As someone who learnt early to navigate life through prism of books the second quote comes as quite the kick in the teeth & also waaaaayyy too late

This Is Just To Say

I have turned off
the AI features
that were in
the update

and which
you were probably
hoping
to monetize

Fuck you
they were stupid
so unnecessary
and so annoying

FFF Competition Thirty-Three
open until 23.4
Judge: Rosaleen Lynch
@rosaleenlynch.bsky.social

100 to 300 words

1 W £200.00
2 HC £100.00
3 SL £80.00
and publication
£4.95 per entry/story

#writingcompetitions
#flashfiction
Read the rules!

All the info...
freeflashfiction.com/current-comp...

exciting!!

Do you want to see the "big picture" on climate change?

Here it is.

Emissions are on the left, and include CO2, CH4, N2O, and f-gases. Natural CO2 sinks (from healthy forests & oceans) are on the right. And carbon removal, what little there is, is on the right, too. All expressed as GWP100.

Of course the tree is a dare for local children. Can you walk it to the end and throw a stone into the pool? The fear comes not from falling off as such, but the fear of falling off into waters that are home to Stay Belows. After all, they are so hungry in mating season. – Joanna Vickers, 1982 #VOH

Goodnight from Mary Marlow, pouring extra cider into the Gathergood stew she’s making for her late husband’s birthday dinner. Goodnight from Susie Mugford, feeling hollowed out by The Boom-boom Club and wishing there was a spell to cure the heart of tenderness. Goodnight from Hookland.

The Long Neolithic is a fever. It infects all of us stone botherers – whether we are archaeologists or lithic pilgrims. None are free of its symptoms. The call to visit, that palpable feeling ongoing ceremony when you walk into a stone circle. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday

In which Gary highlights the intellectual snobbery rampant in the Establishment. The presumption if you didn’t come from the right family you aren’t worth listening too. This even with Gary’s strong academic CV. V disappointing from Rory Stewart but not surprising given his background

Aw thank you!! I don’t think it’s published online - I guess once book is out in July? xx

Thank you! I AM! tickets already booked!

Yikes! Congrats to you too, Chris!

Thank you!!!!

It really is! Thanks James!

Literal scenes in my house

To walk beneath the march of pylons. To walk beneath the electric ley of the land. To follow The Hum. This was our calling. This was our navigation across the land. Transmission tower to transmission tower, we were transformed. – Signal-catcher Rose, ex-Child of The Hum #VOH #Pylons

And to you - I saw your name there too x

Thank you, Cole! 😘😘

Flash Fiction Prize 2026: RESULTS - Fish Publishing Winners Short-list Long-list   From all of us at Fish, thank you for sharing your flash stories with us. The range, originality, and quality of the work made this year’s selection especially rewarding...

🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺

This is my own trumpet I am blowing! Check me out amongst the great and the good.

Came third. Totally beside self. Not cool about it at all

fishpublishing.com/2026/04/18/f...

There is a Hookland dialect word I am most fond of and find inordinately useful – path-doubt. It refers to the uncertainty of looking down the way and not knowing if the folk you can glimpse are flesh and blood or phantom flicker. – #CLNolan #WOTD

Goodnight from that suburb of tangled streets close to the Weychester Canal known as Jordan, rumour-shivered by the walking of the brass-eyed man. Goodnight from Sarah Padley, making prayers to a box of teeth given pride of place upon her kitchen table. Goodnight from Hookland.

The clock is ticking! ⏰ Just 7 days to get those 100-300 words together & polished for the @freeflashfiction.bsky.social Competition Thirty-Three!

Well, all the legs broken right back at you! 🦵🦵🦵🦵

6 tickets left for the last Saturday else it’s sold out!

And how about yours?

Finally costume changes and props are behaving! Just as well as its preview night tomorrow

Place is layers of story. No matter how wide the field, how sweeping the sky, it will always ghost-soaked. For this is the inevitability of place and us, we cannot help but plant our ghosts in it. – Dr. M. Benn, presentation at the 1982 Woden College Ghost Conference

Goodnight from Jill Boutflour, unable to sleep in case the Boy-With-the-Porcelain-Face comes out of the wardrobe to creep-crawl her room again. Goodnight from dead Philip Lovett, regretting an afterlife as an author without either a pen or a notebook to scribble in. Goodnight from Hookland.

So far this seems to be how people use AI - to do stuff they could easily do themselves. Like work out what frickin’ coffee they fancy today. Dearie, dearie me.

Our new AI overlords will end up as thick as shit based on this quality of input

Well, look what’s come around again way quicker than I was prepared for …