Peter M. Ball

The Theory Of Constraints The theory of constraints is a business management philosophy popularised in Eli Goldratt’s 1984 book, The Goal, although it builds upon work by earlier thinkers, including Germany’s Wolfgang Mewes. These days, The Goal is better known as a book Jimmy Donaldson—aka MrBeast—used to make all his employees read and assimilate. Now let’s be clear: I don’t really get Mr Beast, nor like him. I think his whole schtick is emblematic of a fundamental problem with algorithmic social media, and I’m vaguely baffled he’s a millionaire or famous. I sure as fuck don’t know how he has a line of snacks, let alone an Amazon show.

The Theory Of Constraints

The theory of constraints is a business management philosophy popularised in Eli Goldratt’s 1984 book, The Goal, although it builds upon work by earlier thinkers, including Germany’s Wolfgang Mewes. These days, The Goal is better known as a book Jimmy Donaldson—aka…

How I Got From Hemmingway And Space Marines to Carver and Zombies

The assignment was to rescue a colony that had been overrun by xenomorphs. There were eight of us, nine if you counted the android, but he had malfunctioned after being hacked by separatists and could not support us as he had when I…

The front cover of Lisa L. Hannett's The Fortunate Isles displayed over a picture of a storm-wracked sea. There are giant swells in the storm wracked water, but a few hints of sunlight gleaming through the dark clouds.

Happy Book Birthday to Lisa L. Hannett's The Fortunate Isles, coming out in ebook and paperback today!

Available everywhere good books are sold, but we always have a special love for folks who buy from Brain Jar Press directly :)

Details: www.brainjarpress.com/product/the-...

I've joined forces with a bunch of fellow horror authors to do a little May Giveaway of stories and novels. Details here: books.bookfunnel.com/horrorreader...

Once you've read slush, it's pretty clear the greatest "secret" in writing is finding the writer's guidelines and following them the letter.

The second greatest secret is "don't send abusive responses to rejection letters".

My D&D origins story: In middle school, I was so nerdy that I had no friends and knew no one who played D&D, so I read my Monster Manual like an encyclopedia. In high school, I yearned to date a long-haired poet nerd, and when I finally found one, he was sorely lacking. Insecure, awkward. But.. 1/

The fact that the supposedly leading newsletter platform (cite needed) stays afloat by subsidizing Nazi content seems like a thing to mention if we're talking about what "we" pay for newsletters but it's the NYT so

The weirdest part of designing your own book covers is how quickly you find yourself ammassing a collection of images under tags like "19th century wallpaper" or "grunge concrete textures" or "waterdamaged paper" or "cracked leather" that will be used more often than any peice of art.

Labor wants to fix Australia’s housing issues – but there’s little hope for those not already on the ladder Without genuine reform, experts predict house prices to ‘climb by 6-10% in 2025’ and the gap between homeowners and those locked out of market to widen

Labor's housing policies will probably hurt affordability; SQM forecasts to rise 6-10% in 2025 www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Image of the review website Readers' Favorite, showing the cover of Val Vega: Secret Ambassador of Earth (which features a Latina teenage girl in a cap, with a furry alien behind her and another squid-like alien floating above her), a five-star rating, and a portion of the opening text of the review describing the novel as a "dynamic young adult sci-fi debut."

Got back from vacation to find that Val Vega: Secret Ambassador of Earth had gotten this lovely 5-star review from Readers' Favorite! "Populated with a dazzling cast of humans and aliens alike, Francisco’s story is witty, moving, and impossible to put down."

readersfavorite.com/book-review/...

the front cover of Peter M. Ball's What We Talk About When We Talk About Brains, which is a yellow book featuring the silhouette of zombie hordes and the occasional spooky tree.

Yesterday, I passed the halfway point on the draft of a new Red Rain sequence, which largely means there will be a sequel to WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT BRAINS at some point in the future.

Until then, you can grab a copy of the first collection here: petermball.com/GenrePunkSto...

Get Your Free Copy of No Good Deed Angela Slatter’s No Good Deed is a dark fantasy tale of magic, ghosts, and marriage set in her World Fantasy Award-winning Sourdough universe. Isobel assumed her wedding would be the grandest day of h...

We've been all about the new books this week, so now is a good moment to remind folks they can read Angela Slatter's NO GOOD DEED chapbook absolute free.

Check it out if you love gothic fantasy with folklore vibes, or you dig the Sourdough universe.

Details: offers.brainjarpress.com/nogooddeed

Started today with six ininterupted hours to catch up on writing and publishing projects.

Took less than an hour to end up with a pointless-but-ticks-a-box-that-allows-useful-things-to-continue 90 minute meeting in the middle of my free day.

The front cover of Lisa L. Hannett's The Fortunate Isles, featuring sunken boats in a blue channel with spectral mermaids swimming among the depths. The cover is laid over a green textured pattern.

We're extraordinarily pleased to open pre-orders on paperback and ebook editions of Lisa L. Hannett's The Fortunate Isles, out from Brain Jar Press on May 27.

Read a Sample: read.bookfunnel.com/read/em32gw5...
Pre-Order the Book: www.brainjarpress.com/product/the-...

Dutton: we must cut public sector jobs

Voters of Dickson: ok

Dutton: OH NO

Peter Dutton conceding defeat behind a banner saying Peter Dutton Concedes Defeat

hook it to my veins #AusVotes

Fuck, I needed this overwhelming sense of schadenfreude at Dutton taking the entire ship down with him #auspol

Sneak peek at the next @BrainJarPress book just went out via the newsletter. Formal announcement next week, after the public holidays are done in Australia.

Today is a pretty good day.

Haha! Returned from write club to find this glorious thing waiting! Thanks @brainjarpress for this @kirstyn_mcdermott brilliance. 💜💜💜

Six copies of Kirstyn McDermott's collection, Never Afters, on a busy computer desk in the Brian Jar Press offices.

The official release is May 6, but print copies of Never Afters are now shipping from the Brain Jar Press store if you enjoy getting your books earlier than everyone else!

Get your copy here: www.brainjarpress.com/product/neve...

Which makes sense, because I know my printer and their couriers have longe worked off the standard operating pricniple that I should order books fifteen working days before I need them.

But 2025 has been succifiently full of fuckery that I've lost track of things and assumed we fucked up.

So after busting my ass for twenty-four hours to get everything out, I went to check pre-orders at other retailers...and discovered that somewhere along the line I'd adjusted the release date to May 6.

And instead of being horribly late, I'm pretty much right on time.

So yesterday I took delivery of a print run I ordered a few weeks back, which was something like eleven days overdue courtesy of the public holidays in Australia at this time of year.

I've been freaking out, because in my head today was release day and I like to get books out early.

Don't know what has gone sideways with shipping in Australia at the moment, but I'm growing weary of messages that start with "it'll be there tomorrow!" then end up with "it'll be there sometime in the next three months."

It does.

On the other hand, having done about 30% more writing than I need to between meetings today also helps a lot.

Yesterday was a horrible writing day, a worse publishing day, and a pretty good RPG gaming day.

Today has three meetings and a big list of stuff I need to get caught up on...

So I’ve been quitting writing/publishing groups, communities, and newsletters when one or more of the organisers come out as pro AI in some way and… yeah, there not many writing spaces left two months after implementing this policy.

Movie you’ve watched more than six times using gifs.

(“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)

This is, honestly, a far geekier choice than it first appears...

So today I spent about four hours looking for a book I was sure I had drafted, but didn't see to exist on any of my drives.

Eventually found it sitting in the Apple drive I used for about three and a half minutes, back in 2023, writen in a completely different program than I remembered.

Delighted!! The augmented BLACK-WINGED ANGELS is up for pre-order from @pspublishinguk

Silhouettes by multi award-winning @tanaudel, fairy tales by multi award-winning me, new tale “The Mer-Pearl” & critical essays.

In paperback & hardcover limited edition.

pspublishing.co.uk/black-winged...