It feels like we're in this weird, uncomfortable space where half of us want to be human, and the other half want to be stretch faced, ageless, skinny AI comptrollers.

Mixed feelings about this: Writing competition seeks original, unpublished short stories that present "positive futures" of AI. No small irony that the use of LLMs is against entry T&Cs. #WritersCommunity #WritingCommunity #Authors

I don't know if any of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize writers used AI, but I am wary of readers online claiming everything from em dashes to proficient metaphors is evidence of it. And, either way, if I knew strangers were feeding my original work into AI, I'd throw away my pen. What a mess.

@indienovella.bsky.social not sure if you'll see this, but I've been getting your emails about the recent website incident, and wanted to thank you for the way you've handled it. It's a horrible situation, but your explanation & attempts to fix are much appreciated. Also: love your free course 💗

Enough time has passed. Elastica biopic. Now.

I've been highly commended in The Bridge Awards Emerging Writer Award for my novel-in-progress (speculative horror, for the curious). It's a lovely thing; thank you Moniack Mhor & TBA. Writers, it's free to enter! Bookmark & submit later this year ✒️ www.moniackmhor.org.uk/writers/awar...

Lib Dems must again march towards the sound of gunfire; Starmerism was born in Lambeth; Sadiq Khan on being monetised in the outrage economy; women weren't burnt as witches - they were for defying their husbands; Tutankhamun's Egyptian finders; The Omen at 50

I've been highly commended in The Bridge Awards Emerging Writer Award for my novel-in-progress (speculative horror, for the curious). It's a lovely thing; thank you Moniack Mhor & TBA. Writers, it's free to enter! Bookmark & submit later this year ✒️ www.moniackmhor.org.uk/writers/awar...

The monetisation of "stranger content" has been terrible for social wellbeing, but this should be called out as VAWG and the person doing it should be prosecuted as such and put on a register. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

As the brown person who's really obviously next in the queue, I'm begging receptionists and cashiers - please don't look around for the non-brown person you've unconsciously assumed I must have cut in front of. Every. Single. Time.

Built myself a weather web app with weatherapi.com (free) and vanilla #JS. Used the Met Office app's layout in the first iteration. Highly recommend making your own as a coding project; it's so satisfying and actually useful. #JavaScript #Coding #tech 👩‍💻

Saul Enderby: "It isn’t some Russian plot to lure us to our destruction is it George?" George Smiley: "I’m afraid we’re no longer worth the candle…" A reminder that SMILEY'S PEOPLE is still up on iPlayer; my Letterboxd review... boxd.it/cSbtj1

Growing up in a strictly Christian family, the Omen worked its peculiar magic on me from a young age. For me, its demonic horror wasn't just real, but really imminent - just as the man behind the original idea had intended all along. www.thehaughtyculturist.com/films/the-om... #FilmSky #Horror

Divorce, disaster movies, and dads: symbol and storytelling in Spielberg's War of the Worlds. www.thehaughtyculturist.com/films/war-of...

[Content warning for some readers] Author spared jail over very "unusual case." Judge rules writer's descriptions of adult sexual roleplay to be child abuse material. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04...

"I’ve seen no attempt by any of the above players to update, clarify or correct their statements. For a brief period, the “Epsom gang rape” served a political purpose. The mundane truth was altogether less useful."

An appointment with ... The Wicker Man, remakes, and musical horror. www.thehaughtyculturist.com/films/the-wi... #thewickerman #mayday #folkhorror

I should add that I can't even "do" the books, never mind "cook" them - the only books I'm acquainted with have pictures in them. Still, for this reason, I can't be an investigative reporter either. It's only a matter of time before I stumble onto a mob plot, I say from a spare room in a cul-de-sac.

Have started watching / inhaling The Thick of It for the first time (it's on iPlayer in the UK) and Malcolm Tucker is the kind of person you'd cheerily defenestrate, but also one of THE best written hero-villains out there.

People aren’t driven to blame and attack innocent Jews because of Israel and Netanyahu, they’re driven to it because they hate Jews. No one’s going around stabbing American expats for being American over the war in Iran.

Five decades of pumping out escalating terror that somewhere, some disabled person might be getting a free sandwich, will do that to a nation.

This was my test for left vs right wing. Works every time. The right justify it by saying it’s economically sensible but that’s because they assume everyone will cheat - they would! This is why socialism works in Scandinavia: “Lagom” culture. The idea of taking more than you need is foreign.

Raghu Rai, Photographer Who Captured Modern India, Dies at 83 www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/w...

🥚 #AlienDay

#AlienDay 🚀😴👨‍🚀🐛🫃🩸🏃‍♂️🔫🏃‍♀️🐱👩‍🚀😴🚀 www.thehaughtyculturist.com/films/alien-...

In a huge moment in sports history, Sabastian Sawe smashed the men's world record by 65 seconds in winning the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds on Sunday. n.pr/4vQBtk3

Is it my job to tell you about Michael Jackson? www.thehaughtyculturist.com/opinion-and-...

There's something so regenerative about seeing the trees with their blossoms. #bloomscrolling

Applied for a writer thing and didn't get it. Apparently I was shortlisted, which I'm taking as a small encouragement. However the email is to "Dear writer" so it also sounds like a thing they just tell people. Words, after all, are the thing ...

I did a cinema. boxd.it/e4Xkxl

A bit o' Cumbria

I used to work with a guy who had an elaborate theory about how American evangelicalism is a uniquely American folk religion with a somewhat tenuous connection to Christianity as the rest of the world practices it. I should see what he thinks about the news lately.

Michael Jackson: An American Tragedy is fascinating, not least for the almost spiritual adulation of fans, and the vastness of the singer's fame. And yet, for all the pockets of interest there's a lot of glossing, and things never quite grasped or fully answered. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kez...

On Scum, and the bleak brilliance of Alan Clarke's work. "It’s no surprise the top boy is called 'the Daddy' and has a missus. Bit by bit, albeit warped by violence, these young men reach for the family, love, & decency missing in their lives.' #FilmSky 📽️ www.thehaughtyculturist.com/films/scum-1...

Isn't America threatening to annihilate an entire civilization ... terrorism? Why is no one speaking up? Why is no one doing anything actually meaningful?

The BBC has unironically asked Nigel Farage to comment on a story about a pop singer known for anti-Semitic opinions. Apparently Farage wouldn't buy a ticket. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This story is such an interesting barometer. This community in America essentially wants immigrants to suffer ... but just not where they can see, hear, or smell it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Why does an author - a wordsmith, someone in thrall with writing - want to use AI to write or form an opinion in the first place? I practically give up my soul when I'm edited by a living breathing human, never mind a machine. Give up the words themselves, the agency, creation, beauty? Why? Why?

New from me: Why are movie taglines so bad? fritinancy.substack.com/p/what-happe...

Had a brilliant idea for a group fitness class called Run Choir, which gets packs of people singing loud and rousing songs while running. Cooled when I realised that's basically the army.

Earth Hour is HERE! ⏰ This is the moment we’ve been waiting for – time to switch off for our world. 🌎 Don’t forget to share your photos using #EarthHour, so we can see how you're getting involved. 📸

The strategic beigeness of Andy Weir in that YouTube interview clip is why I don't care to learn about authors and actors beyond what they do on page or screen.

I have squandered the @alcs.co.uk money that arrived in the account and which I should probably have saved for utilities Forgive me it was delicious so spendy and so free

I enjoyed Project Hail Mary; it's feel-good and funny, yet also somewhat downbeat, and that's very much a film of our times. But while memorable and touching, the film adaptation was mid for me, and I keep puzzling over why and I think it's because: it has no ugliness, and that just doesn't compute.

#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

Good news; it'll still only cost you £540,000 to travel by train from Leeds to London if you book six weeks in advance during a new moon and on a Friday.* *Train may be a replacement bus.

I've started getting around 200 junk mails a day, but all from predictable addresses. So I blocked them. But now I'm getting hundreds of spam emails from a slightly different pattern of predictable addresses. Which seems highly unusual if it is indeed lots of spammers and not, say, just one ... 🤔