Kinda weird being a horror author married to someone who works in A&E. The day after every one of her shifts involves her telling me stories that are more existentially terrifying than anything I could hope to conjure.

Kicking the tyres on @Mojeek for a bit. Second day in, no complaints so far. Nice to not have to dodge genAI bollocks. Always good to have alternatives to American Big Tech.

LONG HAUL \\\ HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, OPENBSD! #unix_surrealism #comic #openbsd #technomage #runbsd

I am staggered by the sheer hugeness of this. The #WelshGovernment has a policy of bilingualism. All meetings include translators, so that speakers of English or Welsh can participate equally. But every member of the Welsh Cabinet is a native speaker of #Cymraeg […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

Now that OpenBSD 7.9 is out, I reckon it's time I got meself another puffy VM and started moving my personal site over. #openbsd

Current short story should end up being about 6-7k. It'll go straight on https://ferenbrooke.com when I'm finished with the edits. Feels good to have the end in sight. This one's been a struggle. Thinking about doing story notes as blog posts. Just talking a bit about the themes and ideas […]

This is your periodic reminder that word of mouth moves more books than any formal advertising! I invite you to rec something you've recently enjoyed -- preference for the stuff that's *not* already extremely well-known and talked about everywhere.

RE: https://mastodon.art/@ratfactor/116581675108961062 I absolutely adore this post and the approach it describes.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@h4ckernews/116584184265861549 Eh, no thanks. I take enough shit at work.

RE: https://chaos.social/@scy/116575042085876099 Very true for me, which is perhaps a little odd considering I was born in the '90s (I know I know, brutal paper round etc).

I can finally participate in #caturday! This is our kitten, Luna.

New T-shirt. Sarah (Mrs. F) got it for me. One of my favourite albums of all time. #thecure #gothicrock #oldschool

RE: https://norden.social/@bauhausmensch/116576850819141199 Stone cold classic.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Edent/116576964043631493 Bit of a mood booster.

Just read the first chapter of 'Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng' by Kylie Lee Baker. Already I feel the hype is warranted. The prose is pristine, smooth like the edge of a cared-for knife. There's a litfic approach to interiority; I've got a strong sense of who Cora Zeng is and the ways […]

Get on the road to ruin and become a writer

There's nothing on the ballot for my constituency today. Nevertheless I hope all who can participate in either the Scottish elections, Welsh elections, or local elections get out there and vote. I'm particularly interested in seeing what happens in Wales. Cymru deserves so much better than it's […]

Finished reading 'Tales from the Gas Station, Volume 1' by Jack Townsend. Fun, easy-going horror/comedy. I don't think I'll leave it too long before I pick up vol. 2. The silliness is in the right places and allows a serious undercurrent to be present without compromising the laughs (or vice […]

RE: https://musicworld.social/@kiffie/116488014645455683 1st of May also happens to be my birthday and I reckon I'll buy this album as a present for myself. I've listened to the first two tracks and they're great.

US Pol: Every time I hear "the ball room"

We're going to #anglesey for a few days, leaving tomorrow. Staying near Brynsiencyn. I'm quite excited. Anything we should definitely see/do while we're there?

Been playing with the Acme editor from #plan9port. Very much out of my comfort zone (vi-like editors) but so far I quite like it. My goal is to install #9front on my old Thinkpad T430 and use it for writing in my bedroom once I've properly gotten to grips with the editor. Seems like a solid […]

Went to a farm yesterday. Really nice day out. They had tortoises and pygmy goats. I think I was more into it than my son was, tbh 😂

London Waymos "need to be fuelled with the flesh of human babies" in order to be competitive "This is fine and a normal part of doing business" said a UK government spokesghoul

Is there a German word for, 'we're about the same age but we've been together for almost 13 years and I've aged like milk while my wife still gets ID'ed for booze so now I look like a pervert?' Because I kinda need that.

RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@afb/116418887792420255 Bottled it. The tech lined me up perfectly for a spot of tomfoolery but I opted to act like an adult. I'll endeavour to do better next time.

Going to get my knee x-ray'd today. Trying to work out if there's a way I could act like the titanium plates and such are news to me. 'Not even sure why I'm here, never had any surgeries or anything.'

Kettlebell workout this morning was rough going. Did Dan John's Running Back Complex for five rounds with 2x 16kg bells. That's descending ladders of clean and front squat; I did 4-3-2-1. It was actually my rack position that gave out before my legs. I'll put it down to all the pressing I did […]

In the 1930s, Oswald Mosley claimed to be a patriot, while his British Union of Fascists was secretly funded by the Italian government. We are just beginning to grasp how much of the far right in the UK today has been funded by Viktor Orbán and Russian oil money. Their "patriotism" is always a con.

Lovely wander through a country park with my wife and the little guy. He barely tried to dive into the lake at all. Only one face plant.

Got pathology results back from a skin thing I had taken off the other day and sure enough: actinic keratosis, which is precancerous skin. So I probably just dodged one here. If you've had a lot of sun exposure, get your exams done regularly.

Given that it's #worldautismawarenessday I'll repost this blog entry: https://antonyfb.com/blog/am-i-autistic.html #autism #autistic #mentalhealth

RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@afb/116328899954840392 Turns out I'm actually clicking on quite a lot of links. April...fools?

I, for one, will not be clicking on a single link today. Happy April Fools etc etc

In the southern hemisphere, April Fools day is observed on October 1st, because of the Coriolis effect.

I've learned that when making a social faux pas at work, telling them I have autism is a much less effective strategy for resolving the situation than saying I'm a Taurus.

I might actually get this bloody short story finished this week. #amwriting #writingcommunity #itsonlybeensixyears #slowestwriterever

Getting into a decent rhythm with home workouts. It's incredibly humbling to struggle with grip strength, knee strength, and back stability when handling weights 20% of what I used to do. But that's just how it is after a hit and run, I guess. #homegym #kettlebell #fitness #injury

It's that time again! Yes, I am once more trawling the UK Government Petition's website and looking through the list of those petitions that were rejected. #petitions 1/n

The vast majority of people who will be impacted by trans bans in sports will be little girls with short hair or arms that are "too muscular." It will also mean that when a woman is good at her sport the disgusting grumbling and whispering about "may she is he" gets taken more seriously. This […]

My wife's been craving hot cross buns and talking about them for a couple of days. Now it's all I want, too. Among my hottest takes is that they're better than chocolate eggs and the only decent reason to vaguely observe Easter. Of course, we're gonna eat enough to never want to see a hot cross […]

Finished reading Mark Fisher's 'The Weird and The Eerie.' Really thought-provoking. I'm glad I took my time with this and read it in short chunks. I'll be drawing on these ideas for my own writing for quite some time, I think. #weirdfiction #nonfiction #amreading #bookstodon

My wife and I took our son for a walk after I got home from work. It was a bit chilly so we threw a beanie on him. He had a little chocolate. All was well. We returned from our walk and our son removed his beanie; melted chocolate in his hair. He'd stowed his treat under his hat for safekeeping.

Followed that bridgy bot, so I think my posts will now be visible on bluesky. I have no interest in maintaining two social media accounts but so much of the #horrorlit community is on bluesky, so hopefully this will allow me to keep in touch with the goings on in the #horrorcommunity