October commute

Barrow looking beautiful on my dinnertime wander yesterday.

At my dayjob in an archive today, workmen started bringing me the retro rubbish they found in the loft, including a 1960s fag packet and a 1990s coke can. There was also a 1980s page 3 (not pictured 😂)

Drawing the seaweed pools on Hest Bank Wharf at today's #MorecambeBaySketchClub

Moved my eldest for university yesterday. He's still in the north but right across at the other side 😭

This is a bit exciting :) Tickets available here: www.brasseriezedel.com/events/wordt...

Sometimes my dayjob brings niche excitements, like how ridiculously happy I was to get a reduction in rat wee staining with minimal moisture migration using low cost, cut-to-size gellan gum gel yesterday.

Thrilled that an old story of mine 'Feather Girls' is being performed at this event!

Pls stop what you are doing and read this entire report on Israel's murder of journalist Anas al-Sharif and five colleagues in Gaza City. "He characterized Israel’s threats as 'Silence or Death,' and he vowed not to be silent." It ends with his final message. www.dropsitenews.com/p/anas-al-sh...

My wonderful parents-in-law. Married 60 years ago in Yorkshire ❤️

Sketched the lovely cool, still-damp seaweed today at #MorecambeBaySketchClub

We’re delighted that @deadinkbookshop.bsky.social is now stocking Nightjars. Little interview about it here deadinkbookshop.com/blogs/requir...

Early morning cloud train to Carlisle

According to a brilliant book I'm reading (The Lichen Museum by A.Laurie Palmer) these little wonders make up about 8% of the biomass of the world. Growing quietly everywhere and nearly always unnoticed.

- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University - 1 in 4 people will be made redundant But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action? Please read 👇 Sign the petition 👇 chng.it/7F52bThYqn

Beach architecture by honeycomb worms

Books.

Out for my lunchbreak walk in Barrow, I found an abandoned shop that's very much alive.

I think it’s worth noting this piece generated the most unsubscribes I’ve seen in a while, and the newsletter version had the lowest open rate in many months. These horrors persist in part because too many people go to great pains to avoid them.

Classic Morecambe Bay weather at #MorecambeBaySketchClub today for our first birthday draw! Thanks for a fantastic year of sketching @debbieyare.bsky.social!

A Flash Gordon sky outside

Exploring Morecambe's sunken boat caves.

“We want our publishers to stand with us.” An open letter against AI from some of your favorite writers to the people who publish them.

Stalactites forming on the ceiling in Carnforth train station

A sitting still #MorecambeBaySketchClub for me today after minor foot surgery earlier this week. It was beautifully bleak at the edge of Middleton Sands.

Gutted that our gov would rather enable tech bro thievery than support artists & the creative industries. There is no ethical way to use generative AI. It's made from stolen material. It's awful for the environment, unsecure & makes up crap! Its spread is not and never was inevitable. It's a choice.

Seriously, FUCK Boundless. Writers, do not publish with them. Agents, do not submit to them. Bookstores, do not carry their books. Any company that thinks torching this many authors will result in being able to “continue publishing and rebuild trust” is delusional and deserves to die.

The walk across the sands from Walney island to Piel island #MorecambeBay

Studio butterfly

Really looking forward to talking all things conservation at the Gregson in Lancaster on the 29th. Tickets available here: gregson.co.uk/event/expert...

Morecambe's magical Winter Gardens

Really looking forward to talking all things conservation at the Gregson in Lancaster on the 29th. Tickets available here: gregson.co.uk/event/expert...

A change from sketching the sea at today's #MorecambeBaySketchClub. We gathered in the shade outside the walls of Levens Hall. There was rhubarb & custard ice cream. It was too good. #sketching #trees

#IndiePressDay Some great short story collections by indie presses I have discovered via social media inc. Fauna by @davidhartley.bsky.social The Naming of Moths by @theliterarypig.bsky.social (@flyonthewallpress.bsky.social) The Museum of Shadows and Reflections by @clairedean.bsky.social

I love how this little stilt-legged hut often looks like it might wander off into the sea #Morecambe

I got to spend some of my day (very carefully) beginning to clean this beautiful pressed seaweed album from the 1880s at Barrow #archives. We don't normally wear gloves when treating paper, but in the past, herbarium specimens were often doused with mercuric chloride and other toxic pesticides.

This. An emergency recall of parliament on a weekend for British Steel. Nothing at all for UK HE which employs far more people, has already shed 10,000 academic jobs, with several institutions on the brink of collapse. A reminder: we train all the doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses, lawyers &c &c

Morecambe Bay sunset + derelict pier + nuclear power station outflow

I love the boats sailing on this map lake I came across at work yesterday.

You can make a change 📢 Protect authors’ livelihoods from the unlicensed use of their work in AI training by signing this open letter ✒️ authr.uk/sp40 #MakeitFair #MetaBookThieves #DoTheWriteThing

Several of my short stories are in the database pirated by Meta. I asked WhatsApp about it this morning. Although it won't confirm anything it will happily 'assist' me and write something in the style of me. Makes me feel sick. #MetaBookThieves.

What a joy to see work from fellow #MorecambeBaySketchClub -er Barbara Holt exhibited in the Storey today (❤️ the seascape complete with 'still wet' sign!) & to get to nosy round hers and many other artists' studios across #Lancaster!!

On my bench for cleaning and repair at work today: this lovely annotated chart showing the visibility of lighthouses in Morecambe Bay in the late 19thc.

It's a gigantesque land-grab of the commons of human creativity. It's a slight-of-hand swap, taking creative influence and inspiration and giving back mimicry and pastiche. It's a fundamental shift from creative evolution to creative entropy. It's anti-art. It's anti-human. It's theft.

Back on my favourite commute this morning, the train journey from Lancaster to Barrow.

In Blackburn for work today and stumbled across this gorgeous creature #StreetArt

For those who don't think #AI thievery is a worry, or who aren't really paying it much attention, when I discovered I had stories in pirated stash Books3, I asked Chat GPT to write a short story in the style of Claire Dean. I'm a barely known writer of strange little stories. Chat GPT said...

Re the thieving techbros at #Meta, writers of work that's been anthologised should search the database by editor name. I found seven of my short stories and one of my essays have been fed to the machine this way. @societyofauthors.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...