Back to London and Worthing for the holidays. Suddenly this move thing is getting real. I’ll be using my time in Worthing to look for a flat or a house to rent until I can buy something. Which itself is a whole new layer of holy crap, I’m about to do that.

🌀

Is anyone else having WTAF vibes from Drag Race UK? I don’t remember the last time the contestant who so obviously lost, won.

It me. 🚊

Oh thank fuck. I’m planning to move in a few months’ time, and one of the criteria I’ve been considering is whether the new place will be pet-friendly. I don’t currently have a cat, but I had already decided I wouldn’t choose a new place that forbade them. (Also, hard nope on street parking.) Yay!

Queer Bluesky: how old were you when you came out and how old are you now? I came out to myself once and for all at 18, although I’d known for much longer. I’m 55 now.

This is actually exciting. New territory for me as a writer. I’ve always written one-off books. I used to want to write a sequel to my first novel, The Concrete Sky. I have a detailed synopsis and know the title. Of interest to some, Trebor Healey is the only other person who knows the details.

Just finished the first draft of Stillpoint, the new novel. Cranked out the last two chapters in a white heat and am kind of fried now.

In a major investigation, a young reporter uncovers a powerful technology used to spy on thousands of people across the world. This week, with our friends at @revealnews.org, we join 13 other news outlets to expose the secrets of a global surveillance empire.

If you haven’t watched Boots on Netflix, you probably should. Disclaimer: I’m a Marine brat and the same age as the author of the book the series is based on, and even though joining the military was never in the cards for me, there’s a lot that’s relatable in the story. It’s excellent.

I have started putting crabmeat in jambalaya instead of prawns and it’s as good as it sounds.

Probably two chapters and an epilogue away from finishing the new novel. Took the day off to read. As much fun as I’ve had with this thing, the ending is complex and I need to account for a number of moving parts. Also, I’m increasingly sure I know where I’m going with the next one, which helps.

Just watched the new Drag Race UK episode. Reminded of something I’ve been thinking for years: so many of the queens are entering the competition too soon. I had a bit of success in my late 20s and handled it badly. I’m still around, which is an accomplishment, but fame at an early age is corrosive.

Truro is peculiar in having only one main east-west road on this side of the city. It’s been closing at 7pm for the last week or so for roadwork. I keep vampire hours and rarely venture out before 6. It’s been like house arrest. I did make it out tonight but had to loop home via the A30. Far. 🤪🫤

Anyone else watching True Haunting on Netflix? I just watched the first 3 episodes. That’s some proper ghost story goodness.

First decent night’s sleep in a week. The new Stratus variant of Covid, which I apparently have had, comes with tooth pain as a fun new symptom. Sinus headache + aching mouth + chills + nagging cough at night = enough already. Bleh. At least now there is windy stormness to listen to. ⛈️ 🌀 🤒

Hard relate. Is that a phrase? It should be.

I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the aurora tonight. The streetlights go out around midnight here, so it’s pitch black at night. It was sort of clear, and somehow now there’s dense fog. Because, you know, Cornwall.

Essential reading if you’re a writer or in some other area of publishing. Really, plus ça change etc etc. The real work of being a writer isn’t so much getting the big advance (which can tank your career) as it is managing to keep getting published, ideally more or less on your own terms.

Finished a new short story over the weekend, “Far Gone and Out.” Took several months to write because the new novel is going so well. Beta reader said it reminded him of old-school Ray Bradbury. I’m calling that a win. Will embargo until later in October and start sending it out.

And here is exactly where I think this present lunacy is coming from. There have been any number of other such news-driven market manipulations already.

I cannot believe that this was even considered, much less proposed. I just went through the ILR process myself. UK visas cost thousands of pounds, and these are just the application fees. There’s no guarantee of approval. The notion that ILR holders aren’t contributing is deplorable. And wrong.

Now that my job and UK residency status are sorted and I know I’m moving, I’ve been looking at cats at a couple of rescues. It’s almost time. A lovely gingerish tabby boy I’d have adopted in a hot second has just found a home. I felt a tiny stab. I’m still occasionally messy but this is progress.

A former partner would occasionally get exasperated with me because if I didn’t start cooking early enough, we would sometimes end up eating dinner at 11. I’m eating at 11 tonight because I made a seafood stew and it took a minute to prepare, and also, fuck that guy.

Worth noting if you’re in academia. It’s a bit late here but I’ll check this for myself tomorrow and delete my account if I still have one, which I’m not entirely sure I do.

Anyone else feeling kind of exhausted after that storm? After about 24hr of intermittent noisy wind, I’m sort of gently pulverized and would really mostly like to lie down.

I can share this now: my short story “On the Carcosa Metro” has been nominated for this year’s Best of the Net. This is lovely. I’ve been nominated for the Stoker and the Pushcart, but this is my first BOTN. 🤞🏻 www.underscoremag.com/noms

I like this. Battle doomscrolling by posting five small pleasures in life. 1. My bed, and no longer needing to use an alarm clock. 2. News of new books by writers I like. 3. Dramatic cloudy skies. 4. My kitchen. Not large but very well equipped. 5. Doing laundry (I know that’s weird).

A little thing I done wrote. thehooghlyreview.com/narita/

Been a few days since I last posted. Making swift progress on the new novel, although I’m not sure how much I’ll get done once the semester starts. So much stuff to do before it does. 🙀🤪🐣

Autistic people have more chronic pain from hypermobility, EDS, migraines, and sensory overwhelm etc. and so take more Tylenol/acetaminophen/paracetamol than non-autistic people do. And autistic people also have more autistic kids than non-autistic people do. This is not rocket science. #autism

A thread on spider season 2025. I was just watching Foundation (so good) and spotted a Spider in Urgent Need of Elimination, leapt up to dispatch it, and just as I was doing so, the ass of my pjs explosively ripped. I killed the spider and shouted at the top of my lungs and probably… 1/x

Still in shock. Despite my lawyer’s last-minute fuckup, my UK residency application was approved. Not that very many people are following with bated breath, but my job is likely to become fully remote, at which point I’m leaving Cornwall. I’ll still be on the south coast of England, just… not here.

So this just happened. It’s a morning of good news. I’m a big fan of X-R-A-Y and am so pleased to have an essay published with them. But brace yourself: it’s a brutal read. In other news, my UK permanent residency application was approved. I just got the email. I predict champagne tonight.

Comfortably past the halfway point in the new novel and am loving writing it. Such a funny contrast with the struggle to get its predecessor written: it took me 4+ years and was usually a struggle. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed it this much. I hope it doesn’t mean the story sucks.

Whoa, some cool news to start the bank holiday weekend. The first season has done an outstanding job adapting the source material. I’m curious to see where the story goes from here.

This guy in China built a subway for his cats, and is therefore a superhero. youtu.be/KRtyMCeDw8o?...

I’m still not completely sure what “skibidi” means and how to use it, but I have a feeling I’ll start seeing it in student work this coming academic year. “Delulu,” on the other hand, is a drag queen name waiting to happen and I am here for it.

My essay “Metro, Metro” has just been published in the new issue of Susurrus: www.susurrusthemagazine.com/metro-metro

My scary flower is blooming. First one this year. 👻 🌺

Hey, if any of my US friends are looking for a way out, it might be worth keeping an eye on this: www.instagram.com/reel/DNUoDaF...

Welp, I think the dishwasher is dead for good now. At the end of a cycle, it got really hot and started beeping. I have unplugged it. Guess I have to get another one now. I do not seem to have good luck with appliances, although at least my washing machine and fridge have been fine.

Useful

More fun with slight diminution: Pet Shop Toddlers Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Shade Grateful Comatose Girltron

Slightly diminish a band Moist Leg The 1974 New Suggestion Simply Magenta

It was such a good night to have half a roast chicken and other snacky goodness in the fridge. I was totally planning to cook and then I went to the gym and then I came home and slipped into a state of blissful nope nope nope.

Bit of writing coolness: I’m at the halfway point on the WIP, the prequel to my novel Winterville (which is still racking up enthusiastic “almost but not quite” nopes from agents). This afternoon I mapped out the rest of the story. I know how it ends, and what happens next. So, onward Stillpoint. 😎

Of all the piercings it’s possible to get, I didn’t have “throat” and “with a salmon bone I only noticed was in my mouth just a second too late” on the list.

It’s almost 2am. My neighbors have had visitors the last few days. The teenage brother/cousin/? has nothing else to do but kick a football around in the garden. I sympathize with his boredom but sweet holy fuck enough already. The sound. They can listen to Wednesday and my new ‘80s playlist at 2am 🖕🏻

A writing organization I used to be affiliated with updated their website after a change of management and quietly dropped me (and a couple of others) from their list of contributing authors. I thought I was on good terms with the remaining manager, so I wonder why the snub. Puzzling. 🤔