Every time I try to use Google Maps for cycling around London I'm certain it's plotting my death.

We're so excited to be joined by the wonderful @clarefurniss.bsky.social and @sambeckbessinger.bsky.social for 'Practical Process' as part of On Writing for Young People, the online conference, 20-21 Nov. Last few tickets left: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/on-writing... #ukkidlit #academicsky #booksky

Ever felt ready to HOWL? I'm thrilledddddd to reveal the UK cover for my adult debut novel FEMME FERAL, coming April 2026. Hyper-competent Ellie thinks she’s going through perimenopause, but discovers she’s actually turning into a werewolf. More: www.sambeckbessinger.com/upcoming-fem...

I love this city with my whole heart.

it’s London in September and I’m leaving the house for an hour, better pack sunglasses, a cardigan, a brolly, SPF50, a hat, raincoat, thickest woollen socks

OH MY, what's this, a pre-order link for my perimenopause werewolf novel, OUT IN THE WILD??? U.S. @barnesandnoble.com Premium and Rewards members, use PREORDER25 at checkout for 25% off if you order before tomorrow: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/femme-fera...

A collection of extremely good medieval dogs painted on tiles: williammorristile.com/medieval/med...

Writing a description of a boujie London neighbourhood, but nothing I could invent is as funny as the real nonsense I've seen walking around Chelsea: "Boutique Fitness Cafe", a "face gym" (face massages + electric stimulation of your cheeks), an on-demand therapy centre for "self-improvers".

I covet MANY things up for grabs on the Genre for Trans auction, but I really, really want sweet revenge. @sambeckbessinger.bsky.social is offering the chance to immortalise your worst (male) boss in her upcoming menopausal werewolf novel all about that rage. www.32auctions.com/organization...

81% of kids in South Africa can’t read for meaning by age 10. In countries like Norway? Just 6%. Streetlight Schools is proving that low-cost, high-quality education is possible. They’ve already brought the cost of excellent education down to a fraction of what the government spends. [1/5]

From my latest piece. The true motivating energy behind the anti-trans activists of today.

I really struggled to read this.

Possibly the purest & greatest thing to ever happen at a book event: a fire alarm went off at a romance book con, so actual firefigters arrived: www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/fa...

As an author, logging onto Goodreads feels like hiding in a bathroom stall to try to eavesdrop on people gossiping about you.

Love and solidarity to my trans sisters in the UK today.

Extremely random question for my novel: when they're just sitting on the shelves, before you light them, do fireworks have a smell?

Obsessed with this poem. "I am falling in love and I don't know what to do about it | Throw me in a haunted wheelbarrow and set me on fire" thespinoff.co.nz/books/13-05-...

Many things freak me out about AGI/superintelligence, but this extremely plausible and well-researched (albeit annoyingly US-centric) scenario about how misaligned AGI could wipe out all life on earth by 2030 is probably the freakiest: ai-2027.com

Copyright law is clear. If you want to use a creator's original, copyright work for any purpose, you need to get their permission and agree payment. Copyright law does not need revising. It needs enforcing. #DoTheWriteThing

Today UK authors are protesting against Meta for stealing our work to train their AI model. Authors earn an average of £7000 per year, we are not rich, and yet a trillion dollar company decided it didn’t want to license our work fairly as it was “too expensive” Theft is not a valid alternative.

1. One of capitalism’s greatest successes is to shut down our imaginations. With the help of its favoured tools - neoliberalism and fascism - it persuades us that “there is no alternative”. Our first task is to re-ignite our moral imaginations and name our alternatives. 🧵

We had a great time last night celebrating all things Women in Horror with Neena Viel, @vlatinalondon.bsky.social, @beckbessinger.bsky.social & @catrionaward.bsky.social! Thank you to everyone who came out and asked such great questions, and to the team at Waterstones Covent Garden for having us! ✨

Horror fans! Come join me at Waterstones Covent Garden next week chatting with fellow Horrible Women @catrionaward.bsky.social, Neena Viel and V. Castro: www.waterstones.com/events/women...

SO PROUD to part of Bloomsbury's new SFF imprint, Archer, joining the hunt with fellow fierce and phenomenal writers Samantha Shannon, Natasha Siegel, Sarah Mughal Rana and Alan Moore 🏹✨: www.thebookseller.com/news/new-sff...

A brilliantly clear, cogent explanation of what South Africa’s new land bill actually says.

1. Quick 🧵 on the change to policy that, on the face of it, bans refugees from ever acquiring British citizenship. @sonial77.bsky.social has published a short article on Free Movement: freemovement.org.uk/good-charact... And I've done a follow up on my Substack: open.substack.com/pub/wewanted...

Meta illegaly downloaded 80+ terabytes of books from LibGen, Anna's Archive, and Z-library to train their AI models. In 2010, Aaron Swartz downloaded only 70 GBs of articles from JSTOR (0.0875% of Meta). Faced $1 million in fine and 35 years in jail. Took his own life in 2013.

Broke my self-imposed ban to check out the memes happening on South Africa TikTok right now about the "white genocide", and my god, I love my country 😂😂😂

Such a helpful summary of the last two weeks of chaos from @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social: "Trump is acting like a king because he's too weak to govern like a president...The projection of strength obscures the reality of weakness. Don't believe him." www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8QL...

Feel very seen by this @isobeldixon.bsky.social poem. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood so I lay down and took a nap."

Let's talk about $TRUMPcoin. Imagine that I have 100 dried kidney beans in my kitchen cupboard. I come to you and say, "See these kidney beans, they're magic! They're magic because I'm magic, and I've enchanted the beans. Each of these magic beans is worth $1-million!"

I watched the US inauguration because if there’s a crocodile swimming towards me I want to keep my eye on it, and I now feel physically nauseated, but BOY did it feel like a pointed comment from the universe when the national anthem would not play

I've been thinking a lot about rage, recently, and other ugly emotions. Some very unresolved, tentative thoughts about this over on my blog: www.sambeckbessinger.com/since-feelin...

Mary Oliver bringing truth this morning. @maryoliverdaily.bsky.social

Get thee to a nunnery ✝️

I'm pushing through the final few days of the next draft of my novel, and my partner just plonked a bottle of wine on my desk, kissed my head, and backed away slowly. This is the way.

I wrote a review of A COMPLETE UNKNOWN: the brand new Bob Dylan bio pic. And I guarantee you it is totally unlike any other critique of the film that you are ever going to run in to. merrillmarkoe.substack.com/p/a-complete...

Solstice sunrise in 20 minutes in London, half an hour later in Glasgow. In two hours the Earth will sloooowwwwllly make the turn towards more daylight here in the north. Time to celebrate! Read more www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ck...

I think I have been very restrained only adding a single Boney M song to my xmas playlist this year: open.spotify.com/playlist/7J4...

Every time I think I'm finally starting to understand the UK, after living here for five years, something like "soggy sandwichgate" is reported on the FRONT PAGE OF NEWSPAPERS and I realise I still do not at all understand this country.

Looking for gifts for the tots, teens or inbetweens in your life? How about getting them ... (surprise surprise) ... a BOOK?! Here's an utterly biased list of my favourite children's books of the 21st century, if you're stuck for ideas: www.sambeckbessinger.com/favourite-ch...

Girls of Little Hope by @beckbessinger.bsky.social and @dalehalvorsen.bsky.social is a thrilling and creepy, Lovecraftian body-horror YA novel, set in a rural Californian town in the 1990s. I’ve not read much body horror, nor any Lovecraft, but this has inspired me to delve more into the genre.

THE CUTENESS!

Midday visual break: A bunch of amusing octopuses sumo wrestling (bottom centre), breakdancing (?), playing intruments. Edo period woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), who was one of the three principal 'Ukiyo-e' artists that includes Hiroshige. (British Museum Collections)

Wicked was even better than this unabashed-lifelong-musical-theatre-dork could have hoped for

This is so depressing, and we have to do better.

The world is yelling at you to BUY BUY BUY things today. If that's making you feel as annoyed as it's making me, join me in rather sending some money to GiveDirectly, Medical Aid for Palestine, Gift of the Givers, the Red Cross, or a local charity of your choice. giftofthegivers.org

This is one of those videos that you could work on forever, but suddenly it felt very important to make it, so I finally did: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Pn...

I wish I took more photos of the #Kitschies SFFH Awards last night, but I was too busy having the absolutely best time with a room full of fellow dorks and weirdos. Here's Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi accepting the Golden Tentacle Award for best debut novel (The Centre)!

Hey London, you should try to catch the brilliant @shubnumkhan.bsky.social at her UK book launch tonight for her superb Durban Gothic historic Indian immigrant love story / current day bookish teen coming of age novel, The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-djinn-...