Well folks I think it’s high time for another Arts and Crafts movement, don’t you?

Day 7 in our 120-year-old house. The tap water has shaken off its mysterious rusty tint. We’ve issued an eviction notice to the possum in the roof. The old carpets have been banished; some of the worst wallpaper is soon to follow. My books wait patiently in the barn for their new accommodations.

We have a secret convict brick fireplace covered over in the master bedroom wall we’re planning to release soon too. It creates the exact same issues - I’ve never felt a draft but I swear the bedroom is a couple degrees colder for it being there!

“Let’s go see the one totally sane human being again,” I say, and June says, “Okay.”

This story is so special to me.

It’s gorgeous. Absolute masterclass in POV and tenderness.

💖

D0G by Tania Fordwalker Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast.

clarkesworldmagazine.com/fordwalker_0...

great story. a woman and her murderous robot dog in the post-apocalypse.

Let's Go to the Zoo - Reactor Equipped with two sandwiches, a couple sets out to the zoo to see the one totally sane human being.

friends. enemies. it's time.

LET'S GO TO THE ZOO:

This is what social media is meant to be about.

Aww, thanks! Apologies in advance for any crushing despair inflicted. And I’m glad to hear all’s well with you! I’ve graduated a PhD, moved permanently back to Tas, got a Real Job, and bought a house near Cygnet - that’s probably the main stuff. All good things. ✨

(Also, hi Jen, how’s life?)

My bugbear with YT specifically right now is that half the time when I open the app it starts auto playing shorts at me! No! NO. I thought we all agreed in the early days of the internet that autoplay was verboten! Worse: I cannot find a way to turn it off. Worst: I PAY FOR THIS.

Thank you! I’m stoked but also quite apprehensive about the potential reactions to it. Feels like it needs a ‘views expressed do not reflect’ disclaimer, only for character/author rather than employee/employer. 😅

Release the hound! Thrilled to have my first @clarkesworldmagazine.com story loose in the world. ‘D0G’ is about the difficulty of loving creatures with a propensity for war.

I’m so excited for next time you need to take a screenshot

Looking over an alert dog’s shoulder we see a wallaby standing frozen in the path, staring back

Morning walks with the dog in Tasmania require regular stops for furry pistols at dawn

Just need to get some Fosters beer now and he'll be so thrilled

aussie friend coming to visit for the first time on Monday so gonna help him feel at home with lunch at Outback

People offer ‘army intelligence’ as the prime example of an oxymoron, but consider: ‘political party’

I doubt anyone in Hobart who’s been outside and watched the Aurora Australis strobing through the night sky will ever forget tonight. This is the most active Aurora I’ve seen. Photos taken on my IPhone 14 Pro Max about 1.3 kilometres from my front door.

Beautiful! That’ll be a core memory for them. I still remember being hustled down to the beach in the early hours as a child to watch a meteor shower.

We are so lucky! I’ve been in Tassie for 15 years and have seen a few but this one might be the best yet!

Blackmans Bay! Far enough south of Hobart to miss the city lights, and on the coast. I’d have got better shots if I went to the beach but I am sadly very lazy and barely managed pants for this

Photo of aurora australis

Photo of aurora australis

aurora australis: *enters rave mode*

Photo of the Aurora Australis

Excuse me aurora australis do you mind keeping it down? Some of us are trying to sleep

I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows. I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible. I don't have any advice for how to do that. I'm sorry!

Cory Doctorow is great. From pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...

I was just talking to @fordwalker.bsky.social about this: after using Scrivener, going back to Word for edits feels like *punishment*.

Yeah, it’s what the publishers use. We gotta track those changes.

And yet. It’s like being put in stocks.

Unmissable Fantasy and SciFi of 2026! The EXTREMELY MANY SFF releases of 2026 that I consider unmissable!

The one, the only: the ✨UNMISSABLE SFF of 2026✨ list!

🎆 🎆 🎆 🎆 🎆

aka all the fantasy and sci-fi that should definitely be on your tbr, how are these not on your tbr already??? you poor unfortunate soul, let's fix that!
buff.ly/IWTR8A6

I just assume this of all your posts, Alan

I feel this. It's no coincidence that gardening was something I enjoyed this year. Fewer devices, less tracking, more care. Paper books, friends IRL, walking, tea, perfume, cinema, gigs...
Just be mindful that the attention economy is *not*your friend and not everything is accomplished by shopping.