You have till November 9th to bid for a signed, dedicated copy of VIANNE - all in aid of Children in Need... www.jumblebee.co.uk/auction/deta...

Happy book birthday to @rainewilson.bsky.social! The Salt Oracle is a gorgeous, dark, poetic seastorm of a novel and I adored it. Go forth and grab yourself a copy

The proofs to my new book are here! Working on them on paper, at my old school desk…

Cup of tea, and time to ill. You know what that means, Bluesky: #Storytime.

Follow Coates for this and other entertaining (though not always poet and wombat related) anniversaries.

And this morning the Shed is a shape in the mist, beckoning from the shadows.

Starry night…

I lost the framed original of this while I was going through St Pancras on Sunday Nov 2nd around 3pm. Would love if it had been found by anyone?

Who won this year’s British Fantasy Awards? Here’s the deets so you don’t have to scroll through the live blogging: britishfantasysociety.org/british-fant...

Catching up with Squeaky…

I have two - TWO - of these gorgeous original A4 meadow hare linoprints by my mum, Jo, to give away to a couple of lucky people here on Bluesky today. Rules are simple: to be in with a chance to win, you just have to repost this piece I wrote about Jo and her art: www.tom-cox.com/the-magic-ro...

Such a mystery, what MASS DISABLING EVENT could have happened after 2019 to cause this?

Monisha Rajesh travelled on the Royal Scotsman from Edinburgh Waverley and said it was the "best" train route in the UK - but her followers were all saying the same thing

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 430: Read. Read widely. Read what you love, and what you don't. Read what you know, and what you don't yet know. The wider your reading, the better your chance of avoiding the limitations of being influenced by only one author, one genre, one culture, one time.

And this morning the Shed is a circus tent, blown in on the autumn winds…

CONGRATULATIONS @pollyrowena.bsky.social !!!!

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 11: It's fine to write about darkness. We need the darkness to know the light. Exploring darkness in fiction helps people to know and understand their monsters, and sometimes to overcome them - all in the safe space of the page...

Thank you everyone for a wonderful World Fantasy 2025. A convention takes the committee, volunteers, artists, authors, editors, jurors and many others. Our special thanks of course goes to our guests: Suniti Namjoshi, Vincent Chong, Nick Landau, Vivian Cheung, Joanne Harris and Ramsay Campbell.

And this morning the Shed is a sealed box, from which comes the sound of whispering…

This postcard I wrote to a young reader, Sasha Stephenson, was returned to me, as she no longer lives at the address she gave me. Please help me to get it to her if you can!

The BFS Award for best novella went to the excellent The Last To Drown by Lorraine Wilson and you will not forget this story in a hurry www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2024/2/...

"Any horror has a sort of existential vibe to it," says @chuckwendig.bsky.social. "Who are we? Are we going to make it? Are we going to be okay? And are we going to live? There is something truly visceral about body horror that gets down to that whole illness thing... It really digs deep."

My brain is stuttering at "the inhabitants of British villages are quiet, innocent folk, who like to eat breakfast and second breakfast and smoke pipes and never have adventures, and they must be protected from the forces of darkness and brown-ness." Fuck you, Elmo, you patronising wank.

DATE FOR THE DIARY We're taking our Podcast on the road for a live recording at the offices of top accountancy firm HW Fisher, in this special collaboration dedicated to the financial issues of being an author.

I am heading home from a fabulous @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social and it is OFFICIALLY PUBLICATION WEEK 🥳🥳🥳 If you're in the area, please do come see me on Thurs in St Andrews & make me sign things??

Unfortunate juxtaposition…

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 4: There’s nothing wrong with writing fluff. Fluff insulates. It protects. It cocoons us from a world filled with sharp edges and sudden fires. It makes a warm bed to sleep on; builds soft ramparts; saves lives.

Saying goodbye to Brighton this morning. How lovely to see so many friends at WorldCon this weekend; and what a wonderful, supportive, inclusive community...

And this morning the Shed is a sandcastle, standing high on the shoreline; with battlements of sun warmed stone, and shells along the seafront…

And this morning the Shed is a sunken hall, fathoms-deep under a lake of carp that swim serenely through the battlements...

No luck for Team @wtpress.bsky.social in the BFS Awards this evening, but absolutely delighted for @sachacoward.bsky.social, @rainewilson.bsky.social, and for @silvanhistorian.bsky.social, Charlotte & Megan from Breaking the Glass Slipper.

New #WriterBeware blog post: an explainer on the huge Anthropic class action copyright settlement: what it is, how it happened, how writers with eligible infringed works may benefit financially, and what eligible writers should do next writerbeware.blog/2025/10/31/t...

Write something. Write it today. Write your heart out. Write something weird that only you would think of. Your enemies will not topple to your silence. Write your future and live it.

WorldCon this morning with @garthnix.bsky.social and @justmarvewrites.bsky.social…

If you’re at Worldcon, I’ll be reading from something totally new at 11.00 in the Osborne Reading Room (assuming I can find it… :-)

Here's something nice for November: VIANNE at just 99p on Kindle UK!

And this morning the Shed is a spiral path at the foot of a standing stone; ancient; labyrinthine; leading nowhere but within.

Gollancz has acquired Joanne Harris’ "superb and moving ghost story" Sleepers in the Snow. The book will publish on 8th October 2026 👇 #BookSky

And this morning the Shed is an open crypt, yawning its awakening…

Marvellous dinner at The Giggling Squid tonight with the adorable Ramsey Campbell and Jenny Chandler…

Reading is food for your mind. Like food, different reading choices serve different purposes. Some books are read for pleasure; some to satisfy a need. Some are like junk food; great as long as that's not all you eat. Some help to counter an imbalance in knowledge or experience. Variety is the key.

Lovely warm day in Brighton for WorldCon25 today. If you see me around, don’t forget to say hello!

Despite the headline it’s not George RR Martin personally going for them cos he’s rich and famous. It’s all of us. The test case used his work, but it’s about the plain-as-day issue that ANY generative AI ignores and infringes copyright, by passing off. That’s a win for basic law.

And this morning the Shed is a great glass cube balancing over the ocean…

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 5: A book doesn’t need a “serious message” to be worthwhile. Joy is a legitimate end in itself.

Read in public. Read in private. Read e-books, genre books, comics, fanfiction. Read literature. Read nonfiction. Read books you’ve already read. Listen to audiobooks. Read what you want. There’s no such thing as “doing reading the wrong way.”

Reminder to anyone who needs it today: Reading books (at home, on the bus, in Starbucks); owning books; loving books; discussing books. None of these things are “performative” unless you’re selling tickets.

Ahem! www.thebookseller.com/rights/golla...

Our October interview is the phenomenal Joanne Harris brought to you by Write On! Audio courtesy of The Writing World Podcast. As ever, the episode is available on all the usual platforms. open.spotify.com/episode/4QfE... #writingcommunity #Tuesdaythoughts

And this morning the Shed is a light ship, searching distant galaxies…