Some very cool illustrations collected here, like this one. 👇

Please help Sally keep her son Anas alive through Israel's genocidal starvation & invasion of Gaza. Bluesky makes her suffer the additional indignity of having to continually make new accounts because she's restricted & deleted for being subject to imperialist violence:

And hey a writerly update!! My story Bindweed is out in the current issue of Interzone, 303. You can subscribe here: www.patreon.com/InterzoneMag or buy a single issue here: shop.interzone.press It’s over 65K words of fiction and not. And if you’re broke and want to read my story only, DM for pdf!

Some recs that I've loved: THE BOOKS OF JACOB by Olga Tokarczuc (trans. Jennifer Croft) FLIGHTS by Olga Tokarczuc (trans. Jennifer Croft) HURRICANE SEASON by Fernanda Melchor (trans. Sophie Hughes) MINOR DETAIL by Adania Shibli (trans. Elisabeth Jaquette)

If you're in need of some short stories (are there ever enough?), I finally got round to updating the publication list on my website. It's taken me ages & I'm sure I've missed one or two things off but here it is: www.seanbirnie.com/publications/

just woke up from a nap with the thought that jd vance looks like an ageing chucky doll

If you're in need of some short stories (are there ever enough?), I finally got round to updating the publication list on my website. It's taken me ages & I'm sure I've missed one or two things off but here it is: www.seanbirnie.com/publications/

Direct sunlight onto the cafe decking this morning made my iPad screen blinding & unreadable, so instead of writing I read Lucy McKnight Hardy's 'Jutland' -- a beautifully wrought, deeply unsettling story of motherhood and creativity, writing and speech and the blockages that stopper them.

whoa somehow a whole-ass fortnight has gone by and i still havent shared the August newsletter here where i talk about stuff from @kayv.bsky.social, @spicycloaca.bsky.social, @perfidiousscript.bsky.social and more buttondown.com/shortstoryre...

Fuck your online-only multiplayer, give me split screen you cowards.

Learn how to rest.

This seems kinda relevant.

’Not every exasperated petty bourgeois could have become Hitler, but a particle of Hitler is lodged in every exasperated petty bourgeois.’ Trotsky, ‘What is National Socialism?’ www.marxists.org/archive/trot...

I want to read a *text* that explains to me how to do X, not watch one of however many short videos by annoying people explaining how to do X.

#OtD 20 Sep 1915 publications by the radical Industrial Workers of the World union, @IWW, including its Australian newspaper, Direct Action, were banned from being imported into Aotearoa (New Zealand) for its opposition to World War I stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9331...

You absolute fools are doing the work of our enemies for us & they are loving every second of it

baby crying, unhappy; put on Elliot Smith, 'Junk Bond Trader' -- immediately vibing

finally some good financial news: student loans company owes me money.

Many thanks to @seanbirnie.bsky.social for the kind words….

Back home from Marseille. Stunned to note the weather was nicer in Marseille. One train already cancelled while we were on it, for no apparent reason; while travel in France, in spite of the massive strike, was fine. Dad sent footage from the demo — looked fun.

'Masterpiece... you might just have found your new favourite author' #TheCourseOfTheHeart by @mjohnharrison.bsky.social, reviewed in the Big Issue. This new edition of Harrison's cult novel, featuring an introduction by Julia Armfield, is out now. www.bigissue.com/culture/book...

I regret nothing, I don't apologize, kiss my ass.

Early ‘90s Earthsea paperbacks, art by John Jude Palencar.

Weird collections, everyone is saying they contain profane illuminations, the shocking realization that comes from seeing the ordinary and everyday of reality as supernatural, marvellous, weird, they’re the wave of the future

I hear people are talking about more short story collections. Yes, hello, I would like more collections by @seanbirnie.bsky.social, @casskhaw.bsky.social, @acwise.bsky.social, @thomasha.bsky.social, @stevetoase.bsky.social, @sillysyntax.bsky.social, and many others not on Bsky please and thank you 🖤

UN Commission of Inquiry concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians. We welcome this report and call for an immediate escalation in pressure on states to impose sanctions on Israel now. Join our #DisruptComplicity Global Weekend of Action, 18 - 21 September. loom.ly/gnUoYQY

Queen

There was a discourse wave recently kind of pitting lit fic against sci fi. And there's always that implication you can't have the delicate etching of relationships, the emotional minutiae, on the huge imaginative canvas of SFFH, but these stories totally prove that you can.

mentioned 'Liquid Glass' iPhone update to my gf earlier, people calling it 'Liquid Ass', she wasn't listening, she doesn't give a shit because she's normal, but hours later she turned around and said: 'What was that about Arse Glass you said earlier?'

Searching for books on the Kobo store is one of the ways in which the general Kobo experience is much worse than on Kindle. I like everything else, more or less, but search appears incredibly unreliable. And on the device, it often doesn't show you the price until you get to payment. Which is odd.

Writing is a silly way to pursue fame, but a wonderful way to spend a life. Genre and markets are important, but also prisons. What's most important: Are you content with how you spend your time? When I'm writing what I want and reading what I want and enjoying my friends, I know I am.

I'll see you and raise you: www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...

live your life so that when you die everyone talks about how hot you were and not how you were a hateful bigot

'I had always been triple-jointed, capable of feats of contortion that would cause others immediate alarm, and from that year of my life I also became prone to dislocations. It seemed at any moment my body might just decide to disassemble.' New novelette, 'Heavyness', coming out soon in REMAINS #4.

It's pub day for UNCERTAIN SONS by @thomasha.bsky.social. We're blessed to be able to bring you this great debut collection, and to work with Thomas. It's been an amazing journey. Thanks to Vince Haig and @topferarts.bsky.social for the fabulous cover. Thanks to everyone who has bought a copy.

Grateful for this generosity from Kevin Brockmeier, who knows about playfulness and discomfiture in fiction, whose The Ghost Variations is my around-the-campfire, scare-'em-off-their-logs favorite, and whose craft essay in WSR nudged at something in my heart I didn’t yet have the words for.

Interesting, what part of denying Palestinians trying to communicate and ask for help staying alive through an active genocide a voice by relentlessly suspending & deleting them off your platform is 'cultivating what is good, in the human heart and in this world'?

Introduced the baby to the ocean. As if turns out, the baby does not like the ocean.

If you're new here, I have: 🕷️ BUT NOT TOO BOLD, a short novella about a monstrous spider woman, published this year by Tor & 🩸 CABARET IN FLAMES, an upcoming novella available for pre-order on Tor/Titan Books You can find them in any bookshop, or order on the link below: linktr.ee/hachepueyo

this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either

'The Veldt Institute' book release in Portland w/ Laura Cranehill at Lost Avenue Books on September 27th!

Is there a line where “smart and savvy politics” tips over into “brazen fraud”

Guess who is responsible for five of the seven times “Evensonian” has been used on this site

Palestinian children & babies like Mohammed's daughter are being sickened, injured, & starved to death with their families in Israel's genocidal siege. Please help Mohammed keep his baby daughter alive by sharing & donating, previous GFM was closed (1 donation in 2 days):

Victims of capitalism. Hell before death. 1908. archive.org/details/hell...

The Peripheral

There's a story in ‘Intervals of Darkness‘ which has a bunch of different people telling their version of the story of the ghost of Totterdown Lock. It started as a zine that I gave away and then expanded into something more substantial. I wanted to capture how garbled local ghost stories become.

I know Reddit is a cesspit and it would probably be best for my mental wellbeing/faith in humanity if I wasn’t on it but consider: then I would never see posts like this one

Big thanks to Ivy Grimes @ivygrimes.bsky.social for talking with me about my upcoming, debut novel 'The Veldt Institute'! More Info: double--negative.com/003-the-veld... Pre-Order: asterismbooks.com/product/the-...