iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

Just started this and it’s absolutely brilliant. Mind-bending in all the right ways. Kudos, @qntm.org !!

Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

My favourite book-related podcast, with some spooky tales for the Witching Season, including a morsel from yours truly! 👻 🎃 😈

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

For those in the know, the final round of a truly insane mono white attrition… major respect to my valiant opponent (many GGs…) #magicthegathering #mtgarena

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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Unsolicited writing advice no. 13: No artist needs artificial intelligence if they have the real thing.

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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 940000: The senses are a way of connecting with your readership. Use them all. Don't forget scent, touch and taste as well as just sight and sound. Describing something ordinary via an unexpected sense can suddenly make it fresher and more interesting.

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Adrian Tchaikovsky @aptshadow.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

I know this was the cover format back in the day but I’m imagining a modern reader seeing this and thinking ‘Do not remember the scene with the penguins in 1984.’

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

A balcony, wrapped around one corner of a red brick former warehouse built when dreadnoughts ruled the waves. Metal railings, walled with decaying raffia. Pretty pots of dead plants. Worn decking, black with lichen, slick to the touch. A door, the pane above the handle broken.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

I am delighted to have an article in this issue of Pulse.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

An old factory on the shoreline, slowly rusting into the lake. Two chimneys reach defiantly into a lead white sky. Chill air laced with a chemical tang. A patched road leads to a loading dock. A badge on a faded blue lanyard. Name blurred. Face still recognisable.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

The palace stood at the very centre of the frozen lake. Walls of ice so old, so compressed they were blue. Ramparts like broken teeth. A single entrance, just a crack, pulled apart by time and weight. A dark blue nub the size of a child’s hand: a bell. But to summon whom? Or what?

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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

I finished five novels before BLACKBIRDS was ever published — none good and all necessary to write. That doesn’t include the many more novels I began and never finished. I still think of myself as a failed novelist — my failures outweigh my successes and I am glad for that. Failure teaches.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Currently in exactly this mode. Stop worrying about word length, Mark, just write everything down!

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Heartily agree with this advice! Reading aloud is one of the essentials in my writing process.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

The cottage had once been part of a castle. Stonework dusty with pale green lichen. Three deep-silled windows, dark as eyes. The smell of earth and rotting wood. A glint by the doorstep, a half-buried brooch, revealed by rain.

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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

current news vibes: - White House introduces new "if you don't buy a Tesla you go to a Tesla Reeducation Camp in El Salvador" initiative - Trump threatens to scour the Shire - SEVERANCE season 3 canceled by DOGE - Democrats institute new plan of "wait for it all to be over" - the gyre widens

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

My partner described lo-fi jazz (which I listen to sometimes) as “like being on an elevator to Hell”. I retaliated, calling BBC Radio6 Music (his fave) as “like being on a rollercoaster made out of custard and razor blades”. He called me a “typical Aquarian”. Music War continues!

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

We were both working until the idea of crumpets and a movie occurred, and now it seems work is done…

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Who are some of the writers who made you? Iain M Banks Robert Silverberg H P Lovecraft Philip K Dick Richard Morgan William Gibson Tolkien Julian May Bruce Sterling Jane Austen Anthony Doerr

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Looking forward to seeing people at States of Independence tomorrow at DMU. It's a free festival. So if you are near Leicester, do come along and enjoy the many events, stalls and lovely people.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Awesome book haul this morning - three Haynes manuals courtesy of fantastic sale at the Tank Museum - love those guys!

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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Unsolicited writing advice, no. #16140: Don't assume that your desk is where all your writing happens. 90% of the process of creation happens elsewhere. Use whatever time you have. Thinking time; dreaming time; observing time; analyzing time. All this time can be part of your work. Don't waste it.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Spending the evening calculating travel times in my second world fantasy novel is most illuminating! (And will require some tweaking of the WIP!)

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Barba Papa 🏳️‍🌈 The Bear Did Lady @thebeardidlady.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

🎼🎵 Her body hair is gold Her hips will make you sigh Her hands could shovel coal She got Polyphemus' eye 🎼🎵 She will tease you Maybe squeeze you Then without a warning, eat you She's a cyclops and she knows just How to BBQ some man chops All the crew think they're gonna die She got Polyphemus' eye

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Writing a chapter I thought was two before the midpoint only to realise “wait - this is the midpoint!” How exciting… #WIP #epicfantasy

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Started reading a sample of a bestselling novel today. Perfectly well written, but I find first person present tense impossible in long-form fiction. Tiring to read beyond 20 pages or so. So that’s another DNF…

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Clarkesworld @clarkesworldmagazine.com · 10/03/2025

In 18 years, the best day (by far) we've had for new subscriptions was triggered by a reader who posted two sentences and a link on Reddit. Never underestimate word-of-mouth. Thank you to everyone that has done that for us over the years. It all adds up and continues to make a difference.

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chmmagazine.bsky.social @chmmagazine.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

CHM's new magazine Goblins & Galaxies will be opening for submissions on May 7! Check out the guidelines below. goblinsandgalaxies.com/submissions/

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

I’ve discovered my Kill Switch. The moment I’d give up writing forever: “Didn’t like that last story of yours, Mark. It reminded me of Reacher season three.” S3 is so aggressively bad it’s difficult to look away.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Stories are built from moments of change. If you understand what changes in a scene, you'll be able to sculpt that change from the start to the end. That's the key to keeping readers turning the pages. #WritingTips #WritersLife #Thriller

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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

And this morning the Shed is a murmuration of birds, briefly held in the shape of a shed against the mellow morning sky.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

When I write, I quickly get into Flow state, where time collapses. It’s wonderful, except that I’m doing a lot of writing right now and it feels like my life is speeding along… 🤪

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J.L. Worrad @worrad.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

If they made a film of this they could call it Humpback Mountin’

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Another ink on paper experiment.

An abstract impression of trees on a lakeside in black and brown ink.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

So I did the 16 Personalties (= Myers-Briggs) ahead of my coaching course and came out as ENTJ-A. Last time I did it, in 2019, I was INTP, and originally, in 2000, was ENTJ. My ‘E’ and ‘J’ are so close to the centre, I could easily have been INTP again. Guess I was just in a bolshy mood! 😆😆

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Strange experience today. I belted out a new SF short story, not my usual style, no darkness, all light. And when I finished I got a bit emotional. Never happened to me before, but I thought I just might have created something beautiful.

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I’m starting my statins tmrw, so my cholesterol is low for the Apocalypse…

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I don’t know whose this is but I love it. If I had to have a spirit animal…

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Oh, Friday night’s alright for writing Gotta get a little action in Oh oh oh yeah Na na na na na na na na na #novelwriting #momentum #epicfantasy #embracethedarkness

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

ST DS9 s2e17: “Playing God” The station is overrun with Cardassian voles and the team is debating whether to destroy an invasive proto-universe. Kira: “it’s like stepping on ants, Odo!” Me: don’t you mean *Bajoran* ants, Major? #startrekdeepspacenine #emotionalsupportshow

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Mark Brandon @markbrandon.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (my fave) again from the start. And every replimat order is: - Aldebaran torte - Liseppian pancakes - Ferengi Viennetta

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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Unsolicited writing advice, no. #103876: Never worry about whether what you write "matters." It matters because you do. And one day, someone else may read it and understand that they matter, too. This is how we build a world, one connection at a time.

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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Unsolicited writing advice, no. #230644: At the heart of plot is tension management: knowing where to introduce it, and also when to relax it before approaching the next moment of tension. 99% of structural problems are resolved by bearing this in mind.

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