Marjie Alonso
@marjiealonso.com
1.9K followers 3.1K following 190 posts
Writer. Former executive director of animal behavior nonprofits. Currently working to help friends with big projects. Manager of family. Regularly bested by my beagle. MarjieAlonso.com https://open.substack.com/pub/piecesofstring
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marjiealonso.com
Fixed that headline for you, media people.

#Trump #shutdown
marjiealonso.com
The title decides if an editor will even open your email.

Look, Taylor, we like the piece, but we’ve re-titled it, “Leaving My Red Scarf Behind: How dating an older man ruined my self-esteem.” “All Too Well” just doesn’t say anything.

#writingcommunity #writers

open.substack.com/pub/piecesof...
A Writer's Guide to Getting Published: Gordian Knot Edition
I’ve said it before, even yesterday to a struggling friend, and I’ll say it again: The easiest part of writing a book is writing a book.
open.substack.com
marjiealonso.com
Your grandfather will chase the protesting cook away when you waste five eggs by breaking the yolks. Then seven, eight, eleven.

He will celebrate your two perfect eggs ... the best he’s ever had, he tells you
brevitymag.com/current-issu...

@dintywmoore.bsky.social @writingcommunity.bsky.social
marjiealonso.com
So anyway, about those Epstein files...
marjiealonso.com
She might eat the Kleenex. Or the jelly beans. Or both. Mostly just checking to see if I’ve noticed.
#writingcommunity #writers #dogs
marjiealonso.com
July sunrise
#provincetown #writingcommunity #writing
marjiealonso.com
Will not move to the shade. Does this so that people passing by will accuse me of animal abuse. Opens one eye after they say “poor thing” and looks at me.
#writingcommunity #dogs
marjiealonso.com
Full bloom summer
#writingcommunity #writing #provincetown
marjiealonso.com
How the hell is it already the end of June?
And I haven't sent out any queries yet...
Is it possible to be allergic to querying?
#dogs #writingcommunity #writing
marjiealonso.com
Early morning beagle discovery.
#dogs #writingcommunity #writers
marjiealonso.com
But right now, in this moment, my slutty arms and I are donning white shirts, bringing out the jewelry every day, and feeling like yes, I can do this one more time before I die. I do have permission to feel this kind of free.
#writingcommunity #writing

piecesofstring.substack.com/p/falling-ba...
Falling Back Softly
And Green Tea with Apricot and Vanilla
piecesofstring.substack.com
marjiealonso.com
...A nor’easter hit, with fifty-five mile per hour winds and driving rain...when I looked outside that first night, anxious that she was somehow not OK, she was standing strong, enthusiastically howling into the gale.
#writingcommunity #writers #dogs

open.substack.com/pub/piecesof...
Someone Returned
In 2023 I stood outside what was clearly a terrible piece of property on Commercial Street in Provincetown, Cape Cod.
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marjiealonso.com
In the early morning I saw a mother fox on her hind legs, sniffing the statue. “What fresh hell is this,” I could almost hear, “All the tourists with their Frenchies aren’t bad enough?
#writingcommunity #writers #writing

open.substack.com/pub/piecesof...
Someone Returned
In 2023 I stood outside what was clearly a terrible piece of property on Commercial Street in Provincetown, Cape Cod.
open.substack.com
marjiealonso.com
One of the things that’s kept me from writing more in my life was the feeling that it was self-indulgent. My inability to stay away from it, or to simply do it and keep it to myself, was proof of my narcissism.
#writing #writingcommunity #authors

open.substack.com/pub/piecesof...
Holly's Holy Rollers
Yesterday I received back the last of the Big Three developmental edits of my book.
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marjiealonso.com
We’d been talking with my father, going over the plan for spring-loading the one arm of his he does not want cremated when he dies. That one arm he wants rigged to burst up out of the ground when people approach his grave.
#writing #writingcommunity #substack

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You Are Here
Since I haven’t been able to do much else with these non-working, post-surgical arms, I took my daughter-in-law, Kalyn, to find a place to bury me last week.
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marjiealonso.com
The paradox of heavy drugs. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, give me ten more.

All I’m saying is, we didn’t have all these problems with cocaine and vodka.

Do better, Big Pharma.

#writingcommunity #writing #writers

open.substack.com/pub/piecesof...
Paradoxy
Yesterday I was sent to bed at 3:30 in the afternoon.
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marjiealonso.com
I say go for it!
marjiealonso.com
The granddogs contemplating higher math
#dogs #writingcommunity
marjiealonso.com
D. H, Lawrence liked to climb Mulberry trees nude to stimulate his imagination.

It stimulated more than that.

#writingcommunity #writing #writers

piecesofstring.substack.com/p/platform
Platform
I need some
piecesofstring.substack.com
marjiealonso.com
Just another leisurely walk with the beagle on a sunny day.
#writingcommunity #dogs
marjiealonso.com
“I don’t believe in ghosts, but I see them all the time.” ~ Sherman Alexie
#writing #writers #authors #shermanalexie
marjiealonso.com
Good luck, and fingers crossed! I’m about a month away from the same.
marjiealonso.com
That's some kind of genius right there!
marjiealonso.com
Nearly 2% of the US population took part in the protests. It was meaningful. But it was not a threat to anyone in charge.

We know this, because no police presence was detailed. No riot gear, riot gates, horseback-led tear gas squads.

#writing #writers

piecesofstring.substack.com/p/when-youre...
When You're Quoting Hubert Humphrey
On April 5th some number of protestors — 5+ million, but an unknown quantity— took part in the Hands Off Day of Action in the United States.
piecesofstring.substack.com