Had fun playing agony aunt on ABC’s Life Matters today, alongside @jamesfindlay.com.au. Is Liz as rude as she sounds? www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Gah, love this!!

It’s publication day for The Introvert’s Guide to Leaving the House!

I’m launching The Introvert’s Guide to Leaving the House in Sydney next Thursday 29th. I hope I can lure out some sociophobes

So much goddamn tasty tea in this book (or should I say THAT book) about Facebook. The micro stuff - about awful people in an office - is as entertaining as the macro.

The most Castlemaine thing ever ! @jennyvalentish.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ap...

You don't see crepe paper around much any more

This is a bit of a delight. ‘Goth’s Not Dead’ by @jennyvalentish.bsky.social jennyvalentish.substack.com/p/goths-not-... ⚡️

I have been greatly enjoying this post from Cunnamulla Tourism about how to spend two days in the town. Includes: eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, explore the town, go to a different town 40 minutes away, watch the sun go down and go to sleep.

Introversion diagnostic questions. Does seeing two Beatles singing into one mic make your stomach tauten?

Yep, Australian authors are furious with Meta over this. Reminder to fill in the form via @asauthors.bsky.social if you are affected! www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

“Do you believe in estrogen dominance?” I asked, then kicked myself. Believe in? What, like believing in fairies? I fancied I saw a slight smirk. jennyvalentish.substack.com/p/why-women-...

Introversion diagnostic questions. Does one person trying to sleep outweigh the needs of two or more people wanting to party?

Introversion diagnostic questions. Should people be allowed to talk to you when you’re eating?

Victoria’s endless summer still going strong in Castlemaine

Introversion diagnosis: You can’t help taking the sound of chair legs scraping across a cafe floor very personally.

As an introvert, I regularly remind myself not to be a passenger. Enter a conversation early. Walk into a room first. Sit in the front row. Don’t let your mate carry the weight.

The Introvert’s Guide to Leaving the House is available to pre-order. If you want to pull on a flak jacket every time you leave the house, if you stab lemon slices with straws, if you take lunch at your desk, if you consider yourself “more of an animal person”, this book’s for you jennyvalentish.com

Oh wow! I made those when I was 16 to 18 (1991-1993) and Jane may be the only person other than my mum who has a full set!

@mandybeaumont.bsky.social talking her new book with @jennyvalentish.bsky.social I love reading an article and having my mate’s voice read speak those words in my head

I don’t wanna get puritanical in my old age - and, I mean, young me would have been very grateful - but this is a typical UK train refreshment trolley.

I'm running a mini-series a part of my newsletter, about how to write memoir. Here's the latest post on not flat-out diagnosing difficult people and instead using dialogue and scenes to show us the dynamic. #memoir #writing #memoirwriters #memoirwriting jennyvalentish.substack.com/p/is-someone...

In attachment theory, inconsistent parenting leads to an anxious-ambivalent attachment style: Dependency, limited exploration of environment, fearfulness, low self-worth, need for approval. Thus, inconsistency is also an excellent way for a leader to create a pliant, submissive population.

This picture was verified by Meta “Community Notes”

Chortling that in its coverage of The Telepathy Tapes, Newsweek (exhibit A) mistook The Times’ scathing no-star review (exhibit B) as being five stars

Only just discovering now from my Australian boyfriend that a popular early 80s insult was “You clit!” Can anyone confirm?

New Year’s book pile, reading all at once, obviously. And audiobooks, each barely started… attention span of a gnat.

Domestic violence educators have trained vets, hairdressers and dentists to look out for signs. I wonder if Airbnb hosts are also privy to signs without necessarily recognising them. When are multiple breakages from a two-person stay evidence of violence? jennyvalentish.substack.com/p/could-airb...

Day 21 of being on hold with iiNet and Maroon 5. The volume automatically ratchets up towards every chorus. What’s the most offensive hold music YOU’VE heard?

Substack’s account recovery questions are odd. You have to pick three, but I don’t feel confident I’d give the right answers to all three of them next time I’m asked. Often I don’t even know the answer. What was my first smartphone? What’s my least favourite colour?

Spam reaching new frontiers

When Queensland humidity meets Jetstar aircon

I am deducing from all the scandalised coverage of OnlyFans star Lily Phillips taking on 100 men that no one remembers the Great 1990s Record-Breaking Gang Bang era as well as me. Let me rectify that. open.substack.com/pub/jennyval...

The shoplifters’ gallery in Sexyworld, Nerang. This is nothing - ram raiders even took out a wall and then did a trolley dash.

New level of ASMR creativity unlocked: 'Call Center Scammer Sells You Gift Card'. There really is something for everyone. www.youtube.com/watch?v=caob...

Only just found out that Bob Marley’s ‘Syria’ is actually ‘Stir It Up’. Picture the conversation at our dinner table.

I bought a MasterClass subscription in order to learn to sing with Christina Aguilera and to learn the art of intelligence from the CIA. Is there a masterclass to motivate you to actually watch the videos?

My latest newsletter is on the darker side of 1990s counterculture. Not sure how I made it out of the decade tbh.

Genius slow news day exercise from the Daily Mail. 1) Find a film that got 26% on Rotten Tomatoes. 2) Write a story based on a few tweets of people saying it’s the greatest film ever made. 3) Sit back and wait.

Brisbane, please join me and award winning journalist and author Matthew Condon for the launch of my new book THE THRILL OF IT, at Avid Reader Bookstore on the 21st March, 2025. www.avidreader.com.au/pages/11170-...

Here’s the first ish of Tank Girl magazine from 1995. It was short-lived, maybe 8 issues, and I was a regular contributor. Quite enjoyed Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin’s “thanks” list, too. This mag started the year that Deadline comic ceased to be, which is where Tank Girl used to live. #comics

Frank built me floating bookshelves. We’re making “piling” a thing for 2025.

Pardon?

I am so stuck for Christmas presents for three men (one 80, two mid-fifties). What’s not shit? Thinking around $50.

If somebody got me this for Christmas I’d resent them for the rest of my life.

My Indonesian language teacher keeps teaching me really colonial expressions. *Salah satu dari staff mereka kabur kemarin. One of their staff ran away yesterday*. I imagine I’m supposed to say that on a golf course.

Mum used to tell me clever ways of remembering grammar and spelling rules, which I can still hear her saying. I just thought of one re: canon v. cannon. You can remember the latter is the weapon because the two Ns are like the two wheels. Happy to record that as a voicenote for you for a small fee.

Exceptional podcast about Keiko, the whale that started in Free Willy - highly recommend! It’s also a good companion to the podcast ‘Hooked on Freddie’, about a beloved dolphin in England who made lurid headlines. podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/t...

Black Friday Month is really getting me down this year.

At around 3am I convinced myself that Scritti Politti were fronted by Feargal Sharkey. I was wrong.