Managed to step back from engaging online with an arsehole. Salute me.

If fancy a taste of what it's like to train as a book illustrator, and you're within reach of Dublin on week-days, I'm starting a course in the @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social in January. #SpeirGorm #Illustration #ChildrensBooks

I’d suspect the numbers here are actually even lower than this. This report is only based on authors who shared details of their income with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). That’s more likely to be the ones who write as part of their living.

Funniest thread on Twitter currently - Strictly spoiler trying to garner sympathy for loss of income from a non-dance off weekend. It seems Dave takes the job more seriously than many punters, or the bbc, who just don’t care

Nice little article here about CS Lewis - delighted to chat to @belfasttelegraph.co.uk about it. Lewis was Belfast through and through and we are proud of him and his legacy

Well shocker. Sectarian divisions led to chaotic decision making during Covid. And health now. And education. And everything. Norn Iron your dysfunctional mate.

Delighted to have my contributors’ copy of this beauty - packed with information and guidance! Well done Ruth McKee. 🙂

Waterstones made a pledge in the past not to open shops competing with indies (although they've repeatedly broken it). Communicating with an indie 100m away from a new proposed location would seem in line with that supposed commitment.

Loving the fight @argonautbooks.bsky.social are taking to @waterstones.bsky.social who have quietly built a monopoly on our high streets that is undermining indie bookstores - the specialists who are the last bastion of the mid list and debut authors. Support your local community not a hedge fund.

Love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning

John Major yesterday at LSE: 1. “In an act of collective folly, the United Kingdom voted to lead to European Union across the world, our enemies celebrated and our friends despair.”1/

Morning Bluesky.

Don’t threaten us with a good time.

In light of the astronomical increases for my health insurance next year, I thought it would be a good time to encourage people to subscribe. (A few hundred should cover it. Sigh.) clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/

Trump has executed another three civilians in a small boat off Venezuela. Death toll now stands at 83.

Weirdest moment in my life to date - suggestion in local town discussion to rename Prince Nonce Way to (Jo) Zebedee Way. Got 43 likes. I’ve suggested the (magic?) roundabout might be more appropriate lol, in between being totally scundered

The TWENTIETH strike?! The US is now murdering boat crews so often, it has stopped making headlines. Imagine any other democracy doing this? (If we’re still calling it a democracy)

Sickening

At the

Really is time to rewatch V

Oh, I love this. A new species of sea anemone was discovered recently that parks itself on top of a hermit crab shell like a hat. It seems to feed partly off the crab's faeces, but it also excretes a hard shell that extends the crab's home. In return, it's carried around the seafloor like a king.

Trump has executed six more civilians in a small boat. The death toll now stands at 76.

The Trump Administration is now pushing Brits to watch GB News instead of the BBC. The Far Right are trying to seize this moment of chaos in British media.

Here they are:

Moore rather gave the game away on Today just now when he mentioned climate change as one of the things on which the BBC should be impartial. Treating the truth and lies as though they are equal isn't impartiality, it's an abdication of the most basic journalistic responsibility

Tonight was a very bad night.

Hey @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social and @schumer.senate.gov: compromising with fascists is compliance. Read the room. Do your jobs. Protect your constituents.

All those people who think they can dodge the effects of the climate crisis because they live in a nice developed country are about to get punched in the face. It’s coming in hard everywhere.

A magnificent piece of work. Comprehesive, revelatory & shocking. Journalism this good is always rare & precious but never moreso than at times like this. Latter day Lord Haw Haws being plumped, preened & delivered to your doorstep in plain sight by a Nazi-saluting goon news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

It is not an exaggeration to say that we should be acting on the climate crisis on the same scale that we would a war. It will cause that kind of damage. Instead, we’re treating it as if it’s a Tidy Towns competition. #SpéirGorm #ClimateChange

“United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, declared that the US military has violated international law by killing at least 61 civilians thus far on 14 different boats in international waters in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.”

REMINDER: A socialist act by a New Yorker was a major reason why polio was eliminated in the US.

Also, I feel like a bunch of motherfuckers totally missed the point of The Great Gatsby.

If you're an author and think you might be able to register a claim as part of the lawsuit against #Anthropic for feeding its genAI with your books, Conor Kostick of the Irish Writers Union has an article that talks you through the process. irishwritersunion.org/irish-writer...

A SWORD OF BRONZE AND ASHES and A SWORD OF GOLD AND RUIN. Out now in stunning sprayed-edged hardback. #fantasy #epicfantasy #fantasybooks #myth #mythology #folkhorror #grimdark #books 📖📖📖🔥🔥🔥

ON THE LITERAL EVE OF A DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST MAYOR BEING ELECTED, ANNA WINTOUR KILLS PROGRESSIVE AND PROFITABLE TEEN VOGUE POLITICS DESK WHICH HAD JUST INTERVIEWED HIM *That’s* the headline. (Unfortunately there’s hardly any news outlet left to run it 😭)

‘They were careless people…they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.’

Worst advice column ever?

Everything is a distraction from this.

Eventually the United States will be burning witches and worshipping crystals and performing human sacrifices to appease the Sun God.

Latest blogpost mornawriter.blogspot.com/2025/10/whic...

😱

Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."

Huzzah! Come along for the craic! @aptshadow.bsky.social and @annasmithspark.bsky.social are such fantastic guests!

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

As we have #Octocon2025 happening this weekend (@octocon.bsky.social), this popped into my head, so I figured I'd post it; the time I provided the artwork for the programme booklet in 2018. It's the cover artwork for this book, but with added octopus. www.amazon.com/Ryus-Search-...