My first novel The Birth Machine tackled this problem (among others). (You can still get it on Kindle.) observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Thanks to @bookishleels.bsky.social @nightjarpress.bsky.social for the image I mention in Part 1.

Listen to "The Facts and Fiction of Short Story Writing (with Ailsa Cox) [Part one]" by A Small, Good Thing via #spreaker www.spreaker.com/episode/the-...

A thought-provoking read - with more relevance to our current times than we might once have expected. elizabethbaines.blogspot.com/2025/09/read...

This was a really great read. elizabethbaines.blogspot.com/2025/09/read...

Only just found out that my my radio comedy series The Circle has had another airing, but there's still a chance to hear it from the first episode. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Does it ever stop being a thrill when you see your book on a bookshop shelf? Many thanks, Waterstone's Deansgate, Manchester.

Re-reading a novel years later can be an interesting experience. elizabethbaines.blogspot.com/2025/07/read...

Our reading group had a go at Virginia Woolf's The Waves. Here's what was said. elizabethbaines.blogspot.com/2025/07/read...

The amazing artist Laura Scott has agreed to provide images for my forthcoming mini-collection from Confingo, Five Different Stories About One Thing. I'm pretty thrilled! Here's her instagram account where you can see her stunning work. www.instagram.com/_ls_illustration/

Pleased to say that my speculative novella The Mountain is to be published by Gold SF, and imprint of Goldsmiths Press, in one volume along with several short stories. Many thanks to the editors, Paul March-Russell and Una McCormack.

Springtime in Castlefield. Patricia Farrell, @elizabethbaines.bsky.social @confingopublishing.bsky.social and the other one is me.

It was a great night. Brilliant readings from @ailsacox.bsky.social and really interesting thoughts from Ailsa and Patricia. And a lovely audience.

See you in Manchester @confingopublishing.bsky.social @elizabethbaines.bsky.social, two days to go. www.confingopublishing.uk/event-detail...

Really looking forward to this. I'll be presenting, and talking to Ailsa Cox about her brilliant new collection. Next Wednesday, April 2nd, 7.30 pm at the Saul Hay Gallery, Castlefield, Manchester. www.confingopublishing.uk/event-detail...

Our latest reading group discussion. Not everyone admired this book, but most did. elizabethbaines.blogspot.com/2025/03/read...

Join us at the Saul Hay Gallery on 2nd April to celebrate the publication of Precipitation by Ailsa Cox, with images by Patricia Farrell. 7.30 - 9.00 p.m. Tickets (free) available on our website: www.confingopublishing.uk/event-list

Been doing the final edits on my next book, a mini-collection from Confingo. Nail-biting time. What if I miss any real bloopers, as I did in my last novel, Astral Travel. (A free copy of any of my other books to the first five readers who spot them and DM me.) www.saltpublishing.com/products/ast...

The CRA are standing with all creators and performers, sending a clear message to UK Government; Make it Fair - stop siding with big tech and ensure that creators are fairly rewarded when their work is used to train AI. #makeitfair #PaytheCreator. Read more: www.creatorsrightsalliance.org

A photosplat of the readings from last night’s Edge Hill Prize ceremony. Huge congratulations to Malachi McIntosh and Tessa Hadley for well deserved wins! And congratulations to all the other shortlistees – Charlie Hill, Abi Hynes, and C.D. Rose. I felt very honoured to be part of the line-up!

A lovely launch last night for this great collection of short stories by Jane Rogers

Tickets selling fast for this, apparently. Winners of the Withington Book Festival Competition, and a group of us supporting them.

Next reading! Join me and David Gaffney, Elizabeth Baines, Nicholas Royle, Adrian Slatcher, Steve Smythe, Nathan Bailey and Lee Ashworth at Greenhouse Books in Stockport’s hip Underbanks on Saturday 1 March, 6.30pm. Maybe we'll redo this pic from last year!

Today I'm doing the edits for a collection of five linked stories - never done that before (written linked stories). To be pub'd by Confingo later this year in their collaborative mini-collection series. See Precipitation by @ailsacox.bsky.social and Loners by @adrianslatcher.bsky.social

My garden's been rubbish the last couple of summers, due to the awful weather. But the winter-flowering clematis is doing all right, and the holly's still got berries.

Helicopters busy again today, presumably continuing to fill in the breach in the Mersey's bank that led to the flood.

'The blank space left by the unreadable thoughts of others'. Thanks @desmondbullen.bsky.social. www.northernsoul.me.uk/precipitatio...

Elmet is a fantastic novel.

There is a BIG, BIG sale going on over at Salt – exceptional prices across a wide range of must-have books! www.saltpublishing.com

Went for a walk yesterday down by the river to see what happened to the bank in the flood, and to the allotments nearby

On the recent death of Edna O'Brien, our reading group revisited her first novel. elizabethbaines.blogspot.com/2025/01/read...

Spring is coming! But the wind!! And I have had primroses flowering in my garden since October. I told my mother and she said 'How lovely!' (She is 101 in 10 days, and a bit fragile, so I won't upset her by talking about climate change.)

What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading? + Update No. XVIII sciencefictionruminations.com/2024/12/07/w... #scifi #sciencefiction #books

Here's our reading group on the latest Booker winner: elizabethbaines.blogspot.com/2025/01/read...

www.themanchesterreview.co.uk?p=12806 Domestic Gothic Stories where the sinister behind the everyday is centre stage Paul Anthony Knowles Reviews Ailsa Cox's Precipitations @ailsacox.bsky.social