Finally saw SINNERS ... and am I cancelled if I say it was breathtakingly good up to the multi-generational party scene, but after that I felt the vampires didn't quite land? Here's my problem: evil vampirism has to look worse than humanity. But their music was too bloody good. Which matters. 1/

Management: So, we’re marketing to young men. Nutrition technology. Sleek machines for superfood optimisation. High-performance healthmaxing. Copywriter: You mean cookware? Management: You’re fired.

Embracing the chill of late autumn as the days grow shorter and the light gets lower. Tisha Mark ©2025, Quietly Darker, oil on gessobord, 8"x8" Original is available: tishamark.com/product/quie... #Scape #art #painting #TraditionalArt #SciArt #bsnm

PHOTO OF THE DAY. A policeman stops traffic to let a man carrying an inflatable rubber giraffe cross the road on his way to the British Industries Fair in London (1935) 📷 google images

History buddies, I need a swear. In 1620ish, what would you call a man you really disliked, something equivalent to 'bastard' or 'asshole'?

I just learned that if you spray dry shampoo on immediately after you wash and dry your barnet, it stays clean way longer. Feel like I should share this with my fellow straighties!

Writing question: what would a Jacobean gentleman wear? Not an aristocrat, but a respectable, educated young man who wasn't interested in looking fashionable?

All hail the sensory sensitivities queen.

Words I am using in notes to the editor on my latest book: Metacognition Interoception Homoiousian Between that and quoting Wittgenstein on a @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social panel, I am starting to suspect I might be just a tad, er, chatty. Yeah, let's call it chatty.

#booksky #bookqw word: COLOUR/COLOR Matthew is a fairy-smith, and obliged to sort out uncanny trouble. This was the mission on which he met his wife.

Writing question: It's the 1620s. You're a servant talking to a young gentleman (ie not a full-blown aristocrat, but of a propertied family that employs you). His name is Henry Jansen. What do you call him? Is it Master Henry as a boy and Mr Henry by his late teens?

Photo by Thierry Ardouin. A clematis seed in flight.

Come join us!

Ooh, a couple of non-fiction books I didn't think to mention at the panel! But you might like these too, @tiffaniangus.bsky.social. Animals In Translation by Temple Grandin. Autistic advocate and livestock expert Grandin describes how she believes animals experience the world. 1/

Study of a fir tree, c.1842 by Emily Brontë, best known for her classic novel 'Wuthering Heights' #WomensArt

We had a fascinating panel at @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social on 'Embodying the Non-Human' brilliantly chaired by David Watkins. @tiffaniangus.bsky.social asked me to remind her of the books I recommended on the subject, so here you go: a thread! 1/

@worldfantasy2025.bsky.social was fantastic, but after four days living on takeaway the fresh fruit needs to GET IN MY FACE.

Bye bye Brighton, @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social and so many lovely people!

Day 4 of @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social and I am staring tired, but MAN I love the SFF community!

Look just what won the BFA Best Audio award! Delighted for everyone and particularly proud of my dear friend @bookdragonauthor.bsky.social Charlotte. You are the best. xxx www.breakingtheglassslipper.com

This was such a great panel! David’s questions were really excellent and got us all thinking. What a treat to chat with so many interesting people. 😊

@worldfantasy2025.bsky.social launch for Wizard’s Tower Press! Congratulations to @chazbrenchley.bsky.social, @julietemckenna.bsky.social, @cherylmorgan.bsky.social, Ruthana Emrys and Andrew Knighton!

@worldfantasy2025.bsky.social: a very bad picture of a very good panel. Talking about folklore and its endless shapeshifters through the generations: Dr Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran (doing great moderating), Lucy Hounsom, VL Bovalino, Abie Longstaff.

@worldfantasy2025.bsky.social with @karisperring.bsky.social! We have decorated we are cousins. And she met my mum at a conference years ago!

"[The revelers] died each in the despairing posture of his fall. The life of the ebony clock went out.... The flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all." - Edgar Allan Poe, "The Masque of the Red Death" 🎨Harry Clarke #BookWormSat

Little Halloween treat for you. youtu.be/goXi7w-1dCA?...

the hallowed seam

@worldfantasy2025.bsky.social: Here Be Dragons! Andrew Knighton just compared dragons to woodworms; there’s a million different species but we call them all the same because we know them by their consequences. This is a delectable take.

@worldfantasy2025.bsky.social panel: Landscapes of Fantasy. What a treat! So many picturesque thoughts and good jokes in one event.

@worldfantasy2025.bsky.social panel on asexuality in fantasy. Fascinating, and really a delight to see the joy good representation brings readers!

#Printmaker Gertrude Hermes, Bat and Spider, wood engraving, 1932 #womensart #Halloween 🎃 🕸 🦇

Well how about that! I explained to the disabled passenger assistance man that I just needed help getting a seat because sometimes people yell at you if you don’t look disabled, and he bumped me up to first class! Met a knight errant today, I did. What a lovely man. @worldfantasy2024.bsky.social

Hello bus! @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social, I am headed your way. First time I’ve travelled without a mobility aid since before lockdown, so touch wood for me.

As found and swooned over. 🍂✨

Apparently there’s DISCOURSE about the trailer for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. I’m all for fun arguments, but can we agree one thing? Of all the literary classics, no book is more impossible to adapt ‘faithfully’ than Wuthering Heights. It can’t be done. 1/

So tomorrow I'll be travelling to Brighton for @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social. Here's where I'll be sitting at the front of the room, but otherwise just grab me and say hi if you see me. xx

#booksky #bookqw word: MISS The Gyrford fairy-smiths forge cold iron to protect folks from fey. Folk fantasy can have an 'everyone is white' problem, so challenge accepted. Old Mister Attic (formerly Atiq) was a North African Moor who converted for the sake of a quiet life. tinyurl.com/nvvetupj

That’d snuff your flame all right. Artist: Angela Barrett From The Walker Book of Ghost Stories

Chilling out this winter? ❄️ Win 2 tickets to the Winter Haunts 2025 online festival of ghost stories! Feat. Michelle Paver, Bridget Collins & more. Answer one simple question to enter. gnofhorror.com/competition-... @tiffaniangus.bsky.social @ashleystokes.bsky.social @kitwhitfield.bsky.social

Writing question. Is there anyone whose brains I can pick about the poor laws of Jacobean England?

Ed Gein discourse is back thanks to Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's latest MONSTER, so people are talking Texas Chainsaw. Here's an old @gnofhorror.com of mine. Theory: most slashers problematise the body as sex object. TCM problematise at it as a *functional* object. gnofhorror.com/the-texas-ch...

Happy #BatWeek #Halloween

Who's going to be in Brighton this weekend? Three things: 1. Here's my schedule if you want to hear me talk. 2. Come say hi anyway. 3. The word is that witch hats may be worn on Halloween.

Thinking more about this: imagine you're adapting MANSFIELD PARK. You have to resolve a climax that doesn't sit well with modern readers, even fans of the book. How would you do it? 1/

Another AUSTEN TAKE, babies! This time: why 'Mary Crawford is more fun than Fanny Price' isn't a good take. Because Mary isn't a rebel. She's a status-quo enforcer. How do we balance disagreeing with Austen's sexual morals without missing her point? 1/

Mostly the leaves just fall this season, but there’s the croak-tree over by the Gillam farm where they hop down. Cures warts if you rub em on the bark, but only on wet days. #AskAFairySmith Artist: Raku Inoue

Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'self' #BookQW #Booksky 📚💙 Dan Mackmain's on holiday with his girlfriend Fin and seeing Stonehenge with his own eyes for the first time. He's going to see a whole load of new things... Out on 30th October from Wizard's Tower Press wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/book...

#booksky #bookqw word: SELF. Our heroes are fairy-smiths whose cold iron protects folks from the People. This being a #ruralgothic community, there are many minor characters. This is Bobs, inspired by fun facts told me by a food historian friend. Buy here: tinyurl.com/nvvetupj

Whoever pioneered 'obviously' as a phatic word needs kicking.