Dylan Morrison
LightNews LightNews
banner
dylanthyme.bsky.social
Dylan Morrison
@dylanthyme.bsky.social
520 followers 180 following 210 posts
Queer romcom author, snack connoisseur, Terry Pratchett enthusiast, neurotic optimist. 🎥 RECIPE FOR TROUBLE 🍳 and 🍎 FALL INTO YOU 🌳 available now! https://www.dylanmorrison.net/
Posts Replies Media Videos
dylanthyme.bsky.social
well, it's happened. i've been caught by my mailman pacing around on my porch in a fluffy robe trying to work out a plot point. little did my child self know, when he watched the princess diaries, that he would grow up to become this comic relief side character named for cough syrup
A still from 'The Princess Diaries' featuring the character Mr. Robutussin. You know, the next door neighbor writer guy? With the weird trashcans? Always wearing a robe? Scribbling frenetically and unsettling his neighbors? The brother of my very soul, as it turns out
November 3, 2025 at 5:33 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
okay so while recipe for trouble def has a ~holiday vibe, it's... actually also a halloween book? LOOK HALLOWEEN IS A HOLIDAY. a holiday i love!! 🎃 👻 🧙‍♀️!! and as such, IN recipe for trouble you will find a halloween PARTY, and halloween COSTUMES, and, of course, halloween whatever-you'd-call-this:
“The next several hours are, honestly, a bit grueling. Ben was expecting his frustration to mount as he watches Pete, but instead Ben finds what swells within him is sympathy. The man has simply got problems; now that Ben knows how Pete usually cooks, and without any cuts for him to hide in, it’s a lot harder to find it funny. Or, well. Okay. It is still… pretty funny. Ben feels guilty about it, but—there are moments, in spite of the strange knot of fellow feeling that seems to have sprouted in his chest since he last did this a week and a half ago, where he can’t help but let out a little laughter. Pete’s stupidly handsome face is so unusually expressive, for one thing, seeming to go rubbery with comical shock or dismay as he drops, spills, trips, and otherwise clatters his way around the kitchen he’d moved so easily in this morning. He’s making a Halloween cocktail and appetizer; the appetizer is a..." Excerpt From Recipe for Trouble Dylan Morrison “seven-layer dip with a spiderweb drawn on top in sour cream, although if one counted the layers Pete attempts to make, screws up, and grimly throws away, it would be more like a twenty-five-layer dip. But the drink—it’s a blueberry spritzer, and there must be some note somewhere that Pete needs to refer to it as a “Boo-Berry” spritzer, because between every actual take, captured on the long reel of uncut footage, is Jaelyn gently saying, “Okay, Pete, that was good, but could you try actually saying ‘Boo-Berry’ this time?” But it becomes apparent, as the footage rolls on, that Pete cannot say “Boo-Berry.” Pete can say “blueberry,” and “blowberry,” and “blackberry,” and “boysenberry,” and “gooseberry,” and “bloo-bluh,” and several creative swear words, none of which sound like the word “Boo-Berry” at all. The frustration is obviously getting to him; on what has to be his thirtieth attempt to spit the pun out of his mouth, Pete’s composure snaps, and waving his knife in the air like a madman, he all but shrieks, “Blueberry—whoberry—whyberry! Why are we even doing a blueberry cocktail, blueberries aren’t even in season, no one has ever! In history! Thought, ‘Wow, it’s Halloween, I better have some “Boo-Berry” juice’—oh my God, tell me I didn’t finally get it right in that totally unusable take?” This, as it turns out, proves to be Ben’s breaking point as well, and he throws his head back and loses it laughing in spite of himself.” Excerpt From Recipe for Trouble Dylan Morrison “He has to pause the footage for a second to calm down and wipe his eyes, only to crack up again when, a few minutes later, Jaelyn appears in frame, glares, and grimly mouths, “No cuts, huh?” into the camera. But actually, when Ben gets to the end of the footage, he opens up the email she sent him and types a quick reply: Haha. You owe me $20. He doesn’t regret the “no cuts” call at all. Pete’s—bad, still, of course, abominably bad, and it’s harder to watch than the last round because sometimes, between attempts at demonstrating very basic cooking skills that Ben is now sure he could typically do drunk and half-dead and with his eyes closed, he looks truly wretched. It must, Ben can’t help but think, be incredibly frust-" Excerpt From Recipe for Trouble Dylan Morrison “rating for him, to so abruptly be unable to access this skill that seems to be woven into his bedrock most of the time. But the lack of cuts helps. Pete is still comically awful, awkward and forgetting what he’s doing and ruining so many different dip layers that even Ben loses track of them. Even something as simple as guacamole proves a challenge: Somehow he manages to drown the first batch in so much lime juice that it’s inedibly sour, oversalt the second round beyond the point of saving, and, without realizing it, accidentally dump so much cayenne pepper into the third that it renders the next fifteen minutes of footage borderline unusable, since it’s just Pete jumping around in anguish, drinking water, drinking milk, panting, drinking more milk, cursing the heavens, and glaring at the bottle of cayenne pepper as though he intends to remember its sins here today. Still, though, he’s not as bad as he was, by the end of that first round of footage. Even in his haze of semi-drunk self-righteousness, Ben had not used any of the last half hour of what was sent for the initial video. It had felt wrong, too personal. Even if Pete had been affecting his camera-triggered incompetence, which Ben now knows he was not, those last thirty minutes would have been him reaching a place within himself that Ben can’t imagine anyone wanting broadcast out to the internet. His nervousness, or stage fright, or whatever you wanted to call it, had become so bad after hours and hours of hearing “Cut! Reset to go again!” that he was truly barely coherent. On his first watch Ben had turned it off, wincing, when Pete said, “It—that’s—kale! The salad!” and then blinked blankly into the camera as though trying to remember why, exactly, that wasn’t an appropriate sentence.” Excerpt From Recipe for Trouble Dylan Morrison
October 31, 2025 at 6:17 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
we can't get back the men we've 'lost' to these horrific ideologies because we never had them in the first place. it's been 84 years but dorothy thompson still says it best at the end of 'who goes nazi," which you should read if you haven't. the link: harpers.org/archive/1941... . the quote:
Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes—you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis. Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them. Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t—whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi. It’s an amusing game. Try it at the next big party you go to.
October 21, 2025 at 11:16 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
for pratchett fans, a related quote and a related passage, which are from separate works, but at their best together. the quote, from sir terry's forward to the ultimate encyclopedia of fantasy: "stories of imagination tend to upset those without one." and the passage, from hogfather:
“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable." REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—" YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. "So we can believe the big ones?" YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING. "They're not the same at all!" YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET — Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED. "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point — “ MY POINT EXACTLY.
October 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
if you're going to start an awkward convo -- one that risks putting the other party in an uncomfortable position -- it's on you to make sure they're not trapped first. not in a moving car! at their job! mid-MRI! etc. human dignity lives in everyone being able to follow the pictured advice as needed
The original HIT DA BRICKS meme. Features a walking skeleton over the words "JUST WALK OUT. you can leave!!! work, social thing, movies, home, class, dentist, clothes shoppi, too fancy weed store, cops if your quick, friend ships. IF IT SUCKS... HIT DA BRICKS. real winners quit"
October 17, 2025 at 11:00 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
RECIPE FOR TROUBLE is OUT TODAY! in ebook/audio/print a.co/d/ee50VJW! but you can also find it via bookshop.org, b&n, libro.fm, many places! talking up my own work is not an area of strength! i hope you enjoy my loving queer homage to the golden age of romcoms in this trying time!
An ereader on top of a cutting board against a green checkered towel. The screen shows the cover of Recipe for Trouble by Dylan Morrison, which features two men cooking against a dark periwinkle background. A 5-star reader review! 'One of the top non-spicy MM romances I've read over the last year. I loved this book! It warmed my heart.' There's also a small image of the cover of Recipe for Trouble by Dylan Morrison, which features two men cooking against a dark periwinkle background. A 5-star reader review! 'This book should absolutely be savoured, mouthful by delicious mouthful, but I've never had much restraint and so I just gobbled it right up in two days and I do not regret my life choices.' There's also a small image of the cover of Recipe for Trouble by Dylan Morrison, which features two men cooking against a dark periwinkle background. A 5-star reader review! 'An utterly compelling, emotionally layered, highly original romance, which manages to be both laugh-out-loud funny and heartache-inducing.' There's also a small image of the cover of Recipe for Trouble by Dylan Morrison, which features two men cooking against a dark periwinkle background.
October 16, 2025 at 8:05 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
thank you so much!! my writing process is best encapsulated by the comic below (haha! 🫠) so it always THRILLS me to hear i have PRODUCED LAUGHS 💜 i hope the rest brings you similar joy!!
A 15 panel comic by artist Tom Gould. It shows a writer typing, thinking "Haha. This is funny." Over the next several panels they begin to experience doubt, thinking "Maybe not hilarious, but funny." And then, "It is sort of funny." And then, "It seemed funny when I thought of it." And then, "Maybe it's not funny." And then, "No, it IS funny." And then, "I'm really very sure it's funny." And then, "Definitely." In the last image we see of the writer, they are sitting pensively and saying nothing, obviously still unsure. In the final panel of the comic, however, we see the reader holding the book and saying simply, "Haha."
October 13, 2025 at 10:58 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
TWO! DAYS! TIL BOOK DAY! let me take you away from all this (the stresses and horrors of the dystopian present) to a better place (still full of stresses and horrors, but only for the characters, and with much lower stakes). excerpt so you can give it a vibe check! geni.us/1204-al-aut-am
"The guy in the video—Pete—is handsome in that relaxed, unin‐ tentional way Ben associates with people who had a great time in high school. There’s something about him that’s almost familiar, and he looks older than Ben, in probably his early thirties. His dark wavy hair, faded tight on the sides and left longer on top, clearly just lies that way, in the sort of easy dishevelment no one can pull o$ when they’re trying. As if all that wasn’t enough, he’s broad shouldered and well muscled—not a full gym rat like Ben some‐ times pulls on Grindr, but de!nitely visibly toned. It’s a look Ben associates with rock climbers, although admittedly that may be situational bias, because he is also wearing the type of T-shirt-with- sleeves-cut-o$ Ben associates with rock climbers. However, the idiot has distinguished himself from the pack by electing to do this to a shirt with Ask Me About Canned Beans scrawled across the front in a gigantic, hideous font. And Pete is, above anything else, an idiot. Sure—he’s a little bit hot. Ben can admit that to himself, here in the safe anonymity of the New York City subway system, where anything could happen and does, every day. Pete is a little bit hot. That doesn’t make it okay that somehow, despite having presumably been a talented enough chef to land one of the coveted, cushy positions as a Gastronome test cook, he has produced what has to be the single worst collection of cooking footage ever created by man. “Hi!” Pete says, waving at the camera, in the !rst take. But he's" "holding a spoon in his waving hand, and it goes !ying and hits someone nearly out of frame in the back of the head, and they yelp, and someone else o" camera yells “CUT.” With no pause for recovery, it’s the next take, and Pete says, “Hi! I’m Pat,” and then, “Wait, no I’m not,” and then, nervously, like he’s not quite sure it’s the right answer, “Pete? I’m… Pete.” They cut again, and then it’s the hideous take after that, in which Pete holds up a bunch of greens and says, “This is kelp—kelp—KALE. Good God. But could we make it with kelp, do you think? I never thought about kelp— aw, wait, these are collards, actually. Uh. Are we still rolling?” Ben misses his train. It goes whooshing by as Pete very earnestly tells the viewers that he thinks everyone can learn to cook while, next to him, a piece of notebook paper that clearly reads, DEAR PETE, REMEMBER: BUY TARRAGON, TOILET PAPER. NO MORE HOISIN! LOVE PETE inches towards the stove. It catches $re at the same moment Ben realizes that it’s a local 1 train pulling away, and he releases a little gasp of surprised annoyance in the exact moment that Pete does on-screen. That disquieting moment of similarity is enough to get Ben to close the computer. He tells himself he’s not going to open it again until he has his mysterious mixed drink in his hand to dull the pain but only lasts $ve minutes before he $nds himself reaching for the laptop again. An express 2 train chooses that exact moment to turn up, running as always on a secret schedule known only to itself, which is all that saves Ben from spending the next several hours on the platform. Instead, he spends the standing-room-only ride back to his apartment stewing about the video, and how on earth Pete even got a job, and how on earth he, Ben, is supposed to do his job and edit this nightmare into watchable content." The Recipe for Trouble cover (two men cooking together against a periwinkle background) displayed on an ereader, sitting on top of a cutting board and a green gingham towel. Blue text on a yellow circle to the right of the ereader reads "PRE-ORDER NOW."
October 13, 2025 at 10:24 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
does being trans in the US Right Now, w/ a queer romcom out in 2 weeks, feel like inching closer to a woodchipper in a clown costume? SURE. does this make it impossible to write promo posts? YES! am i forcing myself to throw my preorder link here before i 🧵 about this? BARELY: geni.us/1204-al-aut-am
COMING 16 OCTOBER 2025 [Image of blue book cover, Recipe for Trouble by Dylan Morrison, featuring two men cooking against a green backdrop with sparkles.]
September 30, 2025 at 9:20 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
(the above delivered with utmost respect for both the post below, which will never leave me as long as i live, and for the wayback machine which allowed me to find it again in the benighted present lmao)
A screenshot of a tweet from 7 Sep 2019 from user MALTSCHLITZMANN that reads "bro no bro don't make a gallant entrance by slicing down the mainsail with a dulled knife. bro we need that mainsail for sailing. bro you've becalmed us in the sargasso. bro i wish you had considered the ramifications of your actions ONCE bro. PLEASE."
September 29, 2025 at 6:28 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
this whole piece is deeply worth reading and sharing, especially with the centrist dems and liberals in your life, but this penultimate graf really sums it up. you just can't play these kinds of games with people's lives.
Screenshot of a paragraph pulled from the linked article: "The implication here seems to be that Democrats can turn a big dial that says “transphobia” on it to some ideal level—that there’s a sweet spot of anti-trans discrimination that everyone can be content with. (Everyone, presumably, except trans people themselves.) But the events of the past year should have put that idea to rest. Democrats and centrists have been distancing themselves from trans people—indeed, top Democratic figures like Chuck Schumer will barely say the word “trans”—and the only forces that have benefited are the forces of anti-trans fascism. You can’t just play these kinds of games with people’s lives."
September 25, 2025 at 1:32 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
it seems there's no non-weird time to do this in 2025 but the posts must go on, so: i have new book, RECIPE FOR TROUBLE, coming out next month! it's available now on netgalley and for preorder! it's full of laughs and queer joy! but, FAIR WARNING, it may make you hungry 🤤 geni.us/1204-al-aut-am
The Recipe For Trouble cover, which features two dark haired men cooking a pot of soup, displayed on an ebook next to two bowls of soup and the words PRE-ORDER NOW. The Recipe For Trouble cover, which features two dark haired men cooking a pot of soup, displayed on an ebook against a yellow background printed with cooking utensils, and the words REQUEST NOW ON NETGALLEY.
September 11, 2025 at 2:00 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
ME THIS MORNING: oooo i think had a really wild dream last night! and if i remember right, it was such a cool one that i actually wrote it down in the little notebook i keep by the bed and never remember to use! let's see what my dreams had to say
ME LAST NIGHT, HELPFULLY:
An open notebook page on which the words "Bats - cute but scary" are scrawled in the messy and borderline unreadable scrawl of the mostly asleep.
July 26, 2025 at 1:47 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
BOOK DAY! BOOK DAY! By which I mean, FALL INTO YOU, my first M/M romance novel, is out RIGHT NOW in ebook, print and audiobook!! If you are perhaps seeking a story that is WARM and UPLIFTING and QUEER in these trying times, i'd be thrilled and honored if you gave mine a shot 💜
An image of a Kindle displaying the Fall Into You cover with granny smith apples and a green towel against the left hand side. A 5-star reader review: "This book is like a warm hug and a therapy session rolled into one. The final chapter is one of the most beautiful I've read in a long time."
June 18, 2025 at 3:25 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
And hey, if you're on NetGalley and would be interested in reading/reviewing a few weeks ahead of the June 18th release, I'd be thrilled and honored for you to take a look! You can request a copy right here www.netgalley.co.uk/catalog/book... 💜
An image of the Fall Into You cover on an e-reader, against a backdrop of red, illustrated apples.
June 3, 2025 at 7:18 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
Speaking of Fall Into You, did you know that it's available for preorder? And that you can click through to do that right here? And that it's a truth universally acknowledged that ordering one of their books is amongst the very best birthday gifts you can get for a writer? geni.us/1201-al-aut-am
An image of the Fall Into You cover on a Kindle, with granny smith apples in the background.
June 3, 2025 at 7:17 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
HI AGAIN. Today is my 36th birthday, and because life is both cool and weird, it's also the birthday of the cover of Fall Into You! To say I'm obsessed with it would be an understatement -- the COLORS! the STYLE! my BOYS! -- and I hope you like it as much as I do 🍏💜🍎
A blue book cover with yellow font reading "FALL INTO YOU" and an illustration of the two main characters -- one blonde man in flannel, one dark-haired man in a sweater -- leaning against an apple tree.
June 3, 2025 at 7:16 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
another year, another glorious 25th of may. hard to know what to say in these punishingly interesting times, but i remain absolutely all in on truth, freedom, justice, reasonably priced love, and a hard boiled egg. gnu terry pratchett.
One of the hardest lessons in young Sam's life had been finding out that the people in charge weren't in charge. It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people made instead of thinking. -Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
May 25, 2025 at 2:45 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
hi hello, me again! so excited to say 🍎 FALL INTO YOU 🍎 is officially available for preorder! is this image the real cover? NO, the real cover is IN PROGRESS, i can't wait to show you. but the words are a REAL SUMMARY of what to expect from this book! tinyurl.com/4j8by39k / tinyurl.com/4nzwwv54
"Fall Into You" temporary holding cover. It's text on an off white background, reading "Final Cover Coming Soon / Fall into You / Dylan Morrison." Black text on white background, reading: "Nearly twenty years ago, Will Robertson ran out on his destiny, leaving his family farm and everything he was supposed to become behind. So when he's forced back to small-town Glenriver, Ohio and finds the farm's irritatingly handsome manager Casey Reeves living more happily in his childhood home than he ever did, it's only natural that they hate each other immediately. Will's plan is simple: sell his late father's apple farm and get back to his carefully constructed life in Chicago. But when a collapsed bridge strands him in Glenriver with Casey, "simple" goes right out the window – along with Will's determination to keep his distance from both his past and the man right in front of him. Between corporate vultures circling, long-buried family secrets coming to light, and the undeniable spark growing between them, Will and Casey will have to decide if some things really are worth fighting for… and if two people who seem totally wrong for each other might actually be exactly right."
April 28, 2025 at 7:12 PM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
turns out the trick to good pickles is in fact to make them in your most entertaining jar
A jar of homemade pickles. The jar itself is being repurposed and reads, "CREAM-NUT Smooth Natural Peanut Butter"
March 19, 2025 at 12:45 AM
dylanthyme.bsky.social
power’s out;
A green hat with the words “goblin mode” embroidered on it in yellow sits on a desk. In front of it is in front of a little camping lantern, which illuminates the hat in the dark room. Behind the hat and lantern you can see a small plastic avocado, a stack of books, some yarn and pens and other desk detritus.
August 8, 2023 at 12:46 AM