|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
A beautiful foggy run down to the ocean to start the day!
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
|
|
Matt Bell@mdbell79.bsky.social |
2877 followers 748 following 1914 posts
Writer, teacher. Out now: APPLESEED, a novel (2021, @marinerbooks). REFUSE TO BE DONE, a guide to novel revision (2022, @soho_press). He/him.
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
A beautiful foggy run down to the ocean to start the day!
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
My favorite UP brewery and their flagship beer!
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Thank you!
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Started my run on UCSD’s campus without a plan on where to go, ended up at an oceanside nature preserve. It’s truly magical to have the legs to make this sort of exploration happen whenever I travel.
1 replies 1 reposts 57 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
SPEAR has also been in my BRAIN this year. Thank you.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I own that too!
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I've been reading this book off and on all year and it's been one of the great pleasures of my 2024. (Sometimes you read a book fast, sometimes you read it slow, the pace has no bearing on how much enjoyment you derive from it. I'm always thinking about this one.)
3 replies 2 reposts 13 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Took a Lyft ride in a Tesla. Driver told me she's selling it because riders keep telling her EVs are an elite conspiracy to trap people in the city when the blackouts come. I walked her through the energy grid, solar panels and battery backups, and, you know, reality. Solved it!
1 replies 0 reposts 9 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Good god
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
San Diego brewery tour continues!
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
First day of my Clarion workshop complete! I walked around campus early this morning and saw this building and thought, I want to do whatever happens there! And guess what: that’s where Clarion meets! Made my day—as did the very talented group of writers I’m working with here!
2 replies 0 reposts 21 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I've got two emails scheduled for Monday morning: one sending a book to my agent; one breaking up with my therapist. Let's assume these two emails are unrelated.
0 replies 0 reposts 18 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Me too!
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Arrived in San Diego… and at Stone Brewery!
2 replies 1 reposts 30 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The guy next to me ordered the same beer as me. We’re pals! Whenever there’s a lull in his conversation with his wife, the guy turns to me and offers me one (1) fact about IPAs before figuring out the next thing he’d like to talk to his wife about. We’re on Lap 5 of this so far.
0 replies 0 reposts 11 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Just finished up a 43-mile week of running as my second week of recovery from my recent 53K race. My legs felt heavy today but my heart felt light. If that’s the trade running can offer today, I’ll take it.
0 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
It’s so fucking good.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
Christy, Butlerian Jihadist
@birdsaredinosaurs.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I once worked in an office with terrible morale. To address this problem, Management announced that we were getting a puppy. The puppy was coming at the end of the month. There was a contest to name the puppy. When the puppy arrived, it was a plushie that you had to go into the boss's office to hug
20 replies 42 reposts 211 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The Collapsing Frontier.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I love this Jonathan Lethem aside on being jealous of other writers’ publicity campaigns: “It was Bowman who joked to me that when he witnessed Donna Tart's rollout in Vanity Fair he thought, ‘Wow, I wish I had a novel out,’ and then, ‘Wait a minute, I do have a novel out!’”
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
A quick 10K jog in the desert to start the day!
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Amazing! So beautiful.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
So sorry to hear you’re dealing with that!
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Book #56 of 2024: MARGERY KEMPE by Robert Glück. I loved this bold, bizarre, erotic, holy book so much. “Heaven is the total presence at once of my self and my body. It's my own skin I travel towards—its entire arousal a homecoming, effortless freedom.”
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Ah, Independence Day! The sounds of leafblowers at dawn and illegal fireworks at dusk, the smell of democracy dying all day long. Time to put on my flag shirt and fire up the grill!
1 replies 0 reposts 15 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
With the humidity, it’s tough. Really can feel it sapping my strength.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
9+ miles and a lot of rocky climbing at South Mountain to start the day. Only 90 degrees before sunrise!
1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Me too! This one was spectacular.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Maybe an 11.3% barrel-aged altbier is the wrong celebratory beer to drink outside on a 111-degree day? (It’s so fucking good though.)
2 replies 0 reposts 9 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Hahaha
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Spent my entire day at this table, typing in one last round of edits to this novel from the final ("final") read I did at Writer Camp last week. Getting close. I hope!
2 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Book #55 of 2024: WORLD OF WONDERS by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. “It is this way with wonder: it takes a bit of patience, and it takes putting yourself in the right place at the right time. It requires that we be curious enough to forgo our small distractions in order to find the world.”
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Happy birthday, Kafka! "Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers."
1 replies 7 reposts 18 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I love that!
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
You too, friend! We need all the weird we can get!
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Which is to say: I have always pictured POV and narrative distance as a dial to be turned, but lately I've been feeling like there are more settings on the dial than I had previously imagined.
2 replies 0 reposts 12 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
One thing that's been true for a long time in my writing, but that seems to be becoming more true: I feel increasingly freed of the "rules" I was taught about point-of-view. It feels revelatory, but it's possible I have simply discovered how to sparingly use the omniscient POV?
1 replies 0 reposts 15 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I woke from a dream of a good sentence. Instead of writing it down, I fell sleep. I woke again with a clause missing. I still didn’t write it down. When I finally got up, I found I’d forgotten it all. Slumped on the edge of my bed, I cried, “I wrote such a beautiful sentence last night!”
0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
manualcinema.com/work/iron-wi...
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Thanks to Iron and Wine for an amazing Phoenix show, and to Manual Cinema for the stunning shadow puppetry backdropping the band. I was obsessed with the puppeteers' performance, some of which was done using an overhead projector, my new favorite "instrument" I've played live...
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I managed to have three sustained, deep conversations in person or on the phone with three of my favorite people before breakfast today. Pretty solid outcome of my early rising summer days.
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Really whacked me on the run today!
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Today is an errand/chore/social obligation day that will probably not leave much room for writing, but I did open my laptop, find my novel already up, and immediately fixed a typo I'd missed yesterday. It's not a big improvement to the whole but it keeps the writing streak alive!
1 replies 0 reposts 10 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
It’s the time of year where I’m trying to hit the trails at first light or earlier. Lots of rewards for the effort!
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
A two-hour run through monsoon season humidity, just to see another desert sunrise!
2 replies 1 reposts 8 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
First visit to the climbing gym! I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time. Bullied a stranger into being my partner, climbed some walls, only fell and maybe screamed a little once.
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Pretty fun to imagine!
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Looking for something else in my running app, I came across this screen: I apparently ran, walked, and hiked over 4,000 miles in the past year, according to my step count.
2 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Somehow I didn’t realize the Rubik’s Cube was named for a guy! Even though that’s obvious, seeing the name—but I probably never read it as a kid, only heard it. And it’s only 7 years older than me! My dad’s felt ancient and eternal; It sounds like treasure you’d find in D&D…
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Matt Bell
@mdbell79.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Scranton to DC.
0 replies 0 reposts 9 likes