A leaked letter signed by 400 female writers has criticised the corporation for what it calls the ‘silencing of women’s voices’ in women’s stories for commissioning a male writer for a drama about the Met police and the Sarah Everard murder. Read it in full here: www.thenerve.news/p/female-scr...

I needed Google maps but I found it

As someone further down the thread mentions, you can only think Pratchett is being lost to history if you've not been to any bookshop's SFF section in decades & TBH it's Peak 'One Of The Dozen Big Name Phobes With 5 Newspaper Columns Each' to indeed not do that but write a column based on vibes

Yet again I could comfortably have caught a later train and avoided sitting around in the airport forever. The guy who is late everywhere else is ridiculously early for flights.

I'm one of the signatories to this letter. We note that NHS England's ban on hormone therapy by under-18 was proposed: ● without any clear rationale, ● on the basis of a methodologically-flawed process, ● in the absence of peer review, ● and without plans for monitoring impact or mitigating harm

When I say I won’t read your Substack this is what I mean:

Yet TERFs insist that their views are shared by the majority. Repeatedly I see women reject anti trans prejudice but still our media spread it.

OURCS said trans women can’t row in women’s races and the whole of boat house island said ‘fuck you very much’

I could have bought volume III or IV of Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume in three different shops this week, but it took until the fourth to find volume II. Holiday reading added to.

Looks at shelf full of books about AI by highly tech literate women. Meredith Broussard, Ruha Benjamin, Safiya Noble, Cathy O'Neil, Joy Buolamwini , Madhumita Murgia, Karen Hao, Parmy Olson, Virginia Eubanks, Sarah Wynn-Williams, etc.

Here's the serious bit for anyone who'd rather skip the 4000 words of jokes

Good companies recognise that unions are good for the business as well as the workers.

There was a thing about introducing yourself via 10 Bands You've Seen. Here's part one

One of the last of the pantheon of true giants has left us. A great originator. You do not learn jazz without learning Sonny Rollins. We’re lucky that we had him for so long, but the loss feels tremendous.

The first landmark I sought out when I got to New York last September was The Williamsburg Bridge via East Broadway. RIP to the Saxophone Colossus Sonny Rollins

"Oona was a carnival dog, raised by a musician, a magician, and a clown." It's too late to read further into Andrea Hairston's latest novel The Redemption Centre Is Closed On Sundays but already there are lines of joy. When I get home from work later I'll be exploring further.

It's Bob D's 85th birthday. I sought out a number of landmarks as I crossed the US last year, but this was always going to be one of them. "Where d'ya want your selfie done, out on Highway 61"

That annoying moment when you listen to a podcast discussing a novel you enjoyed years ago, and they repeatedly get something fundamentally wrong about its origins, but the podcast is over two months old so too late to respond, and surely someone else has told them?

Worth reading thread. Fascinating that only male critics or supporters are mentioned by name (in one persons case anyway); feels like a committee decision. Terfs are quislings - they are actively working to reduce control women have over their spheres. Many too blinded by hate to recognise it

On the tube

Wasn't well earlier but this arrived and am now relaxing several stories in to it.

Perhaps naively, I am STUNNED by the lack of media coverage given to the anti-Muslim hate speech platformed on the central stage of Stephen YL’s event on Saturday. If it were literally any other minority (apart from trans people) we’d be calling this what it was - a genuine hate march.

Monday

How do you select your nominations for Best Novel? What is Best? I think there has to be an acceptance of several factors. Favourite and Best may differ because the former may have emotional ties that affect your feelings. Would you reread all your choices before nominating?

Took this photo then ate this pie in North Bend, WA last summer. It was damn fine cherry pie.

Interesting phrasing on this information board somewhere in Eastern Montana

Wild Horses

Waiting On A Friend

We are in drought. The whole state is in drought. Data centers are a fucking scourge and the people responsible deserve to dig sewage ditches.

Apparently Joanna Cherry decides who is a lesbian. Did you all know this? Lesbian friends, have you had official approval?

Some of you celebrated Star Wars Day on Monday, well today is Return of the Jeudi .

Jews are not collectively responsible for Israeli government policy. People demonstrating peacefully for Palestine are not collectively responsible for the attacks on British Jews. Collective punishment for other people's crimes is not justice.

The people's flag

It's International Jazz Day so here's some of my jazz photos. Nubya Garcia, Camilla George, Sarathy Korwar, The Comet Is Coming.

Link to full article in El Pais English. If there is no evidence that trans athletes are a threat to women's sports, I wonder what "data" the sporting "authorities" have based their bans on...?

There's been a few discussions about the Hugo shortlists, particularly for Novellas, but also other shorter fiction categories. I wonder if they're looking in the wrong place. If the aim is to have a more informed constituency we need places to discuss shorter SFF. Do they exist?

Just discovered a 2024 release of a live set from 1966 by McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson with Jack DeJohnette and Henry Grimes. If you like later Hard Bop meets more exploratory avant garde jazz by some of the best musicians of their era this might be for you. 1/2 @simonguy.bsky.social take note.

New public art by Lakwena in Morecambe today

Actually MC 900 ft (foot) Jesus

When transphobes arguments are brought into the light, instead of on just twitter, its far easier to see how ridiculous and nonsensical they are Small men apparently dont exist And if a man is small, he is clearly, observablly, a woman, apparently These are the people government is listening to

I've never seen Montmartre. It has such a presence, fantastical, mutable, irreal in fictions that i can't imagine recognising it in real life. Today's example, @singingtotigers.bsky.social evocative "La bibliotheque d'objets quotidiens" is saturated with a yearning hope of ideas and generosity.

🔇🔇🔇 On Friday April 17th (9am PDT/5pm CET/7pm EAT), we'll have a virtual event introducing our Refugees, Migrants and AI research program which centers the lived experiences of refugees and migrants and puts power back into their hands🧵 ☘️☘️☘️ Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/refugees-a...

I'm listening to a review podcast from 18 months ago. Is it too late to comment?

As Hungary votes, would recommend this piece about how Viktor Orban has used public money to bankroll an international ultraconservative network - including Roger Scruton cafes and €10k a month for failed Reform candidate Matt Goodwin democracyforsale.substack.com/p/orbans-brits

We have contacted the Women and Equalities Committee, the Joint Human Rights Committee, and the Minister for Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson, to bring to their attention our complaint to the EHRC regarding the conduct of the anti-rights group Sex Matters.

For those who missed it, a review of an epic fantasy with interesting political details wp.me/peM5HN-4O

Picked up the debut epic fantasy novel Touched by Light at Eastercon. It does some interesting and uncommon things so I wrote a review almostwisdomreviews.wordpress.com/2026/04/08/t...

I watched the video of the Eastercon panel Imagining Ourselves Out From The Dystopian Present i was on, as i made no notes. Bemused to see @niallharrison.bsky.social stifle a laugh when I made reference to "a piece of weird electronic music" I hadn't taken that in live. Also we said some good stuff

Again, for the people in the back: If you create a work of art, it means something political whether you want it to or not. The author's intent is only one facet of a very complex system that grants a work meaning. THEREFORE: Andy Weir's books are political; he's just too dense to see it himself.

We need a good, fair, up to date biography solely about Claire. The last one was Rosalie Glynn Grylls in 1939.