To me, my X-Mas!

Simply Having A wonderful

Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower

Love being a white man who's into Roman history. White men who are into Roman history are, famously, normal 🫠

Wrote a quick blog post highlighting some of my favourite books from the @specawards.bsky.social! Feat. four very good independently published fantasy books from four very different fantasy subgenres. leoastrum.wordpress.com/2025/12/13/s...

He's not, because the processing of Santa Claus's own "naughty or nice" data is necessary for the performance of a task carried out by Santa as a competent authority. (DPA 2018 s35(2))

I *think* what's happened here is that bluesky's moderation tools, including muted words, turn off if you're under their 'haven't validated your age' restriction. No more vpn-less bluesky for me 🙃

Has bluesky broken its muted words feature? I just tried to mute something THREE TIMES and it just flat out hasn't worked. When I go to my muted words menu it says I have nothing muted (I have... a lot muted) and when I added something to the list it didn't show up. Wack

It's very interesting to be in your 20s and watch some bluesky folks largely in their 30s and 40s make generalising statements about the state of your brain, understanding of the world, or what your childhood was like. I'm not going to be a reply guy. But some people are very wrong 😂

Here we go

If some guy stole my shit and made millions off it while wiping out my job prospects, and you, as my friend, bought that guy's cheap mass market replica of my shit, you and i would for obvious reasons have a problem. It being a massive company, not a guy, actually makes it even more of a problem.

I think it's more than a little fair for trans folks in the book community to be wary of readers who still love HP in 2025 and/or read HP-inspired romantasy novels.

This was my favourite while judging! An utter delight of a book that's so sincere, takes place in an obviously well-researched magic system, and is phenomenally weird. I had so much fun reading this one and the win is very well deserved.

Just made hoooopefully the final edits to a short story coming in an anthology next year! I am very excited to see the whole thing come together

Look you just have to make the cool weird shit that excites you. You must. In this world besieged by bland, scrubbed boring, computer slop, you must. Make the thing you’re embarrassed to make, the thing that feels “too much” because otherwise we get drowned in a sea of cowardly work made by a button

Lrp - my previous job was law firm house style. Things that mattered included the margins between bullet point and text, whether numbers had a . after them, breaking or non-breaking spaces in clause references...this all mattered There are several AI companies claiming to draft documents now.

i know WHY this is but that just makes it even more of a kick in the pants lmao

Man, I'm trying to write something which includes information about media adaptations for books in a fandom I'm no longer plugged into and it REALLY shows just how completely lacking media journalism is now. It's incredibly difficult for me to find sources on my own-

I have the biggest friend crush on one of my new coworkers it's so embarrassing. But I want to be her friend soooo bad. World's most blatant Zelda special interest from a Profoundly Online individual but I do not. Know how to make workplace friends

"we knew you weren't autistic and never suspected your brother had ADHD", say my parents - the man who tracked down the manufacturer of the London Tube tile dyes for his bathroom and the woman who has never been on time for anything in her entire life

Perhaps it makes me a bitter person, but it WAS satisfying to see that the guy who left the previous company I worked for to move to an AI company got laid off last month because the company hasn't been successful enough. Sure, leave your stable job of a decade to join a startup. See how that goes

Above all it’s offensive that we should deliberately try to reduce the number of *successful* asylum claims. We are still a wealthy country. We welcome a (shamefully) tiny share of the world‘s refugees. It should be an honour & pleasure to welcome people who need sanctuary. Shame on Labour. /end

I arrived at my parents' house (haven't been since June, when it was unfurnished and had no water) fifteen minutes into my mother's drama society meeting and was unceremoniously shuffled into the spare bedroom. There are SO many boxes in here holy shit

When people say that Wuthering Heights doesn't have anything to do with race or that no film has engaged with race, what they mean is that for them Romani people do not count and they also haven't been paying attention. I'm going to share a little material from a recent talk. Content note: racism 1/

With alt text.

COULD NOT AGREE MORE Also, use sources in a way other than 'I don't like this and I'm going to rip it apart.' Citation is praxis. Cite what you love, give it credit, treat it with respect. We are all part of a long tradition.

Because I moved to a new, unfurnished place, I bought + assembled a bed. But the bed was cheap. And my little brother was very late to helping me assemble it and I was very tired when putting it together Anyway like a month and a half later the bed falls apart every time I move. I hate it here

Sometimes I wonder if our many years of jokes about writers hating writing and doing anything but writing, etc, have convinced people that the writing part is the hurdle and the goal is just to have a thing in hand. But I am here to tell you: the writing is the best part. The act is the thing.

i love body modification + HRT <3

Mantra for the month is definitely 'do it tired' because what with the move and my job I don't think other settings exist and I would like to do things, actually

After hundreds of hours of reading and research, my 2025 Starter Guide to transfeminine literature is finally live! No matter your experience level, there's a book for you! 🏳️‍⚧️📚 #transbooks The list covers a vast range of genres. There are 78 handcrafted recs on this list, and I've read all but two.

There's no distinct past self, to me - that was me, they just hadn't figured some stuff about themselves out yet. "Once I transitioned" is a concept that didn't happen all at once and is still happening; there's no 'before' and 'after' that couldn't erase everything between those points, either.

A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women 🧵

The page for the #transhet jam is up! It'll run from Jan. 1st to March 9th, 2026! Start your new year off right with a sexy new project. JOIN HERE: itch.io/jam/the-tran...

Now I'm feeling up to writing again I am perhaps inevitably thinking about publishing again but it just feels like a terrible time for that. I am so very awful about giving up before I begin, and I shouldn't look for excuses to call publishing a write-off, but the landscape seems....bad!

I have had a certified Year (esp the last couple months) but I think. Maybe. My brain is beginning to have room for proper writing/reading things again (Bought a house. No big deal, yknow, just my brain being monopolised for logistical/financial thoughts All The Time)

‘women are not usually interested in science fiction’

Today is the day! My Gothic & sapphic historical fantasy novel is available everywhere ebooks are sold! #Fantasy #Booksky

The "I don't have time to read lots of dusty tomes for research, so I just ask a bot for a summary" thing keeps coming up. I just can't relate to anyone who isn't incandescently excited about digging into an archive and spending days deciphering Victorian handwriting. It's like a party drug to me.

Maybe Hades 2 has finally cured me of being a hater and I can enjoy Greek myth-related media now (I studied classics - I'm historically really picky. But Hades 2 is REALLY GOOD)

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I want to see all of my fellow trans writers succeed. Even if you write things that aren’t my interests. Even if you market or talk about your stuff in ways I wouldn’t. Even if I don’t know you personally. It’s like how I see wanting my friends to succeed: the more of us succeed, the better.

From ‘The Onion’ Editorial Board:

being trans is not a negative outcome and neither is being autistic

It is time to announce the semifinalists for the Small Spec Book Awards. Thank you to our readers, who worked diligently to assign ratings to all books. The competition was close. Authors, we hope you are proud of your stories because we are. Thank you for sharing them with us.

I'm really tired of the "everything should be sexy" / "nothing should be sexy" arguments about media. Some things should be sexy and other things should not be sexy and everyone needs to come to terms with the fact that not all things will please them, personally.

Fini! #art #watercolor

Your occasional reminder to report and block fast, rather than give a boost to hateful content. They want your outrage: give them nothing. Especially transphobic accounts with 4 whole followers. They need your outrage to grow their reach. Don’t give them it.

Once again, people who are protesting hotels are not ordinary. If you have travelled to a location, bought a flare, printed a t-shirt with a niche far-right slogan, you are by definition out of the ordinary, and you are almost certainly exceptionally politically engaged and ideologically hardened.

Okay, here's my hot writing take of the week: I think the narrative of "A writer writes because they must" has done a lot of psychological damage to a lot of writers. Let me tell you, in a truly supportive way: You don't have to be a writer. 🧵