In this Year of Reading, a gentle reminder: The best way to get your kids reading is to let them see *you* reading. The way to *stop* your kids reading is to criticize their choices, or to make reading a competition, or a punishment, or a race, or a learning tool. Let it be fun. Let them read.

Want to work in comics? We hear you. So we made a list of all the openings. Please share! #ComicJobs List: www.thepopverse.com/comics-jobs-...

*excellent* joke

No cheating, reskeet the most recent pictures of your pet(s) Any excuse! #binxblackcat

Random gaggle of elderly people on my train, nodding sagely and talking about how immigrants 'work, pay taxes, and help pay our pensions, you know'. Apparently they're 'good for the country'. Who knew ☺️ #trainpeople

Fuck me RAGGED, that was thirty years ago. Bloody hellfire. If you'll excuse me, I'll be waving my cane and telling the kids to get off my lawn. 😱

This is always a goo one: In 1996 I had cellulitis in my ear. Not unerstanding how serious it was, I refuse to go to the Doc until the swelling/pain got bad I was delirious, and my then-BF pretty-much dragged me...

Snow. Not much, but ack. Time for lots of #tea.

OTHERSIDE is officially OPEN for fiction and poetry submissions 🪐🗡️ If you’re part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, send us your speculative fiction and poetry: fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and everything in between! 📚 Open window: Jan 1-14 📑 See guidelines for details: othersidespec.com/guidelines/

Right whingers on X completely losing their shit because of some lovely fireworks. Utterly joyless people constantly seeking out offence. And it's so telling of who they really are.

First read (listen) of the year. Have had mixed reports about this, but Booker, so curious... Orbital www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

What was the last movie or TV show you watched in 2025?

Some of this, this side of the Pond please!! 🎇

There’s a small wood just outside town that over 2025 somebody has filled with painted stones and shells and seeds. They hang from branches, hide among roots, and cover fallen trees like army ants. It’s not twee, and don’t sense its secrets are meant for social media. But here is the eye tree.

Warning to shepherds and sailors (and booksellers) everywhere. And fuck it's cold out here!

Time and bookstores wait for no woman... heading out into the frozen wastes! Happy New Year everyone :) 🎉

Open up this picture fully. Then look at the surface of Mars. Then look up to the top right. Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky. Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos. That's Earth.

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

Last sunset of 2025, and a chilly afternoon walk (limited festivities, as I'm at work tomorrow). Don't really do Resolutions, but handing in one MS and starting immediately on the next one, and seriously trying to get out and about, and to more events and Cons. Wherever you are, have a good one!

Isaac and I have been watching Torchwood, Miracle Day, and I'm staggered by how good it is, genuinely powerful and harrowing, with every social permutation explored. RTD just doesn't shrink away from the tough stuff, and the impact is staggering. Oh, Russell. What happened to you, seriously?

And how the FUCK is it the end of the year?!!! I know time flies, but it's like sand, trickling through my fingers. Is that an age thing? Or is it something else that's changed since Covid? Or both, as ever? Fecking #tea.

There were two very, VERY stoned young men in the bookstore, a while back, blinking for several hours at a Where's Wally? book. They didn't find him.

GODFATHER FROM HELL has risen from the grave! Earlier this year, we had to make the difficult decision to stop individual issues of our infernal neo-noir thriller but in 2026, @thevaultcomics.bsky.social will publish the entire story as an OGN with a new cover by @piusbak.bsky.social (1/3)

Comics gang, anyone interested?

My end of year round up, talking #cats, #leases, and #books, oh my, and some thoughts for 2026: danacea.ghost.io

And just like that and without any fanfare … Neither Fish Nor Foul is open for submissions. Closes 1 March 2026 or when 150 subs reached. 100-500 words, no theme. Likely will take a while to respond this time - up to 90 days. Agonising, sorry. duotrope.com/duosuma/subm...

we're open for fiction for just a little bit longer!! get those stories in and please, read the guidelines 🖤 💀 psychopomp.com/the-deadland...

Some of this year's reads. I did hit my #Goodreads thing, but I'm always slightly dubious about turning reading into a numbers-total, as, if you're only aiming at the target, it can detract from your enjoyment of the individual books. But: a few of my faves!

Time for #tea, and we may nor may not be playing #dungeonsanddragons this afternoon, as various peoples are down with the traditional Winter lurg. Saving throws all round :)

Good morning to ever-more of you, leaving the little blue bird! I'm Danie, and I write books - the ECKO trilogy (cyberpunk/fantasy #isekai mash-up), CHILDREN OF ARTIFICE ( #queer science fantasy), lots of #WarHammer (space nuns kicking butt) and a whole host of other stuff. tinyurl.com/3543szp4

Served Eric Cantona, buying books for his kids. Had no clue who he was.

Child actor. Good lawd no. Powerful book, tho.

The lovely charity people from whom I adopted Binx have a WhatsApp chat, and it's the best mental health medication ever, just kind people rescuing lost and unwanted (mostly) cats and giving them loving care and homes. Won't share pics without permission, but 💖

APPS ASS MONEY Bit late in my life for that drastic a career change, tbf.

Reaching the age-old question: at what point is an MS finished? I'm a terrible tidge-monster (comes with years and years of professional copywriting/editing), and, if left to my own devices, will go back and back and BACK over a manuscript, obsessing about the tiniest things. I don't want...

A Fool and His Money are Dune Parted

Anyway, on the subject of AI being a crock of shite, I need to put the very finishing touches to a manuscript, and get it the fuck off my desk before New Year (and starting the next one). So you lot be good, and let me get back to work, k?

I want to say something clever about AI, weigh in on the various 'open letters' that are doing the rounds, but I'm just so <tired> of the whole subject. It's class war. Technocratic oligarchs, forcing it into every level of our media and social consumption, while simultaneously gobbling resources..

Ah, toothache, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Not enough to get me to an emergency appointment, to be fair, it can wait 'til next week. While I drink my #tea.

As we approach 2026, take note of our February zine submission call. I'm paying 10 cents per word for cunty horrors, cursed concerts, monstrous dating profiles, batshit LinkedIn posts, and nightmare grifters. cursedmorsels.com/submission-c...

Today was not a good time to lose a filling 😡

This letter pretends it is reasonable and obvious but ultimately is an attempt to excuse a dozen or more ways of letting anti-human, pro-techlord, environment-destroying septic AI into our industry, organizations and processes. But there just isn’t an ethical use of generative AI, full stop.

Binx is fixing me with the 'FEED ME' stare. Who teaches cats to do this? Is it passed from a parent cat to their kittens? Do younger cats pick it up from older cats or siblings? Or does it come from some unseen 'How to Train Your Human' manual?

We're putting together our monthly newsletter! If you have January opportunities for writers, let us know - we're particularly interested in sharing opportunities for writers in the North of England, and for writers of speculative fiction.

A little #realartmatters, to counter the tide of slop :)

I feel this. It's no coincidence that gardening was something I enjoyed this year. Fewer devices, less tracking, more care. Paper books, friends IRL, walking, tea, perfume, cinema, gigs... Just be mindful that the attention economy is *not*your friend and not everything is accomplished by shopping.

#ttrpg writers wanted by @cubicle7games.bsky.social A chance for rpg writers to start something new in 2026?

The soundtrack to our CyberPunkin' twenties, when the Dark Future was all longcoats and boosted reflexes... www.discogs.com/master/92107...

For further context twitter added a button that allows users to generate ai images using existing art posts from artists. It removes glaze and it basically reskins the artwork by using the existing work as a base. Twitter is no longer a safe space for art