A Few Things That Brought Us Nerdy Joy in 2025 - Reactor No matter how rotten the year is, we will still find joy in it

Happy new year all!

So glad to see my books brought joy to people last year! Let’s hope they bring more joy to different people this year. reactormag.com/a-few-things...

a black and white photo of a cartoon character wearing a top hat ALT: a black and white photo of a cartoon character wearing a top hat

Just watched A Muppet Christmas Carol and in the credits seen the job title of Muppet milliner. I think that might be the best thing I’ve learned all year: that there’s someone employed specially to make hats for Muppets.

There’s nothing more magical than a few quiet minutes at the end of the day just sitting and looking at your Christmas tree in a dark room. My hubby now just leaves the lights on for me but switches off the overhead so I can relish it 😍

a close up of a cat 's face with water coming out of its eyes . ALT: a close up of a cat 's face with water coming out of its eyes .

My cats would very much like the outside wet to be gone now please.☔️

Intriguing reply!

If you buy yourself some mince pies as a treat, and they turn out to be grim and chemically, how permissible is it to buy some more mince pies and eat another one?

And if you’re on Weight Watchers, do you *really* need to track that first mince pie when it was such a mistake…? 🤔

Choose Your Own Reading Adventure This Lady Knight Season The hottest trend in fantasy right now? Women with swords. Here are several of our must-read new books with lady knight protagonists.

If you enjoyed The Fireborne Blade and what more lady knights, here is a great selection of upcoming books for you to look out for! 😍

www.pastemagazine.com/books/fantas...

Oh no! Well, then I’m doubly pleased I piqued your interest!

Oh wonderful! You picked up on the Beowulf language! All my dragons speak in kennings, and book 2 is filled with them. I mostly made up my own but I did steal *one* from Beowulf. So chuffed that you noticed! Thank you for your kind words. (Also, I think “a delicious snack of a book” is fab!)

Ooh! I don’t think I’ve come across that book before. I’ll have to look out for it

Mince pie. It’s September. It’s allowed. 😉

Wow. It’s one heck of a typo when you try to type “family” and autocorrect changes it to “Tajikistan”.

Evidence it’s been a looooong day

The Bloodless Princes: Charlotte Bond: 9781250290779 The Bloodless Princes: Charlotte Bond: 9781250290779: Hardcover: Fantasy - Dragons & Mythical Creatures

Only another couple of days before The Bloodless Princes leaves the buy one get one at 50% offer on Books A Million. Still lacking for holiday reading? This is the deal for you!
www.booksamillion.com/p/Bloodless-...

Using AI means you’re not really a writer, you’re a purveyor of takeaways. You’re someone who dishes up a product, claims it’s theirs, but couldn’t reproduce it from scratch to save your life. Sure, you can make a living out of it if you churn them out, but you haven’t grown or achieved anything.

Using AI means you don’t have to edit over and over. You don’t have to face your weak spots relating to character or plot. You never learn how to describe a sunset or sex or a magical sword in numerous different ways so that you don’t repeat yourself across books.

You might phone for takeaways many, many times and dish up lots of delicious meals. But if anyone ever gave you the ingredients and said “Make a curry,” you couldn’t do it. Same with AI-assisted writers. The process of writing is to master something, to learn a skill. Using AI means you never learn.

I think I’ve sussed how I feel about using AI to write books. It’s like ordering a takeaway curry then serving it up to family and friends as a curry you made. It’s delicious, you provided it, and everybody has food. All great. But you can’t call yourself a chef.

100% this!

So, if you're reading this, be sure to get your daily dose of bunnies. You never know when it'll suddenly delight you.

I logged on today after a little while absent so I could post a book post, and realised I'd completely forgotten I'd followed @dailybunnies.bsky.social. And I was like [confused]: "There's loads of bunnies in my feed." And then I was like [delighted]: "There's loads of bunnies in my feed!"

The Bloodless Princes: Charlotte Bond: 9781250290779 The Bloodless Princes: Charlotte Bond: 9781250290779: Hardcover: Fantasy - Dragons & Mythical Creatures

www.booksamillion.com/p/Bloodless-...

BAM have my second novella on "Buy one get one 50% off!" So if you liked the first one and fancy checking out the second, why not throw it in your basket with another book? You can never have too many books... Offer ends 27 July so don't delay!

Oh my goodness what an amazing summary! Thank you. I’m so pleased you picked up on the fallacy of secondary legends. It was a fascinating process to write the same story from the point of view of two different species.

Thank you! So honoured to be included! 🥰

Thank you! Alas, I had to miss the voting results to get an early night but recorded them and watched them with breakfast this morning. And migraines always feel better after sleep.

Well, that was good fun. As ever, the commentary by Graham Norton just made #Eurovision so silly and enjoyable. Off to cast my vote!

26. Albania - I see what Graham means about the male performer but I still quite like it. Different to the others. A nice one to finish on.

25. San Marino - full of energy but doesn’t quite hit the spot for me when it comes to visuals. Those singers’ masks are just unpleasant. Would totally dance to this song in a club though.

24. France - thanks, Graham Norton for the image! Can’t unsee it. Good singer but can’t say the song is doing anything for me.

23. Sweden - holy crap! This might knock Iceland off my top spot. Catchy. Brilliant set piece. It almost felt like a deliberate parody of a Eurovision song. Love it. Not only will I be listening to this tomorrow, I will be looking up the video online. Inspired.

Nope. Found my winning song: Made in Switzerland. That’s hilariously wonderful!