Update: my goal to get the 2nd annual Celebrate Discovery fanzine out on September 24 isn't going to happen (due to me taking on too many things). However, 42 pages of new Trek loving art, essays, fanfic, and more will be out September 30!

Today is #HobbitDay because both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were born on September 22nd. Normally we'd shire a hobbit pun or two but it might just feel like a tolkien gesture and we don't want to embarrass our elves. Anyway come and boromir #Tolkien books.

🤖NEW EPISODE!🤖 We chat to the fab @unamccormack.bsky.social about writing her first Target novelisation, with #DoctorWho - The Robot Revolution. Featuring MC @stevecolewriter.bsky.social and guest vocals from Varada Sethu. soundcloud.com/powerof3pod/...

That is between me and my shadow.

WORK QUESTION, to which I’m sure I should already know the answer but self-evidently don’t: who’s the best historian of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop? I need to ask someone thoroughly knowledgeable for some skinny...

The 20pp #Blakes7 magazine created for the Northern Horizon convention in August is now available as a digital download. The modest cost will be donated to their nominated charity North Tyneside Age UK. Available now from www.bit.ly/b7digital

SJ’s The Disinformation War is wonderful. It’s only become more relevant over the past year.

Taskmaster Champion of Champion of Champions draws ever closer…

My book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc is released into the wild today! Here's a quick peek at a few more pages, artwork here by Győző Vida, Yassen Panov, Alexander Korotich and Sergei Iukhimov #Tolkien www.bloomsbury.com/uk/illustrat...

Happy birthday to J.R.R. #Tolkien’s The Hobbit, published #OTD in 1937, with a gorgeous dust jacket and illustrations by Tolkien himself! @tolkiensociety.org @tolkienwonder.bsky.social @uofgfantasy.bsky.social #Hobbit 🐉

In light of the unastonishing repeat news that Sarah Ferguson is a wrong 'un, here's my substack on the issue substack.com/@thatwriterj...

Where did all those city centre pan pipe guys go?

Interzone #303 is out today with all sorts of treasures, including my latest column on rereading the Library of America edition of Le Guin! shop.interzone.press/b/E76yw

Character https://botfrens.com/collections/69/contents/20007

Partway through S2 of True Detective and it’s like nobody making it watched S1, or, if they did, had no idea what made it brilliant. Rachel McAdams is great though.

📖Storygraph giveaway!🚀 Enter for a chance to win a physical print copy of An Unbreakable World, my new standalone space opera set in the same universe as Under Fortunate Stars! 🇬🇧🇨🇦🇺🇸UK/Canada/US AUW is out now from @solarisbooks.bsky.social 💫 app.thestorygraph.com/giveaways/b3...

Hi! @aptshadow.bsky.social and I discussed The Lathe of Heaven with great enthusiasm in episode 3 of our Starship Alexandria podcast: starshipalexandria.com/episode-3-th...

Are you doing a neat Ursula-related project? Talking about her work on a podcast, or reviewing the prize shortlist, or anything else? We'd love to hear about it, if so! You can always tag us here, and every email that comes through the contact form is read by an actual person.

Goddammit where can I watch The Traitors Ireland?

You all seem very angry about #totp tonight.

On a research trip to the BBC Written Archives Caversham, I found myself holding Tanith Lee’s handwritten score for “Dayna’s Song”, from her #Blakes7 episode “Sarcophagus”. Thrilling moment.

Dam been writing a book about this and she just TikToked it in 90 seconds.

Excellent piece from Ian Greaves about the campaign to reopen the BBC Written Archives for exploratory, critical academic research. It's been a public resource for decades, now it seems to have been quietly privatised without consultation with us licence fee payers. cstonline.net/is-the-bbc-a...

62 years ago today, the very first filming for Doctor Who took place at Ealing Studios. Read about the show's origins and early months in Pull to Open: The Inside Story of How the BBC Created and Launched Doctor Who, available now from tenacrefilms.bigcartel.com

Everything I read about real life tailors bolsters my fervent belief that they were all previously members of the Obsidian Order.

This was really good fun. What ABBA would be like if they were a pub band. Went with a gang of kids who had a great time.

Interval at ABBA tribute band. They’re showing adverts from the 80s.

It's here. BAD LANGUAGE 13/11/25 "made with love and horror, & a guidebook for our time" — @adamzmith.bsky.social "Mayer's words & a gift and a gateway" — @elizabethlovatt.bsky.social "incantation & spell distil a complex argument" — Lola Olufemi Pre-order: peninsulapress.co.uk/products/bad...

Plan complete

A shoutout to anyone heading to the BFI Southbank for this Saturday's Doctor Who screening, the BFI Shop now carries all our titles. Check them out.

The first episode of Through the Square Window, presented by @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social and @gkw.bsky.social is now live! Find it wherever you get your podcasts, or via our brand-new website: squarewindow.co.uk

I’m going to spend the afternoon reading Always Coming Home.

hell is empty

This is an interesting thought experiment because what kind of human literature would Garak actually like? He thought Julius Caesar was "farcical" and obvious so he probably wouldn't like our political intrigue. The Cardassian literature he DOES like is due to their rigid, authoritarian structure

In the current issue of Doctor Who Magazine I talk to my talented pal @0hmyst4rs.bsky.social (and the completely brilliant @unamccormack.bsky.social) about their upcoming BBC Audio stories. It's nice to occasionally get paid for chatting to one's mates. #DoctorWho

Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' came out 40yrs ago today - record has aged like fine wine 👌

Le Guin stuff! The opening in London is also the book launch for "The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin," ed. @suchmayer.bsky.social and Sarah Shin, with contributions by @unamccormack.bsky.social and @davidnaimon.bsky.social among others.

Version with lyrics for anyone wanting to memorise this song about Rudolf Hess. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSqU...

"So why did they all come out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died?" (For legal reasons I'm compelled to remind you that this song is about former deputy führer Rudolf Hess)

I went straight from Ted Lasso to Shrinking, which I enjoyed very much. Harrison Ford should do more telly.

To summarize: it is a well known fact, that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

A few minutes ago I got an email from the print shop with a tracking number for these, so they should be here more in the neighborhood of 3 weeks from my original post. I'm really excited to get these shipped and stoked to be able to do that sooner than I anticipated!

This fall brings not just one but two exhibitions about Ursula and her work. In Portland, A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin opens October 31st at Oregon Contemporary. In London, The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin opens October 10th at the AA Gallery.

You can support the campaign to rescue the BBC Written Archives Centre from recent short-sighted policy decisions here tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign

A very welcome repeat of this landmark 1992 series which also led to a BFI book of the same name. One of its researchers, Stephen Bourne, would be quick to point out it depended heavily on exploratory research of BBC files. You couldn't do that now.... www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Robert Plant and Alan Moore were both on last night's BBC Front Row. Enjoy www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Reading Carrington is my new happy place.

This is a book I would never have had the chance to read without @backlisted.bsky.social. Huge thanks to @quantick.bsky.social for suggesting it!

If you need a little hope this morning - the current tween trend involves decorating clothespins with affirming messages, then clipping them on friends' backpacks when they're not looking. Here are a few that my 11-year-old decorated this weekend ❤️