Posting this because the news today says stop using bird feeders, they spread disease, without including much in the way of better advice on how to make habitats in gardens to support and feed wild birds. growwild.kew.org/native-plant...

@variolator.bsky.social is an immunologist who has written a book about the common cold. And it has pictures in it! Please have a look: www.amazon.co.uk/Sneeze-Histo...

Happy New Year. A 20yo laptop has risen! New Year's resolution is to cross the event horizon between 64 bit and 32 bit. Perhaps it's a myth and there's not one? CMOS battery may need replacing. #vintagetech #linux

A supernormal stimulus is an exaggeration that trips a brain circuit for instinctive behaviour. When people claim 'AI' improves their lives, I can't help thinking of a bird tending a beloved cuckoo chick and that chatbots exploit human social instincts as the cuckoo does bird parenting instincts.

Delighted to announce that my new mystery novel will be published next year by Scottish independent publisher Sparsile Books!

Please don't send me messages on here. It says I have to 'verify my age' in order to see messages and 'adult content'. I don't want to have to see 'adult content' in order to receive messages on social media, so I shall choose to remain a child. :-)

Would you like to hear some insights from one of Britain's leading independent publishers? Join us online for free at 7pn (UK time) tomorrow when Ian Whates of NewCon Press will share them with us. #writingcommunity #amwriting www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1554178903...

A computer that will boot should not be thrown away (and even broken ones can be salvaged for components). If you have defunct hardware lying about, consider donating it to help disadvantaged families have access to computing.

With Microsoft pushing for users to change to an OS only available to new-ish chipsets and software manufacturers changing to subscription models, and all of them bloated with adverts and AI crud, there has never been a better time to dump the lot of them and discover Linux.

1 folder containing 10 short stories previously published. 1 folder containing 16 short stories in a fit state to be submitted. Innumerable files that might be short fiction of unknown genre on computers and bits of hardware in drawers. The floppy disks are mysteries as I have no drive to read them.

This week's net.wars, "Machine learning", chats about chatbots in education with a tiny unrepresentative sample of those dealing with them: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/08/08/m...

A very hot summer is when the sidhe slide out from under their rocks. Join us online for free this Wed when novelist Peadar Ó Guilín @thecallya.bsky.social tells us how he writes about them. #writingcommuunity Meetup: www.meetup.com/chalk-scribb... Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1428920903...

Personalised Rejection: Your technothriller set on a submarine was not immersive enough. Your mystery about a murder at a gardening club was too flowery. Your psychological thriller about a serial killer with dissociative identity disorder, I found the protagonist inconsistent.

Our next speaker will be Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld @clarkesworldmagazine.com, who talk about two decades editing one of the top short fiction venues around plus a few anthologies. Join us online this Wed for free. #writingcommunity #amwriting #getpublished www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1382424742...

The Lambton Worm -- paperback edition now available on Amazon. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1917231067

I recently typed in to Google 'Where do boobies nest?' The first answer was AI generated bilge telling me where tits nest. AI of the sort being promoted today is a toy, made to look superficially human. It's also incredibly wasteful of electricity.

Excellent psychological horror story!

I'm honoured that @laylasabourian.bsky.social and her family found the book helpful! Challenging unhelpful stereotypes in fiction of how foster families and absent biological parents are portrayed was important to me right from when I began this series. laylasabourian.substack.com/p/pilgrennon...

Many autistic children who are otherwise bright struggle academically because of complex needs. It is not acknowledged enough how utterly brutal puberty is for many girls. The Lambton Worm hopefully plays a part in giving these aspects of life a bit more space.

Cometh the eleventh hour, cometh the last-minute change of plan...

A week and a half before we welcome Donna Scott @wishusdonna.bsky.social to talk about one of Britain's newest indy publishers, Slab Press. Join us online for free at 7pm on Wed 8th Mar. #writingcommunity #amwritng www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1321672651...