Out next month. Preorders available with Peters, Waterstones and all good independent bookshops. ARCs from TroikaBooks. We really hope you enjoy our vision of AI danger and human value.

Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.

Countdown to publication of #TheEmptying by me and fabulous @mimithebo.bsky.social. Available to pre-order! Please do so! @troikabooks.bsky.social #AI #Singularity #teendystopia #YAdystopianbooks #YAnovels #YAreading

Slow handclap

DON'T FORGET - There's still time to watch the 2025 Review episode of #TheBCSPodcast! I look back on the highlights of last year's episodes and multiple contributors, inc. @bleasedog.bsky.social and @mimithebo.bsky.social, give their sporting moments of the year.

#chiefskingdom I have things to say about Nagy’s playcalling. Things. To. Say.

All year long, the The Kansas City Chiefs have looked… tired. Just worn out. Three-under-three tired. Startup tired. Tired to their freaking bones. It’s a hard enough league. Then there’s the big night games, holiday games, overseas games…being the NFL’s show ponies. Add an extra month of games…

If you don’t live in the UK, but would like to do the Masters in Creative Writing at Bristol, it’s time to Think Big www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgr... www.bristol.ac.uk/students/sup...

I spend a year plotting a mystery novel and then this happens.

The Woggle of Witches, Adrienne Adams, 1971.

Being an NFL @kansascitychiefs.bsky.social fan, as well as a mum and a university programme director, I always have a handful of kids I’m worried about. I don’t know Josh Simmons, but he’s on my list to fret over.

This workshop will initiate with people from Mexico, Latin America and Europe to strengthen the ties of stop motion and collaboration and, in exchange, education will be provided for free for one Mexican / Latinamerican student for the first ten years also.

Louise V Durham, stained glass and driftwood sculpture, Shoreham by Sea, UK #WomensArt

One of the things about this study is that a lot of baby and toddler books are written in house, by editors. So the study reveals the whiteness of editorial in kidlit even if not explicitly. But, big picture, this trend is unacceptable. I remember so many promises www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Loved this story and you might, too.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 18167: There is no "typical reader," just as there is no "typical writer." Your first responsibility is to yourself; to create the most honest, well-written, carefully-researched story you can. Finding readers comes later.

Will be very good.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 4783: Place affects every aspect of a story. It shapes your characters, their relationships, their habits, their clothing, their culture, their food. Try thinking of place as a character, and count all the ways you can make your human characters interact with it.

All hail Brett Veach. Thornton. Worthy. And an actual OLine. Thank you, and the brain under your glossy head of hair. @chiefskingdom

I wish we could get news of the Sumud flotilla.

Presenting the #BookerPrize2025 shortlist. Find out more about the books and authors: thebookerprizes.com/bp2025

Out of office didn’t trigger because of update. New star lecturer has no access to IT and can’t see any materials. Staff rescheduled faithful non-star lecturer to a new slot without asking so I have to teach his first class. Charming MA student lost funding. TEA!!! MORE TEA!!

Now plugged into Swiftie news, I discover Travis Kelce’s fiancée is subject of a credible death threat and her team are on high security alert. He’s not a good compartamentaliser, as we have previously seen. He plays with all his emotions affecting him. #chiefskingdom

The Refugees, 1931 by Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka #womensart

I woke up at one am for this hot mess. #chiefskingdom

Julia Lucey, Squirrel on the red day, 2020, US artist & #printmaker who combines aquatint, etching collage and acrylic #WomensArt #Autumn

Getting some real help. LFG, Chiefs.

Not waving but drowning: Stevie Smith, born #OTD 1902, English poet & novelist, whose work inspired Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath. Stevie Smith Archive Hull

Do one thing today to help. One thing tomorrow. One thing the day after. Taking a swing at every bad thing happening is just going to burn you out. Remember, if everyone does their one thing the world changes

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During the draft, I decided to explain why the Sheduer saga made some people so angry/sad. It’s hard to see this kind of parallel sometimes when you’re in the majority. It’s like expecting fish to notice water. But once you see it…

Chiefs game, Rich on Butker: Oddly enough, he’s wide right. 🤣🤣🤣

Love this and lovely to be part of it!

This was very interesting! Loved being part of it.

Book launch @Bookhaus. ‘Writing is so much more than entertainment,’ Sabrin Hasbun says. ‘Fiction stays with you,’ Sunny Singh agrees. ‘It has the power to change how you think…it’s a powerful tool of decolonisation.’

This will be a brilliant event. Go if you can!! 👌

A list of annual children's & YA book festivals and events for schools, teachers and parents to look out for. schoolreadinglist.co.uk/competitions... #kidlit #ukedchat

I didn’t know until now that in the original Rosie the Riveter painting, she is crushing a copy of Mein Kampf under her foot. Happy feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, remembering all the women who crush the serpents of Satan under their heel.

I suppose this is the point when I should say again that: the amount of money the videogames industry brings into the UK economy every year is *more than double* the value of the fishing and steel industries *combined* what this country is really good at is producing culture

Celebrate our wins!!

"Seed Corn Must Not Be Ground" final lithograph of Käthe Kollwitz, 1942. The death of her son in battle in 1914 profoundly affected the artist, who expressed her grief by creating many prints on the theme of mothers protecting their children from the horrors of war #WomensArt

Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun, Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (after 1782), French painter who created over 600 portraits and 200 landscapes #womensart

Every creative writing workshop is a bit magical in its own way, but I am particularly fond of the thrill that comes when people writing for children or teenagers are in a space where their creative work is taken seriously. Really looking forward to this! irishwriterscentre.ie/courses/writ...

WE ARE HIRING!! Creative Writing (fiction) Pathway 3 lecturer 0.5 in the Department of English at the University of Bristol's thriving School of Humanities. It's a 3/2 teaching load with plenty of support and mentorship from meeeeeee (others are available)! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Tracey Tawhiao,artist writer, poet, filmmaker, lawyer who conveys her experience as a Māori woman #WomensArt

Fennec fox (dog star) by Anne Lemanski #womensart