Ruth Frances Long / Jessica Thorne

Roses are red
Violets are blue
A regular verb in the past tense
Gets a séimhiú.

Cup of tea and a good book (Apparently Sir Cameron needs to die by Greer Stothers) on a wooden table

Treated myself in Dalkey (after signing copies of The Book of Gold and The Lore of Silver in @gutterdalkey.bsky.social )

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

This is a great book in a great trilogy. :)

Loved this book!

Screenshot of audio edition of The Lore of Silver by Ruth Frances Long ready to play

Out today in audio, The Lore of Silver, the sequel to The Book of Gold, book 2 of The Feral Gods. A stolen relic, a missing girl, a horror unleashed.

Narrated by the incomparable Helen Keeley .

Are you ready to go back to Amberes?

www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Lore-...

@hodderscape.bsky.social

That should have been narrated of course. Autocorrect constantly out to get me

Also available in audio mastered by the incredible Helen Keeley

UK: www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0GKQ3G7G...
US: www.audible.com/pd/B0GKQ151K...

Listen to a sample on SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/bookouture/t...

the box set of The Lost Queen Trilogy by Jessica Thorne (A Touch of Shadows, A Kiss of Fate and A Crown of Darkness) - text reads "The Lost Queen Trilogy the complete Romantic Fantasy Series, Jessica Thorne"

The box set of The Lost Queen is out now from @secondskybooks.bsky.social

geni.us/B0GJ7964ZQso...

Is Epic the musical up next?

🤣

On repeat

the cool thing about landsknechts was that they were exempt from sumptuary laws (laws detailing what clothes different social classes could wear) because they were considered to live short, brutish lives. so they fucking rolled with it.

Today I am cheering myself up by singing along to the entire soundtrack of both seasons of Hazbin Hotel.

Bane of my early teenage existence

I've been getting a number recently pretending to be from major publishing houses using real names of people working there. Do be careful and check the actual emails they're coming from folks. It's incredibly frustrating but there are so many unscrupulous sharks out there.

Elodie was hoping to expand her cake business to open a cafe, but Mal got 'her' cafe space instead. Now she has to work with him to cater a wedding that could change her business for ever.
THE WINNER BAKES IT ALL - buy now in ebook, paperback or audio.
https://books2read.com/manbuns

And my dad had a little lock he would put on the phone to stop us doing that.

A detail from a 1591 German pamphlet about "Ketzerei", heresy. You see a man standing, carrying 7 cats. This detail is part of a title page: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/details/bsb00086437

Meet the 1591 cat man. I am counting 7 cats on and near him. #catcontent

Just thinking about today's writing and my new project and getting a bit like oh it's crap and juggling to keep the story going and needs so much fixing and....

Oh yes. 24k.

Of course.

Like clockwork.

#amwriting

I don’t know if I trust people who have written more books than they’ve read

I want every single one of you who is an artist to find success and happiness making it, and I want every one of who loves to consume art to be swimming in an absolute sea of genius. Every attempt to shortcut that muddies those waters and robs real artists of success. That's my anti-AI stance.

Buried in this piece is a throwaway line about how actually her real hustle is selling online courses to aspiring AI hacks, marking an extraordinary symbiosis of my two most hated internet poisons

It is demoralising but as I'm generally functioning on a mix of spite and whimsy it also makes me think sod them and push onwards.

In terms of reading though it makes it much harder to trust a new voice which is really sad.

Pencil sketch by me of a small owl

In happier postings in honour of tonight (& the other half's beloved Seahawks) here's my sketch of the Superb Owl from a couple of years ago

Yes this. It's not about numbers. The practice of mass producing stuff to throw at the wall and see what sticks is so soulless. It's very disheartening right now. I just want to tell stories people enjoy. Not everyone is going to but that can't stop me. All we can do is keep writing & trust readers

Plus it's not actually a race

Every instance of "AI democratizes the arts, you're classist and ableist and a gatekeeper for trying to stop it" is a slap in the face to the literally centuries of poor, disabled people making art on the margins and a crass lie in service of a machine that strips down and regurgitates dreams

Democratizing the arts looks like universal income, low-barrier grants for both emerging and working artists, well-funded municipal arts & recreation programs, vibrant third spaces, and a well-funded public school system with progressive curriculum.

Not a free pass for corporate-owned slop engines.