Heather Palmer

Announcing the Scottish Christmas Book Fair!

* The perfect occasion for Christmas gift shopping

* All your favourite genres for adults & children

* Chat with Scotland’s indie publishers & meet their authors

See below for who'll be there!

www.publishingscotland.org/event/scotti...

AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief Publisher last week reported jump in revenue in academic and professional arm thanks to AI licensing deal

What beats writers block is not treating your body like a factory. What beats writers block is healthcare. What beats writers block is gardening, & rest, & food, & companionship, & reading, & leisure, & anti-capitalism—but of course that’s not a very profitable thing to write, & won’t sell LLMs.

Writer pals! just a wee reminder to join ALCS if you haven't already, and to make sure they have details of your print publications by the end of november - 30/11 is the cut-off for the next royalty payments in March.

www.alcs.co.uk

Sorry but it’s hard for me to care about the BBC’s risk of being defunded or whatever when frankly it’s been primarily used to normalise right wing rhetoric about immigrants, trans people, and others. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I am so excited for you all to read @rainewilson.bsky.social's THE SALT ORACLE - it's beautiful, tragic, haunting and filled with brilliant details - this is near future speculative fic of the fantastical.

Also TINY SPINE ORCA!

Best Audiobook: Young Adult Books Shortlist | The British Audio Awards The shortlist for the Best Audiobook: Young Adult Books category at The British Audio Awards - aka The Speakies - organised by The Bookseller and The Stage

In things that are cool, The Shape of Monsters is up for a Speakies award next month! Am I amused that it's listed as YA? Yes, but also teens read whatever they want.

www.thebookseller.com/british-audi...

Congratulations!!!! 😍

I'm super excited to chat about the manuscript's journey and working with agents at this fantastic conference in November!

The incredible @cymerafestival.co.uk is on Sat Nov 22 in Edinburgh. It’s a celebration of sci-fi, fantasy and horror literature.

I’m part of this panel session about collaboration - working with other writers, artists, colourists and more.

Full event details: www.cymerafestival.co.uk

You’ve got blood on your hands

Each and every one of you transphobic bastards have blood on your hands.

The politicians, the ‘journalists,’ the ‘academics,’ the ‘concerned parents,’ the people with ‘legitimate concerns.’

You all have fucking blood on your hands

It's me! And a game I wrote in a cool book curated by @jedapearl.bsky.social with lots of fun folks! Come to the launch! Play a #game buy a #book! It's about the fantastic #NorthBridge #Edinburgh and its gone in a #TimeCapsule in the #Bridge!! #rpg #ttrpg #TimeTravel #AuldReekie

Decision time: Tell Keir to #StopRosebank This is the moment we've been building towards: it's final decision time for the UK Government. Equinor is trying to get the new Rosebank oil field re-approved. It's up to us all to convince the Gover...

actionnetwork.org/forms/the-go...

Against a pale yellow background: 14 - 17 October. Online Only. Waterstones 25% off RRP on upcoming books. Preorder now with code OCTOBER25. Selected lines only, Terms and Conditions available on waterstones.com. Below, 3D books for THE ORB OF CAIRADO by Katherine Addison THE GODS MUST BURN by T. R. Moore THE MISHEARD WORLD by Aliya Whiteley THE KINGDOM OF ALMONDS by Ariel Kaplan THE MANY by Sylvain Neuvel ASUNDER by Kerstin Hall INTERGALACTIC FEAST by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

🚨 ROLL UP! ROLL UP!🚨

It's a @waterstones.bsky.social preorder sale!

Until 17th Oct, you can grab 25% off a selection of our forthcoming Spring 2026 titles including: @kerstinhall.bsky.social @authortrmoore.bsky.social & the UK special limited run of THE ORB OF CAIRADO from @pennyvixen.bsky.social!

Salt does great books, and keeping a strong indie scene alive is good for us all. Support them if you can!

Got a new one out with @havehashad.com today!
www.havehashad.com/hadposts/ple...

and an illustration of 3 characters surrounded by an orange autumnal tree and graves. One character is a cat clown doll floating above the right shoulder of a large buff man with a beard and overalls, then floating over the man's other shoulder is a slightly transparent cowboy with green hair and heavy scars.

Gravehearts chapter 1 is now live on itch! 🪦💛

kroovv.itch.io/gravehearts

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

This morning, an attack carried out by Israeli forces killed Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff member, Omar Hayek, and seriously injured four others. The attack took place on a street where our teams were waiting to take a bus to the MSF field hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza. All staff were wearing MSF vests, clearly identifying them as medical humanitarian workers. We express deep sorrow and outrage over the killing, which occurs less than two weeks after another MSF colleague, Hussein Alnajjar, was killed by the Israeli forces, in Deir Al Balah. Our thoughts are with Omar’s family and colleagues at this tragic time. Omar, 42 years old, is the fourteenth MSF colleague to be killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

MSF staff are universally understood to be engaged in an essentially sacred form of work. For a state to nonetheless continuously murder them is a testament to a truly unthinkable degree of depravity.

msf.org/msf-denounce...

Glasgow Gender Clinic now has a waiting time of 224 years. The average across the UK is now 25 years.

This segregated system isn’t working and is wasting millions. The NHS has been told time and again - informed consent now.

I have felt the rage!

Some days you write a scene which you know is going to make people so furious in a year and a half.

And you just have to wait for it.

The Gender Critical have already inundated this survey with their disgusting views on banning trans people from using the ponds.

Would be a shame if we inundated with trans positive views on not banning trans people.

hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is/en-GB/propos...

🚨The UK Comics Creator Survey closes in a few days!

Yes! YES! The tigerS are OUT!

Now the only thing left to do is decide…will you read Fate’s Bane first? Or The Sovereign?

I made a handy flowchart that can help you decide which if you aren’t sure!!!

Starmer before the election: I want a politics that treads lighter on all our lives
Starmer after the election: I'm going to hurt one randomly selected group every month so you better not stop paying attention to the news for even a second in case you're next fucko!

SEPTEMBER Poems of the Month This month’s selection gathers poems that move through address, memory, and observation. What binds them is the way images stand in for presence.

I got shortlisted for Verve's Poem of the Month! The Poem can be read here alongside the winner and other shortlistees! vervepoetry.substack.com/p/september-...

We're thrilled to announce Gemma Creffield as the Keynote Speaker for this year's Writers' Conference 🎉

Me standing in a field with my dog, smiling at the camera, one hand in my pocket. There are large trees behind me.

🎉 It's my birthday!! Please consider checking out my free webcomics visagecomic.com and inhibitcomic.com, or my shop evegwood.com/shop, or the publisher I run quindriepress.com! Or hire me, I'm looking for freelance lettering work evegwood.com/lettering 💛

Lorraine Wilson | Patreon Speculative fiction author, tea drinker, cat herder

Scary news A:
I've finally moved from Substack to Patreon (losing all my subscribers as a result 😱).
If you've ever enjoyed my articles please come subscribe - All my craft and publishing posts are always free because accessibility matters, so I'd love any boosts too🖤
patreon.com/LorraineWilson

Sagas of the Shield Maiden Book Five The acclaimed Viking Western comic returns! Volumes #1-4 also available.

I just backed Sagas of the Shield Maiden Book Five by @asawheatley.bsky.social on Kickstarter.

Superb series. Check it out👇

www.kickstarter.com/projects/asa...