Happy New Year, all. Here's to hope, and joy, and persistence.

Sitting a stewing in frustration isn't nearly as cathartic as just designing a poster. Let's see how often I remember that in 2026.

A corker of a thread!

I hope tomorrow night you are all blessed by the New Year Good Luck Lemon Piglet ❤️...

OMG - f*ck AI for ruining the em-dash for writers. I use them all the time. Of course, what a shock that AI uses them since they were trained off my voice and other authors' voices.

My sincere year-end thought isn’t an original one, but its importance has been underscored to me repeatedly over the last 12 months: be free with telling the people you love that you love them, casually, and at every chance. Great love, small love, every type of love.

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

Last night we re-started the Robin Hoods Bay Musical Jamboree, a fundraising gig my brother and I began in 2004. It hadn't run for a few years, but last night was an amazing way to relaunch this much-loved community event. #music #gig #robinhoodsbay #fujifilm

Great post about generative AI. Happy Holidays. Don't say I never gave you anything. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

Come and join us as we construct our very own, very haunted house 👻👻👻

South Park alumnus Toby Morton saw the rename on the cards months ago and bought the trumpkennedycenter domain (com and org). https://www.trumpkennedycenter.org

Would you love to be more physically active, not just for a few weeks after New Year but in the long term? Join me! I'm launching the SPA (Sustainable Physical Activity) Community to share tips, research & accountability, & to find the joy in being active rachelhewitt.substack.com/p/join-me-in...

Just read that David Pinner, author of RITUAL, died on Christmas Eve. RITUAL famously inspired THE WICKER MAN.

Well this is excellent stuff, featuring many of my faves with irritatingly excellent work from @unheimlichmanvr.bsky.social and Alison Moore in particular, but honestly such a good distinctive collection.

Goodnight from Connie Bunning, writing out a new list of who to curse after spending several hours too many with her extended family. Goodnight from Steph Wade, still pondering the meaning of getting the Woodwose’s Staff silver charm in the plum pudding. Goodnight from Hookland.

Christmas is hard for many. The years roll, the ghosts at the table increase. We’re haunted by the absence of voices, of laughter engines who drank and ate with us. This can be day of remembrance rituals. For what it’s worth, Hooklanders near and far are in my candles today. Be gentle on yourselves.

Pretty tame by #DuvetKnowItsChristmas standards, but by the time hubby joins me in this small spare bed/storage room tonight it's going to be cosy. Don't be deceived by all the cupboards & drawers: they're full. At least we have access to all the spare bedding (although there isn't actually a duvet)

Unbelievably, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas generates such good will on social media that over the years we've raised somewhere approaching a quarter of a million quid for homeless charities. If you can spare a bob or two, sling some to Centrepoint, and here's the link: www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

Nature is happening outside.

Tomorrow evening it’ll be my annual duty to vaguely shepherd the activity on the #duvetknowitschristmas hashtag and urge people to give small sums to charity. 7.30pm? Something like that?

Setting my reminder for the Ghost Story for Christmas - and if you love all things spooky, then the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL ONLINE might speak to you, with three days of talks, interviews and writing workshops incoming! www.ticketsource.co.uk/ukghoststory... #ghosts #ghoststory #ghoststories

In his essay on the uncanny, Freud discusses Jentsch's argument that uncanniness arises from uncertainty as to whether something is animate or inanimate, such as a doll, automaton, or Michael Buble.

What did Alan Rickman have against Christmas?

We re-watched When Harry Met Sally. It’s a masterpiece of course, but I was struck by the strong flavour of Oscar Hammerstein /1

I left a rubber sponge behind by mistake. Please will you get someone to post it to me.

I mean jfc CNN just *sat down and interviewed* a group of Christian nationalist leaders who want to repeal women’s right to vote! open.substack.com/pub/jessica/...

That’s what these ‘debates’ are really about: framing old fashioned oppression as some kind of high-brow concern for women’s happiness. You know what makes us happy? Bank accounts. Voting rights. The ability to leave a bad marriage and not have a miscarriage kill us.

open.spotify.com/episode/1cMI... The completely wonderful @backlisted.bsky.social episode of The Dark is Rising...🖤

Yes. Caz. Well done everyone. #Strictly

Don't Look Grinch

Join me and all these other fine people for the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL ONLINE. It will be fun, I promise. 👻

To everyone on Bluesky finding out about Walliams and despairing at the fact that "I read those books to my kids" I just want to reassure them that it's OK. He didn't write them.

Oh my god. It’s actually finally happened. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Every time there's a breaking story about a celeb's treatment of women, everyone in the book world asks, "Is it finally Walliams?" Well, it finally is.

This is essential listening. Enchanting and delightful. When Alan Garner wrote and directed a nativity play. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

For some reason, people struggle to understand that indexing is precisely the sort of task LLMs *can’t do*, for the same reason they can’t solve complex equations - rather like cold-reading mediums, they’re good at vibes but fail when exacting precision and accuracy is required

Boom. A brand new book for summer 2026 - The Moon is Making by Storm Jameson. This epic novel is set in and inspired by Whitby, Yorkshire. And it’s introduced by fellow northerner Maxine Peake. One to watch! More info here: manderleypress.com #booksky

Vindication

Editing and I am very much enjoying this top note I have left for myself: One more terrible thing in the house.

UNQUIET GUESTS is out now, available from all good bookshops (and next-day delivery via Amazon). Ten haunted house stories from some of the best short stories writers around - perfect for all lovers of ghost stories this Christmas (and a beautiful edition, too).

This is so, so good. With a very strong M.R. James/Nigel Kneale weird fiction vibe. More, please.

Jane Austen, Novelist, #BornOnThisDay in 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England

This February, you don't need to go out ghost hunting - we'll be more than happy to bring the haunting to you with the latest run of the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL ONLINE, running from the 6th-8th February! www.ticketsource.co.uk/ukghoststory... #festival #festivals #writing #writers #authors #fiction

Outlandishly, I'll be discussing this research (& other things) on Front Row this evening with Samira Ahmed, Tessa Hadley, Kamila Shamsie, Harriet Walter, & John Mullan. Unless I end up on the cutting room floor, which given the company would be entirely understandable. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

“People have every right to own property, but we must balance that with the demands of burglars to steal that property and sell it.” Fuck off. And tell your loser tech mates to fuck off while you’re at it. Cheers. Ta. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Oh man

Goodnight from Amanda Frost, starting to feel that being a nanny at a haunted manor house is not only a cliché, but genuinely terrifying. Goodnight from Frank Holden, hoping an extra bottle of herb beer will keep Clapperclaw dreams from scratching him as he sleeps. Goodnight from Hookland.

Tond: a ghost story for Christmas. patreon.com/brokenveil A new one-off audio drama, from the Broken Veil channel. Support weird content, from as little as £2. Available Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. #BrokenVeil

Roger Clarke and I are writing a book about ghosts. We need a publisher. @tomsbrown.bsky.social and I are writing a graphic novel about boy mire maids and need a publisher. If you are interested, DM me.