The dream!

Fine, I will write the next James Bond. INT: SEX CASINO, NIGHT BOND: Hello I am Bond James Bond my car goes NYOOM CUT TO: ten minutes of a chase in a sports car BOND: Also my watch is a special watch that makes ladies blouses see through EXPLOSION BOND: This film is for grown ups

Just as I am thinking of writers who play and change things, here:

Attempting to rally myself and my agent into resending out an (edited, expanded) story collection. I would like my work to persist, even as the heat death of the planet nears. Like making a memento mori and throwing it in the smelter

One of my favourite underappreciated views in Edinburgh. Looking down on St Ninian's row. Dusk, grey stone, a few golden lights in the windows

Currently reading Turbine 34 by Katherine Clements. Carrying a current of its own across the dusty moors. Part of @wildhuntbooks.bsky.social Northern Weird Project, perfectly sized novels for reading, as I am, in lowering light

I've been reading an otherwise good non fiction book that referred to ivy as "strangling" some trees. A slander! Ivy is a great habitat for birds in its native range!

Thank you so much Matt! I still remember that night- heard some of the best poetry, in a packed venue. So great!!

I recall around 1990 an elderly supply teacher explaining to my class what war is actually like, macho mythology aside. The sound bullets make. Men crying for their mummys as they die on the battlefield. It's haunted me ever since, and certainly played a role in politicising me.

Frankenstein was campy and the most Catholic it was possible to be, including making St Giles cathedral in Edinburgh into a Catholic church, to my glee. And yet, it was only okay.

Where to send a v short story that's just one long shriek of despair about everything?

I’ve gotten like 20 or so of these scam emails about book promotion but I really like “And if you ignore this, just know a small, dramatic bookworm inside me will cry 🥺and probably quote Baldwin while doing it.”

A Personal Anthology is probably the substance I've most consistently read, and if you're not subscribed you should. You will find much to be inspired by (or argue against)

An unhinged literary opinion needs to be like Muriel Spark believing T.S. Eliot was sending her coded messages through his plays, not 'hear me out, I don't like Dickens'. That is simply a literary opinion. The hinges are very much intact.

Be Brave! Order Helen McClory's collection! Part of our discussion this week @electricsheepsf.bsky.social @helenmcclory.bsky.social

The future of UK Independent presses hang by a thread. Supporting the sector is vital: this is where ALL the bravery lies. The big houses are risk averse, but copycat small press successes to revitalise their lists. Small presses are the motor! www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...

Nigel Farage accuses teachers of "poisoning our kids" on race issues. Here's a reminder of what teachers and fellow pupils at Farage's own school remember of his own views on that subject. www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/nigel-fara...

This week's guest is Helen McClory! First up is "The Companion" in Wigleaf! "At this time of day, the risk of attack was minimal, and all she had was that noise, that taste, the treachery beneath, and the cold air around." @helenmcclory.bsky.social @wigleaf.bsky.social

"The sound was high and wrenching. There was a strong, wild smell now. She and I stood watching the second wave of the storm as it broke, droplets spattering, dense as white oil." Love the relationship amid the storm! @helenmcclory.bsky.social @wigleaf.bsky.social

"None of the snakes were awake, but the music made you think something violent was going to happen. I suppose the violence was in the man, not the snakes." I love this story! All of Helen's stories are full of quirky happenings & gorgeous language. @helenmcclory.bsky.social

My dad has turned up this photo from a visit "many years ago" to the Forth Bridge. I think it's taken from what he calls the howff, just below track level, used by the maintenance workers. I guess when you're engaged in a proverbially endless task, you need a wee cup of tea once in a while.

Book Cover of the Day:

“Necessity is not the mother of invention; play is” —Ian D. Suttie It gets late early out here in the lacklustre places, wind in the trees and the foodstalls’ ricepaper lamplight, fading and blurred with rain… —John Burnside, “Travelling South, Scotland, August 2012” #nationalpoetryday #play #poem

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

IT WAS IN FACT @helenmcclory.bsky.social

the political policy cure for “male loneliness” is - more time to hang with the fellas (4 day work week) - more money to spend with the fellas (higher wages) - more things to do with the fellas (taxing the rich and building 3rd spaces)

Did you notice how quickly the debate moved from “it’s not about you, you came here legally and integrated, it’s illegal immigration” to “people with indefinite leave to remain should have their status retrospectively removed” The more we legitimise anti-migration narratives, the worse it’ll get.

every time there's political violence discourse i think about how jo cox was assassinated in broad daylight by a fascist who shouted "britain first" as he shot her, and now nine years later her party is dedicating every moment in power to placating the ideology of her murderer

A simple but important way to support Palestinian writers is to read their work. A helpful list is in the link below but please do explore @arablit.bsky.social more widely as well as publishers like @commapress.bsky.social

📌

Naoise Dolan, one of Ireland’s most acclaimed young novelists, will be boarding the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza.

I feel like this job (horror scholarship!) would be a great fit for a load of people I know or that follow me on here! Pass it on! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOM520/r...

This feels a bit like that A Street through Time book share.google/FSrYTWCgU5C2...

Also people keep asking me if I find AI translation helpful in my work and AI TRANSLATION IS NOWHERE NEAR COMMERCIAL QUALITY and NO I DON'T EDIT AI TRANSLATION BECAUSE IT'S MUCH FASTER FOR ME TO JUST DO THE ACTUAL TRANSLATION THAN EDIT CRAP because PAINTING CRAP WITH GOLD DOESN'T TURN CRAP INTO GOLD

A friend of mine told me the course of the heart @mjohnharrison.bsky.social was the best English novel of the last fifty years. I'm half way through and it may not be hyperbole.

this is a bit of a surprise...

“Children, especially in early developmental stages, are acutely sensitive to tone, timing, and emotional mirroring. A child playing with an AI toy will believe they’re being understood, when in fact, the system is only predicting plausible next words.”

Any other authors inundated with AI scam letters? This one for Bitterhall is especially funny to me since it claims to have gathered all this from a summary. Also kind of sad to me as Bitterhall is now out of print anyway. Barking up a fallen tree

And Helen McClory ( @helenmcclory.bsky.social )'s funny and unsettling festival story www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

I’m raw dogging an idea bro I’m forming synaptic connections in my wetware and transmuting those electrical impulses into semiotic glyphs in wet black ink on pressed tree pulp I am taking it back to the illuminated era this is thought keto

Now watching: Sylvia Scarlett (1935). Katherine Hepburn disguised as a boy! Cary Grant sporting with his original(?) cockney accent!

Some things continue to go well. Just allow yourself a moment to experience it.

It is the first time that Jewish-led organizations in Israel have made such accusations against the country during nearly 22 months of war.

Tom Lehrer made all of his music 100% public domain so if seeing people sad about his death makes you want to check them out… it’s free. he wanted you to share them. tomlehrersongs.com

My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.

youtu.be/0f1zVj9qSrg?... (contains a good description of the difference between swamp and bog body preservation)

Denise Levertov

My writing advice is say less.

Absolutely one of the best movies ever made, directed by the great actor Charles Laughton. But unfortunately a box office failure at the time, and Laughton never directed another movie. Such a bummer - I’m guessing he had more great films in him. (He stuck to directing theater after this)