Last night at Salon Hecate | Noordhoek Art Point – a celebration of Short Story Day Africa, its fabulous founder, Rachel Zadok, and our latest SSDA anthology, CAPTIVE: New Short Fiction from Africa, and @heckitty.bsky.social's Beatles birthday.

CLAWS Lucky Draw 2025 – win a Karavan Press book hamper and other stunning prizes karavanpress.com/2025/08/28/c...

When medicine is reduced to data, protocols, apps, diagnostics or treatments something vital is lost The art of medicine is understanding the humanity, the whole person & that people are all different Respect for humanity can be restored by those who understand the art involved

Good headline, effective headline image, fucking terrific op ed www.statnews.com/2024/08/20/m...

The bankers are going to be the end of us all.

After a long period of abstaining from consuming news of US politics aka soap opera-shit show (because mental health), I cannot tell you how nice it is to be giggling at reports from over the pond again.

Non-US citizen here, reflecting more-or-less the response of the world outside North America: WTAF???? Is this a joke? Photoshop?

In the interests of morale-boosting.

Awwwww.

Extremely symbolic seeing the Refugee Olympic Team enter the Games in a boat

Libraries are awesome.

My toxic trait is I want every human to be sheltered, fed, clothed and provided healthcare at no direct cost to themselves. I DO NOT CARE if some people then do nothing for the rest of their lives. Mazletov, god bless. I don't care if a few people figure out ways to game the system. People need help

whenever these big gop oppo lists come out it always looks like this, like god please give us the scary candidate you made up

This cat has the correct response to *waves hands around*

In all the ongoing devastation around us, this piece is its own quiet statement of devastation.

IT ME. My lovely late gynae used to call my file "the phone book".

A job I was looking forward to just fell through because I requested a very basic “please don’t feed my work into the AI garbage chute pls” clause in the contract That was apparently against company policy and non-negotiable If anyone needs a book cover I have an opening in my schedule

Fantasy is not my regular jam, but I've read some superb fantasy (grew up on The Once and Future King, Terry Pratchett is a touchstone) and few things get up my nose more than readers who are snobby about it. Here's the incomparable Ursula Le Guin.

One of my favourite throwaway bits from Daddy-Long-Legs:

My second favourite tripod cat in the universe. (My fave is lying pressed up against me, purring.)

And another Strangely Wholesome Cat repost.

Reposting as a public service. You're welcome.

Immodest Cat Is Strangely Wholesome.

ai has entered its roast era. large scale mockery signals the beginning of the end. good. 🙂

Think you have heard ALL of the evil kitties can do? This thread recounts a tale of FRESH wickedness.

Here in Cape Town, not only the skies but the seas are blue: for lovers of surfing and words, we're having a Salon Hecate event with an incredible line-up. All the deets here: noordhoekartpoint.co.za/2024/05/24/c...

And on 27 May (6pm SA time - eve of the election!), I'm running this online workshop because the publishing industry is changing faster than the icecaps are melting, and we're all at sea. Everything I've learned so far in this brave and scary new world! summerschool.uct.ac.za/events/publi...

I have some online editing/publishing webinars coming up in the next few days: this one (Saturday 10am SA time) is hosted by the ever-reliable All About Writing: allaboutwritingcourses.com/product/edit...

Oooooh. Would love to see what my space-opera and sci-fi writing pals might make of this!

😘

I just want to forget I ever saw that awful ad. But this thread is HEXCELLENT.

Ooh, look at the pics in this short and wondrous thread.

This!! Top tip: choose an executor younger (and healthier) than you. Esp if they're going to be dealing with yr intellectual property -- yr copyright will outlive you by decades.

I say it often: we are going to be the most loathed and despised generation in history. Those who survive us will be unable to comprehend how we could have been this lethally selfish.

Apple ads, 1984: “we will save the world from dystopian conformity” Apple ads, 2024: “we will crush all of human creativity into a small rectangle” marketing is marketing, but it’s very instructive to see the image they think they’re selling us and how much bleaker it is

And further, re my last repost. That black hole is VERY deep and very dark.

This. Plus, whenever I sit down and think hard about Y, I seriously want to open my wrists. Not a joke or exaggeration. Yes, I feel like Kate pushing Leo off the raft. There is no way to keep feeding mouths and paying bills if in a heap of absolutely valid grief and horror.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

These look like fun! And lovely details/background.

*tings glass* Thrilled to announce this great anthology of stories by young African writers. After four blank bleak years of #LongCovid, I didn't think I'd see a book with my name on the cover again. Wonderful to work with this team - learnt so much from you. www.catalystpress.org/adult-books/...

Weird and delightful. None of my cats have ever done this. Yet.

Here's a short happy/funny thread for youse.

Once upon a time I taught Chaucer and Shakespeare at the University of Cape Town, and what a very happy time it was. Meanwhile I love that we even think about conversing with the Bard. It's a lovely You Tube rabbithole to fall into.

There was a brilliant quote I saw about this: “There are two types of men: those who understand why women pick the bear, and those who are the reason why women choose the bear”. And it is very true.

Of all the jobs it seems AI could easily replace, college administrator seems quite high.

Reminder: Sure, the student protestors turned out to be right about Vietnam, and gay rights, and apartheid, and the Latin American dirty wars, and the invasion of Iraq -- but *this time* they are cluelessly naive and only protesting to look cool to their friends.