A woman in a keffiyeh and young boy underneath an olive tree, in an olive grove. The sun is setting. Text reads "Never again"

The same trees, abandoned, burned to stumps and charred branches. The keffiyeh is tied to one branch, and blows in the breeze. The sunset is blood red. Text reads: "is right now."

Today is International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Honestly every day should be, but our leaders are still largely failing in a way we will one day read about in history books.
Write to your MPs / representatives, donate where you can, and keep the movement alive.

#freepalestine

Portraits for Palestine (Swipe for more info) A title page with grey, green, white, and red tiles, with line portraits on them.

Portraits for Palestine: I'm opening commissions for simple line portraits (for people and pets!) How to order: 1. Make a donation to @medicalaidpal. (Min £5+ suggested) 2. DM me (artful_doodling, or artfuldoodling on Bsky) with a receipt / screenshot of your donation. 3. Send me a reference pic for your portrait! Swipe for more details...

I'm starting a commission fundraiser! 🎨

In exchange for donations to Medical Aid for Palestine (map.org.uk), I'll be creating personalised line portraits, for both people and pets.

Please read the posts below, and DM me to order your portrait!
Any shares or support would be greatly appreciated 🙌

I keep having this image in my head of #Masterchef doing a Chinese cookery special, and the voice of Terence Stamp (as Bernadette in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), saying:

"That's just what this country needs: A cock. In a sock. With a wok."

No, that's only one of the problems. The press is also incredibly partisan and in many cases dishonest. At best there is false equivalence. But also the public do not see it as their responsibility to make sure they are informed, and will generally accept what fits their preexisting bias.

Our recent flirtations with direct democracy in the form of referendums don't exactly fill me with joy either. It would be fine if the public, the press and the political establishment all earnestly tried their best to honestly understand the issues, but all three failed abysmally.

Fascinating, tell me more.
Although I will confess that I am initially sceptical, as your handle and profile don't tell me much about you.

"Doing it to protect the kids" is nothing of the sort. Banning puberty blockers for trans kids is just cruelty of ignorance and indifference.

I ask because back in the Other Place, I tweeted as MalksVoice, which was supposed to be about work, but eventually became mostly about "Brexit sucks, and Boris Johnson is a twunt". I stand by both statements, but possibly a professional account was not the place for them.

Question:
Once I get properly started, there are a few things I'm likely to post about. Do you think I should have separate accounts for some?
- Audiobook narration, Storytelling & Voice acting
- Larps, RPGs & boardgames
- Politics (Socialist, Woke AF)
- Learning Finnish
- Random smart-arse remarks

I only occasionally read romance, but I'd say no. Not for me. The narrative voice in the book is what influences my read. Even if it's a 3rd person narrator, it will often have a distinctive voice. How distinctive depends on the author, but not necessarily on their gender.

Wow! I go away for a weekend of larping, and have a load of new followers when I return!
I see lots of folk I don't know personally; writers, fellow narrators... Welcome! I like the vibe here ATM, so following everyone back. Once I get my head on straight, I will try to post something worth reading!

Statement of principle:

If a company uses AI to generate creative work of any kind, and if I'm aware of it, I won't buy their product.

If a social media post has AI artwork I will either scroll straight past it or delete it.

This may well be fart-in-a-hurricane territory, but I stand by it.

Aah. Yes, spikes on tyres is another level! I can't really do that year round in Wales... or at all except off-road perhaps!

My technique is that I've stopped using summer tyres altogether! Given that I mostly only drive on the way to a larp, I don't get much wear out of them!
I have put the clock back in my car though, and it's not even next year yet!

Worst bits seem to be in their comms. They just seem to have no ability at all to set the narrative, even in their own policy announcements. Very frustrating. Say what you like about Blair (and who doesn't, these days?), but he would have been all over this side of things.

Comic (blue and yellow colours): -A misty figure in the forest. -A close-up as the figure reaches out and calls; "Blodwen" -Blodwen looks up in confusion; "Who-?" She squints, and the mist covers her eyes. -"Wait!", she calls, and runs after the misty figure, disappearing into the woods.

Comic continued: -A cat claw scratches Blodwen's leg, with a SKLIT! -Blodwen yells in pain, then looks down. -Twm, a black cat, looks up and says; "Following voices into the mist now?" -Blodwen sits down nursing her leg. "I thought I heard..." -Twm's face looks severe. "So did they."

Comic final panel: -Twm places their paw on a skull in the undergrowth, with plants growing in and around it.

#FolktaleWeek Day 1: Mist! ☁️

Thought I'd try a comic interpretation of the prompt, involving my characters Blodwen and Twm.

#kidlitart #folktaleweek2024 #comics

I have heard about narrators who do this, and thought about it myself, but even though I sometimes do live storytelling, I find the idea of letting people into my padded cell slightly terrifying! May I DM you?

Authors irritate me sometimes, by putting a line in place of part or all of a name or title. Even if they use it in full elsewhere!
Thomas Paine is getting on my nerves this morning with the following:

King = King
K___ = also King
England = England
E______d = England
E___ = England
____ = The Pope

It used to have a great search function, that they have nerfed dramatically in the past year or so, for reasons that escape me, but it is infuriating. It's always been a tricksy and deceptive creature though.

Even if I were to stop using the public face of FaceBook, I don't think I'd dispense with Messenger. Too much stuff and too many people on there.
You're really enjoying this place then? I still haven't quite worked out how I want to use it.

Not on the Humanities or Media Studies courses, certainly!

I have a memory, when I was at uni, of using half a bottle of Viakal to try to clean the limescale from our toilet and getting nowhere (Dunno why; I wasn't a very house-proud student!)
Why did no one tell me you just need to pour vinegar and baking powder in there?
Oh yes. No World Wide Web in 1992.

Evening, Phil. Nice to see you over here. How is Twexit going from your point of view? You always said you stayed with Twitter because of the critical mass of experts you follow who post there. Are many of them jumping in this direction?

Ah, jonesing for the Other Place, are you?
Look, if you love the smell of a boot-stamping-on-a-human-head-forever in the morning, that's up to you!
#NoKinkShaming

Aaah, Livejournal. Halcyon days.
To be honest, I treat FB kind of like an LJ replacement.
This format doesn't really lend itself to lengthy exposition!

Hi! Yes, it feels like this place might be starting to reach some kind of critical mass now, but time will tell.

A quick plug for my incredibly talented offspring, who (among much other artwork) has designed several audiobook covers for my fellow narrator, the wonderful Nano Nagle!

Amelie is available for commissions. Follow them to get gorgeous, quirky, queer artwork regularly on your timeline!

I've just come here this morning to remind myself not to waste time doomscrolling on here, as I have work to do, and my productivity has been shockingly poor this week, with Facebook and YouTube Shorts both having trapped me into doomscrolling loops on previous occasions!

Happy Friday, by the way.

Paper-cut collage. A red and yellow armadillo watching with shock as a blue/purple/greenish starling flies overhead. Text "SWOOP!" follows the flight path of the starling.

Today I go on submission with my latest PB dummy!
It's always a long shot, but here's hoping Albie's story is well-received 🤞
It's also at times like these I'm particularly thankful to have a super supportive agent 📚🎨

#kidlitart #kidlit

Third children are the ones who learn lessons. You often have to burn (or chew) through the two older ones before the remaining one gets the message.