Greetings from beautiful Montpellier, where I'm attending the Comédie du Livre, courtesy of my wonderful French publishers

The BFS is excited to be taking part in Trafford’s Celebration of Reading Sat 6th June 2026 14:00 – 15:00 for the Imagined Worlds (SFF panel). Full day 10:30 – 15:30. Urmston Library, Golden Way Ticket: www.urmstonbooks.co.uk/celebration-... Tickets are free, but book to avoid disappointment.

Really enjoying The Last Contract of Isako by the legendary @fondalee.bsky.social - a blisteringly relevant and uncompromising critique of corporate greed. I can say with some authority that it's exactly the sort of book you want to have in your backpack when your train is delayed by four hours.

Yesterday I finished reading this deliciously clever and funny book by @alessandraranelli.bsky.social - it's a steamy love-letter to golden age detective fiction, classy and hilarious in equal measure, combining nostalgic tropes with unexpected twists.

Banning gAI will (very slowly, unfortunately) become the norm, that is and always was the one true "adapt or die". Given enough time, an "infinite content machine" is not desirable anywhere and is bad for everyone, it's just Spam 2.0.

Medievalists (and renegade lapsed medievalists) of Bluesky: where can I read an English translation of the Vita Mathildis? Online or physical, I don't mind.

I have been learning from my wonderful mentor for a very long time, but I still haven't learned how to stop giving long rambling answers to academic questions, so this is the perfect gift to celebrate my becoming a doctor. Hopefully it'll help me to keep my answers short and succinct in future 🤣

Extremely excited to be chairing Tom and his wonderful new book! Be there AND be square, fellow Arthurian nerds.

Coming soon to a bookshop near you - some very smart and wonderful people will be asking me questions about my new book THE KNIGHT WATCH, a cathartic queer Arthurian Nazi-killing romp set during WWII

PASSED MY VIVA!!!!!!

This is the sort of thing I dream about doing, if I'm ever actually megabucks successful with this whole 'writing books' thing

Time to bring out the Temu Guillotines

Can't wait to chair this exciting panel in Leeds - interviewing @fondalee.bsky.social @halalltakeaway.bsky.social and AS Tamaki as part of their UK tour lineup!

Some extremely exciting news to finish off the week! I can’t wait to work with @solarisbooks.bsky.social and @alrutter.bsky.social to bring SHARDS OF STARLIGHT to you in Fall 2027!

Interestingly 'impeach' comes from the Old French empeechier "to hinder, stop, impede; capture, ensnare", derived from the Latin impedicare "to fetter, catch, entangle." If you go back far enough it means 'shackle' and 'foot'. So it means to trap somebody, give them the boot and lock them up.

“You’re alienating half of your audience by being political” Motherfucker, my “audience” is people who aren’t pieces of shit, who care about others. That’s who I make stuff for. There is no “other half”.

Give blood if you can! It's desperately needed, and they give you biscuits afterwards.

If this is the future of going on submission, I only want to sell on proposal 💀

This. I don't secretly use AI when I write, because I'm not a talentless hack. But even if I didn't write books for a living I still wouldn't use AI, because I don't want to diminish an essential part of my humanity and outsource it to a machine. We're supposed to strive and fail and learn and grow.

I have not, do not, and will not use AI. Those who use AI are not writers (artists, etc) they're thieves, cheats, and plagiarists. They have no more written a book than someone who's got in an Uber has run a marathon.

Apparently people are now claiming that 'all writers secretly use AI'. To be clear: I don't use AI because I'm actually a writer. I am good at what I do & would never need word salad machine to do any of it. People using it are not writers. They are playacting. They are children in a Wendy house.

You don’t need AI, you need a critique group that meets every month or so, trades stories, and gives feedback. Or even a mentor. You know: a HUMAN you talk to, who knows the right advice to give because they are also a writer and have been where you are. *Stop talking to a bot*.

As if getting married 3 days ago wasn't enough excitement, I'm beyond honoured and thrilled to announce that THE UNLIKELY PURSUIT OF MARY BENNET—a tender, heartfelt book I wrote for my now-wife—is a finalist for the Debut award at the #ronas26 What a wild week. I must be dreaming ❤️

My former US editor is also Andy Weir's editor. One of the reasons I was unceremoniously kicked to the kerb by Ballantine is that I'm always trying to make a point with my writing. (And entertain. You can do both at once!) They wanted me to smoothen down my work until it was pointless, toothless.

There will be a Q&A with time for you to ask your questions, followed by a signing. Get your tickets now! tinyurl.com/ChaosLeeds #Bookstagram #BookishEvents #Leeds #LeedsBookEvents #Fantasy #SciFi #Worldbuilding #waterstones #authorEvent #fantasyBooks #SciFiBooks #Chaos

And one for Leeds! Storytelling - Order Out of Chaos - Leeds Waterstones, Thursday 9th July, 7pm Join @rjbarker.bsky.social @sarahreesbrennan.bsky.social @rflong.bsky.social @thomasdlee.bsky.social & @britfantasysoc.bsky.social to talk chaos in storytelling and wrangling it into order – or not.

I hope the new and improved 'mantasy' subgenre is about deconstructing toxic masculinity and forming positive male friendship, rather than being about broody homicidal misogynist incels who are inexplicably attractive to beautiful elven maidens who could frankly do a lot better

A remarkable photo from #NoKings in DTLA from Connor Sheets of @latimes.com www.latimes.com/california/l...

<innocently whistles>

I'm getting married in TWO DAYS 👰👰🏿 and it would mean a lot to me to have the giveaway for my upcoming book promoted more (twenty copies up for grabs! I don't want to worry about social media this weekend!) so good people of Bluesky, please do your thing and repost this like mad.

Perilous Times got a lovely review in Le Monde, today!

Oft shared but immensely illustrative of the difference that drives this stuff. There are just a lot of people on the planet who think ‘the transition from scene 5 to scene 6’ is the challenge of being David Simon, rather than the fucking point of being David Simon.

The emperor has no clothes

Looking for a mentor for your next writing project? Well, Tom's looking for mentees. Sounds like a match made in heaven. ~ Anna

Just finished my first day of mentoring with @thewriteadvice.bsky.social ! I'm really looking forward to working with my mentees to develop their writing and polish their manuscripts. If you're interested in mentorship or example edits, take a look at our rates: thewriteadvice.co.uk/services/

Cover Reveal - it’s my pleasure to share with you the cover to the new fantasy novel from @elizachanwrites.bsky.social - Harbour of Hungry Ghosts coming this July via @orbitbooks.bsky.social and look at this cover! www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2026/3/...

My concession to St Patrick's Day

When my students/mentees ask for advice on how to make a living from publishing, in future, I'll just tell them to go back in time and write some HP fanfic

important

Now getting ads for AI 'Humanizers' that promise to make your AI writing seem less robotic, which seems about as logical (and environmentally conscious) as running a humidifier and dehumidifier in the same room. I feel like there's a much cheaper and easier solution to this problem.

According to Waterstones, if you like ACOTAR by Sarah J. Maas, you will love MURDER AT THE HOTEL ORIENT. Okay they didn’t exactly say that but CLOSE ENOUGH, BABY!

I've just pre-ordered MURDER AT THE HOTEL ORIENT by my friend and agency sibling @alessandraranelli.bsky.social - a sultry and decadent thriller set at an Austrian love hotel. I'm very excited to read it, after everything I've heard about it! www.waterstones.com/book/murder-...

END THIS STUPID WAR. REGULATE AI. IMPEACH THE ENTIRE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. EPSTEIN. LET'S PROSECUTE SOME CHILD MOLESTERS. CLEAN AIR, CLEAN WATER, CLEAN FOOD FOR ALL.

My first book occasionally gets criticised because the bad guys are a secret cult of cartoonishly evil necromantic billionaires and I can only assume that these criticisms come from people who live a blessedly offline existence and have never once read a newspaper.

If AI developers wish to use our copyright work to build their software they can ask us for permission. If we agree, they can pay us to license it on clearly defined terms. Tech companies ignoring copyright is theft. The UK government should uphold the existing law. www.dontstealthisbook.com/about

Melissa is absolutely right. We might be traditionally published, and we might occasionally break out with a bestseller, but midlist authors are often neglected by publishers while the big titles suck up all the oxygen. There are some brave and exciting books out there that deserve a lot more hype!

I very much hope those in government will read this and understand the risk they're taking with one of the UK's most consistently successful sectors - a risk profoundly bound up in an enormous speculative bubble and tech that has horrific externalities and is terrible at nearly everything.

How I arrived on Bluesky

Happy World Book Day, one and all. The world is currently governed by people who don't have the attention span or the inner wisdom to finish reading a book, but that shouldn't stop the rest of us from enjoying them and learning from them. youtube.com/shorts/GZPEG...