Susan Murray

The cover for the novel Forged for Royalty by Andrew Knighton. Three swords crossed across a crescent moon inside a ring, against a background of swirling green and yellow.

It's not out until next year, but Forged for Royalty has a cover! Great work again by Alexia E. Pereira.

This is the final book in my fake chosen one trilogy, this time leaning into war & politics so I can once again kick the tires of familiar tropes & wonder whether they might be a bit worn out.

> took it off the market, and, as far as we know double-bagged it all himself, hired and filled the requisite skip for it, then put the house back on the market with a different agent.

Sympathy. Flashing back to 2015 when we got a quote for removing the nasty kind (blue, IIRC) from a rundown chicken shed at the dream place we’d secured a mortgage on, but when we tried to negotiate the price down by the necessary 25k the owner spat the dummy out >

Fingers crossed! They might be a week or two behind south Cumbria?

Turns out this year has been good for home-grown apples.

They are yummy. :)

I thought so. On the plus side, the apples from the tree in the garden are delicious. The fool is missing out.

a stuffed penguin wearing a pink hat and skis is sitting on a chair . Alt: Pingu, a claymation penguin wearing a pink hat is sitting on a chair looking very cross.

Yes.

From now until the end of his days, whenever that bloke who cancelled steps through a doorway may there be a cellar spider dangling in a web at the perfect height to smack him in the face.

Heh. I reposted it earlier - ice skating clip.

a cartoon character with the words well i feel sheepish Alt: a cartoon character with the words well i feel sheepish

Sorry...

a window on the side of a house with a white shutter on it Alt: GIF: a laptop is thrown from an upstairs window to crash on ground below.

Annnd the recipient is on holiday this week, but mentioned this AT NO POINT DURING SEVERAL COMMUNICATIONS LAST WEEK.

Also, the viewer cancelled their second viewing while I was drafting the email…

What's that? Notorious bloviator discrediting the electoral system that he claims gave him a landslide victory? And that someone else claims to have handed to him?

Huh.

Thank you! Email sent, tension in neck and shoulders diminishing.

a man wearing a watch that shows the time as 5:00 Alt: Pedro Pascal standing in a ruined city, holding something slung over his left shoulder, looking tired but resolute.

Setting my email sights on the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations as applied to estate agents one last time. Wish me luck.

Doubt he'd recognise malicious compliance, even after it bit him on the arse.

So... who had ice skating chicken jockey on their bingo card for 2025?

She doesn’t need a hero, she is the hero we need. 🤩

I forgot about this for a while but the Bryce Elder "Sam Altman's kitchen" piece may be one of my favourite things I've read in business or tech history.

www.ft.com/content/b180...

Ursula K. Le Guin on why Women in SF panels are a waste of time (full text of her letter: manuscriptsandmore.liverpool.ac.uk?p=8752)

I sort of hope they all turn up in matching suits, for solidarity.

As long as we have puns, we have hope…

European leaders and Zelenskyy will have had pre-meeting meetings ahead of the Trump charade, won’t they?

A pile of fresh red apples on a white ceramic draining board.

Something wholesome for a change: Apples from the former parental abode.

I don’t think so. Most of them this time were tiny, tiny wispy ones that I wouldn’t normally notice - only spotting them because I’m peering into all their favoured corners. And counting them has become a coping mechanism of sorts.

I was saying this crap was going to happen! I warned people in March! AhhhhhhHHHH

www.wheresyoured.at/core-incompe...

A superpower, but it's just the ability to make everyone forget the incredibly stupid and embarrassing thing you said, like, fifteen years ago – including you.

Went back today to mow the lawn (mower doesn’t fit in my car) and did another quick despidering ahead of next two viewings: bagged 43 (of which 3 were fully-grown) only five days later.

Anyone who thinks I'm paranoid when I say that Brexiteers, racists, Christofascist, climate deniers, GCs, technros and Russia are in direct collusion to destroy everything good in the world needs to face reality.

This meeting was a blatant interference in British politics by the US Vice President.

ICYMI, here's our full schedule for this year's Edge-Lit 11 event at QUAD here in Derby - a veritable feast of genre fiction panels, interviews, workshops and more incoming on the 20th September... www.derbyquad.co.uk/events/edgel...