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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶

@kateem.bsky.social
1.5K followers 950 following 2.1K posts

Writer, Vintage SFF Reviews editor strangehorizons.com. Stealth publisher peachfieldpress.uk. New novel: Radical Magic! peachfield-press.sumupstore.com/pro…. Archaeological recorder, knitter, grandmother of frogs.

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Reposted by Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶
🜲 @fresh72.bsky.social · 15h
They're starting early
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 19h
A brief user comparison of @gladlib.bsky.social and @sarumcollege.bsky.social as locations for solo #writing #retreats. Both are VERY GOOD, but there are interesting differences. And both are heaving with Church of England theological texts so if that's abhorrent to you, look away now. /next
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Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026
This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
While listening to council meetings in Montreal, local mayor Sue Montgomery decided to knit in red when men spoke and in green when women spoke, when similar numbers of both attended. Day 1 results.... #WomensArt
Photo of uneven knitting with much larger amounts of red yarn than green
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A legend. Formative. Genuine good influence.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
'It's pretty difference to claim total ignorance on this one.' Oh yes it is. Welcome to the rest of the world that is not in the USA.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Laughter IS medicine.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's me! Writing about an excellent meteorites book.
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Bertha Mason @thornfieldhall.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Two tier policing. Victoria Thomas Bowen, who chucked a milkshake at Farage, was given a 13-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months; had to pay him £150 compensation; had to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £450 in court costs. It was nowhere near the level of violence of this assault.
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Celeste Headlee @celesteheadlee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
So, Banksy bought a used yacht, repaired it and retrofitted it to serve as a rescue boat to save migrants in the central Mediterranean. The whole project cost the artist $860,000. Since 2020, the boat has saved more than 3,800 people. londondaily.com/banksy-funds...
londondaily.com
Banksy funds refugee rescue boat operating in Mediterranean - London Daily
Exclusive: UK artist finances bright pink motor yacht that set sail in secrecy to avoid being intercepted by authorities
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
No, BBC, he has not been arrested over the video of dinghy slashing. He’s been arrested over the dinghy slashing. Words matter.
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Quakers in Britain @quaker.org.uk · 24/09/2026
Interested in working on democracy, peace and climate justice? We're looking for a Public Affairs and Media Manager to manage our advocacy and media team for 13 months. Full details: www.quaker.org.uk/our-organisa...
quaker.org.uk
Quakers in Britain: Job opportunities
Find a range of jobs with Quakers in Britain. With a 1:4 ratio between our highest and our lowest paid staff, we are a Living Wage employer.
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat.
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
• OLD ENGLISH: Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum, / þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon... • MIDDLE ENGLISH: Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, / The droghte of March hath perced to the roote... • EARLY MODERN ENGLISH: To be, or not to be, that is the Question: / Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde...
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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I’m not saying that SH is influential, but of the three longlisted books we covered last week, two have just made it to the Booker shortlist. M John Harrison and Rebecca Perry both in the running for the gong. Big moment for spec fic, I’d say, perhaps especially that The End of Everything is there.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I've read five of these and am now eyeing up a few more. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/b...
nytimes.com
Space Opera Books: Where to Start If You Love Science Fiction (Gift Article)
These epic, star-spanning adventure stories blend interstellar action with political allegory and romantic drama. Here’s where to start.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Booked again for my December solo writing retreat. I'll take a shawl, but this is a good discount.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Be aware that cauliflower and almond soup with turmeric makes a really astonishing crunchy yellow staining mess when it boils over unattended down white kitchen cupboard doors.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Amazing story! Female poet's poems sitting ignored in plain sight in 16thC manuscript.
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The playing field is not level: “According to analysis by Newscord, 163 articles were published on Jason Arday in the week after he resigned – compared to 13 articles by the same media outlets on James Orr in the week after the broadcast of the undercover filming he was featured in”
bylinesupplement.com
The Two Professors and a ‘War On Ideas’
The different stories of the Cambridge academics Jason Arday and James Orr reveal the wider cultural and ideological forces around hierarchies and structural power – and who gets to belong
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Peter Murphy @peterwmurphy1.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Dear ABC News, You continue to publish appalling headlines that minimise men killing women as "women die". Word choice matters. Your editors need to use the words died, killed, or murdered, accurately. #DV #VAW #crime #journalism
Australian ABC News headline:
Three women die in domestic violence-related incidents across NSW
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Off to a wedding. Hat £6 in hospice shop Cardi £5 Vinted Shoes full price John Lewis Frock 40% off in the Sahara sale but still rather a lot. It'll be my favourite summer dress for the next four years.
White-haired woman photographing herself in mirror wearing black straw top hat with fake feather festoon, red cardi, black dress embroidered in Mexican colours and red shoes.
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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 19/09/2026
👇
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 18/09/2026
What on earth is happening?
  This had become the new normal. RNLI crew members had been forced to take their permits off their cars after their tyres have been repeatedly slashed. Most of them have been pilloried at the school gates or turned away from local pubs. One man who worked in search and rescue had been beaten unconscious and hospitalised, recognised for TV interviews he had done.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Went to see the new Present Laughter, not actually a Coward play but a regendered adaptation. Too wordy, far too shouty and lacks zing. A worthy attempt but needs a lot of cutting and snappier pacing. Agree completely with this review. www.westendbestfriend.co.uk/news/review-...
westendbestfriend.co.uk
Review: PRESENT LAUGHTER, Theatre Royal Bath | West End Best Friend
Tracy-Ann Oberman stars as Geri Essendine in this new production of Noël Coward’s celebrated and hilarious portrayal of the temptations and pitfalls of theatrical celebrity, Present Laughter.
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Iain Roberts @slowbikeiain.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Labour government: "The protestors have made their point and we're listening to their legitimate concerns."
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Has anyone thought about turning off the rogue AIs' power?
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Video below:
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New post from me at The Peachfield Press: new story published, reviews published, a mad swerve with the next novel, last orders for the Storybundle, and the @strangehorizons.bsky.social Vintage Reviews details again. peachfieldpress.uk/2026/09/15/t...
peachfieldpress.uk
Two novels, alike in dignity …
The past few months have been a blizzard of publications. Yesterday I had a story published, and a week or so ago I had a review published in Strange Horizons. I also had a month fielding requests …
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Hours left to get this astonishing bundle of ebooks! Mine is in there! HOURS left. Not that many.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The 2027 timetables for Northlink ferries to Orkney and Shetland are now open. In case you're going. I've booked mine.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Doors open now for Malvern Quaker Meeting House on Heritage Open Days!
A noticeboard festooned with encouraging advertising in pink and white for Heritage Open DaysA pink and white banner advertising Heritage Open Days while lounging on a wooden bench.The friendly open door of Malvern Quaker Meeting House
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
@storyflint.com I've just managed to complete a plot outline using your notes on structure. I have never managed to get to this point before. Are my pantsing days over? Undoubtedly not. But now I know where we're GOING... tralalalala.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Evening Womble! I'm reading Elizabeth Goldring's luxurious biography of Nicholas Hilliard which has the most amazing paintings of Gloriana.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Just started Christmas card shopping. Seemed like a good cause. shop.rnli.org/collections/...
shop.rnli.org
Christmas Cards | RNLI Shop
Every purchase of our charity Christmas cards from the RNLI makes a lifesaving difference. The profits will help to prevent tragedies at sea for years to come.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
What a life!
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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Last day for Barnes & Noble customers to get 25% off the Riven Kingdom in all formats - along with a great many other splendid titles - by using the code PREORDER25 with online pre-orders. #BookSky
This graphic contains the following:

The Riven Kingdom cover art by Alice Claire Coleman, in the style of a stained glass window. Blue-green leaves and vines dotted with golden flowers coil around silver swords in panels on either side. These are topped with a golden sun on the left and a yellow crescent moon on the right. In the centre, rival hands stretch upwards trying to get hold of a crown that's just out of reach...

The Riven Kingdom cover copy. The King is Dead

Struck down by lightning on a hunting trip, King Venais had not yet married or fathered an heir. With two princesses claiming the crown,
Arafaze teeters on the brink of war.

Priestesses of the Sun Goddess and Priests of the Moon God serve the divinities who balance healing and death, truth and lies, vowing to take no part in secular politics. As fear and ambition reach beyond the court, some discard those vows.

A nobleman’s agent and two traders on the rivers that are the realm’s life blood are drawn into this perilous tangle, together with a priest and a priestess who wield secret magic known only to the few, They are sworn to defend the everyday world against incursions from the Shadow Realm where fear lies and hatred take on terrifying form...

Publication information. Available in ebook, paperback and audiobook
from Angry Robot Books 27th October 2026

Special offer information. Barnes & Noble Premium and Rewards members online exclusive 25% off upcoming books with code PREORDER25

Includes ebooks and audiobooks
Premium members save an extra 10%
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Mark Monro | He/Him 🌈 @thatidiotmonro.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Need to harness the power of Bluesky, so reposts are appreciated. If anyone here, or anyone you know attends Bangor University (the Welsh one) and needs a room for the upcoming year, get in touch. One of my son's housemates has dropped out at the last minute, so their house is one short.
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Citizen Paul Templeman @paultempleman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Blue Sky doesn’t get much better than this. 😂😂
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Publicise, publicise! If writers don't post on social media incessantly our readers and customers will evade their eyes! Selling my books in Birmingham tomorrow! Come and see me and many others at the Bookstravaganza, Uffculme Centre, Sat 12th Sept, 10.30-4pm.
a publicity tile advertising a book fair in Birmingham (not the Alabama one, the other one)
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Got botsplained last night. Someone pasted a long quote from Claude as a reply in a Slack conversation, and it told me I was wrong. Which I wasn't. The condescension was astonishing for a LLM trained on my uncompensated words. Just like being mansplained by an American tech bro half my age.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“It’s murder. Broad daylight murder.” An @aljazeera.com doc on Trump & Hegseth’s boat bombings. 220+ people killed. No names released. Many (all?) were fishermen… their families speak out 👇🏽 How is this pro-life? Why did 🇺🇸 media stop covering it? Full: youtu.be/Y57CfGFCf3U?...
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I got a Maths O-grade. I ran a business. Numbers can reduce me to tears sometimes. When trying to understand them in French, fast, loudly, aggressively. When having to understand car tyre pressures and EV charging plans. Not innumeracy, just rabbit-freezing-in-headlight terror and bafflement.
columns of baffling numbers with a red danger zone.
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Charles Fourier @charlesfourier.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Bill Bryson’s words seem appropriate to post right now
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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
📝 We have new editors at SH Reviews! @kateem.bsky.social will be curating a monthly strand of reviews focusing on SFF at least 50 years old. Novelty bias begone! And @ajodasso.bsky.social is moonlighting from Poetry as our new Media Reviews Editor, ensuring films, TV, games get their regular due.
strangehorizons.com
A Note From Reviews
We’re especially happy to announce some new appointments at the Reviews Department.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Intimidation by social media against the RNLI.
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Andrew Robinson (no, not Garak) @andrewr.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
RT if you’ve never had a tab of ChatGPT open, ever. (Or Claude and certainly not Grok)
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Looking for reviewers of Vintage #SFF! Do read the Strange Horizons announcement and get in touch if you have ideas for a review, a book, or both. strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
strangehorizons.com
A Note From Reviews
We are both proud and humbled that Strange Horizons remains one of the places where readers of SFF still know they can go to find regular, in-depth, and hopefully entertaining reviews of all kinds …
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This is a REALLY good issue. I backed a crowdsourcer after finding it in here.
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Kate Macdonald 📚 🧶 @kateem.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Read this and tell me it's not a lazy AI-generated 'review' of my novel sent to me by a #NetGalley freeloader who downloaded it and can't be bothered reading it. Nothing in it is specific to my novel. I curse her with disappointment for all the books she tries reading for the next, ooh, ten weeks?
AI generated 'review' of my novel that says nothing but gushes meaningfully.
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