iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 3h

I'll be running a free creative writing workshop on climate crisis fiction on Halloween in Kildare. Please do share the link around and come along if you can: kildare.spydus.ie/cgi-bin/spyd...

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 28/09/2026

First lecture of the semester went well! AND there was a book fair between the lecture theatre and my office.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 27/09/2026

I had such a lovely time reading my short story, The Sound, at Undertow: An Evening of New Strange & Speculative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre yesterday! Many thanks again to @theactualemma.bsky.social and Niall for organising such a wonderful event!

Purple poster with an underwater helmet graphic. The poster reads, "The Seamus Heaney Centre, Undertow, An Evening of New Strange & Speculative Writing.

Two people. A woman smiling with shoulde length white blonde hair and a black top. She is sitting next to me, I'm smiling and wearing glasses with a black top.

Me reading in front of an audience at the Seamus Heaney Centre.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 25/09/2026

Landed in Belfast! I'm super excited for my reading tomorrow!

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 23/09/2026

Merry #bivisibilityday! Here I am, being visible. Bisivile, one might say.

A non-binary person with bi flag eyeshadow smiling.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 23/09/2026

I really need new shirts for work. Any recommendations for colourful/interesting shirts? I love an absolutely absurd pattern/colour combo.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 19/09/2026

I have purchased a new backpack. I am excited for my shoulder to no longer hurt due to carrying my laptop in a tote bag. Picture me walking to a café to write all smug because you better believe I'm using both shoulders to evenly distribute weight. Hell yeah.

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Nat Guest @unfortunatalie.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"My house and his house are two different houses, territories overlaid and overlapping. Our topographies don’t yet mesh; we are both creeping around each other’s edges, living together but apart." My first few weeks with a cat. nothingbutawordbag.substack.com/p/where-a-ca...

Substack preview. Art of two black cats, voids against a floral sofa. Text: Where a cat could sit - on learning to live alone together

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 18/09/2026

It's chucking down outside and I'm delighted to announce that I'm inside with a cup of tea.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 16/09/2026

Hair freshly chopped! My body weight in coffee imbibed! Soon: writing group meet-up joy 😊

A non-binary person with short hair. 90s Leo in the front, soft mullet party in the back.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 15/09/2026

The pigeon which sounds like it smokes 40 packs of cigarettes a day is coo-coughing so loud that I suspect he is calling for his fellow cigarette pigeon brethren to join him in smoking a human sized cigarette. The ultimate cigarette of pigeon culture. Once lit, a human sized pigeon appears.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 08/09/2026

I'll be reading a short story as part of the Doors Into The Dark event dedicated to weird & wonderful fiction on 26th September at The Seamus Heaney Centre (Queen's University Belfast). Organised by @theactualemma.bsky.social and Niall McKenna. Tickets: www.seamusheaneycentre.com/Events/Doors...

A green poster with an illustration of a crow which reads "The Seamus Heaney Centre, Doors Onto The Dark: A Day of Weird Fiction, Saturday 26th September 2026".

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 07/09/2026

I am out of oat milk. A six word horror story.

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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

What is the last short story or book you read and loved that was written by a trans author?

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 04/09/2026

I walked past Home Bargains yesterday and there were Christmas Trees in their window. CHRISTMAS. TREES. Sirs, it is September.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 29/08/2026

There is nothing quite like the tiny joy of clean sheets.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 27/08/2026

Writer's problem number 743: the writing machine is also the giant distraction machine. But fear not, noble scribe, the notepad and pen solve problem 743! Writer's problem 744: Writer can no longer write due to being buried under yet another "ooo another new one won't hurt" notebook.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 26/08/2026

The pigeon that sounds like it smokes 40 packs of cigerattes a day is back, coo-coughing by my flat window like an unrepentent gran. I've come to expect that, should I ever see this pigeon, it will not only be smoking a cigar, but selling them to easily influenced younger pigeons.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 24/08/2026

Today: resit marking, finishing off a story comissioned by [redacted cool place], drinking my weight in iced oat lattes as is my bisexual right.

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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Guy: I'm not a robot! Sarah Connor: Prove it. How would you email Stephen King? Guy: Dear Stephen King, Carrie White is a complicated young woman whose story needs to be told. I spent last night reading everything I could about Carrie-- Sarah Connor: *empties her entire clip*

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Nat Guest @unfortunatalie.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Walking home from the station at night on an empty road; noted a man stood stock still alone on the other side. Fight or flight hackles immediately raised. He turned to me across the street and I tensed, ready for the solicitation. "HEDGEHOG!", he said, pointing.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 21/08/2026

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"

3 round ornaments, two cats and one owl all face each other on a bookshelf.

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Matt Luckcuck @mattluckcuck.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

An excellent chance to get an excellent book from an excellent book shop @foxlanebooks.bsky.social 😁

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 11/08/2026

If you're in the UK, you can get my book of philosophical short stories, Possible Worlds and Other Stories, SUPER CHEAP from Fox Lane Books: www.foxlanebooks.co.uk/product-page... [This post comes to you via me having to google my own book to find the ISBN so that I can reference it in an article.]

foxlanebooks.co.uk

Possible Worlds and Other Stories | Fox Lane Books

Possible Worlds and Other Stories - Paperback – by Rachel Handley 24 stories of philosophical exploration, from identity, corruption, personhood, and friendship, to duty, loyalty, the meaning of life ...

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 09/08/2026

A few days ago I accidentally left my phone at home and only realised once I got to my office. I got so much writing done and felt so focused it was unreal.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 04/08/2026

I wrote a little about my Paris trip. "I walk in 38C heat and tell myself I will buy a portable fan every hour on the hour until I forget to buy a portable fan." notesfromabus.substack.com/p/interlude-...

A photo of a cafe called Les Philosophes which has lots of outdoor seating and a red canopy. On the photo it reads, "interlude: paris. Three trains and a plane. Notes from a bus. NOTESFROMABUS.SUBSTACK.COM

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 04/08/2026

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 29/07/2026

It is 37C in Paris right now and I am melting.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 25/07/2026

I am in Paris and at dinner I was sat next to an American guy who said bro so much I've lost all sense of the word.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 23/07/2026

"I think about the coffee I will order soon, a part of me thinks it will make me feel whole. I am determined that it will prove to be life in a cup. Hours and hours of curled up sleep." open.substack.com/pub/notesfro...

Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 24/07/2026

In my head this means I'll soon be teaching a new cohort of hedgehog students.

A university campus with a park on one side, a modern building in the distance, and a row of Georgian buildings to the right. A turquoise and dark blue University of Liverpool sign on a lamppost shows a picture of a hedgehog which reads "we are a gold accredited hedgehog friendly campus".

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 24/07/2026

Today I went on a fancy stagecoach bus and was almost impaled by how loud the stop announcement system is.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 23/07/2026

Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 17/07/2026

Heard this pigeon again today. WHO is selling him cigarettes? Seems irresponsible.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 16/07/2026

I started a substack where I post little pieces of writing written during my bus commute. Please enjoy my weird little bus thoughts. "I choose a seat based on whether I think I will turn out to be in the shade or thoroughly destroyed by the sunlight." notesfromabus.substack.com/p/834-am

notesfromabus.substack.com

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 15/07/2026

There's a pigeon cooing outside my window which sounds like it smokes 40 packs of cigarettes a day.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 22/06/2026

Me: *opens window* Flies: GREETINGS NEW ROOMMATE

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 13/06/2026

£185 so far! Thank you everyone! And it's my birthday today! Hint hint hint 👀👀👀

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 13/06/2026

It's my birthday today! Yay! I am also ill which feels like a quintessential late 30s birthday tbh 😂

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 09/06/2026

We are currently at £119! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated, it means the world to me!

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 08/06/2026

Oh wow the fundraiser is at £99 now!!! Amazing work everyone!

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 08/06/2026

Ooo we are at £67 now! Thanks to everyone who's donated so far!

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 08/06/2026

I made two terrible cups of tea today. Just absolutely shocking tea scenes.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 08/06/2026

It's my birthday on Saturday! 🎂 I'm raising money for Refuge and aiming for £100. We are at £33 so far! If you'd buy me a birthday pint, please consider donating the money instead 🙏 Even one quid would be greatly appreciated! www.facebook.com/donate/21144... ig.me/1TGqOC3ZjGyj...

A photo of my face. A white non-binary person with short brown hair and a black shirt on.

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 05/06/2026

For my birthday (13th June) every year I raise money for Refuge UK. Instead of a birthday pint or gift, please consider donating the money to Refuge instead. Refuge is a charity which is very close to my heart, and if you donate even just £1 I would be enormously grateful 🙏 ig.me/1TGqOC3ZjGyj...

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Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈 @rachelahandley.com · 05/06/2026

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