iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 1h

(I should have done this from the office yesterday, obvs, because spotty train wifi and tagging the correct people don't play nicely...)

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 1h

Sunday, 10-11am: Creating New Folklore in Panel 2 with @shaunalawless.bsky.social @georgiasummers.bsky.social, Helen Grant & Barbara Stevenson Sunday 11am-12pm: Author Care for Agents and Publisher in the Flame Tree Room, with @lunapress.bsky.social, Daniel Walsh, Molly Ker Hawn & Zui Ning Chang.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 1h

On a wibbly-wob train to #fantasycon in Glasgow! And I'll be doing panels across the weekend. Friday (today!), 6-7pm: Learning How to Pitch in Panel 2, with @jjbker.bsky.social @losbennett.bsky.social @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social & @emma-gh.bsky.social

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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This is one of the most terrifying interviews I’ve ever seen. The slow reveal of the mental landscape at work here. If you don’t end up thinking we should stop these people with as much force as we can muster, I’d be very surprised. youtu.be/lnLDjXy2kRA?...

youtu.be

Jacob Coxon On Witnessing the Existential Threat of AI from the Inside | The Daily Show

YouTube video by The Daily Show

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 23h

Beer gremlin 34, reporting for duty.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The thresholds for any tax are _really_ high, you need to have a lot for it to kick in. It’s not about people passing on their house and some cash to their kids. It’s tied up with CGT and how assets are taxed. The people insulated by passive income, so wealth accelerates, things like that.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Or how you can reduce how much you pay by moving assets around within a couple, or the really very generous rules on gifts before you die. Honestly, if I have enough left to pay any under the current system, I'll be extremely happy.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

It feels to people like you’re taking away their legacy, I get it. But the reality is a widening gulf, and the legacy is more and more people pushed off the bottom to protect the few at the top.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Always wild to see what people think of inheritance tax. All these things are true simultaneously: only 4-5% of estates pay IHT; inequality is bad & getting worse quickly; that 4-5% leave more than enough to keep the kids for life; increasing IHT is urgently necessary.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The problem is, train stations are known to run on an obscure subset of bistromathics.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

No idea, but I tend to assume London adds 40% to all prices. The 4-pack price is less that £1/bar as well. Which makes the single bar prices categorically insane, I realise. But I digress, bargain for the book!

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Emma is disgracefully talented, just in case you want a guaranteed banger for less than the price of a Mars bar*. * London weighting. If you're in a place where they cost less than £0.99, why not get both?!

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I am very much looking forward to the hit when things get easier again. September was a long ol’ month, and October has apparently been taking notes.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Exactly where 36 STREETS belongs. Seminal work of cyberpunk, and one hell of a ride.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This tracks. I can imagine the court bailiffs having opinions about rapiers as well. And swearing. And interruptions. And orgies...

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I mean.. you already kinda did, didn't you?

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Tell me you stopped reading too early to get the joke without telling me... Although tbf, it's what Kyra would have wanted.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

See, I'm a pro-EU kinda guy, but WTF are these masks? Terrorise friends and family by looking like an enamel demon that crawled through a little girl's sticker book! Hoping mainstream media outlets will replace your eyes with the infinite darkness of an uncaring void? We got you!

Two pro-EU people celebrating Burnham's comments on the EU in today's news (assuming the pic was taken today!) by wearing creepy AF masks decorated with the European Flag. Photo taken from The Guardian.

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Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 30/09/2026

We're hiring! We're looking for a Writer and Narrative Designer to join the Fallen London team at a senior or mid level. This position is permanent, remote, and full time, which for us means 35 hours a week. #GamesJobs

Night. The House of Chimes - a tower which you might immediately think of as Big Ben - is adrift in the River Thames. It still seems to be keeping time. In the background, a large, alien building looms over the city of London.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I'm a little bit proud to report two books I edited are on the shortlist for the Aldiss Award - CITY OF ALL SEASONS by @oliverklangmead.bsky.social & Aliya Whiteley, and THE GRIMOIRE GRAMMAR SCHOOL PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION by @caitlinrozakis.bsky.social. Two super good, and very different, books!

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I only read the transcript, didn’t see the speech itself, but the shock of it genuinely choked me up in places. If even a fraction of this comes through, just the sheer hope of it. The idea that he’s there to try and better a country, that things can be terrifyingly difficult but we do them anyway.

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Indie Horror Chapter @indiehorrorchapter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

👻 HAPPY RELEASE DAY 👻 The Show Goes On: Strange Stories of Ramsey Campbell. Edited by Jeremy Dyson. A chilling new collection, spanning @ramseycampbell.bsky.social’s career, The League of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson hand-picks his favourite tales by one of Britain’s greatest living horror writers.

The Show Goes On: Strange Stories of Ramsey Campbell. Edited by Jeremy Dyson (Tge League of Gentlemen)

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Ditto ‘protestors’ in lieu of ‘cosplaying paramilitaries doing a riot’, ‘small boats’ instead of ‘refugees/traumatised human beings’ and about a million other things.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Delighted to hear stuff like this from a PM; some context on how it needs to be said precisely, while in public office.

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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Happy Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Saves The World day to all who celebrate.

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 26/09/2026

So apropos of nothing in particular, let’s talk about media tie-in novel pay vs. original work pay, shall we? Let’s say you write a novel. It’s set in your own world, your own characters, and titled The Original. You get a book deal! Look at you go!

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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Peacehammer 40K: Paintinge miniatures of gardeneres, sculptors, academics. Detailed scale dioramas of museums, kiosks, cafés. Trimminge hedges. Makinge friendes. So manye hues of greene. Yn the cozye glowe of the far future ther ys onlye WARMTH.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

After 2.5 days of going through spreadsheets, I can now confirm, beyond ambiguity, that the Anthropic claims sheet is a hot mess.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

People of the federated states - this book is a legit banger, I fully endorse you getting on it.

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Malcolm Devlin @malcolmdevlin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Engines Beneath, U.S. -- My upside-down folk-horror-but-in-a-housing-estate novella is now available in the US thanks to the good folk at @influxpress.bsky.social. It's a very handsome book that would look lovely in your absolutely giant American bookshelves.

Cover for Engines Beneath Us by Malcolm Devlin (lots of gears and cogs under some nodesript houses. One of the cogs is a big old eyeball. It looks great. Luke Bird did the cover and I'm very chuffed with it.) The book is on a table in a New York park.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

(Btw the random spot in each of these, say the bubblegum chewer in the gallery, is a reflection of one of our spot lights at home....!)

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Briar Ripley Page @flameswallower.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Pseudotooth is a completely unique take on coming of age portal fantasy, and while I get “why it wasn’t huge,” I did feel like it should have been huge.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Fantastic Planet is on Prime UK, and man what a trip. A fever dream world, the stepping stone from the Codex Seraphinanus to Scavengers Reign in exploring an alien ecology. An avalanche of wild imagery.

A screenshot from Fantastic Planet (1973) showing a Draag council.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070544/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

A screenshot from Fantastic Planet (1973) showing a weird pig thing that just munched on a newly hatched creature.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070544/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

A screenshot from Fantastic Planet (1973) showing a humans in an alien factory.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070544/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

A screenshot from Fantastic Planet (1973) showing two rockets landing near giant headless statues.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070544/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Ha! Well on behalf of this particular publisher, I bet you a shiny penny your publishers have assumed you had the same hot mess dumped on you that we did, and not that you're suddenly flirting with wire fraud.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yeah, all of that. I caught one where they've classified the English and French language versions of a book as one Work. So that's me gently reminding them the translation is a separate Work, with a separate claim for the translator and French publisher. It's a line-by-line job. Tiring...

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Tbh the big issue I have is correcting the claim form, because it doesn’t seem to match what we submitted. And I need to update some authors who have heard final claim amounts, which must be advisory at best. Basically, I’m super grateful to both Milan and Strauss for their righteous work!

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Pretty sure IIRC, one of the open appeals that has to be resolved before the settlement is confirmed is from two of the subsidiary legal firms who want a bigger share, despite the judge saying, way back at the start, only the primary firms were eligible for part of the claim. So……… yes.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

YOU'RE NOT READING UNTIL YOU BECOME TWO-DIMENSIONAL LIKE THE PAPER ITSELF YOU FUCKING COWARD.

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Verity Holloway @verityholloway.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Me grabbing the lapels of the YouGov guy with the clipboard: I FULLY TRANSCEND REALITY, YOU PIECE OF SHIT.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Simultaneously common sense (young readers place themselves in things more) and totally wild. The older people get the more likely they are not to imagine anything at all? Do retirees experience fiction as an all-encompassing reality while reading? What the hell is that, and how do I get some?

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

For those who haven't had the pleasure, an evening in the company of @cswritesbooks.bsky.social is a very good evening.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Jim is exceptionally good at voice, that's a great shout. I really, really love his books, honestly. They're at once excellent fantasy, but also completely not what you expect at any point.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

You know how some weeks are lovely, and some just want to kick you in the nuts repeatedly? Well this week has revitalised my interest in codpieces.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It comes up in BASILISK by Matt Wixey as well, there's a breakdown of Yudkowsky's et al breakdown. The book pegs it to the attempt to create a cognitive weapon a la PKD's exegesis. Not quite the world economy, but certainly implications that governments want to deploy a strain of it at scale.

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

(Here endeth today's self-promotion post. I know how important they are, and I implore all my authors to allow themselves to do it without shame or inhibition. But it's a different thing to talk yourself into doing it yourself, isn't it...?)

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Looking for some Lovecraftian/elder gods horror? Fancy a story that won't gaslight you about the infinite insanities of the rental market? In to horror that mixes in wry snark? Love a good bit of homemade shortbread? AGENCY is out now for $1.99 / £1.25. Hope you enjoy it enough to leave a review!

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George Sandison @georgesandison.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"Desire and identity are inseparable...the capacity for genuine desire is not innate but developed, and it develops only when a child is free to follow impulses that arise from within." Why I try to spend less time online. Be the dad you want to see in your kid. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

I’m a psychoanalyst. Social media is damaging children’s inner lives in ways we don’t fully understand | Robin Kirman

Discussion has focused on behavioral outcomes. But Meta’s settlement shines a light on damage to young people’s emerging desires and identities

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Trusting the reader to be smarter than you is a core principle of all good world building. Building space into the world for ambiguity and mystery is essential for good writing. I honestly don’t think abandoning these principles can produce anything with wonder about it.

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