New writing prize! For "an outstanding unpublished manuscript by an emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer" - AUD$10,000 sponsored by Simon & Schuster Australia and ms development with a First Nations editor. www.simonandschuster.com.au/p/BundyiAUPr...

If you're watching the second season of Rivals: @dramyburge.bsky.social and I have a piece on it and the way both it and its source material depict sex in The Conversation.

If you're watching the second season of Rivals: @dramyburge.bsky.social and I have a piece on it and the way both it and its source material depict sex in The Conversation.

@jodimca.bsky.social and I wrote a thing for @theconversation.com on the new season of Rivals! theconversation.com/rivals-seaso...

Nothing in the Budget last night for the ARC. Despite review after review recommending ARC funding be increased, nothing. Year on year, the same thing, no matter who's in Government.

Is there something worse you could do in your career than representing an asbetos company? I guess you could try to destroy one of Australia's leading universities ... www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05...

It’s maddening to see the abyss between the conscientious work of university educators and — well, whatever this is. Julie Hare at @crikey.com.au on the resignation of Julie Bishop as ANU chancellor. www.crikey.com.au/2026/05/08/j...

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair

Today!

I'm keynoting this Emerging Writers Festival/Romance Writers of Australia romance writing masterclass tomorrow (May 2)! If you're in Melbourne, come along to the Wheeler Centre, but it'll also be streamed online.

I'm keynoting this Emerging Writers Festival/Romance Writers of Australia romance writing masterclass tomorrow (May 2)! If you're in Melbourne, come along to the Wheeler Centre, but it'll also be streamed online.

Tonight!

If you're in Melbourne - I'm launching Anna Cowan's new book The Duke tomorrow night (April 30) at Readings Emporium!! I can't overstate how good this book is, and how thrilled I am to see it finally out in the world. Tickets are free, but registration is helpful.

If you're in Melbourne - I'm launching Anna Cowan's new book The Duke tomorrow night (April 30) at Readings Emporium!! I can't overstate how good this book is, and how thrilled I am to see it finally out in the world. Tickets are free, but registration is helpful.

I'm in the middle of two ARCs which could not be more different (A Study in Sparkling by @jodimca.bsky.social and The Fall of Elvenesse by Kai Ashante Wilson) but both of them are absolutely sublime in their own way. I love genre fiction so much.

Australia's cyber security co-ordinator just dropped what I think will be a very useful reaction meme

Fun ("fun") new variation on the AI author scam: just got one targeted to me as an academic, trying to sell me on a "structured interpretive reading model".

I've turned in these edits now - thank you to all the Americans who've helped me out! The biggest recurrent sticking point throughout the ms - which I never would have guessed - turned out to be the notion of going "out the back" vs "out back". (I won.)

And another one! US pals, does the term "soft drink" scan to you (and what would it mean to you, at a glance)?

US copyedit question of the day - American friends, are you familiar with the idea of being run off one's feet? It's been flagged in my ms and I had no idea it was a local idiom (if, indeed, it is)?

this also highlights a huge point: USification edits often change meaning. Great Barrier Island is extremely remote, it has no electricity. Most of its tiny population live there because they don't want to deal with modern society. Does that say the same about a character as Rhode Island?

I've had quite a few people comment on this, so - yes, if you're not American and you're trad-publishing into the US market, it's very standard to do an additional edit for the American audience, sanding down local idiom. Rebecca K Reilly wrote a great piece about it from a Kiwi perspective.

Another copyedit query for you, US pals: what does the term "cask wine" mean to you?

Saving the English department by relabelling our chronological survey course "the eras tour"

Another one for your consideration, US friends - is the meaning of the term "stickybeaking" clear to you?

US pals, help me out. I'm working through the American copyedit for my new book A Study in Sparkling and trying to pick my battles, so tell me - how comprehensible is the term "hen's night" to you?

Funny how the money is always available for Exec retreats

I have a soft spot for this paper I wrote with colleagues at the University of Tasmania, where we used shelfies to explore the material lives of category romance novels - and found out just how deeply some people cherish them. (Bonus: open access!)

I am definitely having some feelings about my most ambitious work to date being a WHOLEASS REAL BOOK. & if you too would like to have feelings about five type-A assholes all trying to win at the group project (solving a murder) then please preorder! links are here! bsky.app/profile/frey...

A little nice thing: the Australian ARCs of my new book A Study in Sparkling have arrived, and they're very pretty.

we’ve got human beings on the dark side of the moon but microsoft word will still not let me add a comment to a footnote

"Mate. *Mate*. Maaayyyte."

For our book The Bonkbuster, @dramyburge.bsky.social and I talked to a lot of people who were technically forbidden as kids from reading, e.g., Lace by Shirley Conran, but did it anyway (whether by stealing it from adults' bookshelves, circulating it at school, etc). Kids always find a way.

"...the authors had not been consulted before the deal was made or announced, so there was no way they could opt out. As with much new generative AI technology, corporate executives proceeded with the project without the consent of the writers whose work would actually power the output."

i have the privilege of knowing an above-average number of writers and editors. all of them would spit in their own grandmother's face before they chatgpt-ed their art. my information is anecdotal, but so is the majority of this reporting.

1) this book rules 2) I'll be in conversation with Anna for the launch at Readings Emporium in Melbourne on April 30!

I've got a new academic book out today! Audio Erotica, by me and Athena Bellas, looks at the rise of erotic audio content directed primarily towards women, focusing on four major apps. It's expensive, obviously, but if you work in a university, I'd love if you asked your library to buy it!

Honestly, I sincerely do not understand bouncing ideas for narrative off something that can only tell you what has come before in the most generic and median way possible.

Why would I use "AI," I actually know how to fucking write

I've got a new academic book out today! Audio Erotica, by me and Athena Bellas, looks at the rise of erotic audio content directed primarily towards women, focusing on four major apps. It's expensive, obviously, but if you work in a university, I'd love if you asked your library to buy it!

Nobody is going to steal your idea for a novel.

I am genuinely sick to death of pretending this is somehow normal or expected. If you use LLMs to do any part of your writing, thinking or synopses (let alone art) you should be embarrassed and out of work.

US friends: my new book A Study in Sparkling* is the Barnes & Noble pre-order sale! If you're a member, use the code PREORDER25 for 25% off. *the one where she's getting over her husband leaving her for his secret second family, and he's offering to help her in one very, ahem, particular arena

Every attempted hit piece on unionism is an advertisement for unionism.

Give him a month and he’ll be trying to marry it

I got to read this book early and it absolutely rules, so yes, *do* consider.

Cover reveal! A Study in Sparkling is coming out on 28 July in Australia/NZ and 15 September in the US. Aus/NZ preorder: www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/A-Stud... US preorder: www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Stud...

In early career you have lists in your head of scholars you admire who are just a few years ahead — I remember clearly when these scholars started to disappear. These scholars aren't replaced. The knowledge disappears. The gaps widen.

ICYMI: the gorgeous cover of my new book! This is the sequel to An Academic Affair, starring a single mother trying to get back on her feet after the humiliation of finding out about her husband's other family, & the lovely younger sommelier who offers to help her in a very, ahem, particular way...

Project Educate Jodi on Action Movies (capably curated by @katydidinoz.bsky.social) reconvened today with a double header of BIG things - Rampage and Pacific Rim, which are both a) full of nonsense & b) stone cold bangers. Updated rankings below (I am now a person who has seen 30 action movies)!