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That's great! As I said, I wouldn't begrudge anyone for doing well through PLR.

There's room for both libraries and bookshops out there, but when it comes to paying authors for their labour, there is, sadly, no competition.

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Moreover, I wouldn't discourage a reader from borrowing any of my books. Please do so! Read them and review them and make a noise about them. But that said, I can't say I wouldn't have made substantially more money if they had bought it instead.

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 06/09/2026

The unfortunate truth is that PLR is pennies per loan. Only exceptionally successful writers will make enough money for PLR to move the needle on their finances - which great for them, of course! I wouldn't begrudge them it.

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Ha. Very good. Interesting to hear that no-one commented on it.

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 06/09/2026

Amazing! Did anyone remark on it?

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 06/09/2026

From the Shady Characters archive comes the most iconic of all shady characters: the mighty, the maligned, the magnificent interrobang. Go to shadycharacters.co.u... to get the full story. (Image courtesy of Penny Speckter.)

Three of the original interrobang designs, each one mixing an exclamation mark and question mark to varying effect.

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 05/09/2026

Hello! I’m Keith. I’m a writer and software engineer in Scotland. I love the stop-start just after Norman Blake first sings “Was going nowhere” in Teenage Fanclub’s “Neil Jung”. A song, an album (Grand Prix) of absolute joy. Would you like to introduce yourself with a small song moment you like?

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 04/09/2026

Shady Characters × Because Language! I joined Daniel Midgley and Ben Ainslie recently to shoot the 💩 about emoji – there’s a taster at bsky.app/profile/bec... to see if it’s up your street, or you can dive into the full episode at shadycharacters.co.u.... Thanks to Daniel and Ben for having me on!

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 03/09/2026

I had a lot of fun recording this one. Thanks to @becauselanguage.com for having me on!

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Reposted by Keith Houston

Because Language (becauselangpod) @becauselanguage.com · 03/09/2026

Emoji in medical notes? Yep, they're going all kinds of places they never have before. New live episode with Keith Houston, author of "Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji". Watch or listen to the whole thing: becauselanguage.com/145-face-wit... @shadycharacters.co.uk @wwnorton.com

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 30/08/2026

A quick question, now that the updated version of shadycharacters.co.uk has been live for a little while: have you noticed the difference? Any positives or negatives versus the old site? Please let me know here or at shadycharacters.co.u...!

shadycharacters.co.uk

Shady Characters

The secret life of punctuation

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 23/08/2026

If you want more like this, you can sign up to the Shady Characters newsletter (shadycharacters.co.u...), paste the SC feed (shadycharacters.co.u...) into your favourite feed reader, or just hit the "Follow" button here.

Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 23/08/2026

From the Shady Characters archive: what exactly are we supposed to call this mark: “#”? Read about the long history of the octothorpe (or maybe the pound sign), and its many names, at shadycharacters.co.u....

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 22/08/2026

Fantastic! I hope they enjoy it.

Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 21/08/2026

Thanks for the photo, Shivaji! I hope you're keeping well.

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Reposted by Keith Houston

Glenn Fleishman @glennf.com · 04/08/2026

The book includes articles that feature quotes from interviews with @craigmod.com, @wynkenhimself.bsky.social, the late James Mosley, Matthew Carter, @aresluna.org, @ftrain.bsky.social, @eod.com, @anildash.com, Steve Matteson, @shadycharacters.co.uk, @amyredmond.bsky.social, Erik Spiekermann…

Glenn at a letterpress photographed down low looking up past ink rollers (©Jeff Carlson)

Drawing of a man in a nightshirt, spittle leaving his mouth, in a silhouetted oval, apparently shouting. The words DER POX! are to his left (©Lucy Bellwood)

Woman standing in wood-type production shop holding a piece of metal with example of template, wood blank, and tools around her (Hamilton Wood Type Printing Museum, photo by author)

Cover preview showing hand with composing stick full of type entering from left against blue background with Not To Put Fine a Point on It in bold italic large type. Left, print book cover preview; right, preview on an iPad.

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Reposted by Keith Houston

Because Language (becauselangpod) @becauselanguage.com · 15/08/2026

Our next live show is happening 🔜 ! We're talking to @keithhouston.bsky.social about his new book "Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji". All patrons are invited, including free. If you're not a patron, click through and sign up! www.patreon.com/becauselangp...

patreon.com

Live show: Talking emoji with Keith Houston, 2026-08-15/16 | Because Language

Live show: Talking emoji with Keith Houston, 2026-08-15/16 by Because Language on Patreon. Join Because Language's community for exclusive content and updates.

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 14/08/2026

I'd add: and tell your friends about that writer, too

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Reposted by Keith Houston

Mignon Fogarty @grammargirl.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Type history meets weird words! My chat with type historian @glennf.com Glenn Fleishman covers printing history, comics, and his favorite printing word from the 1800s: "flong." :) Check it out on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

podcasts.apple.com

How comics are made, with Glenn Fleishman

Podcast Episode · Grammar Girl · August 6 · 27m

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 27/07/2026

Thanks for that! Really nice to see the Jenson book - that ampersand looked familiar. I think there's a version of it in the Shady Characters ampersand chapter.

Gracie Jane aka Quuxum @drquuxum.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Reposted by Keith Houston

I'm going to make the brash (I say BRASH!) assumption that everyone and their mother has already told @shadycharacters.co.uk about Tom Scott's latest video, where he gets a little too excited about ampersands youtu.be/8IsbKH-EsAY?...

youtu.be

I get excited about &.

YouTube video by Tom Scott

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 26/07/2026

Birds! Books! Bots! Bathrooms! (Okay, that last one is a stretch, but I'm going to say that a 13th century latrine still counts.) Miscellany № 112, which takes in all this, is now up at Shady Characters: shadycharacters.co.u.... Enjoy!

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 24/07/2026

As a note, there are translations of my books into Chinese (complex and simple characters), Korean and Polish, with at least a couple more languages potentially on the way. Head over to shadycharacters.co.u... to find out more! 2/2

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 24/07/2026

The Japanese translation of “Empire of the Sum” was published last year by Hara Shobo, but my own copy arrived in the post only the other day. What a nice edition! Many thanks to Hara Shobo for sending me one. Take a look at www.harashobo... if you′re interested in ordering a copy! 1/2

The cover of the Japanese edition of "Empire of the Sum", showing the title and author's name in Japanese and English. The cover is illustrated with an image of four people writing with quills and counting with counting tokens.

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 17/07/2026

It's World Emoji Day! 🍾🎉 I was wondering what to post about today when I came across this incredible post on Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/peo.... 10/10, no notes, as they say. The poop emoji's time has come. 1/2

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Reposted by Keith Houston

Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I am once again begging Hollywood to stop using the Greek alphabet for an Ancient World movie, if they can't afford to even throw a couple of quid at anyone with an inkling of the language. Unless they really think audiences are dying to see THS THDPSSSSPS

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 11/07/2026

To learn a bit more, take a look at John Gaudet’s “Papyrus” (www.simonandschuster..., or there's an excerpt at Slate: www.salon.com/2014/0...), or read chapter 1 of my own book, “The Book” (shadycharacters.co.u...). 3/3

simonandschuster.co.uk

Papyrus eBook by John Gaudet | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster UK

Papyrus by John Gaudet - From ancient Pharaohs to 21st Century water wars, papyrus is a unique plant that is now the fastest growing plant species on earth. ...

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 11/07/2026

That’s right - the plant from which papyrus scrolls were made, the plant which let Egypt develop its elaborate script, and for which the Egyptians had a hundred other uses, first arrived as islands of papyrus sedge drifting down from farther up the Nile. Some even came from Lake Victoria itself. 2/3

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 11/07/2026

So, I’m walking down to the canal today with my youngest so he can ride his bike along the tow path, and what do I see but two clumps of reeds which have floated into the canal basin from somewhere farther along the canal. And I think to myself: “This is how papyrus arrived in Egypt!” 1/3

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 03/07/2026

Hi Rob - sure! Drop me a line at keith at shadychacters.co.uk and we can work something out.

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 28/06/2026

Take a trip to the south of France at the height of summer courtesy of the Shady Characters archive: shadycharacters.co.u....

A view from the entrance to Narbo Martius, a museum in Narbonne, France, on a sunny day with a blue sky.

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Reposted by Keith Houston

Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

😁

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 27/06/2026

Amazing! Thanks for catching that.

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 27/06/2026

I KNEW it was a good title shadycharacters.co.uk/books/empire...

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Proposed emoji that didn’t make the cut.

Either way, there haven't been any traffic cone proposals in the past (charlottebuff.com/un...), and I do wonder how far this one might go. I'll be rooting for it! 4/4

charlottebuff.com

Rejected Emoji Proposals

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Even so, I think Andrew is onto something. Traffic cones are common across the world, and Unicode doesn't contain anything that has quite the same meaning: ⛔🚫️🚧 all capture part of the traffic cone's "careful now!" import, but not entirely. Maybe ⚠️ is the closest existing emoji? 3/4

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Of course, the bar for creating a new emoji is deliberately set high. Unicode's page on the subject (unicode.org/emoji/pr...) runs to 4,000 words and excludes petitions as evidence of demand. Certainly, a 2019 petition on the same subject (www.change.org/p/app...) failed to do much of anything. 2/4

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The World needs a Traffic Cone Emoji to celebrate Boston & Glasgow Twinning

Apropos of the Tartan Army's friendly invasion of Boston for the World Cup ⚽🏆, consider this: do we need a traffic cone emoji? Andrew Dobbie seems to think so, and has started a petition to right this wrong: www.change.org/p/the.... 1/4

change.org

Sign the Petition

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 25/06/2026

I don't know the specifics, but it looks like @evertype.bsky.social, who is a prolific Unicode contributor, had something to do with adding the "ꙮ" character. Maybe he can shed some light?

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 12/06/2026

When I was writing “Face with Tears of Joy”, I got very little response to my questions from Google, Apple, Meta and so on. Recently, though, I managed to speak to a real, live Apple emoji designer - Ollie Wagner, who helped design Apple′s very first set of emoji. shadycharacters.co.u... 1/2

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Keith Houston @shadycharacters.co.uk · 01/06/2026

“The paragraph indent killed the pilcrow”