Lisa Thornton
@thorntonforreal.bsky.social
Writer, school nurse. Stories in SmokeLong, Necessary Fiction, Cincinnati Review+. Pushcart, Best Small Fictions & BotN noms. Wigleaf Top50 LL. Senior Flash Fiction Editor @JMWW. Lover of trains & due process. Cries easily.
lisathorntonwriter.com
🚫🧊
lisathorntonwriter.com
🚫🧊
Pinned
"I still look for milkweed. In the ditches on the side of the road and around the base of telephone poles."
"The Silk Inside a Milkweed Plant Can Carry the Seeds for Miles" by Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social
psalteryandlyre.org/2025/11/24/t...
"The Silk Inside a Milkweed Plant Can Carry the Seeds for Miles" by Lisa Thornton @thorntonforreal.bsky.social
psalteryandlyre.org/2025/11/24/t...
The Silk Inside a Milkweed Plant Can Carry the Seeds for Miles
by Lisa Thornton
psalteryandlyre.org
Much thanks to @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social for seeing something in this essay that is a little about belonging & identity, a little about milkweed, and a little about my dad 🙏💛
Did I start crying today when I received an obviously AI written email bc
1) I'm a Gemini ruled by the planet Mercury who lives to communicate
2) I'm a 4 on the Enneagram scale which it makes important to me to feel seen & understood (by people not robots)
or
3) It's Monday
1) I'm a Gemini ruled by the planet Mercury who lives to communicate
2) I'm a 4 on the Enneagram scale which it makes important to me to feel seen & understood (by people not robots)
or
3) It's Monday
January 6, 2026 at 2:29 AM
Did I start crying today when I received an obviously AI written email bc
1) I'm a Gemini ruled by the planet Mercury who lives to communicate
2) I'm a 4 on the Enneagram scale which it makes important to me to feel seen & understood (by people not robots)
or
3) It's Monday
1) I'm a Gemini ruled by the planet Mercury who lives to communicate
2) I'm a 4 on the Enneagram scale which it makes important to me to feel seen & understood (by people not robots)
or
3) It's Monday
Yesterday someone posted on here abt how boring this site is. Made me feel proud.
January 5, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Yesterday someone posted on here abt how boring this site is. Made me feel proud.
One deer and the crows overhead overheard our conversation abt dying alone, masters degrees, and emotional intelligence.
January 4, 2026 at 8:40 PM
One deer and the crows overhead overheard our conversation abt dying alone, masters degrees, and emotional intelligence.
Waking up to another war, we had peanut butter on sourdough. We watched a hawk eat a sparrow. We washed the sheets.
January 3, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Waking up to another war, we had peanut butter on sourdough. We watched a hawk eat a sparrow. We washed the sheets.
Bought my son a Book Nook for his birthday and now he can’t get me out of his room 🍜🐱
January 2, 2026 at 10:37 PM
Bought my son a Book Nook for his birthday and now he can’t get me out of his room 🍜🐱
There is nothing like the freedom of giving up on a story in its current form. Free to move paragraphs around now. Cut and rewrite and see a different story lurking within. A better one.
January 2, 2026 at 3:56 PM
There is nothing like the freedom of giving up on a story in its current form. Free to move paragraphs around now. Cut and rewrite and see a different story lurking within. A better one.
Chased the train home from the Mexican restaurant imagining a big butterfly net out the passenger window catching all the stars 💫
January 2, 2026 at 12:40 AM
Chased the train home from the Mexican restaurant imagining a big butterfly net out the passenger window catching all the stars 💫
Reposted by Lisa Thornton
Submissions Are Now Open!
We are reading Blended & Beyond, Flash Fiction, and Poetry now through January 15th. Send us your best!
We are reading Blended & Beyond, Flash Fiction, and Poetry now through January 15th. Send us your best!
Submissions Are Now Open!
We are reading Blended & Beyond, Flash Fiction, and Poetry now through January 15th. Send us your best!
jmwwblog.wordpress.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Submissions Are Now Open!
We are reading Blended & Beyond, Flash Fiction, and Poetry now through January 15th. Send us your best!
We are reading Blended & Beyond, Flash Fiction, and Poetry now through January 15th. Send us your best!
Waking up to all the journals open on Jan. 1 ✨
a girl in a red dress is standing in front of a green door in a room
Alt: A cartoon of a girl in a red dress spinning in a bedroom full of plants
media.tenor.com
January 1, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Waking up to all the journals open on Jan. 1 ✨
Making a casserole from the Christmas ham and watching the sky turn pink. I know it’s all made up, but I’m glad we get to start new every year 🥂
December 31, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Making a casserole from the Christmas ham and watching the sky turn pink. I know it’s all made up, but I’m glad we get to start new every year 🥂
Whenever I did something my mother didn't like, she would say who do you think you are? This is seared into me like a cattle brand. A scar of insecurity. Next year, I'd like to wear it as a decoration instead. Who do I think I am? Someone who is kind, who writes books, who tells the truth.
December 31, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Whenever I did something my mother didn't like, she would say who do you think you are? This is seared into me like a cattle brand. A scar of insecurity. Next year, I'd like to wear it as a decoration instead. Who do I think I am? Someone who is kind, who writes books, who tells the truth.
This is the best article I've read yet on writing about patients. There are so many stories I want to tell, but they are not mine. Or are they? If I strip them of identifiers, reassign them, blur them with other stories? Or do I leave them, untold.
lithub.com/how-i-learne...
lithub.com/how-i-learne...
How I Learned to Write About My Patients… Without Breaking Their Trust
I’m going to tell you a story. Winter, five years ago. My patient was 78 with bad emphysema. He used to fly planes before his breathing problems started, but now, even when he was feeling good, he …
lithub.com
December 31, 2025 at 3:03 AM
This is the best article I've read yet on writing about patients. There are so many stories I want to tell, but they are not mine. Or are they? If I strip them of identifiers, reassign them, blur them with other stories? Or do I leave them, untold.
lithub.com/how-i-learne...
lithub.com/how-i-learne...
The ground is frozen. The Subway by the highway closed for good. Only sparrows at the feeder today, but they count too.
December 30, 2025 at 10:01 PM
The ground is frozen. The Subway by the highway closed for good. Only sparrows at the feeder today, but they count too.
Last night I couldn’t sleep so I allowed myself to imagine getting everything I’ve ever wanted. And then even more-what else what else what else. Instead of lack, I ended up w a bounty of ideas.
December 29, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Last night I couldn’t sleep so I allowed myself to imagine getting everything I’ve ever wanted. And then even more-what else what else what else. Instead of lack, I ended up w a bounty of ideas.
Watching two pinecones cling to their tree from my bed. Tightly wound still, not ready to drop. But the wind is shaking the branches back and forth in gusts like a drunken person stumbling. Hang on!
December 29, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Watching two pinecones cling to their tree from my bed. Tightly wound still, not ready to drop. But the wind is shaking the branches back and forth in gusts like a drunken person stumbling. Hang on!
Reposted by Lisa Thornton
Encouraging words & peek behind the curtain
2025: A Year in Review by Olga Katsovskiy
I keep returning to this quiet truth: you don't need a long list to justify your year or measure your worth.
I keep returning to this quiet truth: you don't need a long list to justify your year or measure your worth.
2025: A Year in Review by Olga Katsovskiy
I keep returning to this quiet truth: you don't need a long list to justify your year or measure your worth.
jmwwblog.wordpress.com
December 29, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Encouraging words & peek behind the curtain
Encouraging words & peek behind the curtain
2025: A Year in Review by Olga Katsovskiy
I keep returning to this quiet truth: you don't need a long list to justify your year or measure your worth.
I keep returning to this quiet truth: you don't need a long list to justify your year or measure your worth.
2025: A Year in Review by Olga Katsovskiy
I keep returning to this quiet truth: you don't need a long list to justify your year or measure your worth.
jmwwblog.wordpress.com
December 29, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Encouraging words & peek behind the curtain
Hunkered down at Dad’s until the tornadoes blew over. Now the clouds are stretched dark & low over the fields w the sun peeking between from a bright pink layer above.
December 28, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Hunkered down at Dad’s until the tornadoes blew over. Now the clouds are stretched dark & low over the fields w the sun peeking between from a bright pink layer above.
I need a shirt that says It Was Nice to See You, I’m Going to Go Home Now and Attribute the Intimate Details of Your Life to One of my Fictional Characters
December 28, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I need a shirt that says It Was Nice to See You, I’m Going to Go Home Now and Attribute the Intimate Details of Your Life to One of my Fictional Characters
I wish this gift wasn’t so perfect
December 27, 2025 at 9:45 PM
I wish this gift wasn’t so perfect
I have a longer story that I like but it needs something. I think my main guy is too nice. I think he needs to toughen up. I think, in fact, he needs to get punched in the face.
December 27, 2025 at 3:15 PM
I have a longer story that I like but it needs something. I think my main guy is too nice. I think he needs to toughen up. I think, in fact, he needs to get punched in the face.
Went to the noodle place in the VFW. They were playing The Head and the Heart & I sat stunned. Why? asked my son & I heard myself say sometimes an era starts & you don't know it's starting & then it ends & you don't see it ending so when you're reminded of it that's when you realize it happened 👵
December 26, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Went to the noodle place in the VFW. They were playing The Head and the Heart & I sat stunned. Why? asked my son & I heard myself say sometimes an era starts & you don't know it's starting & then it ends & you don't see it ending so when you're reminded of it that's when you realize it happened 👵
Every year around this time, I remember grace. I remember I can forgive & still distance myself from pple for my own good. I remember how that makes me feel big & open instead of tight & closed. How recognizing the limitations of pple who have wronged me as I mind my own business feels weightless.
December 26, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Every year around this time, I remember grace. I remember I can forgive & still distance myself from pple for my own good. I remember how that makes me feel big & open instead of tight & closed. How recognizing the limitations of pple who have wronged me as I mind my own business feels weightless.
A new cookbook is a book of dreams. A collection of step by step guides to the next person you’ll be. A person who makes fettuccine alfredo without cream. Who whips up cold hoisin & ginger noodles. A person who understands umami and gnocchi and spaetzle.
December 25, 2025 at 8:49 PM
A new cookbook is a book of dreams. A collection of step by step guides to the next person you’ll be. A person who makes fettuccine alfredo without cream. Who whips up cold hoisin & ginger noodles. A person who understands umami and gnocchi and spaetzle.
Jumbo wall thermometer & plastic rain gauge pushing me two steps closer to my analog farm life dream 🎄🎁 👩🌾
December 25, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Jumbo wall thermometer & plastic rain gauge pushing me two steps closer to my analog farm life dream 🎄🎁 👩🌾