Still working out the last few details on the back cover, but what about a closeup of the front? maybe just a taste of the gorgeous colours. Also depicted here a bag of white sand that my wife thinks is a vomiting turtle. #coverart #fantasy

And guess what, I wrote a fantasy novel that is (a bit subtly perhaps) about pretty much this

my new book, THE DEVIL AND MRS GOOCH, is out tomorrow and as an author in 2026 I have only two options, Success (complete genre hegemony) or Failure (anything else), so please remember when they hunger games all the writers that I tried 📖🔗: wwnorton.com/books/978132...

I can’t wait to show the cover for my upcoming novel publicly. @jackhillside.bsky.social surpassed himself, imho, and so far all private reactions were to the tune of “I love it and I would 100% pick up this book to check it out”

Had convos w/ multiple people in the past 4 days who DID NOT KNOW that 1. AI doesn't "think" or know anything; it's a probability machine 2. It was created using massive amounts of work stolen from actual people including me 3. The environmental costs are astronomical Spread the word, every time!

One interaction I keep thinking back to is the one I had with a well meaning English man who told me, very nicely: "we like immigrants like you, it's the others we want to stop". In a nutshell, that's how people can justify voting Reform to themselves. In reality, they were duped by scam artists.

With the last of the edits implemented the manuscript is now finished! thanks to @shonak.bsky.social for your incredible work :) now to finish the cover and then dive into all the last bits and pieces. Release date announcement soon?

I don't usually do controversy or ragebait content, but as an Italian that immigrated to the UK a decade ago I unironically think English food is pretty good, actually.

probably the one I reread the most

Okay, we did movies and games. Now tell me what books you've read more than once. (I'm not including my PhD topic.)

Sometimes the inspirations strucks, that’s what the Notes app is for.

Having a lot of fun with cluesbysam.com it scratches the itch left by the parlour room in Blue Prince. On steroids.

Lucky charity shops run today! Never got so many in one go :)

One thing I noticed about online presence is that everyone seems to be in the advertisement business, rather than whatever it is they are supposed to do. The point of BAFTA's instagram posts is not to promote games, but to use famous actors to bring attention onto itself... [1/3]

This is how you know you raised a happy dog

Quoting my own post because my office bookshelves make me happy. #shelfie

No shade on #booktok (if it works for you that's great!) but I see a lot of people complaining they keep reading books based on its recommendations and ending up not liking them. Curate your book recommendation sources! Find what works for you!

The manuscript is now in the hands of my very talented editor, so whilst I wait I wanted to share some of the best feedback I received from my beta readers. There is wisdom in a crowd, but mine was definitely a crowd of the wise! Will paste one in each reply.

I, dear reader, was not prepared

I’m doing a bit of research for a potential article on reading habits of SFFH fans. So, if you read SFFH do you also read other genres and if so, which ones? All answers welcome and reposts appreciated for visibility. Thank you!

I'm about to hit 6k followers, so how about a book giveaway? There's two paperback copies of Magic, Maps, and Mischief to giveaway - all you need to do is repost this to enter! Oh, and the release date for the audiobook has been pulled forward to 9th June! mybook.to/magicmapsand...

Final draft coming together nicely :)

You are what you eat, and you write what you read

Back from the annual month and a half back in Italy, finally bringing some old books home. Plus a couple new ones.

how fast can I write this novella I want to work on next? well, let's just say it has to happen before Mewgenics is released for Switch...

if I told someone that I am writing the script for a movie but I don't watch movies, I just read books instead, they would think I am mad. Somehow many think they can write a book without reading books, which always baffled me. The same story in different mediums is executed very differently.

Last edits, he said back then… (I am fairly close now though)

This is Kevin, he somehow made it into my novel.

Despite their association with a horrible regime, you have to appreciate futurists for doing their thing unapologetically. We should all have the courage to write what we feel should exist in the world.

An underrated way to improve your craft as a writer is to beta read for other writers, especially ones that are starting out. Reading a promising but flawed draft of a stranger's novel can help you realise mistakes you are making yourself, but are blind to in your own writing.

You should start a "Best Compliments" string. Mine was (of a short story) "You know exactly where it's going, but he takes you there with style."

A friend of mine finished my WIP and gave me the best compliment I could get on what after all is only my first novel: "at a certain point I stopped reading YOUR book and started reading A book."

I’ve been hunting this down for some time at a reasonable price, happy to have gotten it now!

Throwback to when I convinced two (2) university professors to let me write a bachelor dissertation on world building in Tolkien. Turns out I can talk my way into lots of stuff.

This year my reading was mostly homework I gave myself. I read a good amount of ok to mediocre books (and a couple stinkers) to catch up with what did well in my genre, and a few gems. If I could I would rank the unpublished ones I beta read for, but here’s my personal top 5 for the year.

That’s what baffles me when people say they want LLM in games. Why? To drown in a sea of shallow words with no intention behind them? And there are already so so many games to play, books to read, movies to watch, who would want to replace them with one that would just be infinitely meaningless?

At my wife’s family for xmas and we found a box of old soviet decorations. They don’t make them like they used to.

A review does not have to be long or sophisticated either! Just say you liked it, or something you liked about it! One of the best reviews of all time was that one-liner on ye olde Twitter from *checks notes* bigolas dickolas It does matter, it does help.

Best book I read in 2025 is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie and it's not even close

you can only take one step at a time, no matter how far you have to go

Great thread on something I see time and time again from people that do not understand that creativity requires work, and that a piece of fiction takes shape on the page as you write it, not in some hyperuranion where ideas live in wait for someone to take them to earth.

Occasionally I google the planned title of my book, just in case anything big pops up. Today it's the first time Google AI shows to have picked up something about it (likely the reddit post where I asked for feedback on the query letter). Not sure how to feel about it.

The first query I sent out for my novel turned 100 today, happy birthday query! 🎉 🥳

A bunch of writer friends are noting that they have not used LLMs to write. Me either, absolutely not. I feel like we need to stop asking kids what they want to BE when they grow up and start asking them what they want to DO. Because: I am not here to BE A WRITER, I am here to WRITE.

Good article from @jasonsanford.bsky.social here on this kind of thing. jasonsanford.substack.com/p/genre-grap...

Found at the store! Someone gave this soy sauce bottle a little scarf, I had to snatch it up (I also needed soy sauce). Will find a good use for it :)

had an incredible time at @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social ! First con ever for me, I am now sure I will be there next year too :) learned so much, got great ideas and meet fantastic people. I am very new to the writing community and everyone was super friendly!

I am so sick and tired of seeing stories about revenge that I added a "retelling of The Eumenides by Aeschylus" to the list of ideas for future books. Thinking Western Fantasy.

A true legend gone

Querying may go nowhere but in the meantime I can print myself a few copies :) #amquerying