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Jonathan Laidlow

@jonlaidlow.bsky.social
766 followers 667 following 117 posts

Cumbrian in Brum, writes a bit. Stories in Strange Horizons, Liminal Stories, StarshipSofa, Interzone and IZ Digital, and more. Codexian. Short fiction reviews at supernova.reviews, short fiction at jonlaidlow.com, webmaster & editor at ultan.org.uk

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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Can't wait to start this collection. *side-eyes the TBR pile, which stares back from the room it now occupies...*
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Latest post over on my short fiction review site - Alan is doing the heavy lifting at the moment but I promise to do some reviews when I get back from Seaforth!
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Latest short fiction reviews from my side project!
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
When I'm not writing about terrible things going on in the seaside town of Seaforth, I run a site reviewing short fiction. Here's my latest piece about the current issue of Interzone. I mean, yes, it came out a few months ago, but I'm also a known procrastinator....
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Latest post from my site reviewing short fiction. A review of the latest issue of Parsec, featuring so many good stories I couldn’t choose my favourite. Maybe @wishusdonna.bsky.social or maybe RB Kelly
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Mythaxis Magazine @mythaxis.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Perhaps a case of "too little too late", but Mythaxis (and many of our 2025 stories, in both text and audio formats) are eligible as candidates for the British Fantasy Awards – with voting open until... er, well, tomorrow! britishfantasysociety.org/voting-opens...
britishfantasysociety.org
Voting Opens For This Year’s British Fantasy Awards! – The British Fantasy Society
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The Supernova Short Fiction Review @supernovareviews.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Alan reviews Wyldblood 16 @wyldblood.bsky.social and asks why you're not subscribing to this excellent publication! Standout story this time from @robgillham.bsky.social but they're all great!
supernova.reviews
Wyldblood #17
Finally pulled my finger out to review the latest Wyldblood, which is, as ever, a mixture of strange and interesting stories.    
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Alex Shvartsman @alexshvartsman.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
We're live and the campaign is taking off faster than a space corgi! Listen to LEWIS BLACK read from the book here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/ufo...
kickstarter.com
The Best of All Possible Planets
Hilarious space opera comedy for the fans of Futurama and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Cozy science fiction humor, and corgis!
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
While I've been busy writing a novella set in my fictional seaside town of Seaforth, Alan kept the Supernova burning and here reviews a horror edition of Mythaxis - do check it out, a free to read zine full of quality fiction @mythaxis.bsky.social
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Stefanie 🏳️‍⚧️ @foxenlock.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Trans in the Machine: Chronicling the new Cyberpunk Canon is now live! The crowdfund runs all month. Accessible pricing and a portion of funds go to good causes. Let’s make this happen together! 🔗 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...
A cyberpunk cityscape in shades of blue, pink, and grey with the text 'Trans in the Machine: Chronicling the New Cyberpunk Canon. Insight // Analysis // Experience From Trans+ Community'
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Fellow writers! I can’t make it to Halifax this May but maybe you can?
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
I have flu and the cat refuses to give me cuddles... He views the enforced distancing from my partner as a clear sign of the end times and he's making it clear who he's moving in with....
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
I knew that @rickandwrite.bsky.social and @tinybookcase.bsky.social would be a match made in heaven when in introduced them to each other at World Fantasy in Brighton! Give this a listen people!
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Nathan W. Toronto @bulletpoints.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Read "Bone and Acid and Rushing Waves," from Addison Smith / @addi.social: Nova carries her captain’s head into battle. Read for free in Bullet Points: zurl.co/gBV5V
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
What do you mean you don't have an ebook of Last Dragoners, get it now from the Subterranean site!
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
It's true, I'm busy talking puffins with the corpse-dredger, the murderer, and PC Beak in Seaforth. But I did take the time to read this issue of Parsec and it's fabulous, as Alan says in his review. Why aren't you subscribing to Parsec? pspublishing.co.uk/parsec-79-c....
pspublishing.co.uk
ParSec
Following the announcement in our Weekly Newsletter 8th Jan that PS would be taking over the reins of the much-loved Interzone magazine with me
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
A wonderful read, and a beautifully presented book too!
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Filling my current story with em-dashes (or en-dashes, I'm entirely unsure at this point) because that's the way the prose wants to be. If it was good enough for Sterne in Tristram Shandy (subject of my long abandoned attempt to become a Dr) then it's good enough for me!
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Bystanding (2018) First published at Factor Four magazine 2018 Dave sits on the roof of the old Ford out by the farm gate with a beer. It hasn’t been a working farm for nearly a decade, but the yard and outbuildings were why he bought the place, and they’re filled with the broken-down vehicles he…
jonlaidlow.com
Bystanding (2018)
First published at Factor Four magazine 2018 Dave sits on the roof of the old Ford out by the farm gate with a beer. It hasn’t been a working farm for nearly a decade, but the yard and outbuildings were why he bought the place, and they’re filled with the broken-down vehicles he collects and occasionally repairs. The Ford Cortina, though, is beyond restoration, and with the engine stripped out it’s just a place for the kids to play, or for him to go sit with his thoughts in the night.
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The Supernova Short Fiction Review @supernovareviews.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Alan reviews the latest edition of the excellent @shoreinf.bsky.social‬ - Omniscient computers, ghosts in machines, and cellular communication all crop up in this edition of Shoreline, and there seems to be a loose theme of lives that take place within non-corporeal and hidden states.
supernova.reviews
Shoreline of Infinity #39 (Summer 2025)
Omniscient computers, ghosts in machines, and cellular communication all crop up in this edition of Shoreline, and there seems to be a loose theme of lives that take place within non-corporeal and hidden states.  Alan reviews the latest Shoreline of Infinity
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Adrian Tchaikovsky @aptshadow.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
Random literary ramble post about how an idea can travel. In Gene Wolfe's Book of the Short Sun (2000) we meet the inhumi of Green, shapeshifting aliens that take on the characteristics of their prey in order to impersonate them and get close enough to feed...
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Andrew’s story is brilliant! @deadinkbooks.bsky.social
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Anita 🧜🏽‍♀️🏴‍☠️🪐 @mythopoetica.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Let me put it this way: Have you ever read a Malaysian retelling of Cupid and Psyche that features Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and Malay hair metal music?
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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 30/06/2025
PodCastle is very proud to join in celebrating Disability Pride Month with Disability Pride & Magic: a month of fantastic stories centering disabled characters and experiences. See announcement on our website: podcastle.org/2025/06/30/d...
PodCastle Disability Pride and Magic
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Mythaxis Magazine @mythaxis.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Issue 42 of Mythaxis Magazine is out now! mythaxis.co.uk/issue-42/ Six new stories in text and audio formats, and reviews too! Many thanks to @SeanMacKendrick.bsky.social, Cheryl Ntumy, Anna Ziegelhof, Travis Ezell, Charlie Winter, Josh Pearce, @faceyouhate.bsky.social, and Micah Hyatt on voice!
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Republishing an old story as I rebuild my website - this is "Inundated" a fantasy which is my Mum's favourite. It was also a Far Fetched Fable podcast. It was sold to Ecotones - an original small press anthology - and it was my first sale.
jonlaidlow.com
Inundated (2015)
 Yuri woke up to the sound of waves breaking at the end of the street, and knew that the undines had breached the final defences. Even his house, one of the furthest from the harbour, would be theirs once again, like the rest of the city. He had slept in the upper bedroom and now looked out into the morning, surveying the city.
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
While avoiding writing more of the puffin story, I thought I'd revisit an old draft of a near future short that I really liked. Oh. Nope! I don't think that's fixable! What about this story about aliens and sandwiches....
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
The puffins will have their revenge....
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Anita 🧜🏽‍♀️🏴‍☠️🪐 @mythopoetica.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
A memory-wiped mermaid-siren rehearsing for her storyteller exams tries to piece together events from the past, present and future while around her wars between merkingdoms are fomenting. 🧜🏼‍♀️🧜🏼‍♂️ Check out Watermyth! mythopoetica.com/2024/09/01/p...
The cover of Watermyth by Anita Harris Satkunananthan has a woman in silhouette (Finora) with her hair in a bun, resting one hand on the balustrades of her balcony as she stares at a neighbouring Palazzo.
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Am going to celebrate #Bloomsday by putting on the audiobook of Ulysses read by Jim Norton (Father Ted's Bishop Brennan) that I bought three Bloomsdays ago and and have still failed to complete... (not because he's not bloomin' marvellous, I might add). The failure is mine...
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Allison Thai @thaisibir.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
Today is the last day for Plott Hound's summer submission period! Slip those animal stories, poems and essay pitches through the dog door before midnight MST.
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British Fantasy Society @britfantasysoc.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
There’s still time to grab your ticket for this brilliant workshop with @bonabooks.bsky.social. Tomorrow, June 16th at 7pm. Tickets are £5 for BFS members and £10 for non-members britishfantasysociety.org/events-calen...
britishfantasysociety.org
Writing Queer People, Editing Queer People – a Workshop with Bona Books – The British Fantasy Society
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
@interzone.press issue 302 has dropped but I’m behind! Here’s my review of the previous issue over at my side project, Supernova…
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Gull from Seaforth likes his chips green and his sausages fishy... This next Seaforth tale that I'm working on may become a novelette or even a novella...
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Back to my reviewing side project. I looked at the backlog of short fiction to review and thought, I know – I'll review a novella!
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The Supernova Short Fiction Review @supernovareviews.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Mythaxis #41 – Spring 2025 Some strong stories in the latest edition of Mythaxis.
supernova.reviews
Mythaxis #41 – Spring 2025
Some strong stories in the latest edition of Mythaxis.
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
This was fantastic. Aerth by Deborah Tomkins is a short elegiac literary/spec fic novel where each chapter is a kind of flash fiction. Themes of displacement, ecological collapse and family. A kind of green “Man Who Fell to Earth” but in no way preachy or on the nose weatherglassbooks.com/shop/aerth
Photo of the cover of the novel Aerth by Deborah Tomkins
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Because I’m at @easterconuk.bsky.social in Belfast I posted my Strung Along in Seaforth story and then forgot to promote it. Having a smashing time, moderated a panel on David Lynch, spoke on a Star Wars panel and watched @rickandwrite.bsky.social win an award! jonlaidlow.com/2025/04/seaf...
jonlaidlow.com
Read “Strung Along in Seaforth” for free
Tobias dressed the shop dummy in the skin of his late father and then carefully pinched and pulled until it was smooth and tight. Harold was to be his entry in Seaforth’s annual carnival and after …
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
my friend @nilaewhite.com has written this excellent trilogy that I want you to buy….
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Andrew Knighton @aknighton.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
If you haven't already read Charlie Says, then take this nudge from the BSFA awards to go give it a look. It's the book from last year that I keep recommending, a brilliantly written & incredibly timely story of modern folk magic, toxic nostalgia, & the difficulty of redemption.
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Another review from my excellent collaborator at Supernova… this time the latest issue of @wyldblood.bsky.social
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Liam Hogan @liamjhogan.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Hi! Can we please get a repost? Big THANKS! @sffworld.com @reactorsff.bsky.social @scifiscavenger.bsky.social @srfantasyclub.bsky.social @bsfa.bsky.social @jonlaidlow.bsky.social @britfantasysoc.bsky.social @northernfiction.bsky.social @spotlightindie.bsky.social @bookspotlight.bsky.social
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
The lovely podcast that Strange Horizons made of my 2017 story "Darner" is on Spotify here: creators.spotify.com/pod/show/str... It's a weird one, back when I was thinking about mythologies and cities, remembering Birmingham's old underpasses beneath the Queensway...
A 19th century drawing of a dragonfly
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
New review by @scifi-al.bsky.social at our BSFA-longlisted short fiction review site, SUPERNOVA!
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Sometimes the things we do to procrastinate become a thing of their own. Very proud of the reviews @interzonemagfans.bsky.social and I have written at Supernova, supporting short fiction. And I even started writing again over the winter!
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The Supernova Short Fiction Review @supernovareviews.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
New year, new short fiction reviews! Alan has been catching up on @mythaxis.bsky.social - an excellent and free-to-read quarterly zine. Check out our review and then check out Mythaxis! supernova.reviews/2025/01/10/m...
supernova.reviews
Mythaxis #39
Reading Mythaxis really brings home that there are some great unknown (or relatively unknown) writers out there.
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Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
You can follow me here, and Supernova is @supernovareviews.bsky.social - but it's all for nothing if readers don't try some of the mags and sites we feature, so please folks, try a new short fiction site today!
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