Free on Kobo this week only, together with a bunch of other fantastic first-in-series books, if anyone is up for trying something new 👀 Series is complete, accompanying short story collection is WIP.

she’s a 10 but Excel thinks she’s October

why does cricket still do test matches. they should know whether or not it works by now

Can the tech overlords quit it with the robot that'll do all my fun creative stuff for me (badly), and instead make the robot that'll clean my feckin grill pan for me so that I can have more time for the fun creative stuff? I'll actually pay them money for that one.

Just look at this beauty that I treated myself to. #BookSky

Sometimes in life you need to sit in silence and take a long hard look at yourself, and realise you are fucking brilliant and perfect

I heard Sad Cat noises 5 mins after Himself went out. Looked outside and found Neph at the garden gate, howling about how alone she was; she trotted to greet me chirping happily as soon as she realised that at least one of her humans was still at home. I'm never leaving the house again.

I can't tell left from right without giving it some hard thought (and sometimes not even then) - yet I can do 'port' and 'starboard' with instant accuracy, despite having zero (0) nautical experience whatsoever. What gives, brain?

Was that lightning? (10 seconds later: a gigantic rumble of thunder.) Yep, that was lightning.

I find myself giving sideways looks to an online word game that tries to tell me that 'ducal' isn't a real word.

Just finished A House Between Sea And Sky by Beth Cato. Sweet and enchanting, and now I want to learn how to make sourdough. Ace and childfree representation ftw 👌

I’m not saying it’ll definitely work but have we even considered sacrificing oil and gas executives to the sun god?

Of all of the days in the entire year, I have to go to the (non-air-conditioned) office tomorrow and Thursday 🫠

Oftentimes I look at the weather down south with envy. Not today.

Make stuff. Do your hobbies. Geek out with your weird friends. Practice arts and crafts. Every society that ever burned to the ground left behind only the handicrafts, and every society saved from the brink was saved only by arts. Do not give up the joy of creating.

My favourite photo from our Midsummer trip to Holy Island. It's a classic view for good reason.

Keir Starmer has not been a 'decent man'. Ask pensioners, disabled people, trans people, Palestinians, immigrants and refugees, anyone who voted for him believing he'd stick to the promises that got him elected as leader. Oh and rivers and sea still full of sewage. TLDNR...

Good riddance to Keir Starmer. He was elected leader on a progressive platform that he dumped immediately to adopt a conservative, authoritarian leadership and premiership. A man who stands for nothing except power for no purpose. I'm not convinced Andy Burnham will be better, mind.

Check out this sword stuck in a stone!!

Love Ascot week. Everyone at Waterloo is dressed like they're going to a wedding between an almond croissant and a cassowary.

"Ich askid ChatGPT," Well Ich askid the stones, and the forest, and the starres, and the mountaynes, and the moone daunsinge above, and what thei seyde was learninge, and dreames, and growinge thinges, and makinge art, and a worlde wher we talke to each othir and care about each othir.

UK folks, let's jump on this AI regulation petition the Society of Authors emailed out! It's an actual parliament one so the government HAS to respond if it reaches the signature threshold. It calls for regulations to make AI developers disclose copyrighted works trained on. Sign & repost!! ❤️

This is D-Day 82 years ago. 1,000s died on that day attacking Nazi-occupied Normandy. They died because people failed to prevent fascism in Europe like that of Farage & Reform. “Lest we forget” means fighting fascism here & now. Not appeasing Reform & Farage. Fight all forms of fascism in the UK.

Dammit, this one hurts.

Thanks I hate this prize, please take it away again.

As usual after a UK Supreme Court ruling, domestic abusers nationwide are cheering. This is an activist court with an illegitimate right wing agenda which urgently needs to be investigated and brought to heel.

Once legal protections are no longer sacrosanct for one group, it makes it far easier to remove them from others. Many of the judges in today’s Supreme Court ruling were involved with the FWS decision. My heart and solidarity go out to the disabled community. 😢

The UK Supreme Court has now decided to strip disabled people of their human rights too "This judgement sets us back decades and removes safeguards that history shows us are vital for disabled people." Horrific www.mind.org.uk/news-campaig...

The people who wanted you to hate immigrants, Muslims and trans people will never be ‘happy’. There’ll never be a point where they say ‘great! The country is a perfect amount of racist and transphobic!’ They always require a scapegoat. It’s disabled ppl and Sikhs today. Tomorrow it could be you.

Can I interest you in a moist owlette as a timeline cleanse? This is Sassafras the Eastern Screech Owl from the Cincinnati Zoo (@cincinnatizoo.bsky.social, but via their FB) and I love him very much. Eastern Screech Owls (Megascops asio) are native to eastern North America.

Gratifying to see gender-neutral loos at Jedburgh Abbey: door without gender signs, fully private cubicles all with sanitary bins, free sanitary products by the shared washbasins. Zero fuss, space-saving, everyone has business to do, this is where you can do it. Transphobes can fuck off.

AIrish goodbye is when I leave the party early because people start talking about how much they love ChatGPT

This whole thread and all of the replies 🤣

2026 Me: Hey 1996 me, in 30 years time you'll be furious at everything Tony Blair says and think John Major makes some pretty sensible points 1996 Me: Fuck, so I'm doomed to become more conservative as I get older 2026 Me: Well not exactly

On the grounds that there’s no bad time to share this video of a squirrel having a jolly good go, here’s this video of a squirrel having a jolly good go

When the seller of the #ChronicIllness stickers you've ordered messages saying she's so sorry for the delay but she's been stuck in bed for a week, and you just have to respond with it's OK babe, I know exactly how you feel, why do you think I ordered them in the first place.

my gf works corporate and is on a training about AI and there's a word cloud for "what do you use AI for." the largest word by far is "Nothing" and the trainer is PISSED

They're going to invent the Star Trek transporter before they finish HS2, aren't they?

Very proud of Magdalen student Angus Barrett. And the poem is truly chilling... www.magd.ox.ac.uk/news/magdale...

Oh yes, Stardust getting the love it deserves:

We hear people are discussing the best 100 books again... not knowing that Reactor has already delivered the final word on this subject #Booksky

Freyja is grateful for the nest of old towels placed on the sofa especially for her to roll around in. (They're soaking up a spilled drink.) #CatsOfBluesky

My stats for the Guardian's Top 100 Books: Attempted to read: 18 Of those, DNF'd: 12 Would re-read: 2 (Left Hand of Darkness and Jane Eyre). I know these kinds of lists systematically exclude fantasy because the genre is heavy on serieses, but really no LOTR?

The Last Mortal Magician, a gothic fantasy standalone. Or it's supposed to be a standalone, but currently is at 70k words and I'm not even halfway through the story arc, so we'll see. I am enjoying it immensely.

I finally summoned enough spoons to finish getting my debut quartet loaded on to Itch.io and into a bundle! I can't figure out how to get the bundle preview to say that they're books not games, but I'll take my wins where I can find them 😂 #SpoonieAuthChat

The Risharri Empire Quartet is now available on Itchio: books available individually or as a bundle at 40% off! Shout out to Itchio for having far and away the easiest upload interface of any platform I've used to date. #Booksky

The Spoonie Authors Network has a Discord server! It's another way to connect with fellow authors who manage spoons! (We’re finally letting folks know! Yay!) Please note: We have a code of conduct because we always want to keep this a welcoming space! discord.com/invite/MqaaD... #SpoonieAuthChat

I am determinedly looking on the bright side that at least Streeting isn't Health Secretary any more. (Not thinking about the other bit. Nope, not thinking about that AT ALL.)

Editing this WIP is 75% removing unnecessary commas and 25% realising how much better it would be if I switched this character with that character, which will mean rewriting the last 40k words. Which will then need to have unnecessary commas removed. Again.

Technically it was sent to fill the pothole and, well, it is filling the pothole