Kameron Hurley's Blog

I was alive in the 90s when Clinton pushed NAFTA (it had been passed years before but Dems refused to ratify it!). It destroyed local economies, undercut worker power and wages locally, exploited workers in other countries, and made rich people richer:

That’s a reality the far left AND the far right can agree on.

Of course, there’s a destructive way to fix NAFTA and a LESS destructive way:

I use this example because I often see camps decide that whatever person x does i...

The GET TO WORK HURLEY podcast is a monthly rant about the hustle of making a living as a writer of All of the Things. You can support this podcast each month as a Patron or make a one-time donation.

EPISODE THIRTY-FIVE: Premee Mohamed joins Kameron to talk about her latest book One Message Remains, her busy (four books!) 2024 publishing schedule and starting in short stories, the importance of hydration, and much more.. Listen below or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, or iHeart. (NOTE: Patr...

This is a great long thread about strategies for coping with uncertainty. It touches on similiar strategies I’ve talked about here and elsewhere about how to navigate a world where every step you take feels like trying to navigate a sea of quicksand. I learned a lot the first time round when we had a mad administration. This time I had a plan in place: and it has WORKED.

It was:

When discussing this strategy I’ve run into a lo...

The GET TO WORK HURLEY podcast is a monthly rant about the hustle of making a living as a writer of All of the Things. You can support this podcast each month as a Patron or make a one-time donation.

EPISODE THIRTY-FOUR: Madeline Ashby joins Kameron to talk about her latest book Glass Houses, how visiting IKEA is like writing a book, why Letterkenny is gothic, and much, much more. Listen below or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, or iHeart. (NOTE: Patreon subscribers get access to the unedite...

The GET TO WORK HURLEY podcast is a monthly rant about the hustle of making a living as a writer of All of the Things. You can support this podcast each month as a Patron or make a one-time donation.

EPISODE THIRTY-FOUR: Madeline Ashby joins Kameron to talk about her latest book Glass Houses, how visiting IKEA is like writing a book, why Letterkenny is gothic, and much, much more. Listen below or Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, or iHeart. (NOTE: Patreon subscribers get access to the unedite...

I’ve found comfort the last 10 years in looking back at historical comparisons of the last few hundred years in our history. The liklihood that I’ll survive a prolonged disruption of supply chains and civil unrest is of course quite low (I’m dead in 48 hours without meds) but knowing humans just… Become seething, mad monsters, for some reason, in cycles, produces a ritual-like soothing effect in me, like watching the passage of the seasons. Humans are emergent systems. When we get ourselves rile...

It’s a Brave New World at the day job today. Yesterday’s events 100% supported my decision to base story squad dynamics on my former team. You write your catharsis. (I do, anyway). I’ve always been better at processing emotion through storytelling than, say, therapy. It IS my therapy.

While it’s true that you can’t make inferences about an author’s private life based on what or who they write about, I’ll say we all DO have core emotional or trope-specific themes that one can probably make SOM...

Spent time last night on character work for my squad timeline in new #wip. “Using my difficulties” from work – smashing together personalities, reimagining petty squabbles. I know at least one author who turned tumultuous day job-inspired drama and team dynamics into a bestseller. So why not?

I think this round gets me to the point where I have enough interpersonal drama to start building the main plot around it. Squad dynamics in my books are one of the most fun things to do, and the books d...

Working on getting back into new book this week. Last week’s chaotic day job ate headspace. As I discovered last few months with last book, getting deep into Weird Novel headspace is fabulous way to spend These Times. I want to get grounded into this one more. Trying to think what made last click.

A lot of the process there was figuring out what the book was ABOUT. I thought for a long time it was about these three women in an abusive relationship who betray each other. And it IS that. But it...

This was an exceptionally stressful week at work, and I am here to remind everyone (and myself!), once again, to give everyone a little grace in our everyday lives this year of all years. Stress and uncertainty are endemic across personal and professional lives. People’s houses are literally on fire.

My job has an office in Florida, and we had colleagues who went through two back to back hurricanes. We’ve had a year and a half of rolling layoffs. The job market is a battlefield. And yes, I we...