The German book market recorded a decline in 2025, marking the second year running sales have dropped.👇

It was a #letterpress kind of morning. Loved it.

Taking good photos of sculpts is a challenge for me.

If 'enclosure' is only available to massive corporations and not individuals/workers then we are all truly back in the world of the divine right of kings. #AI is a horror show.

I confess to not being a fan of bootstraps logic.

Beyond all the other things about the FIFA 'red card' incident is this comment on how AI is generally regarded: "I think a lot of us thought it was AI at first," defender Chris Richards said. "We weren't sure if it was true or not." #fifa #ai

I know language changes/is fluid, but: 'I couldn't give a fuck' changing to 'I could give a fuck' does present a few challenges for editors. #editingtips

When you're trying to take a photo .

Nobody told me that Jerry Coleby-Williams from #gardeningaustralia was Napoleon Dynamite!

#wip and messy desk.

Acquired a wee Adana letterpress to press things with.

Adding: - 'three months on bookshop shelves' is actually 3 weeks on shelves - industry practice re returns is hellish - distribution is a beast - what the 'industry' is isn't defined - zines makers, illustrators, gamers are often left off 'writers' festival programs - class is invisiblised in Aus.

This is fabulous.

I completely forgot about this drawing I did just a year ago. Feels like several! I actually quite like it.

after a pretty grim week for journo job cuts across Aus, it feels like a good time to reup MEAA’s petition to ensure any money the govt gets from big tech firms goes to actual journo jobs. last chance to sign!

Progress on the piper at the gates of dawn.

Stack of small #lasercut boxes to clean and glue.

Currently reading a Legacy of Violence by Caroline Elkins. Horrifyingly fascinating and utterly shameful.

Dream Keeper by Anna Walker is just the loveliest book. Gorgeous illustrations. Sparse, poignant text. A delight.

What? This Tim Dunlop? From the University of Queensland. Specifically from the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. The Faculty that decided to pulp the book Bila by Jazz Money because Chun was the illustrator? That Tim Dunlop? #auspol #uq #ethics

Morpho helenor violaceus

Joseph Conrad is judging your author headshot.

Interesting discussion over on Threads re graphic designers and printers being sent AI files and how low res and unuseable they are. #ai #graphicdesign #printing

Freedom to publish?

Silvey was a topic of conversation at a recent coffee with non-writer/publisher pals who read lots. Discussion: - If everything is grooming with abusers, what are their books? - Grief, anger - How abusers manipulate education/the arts - Exhaustion. Books can be respite/safety. #booksky #auspol

Australia is one of the many countries where women are the majority. Here's a list if you're interested. worldpopulationreview.com/country-rank...

Tolkien: It take a village to raise a child. Stephen King: It takes a child to raze a village. #booksky

View from my back veranda this evening.

I think about this comic all the time.

We list 30,252 children's books and 21,085 picture books. That's going to be a lot of reading to support those statistics.

Mac Barnett in ragebait mode: 94.7% of children's books are crud! Claude: Children's Laureate, Muck Barnacle, says all children's books are crud. This is why all parents who love their children should use AI to write their own books which centre their own children, for free! #booksky

Are you passionate about SF, fantasy, and pop culture? Our Managing Editor is looking for original essay pitches: author appreciations, scholarly analysis of all aspects of pop culture, critical and personal essays, think pieces, literary analysis and deep dives into film, television, and fiction

Lovely art+zines from Kansas ✉️: "Looming" critical tech, human-flourishing-as-goal zine (www.loomingthezine.com), including zine originals to scan for Zine Bakery redistro. The postcard’s non-metallic inks are homemade from blueberry, sumac, lilac, walnut, oak gall, +soda/irons

This is quite delightful.

Currently reading Time of the Child by Niall Williams. In truth I read lots of books at once tho, so I'm partway through The Soul Catchers by Naoko Higashi, The Arcanum by Janet Gleeson, Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth, Lancashire Witches by William Harrison Ainsworth & The Secret Hours by Mick Herron.

Applications close 15 May for Varuna's Carer’s Fellowship. Two-week writers residency will be awarded to an aspiring or emerging writer who is a parent or carer who faces barriers to finding time & space to write due to caring responsibilities. #OzLit #Writing ♿ 📚 www.varuna.com.au/for-writers/...

(I make a "mouth" with the side of my hand and draw little eyes above it) Richard Dawkins: hmmmm (I put lipstick around the "mouth") Richard Dawkins, suavely: well hello

“No amount of HR-speak is going to salvage this disgrace. Long may it haunt you.”

The audience.

Proof of life. I look like I seen shit. Publishing. That’s what I’ve seen.

Words heard just before the Big Bang - ‘One of the problems with technology today is…’

General reminder that stats categories change, and the ABS defines ‘boomers’ as folk from 55 to 74 years, GenX as 40 to 54 years, and millennials as 25 to 39 years, so this piece by @michellegrattan.bsky.social should be clear on definitions so everyone can get their aged-based resentment right.

Pick up the nearest book, turn to p 42 and post the second sentence: 'But then the radish market collapsed, and he fell upon hard times and had to catch fish from the river using only his shoelaces...' Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon

Pouring one out for all the librarians and archivists who are now confronting angry patrons demanding to see an item that doesn't exist because "AI told me it does."* *story just recounted to me by a friend

Small, local cafes are the best.

One of three little peace gatherers.

When I know it's definitely a trap, but I'm going anyway.

Vanessa Stockard (Australian, b.1975) "Satan Taking a Break from Hate Crimes," 2022 Oil on dibond #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt #catlover

Authors are being “strongly urged” to be vigilant amid a rise in scam emails impersonating editors at publishing houses 👇 #BookSky

The gathering of the things.