Nicole Sune Sbitani
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nsune.bsky.social
Nicole Sune Sbitani
@nsune.bsky.social
Mostly microfiction, with little sprinkles of personality between. #amwriting #amreading Personal account, not representative of Department of State or USG.
My hand went #pale. At first, I thought my blood was draining but then I felt the heat. My skin glowed, and my hairs started to stand. I had to release it somehow! I clenched my fist and gathered the power in my palm. When I let go, five beams shot from my fingertips, singing the curtain.

#vss365
February 8, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
There is no one way to write a novel, only your way.
February 7, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
I'm in the last tenth of my novel, and I've been skipping around, writing the scenes I *know* before going back to write the scenes I struggled with. This is mostly thanks to @runwithskizzers.bsky.social, who posted that it's okay to do so, and I've been so much more productive because of it.
February 7, 2026 at 2:26 PM
Mom and Dad were fighting downstairs, and someone threw something.

The girl was tired of covering her ears. She #wound her special toy, twisting the shiny metal handle. When she let go, it teetered from leg to leg, walking forward, never back.

She followed it straight into another world.

#vss365
February 7, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
Yup. This is also why I get annoyed when people start suggesting "golden age" science fiction titles to people who are new the genre and are asking for suggestions. You want to turn a modern 15-year-old off science fiction forever, recommend stories that were old when her grandparents were her age.
When people ask how to get into GA SF I always say that the right way is via some of those fat "Best Of" short fiction collections
February 5, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
Every teen girl wants to read stories about it being the far future and yet it’s all just men named Johnson or Thompson smoking and rolling up their shirt sleeves, and talking about whether or not they’re going to see their mistress before the end of the world
February 6, 2026 at 4:22 AM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
groomers, abusers, and predators being tacitly accepted and protected by their social circles is not a rich people phenomenon

they're just doing it on private islands instead of the back of an Arby's kitchen
A lot of people are rightfully outraged that famous, important people continued to hang out with Jeff Epstein after he was convicted of serious sex crimes. I would posit, though, that 'maintaining social and business relationships with sex criminals' is extremely common behavior, regardless of class
February 5, 2026 at 6:09 AM
"I love you so much."
"I love you so much!"
"You could never leave me. #Ghost me, I dare you."
"You know? What a relief!"
"Holy shit, where did you go?"
"I'm here!"
"Why can't I see you?"
"Because... I'm a... isn't this what you asked for?"
"I..."
"...didn't mean that kind. I see that now."

#vss365
February 5, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
At the same time the Epstein Files are reinforcing how protected sexual abusers really are, Neil Gaiman is using the nightmarish sexual violence allegations against him to market his next book. His DARVO defense is the first selling point. Rape culture is everywhere and unavoidable.
February 2, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
neil gaiman watching the epstein news thought bubble "oh yeah that reminds me"
February 3, 2026 at 3:50 PM
"Take these pills to #soothe the child."
"Have these been tested on kids? What if they hurt her?"
"They'll hurt less than you both being thrown out an airlock because a crying baby gave you away."
"..."
"Sorry, there's no sugar coating the risks for a starship stowaway."

#vss365
February 3, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
I do believe in redemption. I believe that people can make mistakes, learn from them, and improve. But I also believe that there is work involved in self-improvement, whether it be therapy or redirection or...it's all therapy. It's just different ways of doing therapy. Humans are fancy animals.
February 3, 2026 at 5:17 PM
What would it take for you to trade your #soul? To save someone you love? No, that's not enough... To save a nation?

Ooh, now I see you're tempted!

You could give your people a homeland. End the war, begin the peace, and change the future forevermore... Just give me your one measly soul.

#vss365
February 2, 2026 at 8:20 PM
I step through the #shadow into a void. At the end of a vast expanse, I catch a pinprick of light. I sprint towards it, and as I get closer I see it's a portal back to my real life. I turn around and retreat back into the darkness. There must be another way.

#vss365
February 1, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
“The Machine Stops” (1909)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mac...
January 31, 2026 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
Authors, please talk about your books.

We needs breaks from the suck or we won't make it.
January 28, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
tag yourself i’m I AM MANOEUVRING WITH DIFFICULTY
January 29, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
As someone who wrote in 'snatched time' for many years, and still writes at the kitchen table, this resonates. (I gave up my office so my kids could have their own rooms.) I would love 'a room of one's own,' but for most people, and female caregivers in particular, that's just not possible.
Contrast this with Shirley Jackson:

“The actual act of taking pen to paper…occurred on snatched time, in common spaces. Jackson’s children recall her writing in the middle of baking, perched on a kitchen stool or wedged at a folding table in the dining room.”

Which takes the greater discipline?
January 29, 2026 at 5:37 PM
I #quiver on the edge and then jump, plunging alongside the waterfall. Streams pull away from the torrent and wrap themselves around me. I close my eyes to keep the dizziness at bay. When I open them again, I'm surrounded by rushing blue walls. I look down and the river has become an ocean.

#vss365
January 29, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
January 28, 2026 at 1:51 AM
I was ten years old when I discovered I could #bend. Way, way too young. Of course I wouldn't stick to spoons or twigs; I had to experiment. And that's how, one day, I accidentally folded spacetime.

#vss365
January 26, 2026 at 8:16 PM
"They have us surrounded! What now?"
"O ye of little faith." I twist a dial on my watch, and an explosion booms in the distance. The guards turn and run towards it, and our nostrils fill with the stench of burning flesh.
"Did you... kill them?"
"Of course not! It's just a #ruse. Now, run!"

#vss365
January 25, 2026 at 7:37 PM
This #drizzle is the worst! I was supposed to go apple picking today.

I clench my jaw and reach towards the window. When my fingertips touch the cool glass, the droplets stop and hang midair like pendalogues.

I gasp, pulling my hand away, and the rain resumes.

#vss365
January 24, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
plenty of folks can accurately pass along some bit of osint--ship tracking data, plane tracking data, notams, unit orders and so on--but extrapolating big conclusions from those is an exercise in audience-building, nothing more
January 19, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Nicole Sune Sbitani
very sincerely, please be aware that no one on social media, least of all massive accounts, is going to give you advance warning of u.s. miltary action except by accident

speaking assuredly about unknowable things drives traffic but you are better off going out and touching grass
January 19, 2026 at 4:18 PM