Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...bbc.co.ukFile on 4 Investigates - Forced Adoption: Is it happening today? - BBC SoundsIf some birth mothers were better supported, would fewer babies need to go into care? 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026My new mystery novel with @sparsilebooks.bsky.social The Hoard is available from today in bookshops including Amazon. It's like Porridge meets A Life of Grime! Please have a look. www.amazon.co.uk/Hoard-Cleanu...amazon.co.ukAmazon.co.uk 011
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I loved Deluxe Paint, but I was 14 and I'm afraid the first thing I did was to draw snot coming out of the nose of the beautiful illustration of the mask of Tutankhamun that came with it. 010
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Talking about novel development with other writers and editors.meetup.comChalk Scribblers / Three Ravens workshop: novel development, Sun, Sep 20, 2026, 5:00 PM | MeetupIt starts with the germ of an idea. It ends in several hundred pages on a bookshelf. Getting from one to the other is the process: weeks, months and then years of nurturing 011
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 06/09/2026US publishers often insist on changing UK/Can/Aus etc. spelling. In my experience, most of the actual American customers who read the books prefer to experience the culture with its original spelling. :-( 010
Reposted by Manda Bensonsparsilebooks.bsky.social @sparsilebooks.bsky.social · 02/09/2026###COSY CRIME FANS### Look what we unpacked www.sparsilebooks.com/the-hoard 011
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Welcome to Hell. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukSecondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI?Booksellers are reporting mysterious bulk orders. It's thought the books are being used to train AI - and ending up pulped. 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 07/08/2026The things that came with packets of breakfast cereal. In the 80s there was usually a toy/puzzle inside the box or a-cut out-and-make dinosaur or aircraft on the back. 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Those of us who learned to write the hard way see it for the hackneyed, bland drivel it is. Those without the benefit of the long journey see it as a shortcut. I feel for young people today. :-( 020
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 13/07/2026Something has gone wrong with an update and now this laptop won't boot properly. Unfortunately the screen resolution is so high the text is barely legible, and reinstalling the whole OS is probably going to be less painful than trying to repair it. :-( 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 29/05/2026My fantasy short story, The Ash Covenant, was published in the April Flame Tree Fiction newsletter. It's now on their website and free to read! Please have a look. www.flametreepress.com/newsletters/...flametreepress.comFlame Tree Fiction Newsletter | April 2026 | Forbidden FlameEighty-eighth Issue! Forbidden Flame Welcome to April, a month of quiet ignition and restless bloom. The air softens, the light lingers, and the world 020
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 19/05/2026In The Bookseller trade magazine. Coming in September from @sparsilebooks.bsky.social (currently on line edit stage and they are lovely to work with) 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 08/05/2026Dawkins is a) human and fallible and b) possibly being a bit sentimental in his old age and has c) succumbed to the supernormal stimulus of his social synthetic sycophant. 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 15/04/2026Saul Goodman, the tragic law practitioner from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.media.tenor.coma man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a woman and saying `` s 'all good , man ! ``Alt: Saul Goodman, the tragic lawyer. 110
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 10/04/2026Posting this because the news today says stop using bird feeders, they spread disease, without including much in the way of better advice on how to make habitats in gardens to support and feed wild birds. growwild.kew.org/native-plant...growwild.kew.orgNative plants for wildlifeNative plants are vital for supporting the diverse range of wonderful wildlife we have in the UK. This page lists some species you might want to plant for supporting different pollinators, birds and small mammals. 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 05/03/2026Without words, there would be no pictures! No science and just a swirling mass of ignorance and nothing! 010
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 05/03/2026@variolator.bsky.social is an immunologist who has written a book about the common cold. And it has pictures in it! Please have a look: www.amazon.co.uk/Sneeze-Histo...amazon.co.ukAmazon.co.uk 130
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 27/02/2026I think it's used in surgical reconstruction a lot. I was trying to find out just the other week if a mutual associate could have her own skull printed! 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 30/01/2026I suspect we will be going back to radio and DVDs. I had first a Nintendo Wii and then a multiregion DVD player that received the BBC iplayer service. It stopped working on both of them and said the service was unsupported, so I don't trust buying new things as a viable solution. 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 06/01/2026:-( Almost certainly it sucks and will make no money. All while cluttering up the marketplace and making it harder for real books written by actual writers to be found by their potential audiences. 110
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 01/01/2026Happy New Year. A 20yo laptop has risen! New Year's resolution is to cross the event horizon between 64 bit and 32 bit. Perhaps it's a myth and there's not one? CMOS battery may need replacing. #vintagetech #linux 130
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 22/12/2025A supernormal stimulus is an exaggeration that trips a brain circuit for instinctive behaviour. When people claim 'AI' improves their lives, I can't help thinking of a bird tending a beloved cuckoo chick and that chatbots exploit human social instincts as the cuckoo does bird parenting instincts. 030
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 03/10/2025'Cookies' a word divided by the Atlantic: in the US it means biscuits. In the UK it means irritating pop-ups that along with AI slop and adverts make the Internet barely usable today. 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2025Delighted to announce that my new mystery novel will be published next year by Scottish independent publisher Sparsile Books! 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 20/09/2025Please don't send me messages on here. It says I have to 'verify my age' in order to see messages and 'adult content'. I don't want to have to see 'adult content' in order to receive messages on social media, so I shall choose to remain a child. :-) 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 03/09/2025I had something this afternoon with the exact same structure, same website hit from Nigeria. (The Nigerian prince's new venture perhaps?) Like everything genrated by LLMs, it's legible but there's something off about how it's written that manages to be both hackneyed and bland. 010
Reposted by Manda BensonChalk Scribblers @chalkscribblers.bsky.social · 02/09/2025Would you like to hear some insights from one of Britain's leading independent publishers? Join us online for free at 7pn (UK time) tomorrow when Ian Whates of NewCon Press will share them with us. #writingcommunity #amwriting www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1554178903...eventbrite.co.ukChalk Scribblers meet the publisher: NewCon PressA talk and Q&A with Ian Whates, founder and director of NewCon Press and award-winning science fiction author. 064
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 01/09/2025What's being touted as AI at the moment absolutely is part of the problem and not the solution. It uses vast amounts of electricity and water that would be better used by people and businesses. :-( 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 26/08/2025A computer that will boot should not be thrown away (and even broken ones can be salvaged for components). If you have defunct hardware lying about, consider donating it to help disadvantaged families have access to computing.therestartproject.orgDonate your computerA list of community groups across the UK which collect computer donations for fixing and distribution to locals in need. Their work is vital to many who are now able to stay connected. 010
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 22/08/2025With Microsoft pushing for users to change to an OS only available to new-ish chipsets and software manufacturers changing to subscription models, and all of them bloated with adverts and AI crud, there has never been a better time to dump the lot of them and discover Linux.linuxmint.comLinux Mint 22.1 "Xia" - Linux MintLinux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up to date and comfortable desktop operating system. 4525
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 17/08/20251 folder containing 10 short stories previously published. 1 folder containing 16 short stories in a fit state to be submitted. Innumerable files that might be short fiction of unknown genre on computers and bits of hardware in drawers. The floppy disks are mysteries as I have no drive to read them. 020
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 15/08/2025'Delete your pictures' is a nonsensical piece of advice for those of us who keep them on DVDs and USB pens in drawers or on SD cards in devices. When did The Cloud become all engulfing for so many? 100
Reposted by Manda BensonWendy M. Grossman @wendyg.bsky.social · 08/08/2025This week's net.wars, "Machine learning", chats about chatbots in education with a tiny unrepresentative sample of those dealing with them: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/08/08/m...netwars.pelicancrossing.netMachine learningFor decades, technologists imagined teaching machines. Instead, although edtech is indeed permeating classrooms, human teachers have remained in demand. And the 151
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 17/07/2025It sounds like the sort of thing that ought to invite suspicion upon everything else that someone has ever done in the past or does in future! 010
Reposted by Manda BensonChalk Scribblers @chalkscribblers.bsky.social · 13/07/2025A very hot summer is when the sidhe slide out from under their rocks. Join us online for free this Wed when novelist Peadar Ó Guilín @thecallya.bsky.social tells us how he writes about them. #writingcommuunity Meetup: www.meetup.com/chalk-scribb... Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1428920903...meetup.comChalk Scribblers meet the author: Peadar Ó Guilín, Wed, Jul 16, 2025, 7:00 PM | MeetupPeadar Ó Guilín is an Irish author of short and long-form fiction. The first of his five YA novels, *The Inferior*, was published in 2007 and the most recent, *The Invasion 041
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 06/07/2025Personalised Rejection: Your technothriller set on a submarine was not immersive enough. Your mystery about a murder at a gardening club was too flowery. Your psychological thriller about a serial killer with dissociative identity disorder, I found the protagonist inconsistent. 000
Reposted by Manda BensonChalk Scribblers @chalkscribblers.bsky.social · 01/06/2025Our next speaker will be Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld @clarkesworldmagazine.com, who talk about two decades editing one of the top short fiction venues around plus a few anthologies. Join us online this Wed for free. #writingcommunity #amwriting #getpublished www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1382424742...eventbrite.co.ukChalk Scribblers meet the publisher: Neil ClarkeAn evening with Neil Clarke, editor of the Clarkesworld and Forever magazines and numerous anthologies. 085
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 18/05/2025The Lambton Worm -- paperback edition now available on Amazon. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1917231067amazon.co.ukThe Lambton Worm (Pilgrennon's Children): Amazon.co.uk: Benson, Manda: 9781917231060: BooksBuy The Lambton Worm (Pilgrennon's Children) by Benson, Manda from Amazon's Fiction Books Store. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 18/05/2025I joined a new critique group recently and have been doing 'Shelleys' which helps! 110
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 18/05/2025I have CS4. I wish so much I had bought CS6 before they changed to subscription software. :-( 010
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 16/05/2025Only time ever I've suspected it of having a sense of humour! How does the Pope pay? By PayPal. :-) 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 16/05/2025I recently typed in to Google 'Where do boobies nest?' The first answer was AI generated bilge telling me where tits nest. AI of the sort being promoted today is a toy, made to look superficially human. It's also incredibly wasteful of electricity. 101
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 11/05/2025I'm honoured that @laylasabourian.bsky.social and her family found the book helpful! Challenging unhelpful stereotypes in fiction of how foster families and absent biological parents are portrayed was important to me right from when I began this series. laylasabourian.substack.com/p/pilgrennon...laylasabourian.substack.comPilgrennon's BeaconWhat Do Albert Einstein and Manda Benson Have in Common? 141
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 09/05/2025Many autistic children who are otherwise bright struggle academically because of complex needs. It is not acknowledged enough how utterly brutal puberty is for many girls. The Lambton Worm hopefully plays a part in giving these aspects of life a bit more space.amazon.co.ukThe Lambton Worm (Pilgrennon's Children): Amazon.co.uk: Benson, Manda: 9781917231077: BooksBuy The Lambton Worm (Pilgrennon's Children) by Benson, Manda from Amazon's Fiction Books Store. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. 000
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 01/05/2025Cometh the eleventh hour, cometh the last-minute change of plan... 030
Manda Benson @doctormandabenson.bsky.social · 27/04/2025I returned to writing fiction in '24 upon getting back the rights to my old work with this question. The two oldest works, I do not love and will likely not republish. Others I have rewritten into new editions, some quite extensively. The best editor you can have is yourself with 15+y experience. 110