It is on! The time of year where I do normal things like "slanty vegetables" is totally a book.

The most wonderful time of the year! hiddenbooks.nationalbooktokens.com

Somehow both mad and unsurprising.

Doing a wee Bodily Fluids tour soon! 💦💙💖

A quick plea for help: if you've read and enjoyed Unquiet Guests, please leave a review on Amazon! We're currently sitting on a big fat ZERO reviews, despite strong sales. Let your opinion be heard!

“All of these bodies belonged to Palestinians who had been imprisoned while alive, which is one of the hallmarks of organ harvesting” A British surgeon confirms: returned Palestinian bodies show surgically removed hearts, lungs, kidneys, and livers.

Oxfordshire County Council has clarified that the Ghostbusters hearse would not be exempt from the city’s Congestion Charge. A spokesperson told us “It’s not as simple as buying a hearse. In order to qualify for a permit, you must also be a funeral care business.”

"Fantasy politics", from the studio that brought you "St George Cross on lamp post can fight foreign demon"

A great thread. I empathise and agree with all of it, and yet can't deny that something has shifted in me in the past few years. I don't think I regard this place as "home" anymore but I also don't know where else I'd go.

Not a publisher, but it feels like the Goodreads of ARCs so maybe it's worth it for spreading awareness of a title but (generally) not for quality critique.

Reading Patricia Highsmith's "The Talented Mr Ripley" at the age of 16. Then, about 10 years later, Atul Gawande's "Being Mortal".

James Bond and the Lost City of Atlantis

They should relaunch James Bond as a fifth Golden Girl.

Wish I could watch this. 😭

A weekend retreat in an adorable little house or flat somewhere in the world I've wanted to visit.

A GOOD YEAR (Fairlight Moderns, 2022, available from all book retailers) Cheating by posting 2 sentences. ✨

If you're an agent / publisher who likes the sound of a book about a young Cypriot guy who gets drawn into a world of sex work and wealth, but the story reveals itself to actually be about how free will and freedom are an illusion when you're from a formerly colonized, war-torn country, hit me up.

Are there any decent hybrid / crowdfunding publishing houses in the UK? Been thinking about my OOP second novel lately and don't want to risk an Unbound, or waste my own money.

incredibly funny that Joyce Carol Oates owned Musk so hard he's started trying to post like a regular person with normal interests

it’s also funny bc the whole point of blinkist is that it gives you an AI summary of some stupid fucking productivity book and then you pretend you read the book. which you didn’t

Wyrdlings! With the birthday of certain royal personages upcoming, we give you: “Once and Future Kings & Queens – from Drag to Domesday Book” for our #WyrdWednesday topic! Indulge the court of the wyrd & wynderful with your tales of monstrous apes, overlarge beds & legendary leaders! 👑

JUST LIKE A SOCIALIST TO WANT ME TO SHARE SOMETHING

I cannot be f**ked engaging with BBC News today. They played a clip of a politician who owes his success to disproportionate appearances on Question Time saying the BBC were institutionally biased. I could hear the screams of pain as irony died a slow and horrible death...

Hope you've had a pleasant start to your working week, before women come and ruin it.

See also: the Labour Party.

Some of you didn't grow up in a country with lax attitudes to starting times so you'd have to sit through 18 minutes of "The Bold and the Beautiful" while waiting for "The Golden Girls" and it shows.

Do I use ChatGPT? DO *I* USE CHATGPT? [Rocks back and forth, quaking, over the book he's been re-writing since the start of this century.]

Join us for our folklore of Games and Pastimes themed #FolkloreThursday this Thursday! Our hosts will share your posts to the hashtag at the following times GMT: 9am-1pm 3.30-4.30pm 6.30-7.30pm (🎨The Card Players, Theodoor Rombouts)

Yes, far better to offer tough and complex solutions such as "blame foreigners" and "beware the trans".

I don't use generative AI because as a writer of fiction, it offers me nothing useful creatively and nothing trustworthy when I do research. It's not worth the environmental impact. That it's been created by stealing my work and using it in breach of copyright law is a further but separate issue.

Someone once said: everyone says they want to write a book, but what most people mean is that they want to HAVE WRITTEN a book. In other words, most people don't want to do the work. 'AI' is tempting for those people. Real writers, though, are drawn to the work (in all its glory and frustration).

Take me to la iglesia, Rosalia!

My cozy fantasy novel inspired by my love (and fear…) of Scotland’s mountains, misadventures in academia, and time spent adventuring in Dungeons and Dragons, will be out next July!!

Back in Nottingham, where I've had an almond and apricot scone at a cute tearoom and walked among autumn leaves along the canal.

All set up Derby Book Festival with our own books and a carefully curated selection from across the indie presses and some writers I absolutely love!! @drewgum.bsky.social is popping by to sign a few copies of 🦩🏩 as well - so looking forward to catching up with him!! Here until 4pm!! #booksky

Spoke with my mum about this event afterwards, and was sad to hear her say she wishes she'd anglicised our names when we moved here in 2001. Ngl, I considered it numerous times "for the good of my career", but part of me always writhed in pain. I'm glad I kept my "difficult" name.

Just got out of "Who Do We Think We Are?", a series of talks at Theatro Technis (+ excuse to gather with food) about being a Cypriot working in the arts in Britain. Cypriotness is complex, and with every passing year I realise how much of me is tied to it. An enriching, invigorating event.

My brother Tom is a wonderful writer and shares his work on insta at @composition_ofwritings , but I just had to share his reflection on the aftermath of Samhain. It calls to mind the quiet landscape of our childhood and he envokes a world of ghostly companions and omens. I just love it! #folklore

I introduce myself as "Polis like metropolis" every single time and there are people who insist on "Pole-is". I die inside, but remind myself to be thankful that my full name is largely a secret.

Wasn't it funny Pat coming round when she did?

The shortlists have been announced. 🎉✨🥂 Read them here 👉 bit.ly/AURORAPRIZE And don't forget! We'll be announcing the winners LIVE at our Aurora Prize ceremony next Thursday evening in Derby. Tickets are FREE and winners will be revealed by our judges, ✨Joelle Taylor and Irenosen Okojie.✨

Somebody asked me to recommend cafes in Nottingham.

What an EPIC ending to this iconic series of #TheTraitorsUK

The way some people on the supposed Left continue to worship this soulless moral vacuum...

I am actually stunned. I just wrote 600 words of a new (old) book, and it's been such an ordeal finding the motivation to write in months.

From the studio that brought you Four Seasons Total Landscaping