcherman.wordpress.com/2026/02/15/t... Loved it, proper epic piece of work @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social #books
The Coast Of Everything by Guillermo Stitch
What Da Cover Says: “To find the center, begin at the edge . . . A daughter’s devotion parts her from her father. A dutiful soldier sentences his child to a loveless exile and her mother to madnes…
felcherman.wordpress.com
February 15, 2026 at 3:54 PM
We will never get the rich to care about the poor. But we can get the rich to care about being killed by the poor.*
*PS that’s the only thing that has ever worked.
*PS that’s the only thing that has ever worked.
February 15, 2026 at 3:48 PM
We will never get the rich to care about the poor. But we can get the rich to care about being killed by the poor.*
*PS that’s the only thing that has ever worked.
*PS that’s the only thing that has ever worked.
We already incarcerate more people than any other nation. This is what happens when you don’t close the slavery loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment. They want a slave economy again, and creating a criminal class of the population is how they intend to get it.
ICE Is Gearing Up to Build “Mega” Jails newrepublic.com/post/206591/... via @newrepublic.com
ICE Is Gearing Up to Build “Mega” Jails
ICE is planning on spending $38 billion on the project.
newrepublic.com
February 15, 2026 at 3:35 PM
We already incarcerate more people than any other nation. This is what happens when you don’t close the slavery loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment. They want a slave economy again, and creating a criminal class of the population is how they intend to get it.
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
Conservatives believe in social darwinism…right up until women can choose a mate. You know, the point where evolution might actually occur.
February 15, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Conservatives believe in social darwinism…right up until women can choose a mate. You know, the point where evolution might actually occur.
For the record, I have hated Pinker for 24 years, ever since I sniffed out the misogyny and self-congratulatory eugenics that infect every single thing he has published.
February 15, 2026 at 3:14 PM
For the record, I have hated Pinker for 24 years, ever since I sniffed out the misogyny and self-congratulatory eugenics that infect every single thing he has published.
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
Absolutely loved “Thunder From A Clear Blue Sky” by @justinwriter.bsky.social. A strange and haunting blend of speculative, time travel, geopolitics, and surreality. Extremely my shit. Check it out: bookshop.org/p/books/thun...
February 15, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Absolutely loved “Thunder From A Clear Blue Sky” by @justinwriter.bsky.social. A strange and haunting blend of speculative, time travel, geopolitics, and surreality. Extremely my shit. Check it out: bookshop.org/p/books/thun...
Okay if you’re in marketing, and/or especially trying to market your book or independent bookstore, here’s somewhere you can advertise, reach an engaged audience, and help save the free press at the same time:
nnpa.org/advertise-wi...
nnpa.org/advertise-wi...
February 15, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Okay if you’re in marketing, and/or especially trying to market your book or independent bookstore, here’s somewhere you can advertise, reach an engaged audience, and help save the free press at the same time:
nnpa.org/advertise-wi...
nnpa.org/advertise-wi...
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
“We prefer our personal tragedies, because we’re all cowards and bastards.”
— William T. Vollmann, Europe Central
— William T. Vollmann, Europe Central
February 15, 2026 at 2:51 PM
“We prefer our personal tragedies, because we’re all cowards and bastards.”
— William T. Vollmann, Europe Central
— William T. Vollmann, Europe Central
Toni Morrison talked about how much racism wastes time and I think about that every day right now, and how too misogyny wastes time, and how these right wing ghouls are stealing time from us, stealing futures, stealing attention.
We have to live to make them as irrelevant as their backwards ideas.
We have to live to make them as irrelevant as their backwards ideas.
February 15, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Toni Morrison talked about how much racism wastes time and I think about that every day right now, and how too misogyny wastes time, and how these right wing ghouls are stealing time from us, stealing futures, stealing attention.
We have to live to make them as irrelevant as their backwards ideas.
We have to live to make them as irrelevant as their backwards ideas.
Reposted by LJ Pemberton
"You can come back every day and see how it changes, how that fur and fat and meat and all that just goes away, and you’re left with a little pile of bones that don’t look like anything except bones." - Chuck Strange mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...
February 15, 2026 at 11:59 AM
"You can come back every day and see how it changes, how that fur and fat and meat and all that just goes away, and you’re left with a little pile of bones that don’t look like anything except bones." - Chuck Strange mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...
Another extra special thank you to everyone who has reviewed my book.
A Big Five editor I interviewed
“It’s impossible to get reviews. And the reviews you do get are not moving the needle. Literary fiction is review-driven. So if you're not getting reviews, or the reviews you’re getting are not getting eyes on them, it’s like, well, then what are you supposed to do?”
“It’s impossible to get reviews. And the reviews you do get are not moving the needle. Literary fiction is review-driven. So if you're not getting reviews, or the reviews you’re getting are not getting eyes on them, it’s like, well, then what are you supposed to do?”
February 15, 2026 at 12:26 PM
Another extra special thank you to everyone who has reviewed my book.
For Valentine’s, my spouse rubbed tiger balm all over my lower back, as requested. We’re romantic like that.
February 15, 2026 at 2:30 AM
For Valentine’s, my spouse rubbed tiger balm all over my lower back, as requested. We’re romantic like that.
Spouse: “Did you know that for $13 you can get a baby’s coffin full of fucked up chocolates from Rural King?”
February 15, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Spouse: “Did you know that for $13 you can get a baby’s coffin full of fucked up chocolates from Rural King?”