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Alex DiFrancesco

@alessandrostardust.bsky.social

1.3K followers 800 following 1.8K posts

Author of All City, Transmutation, and Breaking the Curse. Dog & cat mama-papa. Vespa rider. Professional chef. Adjunct professor. Tarot reader. Extremely amateur boxing student. Former editor. (Profile pic by Casey Hansen Conan)

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · Mar 11

"Myself?
I long for love and light.
But must it come so cruel?
And oh so bright?"

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 17h

Haha, whoops, nevermind, it's in your bio!

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 17h

Where do you sell books? I worked at The Strand for yearrrrrrs (we didn't do many community events, tho, sadly).

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 17h

I also think it's not weird, and am thinking of doing it myself for future events, but just wanted to check in and see if others are like offended by it or anything!

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 17h

I'd rather get an email even if i couldn't go!

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 17h

Question for writer friends:
So many times I see a friend was in my city on tour after the fact, and I've missed the event already. Is it weird to email your friends in various cities asking them to come to your book event? I'd rather get an email than miss out.

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 1d

I never thought I'd take part in a beauty contest, but a local bar is running a vampire themed one, and while I'm an average human, I'm a smoking hot vampire.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

And it keeps a very important topic (financial privilege in the arts) from being taken seriously by anyone when it's employed this way.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

It's a shame because this is a legit topic, but it's also a dogwhistle for "why can't white men continue to dominate writing, we can be oppressed tooooooooo" sometimes.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

I am a writer from a working class background, but many times when I hear people talking about this topic, I am just reminded of the bad takes of some white cis het guy in my MFA who basically said it all the time because it wasn't socially acceptable to say "the minorities are taking my place."

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

There is no way to express that feeling of having a song summon a very vivid memory without sounding like a nostalgic sap, so I won't tell you about the memory I associate with the song "Helpless," but it always makes me cry.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

When I want to look professional, I manicure my beard. This is what manhood means to me.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

You know I was excited for my class visit yesterday because I trimmed my goatee instead of having random lone facial hairs waving at each other from across the vast, hairless expanse of my cheeks.

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

Fuck off, pos zionist troll. How's that for an answer?

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

😂🤣🤣

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

To celebrate a year of sobriety, I got myself an Overlook Hotel carpet patterned cardigan. Nerd nerd nerd.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

I truly don't get how a magazine that may or may not do this originated as part of and remained part for years of a much-reviled and ostracized magazine, but everyone just always gave them a pass anyway?

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

You don't get to pick and choose which humans have rights and still be a good guy.

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

Someone once told me "Gavin Newsom isn't perfect on every issue, but we have to work with him" but please tell me how i am supposed to "work with" political candidates if I'm dead/completely without basic human rights????

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

You're not going to get emails every day as a writer, but writing is such that you will move people in ways they want to communicate to you, whether they're agents, readers, editors, or other writers, and you should leave that avenue open if it's possible for you.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

Also, I am a firm believer that every author should have a website with an email address, and that every time you read something you love a lot, you should send a little note to the author if you can.

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

Today, I read a piece of writing about teaching writing that I loved so much that I immediately googled the author to find his website and email address to thank him for it, only to find out he has no website. Sean Cho A., if you're out there, that piece in The Rumpus was spectacular.

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Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

I read a bunch of student essays today and all were good, but some were so good that I was like PUBLISH THIS IMMEDIATELY.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

Then again, you can't wage a whole campaign against a private university that graduates a few hundred people a year, now, can you? You have to pretend it's a systemic issue.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 3d

It occurs to me that everything the right fears was basically my formative experience in life. But it doesn't happen on college campuses all over the country (as I learned from going to grad school), just tiny hippie campuses.

Alex DiFrancesco @alessandrostardust.bsky.social · 4d

Did a class visit at my undergrad today; good to see it hasn't changed!

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