Interesting idea for members to bring up at the @societyofauthors.bsky.social listening session this month.

Ed Newton-Rex@ednewtonrex.bsky.social · 2d ago

No ISBNs in Canada for AI writing. This is a fantastic policy, and every country should do the same. www.canada.ca/en/library-a...

Someone said ‘You don’t need to worry about menopause at your age, what are you, 27?’ and my 38 year old self will be dining out on that for WEEKS.

I actually keep all of my hot parenting takes inside my empty womb, and then once a month they all come out in clots.

I have been having the best time at the @cymerafestival.co.uk - and guess what? Somehow the @blackwells.bsky.social at the con got hold of early copies of the beautiful Enchanting the Fae Queen paperback! Even I hadn't seen them before. I love them so much! 😍 www.panmacmillan.com/authors/step...

Please subscribe to my newsletter "A Substack Is Just A Blog, Why The Fuck Are We Expected To Act Like It's The News" every issue of which will be one sentence— "A substack is just a blog, why the fuck are we expected to act like it's the news?"— posted each week until the heat death of the universe

People don't realize how necessary cheap rent is to the arts.

Calve Island: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calve_I...

Calve Island - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social · 2d ago

question for the audience: if you were ultra rich (let’s say $25M), what completely frivolous thing are you buying?

Whilst broadly I stick at things, my single shift on reception at the Mini sales garage demonstrated just how little I know about cars.

Better Things Are Possible@internethippo.bsky.social · 2d ago

In honor of the fired lady tell me about your shortest job tenure. I worked at a candy store for less than 2 weeks when I was like 16

Keen to hold a seminar on cunnilingus and the contemporary Romantasy hero, just need to find a venue.

The NHS Guidance on trans people in hospital will protect zero women but will badly harm trans people. What a hateful disgrace and will be remembered by future generations as a stain on us all.

Do you love community art? Do you love Edinburgh’s gorgeous temporary towers? Help us put on an exhibition!! Yellow Towers Community Exhibition www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/yellow-tow...

Yellow Towers Community Exhibition

Yellow Towers is a community art project about Leith's wind turbine jacket foundations, seeking funding for an exhibition and publication.

crowdfunder.co.uk

All she wants is a knife.

[Several impactful statements, none of which can be articulated here due to professional discretion]

General reminder that ‘we are volunteers so we expect writers to volunteer to speak at our events’ is absolutely not a good position. You are giving up your free time: you are asking authors to give you their work for free. The average author salary in the U.K. was measured at £4k last year.

Foxglove is calling for basic rules for data centres: ⚡ 100% clean power 💧 Zero water waste 🗣️ Local community consent Sign their petition to stop data centres harming our communities and environment: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ba...

Ban data centres that harm our communities and climate

Big Tech’s giant data centres swallow as much power as millions of homes, guzzle our water, and risk driving up our energy bills - all with zero limits. We need basic rules: ⚡ 100% clean power 💧 Ze...

you.38degrees.org.uk

I’ve been a bit all over the place this week for various reasons, but travelling an hour across town to cat sit and then realising the keys I need are in my house is not my finest hour.

A cancelled witchcraft event means I have so many bay leaves. So many bay leaves means it’s time for Nociata: www.italianfoodtherapy.com/post/walnut-...

Buckwheat porridge cooked with apple & ginger, topped with nuts. God I love autumn.

Aaron Swartz, coding prodigy and hacktivist who helped develop RSS and was a co-founder of Reddit, died by suicide after facing $1 million in fines and 35 years in prison for felony charges, just for downloading pdfs of research papers with the intention of making them accessible to the public.

Julie S. Lalonde@julieslalonde.bsky.social · 4d ago

Being GenX/Millennial is such a trip. In our lifetimes, we saw people our age getting wild criminal penalties for pirating music and now have to sit and watch as companies gobble up our work with impunity.

Right. Everything’s too depressing. I want to talk about how the Wheel of the Year can help heal your “Christmas Tat in the Shops Already??” despair. This isn’t an explicitly Pagan thread - although I come to it through a mix of Paganism and being a country person.

I’m going to have a think about this, but the trouble with polyamorous books (as someone who has tried to sell one) is that poly acceptance is a lot less widespread than those who move in progressive circles might think. It’s like books with bi men - people get real weird about it.

The Portal Bookshop@portalbookshop.bsky.social · 4d ago

Hey Bluesky, I don't have enough polyamorous books in. Particularly looking for things with an established polycule (plot being adding someone new is fine, plot not being related to their relationships is also fine) Suggestions? #RecQuest

Actual Cancel Culture of a significant cultural figure [unlike where far right extremists engage in hate speech & are held accountable]. It’s extremism like this, & the disinterest of the current UK Labour govt in stopping the shift to the far right, that’s deeply worrying.

The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 4d ago

Irish author Sally Rooney’s books will no longer be supplied in the UK by her publisher after UK anti-terror legislation left it unable to pass on earnings from sales of her work 👉 www.thenational.scot/news/2...

If you are based up Helmsdale way, this is a genuinely incredible artist in residency opportunity! (26k! Working for 15months immersively!) lytharts.org.uk/what-we-do/c...

Relaxing with an episode of 'Make Your Own Furniture' from 1979. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwv6...

1979: How to Make a Shelving System | Make Your Own Furniture | BBC Archive

YouTube video by BBC Archive

youtube.com

Only 5 more days until I'll be chatting with Sangu Mandanna about romantasy at the @cymerafestival.co.uk in Edinburgh! You can pick up tickets now to watch from home or in-person: www.cymerafestival.co.uk/programme-cl... It should be really fun either way! #romancelandia

Enchanted and Bewitched with Sangu Mandanna and Stephanie Burgis — CYMERA

Magic has a way of bringing together the people who were never supposed to fall in love. In Sangu Mandanna ’s A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping , Sera Swan was once one of the most powerful wi...

cymerafestival.co.uk

My abuser repeatedly threatened suicide as I attempted (five times) to leave. He repeatedly told me that I was the only thing in his life, that he would be isolated and suffer without me. At the time that we broke up, he had two other serious partners, neither of whom I knew about.

Eve Livingston@everebecca.bsky.social · 5d ago

My last freelance story is out today. It's a difficult one - please take care. Threats of suicide are common in abusive relationships - but what happens when an abuser follows through? Survivors describe the unique pain of "a narrative that doesn't fit anywhere" dispatch-media.com/what-happens...

Don't even TALK to me about TEA SETS in HISTORICAL DRAMAS.

Daniel@deargodwhaat.bsky.social · 6d ago

Prompts a fun question: whats the most niche historical inaccuracy in a piece of work that annoys you Not like 'oh they were referring to the wrong king' , more 'they had the wrong king on a banknote in one scene'

Tadaaaaa! I've written another one. They keep paying me to make bad jokes guys!!! Terms of Attachment comes out in May next year and is a second chance, fake dating, reality tv romcom between two people who are still desperately in love with each other despite best efforts.