This is very exciting. An unexpected Christmas fillip!

That was a very horrible game of football

✅Quite right

I've kept trying to make one happen but just embarrassing myself

Total disaster

Enjoyed reading this. Can't believe you haven't done it until now!

I can completely imagine! (Hence I don't have one.) But it was very relatable.

Nice piece 🙂

solipsistic?

Fabulous - enormous congrats!

Under 40's Declining Memory A Large US Study Finds Memory Decline Surge in Young People

'We have built a trillion-dollar system to externalize thought, then act astonished when the interior world collapses.' onepercentrule.substack.com/p/under-40s-...
I'm not so worried about 'declining memory' as much as the 'collapse of the interior world' (which is why my WIP is about exactly this)

I get it. This was in Bradford in the 90s BTW.
I could well be wrong but I think in this case it was just yer classic attempt to be superior to the ignorant masses (which included me)

What, with "olt" at the end?? In that case I take it all back.... I've only ever heard other English people say "REN-oh". Maybe I've moved in rarified circles

I had an ex who always pronounced Renault 'REN-olt'. I eventually asked him why and he said 'because, love, you *know* how it should be pronounced if you're going to say it the French way' (so I assume he meant 'rrrruhn-OH'). His parents also pronounced it this way. A particular kind of arseholery

Donate to Support Jamaica – Hurricane Relief & Recovery Fund Help rebuild Jamaica. Contribute securely to the national relief and recovery fund. Your donation supports disaster response and community rebuilding.

🇯🇲 please share and donate if you can - supportjamaica.gov.jm/donate

Wow. Yes. I could have written this (I didn't)

Here's the truth: The reason birdwatching is stereotyped as “for old people” is because our culture is so dysfunctional it takes most people 50 years or more to figure out what makes for a meaningful life. The answer is genuine connection to other people and nature. Birds are how most people can get there fastest. Birdwatching is not a hobby for old people. It's one of the most important things anyone can do at any age to improve the quality of their life. At its core, birdwatching is about focusing less on ourselves and more on the wider world that surrounds us.

"At its core, [Heroneering] is about focusing less on ourselves and more on the wider world that surrounds us..."

A beautiful outlook from @easybynature.bsky.social Bill Davison

billdavison.substack.com/p/birdwatchi...

Bleak House?! 😁 love it

On the eve of Halloween, WORDTheatre turns the lights low for A Horror-Filled Halloween in Santa Monica.

Curated by Patton Oswalt

Directed by Cedering Fox

Reception at 6:15 pm • Performances at 7:15 pm

Tickets available through the link in our bio.

So tempting! 🫤

How sad if we've lost the Edge Hill Prize. It's been important to so many people, including me. We were talking about it at the Leicester Writes event last month with Abi Hynes and Malachi McIntosh, both shortlisted last year.

ICE attack on reporters: Press freedom and civil liberties groups condemn assault of amNewYork journalist, and others | amNewYork Press freedom and civil liberties organizations sharply condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Wednesday after journalists, including

“We’ve seen reprehensible behavior by DHS agents against journalists in all three of America’s largest cities. There’s no reason to think it will stop there, so it’s critical that we refuse to normalize this,” FPF's @adamrose.bsky.social told amNewYork.

The included story is from Ruby’s collection THIS PARADISE which is all bangers. One of the best short story collections I’ve read in years. Available from @boilerhouse.bsky.social!

This is *so* generous - thank you!

Ghost Box IV — Hingston & Olsen Publishing

My spine is tingling as a short from my @boilerhouse.bsky.social collection is in Ghost Box IV: a deluxe coffin of spooky/horror stories from Canadian publishers of gorgeous box sets Hingston & Olsen w/ texts selected by excellent human @pattonoswalt.bsky.social 🙏 Out today, print run very limited!

Why do people think creativity is like turning on a light and BANG, you have something new, interesting and able to be sold? I try to explain this to my beloved wife:

“Every meaningful act of creativity is the sum of thousands of quiet decisions, risks, revisions, and mostly failures.”

Same. Very depressed and worried

Many thanks for the shout! 🙏

There Is No Meant to Be" is available for preorder! My publisher promised that if I have 250 preorders that I get a case of prosecco left over from last year's Christmas party. 500 preorders before March & they'll go halfsies on a vintage George Foreman!

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ther...

Ooh!