Citizen Zero by Mark Cantrell | Dystopian Novel | Inspired Quill In a nation where security trumps civil liberty, is survival the same as freedom? Find out today! Paperback and eBook available

Order the novel through good bookshops, or buy direct from the publisher, @inspiredquill.bsky.social to support indie publishing.

www.inspired-quill.com/product/citi...

Image depicts the cover to the novel Citien Zero. Text reads: AI has devastated jobs, authoritarian surveilance is the norm, and unemployed David is struggling to survive a broken reality... The Matrix meets V for Vendetta with a twist of I, Daniel Blake.

Facial recognition, AI-powered surveillance, the fusion of corporate and state power, you just know it ain't gonna end well...

#booksky #books #novels #scifi #dystopia #AI

Just done an online reading from my novel Silas Morlock as part of a British Fantasy Society event, and apparently I wasn't terrible. (Maybe the host was being polite 🤣) Thanks for having me @britfantasysoc.bsky.social -- I enjoyed the experience very much.

Three novels on the go... I can't make up my mind if you are a glutton for punishment or a god of words!

I never actually signed up to D2D, they 'acquired' me when they bought up Smashwords.

Yeah, still sinking in for me, but smacks of vanity publisher tactics. Time to remove my books and delete my account.

Now that sounds like a story Like it or not, audiobooks offer a sound gateway to reading

Audiobooks can encourage a love of reading so a charity partnership aims to ensure they get a hearing this coming World Book Night...

markcantrellauthor.substack.com/p/now-that-s...

#QuickReads #WorldBookNight #audiobooks #GoAllIn #booksky

Finally finished the draft of my current novel's third chapter. Well, slow progres is better than no progress!

#amwriting

If we wake up and find Trump unleashed devastation, Labour’s silence will be absolutely damning.

If Trump has beyond hopefully de-escalated, it’s still damning.

In the face of genocide, what exactly is the point of the silent UK Prime Minister?

I can't put my finger on it, but those Truth Social comments from Trump they're reading out on the news today don't sound like him somehow.

The third one, I reckon. It looks like you're plotting something. Although they are all good.

Tykewriter Digest, April 2026 The latest quarterly news and writings from journalist and SFF author Mark Cantrell

My latest newsletter went out yesterday. You can dip in here and catch up with my recent news and writings...

markcantrellauthor.substack.com/p/tykewriter...

#writing #readers #author #fiction #booksky

Shown is a graphic that has a creamy background with elegant writing across it. Coming from the top left is a black fountain pen with a gold nib. On the top right and left is the BFS logo, a silver dragon design curling around the letters ‘BFS’. Photos (left to right): WP Wiles; Rachel Grosvenor; JM Cyrus; M S Palmer; Mark Cantrell; Amelia Roberts.

BFS Online: Language in SFFH, taking place Saturday 18th April 2026, has readings throughout the day. Please check for listings.

Ticket: tinyurl.com/sffhlang

@willwiles.bsky.social @matthewspalmer.bsky.social @man0words.bsky.social @aemlai.bsky.social

After a *saga* of a process (long story), we can finally share the cover for 'Old Phuul' by Dan Stride.

Dark fantasy with rotting empires, ancient faith, shadow-stalking inquisitors, and one very stubborn woman who refuses to -ahem- let the dead stay dead.

Coming August 1st!

So, this person is basically saying that nobody ever in the entire history of literature was capable of writing 'properly' until AI came around. Hmm, here's to being an improper writer long into the future!

This government can't be trusted to end the housing crisis because its ministers are bought and paid for by the developers, landlords and corporate interests who profit from it.

Zack Polanski meets unions in attempt to get them to switch party funding to Greens Leader understood to have spoken to 10 trade unions after party claimed working class voters are turning to them

Honestly, how long before the Labour government opts for proscribing the Greens as a terrorist organisation*?

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

(*Not to be taken entirely seriously, but these are strange times...)

Like it! :-)

Out of Office Stan's out to lunch, but that's only the start of his problems. Bits of his life just keep dropping out...

A short story on the author site this week. Enjoy...

markcantrellauthor.substack.com/p/out-of-off...

#fiction #creativewriting #shortstory #booksky #readers

Silas Morlock by Mark Cantrell | Dystopian | Inspired Quill If you're a fan of Orwell's books, you'll love Silas Morlock. Read the first chapter for FREE. Paperback and eBook available.

Buy Silas Morlock direct from the publisher, @inspiredquill.bsky.social and support indie publishing. The novel can also be ordered through good bookshops.

www.inspired-quill.com/product/sila...

Silas Morlock book cover, together with the text "A room without books is like a body without a soul." Beneath that, further text reads "A macabre melding of Fahrenheit 451 and Nosferatu".

That's human-authored books, obviously...

#booksky #fiction #novels #fantasy #scifi #dystopian @inspiredquill.bsky.social

Opinion: Don't miss this chance to get involved in a new national tenant body for social housing - HQN The long and the short of it is I've ended up doing some paid work alongside one of the groups trying to form a national tenant body. The project is going to

Opinion: Don’t miss this chance to get involved in a new national tenant body for social housing << important from @simplicitly.bsky.social hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion...

Been stuck on a chapter of my novel, and it is slowly dawning on me that the work is telling me that these particular paragraphs I am trying to grind into existence aren't necessary. That's why the resistance... the book knows.

Shy Girl, AI In Writing, And A New Perniciousness I wanna talk about Cameron’s The Terminator and Carpenter’s The Thing, but first, let’s get it out of the way — If you know anything at all about me in this Current Era, it …

Went ahead and talked about AI in writing and publishing (aka, that Shy Girl shit), and the perhaps unseen perniciousness of how AI can utterly fuck up the fidelity of our information environment --

It Couldn’t Happen Here. . My speech to the Northern Housing Festival

The text of my speech at the #NorthernHousingFestival to mark my 50th year in housing in which I called upon those in social housing to do more to counter the rise in racism by challenging the racist rhetoric of Reform and others and to provide more support and help refugees and asylum seekers.

Yield Nothing Anthology -- SUBS are still OPEN.

Inspired Quill is calling for short fiction and essays about resistance, hope, and human connection in the face of rising authoritarianism.

Storytellers. Essayists. We're especially talking to you. 1/3 🧵

Three years today, that's how long it's been since my dad passed away. Three years, that's also how long I was his full-time carer, keeping him company in the realms of dementia. Quite the double milestone. Truth be told, I still don't feel quite back in tune with 'normal' life.

A hand-carved grain of hope Recovering addicts have put their life and soul into a community sculpture intended to symbolise the possibility of rebirth

A community #sculpture hand-crafted by recovering addicts in Newcastle has been unveiled as a symbol of hope and encouragement. Read the story on my #author blog...

markcantrellauthor.substack.com/p/a-hand-car...

#ukhousing #art #publicart #addiction #community

Entire families wiped out and towns emptied as Israel’s war on Lebanon intensifies Communities displaced and destroyed while death toll rises faster than during any previous war in Lebanon

Israel hell-bent on doing to Lebanon what it's done to Gaza, but I guess our leaders will turn the same blind eye, and trot out the same excuses...

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

You know, sometimes I can't help the feeling that the world would be a much better place if the Black Death had wiped we Europeans out back in the 14th Century...