@bradbarkley
Novels, short story collections, and YA fiction published by Norton, St. Martin’s, and Penguin/Dutton. New work forthcoming from Regal House. NEA Fellowship. Repped by @jennaschmenna.bsky.social Bradbarkley.com
@regalhouse.bsky.social
Book trailer for THE REEL LIFE OF ZARA KEGG. #ZaraKegg #YAlit
Unboxing books! With a little help from my best friend. @regalhouse.bsky.social
2x Frog contributor Brad Barkley has a YA novel forthcoming that looks fantastic!
@bradbarkley.bsky.social
Pre-order link below! 👇🏼👇🏼
regal-house-publishing.mybigcommerce.com/the-reel-lif...
I am very pleased to learn that my short story, “Glen 2.0” will be in the next issue of the wonderful Blue Mesa Review!
🚨 Cover reveal! The Reel Life of Zara Kegg, coming June 2026 from Regal House.
““Brilliant, funny, moving, unputdownable….I wish I had a zillion adjectives to describe this knockout of a book...” —Lesléa Newman
Preorder information coming soon! @regalhouse.bsky.social @jennaschmenna.bsky.social
THE REEL LIFE OF ZARA KEGG, cover reveal tomorrow! Stay tuned…, @regalhouse.bsky.social
New novel is officially out on sub! #fingerscrossed @jennaschmenna.bsky.social
Thanks for the shout out!
Very pleased to have my Work appear today in the amazing @flashfrog.bsky.social ! Thanks also to Ali for the beautiful artwork. ❤️
Soooo freaking thrilled about this! I could not put Brad's book down... brilliant social commentary, gorgeous writing, layered characters that felt incredibly real... not to mention it has Bots and we all know I'm a sucker for 'em. 😂 Lit fic editors WATCH OUT. 👀
@stormliterary.bsky.social
I’m thrilled to announce that I have signed with @stormliterary.bsky.social and the utterly awesome @jennaschmenna.bsky.social Happy to find such a smart, passionate partner! www.stormliteraryagency.com/brad-barkley...
I wrote as a birthday celebration this blog post www.bradbarkley.com/post/advice-....
🎬 Enter the reel life.
One year from today, The Reel Life of Zara Kegg hits shelves — a witty, wistful YA novel about grief, love, and 150 inflatable Godzillas.
Cover reveal later this summer.
📽️ Coming June 16, 2026, from Regal House Publishing. @regalhouse.bsky.social
“The novel you’re working on right now doesn’t know you’ve written other novels before.” —John Irving
When you write the first draft of a novel, all you’re doing is making clay. After that work is done, you now have a big lump of clay sitting in front of you on your desk. Here’s when the real work begins of sculpting it, shaping it, turning it into something. #amwriting
Writers, you can fix a bad page; you can’t fix a blank one.
New blog post today. I hope you give it a look! www.bradbarkley.com/post/three-n...?
Write what you know” doesn’t mean limit yourself. It means pay attention. To how people talk. To what hurts. To the weird stuff you remember. Write what you know emotionally.
If revising your novel isn’t hard, you’re not doing it right.
Most writing advice is just disguised anxiety. Be OK with bad first drafts and and write often. You’ll be fine.
The main thing a writer needs is practice. Not inspiration, not a special pen, not a cabin in the woods. Just hours. It’s unsexy, hard to romanticize, but it’s how the work gets done—one page, one bad sentence at a time.
In writing fiction, don’t forget to look inward. Your weird little obsessions? Priceless. Mine them and dig deep.
In non-genre fiction, ghosts aren’t dead people. They’re regrets, mistakes, missed chances.
In fiction, as in life, too much clarity of detail is often a lie.
Writing is mostly trying to sound like you’re not trying to sound like anything.
“Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”
— David Foster Wallace #SundaySentence
The old adage says, “every story is a love story,“ but really every story is a ghost story. Everyone’s haunted by something.
My thesis advisor at Arkansas, and now we share the same publishing season at @regalhouse.bsky.social So happy about this.
