Jo Conklin Author
@joconklin.com
I write kissing books! (And sometimes murder and magic books). Rep’d by Leah Pierre at Ladderbird Literary. JoConklin on most socials. Black Lives Matter 🏳️⚧
https://linktr.ee/joconklin
https://linktr.ee/joconklin
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Jo Conklin Author
@joconklin.com
· Nov 14
Hey there newskies!
Quick intro:
📚 I write romcoms, urban fantasies, and witchy murder mysteries, and read widely across a lot of genres.
✨old, fat, AuDHD, queer, transmasc, alt text enthusiast, social cognitive psychology nerd
⛔️ TERFs, SWERFs, gen AI fans, “All Lives” and crypto bros can GTFO
Quick intro:
📚 I write romcoms, urban fantasies, and witchy murder mysteries, and read widely across a lot of genres.
✨old, fat, AuDHD, queer, transmasc, alt text enthusiast, social cognitive psychology nerd
⛔️ TERFs, SWERFs, gen AI fans, “All Lives” and crypto bros can GTFO
Me: I can’t tell if the Tylenol and Ibuprofen are helping at all with my surgery recovery. I’m going to just stop taking them and see what happens.
Me, 12 hours later: Oh my god why is everything so swollen and sore?? I have no explanation for this 😭
Me, 12 hours later: Oh my god why is everything so swollen and sore?? I have no explanation for this 😭
January 8, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Me: I can’t tell if the Tylenol and Ibuprofen are helping at all with my surgery recovery. I’m going to just stop taking them and see what happens.
Me, 12 hours later: Oh my god why is everything so swollen and sore?? I have no explanation for this 😭
Me, 12 hours later: Oh my god why is everything so swollen and sore?? I have no explanation for this 😭
It’s a new year and Da Youts online are once again exploring the “one neat trick” of defrosting an iced-over windshield with hot water. As a Michigander let me assure you there is about a fifty-fifty chance the thermal shock will badly crack or shatter your windshield.
January 6, 2026 at 10:39 PM
It’s a new year and Da Youts online are once again exploring the “one neat trick” of defrosting an iced-over windshield with hot water. As a Michigander let me assure you there is about a fifty-fifty chance the thermal shock will badly crack or shatter your windshield.
Surgical drains came out today! And after a lifetime of slouching to hide my height, then slouching to hide my chest and binder, I found myself walking tall out of that surgeon’s office. Shoulders back. Chin up. Centered in self and body. Newly me. 🏳️⚧️
January 5, 2026 at 10:19 PM
Surgical drains came out today! And after a lifetime of slouching to hide my height, then slouching to hide my chest and binder, I found myself walking tall out of that surgeon’s office. Shoulders back. Chin up. Centered in self and body. Newly me. 🏳️⚧️
I managed to end the year with a five star read, and I hope that’s a good sign for 2026!
Bolu Babalola’s Sweet Heat (and the first book Honey and Spice) belong on your TBR. They’re both exquisite, but Sweet Heat stomped all over my heart and then healed it back up again. A master class in yearning.
Bolu Babalola’s Sweet Heat (and the first book Honey and Spice) belong on your TBR. They’re both exquisite, but Sweet Heat stomped all over my heart and then healed it back up again. A master class in yearning.
December 31, 2025 at 11:48 PM
I managed to end the year with a five star read, and I hope that’s a good sign for 2026!
Bolu Babalola’s Sweet Heat (and the first book Honey and Spice) belong on your TBR. They’re both exquisite, but Sweet Heat stomped all over my heart and then healed it back up again. A master class in yearning.
Bolu Babalola’s Sweet Heat (and the first book Honey and Spice) belong on your TBR. They’re both exquisite, but Sweet Heat stomped all over my heart and then healed it back up again. A master class in yearning.
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
December 30, 2025 at 4:21 AM
This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
So I am going to say something about romance as a genre.
A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>.
This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.
A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>.
This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.
December 24, 2025 at 2:51 AM
So I am going to say something about romance as a genre.
A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>.
This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.
A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>.
This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.
So grateful to the folks who advised me to focus on core strength and squats leading up to top surgery, because I knew my core and leg muscles weren’t elite but a week of being unable to use my arms
to get up from beds and chairs has me wondering whether I even HAD core muscles before all this 😅
to get up from beds and chairs has me wondering whether I even HAD core muscles before all this 😅
December 24, 2025 at 10:13 AM
So grateful to the folks who advised me to focus on core strength and squats leading up to top surgery, because I knew my core and leg muscles weren’t elite but a week of being unable to use my arms
to get up from beds and chairs has me wondering whether I even HAD core muscles before all this 😅
to get up from beds and chairs has me wondering whether I even HAD core muscles before all this 😅
An especially good morning to whoever built the one edge of the closet doorway that perfectly hits the itchy spot in my back under the post surgical binder 😂
December 23, 2025 at 12:24 PM
An especially good morning to whoever built the one edge of the closet doorway that perfectly hits the itchy spot in my back under the post surgical binder 😂
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
A number of my works are available through the National Library Service, which provides work via audio and braille, and I encourage their use. All my contracts allow for this service to provide access to my work.
www.loc.gov/nls/who-we-s...
www.loc.gov/nls/who-we-s...
December 22, 2025 at 3:54 AM
A number of my works are available through the National Library Service, which provides work via audio and braille, and I encourage their use. All my contracts allow for this service to provide access to my work.
www.loc.gov/nls/who-we-s...
www.loc.gov/nls/who-we-s...
I do love Costco, but I have to admit they’re very Netflix about their snacks. What do you mean you’re discontinuing the pistachio cream already?? 😭
December 20, 2025 at 1:26 PM
I do love Costco, but I have to admit they’re very Netflix about their snacks. What do you mean you’re discontinuing the pistachio cream already?? 😭
It went really well, and the pain level is surprisingly not bad! (Pretty much feels like I overdid it on chest and shoulder day, not like somebody took a big ol’ fabric dart out of me 😂)
Now the biggest challenge is letting my partner do everything for me for about 10 days. I am NOT good at that 😅
Now the biggest challenge is letting my partner do everything for me for about 10 days. I am NOT good at that 😅
Top surgery tomooorrrrooooww 🥳🎉
December 19, 2025 at 11:23 PM
It went really well, and the pain level is surprisingly not bad! (Pretty much feels like I overdid it on chest and shoulder day, not like somebody took a big ol’ fabric dart out of me 😂)
Now the biggest challenge is letting my partner do everything for me for about 10 days. I am NOT good at that 😅
Now the biggest challenge is letting my partner do everything for me for about 10 days. I am NOT good at that 😅
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
My response to anything over the next two weeks
December 18, 2025 at 6:10 PM
My response to anything over the next two weeks
My partner and I are the only ones wearing masks in the surgical waiting room at GWU. Multiple people have crunchy coughs 😬
December 19, 2025 at 2:48 PM
My partner and I are the only ones wearing masks in the surgical waiting room at GWU. Multiple people have crunchy coughs 😬
Dad joke jeopardy is giving me life right now.
December 19, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Dad joke jeopardy is giving me life right now.
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 1726:
Fiction hates coincidences. Just because it happens in real life doesn't mean it will work in fiction. In 1379, in Yorkshire, there was born a girl named Diot Coke. This, although actually true, still doesn't mean you can use her name in your historical novel.
Fiction hates coincidences. Just because it happens in real life doesn't mean it will work in fiction. In 1379, in Yorkshire, there was born a girl named Diot Coke. This, although actually true, still doesn't mean you can use her name in your historical novel.
December 19, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 1726:
Fiction hates coincidences. Just because it happens in real life doesn't mean it will work in fiction. In 1379, in Yorkshire, there was born a girl named Diot Coke. This, although actually true, still doesn't mean you can use her name in your historical novel.
Fiction hates coincidences. Just because it happens in real life doesn't mean it will work in fiction. In 1379, in Yorkshire, there was born a girl named Diot Coke. This, although actually true, still doesn't mean you can use her name in your historical novel.
Top surgery tomooorrrrooooww 🥳🎉
December 18, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Top surgery tomooorrrrooooww 🥳🎉
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
Photographer Christopher Anderson on the Vanity Fair photoshoot
December 18, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Photographer Christopher Anderson on the Vanity Fair photoshoot
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
thinking of the introverted woman who said she's never felt FOMO. she's only felt ROMO (Relief Of Missing Out)
December 17, 2025 at 7:49 AM
thinking of the introverted woman who said she's never felt FOMO. she's only felt ROMO (Relief Of Missing Out)
For my fellow writers with 200 emotional support browser tabs open for your WIP, did you know most browsers let you export or copy them all as a list of URLs so you can back them up or store them long term in a research folder with your drafts? (1/5)
December 16, 2025 at 1:42 PM
For my fellow writers with 200 emotional support browser tabs open for your WIP, did you know most browsers let you export or copy them all as a list of URLs so you can back them up or store them long term in a research folder with your drafts? (1/5)
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.
December 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.
The upside to having to drive all over the DMV this week is that it took me past an H-Mart! And not only do they have fresh produce at 2001 prices, they also have fresh arepas, which make the BEST crispy chewy tostadas on a cold-ass windy day 🥰
December 14, 2025 at 5:19 PM
The upside to having to drive all over the DMV this week is that it took me past an H-Mart! And not only do they have fresh produce at 2001 prices, they also have fresh arepas, which make the BEST crispy chewy tostadas on a cold-ass windy day 🥰
Reposted by Jo Conklin Author
I wish to introduce an alternative to the 3 act structure, inspired by Spider-Man
I call it the 3 Villain structure
1. Intro villain
2. Complicating Villain
3. Main villain
Listen this is the most accurate structure
I call it the 3 Villain structure
1. Intro villain
2. Complicating Villain
3. Main villain
Listen this is the most accurate structure
December 14, 2025 at 1:03 AM
I wish to introduce an alternative to the 3 act structure, inspired by Spider-Man
I call it the 3 Villain structure
1. Intro villain
2. Complicating Villain
3. Main villain
Listen this is the most accurate structure
I call it the 3 Villain structure
1. Intro villain
2. Complicating Villain
3. Main villain
Listen this is the most accurate structure
Me: Oh gods I get *three whole hours* to nap after running 13 hour days all week. This bed is the most comfortable thing to ever have existed. I’m so tired.
Them: Attention! We are commencing our annual building fire alarm testing….
😭🤦🏼😂
Them: Attention! We are commencing our annual building fire alarm testing….
😭🤦🏼😂
December 11, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Me: Oh gods I get *three whole hours* to nap after running 13 hour days all week. This bed is the most comfortable thing to ever have existed. I’m so tired.
Them: Attention! We are commencing our annual building fire alarm testing….
😭🤦🏼😂
Them: Attention! We are commencing our annual building fire alarm testing….
😭🤦🏼😂
Just a reminder that fresh cranberry sauce is only good up to 14 days in the fridge so if like me you overestimated how much you’d go through, it’s go time.
(Also, putting it in the freezer would give you another month and let you make diabolical cranberry slushies).
(Also, putting it in the freezer would give you another month and let you make diabolical cranberry slushies).
December 10, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Just a reminder that fresh cranberry sauce is only good up to 14 days in the fridge so if like me you overestimated how much you’d go through, it’s go time.
(Also, putting it in the freezer would give you another month and let you make diabolical cranberry slushies).
(Also, putting it in the freezer would give you another month and let you make diabolical cranberry slushies).
My top surgery is NEXT WEEK 😱 Cue anxiety dreams where the surgeon mixes up and gives me implants instead, or just a reduction instead of removal 😅
December 8, 2025 at 9:37 PM
My top surgery is NEXT WEEK 😱 Cue anxiety dreams where the surgeon mixes up and gives me implants instead, or just a reduction instead of removal 😅