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Susan Murray

@pulpthorn.bsky.social

Writer of Fantasy & SF. Northerner. Girly swot. She/her. Ooh, squirrel...

14429 Posts1352 Follower 690 Folgt

Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 2h ago

*Schwarzenegger voice* I'll be Vac

BBC News headline: Robot vacuum cleaner escapes from Cambridge Travelodge

TL Morganfield @stitchingfiend.bsky.social · 7h ago

#BookQW from The Bone Flower Throne, book 1 of The Bone Flower Trilogy. Having lost both her parents, young Quetzalpetlatl finds herself in the custody of the High Priestess of Quetzalcoatl in Xochicalco. #BookSky #romantasy #epicfantasy #mythology #KU Amazon: a.co/d/00hAZ4UD

The cover of the novel The Bone Flower Throne, Book 1 of The Bone Flower Trilogy by T. L. Morganfield against a dark red background. Book Quote Wednesday: "Pass ". Excerpt:

Once the fire glowed in the hearth, the room came into focus: a loom stood near the rear window, and jars and baskets lined the shelves above the hearth. A metlatl maize grinding stone sat near the door, next to a basket of shucked maize. Unlike the walls of my father’s palace, these were simple, unpainted plaster. If not for the sturdy stone construction, I would’ve thought it was a peasant’s house.

Nimilitzli came in, now wearing a clean robe. “Inform the king of what’s happened, and tell him I’ll bring the children to the palace at daybreak,” she said, taking Little Reed from the priestess. Once the others left, she sat on the mat next to me. “Do you wish to hold your brother again?”

I said nothing, just lay staring at the fire, wishing Lord Death had taken me as well. Nimilitzli tried to stroke my hair but I flinched away and tucked my head under my arms. From this woman who let Mother die, any touch was vile and unwelcome.

“You think you can’t feel anything but pain ever again, but that too will pass, little one,” she said with a maddeningly understanding voice. “Have faith in the Feathered Serpent to heal your heart’s wounds. Your brother needs you.”

“I don’t want him,” I muttered. “This is his fault.”

“He’s hardly had enough time to have done such evil.”

“He killed Mother.” I squeezed my eyes shut against the suffocating pain in my chest.

“Don’t blame him for another’s fate. Many mothers give their lives capturing a baby from the gods. It’s an unparalleled honor to die trying, especially for your mother; she sacrificed herself bringing forth the son of the god. I assure you she bore no regret for having answered Quetzalcoatl’s call.”

Bottom text: #romantasy #epicfantasy #mythology - Available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook

Susan Murray @pulpthorn.bsky.social · 8h ago

Draft of Waterborne 3 is nearing 100k, which would be great if it weren’t actually about half done and shaping to be two novels in a trenchcoat.

Screenshot of file directory in Obsidian:

PO3 DRAFT WATERBORNE 3 99,439 words
ACT 1 32,661 words
ACT 2 37,834 words
АСТ З 18,989 words
ACT 4 5,833 words
ACT 5 4,110 words
Title Page 12w

Susan Murray @pulpthorn.bsky.social · 10h ago

Spousal unit just wandered past wearing a tweed jacket over t-shirt and shorts. Summer may be loosening its grip on the north...

C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 11h ago

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'pass'. Here's a snippet from Silver Dawn, the second book in my epic fantasy duology The Long Dream. #writingcommunity #writesky #bookqw #indiefantasy 💙📚🪐

Front cover of Silver Dawn by CM Debell and snippet for Book Quote Wednesday prompt 'pass'.

Through a break in the cloud, he saw it, a sleek, dark shape passing silently overhead.
Men around him muttered prayers; some were weeping. No one ran. There was nowhere to run.
Beside him, Aarin was gripping the parapet with his free hand, eyes tracking that deadly shadow from a face that still bore the fading scars of its fire.
The moments stretched, unbearable.
Somewhere in the city, someone was screaming, a strident wail that cut through the eerie silence. Aarin flinched, his fingers curling tighter around the parapet. But his eyes never blinked, his attention never wavered.
This time, the dragon flew low enough that Kallis could feel the pulse of its wings and see the scars on its scaled underbelly. It rolled as it passed, regarding them from one unblinking black eye. Such a tempting target. He reached out and placed a restraining hand on the tip of the bow nearest him.

Susan Murray @pulpthorn.bsky.social · 10h ago

It's Book Quote Wednesday and today's #BookQW word is 'pass'. In this extract from Waterborne Exile the freemerchant Marten's leaving Scarrow's Deep, with all his plans in ruin.

Cover of Waterborne Exile by Susan Murray. A woman in a blood-spattered white gown moves past the viewer, holding a bowl of blood in both hands. A bloodstained dagger is tucked in her belt. Cover art by Paul Young.

#BookQW – pass – Extract from Waterborne Exile by Susan Murray:
“I can delay no longer. I shall achieve nothing while I remain here.”

The same could be said of all of them. A wave of weariness swept over her. The moment of peace was gone beyond recall.

“We must follow different paths this time, Marten. They will like as not lead to the same place in the end, anyway.”

“Do you dabble in prophecy now?”

“I can think of few things more futile – I shall not make a habit of it.”
“You will be careful, when I am gone?”

She pressed a hand to her bulging stomach. “Right now I have very little option.”

“Even so – you are uneasy, my lady. Promise me you will do nothing rash.”

Alwenna shook her head. “Such a promise would have seen you dead on the floor of the summer palace months ago. I will do whatever’s necessary.”

Marten pushed himself to his feet. “Then I must go without reassurance from you.”

“You’re a grown man, and you’ve managed well enough these past years.”

“Indeed I have. Behold the proof of my success: destitute and cast out by my own people.”

Alwenna smiled. “Free and unfettered. I wish you well, Marten, truly. You will find the courage to do what is right in the end.”

He hesitated. “What do you know? Will you not tell me?”

“I know a thousand things, none of which may come to pass. Ask me what I don’t know, that would be easier to answer.”

“Then tell me what you do not know, my lady.”

No need to lie this time. “We are stepping out into darkness, Marten. I do not know where our feet will land.”

Susan Murray @pulpthorn.bsky.social · 13h ago

That moment when you realise you are not, in fact, alone and there are two stotting great cellar spiders leering at you from the corner of the ceiling above the TV.

Two cellar spiders with long, long slender legs dangling from a cream-painted ceiling.

Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 15h ago

I just saw a piece in @thebookseller.com about this fundraiser - to protect and share a collection of over one million Black books in the UK, a labour of love by one collector, Baba Pepukayi, but a vital resource for the nation. www.gofundme.com/f/save-1-mil... Please share, and donate if you can.

Donate to Save 1 Million Black Books, organized by Black British Book Festival

Save 1 Million Black Books One of Britain's Largest Collections of Black Books… Black British Book Festival needs your support for Save 1 Million Black Books

gofundme.com

Rafael Behr @rafaelbehr.bsky.social · 15h ago

On the tragedy of US democracy captured by human stupidity when the world needs leadership on machine intelligence. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Democracy is at stake when foolish humans bet on machines being intelligent | Rafael Behr

We need an enlightened US president to make the case for global AI regulation. Donald Trump is the exact opposite of what is needed, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

theguardian.com

Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 16h ago

Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'pass' #BookQW #BookSky This is Dan Mackmain's first visit to Ireland. So many things look familiar, it would be easy to assume it isn't really any different to home. Dan knows better. He's been reading up on Irish folklore. The Green Man's Debt - 10th September 2026.

Cover art by Ben Baldwin for The Green Man's Debt by Juliet E McKenna. A grey wolf with pale eyes stands in the shadows of a derelict building with a black and white tiled floor. The wolf is looking straight at you. Its snarl reveals blood on its teeth and jaw.

Book extract reads: We were coming up to the bridge he had mentioned. It was as wide as the road through the town and built from the same grey stone. The ornamental balustrades reminded me of the fountain in the marketplace. I guessed the same mason had done the work.
The Defender’s high driving seat meant I could see over the balustrades as we crossed the bridge. The river wasn’t overly wide, but it was flowing fast. The water was too dark for me to guess at its depth. Rain running off those distant hills must pass through peat bogs before it joined the flow.
Back home, I’d have reckoned there was a decent chance of finding a naiad in there. The ones I’d met would love a river like this. I wondered who or what might have claimed these waters. I realised I hadn’t asked Eimer or Máirtín who or what would accuse a dryad and a sylph of trespassing. I decided to talk to Conn about that first. He’d know the best time to raise it. If we needed to raise it.

Ben Jeapes @benjeapes.bsky.social · 15h ago

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is PASS. Ted must navigate all the versions of his home town that have ever existed, past, present and future all at once. #bookqw #yafantasy #witches www.benjeapes.com/index.php/th... Hear me read a longer extract at benjeapes.substack.com.

Kit Whitfield - fantasy writer @kitwhitfield.bsky.social · 15h ago

Cover reveal! Featuring: - A self-taught palaeontologist and accidental witch - A heroic young girl with ferret-training skills and raging ADHD - A cat that can animate hand-shadows - A daring rescuer with asexual motives - A beloved pet that DOES NOT DIE Pre-orders: tinyurl.com/nddx4d5p

Book cover with publication date 3rd June 2027.

Book title: The Snakestone Girls by Kit Whitfield.

Watercolour images of ammonite fossils and please source skeletons nestling amid kelp and henbane flowers.

Quote on cover: ‘An absolute triumph’, AK Benedict.

Susan Murray @pulpthorn.bsky.social · yesterday

Just spent ten minutes getting psyched up to go and retrieve my hot drink from the kitchen only to discover it was out of sight behind my laptop the whole time. Not so hot now, obv.

Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · yesterday

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

Susan Murray @pulpthorn.bsky.social · yesterday

Finally have a use for desktop 'workspaces': pulling detail from emails in browser in one workspace, then adding detail to one document and cross-checking it with another document while both are open in half-screen tiled windows in a separate workspace. Sure there's a clearer way to phrase that...

Gav Thorpe @gavthorpe.bsky.social · yesterday

Feels like a good time to promote the Jaws-inspired short story that's on my Patreon. www.patreon.com/gavthorpe/po... (Picture not indicative of the story, that was the anthology cover!)

Peregrinus Cibus Cedimus | Gav Thorpe Writes Stuff

Another exclusive original short story, with a shark theme,

patreon.com

Susan Murray @pulpthorn.bsky.social · 2d ago

Fight back to fitness* continues with another 15 minutes on the recumbent bike. Haven’t missed a day in the last week. Can I have a ‘Hell, yeah’? *these things are all relative…

Delia Remington (She/Her)@therealdelia.eurosky.social · 2d ago

Well, this explains a lot.

Chronic Illness Humor@chronicillness.bsky.social · 2d ago

<highlight start> Turns out women get more autoimmune diseases from suppressed anger and trauma... <highlight end> so basically every time you don't flip a table, your immune system takes a hit. Moral of the story? Throw the fucking chair, girl. It's preventative medicine.

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 2d ago

I think "AI" plumpers should be happy I'm focusing mostly on the nonsense it's doing to my field, rather than how it's very clearly designed as a tool for the capture of wealth and capital by a bunch of accelerationist weirdos enthusiastically huffing their own farts from the depth of their K-holes

The Register@theregister.com · 3d ago

Sci-fi authors Scalzi and Stross decry AI's dystopian impact on their craft

Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 3d ago

"I think you’re right that in the main this shortlist feels like a missed opportunity: the Clarke has a grander history, and 2025 a better suite of books, than it manages to imply"

Nerds of a Feather@nerdsofafeather.bsky.social · 3d ago

The Arthur C. Clarke Award 2026: A Shortlist Discussion Dan Hartland ( @danhartland.bsky.social ), who is Reviews Editor at Strange Horizons, joins our @chloroformtea.bsky.social for a meaty discussion of the shortlist: www.nerds-feather.com/2026/08/the-... #blueskybooks #booksky

Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 3d ago

That’s why there is such a desperate, though successful, attempt to rewrite history, what we all lived through.

The Covid Amnesia Project and the Plot to Erase 2020

It’s up to those of us who experienced the pandemic in the real-world to make sure that what actually happened in 2020 isn’t deliberately erased by sheltered disinformation agents who experienced

sciencebasedmedicine.org

Dave Andress@davidandress.bsky.social · 4d ago

Covid lockdowns demonstrated, in a deeply imperfect way, the possibility of large-scale social solidarity for a higher cause. That is a prime reason why so many powerful people want us to run screaming away from them into the comforting arms of selfish individualist competition.

James Barclay @barculator.bsky.social · 3d ago

This is absolutely fascinating. Consider your assumptions well and truly challenged... mine were.

Suw@suw.bsky.social · 3d ago

Crops grown underneath solar panels produce more, require less water and are more resistant to extreme weather, even during a hot, dry summer. We need agrivoltaics to be rolled out asap, for both the electricity and the better growing conditions. microgridmedia.com/solar-panels...

Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 3d ago

Archaeologists have discovered 7000-year-old fishing traps in the inland mountains of southern Norway. Predating the introduction of farming, they indicate Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were already actively managing their environments. 🏺 #AntiquityThread 1/13 🧵

Above: 3D model of a wooden pole, broken and split in multiple places. Below: several partially excavated wooden poles, held upright by sediment.

Sven-Erik Volberg @volberg.bsky.social · 5d ago

Germany to ban Meta’s Pervert Glasses? Hamburg’s Data Protection Office warns that recording people in public with smart glasses violates privacy laws. The tiny LED indicator light isn't prominent enough to prevent secret filming in public spaces. 1/2 www.tagesschau.de/inland/innen...

Hamburger Datenschutzbeauftragter: Verbot von Meta Glasses möglich

Der Hamburger Datenschutzbeauftragte Fuchs warnt vor Meta Smart Glasses: Die Brillen, die kaum von normalen Brillen zu unterscheiden sind, ermöglichen heimliches Filmen. Ein Verbot sei nicht ausgeschl...

tagesschau.de

Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 3d ago

Farmer who supplies hay to me and many others yesterday said his pastures have only dried grass and without rain very soon he will have to start feeding his hay supply to his sheep, in an Irish summer -- something he has never had to in his farming life

Oisín McGann@oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 4d ago

The slow creep of stories like this. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Ian Martin @ianmartin.bsky.social · 3d ago

No, Lewis Goodall, schools weren't all shut during lockdown. My daughter had to work at her school throughout lockdown, because like many many others it had to remain open to accommodate key workers' children, you clueless warbling dick.

John Freeman @johnfreeman.bsky.social · 3d ago

The Society of Authors has joined the Creators' Rights Alliance in calling on British Government to protect creators from the existential threat of GenAI in a petition that needs further support to ensure it is debated in parliament

New UK petition calls for greater transparency on AI “training data”

New petition on GenAI to better protect creators rights needs support

downthetubes.net

Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 4d ago

I should have said “after locking down too late.” Essentially, because the government wanted Covid not to be a big deal, they behaved (and encouraged others to behave) as if it wasn’t. A lot of people then died who didn’t have to, and we all had a really bad time for two years, & some still are.

Andy Scollick @andyscollick.bsky.social · 4d ago

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced on Sunday the shutdown of the country’s sole #NuclearPower plant after record-low water levels in the Danube river forced its first halt in 44 years. (Euractiv) #nuclear #ClimateChange h/t @drpauldorfman.bsky.social

Hungary PM announces closure of nuclear plant due to heatwave | Euractiv

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced on Sunday the shutdown of the country’s sole nuclear power plant after record-low water levels in the Danube river forced its first halt in 44 years. Th...

euractiv.com

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 5d ago

Endometriosis takes nine years to diagnose. That’s about to change. NICE has approved two tests: a saliva test reading microRNA markers, and a gut-sensor test returning results in 45 minutes, sparing women the keyhole surgery currently needed. buff.ly/QX3jHk8 #ShareGoodNewsToo

Rapid endometriosis tests to be made available on NHS in England and Wales

Saliva and gut sensor-based tests hailed as ‘gamechanger’ for millions of women who can wait years for diagnosis

buff.ly