The Drama Neem is returning to life! (It was in a draft for a couple of days over the winter and immediately dropped all its leaves and reverted to stickhood.)

Yesterday's editing challenge of my space-race book: create a more plausible version of "flying through asteroids !". Today's editing challenge: make the bad guy more egregiously bad. Might be on the home straight?

In solidarity with the teenager, the whole household did a maths GCSE non-calculator paper. The teenager has forgotten fractions; I have forgotten the sin/cos numbers; @doop.bsky.social has forgotten basic arithmetic.

If I enjoyed The Pitt & have now run out of it, what else is currently good to watch? (Or historically. I’m not averse to catching things long after everyone else did.)

I have done something to one of the ligaments/attachment points on my foot (not plantar fasciitis but similar deal in different place) and wow but it is annoying. Mostly because it only hurts *sometimes* and only a *bit* which means I am terrible about remembering not to use it.

Well this is cool: someone is working on a Matlab real-physics imaginary star system generator.

Read this week: All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan, sequel to Long Live Evil. A bit messier than the first one (in trad mid-trilogy way), but basically if you enjoyed that you’ll enjoy this. Entertaining, self-aware, meta-fictional, playing with ALL the YA tropes.

Spent the last two days doing line edits and it is probably for the best I have a day of teenager-wrangling instead today because my wrists are tired.

Yes this is very true. I have definitely got my money’s worth out of mine (especially now I am taking Scouts camping 4 times a year).

Read recently: KJ Charles' "How To Fake It In Society" -- delightful M/M historical romance with sweet hero, scoundrel romantic interest, & absurd premise which KJC successfully sells by being a deeply entertaining writer. UK release today (US was Tuesday, obv).

British Museum today: ravens and geese! (Ireland, late Bronze Age, 1090-900BCE)

I am quite fond of the London Marathon (which goes past the end of my road every year), but I am unconvinced that it will be improved by having twice as many days of it, even as a once-off. Plus it makes no sense to just do that in a random "eh how about now" year rather than at 50 yrs or similar.

this was as ever genuinely fun to watch, and to listen to the DJ DJing (cheers @shed.gay, that was an excellent set!), even if one does not intend to pay that much attention to the code part. (I can debug TIC-80/Pico-8 when the teenager requests assistance but don't actually write it.)

Next year I am going to plant many many more peas in an attempt to beat the snails. However! I do have SOME peas that have survived the mollusc gauntlet and are at the "grabbing things and zooming upwards" stage, so all is not lost.

hard agree, it's great & you should read it!

7K of bits-that-need-to-go-into-this-book and now my brain is tired. The job of "fitting them in and editing around them" can wait for another day. #amwriting

The first ducklings of the season!

While I was at Eastercon I got new headshots! (see user icon thing, also my website; cannot bring myself to put one here). From the lovely Tom Pepperdine who is at www.tompepperdine.com & who made the whole process impressively stress-free.

hello new people! I have a newsletter here as well if you are interested julietkemp.com/newsletter (Low volume, announcements and occasional other updates.)

Love novellas? How about two in one book? In Wiz Duo 2, Juliet Kemp sends a reluctant knight on a quest, while E M Faulds gives her heroine a superpower that totally sucks. wizardstowerpress.co...

Sort of meant to post from @easterconuk.bsky.social but was too busy having a lovely time! The teenager also thoroughly enjoyed himself (he’s been for the day a couple of times before but not ‘properly’).

Congratulations Beth!! Love what you said in your thank you speech too A fantastic story and well worth a listen!

The Let’s Not Fight panel with @julietk.bsky.social @drkarenlord.bsky.social @aptshadow.bsky.social @annabelcwrites.bsky.social and @elianjmorgan.bsky.social

L & I are off out this morning to play hide & seek in London! (A limited game board for this trial run - within the Circle line.)

It's Book Quote Wednesday #bookqw and this week's word is OLD. Cade is not-quite-lost in the catacombs.

There's a panel on Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Trans History including @cherylmorgan.bsky.social and @joelcornah.bsky.social, as well as Nick Hubble, duckbunny, and modded by Sandra Bond, also at the con there's @julietk.bsky.social, though no @poopraven.bsky.social this year I don't think :(

Slower writing this week as I spent most of yesterday contemplating Why This Bit Doesn't Work; but I got there in the end & have written nearly 4K today. Maybe will get a bit more done before dinner?

(also I bet it was longer ago than that but yes fine EVIDENCE etc) Today I met a modern dog who demonstrated thousands of years of co-evolving with humans by dropping a ball in your path, waiting for you to reach it, then staring at you until you threw it. 100% success rate.

Been writing a mailing list post, with a snippet from the novel I've just started drafting -- sign up here if you're interested: julietkemp.com/newsletter

Love novellas? How about two in one book? In Wiz Duo 2, Juliet Kemp sends a reluctant knight on a quest, while E M Faulds gives her heroine a superpower that totally sucks. wizardstowerpress.co...

Downside of March camping: very nearly freezing, spent the night entirely within my sleeping bag, head and all. Upside of March camping: gorgeous sunset.

Looking forward to @easterconuk.bsky.social next week 🎉 Also to my 4 panels: 16:30 Fri: The Politics of Hope: Imagining a Better World 21:00 Fri: Everything I know about life, I learned from reading.... 16:30 Sat: Let's not fight 16:30 Sun: Getting from A to B in Under a Month: Transport in SFF

Our ebooks are now available through Bookshop.org. Go ye forth and support your local, independent bookshop! uk.bookshop.org/p/bo...

Sea and acid the other week :) 🌊 (only one of these is permanent)

It's Book Quote Wednesday #bookqw and this week's word is KNIFE. Cade is having a chat with a ghost.

The teenager may have watched too much Pottery Throwdown on C4 - he has started making the Dominos ad joke IRL.

I love these books.

Read this week: Hell's Heart by Alexis Hall: v queer Moby Dick on Jupiter. Chaotic, bitty, weird - which IIRC so is the 30% of the OG I've read. Indeed this has much LESS in the way of info dumps about (space) whales, for better or worse. Deeply entertaining ride www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...

Wrote 8.5K on the New Thing today which a) is very pleasing and b) has made my brain quite tired. Tomorrow likely to be slower as I don’t have as clear an idea yet of the next couple of scenes.

Coming in April, the first volume of Fight Like A Girl is back in print at last! wizardstowerpress.co...

Ooh I loved this on stage.

Excited about the panels I’m (provisionally) on at Eastercon - hopefully will be able to share them soon… The now-traditional Fountain Pen Meet-up is on there though :) (hello @aliettedebodard.com !)

Read and enjoyed this week: Fiend by Alma Katsu (Succession but with a demon); though I wasn’t wholly satisfied by the ending. Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian (contemporary romance with SF actors). Very much liked the prickly insecure hero.

This book is GREAT & you should read it!

Writing progress today: the nearly-finished urban fantasy novel is now 7K less overwritten; the re-outlined enemies-to-lovers fantasy-with-romance contains 1K of Actual Words (at the cost of quite a lot of staring out of the window; first scenes are Hard).

Love novellas? How about two in one book? In Wiz Duo 2, Juliet Kemp sends a reluctant knight on a quest, while E M Faulds gives her heroine a superpower that totally sucks. wizardstowerpress.co...

RIP Corsica Studios

My Friday evening: 2h running a very wholesome Scout meeting about urban biodiversity where we planted wildflowers in yoghurt pots; 3.5h dancing to banging acid techno in a sweaty concrete box underneath Elephant.

The teenager got this after we played a friend’s copy on holiday & I am enjoying it. Strategic enough to be interesting, fast enough that I don’t get fed up ;)

Went to see Into the Woods last night at the Bridge and it was GREAT. Seriously considering going again and taking L & @doop.bsky.social before it closes. Having thoughts about stories now…