The novel-in-progress grinds onward once again. Lie de Thé ink again, and finally tucking into my birthday present from @categardner.bsky.social, @johannavanveen.bsky.social's BLOOD ON HER TONGUE. Really been looking forward to this one, after the brilliance of MY DARLING DREADFUL THING...

I imagine all the lads are horrified and devastated to discover Labour Together compiles bullshitty dossiers of nonsense designed to damage people they want to wreck, especially these journos, who took dossiers from Labour Together and presented them to the public as a terrifying national menace.

We binge-watched SHELTER, a Harlan Coben adaptation based on the first of the Mickey Bolitar novels. I think it may have been intended to be the first in a running series (presumably based on the other books) but it was cancelled after one season, which was a shame.

all day every day

A new pen! The ink is Herbin Lie de Thé, which I've used only once before, in my white pen which I think has a defective nib - the writing looked spidery and unimpressive. But used in a different pen, it flows beautifully on the page and looks gorgeous, almost golden.

The day's longhand, in Tender Purple once more (specially for @jamesbennett.bsky.social), plus a photo from a long-ago trip to Barmouth, taken on Dinas Oleu of the ruins of Gellfechan Farm...

Green ink, red Lamy, Mellow Bird's coffee and the first few pages of Notebook Number Eight...

Another day's longhand, once again featuring the glittery awesomeness of Diamine Mystique Shimmer Ink...

Another day's longhand, in @jamesbennett.bsky.social 's beloved Tender Purple. Now on Notebook Number Seven. On we go!

This is like Sooty saying he shouldn’t have hired Matthew www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

even more bleak than that: there are *people* who matter, most of them very rich men, and then there is an enormous class of people who don’t matter at all, to whom those men can say and do anything. When the latter class sought justice against the former, the rich guys went *absolutely apeshit*.

So psyched to see my collection TEENAGE GIRLS CAN BE DEMONS and its new novelette "The Many Sins of Clara Greenstone" from @titanbooks.bsky.social both on the Locus Recommended Reading list 😈 they join stellar work by Dominique Dicky, Eden Royce, Marika Bailey, & more! locusmag.com/2026/02/2025...

When I left the house yesterday, I wasn't expecting to come back with a ukulele. My friend Dan Hepner, one of the nicest people I've known, passed away towards the end of last year and yesterday was the last day of his shop, Live Louder. It was a chance to pay our respects, 1/3

Forgot to post yesterday's longhand, so here it I'd now. This one'll be a mare to type up...

Another day of longhand with that fabulous glittery Diamine Mystique Shimmer Ink...

Partway through the Horror That Is The Tax Return, but nonetheless some writing got done. Today I'm a member of the Green Ink Brigade once again... 🙂

Back to the longhand, and to that lovely glittery Mystique Shimmer Ink once more...

Another day's longhand done - Waterman's Inspired Blue ink and a white Safari. The pages and the notebooks pile up, and the work goes on.

Another day's longhand done - Waterman's Inspired Blue ink and a white Safari. The pages and the notebooks pile up, and the work goes on.

The story so far, quite literally. I've been writing the New Thing in these little memo books, typing up each day's work the next morning; started the fifth notebook today. Not sure how it'll turn out, but for the first time in a while, I'm just enjoying the act of writing again. That'll do for now.

@enchantedviolin.bsky.social, you can SEE THE GLITTER!

New ink, new pen! Today's longhand was done with this lovely green Lamy Safari and gorgeous Diamine Mystique Shimmer Ink (thanks to @enchantedviolin.bsky.social for the recommendation.) It has glitter in it, which looks lovely, although you can't really see it here....

Today's longhand: Waterman's Harmonious Green. Tomorrow a new pen, and a nice new ink! Can't wait... 🙂

Reminds me of a story I wrote, the Christmas before last. (link in comments)

Today's longhand was done with Waterman's Inspired Blue, but it kind of looks green to me. Maybe I didn't clean out the pen properly...

Today's longhand is in Waterman Intense Black ink. The writing's continued despite lurgification, evening I was too busy coughing and sneezing to post any pictures (which I know you're all waiting desperately for)... 🤣

Quite the statement from the Prime Minister of Poland

Today's longhand: Bleu Calanque once more....

Yesterday's longhand: up the reds! (And the nice new blue Lamy pen, as well.) :D

I didn’t want to post the chants but I feel I have to, to underline how absolutely insane it is that there is total unanimity on this from far right to the Sensible centre, while it’s crystal clear to football fans and almost nobody at all is saying “This all looks quite fishy”.

Breaking in the new red Lamy, and I'm now apparently a full-fledged member of the green ink brigade. 🙂

Another longhand day, at the local coffee shop. White Lamy Safari, and Marni's Bleu Calanque ink....

These two are the crackpots currently demanding senior police resign for being in cahoots with radical Islamists. The guy on the left was one of the key figures in an absurd all-channels national panic about The Muslims taking over jihadifying schools. Do we see what is happening here?

Back to black... the fountain pen, anyway! The ink, once again, is Waterman's Tender Purple. I've ordered a couple of new pens and some more inks, so there'll be an even bigger range of colours coming soon... 😁

@shonak.bsky.social is awesome (as you should all know by now.) Click the link to learn more, and please share. churchman72.wixsite.com/danielchurch...

Happy and proud to make @ellen_datlow's recommended list for 2025 with three stories (as my alter-ego, Simon Bestwick. In very good company, too! Links to the full list: ellendatlow.com/2026/01/03/f... ellendatlow.com/2026/01/03/f...

The Venezuelan government has been saying for decades it’s the victim of American aggression and sabotage because the US wants to steal its natural resources, so it’s clarifying that the US is now bombing the country while the President and senior officials say they are going to steal it’s resources

Pretending you don’t understand *and* falling over and pretending to be injured? And it’s only the second day of the year. Start as you mean to continue, if guess.

I know Christmas is over, but here's a free ghost story to round out the year... www.patreon.com/posts/short-...

If you crawl for years on your stomach to people who hate you, begging for their indulgence, while relentlessly insulting and deliberately offending people who might be inclined to support you - while offering almost nobody anything they want - then you are going to be deeply unpopular.

Do you notice how, the higher the evidence stacks up that our ruling class is basically just a gaggle of coercive arse-grabbers covering up for each other, the more extreme their terror of foreign sex criminals and transgenders lurking in toilet cubicles grows

The public inquiry into the Iraq War was as damning as it’s possible to be within this system. The parliamentary report on Libya tore the government a new arse. Both of them were instantly thrown in the bin and never mentioned again, in favour of inviting the culprits on TV and giving them peerages.

My story 'Polodski's Bride' appears in #TheJoining, a brilliant new anthology of wedding-themed horror from editor Jacob Steven Mohr, out today from Crystal Lake Publishing. www.crystallakepub.com/out-today-th...

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

If the lads are finally asked whether they’d rather put the boot into Farage or Polanski, I wouldn’t be confident that it’ll the former they’ll find truly unacceptable.

If I can sell 100 tickets, you'll have a fucking BRILLIANT time listening to me talk about finding lost ghost stories and reading one and I'll be able to have a comfortable Xmas and make sure that most of January's bills are taken care of.