What’s your sign?

Happy Friday, friends.

Wanna hear a nice word I learned today? Calefaction. The state of being warmed, like a dog curled up in front of a fire.

Have you been sitting on an idea, a couple of essays or a whole book that you want to publish but don't know how? Are you an essayist or journalist trying to sell their first book?

Our 2025 Poetry Pamphlet Competition is ✨ OPEN FOR ENTRIES ✨ Prize: 1st: £500 plus publication by Bloodaxe Books Judge: Imtiaz Dharker Entry fee: £20 Closes: 8 December 2025 mslexia.co.uk/competitions... #AmWriting #WritingCommunity

I love the whimsy of the English language but are we sure bucolic means that

Chat, the shroomies are already POPPING OFF

Me getting raptured if you even care

It's nice to go away, but it's good to be home with the Microsoft Authenticator app :)

Getting raptured but calling it The Big Rappy-T

What is the etiquette around approaching literary agents? How should you find them? Can you really only approach a few at once? What happens if you get several agents interested? And what happens if you find yourself ghosted?

Frances Conroy as the Angel of Death in AHS: Asylum is so ethereal

🔵 ANNIVERSARY SALE 🔵 To celebrate eleven years since we published our first book, we are running a sale on our website until 11.59 p.m. BST on 30 September, with a 40 per cent discount across our website. Use the code ‘ANNIVERSARY40’ at checkout: fitzcarraldoeditions.com

Here’s everything I read this week in beautiful rainy Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

I still need to get my paws on a copy of Let The Bad Times Roll but you should all go and buy it, Alice’s debut, Death Of A Bookseller went so incredibly hard, you will NOT regret purchasing these books!!

Here’s me having a gorgeous time in West Kirby talking about Let the Bad Times Roll, drinking wine, listening to New Orleans-style jazz, drawing tarot cards for the signing queue and being a little menace 🔮🐊⚜️

[me, completely losing my head after two cocktails] Sean Pertwee should have won an Oscar for Dog Soldiers

It’s been a difficult few days, so am grateful to have something positive to share: I’m a judge for @womensprize.bsky.social #Discoveries2026 If you’ve always wanted to write a novel & have it looked at by professionals, this is your chance. Get together 10,000 words to submit by 12 Jan 2026. 1/5

Secured the bag re: System of a Down tickets 🙏🏻 I can finally relax, lock in and focus on my other anxieties

Me: That’s an entymological fallacy Friend: You mean etymological fallacy Me: (to a bug) I told you you were wrong

was the glorch there

I always say when you hit 10k on a project, you‘ve got a stew going. Well as of today I have two stews on the hob for book 3 and I feel like I could fly to Saturn and wear her ring as a crown 🥘 🥘

I absolutely hate having an age-gap friendship, she’s horrible

I can’t believe my girlfriend (the moon) is cheating on me (invisible due to clouds during the total lunar eclipse)

“By the time the Year Zero of punk (1976) was over, punks wanted nothing to do with pub rockers. Bands like the Stranglers were shunned but they did not care.” Thanks Wikipedia, I am entertained 🖤

I was just thinking about what an incredible year 2001 was for music, and I thought “Christ, what a time to be alive” and then I remembered that I was actually alive and it was indeed fucking brilliant

@4thestatebooks.bsky.social has acquired Hooked, the new novel by British Book Awards Debut Book of the Year winner Asako Yuzuki, whose novel Butter was also named Waterstones Book of the Year 👇 #BookSky

Me when my wife sees the browser history

This book is an absolute banger. To the point where you should definitely be paying more than 99p for it. Nonetheless - what a bargain. Buy buy buy!

Guess which horrible little book is 99p for the whole of September? 👁️🫦👁️ bit.ly/428p9OK

bring back the Wicker Man Corn Flakes

[CN: suicide] if you’re finding news of Adam Raine’s tragic death particularly harrowing, or if you’re concerned about online safety and suicide prevention for teens, I really urge you to check out the work Molly Rose Foundation are undertaking: mollyrosefoundation.org

It’s fun posting copies of your own book because they ask Is the item of any value? and you have to say No

GET A JOB STAY AWAY FROM HER

sure fine let’s just change the font of book 3 to [checks notes] totally normal font babylon zoo

#2 Let the Bad Times roll by @aliceslater.bsky.social. Hardly surprising that I would enjoy this after how great I thought Death of a Bookseller was. But nonetheless I INHALED IT. And now I want to immediately go to New Orleans please.

Me, looking to have my life ruined by 100,000 fuming booktokkers: Richard Papen 🥀

I know I’m not susceptible to falling in love with an AI bot cos I hate my tech to have any form of individuality. Like every time I move a single line of text from one paragraph to another, Microsoft Word is like “☺️ changed the font for you diva 💅🏻 also fucked with the formatting 💋” and I SEE RED

[me in the teams chat two minutes ahead of our hard deadline to deliver a pitch deck] can I just check, does everyone love me

I don’t want to give the man in the machine my personal information (30 years of robust digital footprint is my absolute limit), so although my DMs are closed on Bluesky, please rest assured my heart is open

I met a really chunky frenchie today. He was built like a Christmas ham wrapped in velvet. He pressed his flat wet face against my bare shin by way of greeting, but when I bent over to give him a lil scratch he squealed in alarm and waddled away like a little piglet. Wonderful experience, 10/10

just tried out the "introduction to the longlist" VR experience that the booker prize sent out to indies this morning and I have some thoughts

Started Let the Bad Times Roll this morning, and let me tell you, no one writes bad sex like @aliceslater.bsky.social

Some of my favourite authors are saying cool shit about Let the Bad Times Rollllllllll and I’m telling everyone soz xx preorder linkie: www.waterstones.com/book/let-the...

Hell is cold, and all the heat is trapped on the central line during rush hour in the middle of a heatwave

I’m going on tour in two weeks time 👉👈 London (with Julia Armfield at BookBar Chelsea and Eliza Clark at Gower Street), plus Manchester, Newcastle (with Matt Wesolowski), Edinburgh (with Heather Parry) and Nottingham! Tickets: linktr.ee/alicemjslater

News from ya gal! We’re releasing a special edition hardback of Let the Bad Times Roll, exclusive to indie bookshops, with alligator endpapers 🔮🐊⚜️ list of stockists here (or ask your local indie bookshop!): bio.to/VT2soC

Bloomsday

Really urge you all to watch Sacha’s videos, check out his work and show some solidarity with the plethora of talented authors who’ve been fucked over by absolute cowboys Unbound. I hope these books find new homes, reach new readers and pave the way for robust careers for those affected.

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