Leeron Heywood

Wait, so the only profitable use of “AI” is stealing other people’s work? What about all those business efficiency cases, Nick? What’s that? Businesses are telling you that “AI” is more trouble than it is worth? Oh dear…

It's October, which means - yes, you guessed it - we're going dark for this month's ask an expert column with @danielwillcocks.bsky.social !

Ever wondered why someone turns to the dark side of writing? How you can create tension? How you can unsettle, or even scare the pants off your reader? 🧵⬇️

PS Does anyone have advice on weaving colour into your descriptions? Because I find it SO HARD. 😣
How does one say "the demonic miasma, which was a clotting slime so dark purple it was off-black", without it breaking flow and/or sounding terrible??

The Power Of Unholy Friendship Father Bernard has carried out countless exorcisms, and doesn't expect this job to be any different...

Those dang reprobate youths! Probably dye their hair and have tattoos and everything. If only they'd been raised better, this... would've happened somewhere else.
leeronheywood.com/the-power-of...
#writing #fiction #microfiction #horror

"15 years ago, Polish workers came here to find opportunity. Now Poland is growing twice as fast as we are," says Kemi Badenoch.

Any ideas what may have happened in the interim?

I need people to stop referring to conversion "therapy" as something that's been discredited or doesn't work. That's like saying torture is "discredited" or doesn't work. That they don't work for their stated purpose is secondary to the fact that they DO work for their REAL purpose:

Creatives have been hit so hard this past year, man. Things are rough. The solution is RIGHT THERE. It's been trialled to death. Just do it.

"Back in the day men were huge and could pick me up out of the back seat and carry me around on their shoulders. Now they're just about my height and sit next to me at work. Where did things go wrong?"

As Prime Days kicks off on Amazon, please remember the power of voting with your dollar.

Bezos is a billionaire oligarch who has repeatedly bent a knee to Trump.

Amazon is known for abusing their employees and having appalling business practices.

The latest waiting times for an appointment at a UK gender clinic. Cardiff the best at 2 years, Glasgow the worst at 224 years.

Yes, you did read that correctly. Two hundred and twenty-four years.

Ghost hugs. It's scary at the moment.

Panel 1 A figure stands at a lectern "This image illustrates my theory that, presented with a sufficient quantity of intricate formulae, overcomplicated diagrams and impenetrable acronyms, an audience will agree with almost anything." The screen is completely packed with such things Panel 2,3,4,5. Four audience members say enthusiastically: "My thoughts exactly!", "Hear, hear!", "I quite agree!" and "Excellent point!"

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com
p.s. My new book of science cartoons 'Physics for Cats' is out this week. Details at www.tomgauld.com

Sunshine Sanitarium Case Reopened (Not Clickbait) Denise and her brothers had tried recording ghosts plenty of places before, but she had a feeling Sunshine Sanitarium was going to be their big scoop…

It's not just *righteous* rage which can cause souls to cling to this world...
leeronheywood.com/sunshine-san...
#writing #fiction #microfiction #horror

Id like it to solve the problem of the transphobia and Nazi coddling that Bluesky's leadership engages in.

(Hm. This feels like it needed another 1k words; I'm happy with what's here but it feels sparse/rushed.)

Super Replaceable In a more primitive era, being zapped to another timeline would leave one disoriented, but these days every superhero had a phone widget for that. And this city looks exactly like the one Caroline jus...

I'm not sure whose philosophy won, here. Maybe neither of them.
leeronheywood.com/super-replac...
#writing #fiction #microfiction

Since you've voluntarily invited a boycott, you get one.

A thread 🧵 about investors in Bluesky, who would love to hear your feedback by phone, snail mail, or email.

Strength training is the BEST, and AFAB folks in particular need to get over "But society tells me I will be ugly if I have muscles" because lemme tell you that shit is an absolute lie which is only regurgitated by patriarchy terrified that you might be physically capable of self defence.

Breath Of The Clockwork Heart Bell-Tender Heath watched the tower’s clockwork tick and whir. Everything was exactly as it should be. He didn’t look out the windows.

We probably all know at least one person whose response to the world ending would be to just... stick to the schedule.
leeronheywood.com/breath-of-th...
#writing #fiction #microfiction #fantasy

Hi @theguardian.com @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social

Reform’s party conference was front page news for you both. The Green Party (holders of 800 council seats) is going on right now and there is nothing

Why are you doing this? Who is telling you to platform the Fascists?

Stranded With The News Before the clouds descended, Fran had lamented not being connected to the city…

Weird how taking part in a writing event where you do a story based in someone's universe feels so different to writing fanfiction. Tbf I never published any of the fanfiction I wrote, so maybe that's the difference.
leeronheywood.com/stranded-wit...
#writing #fiction #microfiction #horror

I don't find it coincidental that Al hawkers start with attempting to artificially replace a woman actor instead of a man. Men aren't viewed as products (=resented for exhibiting agency) to the same extent, so starting with a male Al actor presentation would probably be viewed even more negatively

Oh dear. Sal also spends a while retching before the hair sausage comes up, during which I rub her back and murmur soothingly. I’m not sure if that’s why she wanders around crying beforehand - “I feel pukey, come do your ‘poor baby, poor baby’ routine!”.
Maybe making a fuss of him might help?

Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com • 39m Counter-opinion: it's a f***ing tragedy that corporate greed has broken the medium which facilitated Tahrir Square etc and is now doing its best to break the rest of the Internet. Financial Times • @financi... • 43m Opinion: It would be a hugely welcome development to discover that we have not merely reached social media saturation point, but that the experience has been degraded to such an extent that it has shocked people out of their stupor.

The Arab Spring is a relevant point to pick, because it’s when all the lads joyfully hailed social media as an excellent tool* for people to organise against cruel, unjust regimes that rule by force, propaganda, patronage and inertia. And then they stopped, and had a think about what that meant.

These are the same people who used to put your question to the hive mind into Google and copy-paste the first result, because clearly you hadn’t tried that. 🙄

A random observation: the value of a social media platform is entirely in its users and what the users do. The actual platform itself is very low down the list in things that make it worthwhile. Too many people running platforms don't realise that.

If you’ve got a chronic illness and you’re struggling right now…
Be gentle with yourself.

The “October Slide” is real and can have devastating effects on your baseline.

Remember it’s ok to rest. To take breaks. To prioritize self care.

There’s no prize for playing through the pain.

It's a lovely morning on the internet and you are a horrible queer!

Drop your links to queer books! Yours, someone else's, tradpub, indie, share ALL THE QUEER BOOKS to make a fash shit themselves.

Go!!!

Well, it’s now stuck in MY head, so maybe you can make a run for it while it’s distracted? 😂