I grew up in a very soggy part of England that was surrounded with rivers and waterways like the Rhee, Cam, Mel, Shep. A few of them are chalk streams, which are pretty rare globally. Here, I live near the Tyne. A tidal river with a mercurial nature and an excessive amount of bridges

Watched Hamnet, cried for two hours, it was great

No other word has done more damage to the craft of writing in recent years than “content”. Even if you’re using the word “content” ironically, or as a cute little joke, don’t. When someone calls writing “content” they’re pissing on someone’s hard work & passion. “Content” is Technosatan’s henchword.

I'm quite enjoying the Farseer trilogy, but after the first book it does seem like Fitz is trapped in an endless cycle of bad decisions and worse luck

Quick reminder that I run a micro-press called The Braag @thebraag.bsky.social / thebraag.co We have 🐸 poetry in the language of a pond 🌻 A Ukranian poem-fairytale 🍀 Lush, queer ecofiction 💀 Queer Texan hauntings 🪐 Plannet-hopping poems 🏚️ Historic necro-capitalist fiction All for sale!

Pluribus was GREAT. I've heard a few people say nothing happens in the show and I really want to find out why they think this aha, for me it was perfectly paced

It annoys me that gatekeeping is now used to describe, amongst other things, authors not giving tips on how they got published. There is no advice authors can give that guarantees publication. They are not the gatekeepers of the industry. Agents, competition readers and judges, and publishers are.

Every year chocolates get smaller and more expensive. Extrapolating backwards, in 1906 a Creme Egg would have been the size of Rochester Cathedral and they would have paid you 12 guineas to eat it.

I've completed Subnautica, which means it has entered the hallowed halls of games over 20 hours that I've actually finished aha

I) Be stubborn. Be pigheaded. It's your art. Also read a lot. I mean, a LOT. Now, go write.

Top films I watched this year (not necessarily new releases): Sinners, Frankenstein, Grand Theft Hamlet, Another Round, Anatomy of a Fall. Top TV was probably Andor s2, Severance, and Leonard and Hungry Paul.

Thinking about the discourse around how accurate Nolan's Odyssey is/whether it's important for myth or historical adaptations to be accurate, or whether that's even possible, I think it's probably more useful to think about it in terms of whether things appear truthful.

Sharing here too as I had fun putting these together - everything I read this year!

Merry Christmas! 🎄

If every new game has gen AI in it (which I highly doubt) I would simply play old games, I'm playing Subnautica right now, I'm 7 years late to the party, I've just built a massive submarine out of bits of scrap and plant juice, it's amazing

About that time 🕰️

Last call for manuscripts: our reading window closes today at midnight! Submit: carnyxpress.co.uk/submissions/

We're super excited to be returning to the Bagpuss Universe for Yaffle Origins. As mega fans of the Oliver Postbox multiverse, we always dreamed of telling the story of Assistant Professor Yaffle getting his first pair of glasses or whatever. Join us on this barren sphere, in this living death.

Amazon announces Ask This Book AI bot. Authors and publishers were not asked to be included and cannot opt-out.

🏰Will you dare to enter THE GLASS CASTLE?🏰 Just one of the gorgeous illustrations @carlydraws.bsky.social drew for a new story from sorcerous @saracentury.bsky.social. ⚔️ Find all this and more in issue six of New Edge Sword & Sorcery: newedgeswordandsorcery.com/product-cate... 📖

The handmade, human qualities of your work are more valuable than they've ever been. Don't doubt that for a second.

Our current reading period is open until midnight on the 20th December. We're looking for novellas and short story collections to publish in 2026-27, from writers living in the North of England, in speculative genres. Read our guidelines: carnyxpress.co.uk/novella-and-...

It’s gonna be a lean couple of months while I take the first steps toward a new book with my online business in shambles due to the suspension of mail to the US. Feel like supporting my work and follow this books progress? Support me on patreon. It's pay-what-you-want and every little bit helps🤝

Rewatched the Hogfather for the first time in years, lovely experience. Yes it's rough around the edges, but it's endearing. I think I'm more interested in media with heart rather than polish these days anyway

What you might be unaware of if you don't work in digital marketing is that now, as well as search engine optimisation, there's 'answer engine optimisation' - which is making sure that not only your website is accurately read by chatbots, but that your site is the favoured source of information.

This is kind of the plot of the book @nathanielspain.bsky.social, @fworrallo.bsky.social and I wrote.

If we can only have art from people who "aren't in it for the money" that means we can only have art from privileged middle-class dilettantes. Making art being a viable career is responsible for nearly all worthwhile art, and if it's not a viable career any more we will get drastically less of it.

In the midst of everything, some good personal news: the worm is out of the bag! My debut collection Folkish will be published by @ninearchespress.bsky.social this spring ✨🪱 It's full of ghosts, worms, saints, and folklore. It's also absolutely furious. I hope you guys enjoy it. 💚

This is awesome

I got double Whamageddoned. Two sides at once

Writers! Send me your words, so I may turn them into a book!

We just need a few more subscribers and we'll be able to raise our fiction payment rates in the new year. Help us out. We're so close!

On the one hand, Christmas season in the book trade, buying/selling a house, commissions and editing an anthology is making this month a liiittle bit stressful, but on the other hand I've developed a fun new eye twitch

BCS Patreon has fallen below the monthly amount we need to pay our authors a pro rate and our First Readers a worthy honorarium ($125/mo). Sometimes folks need to lower or pause their support; we understand. But less than 1% of BCS readership donates or supports. www.patreon.com/beneath_ceas... 1/3

Dawn - watercolor and acryla gouache on paper If you want to give into your capitalistic urges, prints are ✨on sale✨ on INPRNT as part of their black friday thingy

Pssssst Buy books from indie booksellers ❌⭕️

Introducing myself with 5 concerts I've seen: Wardruna Halestorm Sharon Van Etten (supported by Heather Woods Broderick, amazing) Agnes Obel Laura Marling

Kind of want to get a new laptop, but I don't want it to be rammed with garbage AI features, or to give more money to Microsoft or Apple than I have to. So maybe it's time to try Linux, if I can wrap my brain around it.

Reading some Robin Hobb for the first time - Assassin's Apprentice. Having a wonderful time. Another fantasy author I'm sad it's taken me this long to read, but I'm glad I have now

Perhaps a good time to say that writing a novel involves making thousands and thousands of decisions. So you might as well get on with it.

We're planning to close our reading window for novella and short fiction collections at midnight on the 20th December. This will give us time to read through enquiries and send out responses in January! This gives you a month to submit your enquiry. We look forward to reading your work!

I cosign every single word of this anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

It would be nice if anyone interviewing an AI ghoul who says AI will create jobs actually asks them what specific jobs it will create and if it will do anything to meaningfully offset job losses. Losing ten designers and copywriters to get one prompt writer is not job creation.

Watched the first episode of Slow Horses and my grumpy take is if your version of Mi5 has very little grounding in reality, you might as well commit to turning it into a more imaginative work of speculative fiction, otherwise it's obvious you can't be bothered to do any research

Shipyard

Okay so Predator Badlands was genuinely good fun. Did exactly what it needed (i.e. stuff a planet with cool, horrible aliens and let them fight) with just the right level of not taking itself too seriously. Teenage me would have been obsessed

Loved the film but I nearly leapt out of my seat when I saw this

Absolutely delighted to share my short story 'Iterate' has won third prize in the 2025 @britfantasysoc.bsky.social short story competition, and is forthcoming in BFS horizons!

Exciting news! We're open to queries for novellas and works of collected short fiction, for our 2026-2027 publishing schedule. We want to receive strange and literary fantasy, horror, sci-fi, and weird fiction from writers living in the North of England. Find out more: carnyxpress.co.uk/submissions