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Benjamin Appleby-Dean

@badbadwriter.bsky.social
62 followers 170 following 120 posts

Determined scribbler, erratic typist. Writing stories about ghosts and goblins and things that go bump in the night. He/Them. Rep: Emelie Burl at Susan Schulman

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Reposted by Benjamin Appleby-Dean
Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 30/09/2026
BREAKING NEWS: “Do geese see God” is a palindrome
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QuoProQuid @quoproquid.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
dark gritty santapunk world where the Great Powers of Europe both mandate celebration of Christmas and encourage their subjects to be as naughty as possible to preserve unlimited access to coal and continued industrialization.
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Rue Morgue Magazine @ruemorguemag.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
On this day in Horror History, CARNIVAL OF SOULS was released in 1962.
Black and white image of a woman gripping a car steering wheel, looking tense, with a blurred man visible through the rear window.
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Anna Hughes 🍁 @annaghughes.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
trying to make new friends as an adult
Amy Adams in Arrival holding the white board that says HUMAN while she's trying to communicate with aliens
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Mikel Reparaz @wikiparaz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
PAUL: What’s in the box? REVEREND MOTHER: Pain. [PAUL hesitantly puts his hand in the BOX, then FROWNS IN CONFUSION. He pulls out A BAGUETTE.] REVEREND MOHER: Hōn hōn,
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
If Hugo continues to grow at this rate, by 2030 he will no longer fit in the barn. By 2050 he will have grown to the size of Godzilla and could crush humanity. But if we let the Chinese grow their own Hugo first that would be bad. This is why we must invest 100 trillion dollars in Hugo immediately.
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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Sweet, strange uncitizens: ONCE I WAS MADE OF EARTH is here, an epic fantasy that's been ratling in my brain for years now and that I'm putting out into the world serially outside of the capitalist publishing apparatus. Share, and read, and comment. archiveofourown.org/works/91618061
The painting "The Moment" by James Warden, with the text "Once I Was Made of Earth" on it by Rivers Solomon. The painting is in the romantic style, quite dramatic and dark in tone if not colour, with a horse rearing with fear in its eyes as a snake launches to bite it, against a back drop of pink and blue mountains.
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Louis @louisevans.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
happy peachiversary gang. shake those trees.
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Kitty Unpretty
on this day in 1953 shirley jackson sent this to an unhappy reader
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Fruit and Bug Administration @waxwing.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Pintle and gudgeon
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priscilla page @priscillapage.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
mandatory reading
"SAM NEILL
- If you were to commit a murder, how would you do it?
- It's got to be big! No slipping something into someone's drink, that's just pathetic. I'd use a steamroller, just leave a stain on the road. There's probably a couple of people I'd put under a steamroller, but I won't say who they are, otherwise when they see a steamroller coming their way they'll be on full alert. And steamrollers don't go very fast..."
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Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 09/07/2026
Eremition

(eh-ruh-MIH-shun) (Greek: erēmites)

(n.) The act of gradually fading from the lives of others, not out of malice but a desire for solitude or renewal.
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Daniel Burke - 🍺Innkeep @innkeep.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Le Guin on the idea that there is a secret to getting good at writing.
I will dispose of the first myth as quickly as possible. The “secret” is skill. If you haven’t learned how to do something, the people who have may seem to be magicians, possessors of mysterious secrets. In a fairly simple art, such as making pie crust, there are certain teachable “secrets” of method that lead almost infallibly to good results; but in any complex art, such as housekeeping, piano-playing, clothes-making, or story-writing, there are so many techniques, skills, choices of method, so many variables, so many “secrets,” some teachable and some not, that you can learn them only by methodical, repeated, long-continued practice — in other words, by work.
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Lucy Lapinska / LD Lapinski 💛🤍💜🖤 @ldlapinski.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Me: I am going to invent a character who is So Smart Me, realising the character is smarter than me, the puppet master: Oh no
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Simon Spanton @simonguy.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
"...and under them the ice darkened and began to glide. A channel opened very slowly in the floor, and all their luggage floated out in the river of moonlight. All the suitcases were open and full of darkness and moss, and none of them ever came back."
A photo of the 2003 Sort Of Books edition of The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. The cover  photo, of a small wooded island under blue skies, is by Per Olov Jansson.
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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
This feels… portentous?
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mmalex @mmalex.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
today i discovered my partner has been giving the kittens a drop of cream every morning. i was greeted with this, when i failed to deliver said snack:
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The Onion @theonion.com · 19/06/2026
Author Wishes She Hadn't Blown Personal Tragedy On First Book theonion.com/author-wishes-she-hadn…
Author Wishes She Hadn't Blown Personal Tragedy On First Book
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nige 'dear ratboy' @niall.codes · 20/06/2026
That's enough Death of the Author. It's time for Death of the Audience. Start running fools
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
"Ah, finally, I'm all alone," I said to myself as I sat in my bedroom at midnight.

"No your not." said Knife Guy
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Mel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.
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Pessimists Archive @pessimistsarc.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
In 1908 the Lancet called for an 18+ age limit on reading in bed for U.K. children.
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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Oh man, this one really hurts. Thank you for Giles, and then for decades of playing oily bastards who were nothing like Giles and clearly having a ball with that. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Anthony Head: Buffy and Ted Lasso actor dies at 72
The 72-year-old British actor also had roles in shows including Merlin and Little Britain.
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Heather Paterson @heatherpaterson.co.uk · 21/05/2026
New report published today by @amnestyuk.bsky.social highlighting the growing movement against the rights of women and LGBTI people in the UK
amnesty.org.uk
Like a snowball: the growth and impact of the gender critical movement in the UK
Explores the rise of the gender critical movement in the UK, its media influence and impact on trans rights. Read the full report and technical summary.
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Skyboss1996 @skyboss1996.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
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Dr SpookyGoth @ghostingdani.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Get in the wine-dark sea, loser. We're many-turned and many-turning.
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chuck 🐦💐 @chuckdrawsthings.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
the artistic process
PANEL 1: a pigeon sits, head thrown back as they yell "i need to drawwww"
PANEL 2: the pigeon sits up, drawing in a sketchbook, a box of crayons next to them. frowning, they say "ugh this sucks"
PANEL 3: the pigeon lays on their front, happily propping one wing on their face and kicking their legs. they're drawing a slice of bread and say "oh wait, i love art"
PANEL 4: the pigeon stands up, head thrown back as they kick a ball of paper. their art is either scribbled out or balled up, the box of crayons knocked over. they angrily say "i hate everything i've ever made!!!"
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Tricia Dearborn @triciadearborn.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
If you're thinking about using gen-AI to "write" books, this 🧵 is for you. I’m a highly experienced editor who’s been in the biz a long time. Recently I’ve had manuscripts come to me where the author has used gen-AI – not for writing, I’ve been assured, but for “structuring” or "organising"
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alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
when we mourn le guin, we mourn one of our greatest writers & thinkers. but we also mourn one of our all-time greatest haters
All you do is take all the sex out, and use little short words, and little dumb ideas, and don't be too scary, and be sure there's a happy ending. Right? Nothing to it. Write down. Right on.

If you do all that, you might even write Jonathan Livingston Seagull and make twenty billion dollars and have every adult in America reading your book.

But you won't have every kid in America reading your book. They will look at it, and they will see straight through it, with their clear, cold, beady little eyes, and they will put it down, and they will go away. Kids will devour vast amounts of garbage (and it is good for them) but they are not like adults: they have not yet learned to eat plastic.
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Gretchen Felker-Martin PRE ORDER CHIMERA 2.16.27 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Most of the so-called Little Women are average in size, and Louisa May Alcott specifically mentions that She Who Sleeps, the unseen fifth March sister, is nearly eighteen feet tall at the time of her slaying by the Knights Templar.
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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 20: Don’t pile imagery over imagery. If you have one beautiful or striking image, leave it plenty of space to breathe.
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Kym Deyn @kymdeyn.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
It's publication day for my book!!! I'm going to be a little cringe and share the playlist I made while I finished up working on it: open.spotify.com/playlist/4G0...
open.spotify.com
folk*ish*
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Sarah Pinsker @sarahpinsker.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
This is just to say I have let in the duck that was on the doorstep and which you were probably hoping would stay out Forgive me he was persuasive so scary and so loud.
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Kameron Hurley @kameronhurley.com · 19/04/2026
But jfc, to get there is HARD. And worst part is, as I get older, I realize that what makes it so satisfying IS THAT IT IS HARD. The brain rot of the LLM mines makes it clear that it's not sheer product that's creatively satisfying. It's the process of getting there. It's what it does to your brain
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Kerstin Hall @kerstinhall.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
That the ‘idea’ accounts for very little — it’s the expression that matters.
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Nat Guest @unfortunatalie.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
A friend just sent me this perfect piece by Karel Čapek, trans. Dora Round, ‘From the Point of View of a Cat’.
From the Point of View of a Cat
This is my Man. I am not afraid of him. He is very strong, for he eats a great deal; he is an Eater of All Things. What are you eating? Give me some!
He is not beautiful, for he has no fur. Not having enough saliva, he has to wash himself with water. He meows in a harsh voice and a great deal more than necessary. Sometimes in his sleep he purrs.
Let me out!
I don’t know how he has made himself Master; perhaps he has eaten something sublime.
He keeps my rooms clean for me.
In his paws he carries a sharp black claw and he scratches with it on white sheets of paper. That is the only game he plays. He sleeps at night instead of by day, he cannot see in the dark, he has no pleasures. He never thinks of blood, never dreams of hunting or fighting; he never sings songs of love.
Often at night when I can hear mysterious and magic voices, when I can see that the darkness is all alive, he sits at the table with his head bent and goes on and on, scratching with his black claw on the white papers. Don’t imagine that I am at all interested in you. I am only listening to the soft whispering of your claw. Sometimes the whispering is silent, the poor dull head does not know how to go on playing, and then I am sorry for him and I meow softly in sweet and sharp discord. Then my Man picks me up and buries his hot face in my fur. At those times he divines for an instant a glimpse of a higher life, and he sighs with happiness and purrs something which can almost be understood.
But don’t think that I am at all interested in you. You have warmed me, and now I will go out again and listen to the dark voices.
Translated by Dora Round; revised by the editor. Originally published in Intimate Things, 1935.
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Joseph Fink, we're going to win @planetoffinks.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Big purchase requires big Internet. This is simple math
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kay taylor rea @kaytaylorrea.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
"How does one hate a country, or love one?" Ursula Le Guin always out there expressing my exact feelings in trying times.
“How does one hate a country, or love one? Tibe talks about it; I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one mustn't make a virtue of it, or a profession... Insofar as I love life, I love the hills of the Domain of Estre, but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
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Jared Pechaček @vandroidhelsing.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
the vengeful pillow by Edward Gorey
Photo of a black pillow in a black chair. Two slightly angry looking cat eyes stare out from the pillow’s lower half
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Cara Ellison @caraellison.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
maybe the silliest art is in fact vital. maybe the thing you are making is keeping someone somewhere alive to assist. it’s important to see beyond your own things and to lend a future to a stranger
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Benjamin Appleby-Dean @badbadwriter.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Albert has, after some days of protest, accepted the new beanbag (that was not bought with him in mind)
A small black cat sleeping on a cushion atop a beanbag
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The Society of Authors @societyofauthors.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Almost 10,000 authors have come together to publish an empty book protesting the theft of books by tech companies to train AI models. Titled Don’t Steal This Book, it is empty of text except the names of the authors involved.. 🧵
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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
there's so much bad in the world but there's also people who lift up and carry an elderly bat around every day so he can pretend he's flying again, and that's the part of the world I think is worth fighting for
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Adam @abrokenbattery.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
BBC Article Former GP with long Covid says people with the condition are being forgotten. MP Luke Akehurst described the closure of dedicated clinics as “shocking”, while long Covid expert Dr Rae Duncan warned: “Covid isn’t over.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Blyth ex-GP says long Covid patients are being forgotten
The NHS in the North East and Cumbria is closing its last dedicated long Covid clinics this month.
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Chef Kennedy🐸🏳️‍🌈 @kennedy.northsky.social · 23/02/2026
Congratulations everyone
A chicken walking on the beach the caption is:

If you are seeing this the curse is lifted have a good day
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Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
My favorite artifact in the "you don't need AI to do art" discourse is, of course, screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's sketch of the facehugger to explain it to Giger.
A 2 panel sketch disgram of a 1 meter tall pod. in the second panel, an oval section pops off and a demonic little face with short tentacles flies out, crudely drawn.
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Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
IMBOLC (or Imbolg!) Saint Brigid's Day is a Gaelic traditional festival. 1st February is the start of Spring.
Painting of Saint Brigid with a bowl of fire, a spindle, and a cow in St. Patrick's Chapel, Glastonbury.
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AL Creed 🇨🇦 @alcreed.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
The No Take / Only Throw dog comic translated into Sumerian
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The Braag | Press & Journal @thebraag.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
We're here for ur weird! Subs open the whole month of Feb, read the subs guidelines on the website or I'll USE YOUR BONES TO MAKE MY BREAD ❤️
Carmen et Error

Submissions Open 
All February


Poetry, 40 lines. Flash fiction up to 400 words. 

carmenerror.com
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Kit Whitfield - fantasy writer @kitwhitfield.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
If you're considering using AI for 'art', you need to know this for your own safety: You aren't the producer in this business model. You're the consumer. 6/
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lou-ellen @louceph.com · 24/01/2026
Hey sorry it feels weird asking but I just had to help pay for a funeral and it's wiped me out so if you like my art I would really appreciate if you bought me a kofi or commissioned me, thank you, I love you ko-fi.com/louceph
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