NOTING THIS. 🫤

East Coast Mainline, my old friend…

I’m not. 😂

If you make them care, they’ll care.

They won’t find out unless the author includes a later, detailed description.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 926: Avoid long descriptions of your characters. No one really cares what the shape of their nose is, or what their jumper is made of, especially when that’s the first thing your readers are learning about them…

INTRODUCING MRS COLLINS, by Rachel Parris: a fresh green jacket with pink and yellow trim…

Dandelions…

So enjoying this lovely novel by @rachelparris.bsky.social: clever, funny and so very refreshing…

brutal, shameful and disgusting

I can't stop thinking about this + 'Hamnet-era' in the Guardian yesterday + that quote from Sam Altman doing the rounds, about buying intelligence as if it were a utility

Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan (1914 – 1944) was a British agent in France in the Second World War who served in the Special Operations Executive. She became the first female wireless operator to be sent from the UK into occupied France to aid the French Resistance during WW2. #CelebratingWomen

Offer ends on the 30th!

Unfolding, the musical by @emmavieceli.bsky.social just reached its funding target! Amazing!

And this morning the Shed is a knotted rope, leading up into the clouds…

So would mine. :-)

An interesting story about prizes and literature today.

It’s burning the planet. Drinking the water. Stealing the work. Taking the jobs. Making the children kill themselves.
What part of “replacing humans” is so appealing??

Lesbians support the trans and non-binary community – just look at all the evidence This year Lesbian Visibility Week is bringing together the UK’s largest queer and lesbian groups around the theme #UnitedNotUniform

While anti-trans narratives continue to be pushed by a vocal minority, that’s not the full story.

From our archives, Polly Shute looks back at the long history of lesbian support for Trans+ people 🏳️‍⚧️

#LVW26
🧡🤍🩷

www.wearequeeraf.com/lesbians-sup...

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 1409:
Don't go for the blandest option. The more individual your style, the less likely AI is to ever be able to copy it.

Front cover of Sleepers in the Snow by Joanne Harris. Coming out in September!

SIGNED BOOK NEWS!

Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social has a new novel out in September.

"Sleepers in the Snow".

If you'd like a SIGNED copy, I have some great news.

We'll be getting some!

ORDER HERE!

biggreenbookshop.com/signed-copie...

So many dandelions…

I can see that our processes are very different. I can't envisage any stage of a novel in which I don't think of my characters as people. But good luck: I hope you get there!

So who *do* you care about?

None of those things matter. Don't ask yourself if the reader will *like* them. Ask why the reader will *care.*

I heard there was a tasty meal
From Mexico, with great appeal
It's quick to make and could be so much harder
A spicy sauce to make you smile
It's topped with cheese and baked a while
The warming and delicious
Enchilada

Define "likeable".

Portrayal by Artemisia Gentileschi.

Maddalena Casulana (1544–1590) was an Italian composer, lutenist, and singer. In Venice, her book of madrigals for four voices, "Il primo libro di madrigali", was the first printed and published work by a woman in Western music history. #CelebratingWomen

And this morning the Shed is at the end of a path all bluegreen and singing with bluebells…

Today, at home.

It's part of the journey, not the destination.

Those are also part of your voice.

_"The Government’s consistent cheerleading for data centre expansion has reached a point of reckless disconnect from the economic reality of Irish citizens... Irish families are paying nearly double the electricity rates of these industrial facilities, effectively subsidizing the massive energy consumption of global tech giants while struggling with a punishing cost-of-living crisis." https://greenparty.ie/news/uncritical-expansion-data-centres-will-fuel-social-inequality-and-energy-crisis-cllr-hazel-chu

Data centres uses 32% of Ireland's total electricity supply but pay almost less than half of the residential rate. So we're effectively subsidizing tech giants during a cost of living & energy crisis. Meanwhile this Govt continues to cheerlead their expansion & continue to fail in their obligations.