iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

You've had one Pub Day, but what about Second Pub Day? Happy Book Birthday, mate.

Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"The Mandelverse is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television." Yes, I'm onto my next Mandel book. The Lola Quartet (and as an ex-journalist, the journalist main character is giving me anxiety!)

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Bona Traddie Dive, bencoves! If tu are vadaing for a nova libro that's tutto about linguas in space, por que don't tu give THE REPUBLIC OF MEMORY a keek. It's molti bona and no flies. #ITD2026

The US cover of The Republic of Memory, a sci-fi cityscape

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

(In Attenborough) The black and white Mew, caught mid-scratch. She is a known vandal, exhibiting scant respect for neighbourhood fences. They are naught but sharpening posts for her fearsome claws.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Hanbal ibn Al-Akhtar: I ate his kibda with some ful medames and a nice erq sous.

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, you know, the psychiatrist

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Not only was this interview with @hugobookclub.bsky.social a blast but it came with added bool recs! I've read (and enjoyed) Babel-17 and Dhalgren so looking forward to getting stuck into this!

A copy of The Ballad of Beta-2 by Samuel R. Delany

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Mew has been diligently guarding @rjbarker.bsky.social's 'Beasts of the Wild Black.' I think she can sense that there is another cat in there.

Mew, the bestest cat, standing on a copy of an arc of RJ Barker's Beasts of the Wild Black. Likely, she is thinking about tuna.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Watching Lanterns and can't get this out of my head.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Name your favourite Disney Princess (wrong answers only).

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Odysseus: Don't you understand? We broke Excel's Law! We are the Spreadsheet People.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Renaissance Morecambe and Wise confirmed.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

When you say 'speculative' instead of 'science' fiction.

Tony Soprano wearing a beret. Look at him, he knows everything.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

In my fiction, I use the technique of positive visualisation, show-don't-tell and personification.

An image of Christopher Moltisanti from the Sopranos

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I don't care what you say, Mew is purposefully mimicking the vibe of Willem Dafoe's weird poses here. She knows what she's doing!

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Finished watching Sugar Season 2. Another ten out of ten for me. And they know just how to end it, too, with the return of the goodest boy.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

"Have you never heard of the Womble? I once saw him review three books at once with a fucking pencil!"

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Happy International Cat Day from Past Mahmud & Baby Mew

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

"I am a servant of the Dirty Laundry, wielder of the claws of Mew. You cannot pass! The Washing Machine will not avail you, Human Butler. Go back to doing the dishes. You cannot pass!"

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Now I am become The Sea People, Destroyer of World

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Reverse Mew arrives, eats Mew's dinner, glares and then leaves. #Notmycat

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Mews Lee and the one-inch skippidy pap. Whaaaa!

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Mew-loaf. "Like a cat out of hell, I'll be gone when the morning comes..."

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

"Let me tell you something, Telemachus, your father Odysseus came up with the whole Trojan Horse thing and that's why we won the whole damn war basically."

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Count Binface is on Newsnight. Let's go!

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Had a fun time at the bradfordlitfest.bsky.social with the @futureworldsprize.bsky.social gang. I got to proselytise about Dune & A Clockwork Orange and warn against the dangers of AI, hitting all the sci-fi sweet spots.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Egypt prepare for penalties by watching a Youtube video. They're me fr. Historic victory. I'm so proud!

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

My current WIP in four movie references:

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Thank you @aliettedebodard.com. I'm literally finishing up Book 2 and hint yes there are a lot more Juma shenanigans. I've somehow stumbled into metamodernist science fiction 😅

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

They're messing with THIS Ibrahim Hassan? Yes, he's the one grabbing the Lebanese soldier's rifle by the barrel during an altercation after an international match. I would probably leave him alone.

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

It's called metamodernism, Tone. It's like when you take the idealism of modernism and the irony of postmodernism and oscillate between the two. Like using a Sopranos meme to explain a new cultural paradigm.

The Sopranos character Cheistopher Moltisanti

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Avengers: Doomsday trailer just dropped and what in the Tutankhamun is going on here?

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Mew is flabbergasted I am working so late. I'm on a deadline, Mew. Give me a break!

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

If you can't immortalise your cat in print, what's even the point of being a writer? Hilal bent down slowly and held out a metal hand. Mew, intrigued, crept forward and delicately sniffed her platinum fingers. “Hello, Mew,” she said, patting the cat gently. “What’s the rumpus?”

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Me watching Iraq play Norway at the World Cup and explaining the Sunni/Shia schism, the battle of Karbala and Ashura

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

BBC commemtator says Al-Ahly are the "current champions of Egypt." No, mate, it's Al-Zamalek. I was there!

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

What it's like being a writer: "He's trying to live happily. Introduce an inciting incident."

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Egypt 2920: The new New Administrative Capital has just finished completion. Robot President Fulan Al-Fulani has announced peace talks to halt the war between Cairo's driverless cars and Tuk-tuk gangs. In the North, the mer-people of Port Said make their plans...

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Had a lovely chat @kings-dfi.bsky.social Festival of Storytelling yesterday with @catamaroon.bsky.social & @stewarthotston.com ahead of the @clarkeaward.bsky.social announcement. For once, I wasn't the first one to bring up the perils of AI 🤣

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Four star review for THE REPUBLIC OF MEMORY from @sfxmagazine.bsky.social "An admirably ambitious novel that repays slow reading... "

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I'm not big on crowds usually but when Al-Zamalek win the league and I'm in town, exceptions must be made. سمعنا يا عم الحدوتة

Zamalek fans celebrating, smoke grom flares

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

My team, Al-Zamalek, won the league in Egypt on Wednesday. Imagine my surprise to find an Arsenal fan in the midst of the celebrations in Cairo. For him, it was a double celebration after Arsenal also won the Premier League one day earlier.

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