"Indonesia stood out this year, with local titles competing directly with Korean dramas at the top of the premium VOD rankings. This is a meaningful shift that reflects improving content quality, stronger distribution and rising audience confidence in local storytelling." variety.com/2026/tv/news...

In this week's episode @talkscaredpod.bsky.social & @agathaandrews.bsky.social talk about Wuthering Heights (the book). Comparisons to William Golding's Lord of the Flies, racial themes, and speculations on the upcoming movie. It was fun! open.spotify.com/episode/1TPf...

"Experts and witnesses attributed this phenomenon to Israel’s systematic use of internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, often referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius [6,332 degrees Fahrenheit]."

Cat reliefs "Tisya" and "Pusya" on Borobudur Temple and a relief of a cat with prayer beads on Mendut Temple (both in Central Java) share the theme of deception in their roles; similar to Tevildo, a fay-cat and the early version of Sauron. 🧵1/3 #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday 🎨: Lída Holubová

The Z!onist president would rather spend tax money on this than on rebuilding flood-affected areas, education, and many, many more urgent matters. And I'll say it again: 🇮🇩 is not a Muslim nation. Muslims are the majority here, that's all. www.bbc.com/news/article...

i've been saying this like a broken record, but the reason i grew up loving reading and then started writing is because reading was inexpensive and my family was poor. it was a rare, affordable form of entertainment. the library in conjunction with mmpbs made it possible.

Doesn't matter how many stories you read on this, it's freshly harrowing each time.

Happy 13th anniversary to this pair of matching news headlines.

Heaven help me if I ever meet someone in person who claims to be an AI author. I have a glass face. I cannot pretend. I will do my trademark cackle and then just snicker uncontrollably for a while. Do you let the plagiarism robot kiss your lover? Look at sunsets for you? Why are you even alive?

Yesterday I submitted a manuscript under the second pen name. That was the actual reason I created an email account & a social media account. It's the story set in 1982, rewritten and given a new plot.

The post-Me Too era has really taught me that the underlying issue with the persistence of sexual violence isn’t exactly women’s credibility, as the “believe women” slogan suggested, but rather with rape’s moral status. It’s not that people think it doesn’t happen. They think it doesn’t matter.

Today is the last day for this very popular #Monster #Romance and #ErotIva eBook bundle. It includes my #spicy #scifi book Alien Exploration. It is usually $4.99 but you can snag it and 39 others in the Monster bundle for only $40. Only 2 days left! itch.io/b/3479/monst... #BookSky 💙📚📦🚀🌶️

Lot's of discussions on AI today. But maybe it could help generate ideas for stories? I have several notebooks filled with ideas. Ideas are not the problem. It's writing a great story that takes time. But maybe it could be used to make an outline of the story from an idea? Nope. Hell no.

Deep-sea robots hunting for "dark oxygen," large amounts of the gas from a region in the ocean that's too deep for sunlight to power photosynthesis. The team have developed a suite of instruments that they’ll use to probe the sea floor. www.nature.com/articles/d41... (paywalled) #deepseamining 🧪 🌊 🦑

This week: Mon: Walked a total of a kilometer at night to buy a new mouse because the old one finally broke. Wed: Slipped and fell in the rain, was reminded of it in the afternoon when my hip hurt. Made a social media account for the second pen name.

Cool! My short story “The Skies Are Red” from the excellent anthology ON FIRE AND UNDER WATER was named one of “Robert Lopresti’s Best Short Mysteries of the Year (2025),” on SleuthSayers. Thank you, Rob! www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/01/the-...

A South Korean court has ruled that the 2024 imposition of martial law by then-President Yoon Suk Yeol constituted an act of rebellion as it sentenced his prime minister to 23 years in prison for his involvement.

Tfw you're honing your body horror writing skills & someone said they enjoy your body horror stories.

Seconding this. Geocities was so popular that they couldn't keep up with demand at first. LiveJournal had to close off applications for a year because folks overwhelmed them Something Awful had to start charging for forum access to deal with the load. And so on.

RIP Bruce Leung, veteran martial arts actor. He's widely known as The Beast in Kungfu Hustle (2004). His first memorable role for me was Alex Man's pupil in The Legendary Fox (1981).

I’m reading @karenhao.bsky.social’s Empire of AI and I recommend it to everyone who wants to understand the modern world. ChatGPT has no goddamn place in a sustainable world.

Quote with art you've received from other artists and promote them! Liv by syhhart # karya-karya (Indonesian creator platform). Premade cover by scrk_kertas @ IG for a short story collection.

“Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death,” an AO3 fic in which Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, is astounding. archiveofourown.org/works/73396436

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j... "The move comes after governments, researchers and regulators from Europe to Asia have condemned and some have opened inquiries into sexualised content on the app."

The true secret to my long career: As a midlist writer hanging on to my career one book at a time, I can only control the work I do, not outcomes. So I work: Drafting Novel W while waiting for edit notes on Novel F. When edits & draft are done, I'll return to the half finished & overdue Novel L.

I had no idea the material conditions in Iran had degraded so badly. As the speaker, Prof Fatemeh Shams explains later, these are explosive, borderline revolutionary conditions, much more serious than previous rounds of mass protest

So yesterday, I got an email that my job has been eliminated. handled by AI now. I don't know what to do, so I've set up a ko-fi page. I'm offering ghostwriting services but also accepting tips. I have a number of bills coming due and I'm at a loss. Please repost if you know anyone interested!

What's your top 5 anime? Hana no ko Runrun, my first intro to mahou shoujo. Saint Seiya (sssh). Kidoukeisatsu Patlabor. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, but I love the manga more. Kimetsu no Yaiba.

In case anyone has plans to spend this weekend in Jakarta. en.tempo.co/read/2079375...

It’s been a week of despair so you might have missed it but I’m hanging out my shingle as a literary agent with Handspun Literary. Looking for speculative fiction for all age groups. No picture books. If you think we might be a good fit you can query me here: querytracker.net/query/Handsp...

this

79 authors have withdrawn from Adelaide Writers Week now, that we know of - others are rumoured to have done so without declaring so publicly, if you’re wondering why different numbers are floating around. More than half of the festival gone. sakr.substack.com/p/the-road-t...

Bedhaya Tunjung Anom, a court dance of Yogyakarta Sultanate (central region of Java), depicts Queen Suprabawati's estri/warrior maidens from all-female kingdom Galuh in ancient text "Serat Babad Sigaluh." Unlike similar dances, dancers carry guns beside bows, arrows, and spears. 1/4 #WyrdWednesday

In Aceh province, the area quarried by illegal miners increased from 6,805 hectares to more than 8,000 hectares last year, including 1,882 hectares of illegal mining in the critical Leuser Ecosystem, a habitat for elephants, orangutans, rhinos, sun bears & tigers. news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indo...

#BluePit is coming up fast, but even sooner is our pre-event #BluePitHype! Starting on January 8th, we'll be doing a 5-day long Q&A for sharing advice, art, and finding new friends and stories! We can't wait to see your pitches! #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #Writers #GameDev #TTRPG #Comic

I now use this, also because they promise not to keep track of the searches.

Floods on all five of Indonesian major islands and nary a "national emergency" status in sight. abcnews.go.com/Internationa...

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says his country believes the move is linked to Israel’s plans to forcibly displace Palestinians.

Morning, everyone! I am going to be working on comms this week, and once again finishing things up! My prices are going up after the first of the year, so if you wanna reserve something at existing prices then let me know~ (current vs. upcoming prices)

Hello all, I'm sure some here are wondering why I've gone quiet lately. The TL;DR: I have Polycystic Kidney Disease for a long time. This year, I was pregnant and gave birth prematurely. And while dealing with the baby's NICU stay, a nephro told me I will need a kidney transplant in 4 years. +

Plan for the second half of 2025: Seriously work on a novel manuscript in English feat. a nearby mountain Reality: A project Second book in the teen horror series

Thinking of how I can trick romance authors into promoting their books with a one sentences description of what actually happens again. We gotta ease off the trope only vibes. WHAT HAPPENS!

I don't think you could come up with a list more designed to inflame sentiments than "here is a list of things that publishers MUST use AI to do and remain competitive, but don't worry, this isn't pushing out creative labor"

A screenwriter who sometimes absorbs people's negative energies, which disrupts her own peace of mind.

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

Aaaand @eveshi.bsky.social 's new books are here! Can't wait to read them although I'm a coward and probably will only read them in the afternoons www

i imagine the earth when I am no more: Nothing happens, no loss, it’s still a strange pageant - Czeslaw Milosz

Malls cancel fireworks displays "as a form of solidarity with the victims of the floods and landslides on Sumatra Island, which killed more than a thousand people." At any other time,this might come across as performative, but the bar has been low lately. en.tempo.co/read/2076567...

Current read. Halfway through the book and am delighted with every story so far.

Three of my books on the same section at a local bookstore (see alt text for the titles). There's a fourth book but it's not in this picture. A bit of a year's end surprise. Picture taken on Monday.