Next week we'll celebrate The Arthur C. Clarke Award's 40th anniversary and reveal this year's winner! 🚀 Meanwhile Chair of Judges, Dr Andrew M. Butler, discusses this year's shortlist 👉 fivebooks.com/best-books/t...

The Best Science Fiction: The 2026 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist

The Arthur C Clarke award highlights six outstanding science fiction books every year. This year’s field shows the breadth of contemporary science fiction, says chair of judges Andrew M. Butler. From ...

fivebooks.com

Lemony Snicket would like to lodge a complaint

August has arrived which means it's time to get to know the authors of our next BFS event! @shonak.bsky.social @rainewilson.bsky.social @ianthegreen.bsky.social @rtorrubia.com

Only had to uninstall and reinstall the printer once to get it to agree to printing something. Counting that as a win.

I was *extremely* lucky to get diagnosed in my teens, but prompt care shouldn't be the exception. This👇🏽 is going to radically improve a lot of lives 🥳

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

Friends, I did it! I wrote a whole post without drifting into 'ugh publishinggg' even once! Please applaud. www.patreon.com/posts/165369...

Good vibes only, for once | Lorraine Wilson

Yesterday I wrote a draft of a post about hustling to build an author career - what that looks like depending on your skillsets and capacity

patreon.com

I do think talking to authors will prove that we wrote our thing. But also, sometimes the answer to 'why did you do X?' is 'because it looked pretty' But ALSO also, that's a deeply human reason in itself, and more than the grifters will ever manage

Thomas Ha@thomasha.bsky.social · 5d ago

i think people advising that authors are going to be ok because they can explain their creative choices better than a slopper are coming from a good place (and prob mostly right!). but boy do i hate the presumption that writers have to rationally talk through the minutiae of their creative choices.

Me: this is a very serious short story Also me: ...with a hidden reference to the mock turtle song?

Still get a lil shiver of happiness seeing Salt Oracle on this list!

The Arthur C. Clarke Award@clarkeaward.bsky.social · 5d ago

Have you read the Clarke Award shortlist yet? 📚 Would you like to be one of the first to find out the winner? 🚀 The latest edition of the Clarke Award newsletter has all the details you need and more! 👉 open.substack.com/pub/clarkeaw...

“Refusing complicity”: www.thekeymagazine.com/p/introducin...

Introducing Refusing Complicity

Five writers trace the networks of value that emerge through writing and solidarity, offering visions beyond complicity.

thekeymagazine.com

One day, friends, I will write a newsletter that isn't Raine Complains About Publishing. One day.

Look at this ridiculously talented bunch 🤩

British Fantasy Society@britfantasysoc.bsky.social · last wk.

The BFS is excited to announce our next in-person Leeds event. Outwith Reality – Scottish Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror. Wed 26th Aug, 7pm. Waterstones, Leeds. Ticket: tinyurl.com/OutwithLeeds @katiebruce.bsky.social @ianthegreen.bsky.social @shonak.bsky.social @rtorrubia.com @rainewilson.bsky.social

Here's what some fantastic authors have thought of @rainewilson.bsky.social 's @clarkeaward.bsky.social finalist - THE SALT ORACLE... Inc. @ianthegreen.bsky.social @stewarthotston.com @bingewriting.bsky.social @mkhardywrites.com @angelaslatter.bsky.social Buy: geni.us/saltorac

This baby has gone back to my agent to hopefully be yeeted at editors in the near future, please pray for it!🖤 For all your faded baroque theatre in a flooded town needs, I offer you murders, weird feral children, possessed dancers, strange tides, a dying seamstress and bloodthirsty puppets...

Did you know that there is another standalone novel in the same universe as @rainewilson.bsky.social 's @clarkeaward.bsky.social nominated THE SALT ORACLE? Meet WE ARE ALL GHOSTS IN THE FOREST, a genre-bending science fantasy with a really excellent ghost cat. Buy geni.us/weallghostsPB

This is so true & it feels cruel to tell people but I wish I'd known back when I started *she says whilst hunting for said grit and weeping*

Kameron Hurley@kameronhurley.com · 2w ago

Anyway, I hate telling new writers that the easiest part of their writing career is actually getting their FIRST book published. It's MAINTAINING a career and selling ONE BOOK AFTER ANOTHER that's the real grueling part. Frankly the grit required for first leg is what helps train you for the second

It hasn't rained here since 30th June. The last significant rain was 11th June. There's no rain in the forecast for the next 7 days. I live in the UK. Wildlife here, esp plants, aren't really used to this. (Neither are humans TBH.) So here are some things I'm trying to do…

Calling Scottish folks because fuck data centres. Personally I'd go for yeeting the shareholders into the sun but I guess I'll settle for a moratorium petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE...

Petition: Moratorium on planning applications for all hyperscale data centres until their environmental impacts have been fully assessed

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce a moratorium to prohibit planning permission from being granted for any hyperscale data centres, until it has carried ou...

petitions.parliament.scot

I am, if you hadn't guessed by their guest appearance in The Salt Oracle, unequivocally Team Orca. They're having a splendid day today folks. I wish them well.

'We are gargoyles on the roofline, shouting our rainfall at the world below.' Man, I do love my Mice in this book

Guess who forgot to take any photos at her bookshop event again?

Pre-order The Shape of Monsters online at Waterstones now for a discount - that's a neat 25% off! Modern gothic fantasy where two siblings are about to return to an ancestral home and summon a monster. Dark and mythic, complicated family dynamics, queer disasters @portyliterary.bsky.social

Going through my list of rough pitches for books & OMG I love these shiny ideas please can someone pay me to write them??

This Wednesday! If anyone lurking around the North-East fancies coming to chat bookish things, oceanic fantasy and dangerous (fucked up) children. @rtorrubia.com @solarisbooks.bsky.social tickets here: inkandquill.co.uk/products/an-...

There's a faint but persistent smell of woodsmoke here this morning, despite the wildfire being over sixty miles away. And yet somehow Labour think it's a good idea to open up new oilfields in the North Sea. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Cairngorms wildfire is 'not contained' and still burning hard, residents warn

Community leaders criticised the Scottish government for describing the incident as "contained", despite flames spreading further.

bbc.co.uk

Just over two months to go before the print edition of The Shape of Monsters is running feral! Preorders here! www.panmacmillan.com/authors/cl-h...

The Shape of Monsters by CL Hellisen

A gripping tale of a descent into darkness as two siblings enter a world of magic, secrets and twisted loyalties – for those who loved Starling House by Alix E.

panmacmillan.com

Happy SPLASHER day!! Bring on the retro spooky pool fun!

MK Hardy@mkhardywrites.com · 3w ago

It's here! The haunted swimming pool book is ALIVE, and available wherever books are sold! Check it out if you like: spooks, mysterious things beneath the surface, plucky true crime girlies, and hardcore 2006 nostalgia*. *sorry not sorry for the earworms

Going away for three (3) days justifies the purchase of nine (9) books, yes?

I feel like The Salt Oracle is pulling its weight in redressing this problem tbh Body count: high Gender bias: 100% men Sorry my dudes, I guess you just make good plot devices, what's an author to do? 🤷🏽‍♀️ www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Nine out of ten bestselling novels in UK have one thing in common: a woman is murdered

Author Wendy Jones highlighted the trend in an Instagram post: ‘What is going on here?’

theguardian.com

The Salt Oracle is so heartbreakingly good (as are @rainewilson.bsky.social's other works.) If you are a fan of literary spec fic that leaves together climate disaster, the power of stories, and the humanity it takes to save the child of Omelas, then this is the book you want.

Solaris Books@solarisbooks.bsky.social · 3w ago

There's 1 month to go until the @clarkeaward.bsky.social ceremony! So, now's the perfect time to pick up @rainewilson.bsky.social 's finalist - THE SALT ORACLE! A genre-bending science fantasy with a locked-boat mystery in a world rife with digital ghosts and vengeful seas... Buy geni.us/saltorac