PS: You can snap up Snowspelled on its own at the previous link, or you can scoop up the complete Harwood Spellbook box set here, to grab all the frothy feminist romantasies set in the alt-19th-century world of the Boudiccate: books2read.com/harwood-box

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Harwood Spellbook by Stephanie Burgis

books2read.com

🎵 Happy birthday to me Happy birthday to me Black Doe is OUT TODAY Go and buy it, pleeeeease! 🎵 Grab it on kindle now, or order from your favourite bookshop in person or online. #newbook #kindlebooks #historicalfantasy #scottishbooks 🩵 📚 blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro... amzn.eu/d/0a0NApjt

Black Doe

Buy Black Doe by Smith, Cleland from Amazon's Fiction Books Store. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction.

amzn.eu

It's Book Quote Wednesday! This week's word is pass, and in Snowspelled, in the aftermath of escaping a troll attack with her ex-fiancé, Cassandra Harwood is having some very intense & unhelpful feelings that she'd hoped would have passed by now... books2read.com/snowspelled #bookqw #romancelandia

First, you tell me to get a hobby; now it's an “appropriate hobby”.

Nice feeling. Completed the first draft of 'Blood Will Have Blood'. It's been fun to write, despite its grimdark tone & excessive use of the word f**k + all the blood shed (the clue's in the title). Now to let it sit quietly until my objectivity kicks in with fresh eyes. #writingcommunity

Bad Neighbourhood now available to pre-order, out on August 26th. It’s a dark satire, set in a fictionalised version of the Russian neighbourhood where they dump deposed dictators to whom they’ve given sanctuary. Slough House x The Death of Stalin. books2read.com/u/mBDePN

If there are three things that trans people need to remember if they’re using toilets in pubs, restaurants etc., it is these:

I need to add all these books to my TBR for when I finish the SPFBO finalists (except DCC, which I've already read).

The Arthur C. Clarke Award@clarkeaward.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Celebrating our 40th year, the Clarke Award shortlist is: DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL, Matt Dinniman THE DREAM HOTEL, Laila Lalami LUMINOUS, Silvia Park THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION, qntm WHEN THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN, E.J. Swift THE SALT ORACLE, Lorraine Wilson Buy: uk.bookshop.org/lists/the-ar...

Good morning Bluesky ☀️ My grandad told me he saw the Titanic - from the outset he warned all the people that the ship would sink, but nobody listened to him. He knew he was right and didn't give up. He warned them again & again, until eventually they kicked him out of the cinema.

If you see this, post a monster! Two for one here, a vampire AND a demon

Kim Sokol (Open for Commissions/Freelance!)@kimsokol.bsky.social · 22h ago

If you see this, post a monster! (Is a ghost a monster? I mean it’s a pretty monstrous ghost so uh)

Today has been all about editing down a synopsis to try to get it to a sensible length. Some way to go, and I think I may have to try a completely different approach for a short version. So much fun.

One seriously old sock ~ child’s split-toe left-foot sock, multi-striped with plant-based pigments, 1,700 years old, from ancient city of Antinoupolis, Egypt. (The right-foot one hasn’t been found, so maybe check your sock drawer) www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

go head on up to floor 7 if you’re gonna be a little bitch about it

Another glorious cover for what will undoubtedly be another glorious book. Chaz's Martian Victorian Empire books are some of the most fun stories I've read in a long time.

Wizard's Tower Press@wtpress.bsky.social · 23h ago

Pre-orders are open for Chaz Brenchley's His Martian Apprentice. It will be published on August 27th: wizardstowerpress.co...

I'm just gonna say: it somewhat baffles me that people who are understandably skeptical of opaque LLMs as legitimate sources of information will suddenly go full on "the computer KNOWS" when they are using opaque tools to "detect" AI. The computer does not know.

Susanna Kearsley@susannakearsley.bsky.social · yesterday

❤️ Gillian Green, publisher at Tor Bramble, told The Bookseller: “HM Wolfe has confirmed that Daggermouth was written entirely without AI. We stand behind our author, and we do not recognise third-party AI detection tools as a fair or reliable measure of authenticity when used on their own.”

This is art.

Los Angeles: sports capital of the world@theamitie.bsky.social · 14h ago

There’s a guy on TikTok who posts just him taking a pizza out of the oven every day with tongs and all of the comments are about how their day is ruined from having watched this

Today, shamefully, government guidance comes into force that trans people should be segregated or forced to use facilities that don't match their lived gender. It's important for businesses and organisations to understand that this is guidance, not a requirement. So don't obey.

ME: And another thing, It should be called a buycycle when it's in the shop and a bicycle when you get it home. MY KIDNAPPER: *crying* Omg we let you go two hours ago

Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.

The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed

The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.

bloomberg.com

A really interesting World Fantasy Shortlist! Also I think I can get this one looked at too! locusmag.com/2026/08/2026...

2026 World Fantasy Awards Finalists

The World Fantasy Awards ballot for works published in 2025 has been announced. The awards will be presented during the 2026 World Fantasy Convention, scheduled for October 22-25, 2026 in Oakland C…

locusmag.com

Further update: there did not, in fact, come soft rain. Despite the weather forecast, it has remained dry here.

I would love movies to have more animatronics and models and less pure CGI, just out of pure coolness.

The Spaceshipper 🚀@thespaceshipper.com · 2d ago

Starship Troopers (1997): Arachnid Warrior Bug, animatronics testing by Amalgamated Dynamics

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 47: Here's an experiment to try: Take a paragraph of your WIP. Highlight the most important word in each sentence. Now try rewriting with the important words at the very end of the sentences. Look at the difference it makes each way, and the way it affects emphasis.

Here's something nice: A NARROW DOOR for just 99p on Kindle UK for the whole of August! www.amazon.co.uk/Narrow-Door-...

I am sure you will agree that Ben Baldwin has given us another magnificent cover for Dan Mackmain’s latest adventure. Dan and Fin are off to Ireland – a trip I know many readers have been keen to see. The Green Man’s Debt will be published by Wizard’s Tower Press on 10th September 2026. #BookSky

Update: it has not rained. There was supposed to be a good chance of rain, but it hasn't materialised, and now there's no more in the forecast for weeks.

I wrote a short story a long time ago based around an experimental archaeological reconstruction of one of these iron age roundhouses. I expect it was terribly inaccurate, but they are very cool to see.

Tej Turner@tejturner.com · yesterday

Castell Henllys Iron Age #Hillfort. This place was fully excavated and then partially reconstructed using authentic materials and experimental archaeology methods. Interesting place.

Castell Henllys Iron Age #Hillfort. This place was fully excavated and then partially reconstructed using authentic materials and experimental archaeology methods. Interesting place.

This is a really good story that you should read if you haven't already. Also, I wouldn't mind some soft rains right now. Or hard rains. Any rain, really.

Lisa Kadonaga@tapirtrouble.bsky.social · yesterday

Soft Rains Day. "Today is August 4, 2026, in the city of Allendale, California. Today is Mr. Featherstone's birthday. Today is the anniversary of Tilita's marriage. Insurance is payable, as are the water, gas, and light bills." RIP Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012