Thank you so much, Claire! I'm very proud of Black Mountain so this is wonderful to hear. :)

It's the end of the month and I've got shopping to do, so I'm shamelessly busking! :) If you enjoy this eerie tale for a hot summer's day you're under no obligatiion, but feel free to make a donation if you're so inclined.
ko-fi.com/Post/From-Th...

A Game In Yellow by @haileypiperfights.bsky.social.
This really is something just extraordinary. Like The King In Yellow, this book has done something to my head. In a good way. I think. Not for the first time, I am in awe and envy of this writer.

The Condemned: A free book for Palestine and MAP | Simon Bestwick Get more from Simon Bestwick on Patreon

Sorry, wrong link! Click this one... www.patreon.com/posts/136304...

The Condemned: A free book for Palestine and MAP | Simon Bestwick Get more from Simon Bestwick on Patreon

Free book! Download the 2013 collection THE CONDEMNED (long out of print) absolutely free of charge! But please consider making a donation to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) if you do.
www.patreon.com/posts/136304...

Only just seen this - thanks so much, Dion! Glad you enjoyed it. :D

Thankfully, much of his work remains available.

Me too! One of the great horror collections of the '90s, and so many people have probably never heard of it.

Paul Pinn: A Tribute, by Simon Bestwick 5 May 2016I didn’t know Paul Pinn that well on a personal level; we met in person once or twice, spoke on the phone a handful of times, and corresponded by email. He wasn’t much taller than me, as I r...

Paul Pinn, who passed away in 2016, was a terrific and highly original author of horror fiction, and deserves to be remembered far more widely than he is right now. I talk a bit about him over at Marni Scofidio's website.
www.forattentionpress.com/post/paul-pi...

I'm all for expanding the social democratic coalition beyond liberals and progressives. But the idea that you can do social democratic politics *in opposition* to liberals and progressives is a nostalgic, self-indulgent fantasy. Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky... • 18m The Glasmanisation of the Labour Party is a massive risk to them. The Conservatives discovered that if you insult your professional base long enough in a desperate attempt to win populist right votes, they will flock to the Lib Dems and you lose 60 seats. Labour may find similar soon enough.

I don’t want to deter people who are finally waking up to how bleak and disastrous this shit is - hooray, wow etc - but it is monstrously aggravating that they were all told this at length ten years ago, and reacted much like they were being mooed at by annoying cows. *No shit* lads, do you think?

In which I'm interviewed by the magnificent Marni Scofidio!
www.forattentionpress.com/simon-bestwi...

Coming next month:

@ememess.bsky.social says RESURRECTION BLUES is “Rich and uncanny, melancholy yet uplifting, a tale of redemption and renewal that – like the blues itself – manages to feel both fresh-minted and as old as time.”

Preorder from blackshuckbooks.co.uk/resurrection...?

Nightmare Abbey 8 Hi folks, Just a quick heads-up to let you all know that my story 'The Witch of November' is the lead tale in the latest edition of Tom Engl...

The new issue of Nightmare Abbey is out now, featuring my story 'The Hadrian Hornpipe' alongside that of many other cool writers like Stephen Volk, Steve Rasnic Tem, Helen Grant, Gary McMahon, John Llewellyn Probert and more!
simon-bestwick.blogspot.com/2025/04/nigh...

Yer uncle explaining why the lady he met on the internet hasn’t arrived and also why he doesn’t have any money left

Following the Spring Statement, government approval falls to its joint lowest level since Labour were elected Approve: 14% (-5 from 22-24 Mar) Disapprove: 68% (+8) Net: -54 (-13)

It is imo not great that we just had several years of political commentators congratulating Labour for their excellent bullshitting of the electorate to get elected, and that their polling since the public discovered what it is they had bought has been a rocket-propelled plummet.

Indeed. And, sadly, the people who were most likely to lob this at me were female relatives.
They were very strongly of the opinion that women should be looking busy and bustling.

Is that the Arrow Blu-Ray set? That was how I did my rewatch. :)

Also available on Spotify!
creators.spotify.com/pod/show/no-...

Don Coscarelli's 'Phantasm' films YouTube video by No Darkness But Ours Podcast

In something of a labour of love, @gemmafiles.bsky.social & I step through the dimension fork to talk about AN ENTIRE HORROR FRANCHISE: Don Coscarelli's 'Phantasm' films, in an episode dedicated, with love, gratitude and admiration, to the one and only Reggie Bannister.
youtu.be/TfxuEPZZJu8

Yes

I mean, the Tall Man rules, and who couldn't love Reggie (albeit some of his chat-up techniques are a bit wince-worthy, but he's always put firmly in his place by the women he encounters. Especially Rocky, who deserves her own spin-off...)

Am also currently bingeing the Phantasm films (to talk about with Gemma in an upcoming podcast!), and can a) testify as to their awesomeness and b) would also dearly love to write something in that world.

I might see if I can set this thing to post "You should have voted for Corbyn, you nitwits" as a status each day automatically, as it will almost certainly be relevant to at least one current UK news headline.

The kind of thing you would read in the bombed-out basement of a building called “Agricorp HQ” in Fallout: New Vegas, and in Britain this is just what you should expect on any random Friday.

Excellent news to wake up to from Joe Manco of @littlesparkfilms - the movie I wrote, The Torturer, is now streaming on the Cineverse streaming platform! The same people who are about to release the new Toxic Avenger movie! 🎥 🔨

Re: that M*ta/LibGen piracy post...

SINCE YOU'VE FUCKING NICKED MY FUCKING ECKO BOOKS, MAY YOU FUCKING CHOKE ON EVERY LAST FUCKING USE OF THE FUCKING WORD 'FUCK'.

Fuckers.

Rafael Behr: Podcast! On The Ideological Mind - how our brains are hardwired for rigid dogmatic thinking, and some more than others ... shows.acast.com/politicsonth...

As ever, I’d ask: What counts as “ideology” in year 17 of there being no alternative to everyone’s lives getting shittier, and what is “radicalisation” when the government is aiding and abetting genocide and almost nobody will concede that this is what it’s doing?

As a socialist, I had bugger-all expectations of Keith Stalin and Ratched Reeves, but they've actually managed to fall short even of those.

Yup. They're out-Torying the Tories, and Starmer and Reeves, and Kendall and Streeting, ought to be strung up for it.

It’s worth repeating that when an anti-austerity movement finally arose organically from the public, these politicians worked hand-in-glove with Britain’s national news outlets to destroy it and hound it as far out of public life as possible. So that they could do this, to everyone you know.