Alys Wilfred Earl
@alysdragon.bsky.social
Writer, aesthete, reprobate. Writes as A W Earl (and, previously, Alys Earl) but you can call me Fred. Has sword, will travel. They/them.
"It wasn’t quite the best of times or the worst of times, but Scottish publishing was a turbulent place in the mid-2010s." Thanks to Alistair Braidwood and @theskinnymag.bsky.social for the lovely chat about the legacy of 404 Ink! www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...
Loud and Proud: Celebrating ten years of 404 Ink - The Skinny
After a decade of publishing, the duo behind one of Scotland's most seminal indie presses, 404 Ink, look back at an impressive career and legacy.
theskinny.co.uk
DRUMROLL PLEASE…. We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the first ever Borders Pride Poetry Competition!
We are proud to be sponsoring this competition but don’t envy the judges hard task of choosing the winner. The entries are thought-provoking, heartfelt and, in the current political climate, more important than ever. Good luck to all the entrants!
Borders Pride Poetry@borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 16h agoDRUMROLL PLEASE…. We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the first ever Borders Pride Poetry Competition!
Wrote two poems and got a haircut today. Not a total loss.
Me: Hey, this ballad has kinda gay vibes? Is it just a weird thing in the OBOB? I should check the Child version. The Child Version: SO MYCH GAYER.
Isn't it weird how the BBC are fine with Navratilova saying stuff like this but not fine with Robin Ince posting mildly pro-trans stuff
Aidan Comerford@aidancomerford.bsky.social · 4mo agoThis tweet is highly defamatory and Martina Navratilova should be fired from BBC Sport for it. It demonstrates an horrendous level of hatred for a trans woman (who was cleared of all wrongdoing in a recent tribunal) because she is a trans woman.
Got a poem and I’m trying to do too much in it, and I’m not happy with it!
The thing no one tells you about hormones is that with an oestrogen cycle, your comfort/emergency cravings are for sugar and fat, whereas with a testosterone one, it’s protein and salt. Which is FINE until my T gets this fucking low and there’s no chocolate in the house.
The way I was learning German. Not that I was learning it - just the way I was going about it.
Johanna T 🔜 BCAF@johannamation.bsky.social · 3y agoI posted a character design tip on twxtter last year, and several ppl replied “stop telling me how to draw!” 🙃
Vinted has deleted all my saved searches, even the bookmarked ones, and is no longer displaying stuff in chronological order. And thereby snaps the thin thread by which my sanity has hung today.
I feel like “never talking about it like adults because it would ruin the plot if they did” is a valid complaint, but “never talking about it like adults because they’re too fucking damaged,” is *catnip* to me. Meanwhile, “talking about it like they’ve had extensive therapy,” JUST ISN’T A PLOT.
Jan Falk (ThistleArts)@thistlearts.bsky.social · 3d agopeople hating on“miscommunication” trope but I wanna hate on “therapy talk” and characters are so articulate about their feelings in the most vulnerable moments that I can’t relate to them because I never saw an actual human being in my life is can be so well spoken while bleeding from their heart
Sometimes, I want to say to people, “I’m sorry you’re not very good at reading,” but that is mean and elitist. But then… I’m not very good at football, or gross motor skills, or painting with oils. And I truly believe reading is for everyone - as is football, and carpentry, and painting!
r o o@jakepaulsartre.bsky.social · 2d agoChewing my arm off, bloody foam speckling my lips, screaming. Just screaming, forever.
In the wake of The Great ADHD Myth? I am not going to be shy and I am going to plug my book - I wanted to write a book that was sensitive, empathetic and useful - I wore my heart on my sleeve - I am not ashamed uk.bookshop.org/p/books/norm...
Oh dear. That little rant seemed more Relatable than I expected. I’m going to log off and do some work for a bit….
The thing about the stirring of the great anti-ADHD panic is that it will all collapse as the unscientific bs it is - but not before it has been deeply embedded into the national consciousnes, and the politics of the easily led. And as a result, kids are going die.
This morning, Sprog1 starts their last ever year of school. This time next year 🤞 we’ll be sorting out Uni accommodation, and helping them pack up their stuff.
Suspense is not created by your audience not knowing what happens next. It's created by your audience CARING what happens next.
Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️⚧@charliejane.bsky.social · 3d agowww.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/h... I really love this — the notion that it's about feelings, not plot twists. I wish more stories took this approach. Yes, even thrillers. Twists are rarely as surprising as the choices people make from the heart.
For anyone struggling with questions of how and whether to make, promote, or talk about art in times like these, I highly recommend a short essay by John Crowley called "Practicing the Arts of Peace."
C. L. Polk@clpolk.com · 2y agoWhoever had that take, I don't need your name, it's ok but perhaps we should keep standing on the business of making art no matter what, which is a political act? or perhaps we should defiantly believe in the duty to hold open the way to escape, because rest and respite is key to gathering strength?
"The People Who Made Real Unicorns" | IFLScience" www.iflscience.com/the-people-w...
The People Who Made Farm Animals Into "Real Unicorns"
A tale of myths, biology, and goats.
iflscience.com
Without downloading any new pics, where are you at mentally?
Madame Decadent Sneezy-Bottom@darklyadapted.bsky.social · 4d agoWithout downloading any new pics, where are you at mentally?
My eBay listings noticing I’ve been looking up gardening stuff being like “😉😉I see you’re gettting into 🌿plants 😉 can we interest you in 😉🌳💚 some ‘gardening’ supplies like 🍁 🍁 hydroponics 🍁 🍁 for your 😉🌿Leafy Greens 🌿😉” Idk, I think the allotments association might have stern words, guys.
Ok, time for a thread about what I saw yesterday at #CrystalPalace. As you can see, just about everything has been repaired and re-painted, and in places (like the previously misidentified Xiphodon) re-positioned. It looks fantastic and you have to check it out, even if you've visited before...
My take, not that anyone wants it, to these sorts of media hounding campaigns is, “Why do we know this person’s name?” As in, “Why is it ‘in the public interest’ that everyone in the country knows the name of a private individual whose doings - right or wrong - are irrelevant to wider society.”
are trying to make it unlawful to wear "cross sex clothing" in public, especially at work. Because, by wearing the LITERAL BUS DRIVER WORK UNIFORM, we're parading our fetish. Forstater wants it to be illegal. And this is what we mean when we and the lemkin institute say "genocide" 2/2
Morning. Over on Twitter, Janet Murray and the lads have pivoted onto attacking a transgender bus driver for "bring[ing] that fetish into work" and "unacceptable behaviour in the workplace" LITERALLY just for being trans in a public facing role I said this since 2021 when I quit teaching: they 1/2
Obituary for the author of one of my favourite books, Little, Big. Rip John Crowley. Gift article. Fyi, @lucyfishwife.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/b...
John Crowley, Whose Fantasy Novels Blurred Reality and Dream, Dies at 83 (Gift Article)
The eminent critic Harold Bloom called his 1981 book “Little, Big” a “neglected masterpiece” and one of the best novels of the 20th century.
nytimes.com
This is spot on.
Robin Ince@robinince.bsky.social · 6d agoThis is part one of a blog post about gaslighting - in this case how the anti trans movement aims to break you , but it applies in many other situations and finding increasing number of people who have experienced some version of this www.patreon.com/RobinInce/po...
