Write the book you would like to see someone pull from a higgledy piggledy pile in a secondhand shop 63 years after your death and say, "This looks fucking weird. I think I will buy it for Joan."

The moment I decided to cancel Grammarly.

Love this series! #KidlitUK #UKKidlit

I think I just found the best comment of my author career. Serious happy tears over here…😍😭

I loved The Princess Bride for this. Especially the rewrite after the movie came out.

It's wild that I can recognise just how much this offer is a vast underpayment for a middle grade novel, but I would still leap on it if I were offered because work is work and £/$2000 would be genuinely immense for me right now.

Breaking the fourth wall is amazing and we need more of it in all kinds of stories.

GOOD GOD THE HORROR OF THIS

You're going to ask me where my literary agent has been in all of this. There have been five. Many agents are equally inexperienced in comics and an agent that doesn't know the medium cannot effectively advocate for you. They might, in fact, advocate for the publisher instead.

It sets up a situation where the schedule is unrealistic from the beginning and then I'm the unreasonable one constantly begging for more time because the book is taking longer than the prose novels and picture books that editors are used to.

Also, by the way, it's absolutely ridiculous that I'm the one that has to do the math on the labor and not the publisher. These are editors that don't have comic experience and they simply don't know what's involved... and also don't understand when I try to break it down.

This is a ridiculous way to run a business, which is why after I turn this book in I'm not doing it anymore! I can't spend the rest of my career arguing with editors about why I'm physically incapable of drawing ten comic pages a day.

I have never worked on a comic where we weren't horribly behind schedule from the very beginning and everyone had to rush to meet deadlines. When I sold M.F.K. the art was done. My editor called and said "We need the files now, and when I say that, I mean we needed them two months ago."

I've had to explain that no, I cannot pencil and ink a 260-page GN in two months, do you even understand the words you're saying to me? I've been asked to design characters, pencil, ink, and color a 200-page GN myself in eight months (I said no).

I know some editors give their artists the time they need but I feel like I've been hazed most of my career. I illustrated my first picture book in a month. My second one in four months. When I said my dad is dying and I need more time they gave me three additional weeks.

I wish I'd thought sooner to explain to tradpub editors that illustrating a graphic novel is not like writing a prose novel or illustrating a picture book, a 250-page GN is actually like illustrating eight picture books.

We need more funny masterpieces!!! Humour, comics, joke books, belly laughing page turners… BRING IT ON!!! For an adult ….getting a kid to laugh is no mean feat. Those who have tried and succeeded need to be revered and encouraged 🥳💕🥳

OBLIGATORY IT IS SNOWING POST!

I think this is what is known as as a ‘shallow fake’

Asking people, again, to pay me for the work that was commissioned, written and published in November. It’s illegal to make us wait this long and I‘m too old to be begging like this. So if anyone dares to give writers shit for monetising their Substacks - it’s better than begging the broadsheets…

I HAVE BEEFY CHUNKS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

NEW from Important Context: Genocide experts, including two past presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, are speaking out about escalating attacks on transgender Americans in the U.S. www.importantcontext.news/p/experts-wa...

Hell yeah girl! Thanks for firing me!

FTSE 100 CEOs earn more than average worker’s yearly pay by noon on 6 January

Something that clearly should be illegal, and yet

Gonna start reviewing funny books the way people review unfunny ones. With that in mind I just read Donut Squad: Make a mess. Urgent, necessary and timely, a masterpiece! The voice of a generation! @neillcameron.bsky.social

In cost of living year of our lord 2026 why are there still jobs without salary bands?

I listened to an episode of @trashfuture.bsky.social about Goodness Gracious Me and the fact that it was comedy that didn't patronise or over explain. What's your favourite current comedy that doesn't expect you to get every reference? Weirdest comedy? Boldest comedy?

The promise of the 21stC was that we’d all have access to infinite audiences. But that just means that anyone already privileged can spend to get the audiences attention within the bewildering chaos of overwhelming content.

Microsoft’s own researchers said AI use leads to cognitive decline: www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...

When you're trying to hide from all the work you put off in December...

Things I did to annoy a teenager today: wake up

Poppy Jimp! www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-n...

"Why joining the local library is the best thing you can do in 2026" H/T: @j2bryson.bsky.social

I would just like the metaphors in 2026 to be *slightly* less on the nose: "Equity investigation into unfair and illegal work practices at the Squid Game live experience." 🫠

British and Australian chemists have discovered a powerful new antibiotic called pre-methylenomycin C lactone, hiding in a well-known soil bacterium. This molecule kills drug-resistant bacteria without triggering resistance. buff.ly/YlXaONo #ShareGoodNewsToo

This is the reaction I seek to maintain through 2026

Happy New Year all

Yeah but what about making decent food affordable and available everywhere?

I am already getting emails. What are you doing at your desks, people? It's 8.23, you should be in bed, with your pillow over your head, saying "I'll get up in seven minutes".

Instead of framing it as being back to work I shall start saying I'm back on my bullshit. It sounds more like a wild time, like perhaps I am drunk dialling an attractive but inappropriate ex, rather than sitting at my desk saying WHAT THE HELL DO I DO AGAIN?

My niece in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen, has made a snow dalek that's featured in the Aberdeen Press and Journal. #proudaunt

They gentrified the tinfoil hat

I blame the entire Pluribus fandom for the fact that I have an earworm, to the tune of the Vengaboys, of "The Yuribus is coming..." on a loop.

My 7yo son is an inveterate bookworm. So much so that that pals regularly ask me for reading recommendations that might get their kids - especially boys - reading too. So this week, I turn the reins of my column over to him so he can give you his BOOKS OF THE YEAR. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Spotted in The Observer by a relation :D Thank you (and your son) @seamas.bsky.social 💖

If I was ever attacked by an alien in “alien” I’d simply close my mouth and not be infected with an egg. Seems pretty simple tbh.

Consider the following before adopting a Manticore for your family

Normally I’m slightly wary of columns that boil down to “stuff my kid said,” but I absolutely make an exception for this, because a) who better to ask about children’s books than a child and b) it’s a lovely, funny read.

I’ve spent the last few weeks reading books for age 8+ for our Junior book club. They like shortish books with lots of action and some humour and or emotion - hard to find for this age. I found this US one which is excellent so far (I started it this am). I’d love some age 8+ recommendations.