Brilliant book reviewers and behind-the-scenes readers 🎉📖

@steveblackman.bsky.social Jayne Leadbetter, Laura Jones, Lauren Marples, Cat Ould

🌟 And a very special thank you goes out to @stephaniebuosi.com who created the gorgeous front cover for this new issue 🌟

VERY exciting book post today! I can't wait to dive into DIRK JONES IS NOT THE CHOSEN ONE, by Gatlin Perrin. It's promising to be fun, spooky, nonbinary, and Welsh – all excellent things. Out October 9th. Thanks @fireflypress.bsky.social

Have wiser words ever been spoken?

Me neither! I love that it is.

I took a cab in the Lakes at the weekend. Our excellent driver revealed that he's a passionate gold panner. In Scotland! And the (plentiful) gold there is heavier, and more valuable than normal. Now my brain can't stop creating plots for stories featuring gold-filled Highland rivers.

Surely you find yourself name-checked in every single return as a positive example?

The @paperboundmag.bsky.social team keeps raising the bar. This new issue is STUNNING! I loved reviewing the latest YA – Live – from uber-talented writer and poet Luke Palmer. Music, 3D characters, a propulsive plot, and important themes. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me sing.

It was such a pleasure! Can't wait to see the new issue.

It was such a joy to see Julia Armfield talking about her new story Private Rites at Backstory this week. Her extraordinary prose has a Schrödinger effect on me – making me want to give up writing (knowing I’ll never be that good), whilst simultaneously inspiring me to go and write immediately.

I just finished listening to ALBION, written and read beautifully by Anna Hope. It's stunningly lyrical yet accessible, filled with urgent, essential themes. I sobbed at the end, which the book deserved, but the people in the coffee shop around me didn't. Thanks, Tom Rowley, for the recommendation.

Hang on. I wasn't worried being eaten by trolls before...

You can borrow mine…?

Excellent book post today! Thank you, @chickenhousebooks.bsky.social for sending me this gorgeous copy of The Binding Spell by Marisa Linton @mlinton.bsky.social. Full of dark academia, folk horror and the supernatural, you say? Count me in!

Congratulations, all, not least @piudg.bsky.social for the excellent Secrets of the Snakestone.

Writers’ dubious web searches #324: What is the best animal urine for tanning leather?

You know it’s an early start when you’ve finished your coffee before the #5amwritersclub

Hi Sara! Always lovely to see you!

Done!

Nice things I saw this week: The end of a deadline, the beginning of a new story, the live show of #TheRestIsEntertainment, and – this morning – a stunningly bright Jupiter in a clear blue sky.

Blue skies and cold. I'd take days like this all year round if it meant no grey skies and rain.

It’s 0700 in London. The sky’s a deep blue, and there’s a bright dot low in the western sky that I *think* is #Jupiter. It’s so far away, but so clear, and it’s giving me that vertigo feeling of looking out into space. It’s a lot for a Friday morning.

Ps - splendid crooning (and card reading) from Xander Armstrong too.

Marina Hyde in a red dress and Richard Osman in a Fulham FC Christmas jumper on stage at the Royal Albert Hall, surrounded by Christmas presents, and with two brightly illuminated Christmas trees.

So much fun last night with @trientertainment.bsky.social @royalalberthall.bsky.social. Gregg Wallace, Nitro, bookshelves and the World Cup of Christmas tunes. I can’t lie, I was hugely disappointed it only ran 25 minutes over! Thank you, Marina Hyde, @richardosman1.bsky.social and the orchestra.

Thanks, Maggie. The William Gibson comparisons are spot on. And that stuff’s disturbing in its fictional context.

Yesterday, over the annual family Christmas lunch, my brother, nephews and I agreed to play #Whamageddon. I officially lost at 18:37 today.

So, I wasn't able to join #NaNoWriMo this year, but I started a new story today, and have given myself until New Year's Day to complete a first draft. (Yeah, I know.) I'm calling it #ChrimboWriMo. Hop on board if you like; there's loads of room on the magical story sleigh.

Right!? I haven’t seen any luck yet, but it did feel auspicious in some way. Also, ravens are big when they’re that close!

You know what would **really** disrupt the publishing industry?
Fair contracts and decent pay for authors.
No AI training without the creator’s consent.
Artists and translators on the cover.
No NDAs for ghostwriters.

ITS A SCAM!

Publishers DON’T charge YOU to make YOUR books, they PAY you.

These guys aren’t tryna “Disrupt” anything, they’re depending on people who are desperately looking to be published to part with their money.

It’s far cheaper to learn to write or self publish.

The covers of two new books. The Zombie Project shows two purposeful teenage kids, and a friendly-looking teenage zombie, who's holding her hand out to a bee. The Wilderness of Girls shows four young women and two wolves under a full moon, against a stylised forest background.

Thank you, Chicken House, for today's exceptional book post. That's my reading needs sorted for a little while! Can't wait to dive in to: THE ZOMBIE PROJECT @alicenuttallbooks.bsky.social and THE WILDERNESS OF GIRLS @madelineclaire.bsky.social. Reviews to follow!