Jonathan Laidlow

A wonderful read, and a beautifully presented book too!

Filling my current story with em-dashes (or en-dashes, I'm entirely unsure at this point) because that's the way the prose wants to be. If it was good enough for Sterne in Tristram Shandy (subject of my long abandoned attempt to become a Dr) then it's good enough for me!

Bystanding (2018)

First published at Factor Four magazine 2018 Dave sits on the roof of the old Ford out by the farm gate with a beer. It hasn’t been a working farm for nearly a decade, but the yard and outbuildings were why he bought the place, and they’re filled with the broken-down vehicles he…

Shoreline of Infinity #39 (Summer 2025) Omniscient computers, ghosts in machines, and cellular communication all crop up in this edition of Shoreline, and there seems to be a loose theme of lives that take place within non-corporeal and hidden states.  Alan reviews the latest Shoreline of Infinity

Alan reviews the latest edition of the excellent @shoreinf.bsky.social‬ - Omniscient computers, ghosts in machines, and cellular communication all crop up in this edition of Shoreline, and there seems to be a loose theme of lives that take place within non-corporeal and hidden states.

Random literary ramble post about how an idea can travel. In Gene Wolfe's Book of the Short Sun (2000) we meet the inhumi of Green, shapeshifting aliens that take on the characteristics of their prey in order to impersonate them and get close enough to feed...

Ultan's Library a web resource for the study of Gene Wolfe

If you ever want to write this up we’d publish it at Ultan’s library! (Ultan.org.uk, largely dormant because of *life*)

Andrew’s story is brilliant! @deadinkbooks.bsky.social

Let me put it this way: Have you ever read a Malaysian retelling of Cupid and Psyche that features Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and Malay hair metal music?

PodCastle Disability Pride and Magic

PodCastle is very proud to join in celebrating Disability Pride Month with Disability Pride & Magic: a month of fantastic stories centering disabled characters and experiences.

See announcement on our website: podcastle.org/2025/06/30/d...

Issue 42 of Mythaxis Magazine is out now!
mythaxis.co.uk/issue-42/

Six new stories in text and audio formats, and reviews too!

Many thanks to @SeanMacKendrick.bsky.social, Cheryl Ntumy, Anna Ziegelhof, Travis Ezell, Charlie Winter, Josh Pearce, @faceyouhate.bsky.social, and Micah Hyatt on voice!

Inundated (2015)  Yuri woke up to the sound of waves breaking at the end of the street, and knew that the undines had breached the final defences. Even his house, one of the furthest from the harbour, would be theirs once again, like the rest of the city. He had slept in the upper bedroom and now looked out into the morning, surveying the city.

Republishing an old story as I rebuild my website - this is "Inundated" a fantasy which is my Mum's favourite. It was also a Far Fetched Fable podcast. It was sold to Ecotones - an original small press anthology - and it was my first sale.

While avoiding writing more of the puffin story, I thought I'd revisit an old draft of a near future short that I really liked. Oh. Nope! I don't think that's fixable! What about this story about aliens and sandwiches....

The puffins will have their revenge....

The cover of Watermyth by Anita Harris Satkunananthan has a woman in silhouette (Finora) with her hair in a bun, resting one hand on the balustrades of her balcony as she stares at a neighbouring Palazzo.

A memory-wiped mermaid-siren rehearsing for her storyteller exams tries to piece together events from the past, present and future while around her wars between merkingdoms are fomenting. 🧜🏼‍♀️🧜🏼‍♂️

Check out Watermyth!

mythopoetica.com/2024/09/01/p...

Am going to celebrate #Bloomsday by putting on the audiobook of Ulysses read by Jim Norton (Father Ted's Bishop Brennan) that I bought three Bloomsdays ago and and have still failed to complete... (not because he's not bloomin' marvellous, I might add). The failure is mine...

Today is the last day for Plott Hound's summer submission period! Slip those animal stories, poems and essay pitches through the dog door before midnight MST.

There’s still time to grab your ticket for this brilliant workshop with @bonabooks.bsky.social. Tomorrow, June 16th at 7pm. Tickets are £5 for BFS members and £10 for non-members

britishfantasysociety.org/events-calen...

@interzone.press issue 302 has dropped but I’m behind! Here’s my review of the previous issue over at my side project, Supernova…

Gull from Seaforth likes his chips green and his sausages fishy... This next Seaforth tale that I'm working on may become a novelette or even a novella...

A trope map of Watermyth. The cover of Watermyth by Anita Harris Satkunananthan has a woman in silhouette (Finora) with her hair in a bun, resting one hand on the balustrades of her balcony as she stares at a neighbouring Palazzo. The tropes are: Mermaids, An alternate venice founded by Renegade Mer-Princes, Culinary magic, Timey-wimey mindbending hijinks, Cupid and Psyche retold, Slow burn romance, High Seas Hijinks, Sentient Mushroom Homes, Unreliable Narrators, Found Family, Sirens, Dark Academia Vibes.

Hello I did my first trope map did I do it right?

mythopoetica.com/2024/09/01/p...

💙 📚 #Booksky #Romancelandia #Mermaids #writingcommunity

Back to my reviewing side project. I looked at the backlog of short fiction to review and thought, I know – I'll review a novella!

Mythaxis #41 – Spring 2025 Some strong stories in the latest edition of Mythaxis.

Mythaxis #41 – Spring 2025

Some strong stories in the latest edition of Mythaxis.

Photo of the cover of the novel Aerth by Deborah Tomkins

This was fantastic. Aerth by Deborah Tomkins is a short elegiac literary/spec fic novel where each chapter is a kind of flash fiction. Themes of displacement, ecological collapse and family. A kind of green “Man Who Fell to Earth” but in no way preachy or on the nose weatherglassbooks.com/shop/aerth

@rickandwrite.bsky.social too late we have broken it into five segments and you must complete a quest to win back each one

Well deserved! Congratulations!

Read “Strung Along in Seaforth” for free Tobias dressed the shop dummy in the skin of his late father and then carefully pinched and pulled until it was smooth and tight. Harold was to be his entry in Seaforth’s annual carnival and after …

Because I’m at @easterconuk.bsky.social in Belfast I posted my Strung Along in Seaforth story and then forgot to promote it. Having a smashing time, moderated a panel on David Lynch, spoke on a Star Wars panel and watched @rickandwrite.bsky.social win an award! jonlaidlow.com/2025/04/seaf...

my friend @nilaewhite.com has written this excellent trilogy that I want you to buy….

If you haven't already read Charlie Says, then take this nudge from the BSFA awards to go give it a look. It's the book from last year that I keep recommending, a brilliantly written & incredibly timely story of modern folk magic, toxic nostalgia, & the difficulty of redemption.