"The Woods" started life as a 2,000 word reddit post, then got rewritten into a 12,000 word novelette, then got rewritten again into a 46,000 word novel (still on the short side but much longer than 2k words).
Artist, author, musician, witch, and Hot Wheels collector. I make music under the name Hazel Bee and write books under the name Hazel E. Baumgartner, which is also my name. 29ΒΎ, she/they, 99% lesbian, USA πΊπΈπ³οΈβπ Buy my book: https://a.co/d/6Aanpc7
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"The Woods" started life as a 2,000 word reddit post, then got rewritten into a 12,000 word novelette, then got rewritten again into a 46,000 word novel (still on the short side but much longer than 2k words).
Gavin Newsom had Steve Bannon on his podcast AFTER he did a nazi salute TWICE at CPAC. I do not trust anyone who seriously thinks Newsom is a good candidate for Dems to run in 2028. Gavin Newsom is a Nazi sympathizer.
Praying for President Trump after his diagnosis π Psalms 109:8
New cryptozoology/Creepy Kansas video tomorrow! I've been looking forward to this one and it was so cool that the stars just so happened to align to make it possible during my move. See yall tomorrow!
NOBODY has read any more of Heliruna than I've put on #WIPsnips here on Bluesky, so me sending off the raw, unedited first draft for someone else to take a look at feels like sending a risky text to a crush, but that text is 50,000 words long.
Just sent my first draft of Heliruna to my most valuable beta reader and even tho they're a close friend it's making me nervous π€£
The worst part is nobody forced me. Sure, it was because Trump got elected right after my 21st birthday that I made the decision to not come out, but it was still my decision and I had to live with it for an additional 4 Β½ years.
Pretty on brand for the Gaggle of Pedophiles (G.O.P. for short)
Rare Turkey w
The new acting CDC director keeps touching my tummy with wet fingers and saying, "gimme those kidneys." Hitting him with a broom makes him scuttle to the opposite end of the room. But he always manages to circle back around
MLK Jr warned us over fifty years ago that the moderate liberal is the true enemy of progress.
For context, I knew I was trans by 19 but waited until 25 to come out and I 100% regret it and wish every day that I'd gone ahead and come out in college.
Pritzker and Walz both seem much better options for trans people (I learned today that Pritzker even has a trans cousin), and both are also standing up to the Trump regime.
If you're trying to come up with a birthday present for me this year, I have the perfect idea. a.co/d/f4FFw2q #booksky #horror #readqueerbooks #bannedbooks #cryptozoology #Bigfoot #Alaska #sasquatch #thriller #Halloween
That being said, the quality of life difference between Missouri and Colorado is INSANE. Even in the "red" parts of Colorado. Red parts of a blue state are safer than blue parts of a red state, it seems.
I just moved from Missouri (red) to Colorado, and even Colorado is no longer blue on the youth healthcare map due to hospitals capitulating in advance to the Trump regime's demands. Really the whole country is on defcon 1.
Fun fact about Cleveland: he's the only president to ever be LEGITIMATELY elected back to the presidency after leaving office.
There's a reason for that. Lots and lots of Nordic immigrants. And real Nordic peoples, not rightoid cosplayers who watched too much "The Last Kingdom". Why do you think their mascot is the Vikings?
You see the same thing on weather radar sometimes, especially in rural areas. Look at Alaska. They use local radar for populated areas and GOES satellite imagery (I think) for everywhere else and it causes similar pockets.
My mom (a former English teacher) helped me edit mine so I got FULL critique from her lol
The timing of this video coming across my feed the day before I turn 30...
Today we celebrate the strength and resilience of working people everywhere. Nearly 300,000 federal employees have lost their jobs this year not because of necessity, but because of a political agenda. And while peopleβs lives were destroyed in the name of βsaving money,β
I mean THE Sapphic horror recommendation will always be Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" and no the Netflix series, while good, does not count.
AI works okay as a proofreader but if you follow all the suggestions on, say, Grammarly, it quickly robs you of your voice and makes everything you write sound like a corporate email.
Part of why I write gorey brutal violent VERY QUEER horror. People go "how do I know you didn't write this with AI?" You think a corpo AI would write this and not the most bland PG-13 Hallmark Halloween Movie horror ever? No Microsoft investor board is approving what I'm writing. π€£
Wanna hear something crazy? Today is the last day of my 20s.
This might be too spicy a take for bluesky even but maybe if politicians didn't have such strong security teams they'd be more worried with not doing things to piss people off
Largely stories I've put on reddit anyways, including "Two Legs", "The Mimic", "The Lady Under The Floor", and "This House Is Alive And Not In A Good Way". As for the sci-fi ones they're largely stuff I wrote in college like "The Mechanic" or "The Last Man Not On Earth". Anyways, stay tuned.
Not officially announcing anything yet but I've been putting together a comp of short stories I've written over the years and I think I might actually release it as two parts eventually, one straight horror and the other sci-fi horror. π
It's really depressing that there are still people stupid enough to fall for this rhetoric.
What's a better title for a short story? Just based off vibes alone. "Day Eater" or "Last Exit To Midnight"?
A dumb lil idea I had to draw: a flag for human authors who refuse to let the emdash be claimed by AI.
Iykyk but the motorcycle scene genuinely might be the most brutal kill I've ever read.
I'm still thinking about @sgj.bsky.social 's "The Only Good Indians" months later. If the kills in my next book seem more brutal, it's only because I felt the need to step it up after reading the motorcycle scene.
My first novel is literally about a killer Bigfoot. I'd say that counts.
I've left copies of "The Woods" in little free libraries all over America while traveling for work. Including one in the Little Free Library at Mount Sunflower, the highest point in Kansas, which when I went back through a month later it was gone so I know somebody scored it.
There was an 1864 election. November 8, 1864, Lincoln won re-election against George McClellan, an anti war southern-sympathizer Democrat.
$9 says it's oil.
My life right now...
If it sounds insane, it will probably make a good story. - @roseblack2222.bsky.social 3/? #amwriting #Horror π©Έπ
MY BOOK'S OUT TODAY! books2read.com/MatthewKing Four killers meet for dinner, but what do they find? Friends? Murder?! LOVE?! This Horrormance reveals relatable killers whose amusing banter is playful and thought-provoking, tackling issues like gender identity, discrimination, and feminism.π€π³οΈββ§οΈπ³οΈβππ
I honestly love the premise so I had to. It's good to take a break from writing to read every now and then.
Heck yeah, just ordered from B&N!
Happy Birthday Chairman Hampton. You will NEVER be Forgotten π
They're literally eliminating Kansas City entirely. Mike Kehoe is a fascist and is turning Missouri into a shithole country.
YouTube keeps trying to sell me NFL Sunday tickets like I'm not down on the sidelines working on the camera crew during the game π€£ I have a kind of cool job.
My obsession with bears has basically always been there. Here I am as an awkward 13 year old making my brother @hijohnmichael.bsky.social pose with a bear at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage circa 2008.
This is a classic
"King Gizzard is just Metallica for leftist transgender Australian stoners."
I think we should commend the officer who shot the terrorist ACTIVELY BREAKING INTO THE CHAMBER OF CONGRESS TO HANG THE VICE PRESIDENT as an example of Black Excellence. I'm setting a personal goal of spitting on Ashlii Babbitt's grave some day.
It's only a secret because they live in small town Kansas in the 1970s, but Sabine Stutz is in a secret lesbian relationship for the entirety of "Heliruna". It's not even made clear if her own father knows.
I'm about to have to order author copies for the second time and I'm oddly proud about it. Out of an original batch of 100 copies of "The Woods" I have like a dozen left and it hasn't even quite been a year.
Here's two monsters
Kansas Sorry it's not more exciting π€£
Guns don't kill people, white supremacists do.
Not necessarily fanfic but Heliruna was inspired by a Ray Bradbury short story. "The April Witch".
Cis people: This is where you fucking step up. Do everything you can to support trans people in the coming days. You're going to hear horrible, hurtful rhetoric about us. Shut it down. Don't let it stand. And buy the trans people in your life a drink.
I've already had a really bad day and then my friend canceled on me and then I went to at least go buy an eighth or something and found that you can't buy weed with a credit card (I don't smoke enough that I'd ever tried before) and tbh this might be my 13th reason. #BothBankruptAndDankrupt
And don't forget there is no crime. Crime in DC fell to a 30 year low last year. Nationwide now is arguably the safest time ever to be an American. Or at least it was prior to January 20th.
People talk about how hard divorce is mentally and emotionally, but goddamn it's also just hard like... difficulty wise. So much freaking paperwork. Sign. A. Freaking. Prenup.
Hopefully this all ends with him at an Italian gas station in 1945.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
The important thing is showing up for the primaries to ensure he isn't the candidate.
The day before my birthday is my grandmother's and the day after is my cousin's.
Statistically a very common time of year to be born too because it's nine months after Cuffing Season.
My birthday is also this weekend! (Well technically a week from today, but close enough) Twinsies!
This was my journal entry Sunday. Copied by hand word for word.
It might buy her some time, but Republicans with last names like Gomez will find out how that one poem ends soon enough.
I burned a Bible one page at a time in high school. Can't buy better rolling papers. ππ³π¬
IT'S A DICTATORSHIP. THEY ARE FASCISTS. THEY WANT DOMINATION OF THE LAND AND DEATH TO THEIR ENEMIES. INSISTING UPON RESPECTABILITY POLITICS AND TAKING THE HIGH ROAD WILL GET PEOPLE KILLED.
Stephen Miller (the real president) classifying all democrats as an "extremist organization" should terrify us. Expect a severe uptick in politically motivated violence and, yes, probably assassinations to come. And every Democrat who stood by and let them steal the election is complicit.
We are very far off the cliff here folks. πΊπΈ
Only thing is Miller is the mastermind and Trump is the puppet. Other than that, spot on.
NASAβs Bennu Samples Reveal Complex Origins, Dramatic Transformation astrobiology.com/2025/08/nasa... #astrobiology #astrogeology #astrochemistry
A technicality. He still traveled to Kenosha with the intent to kill. And you're sus af for defending a white supremacist murderer.
Traveling to another state with a firearm in hopes of picking a fight with someone and then claiming "self defense" is murder.
X would be a terrible president anyways. If we're going to have a social media company be president it should obviously be Reddit.
We should all learn from history....
Love that the week I'm back in KC, KC has total Colorado weather.
Being a T4T lesbian is awesome i get to live in both jkr and snoop doggβs nightmares
A dog named Dingo features heavily in the first third or so of "The Woods" (he does not die) and a cat named Lenora is a crucial part of the plot to "Heliruna", so much so that I almost named the book after her (she also does not die).
Dems donβt win by getting cross-over Reaganites. They win by mobilizing the Democratic base in a Democratic Party that is still the majority party in the USβ¦by quite a margin. open.substack.com/pub/davidrot...
Rare based AI moment, if you Google "Los Angeles ICE" right now, the Google AI snippet includes some basic "know your rights" information pulled from the ACLU.
If I'm already going to Hell for my fashionable polycotton blend I might as well kiss a few girls on my way down...
The Bible makes it clear that homosexuality is every bit as evil as (checks notes) eating shrimp or wearing two kinds of fabric at once.
Praying for him. Psalm 109:7-20
My first novel was a short story that got out of hand
...repeating words associated with them. They can churn out an image that looks like a sunset based on searching for images and mimicking them. But it's not actual intelligence, just mimicry. Like how lots of birds can mimic speech but only a few species of parrot actually know what they're saying.
That's the thing tho is a true AI would be able to learn and teach itself and form new "synapses" and express common sense and reason. We're not at that point right now. Both modern LLMs and image/video generators are essentially mechanical parrots that are really good at recognizing patterns and...
BuT hEr EmAiLs!!1!
My hot take for today is this: Donald Trump is a puppet. He's a feckless old fool who's not even in charge of his own bowels, much less the forces invading American cities. We need to be raging against the REAL enemies: Thiel, Hegseth, Musk (yes even tho they "broke up", Putin, Vance, and Johnson.
He thinks Newsom is getting under his skin, I can't wait to see what Pritzker has up his sleeves.
π
It's arguably Trump starting a civil war
If fiction didn't have the power to affect reality, writing would be pointless.
Scholastica - Full Moon - M. C. Escher #woodcut #art
