Words From Darran

“0% woke shit”

a black man with a physical disability leads an environmental terrorist cell trying to save the planet from mega-billionaires and you play as a cross dressing twink femdomed by two different women ending and the final boss against the gayest angel of all time

A women's soccer star is the target of an anti-trans activist - Outsports Barbra Banda's peers in the NWSL stood up for her when the head of an anti-trans fashion brand tried to demean her.

Transphobes are already targeting the biggest star in women's soccer and baselessly alleging she's a man because she's Black. This is what trans people warned would happen. Gender policing that becomes explicitly racial.

www.outsports.com/2025/11/6/24...

is this how promotion works on bluesky i have no idea what we're all about here

An array of Usborne children's books on an array of subjects from Ohysics tl Architecture

An array of Usborne children's books (spine on) on a range of subjects from the Human Body to Mindfulness.

apparently it is #NonFictionNovember and i write non-fiction kids books so that seemed like a good excuse to share the EIGHTEEN books i have written over the past eight years. look at them all. #KidsBooksFriday #KidLitUK #UKKidLit #KidLit

Those girls deserve the world!!

This was my book of the year this year - full of warmth and hope, and ironically, humanity 💜

can’t tell if my antidepressants aren’t working or if they just weren’t built for this. like, zoloft was introduced in the 90s it barely needed to work then. if you got sad you could just buy a house.

It's such a special day when your debut novel is finally released, after all that excitement and anticipation, and I just want to extend my well wishes to author Patricia Pushlady on her publication day.

thomas (@perfectsweeties) on twitter: everyone's always like "ohh we have no idea what's at the bottom of the ocean!!" look bud i know exactly what's down there. it's gotta be water

JK Rowling says "ha ha.. h-heh. I won! I won!" She sits alone in the dark, bathed in the late of her computer screen. We pull back to see her in a large dark empty room. She continues "I won." Seeing the full scope of her cavernous workplace, she appears small and alone. She says, once again, "I won..."

This is how I imagine JK Rowling when she posts.

Omg my audio processing is so happy!!!

A sunny selfie of Hux, a white person with auburn hair and green glasses, holding up a postcard to their face. The postcard is pink and purple and says Reality Check.

A screenshot of the Bookseller announcement for my new novel. Simon and Schuster UK swoons for Lizzie Huxley-Jones’ ‘escapist’ reality show romance RIGHTS OCT 9, 2025 BY CASSIDY BAILEY. The photo shows Hux a white person with light auburn hair sitting on a couch in a green lead patterned suit, eyes closed and laughing.

Simon & Schuster UK has acquired two new novels by Lizzie Huxley-Jones, who was previously published by Hodder & Stoughton. Deputy publishing director Molly. Crawford acquired world all-language rights in a two-book deal from Abi Fellows at DHH Literary Agency. The first of the two novels, Reality Check, is a "funny, escapist" romance between two women who share a kiss behind the scenes of a reality TV show and find themselves choosing between on-screen fame or true love. Reality Check will publish in all formats in April 2026. Crawford said: "I've long been obsessed with Lizzie's Christmas romances so am absolutely thrilled to be able to welcome them to the S&S list. Reality Check satiates a universal need for realistic romance elevated by unusual circumstance rather than narrative necessity. Lizzie captures the chaos and charm of reality TV, weaving a love story that delivers kick-your-feet romance alongside punch-in-the-gut relatable detail. It centres and celebrates queer love, living with chronic illness and freeing ourselves from life's filters. It's a novel you can't help but press into the hands of friends and I'm so excited to take it to market."

Huxley-Jones is the author of the queer holiday romcoms Make You Mine This Christmas and Under the Mistletoe with You, the young adult summer romance Hits Different co-written with Tasha Ghouri, and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize-shortlisted fantasy series Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend. Reality Check is their third adult romance novel. Huxley-Jones said: "Reality Check brings together my deep fascination with reality television, with the concept of persona and masking, through the experiences of two queer women who just cannot seem to escape each other. There's hijinks and fake-dating arrangements and an autistic girl unravelling 'comphet' all within the bounds of a wedding-themed dating show. It's been a book in my heart for years and I'm so glad it will reach readers next year. "It is such a thrill and honour to bring my romcoms to the incredible team at Simon & Schuster, especially my wonderful editor Molly Crawford. They are not only a team who understand and respect commercial romance fiction, but one that deeply cares for their authors. It's been such a joy to work with them on Reality Check, my most ambitious romcom to date, and to see their enthusiasm at every step. I'm so thankful for my agent Abi Fellows finding my work such an enriching home."

The news is official! I can finally tell you that my next romcom Reality Check will be out in April next year!

"Tories will scrap stamp duty on primary residences, Kemi Badenoch tells conference"

okay but will the residences be affordable or nah?

I never do this and don’t even feel obligated to click the link (shares would be nice!) but our first fur baby needs dental surgery and, I won’t lie, I am climbing the walls with anxiety about it.

gofund.me/b8fa10852

tonight DMing i rolled three natural 20s in a row which i am informed is a 0.0125% chance lmao

The top images show Hyacinth from keeping up appearances holding her have up to a bucket with a look of disgust. The bottom images show Hyacinth from keeping up appearances pointing towards a vase of flowers and smiling

😞

okay this is worse than the sarah j maas soap.

A tumblr screenshot from user clarabosswald that reads: "i asked chatgpt" "i asked grok" well i asked the alethiometer and it said Followed by a series of emoji representing different symbols on an alethometer

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

A tumblr screenshot from user clarabosswald that reads: "i asked chatgpt" "i asked grok" well i asked the alethiometer and it said Followed by a series of emoji representing different symbols on an alethometer

Jane Goodall, renowned chimpanzee researcher and animal advocate, dies at 91 "Dr. Goodall's discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world," the Jane Goodall Institute said in a Wedne...

Farewell to one of the greats
www.nbcnews.com/news/obituar...

colleague: Darran is this post-it on the floor yours?
me: what does it say on it?
colleague: it says "ghosts on the brain"
me: .........yes that's mine.

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

bro you look like you drop common items

A photo of someone reading a book by the sea. The beach is stony. The book is open with a mushroom bookmark resting in the pages, and a cup of coffee on the table behind it. Only just in frame are some fingers holding the book open, fingernails painted black.

A sunset over the sea at Brighton beach.

today is my birthday and i spent it being a weird bookish hermit by the seaside, unlike every other day.

I will answer to Science Girl, fyi

A photo of the sunset over Brighton beach. Spears of golden sunlight are emerging from a hole in the clouds like the voice of god

Rapture's started xx

what kind of frood do you take me for