The man on a mission to save Mauritania’s ‘city of libraries’ from encroaching desert sands

Ballon's day

A couple of photos from Tom Baker’s recent MBE Investiture ceremony. Louise Jameson was there too to show her support on Tom’s big day. Photos: Olly Mc. #DoctorWho #FourthDoctor #TomBaker #LouiseJameson

I propose an international law that once you become personally responsible for the murder of 1,000 people, be it via direct violence or policy, you are declared a dragon and adventurers can form parties to quest against you.

raw materials were sourced from "the dissecting room and slaughterhouse," meaning the creature was made partly of animal parts and it is an interpretation fully in line with the text to imagine the creature as a catboy

Convincing you to read my novel by the first sentence! Show me yours if you want VILE LADY VILLAINS, cover reveal this Friday

I'll play. Convincing you to read my novel with the first sentence. Add yours if you'd like

World’s greatest detectives.

obviously this is bad, but it’s long been true of other countries we praise to the skies for their healthcare and a lot of progressive Americans don’t want to acknowledge that as a huge vector of oppression. there are a lot of places I couldn’t emigrate to even if I wanted bc they have BMI limits

🕵️

My last word on the matter

i appreciate the grace with which the tumblr zoology pedants allowed me to pretend this was intentional

Brother Gregor never spoke and often spooked the neophytes with his appearance, but he was a gentle soul and a phenomenal cook and knew more ways to prepare a fish than the abbot knew hymns

The Best Of The Outbursts Of Everett True

“WWII character Mademoiselle Marie had a child with Batman’s butler” is one of my favourite absurd shared universe facts.

SCHUMER: Well, I—for one—am touched by this act of generosity. Perhaps one day, all of humanity will know the saying “Be welcoming of Greeks bearing gifts.”

Obviously the new film should open with Herne the Hunter choosing a new Tuxedoed Man and giving him one of the sacred Walter PPKs of Albion.

fixed it

That guy writing about beekeepers sounds like he knows what he's talking about

Drew some #DaveCockrum LSH designs a few years back

The more I think about the new V for Vendetta HBO series, the more I can only conclude that HBO have not thought about it. It's a story about a (trans) terrorist Dr Phibes-ing their way through mainstream right wing types who enabled mediocre fascists to take power.

Unbelievably and unaccountably, yes

The last annual review concluded the SS Richard Montgomery was perfectly safe! And as a demonstration of exactly how safe it is it also banned aircraft from flying anywhere near it in case, y'know, the wreck spontaneously makes itself a lot safer in a manner incompatible with continued aviation...

yes yes we all know about the Edmund Fitzgerald, rest her soul, but did you know about the ship laden with explosives that sank in the mouth of the Thames in 1944 and could explode at any minute and which attempts to disarm keep failing

People in the UK aren't getting transphobia from weird niche online communities. They're getting it from the prime minister, the BBC, politicians and the newspapers in every newsagents in the country.

At risk of flogging a dead horse: this whole letter is a reminder that the creative process is an end in and of itself, and vital to self-actualisation. You can’t experience BECOMING, as he puts it, by outsourcing it to ChatGPT.

Then it's not a fucking ceasefire, is it.

The real problem for Bond is also the problem for Batman, Doctor Who, and dozens of similar characters -- the idea that a melodrama hero must also be a dramatic protagonist. The two roles are fundamentally irreconcilable. I blame George Lucas and Joseph Campbell.

You might as well say that Robin Hood Prince of Thieves had to deal with him dying in Robin and Marian. They’re different stories.

It's very simple. The next film should be about four Bonds: a cyborg one, a bloke in a suit of armour with a big hammer, a teenage one who's cloned from the DNA of Bond and Blofeld, and a fascist one that's secretly an artifact from Bond's homeworld. Then the real one should come back with a mullet.

Ian Fleming killed off James Bond at the end of the fifth novel, From Russia With Love, and then starts the next one with “Phew, that last case was a bit much, I had to spend a few days in bed, anyway back to work…”

Convincing you to read my zine by sharing all of the stories’ first sentences kaleidotrope.net

This is a very bizarre statement because the Craig films are obviously a different “continuity” (to the extent Bond has that) than the rest. They open with the backstory of him becoming a OO agent and have an entirely new version of Blofeld and Spectre which isn’t compatible with the old one at all.

it is a sacred day today.

Yeah, but what if this *isn't* late-stage capitalism? What if this is just the middle part of capitalism, before it goes into laying-its-eggs-inside-another-ideology-stage capitalism and makes giant capitalist wasps? Pretty sure it has to end in wasps.

Anytime I mention this story theres a few dozen people who never heard about it, so for those unaware

Reminded me a little bit of the five-year-old girl I nannied when I was right out of college who, when I asked if she liked being the youngest, said “It rocks! ‘Cause I’ll be the last to die!”

I saw someone say that Musk could easily clap back at Oates by pointing out the weird things she's posted if he was smarter, but I don't think that would work. This is getting under Musk's skin because he wants people to love him, while Oates doesn't care what anyone thinks about her.

I would just live my life so that Joyce Carol Oates does not feel the need to destroy me.

Played “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” for a five year old girl, and she told me, “You know, I do”

“The report found that the heaviest AI users are thought leadership writers (84%), PR/comms professionals (73%), and content marketing writers (73%).” How can you be a thought leader when you don’t think? Fraud. Scam. Grift and nonsense!

And the audiobook just got a great review! www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read...

Holding off on my Awards Eligibility post for now because I've got another story coming out later this month and I think it's a pretty good one. (Also wondering whether using the Mamdani font will still be cool and topical then or if I'll look like I'm behind the trends.)

This story is very, very, very good and if you haven't already read it, you should.

SIX PEOPLE TO REVISE YOU is a story near and dear to my heart. Eternal Sunshine meets Pygmalion with a lot of nonbinary millennial anxiety. If you need a copy of either of these and you are reading for awards, I can get it to you. And thank you for reading SFF, especially queer SFF. (end)

THE LIGHTHOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD is my sophomore novel that released from Tor in July. It's gotten some really beautiful reviews from WaPo, Ancillary Review, Locus, LJ, Shelf Awareness, Booklist, and PW. It also was named a Gold Standard Selection from JLG. (2)

2025 AWARDS ELIGIBILITY POST Y'all, it's time. And while I had a record number of publications this year (the Disney Essays, reprints, multiple short stories), I wanted to focus on two specific stories. (1)