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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 20h

Lots of noir, spy thrillers, and a murder mystery this month. Oh, and a very excellent book about a Persian pirate captain fighting the supernatural world. Plenty of literary excitement for me!

Infographic from StoryGraph showing @jojoinabox's October 2026 Reads: "The Body and the Blood" by Molly Crighton (4.5 stars); "London Rules" by Mick Herron (4.5 stars), "The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest" by Dashiell Hammett (4 stars); "The Tapestry of Fate" by Shannon Chakraborty (5 stars); "Joe Country" by Mick Herron (4 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

Had a nice weekend away and a day to recover yesterday, but now it's time to get back to business (writing a post about exposition). Holiday photo tax included.

A park bench set into the edge of a lawn looking over a peaceful harbour full of small boats. The opposite side of the harbour is bordered by hills, faded silhouettes in the evening sun. And there is a lot of sun! It is visible in the top right of the image, pointed directly at the bench and throwing a reflective streak across the water. It's not quite golden hour, but awfully close.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

The emigraneus is a worm that infests human heads and causes headaches. It's also the root of our modern English word "migraine"! Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast112151.htm

A small drawing in the margin of a medieval text showing an unhappy head with two skin-coloured tendrils sticking out of it. The image is not entirely clear, but could depict a worm going in one temple and out the other?

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

Have you ever enjoyed singing so much that you forget to eat or do anything else? You might be a cricket! Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast4801.htm

A medieval illustration of a fine green cricket. The hindmost legs look like they're on backwards, but otherwise it is a very fine picture of a cricket indeed. There is some writing above it in Latin that might read "Griles. fine locuste.", but I don't know enough Latin to know if that makes sense.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

The tysus is a serpent that moves by using its ribs like feet. At least one illustrator has taken this very literally. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast106206.htm

A medieval illustration of a brown, serpentine creature with half a dozen little legs sticking out its side (presumably there are six more on the other side). It also has big, goldfishy eyes for some reason.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

The scitalis has a stunning appearance, literally. And this one can WERK. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast271.htm

A medieval image of a creature with a bearish head, long neck, feathered wings, bird legs, and a long serpentine tail. It is bedecked with both striped AND speckles, and sports many shades of blue, green, red, white, and brown. FASHION BABY!

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

The cornutis is a serpent that attacks people with its horns. Perhaps it also howls at the moon? Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast107746.htm

A medieval illustration of a strange beastie with a serpentine body, hairy red legs, a hairy white head, and long, straight horns. The background of the image is dark blue with what appear to be gold stars, and the beast is staring upwards with its mouth wide open, suggesting a howl (or maybe it's just starting at the stars in wonder).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

Medieval boas: - are enormous snakes (true) - who feed on cows (plausible) - by sucking milk from their udders (what?) Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery274.…

A medieval illustration showing a boa suckling at a cow's udder. The cow looks rightfully pissed off about this. The boa has the back end of a snake, with a couple stubby feet and, most inexplicably, the front half of a man with no arms. Who made that decision?

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

This is a berus. It is more wicked and cunning than any other serpent. That is all. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast106195.htm

An illuminated medieval illustration of a creature that is mostly blue with a long tail, two stubby red legs, a red catlike head, and white wings. In this illustration it appears to be hunched over eating a moray, and looking quite happy. In no way does this little guy look especially cunning or wicked, but maybe that's the trick.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

First up is the basilisk, a classic monstrous serpent/cock hybrid that is deadly in many ways. They're very rare, as they must hatch from a cock's egg incubated by a toad. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery265.…

A late medieval sketch showing a group of lads and scholars (left) talking smack about a basilisk (right). One robed scholar is off to the side, retending not to listen to the conversation of the other three. The lad on the right is making a "what the hell" gesture towards the basilisk, a greenish cock with a long, curly snake tail. There is so much judging going on, including from the basilisk itself.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

And another thing I forgot about: my reading for September! Fewer books this month, because Umberto Eco is a very good but very DENSE writer and it took me about 3 weeks to finish Foucault's Pendulum. As usual, there is some wide variation here.

An infographic from The StoryGraph showing @jojoinabox's September 2026 Reads: "Spook Street" by Mick Herron (4 stars), "Lost Possessions" by Keri Hulme (4 stars), "Mutual Interest" by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (5 stars), "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco (4 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

Here's a sneak preview of what I'm working on today, which will be released next week... Exciting stuff! (I also have a sonnet to finish, but that's unrelated.)

Part of a title page for a Word document titled "Learning to Unlock Texts: The key to effective textual analysis". The title text is in a deep plum colour with lime green lines banding the top and bottom, and the subtitle is also in plum, though much smaller text. Above the subtitle is an image of a magnifying glass.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

Here are the books I read in August! A fascinating emotional heavy-hitter, a comfy re-read, a sweet story about identity, friendship, and Jewishness, a delightfully bonkers Gothic classic, and a progression through a grimly humorous spy thriller series. Which ones have you read?

Infographic from The StoryGraph showing @jojoinabox's August 2026 Reads: Sistersong, by Lucy Holland (5 stars); Uprooted, by Naomi Novik (5 stars); When the Angels Left the Old Country, by Sacha Lamb (5 stars); The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole (4 stars); Real Tigers, by Mick Herron (4 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

July's reading had some pretty stark variation to it: two stories set in early medieval Britain/Ireland, one set in a ren faire universe, two modern murder mysteries, one moden spy story, and a fantasy horror about family difficulties. Phew! Have you read any of these?

A StoryGraph infografic showing @jojoinabox's July 2026 reads: Spear, by Nicola Griffith (5 stars); Started Early, Took My Dog, by Kate Atkinson (3.5 stars); I Died at Fallow Hall, by Bonnie Burke-Patel (3 stars); Lady's Knight, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (3.5 stars); Dead Lions, by Mick Herron (4 stars); House with Good Bones, by T Kingfisher (4.5 stars); The Book of I, by David Grieg (4.5 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

The zifius is a monster that does not resemble any other animal. This time, I think the illustrator nailed it. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast107594.htm

A medieval illustration of a creature that has a fishlike body and an enormous head. The face of the creature has two huge orange eyes right in the middle, above which is... possibly an upside-down mouth with teeth?

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

I cackled, but I think you can probably guess what kind of sea creature this is supposed to be. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast107506.htm

A medieval illustration of a fish wearing a helmet and carrying a shield. How it carries the shield is a great mystery.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

The sea-stag: it's a deer. Of the sea. Of course it eats birds that land on it. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast107510.htm

Another image that does what it says on the tin! It's a medieval illustration (with very fancy gold work) of a creature with a fish body and a deer head. The head is turned backwards so that it can eat the creature on its back (presumably supposed to be a bird, but this is also shaped like a fish). It embodies "ehehehe" in its expression.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

Look, I KNOW you know what a snail looks like. A sea-snail should not be this hard, surely?? Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast105363.htm

A medieval illustration of a very average-looking fish sanwiched between two fan-shaped shells (curved edge down). Nothing about this looks remotely like a snail.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

Always check under your ship for sea-rams before you go swimming, or one might come out and drown you! Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast107606.htm

A medieval illustration of a creature with a furry-looking fish body and the head of a ram. You definitely want to give this guy some space; he looks ornery as fuck y'all! Lovely deep blue background on this image, which really makes the gilded accoutrements pop.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

The description of a pike (or sea-wolf) looked pretty normal to me, until I read "females are impregnated by the north wind". Wut. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast104632.htm

A medieval drawing of a long, blue fish with a beak-shaped snout and a lot of sharp little teeth.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

First weird critter is the abides, which lives first in water and then on land. Some might say amphibian, but we say... goat-monkey?

A medieval illustration of an abides coming out of the water, against a nice red background. The abides inexplicably has the body of a well-fed goat and the head of a screaming monkey.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/07/2026

I got through a lot of books in June, but that was mostly because I had a big Murderbot month, and those stories are super quick and easy reads. I really enjoyed my reading last month, as you can see! Any other Murderbot fans in my sphere?

An infographic from The StoryGraph showing @jojoinabox's June 2026 Reads: Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones (4 stars); The Murderbot Diaries Volume 1, by Martha Wells (5 stars); The Murderbot Diaries Volume 2, by Martha Wells (5 stars); Network Effect, by Martha Wells (5 stars); The Murderbot Diaries Volume 3, by Martha Wells (5 stars); Platform Decay, by Martha Wells (5 stars); Hild by Nicola Griffith (5 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 15/06/2026

It's a wet, dreary winter day, and the cats have gotten well settled in. They know what's up!

Two cats are nestled very cosily into a big, fuzzy, royal blue blanket. The cat on the left is a black and white tuxedo cat, angled towards the camera but looking over to the other cat. This other cat is a bit larger, a brown tabby with cream patches on face and paws, and he is pointed directly away from the tuxedo. He's also giving her a wicked side-eye. This is a very accurate representation of their relationship.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/06/2026

I had a wide variety of reading in May, from nonfiction to mysteries and more. They were a lot of good reads, too, so check 'em out if you can!

Infographic for @jojoinabox's May 2026 Reads from The StoryGraph: "Queen James" by Gareth Russell (4.5 stars), "Murder by Memory" by Olivia Waite (4.5 stars), "The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England 1603-1689" by Jonathan Healey (3.5 stars), "Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil" by Oliver Darkshire (5 stars), "End of Story" by A J Finn (5 stars), "The Good Wife of Bath: A (Mostly) True Story" by Karen Brooks (4.5 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

Nightjars apparently like to suckle goats' milk straight from the udder. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast107330.htm

A medieval illustration showing a bird creeping on the ground behind a nonplussed goat and latching onto its udder. That is definitely an udder, and certainly does not look like any other dangly part of anatomy.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

Nightingales sing so enthusiastically that they sometimes die from the effort! Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery546.…

A medieval drawing of a nightingale singing to three people in a bed. The leftmost person is presumably gesturing for the bird to shut up and let them sleep; the rightmost person seems resigned to insomnia, and the middle person might actually be asleep. The nightingale, for its part, looks very pleased with itself.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

The glutis is a bird with a long tongue, perfect for eating bugs and taunting your enemies. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast107409.htm

A medieval illustration of a tall, brown wading bird with a rude expression. It is sticking its extensive tongue out, and holding up a wing in what I can only assume is an insulting gesture.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

"It's the time Of the sea-ea-son For loviiiiiiiiing..." [the fuzzy blanket]

Two cats nestled very comfortably in a big, blue, fuzzy blanket. On the left is a black and white cat facing away from the camera, fast asleep. On the right is a light brown tabby with white patches who is doing a marvellous job of pretending to be asleep for the photo.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/05/2026

Also, since it's a new month, here's what I've been reading the last month. Lots of variety in April! Looking at the current state of the book stack, I suspect May will be much more focused.

An infographic from The StoryGraph showing @jojoinabox's April 2026 reads with star ratings: "This is Not a Game" by Kelly Mullen (3 stars), "Queen Demon" by Martha Wells (4.5 stars), "The Stone Witch of Florence" by Anna Rasche (4 stars), "Weird Medieval Guys: A Bestiary of Curious Creatures from the Dark Ages" by Olivia Swarthout (5 stars), and "The Library of Broken Worlds" by Alaya Dawn Johnson (4 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 02/04/2026

In all the excitement about Red Pens 101 coming out yesterday, (AAHHHH) I didn't share my reading for last month. Here it is now: not quite as enthusiastic as January and February, but more variety. One more book in the Christmas Haul to finish (and it'll be a doozy!), just in time for my birthday!

An inforgraphic from The StoryGraph showing @jojoinabox's March 2026 Reads: How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin (3 stars), City of Bones by Martha Wells (4.5 stars), Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (5 stars), and The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad (4 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 24/03/2026

It's finally here: the Red Pens 101 cover reveal! I'll be releasing it on April 1st, and of course I'll be putting all the deets up here. You'd be a fool to miss out on it!

A bright red cover with white text and accents. The title is "Red Pens 101: The basics of written communication - A Red Pens and Playwriting publication". The author is Jordon Jones. There is a low-opacity photo on the cover showing cut up, taped down, and annotated play dialogue.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 15/03/2026

My wife and her dad worked very hard yesterday to put up a shelf for me (on a very perplexing wall) so that I have a nice spot near my desk to store things. I have some organising to do, methinks!

A single white shelf with silver brackets attached to a wall papered with delicate pink flowers, as one might expect in a grandparents' house from the 90s. The shelf is empty except for a paperback copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. directly under the shelf hangs a very cute embroidery of a cat on a shiny blue fabric, with various flowers embroidered within the outline of the cat.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 02/03/2026

Here's a wee sneak peek of the start to Red Pens 101: coming very soon to a Ko-Fi shop near you! Keep your eyes peeled for more previews and information over the next few weeks.

Welcome to Red Pens 101! The publication you see on the screen before you is an introductory writing guide, designed to familiarise you, my readers, with the basic elements of good written communication. I don’t just mean creative writing, mind; when I say written communication I mean all of it. Academic essays and reports, articles, corporate emails, reviews or summaries, website copy... and, yes, some creative writing as well. We live in a society where more people than ever are writing for work, or study, or personal projects, but where the skills of writing well are undervalued. It can be difficult for uncertain writers to know how to communicate information effectively, and all too easy for them to create confusion where there should be clarity. And that’s what I want to help you to get better at: clarity through good writing technique. If you’re familiar with my work through the blog Red Pens and Playwriting, you’ll know that I strongly believe in the power of understanding what you’re doing when you write. You can choose to follow or break the rules as you please—I certainly don’t want to stop you from experimenting—but breaking the rules will go much better for you if you know a) what the rules are in the first place, and b) the effect you’ll get from breaking them in a specific way. Ignoring the rules of writing altogether has a tendency to look amateurish, unprofessional, and unpersuasive. Nobody wants that, right? It’s much more effective to be clearly intentional in your writing, and look like you totally know what you’re doing.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/03/2026

February was a month of finishing things, as far as my reading went. I finished Inventing the Renaissance (bloody good, and bloody long), and I finished the Arsène Lupin series I got for Christmas. As much as I enjoyed these books, I'm looking forward to new things in March!

Graphic from The StoryGraph showing @jojoinabox's February 2026 Reads: "Arsène Lupin: The Hollow Needle" by Maurice Leblanc (5.0 stars), "Arsène Lupin: 813" by Maurice Leblanc (5.0 stars), "Inventing the Renaissance: Myths of a Golden Age" by Ada Palmer (5.0 stars), "Arsène Lupin: The Crystal Stopper" by Maurice Leblanc (5.0 stars)

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 04/02/2026

But hey, at least I have some feline company while I work! (Usually to be found weaving around me in search of scritches)

A black and white cat sits on the the arm of a fuzzy brown armchair in a corner next to a couple of windows. Weirdly, the cat is not sitting on the fuzzy blanket in the middle of a sunbeam on the seat of the chair, but has opted to perch instead. As for the surroundings, the wall is papered with a very 1990s pastel floral pattern, and the curtain hanging behind the chair is a much more modern grey.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/02/2026

How is it already February, and what made January so long??? Here's what I've been reading lately, anyway. I want to very especially recommend Queer Georgians as some particularly good nonfiction and Once Was Willem as some fascinating medieval folklore/fantasy/something (it's really cool).

A graphic from The StoryGraph showing @jojoinabox's January 2026 Reads with ratings: "Slow Horses" by Mick Herron (4.0 stars), "Queer Georgians" by Anthony Delaney (5.0 stars), "Once Was Willem" by M. R. Carey (5.0 stars), "Arsène Lupin Gentleman Thief" by Maurice Leblanc (5.0 stars), and "Arsène Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes" by Maurice Leblanc (4.5 stars).

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 05/01/2026

In 2025, I also: - Quit my technical writing job before imploding from chronic fatigue - Visited Hanmer Springs twice - Reviewed a play (it was very good) - Wrote approx. 12k of my main creative writing project - Read 42 books, which I enjoyed very much

A summary graphic from The Storygraph showing the following information. First book, "The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone" by Gareth Ward & Louise Ward; Last book, "The Impossible Fortune" by Richard Osman; Longest book, "London" by Edward Rutherfurd; Shortest book, "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells; Top genres: mystery (18), fantasy (11), historical (10), crime (8), LGBTQIA+ (8); Top authors: Martha Wells, Richard Osman, Olivie Blake; Some 5-star reads: "Murder on Milverton Square" by G. B. Ralph, "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells, "Artificial Condition" by Martha Wells; Average rating 4.54 stars.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 12/12/2025

I had my first beach visit of the summer! (Well, technically I was going to the hot pools right next to the beach, but I just HAD to walk in the sand while we were there.) I love my beach time, as you can see from these wee poems: red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io/b…

It's late in the day (the golden hour), and before us stretches a gorgeous empty beach. There's a sizeable bunch of driftwood up here in the dry sand, and beyond that waves coming in at a lowish tide. There's a pier jutting out into the water from the right side of the image, and a few light clouds hover just above it in the brilliant blue sky.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/12/2025

The tranes is similar to a rabbit, but more willing to fight (as though rabbits in medieval manuscripts didn't go to war...) and comes with a helmet on its head. Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast107311.htm

A medieval illustration of a rabbit in a spiffy red helmet, like one worn by a knight.

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Red Pens and Playwriting @index.red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/12/2025

A lanzani is supposed to be a creature of unsurpassed cruelty to all other animals. Is this cruelty in the form of social faux pas, do you think? Source: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast106139.htm

The lanzani is on the left of the image: it looks rather like an oversized grey pika with a manic look in its eye. On the right, a lion and a human are giving the lanzani serious side eye as they make an awkward exit. It's a very nice illustration, with lots of gilding and a rich red background.

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