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Steve Trower

@sptroweresq.bsky.social
437 followers 503 following 1.4K posts

👽 Sci-fi | 🕹️ 80s Nostalgia | ✝️ Accidental Theology 📚 Author of 👾 The Ambivalence Chronicles; 🚀 Countless as the Stars; and 📺 Where Do All The Calculators Go?

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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 1h
#RedAlbums #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 2 👩🏼‍🎤 Madonna 🎵 Into the Groove (Dub Version) (1987) 💿 You Can Dance I got You Can Dance on cassette from Woolworths back in the day, and it was my introduction to the wonderful world of the remix album.
youtu.be
Into the Groove (Dub Version)
YouTube video by Madonna - Topic
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 5h
I have neither razzle nor dazzle (in life or my WIP) but this bit has definitely dazzle vibes, as Phil's magic armour downloads the spirit of Sir Dancelot. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #TheAmbivalenceChronicles
The air crackled with electricity, the cabin criss crossed with data lines shining from the screens, flashing chaotically around him.

"Here goes..." Phil sighed, closing his eyes and - almost without thinking - striking the Saturday Night Fever pose.

DOWNLOADING. Phil barely heard Dexy's voice over the distorted disco beats that vibrated his armour.

The vibrant light beams that strobed across the Ambivalence converged, drawn to Phil's disco finger like a particularly groovy lightning conductor, and pulsed through his armour, flipping it from plain steel to a sparkling glitterball effect.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 6h
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 16 | ❓️ 👨🏻‍🎤 Captain Sensible 🎵 Wot (1982) 💿 Women and Captains First Wearing a raspberry beret before Prince made them trendy... I think his short-lived Blah! Party is due for a political revival about now.
youtu.be
Captain Sensible - Wot (1983)
YouTube video by ClassicVideos80s
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 7h
Awesome. I'm glad you love it. You can get Bits 1-4 on Amazon, and if you still love it, please leave a review 😉 www.amazon.com/dp/B01N04F06K
amazon.com
The Chip Whisperer: Bit#1 of The Ambivalence Chronicles - a GameLit Comedy in 8 Bits
The Chip Whisperer: Bit#1 of The Ambivalence Chronicles - a GameLit Comedy in 8 Bits - Kindle edition by Trower, Steve. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Chip Whisperer: Bit#1 of The Ambivalence Chronicles - a GameLit Comedy in 8 Bits.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 8h
And we'd invite @jasperfforde.bsky.social along for the ride for similar reasons but with less Doctor Who and more Jane Eyre (and because a video game version of the BookWorld is still marinating somewhere behind The Ambivalence Chronicles). 2/2
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 8h
#LitHodgePodge | Day 14 There's absolutely no doubt that I'd pick Douglas Adams, who is probably partly responsible for me loving Doctor Who, and certainly the biggest influence on the humour and writing style of The Ambivalence Chronicles. #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity 1/2
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 8h
static.klipy.com
Harry Hill: There's Only One Way To Find Out
ALT: Harry Hill: There's Only One Way To Find Out
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 19h
#SciFiOdyssey #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 15 | Roswell 👩🏼‍🎤 Dido 🎵 Here With Me (1999) 💿 No Angel The most famous of all UFOs is the one that had a bumpy landing in New Mexico because the pilot was trying to put the new Dido CD on.
youtu.be
Dido - Here With Me (Live from Later with Jools Holland, 2000)
YouTube video by DidoVEVO
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Gary would be the MI6 HQ at Vauxhall Cross - you feel like you shouldn't be able to see it, yet still it draws attention to itself. Charlotte would be UK Goth capital and inspiration for Dracula, Whitby Abbey. And Viktor Wendig would just go ahead and be Romford purely to annoy everyone else. 2/2
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
#Octember | Day 13 Phil Grundy would be a museum of computing - nothing too fancy, something fun and friendly like @retrocomputermuseum.co.uk Sam Cooper would be the Austin factory at Longbridge- but in its heyday, before British Leyland happened. #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity 1/2
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 15 | ⛽️ 👩🏾‍🎤 Technotronic 🎵 Pump Up the Jam (1989) 💿 Pump Up the Jam: The Album I almost took a dark turn with today's prompt, but decided it's not every day you get to shout out Philomena Cunk.
youtu.be
Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by TechnotronicVEVO
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Somebody on BlueSky accidentally referred to my humour as elegant yesterday, so to redress the balance, here's a terrible dad joke. #WIPSnips #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #TheAmbivalenceChronicles
Sam shrugged, and followed the quivering needle through the corridors of the Municipal Landmark and out through a back door, where a grumpy looking stone gargoyle blocked her path.

'Oh what now,' she muttered to herself.

'Bog off!' the gargoyle snapped.

'Will do, absolutely,' Sam checked her compass. 'It's just that I need to bog off in that direction, and, well, you're sort of in my way, a tiny bit. Would you mind...?'

'Yes I would, actually.'

'I'm sorry, you're obviously upset about something, I don't suppose there's anything I can do to cheer you up, maybe, so you'll let me pass?'

'No!' the gargoyle snapped. 'I'm tired of being taken for granite!'
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
#RedAlbums #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 1 👩🏻‍🎤 The Sugarcubes 🎵 Hit (1992) 💿 Stick Around for Joy The Hunt for Red Album October starts, of course, in Iceland. Pop history doesn't record who Joy is, but we can surmise that Björk got bored sticking around and went off to become a global megastar.
youtu.be
The Sugarcubes - Hit
YouTube video by The Björk Archives (HD)
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
In that case I'm sorry it only got mentioned for being forcibly dismantled at speed. 😆
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I don't think I do metaphors as much, but I have had a ruined henge of half-empty cans. I have a lot of fun with personification though: 📖 The silence was about to settle down again when a burst of radio static gave it a poke, and a frantic voice shoved it firmly out the back door. 📕 3/3
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I use similes quite a bit. Often about the unwieldiness of the Ambivalence, which corners 'like a walrus who got in the wrong queue at Alton Towers.' Pairing the mundane with the catastrophic for comic effect seems to be a thing I do. 2/3
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
#LitHodgePodge | Day 14 Hold tight everybody, this feels like something where you'll decide I'm completely insane or a underrated genius. Possibly both - it's a thin line. Here's a longer snip from The Road Worrier, and some one-liners will follow. 1/3 #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
[Phil] looked across to see the wall of scrap cars shatter and fall as a truck smashed through it like an alien chestburster rendered in olive drab and six inch armour plating. Two or three of the cars exploded just to add to the effect, and Phil flinched as the bonnet of a Vauxhall Astra frisbeed over the Ambivalence and pinned itself into the grass verge beyond. Various oily bits clanged to the floor around them like autojumble sprinkles on a massive tarmac ice cream.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 14 | 🕔 👨🏻‍🎤 Beck 🎵 Clock (1996) 💿 Odelay (Deluxe Edition)
youtu.be
Clock
YouTube video by Beck - Topic
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
📖 ‘Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit Space Invaders,’ Phil said as Sir Galahad disappeared into the blue. 📕 from Bit#5: The Knight Errors (See also yesterday's snip.) #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #TheAmbivalenceChronicles
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
#SciFiOdyssey #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 13 | The X-Files 👩🏽‍🎤 Sneaky Sound System 🎵 UFO (2007) 💿 Sneaky Sound System This could have been Mulder's personal anthem, had it fallen through a time warp and landed 10 years earlier.
youtu.be
Sneaky Sound System - UFO
YouTube video by Sneaky Sound System
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Pretty much anywhere - this is Bit#1: books2read.com/thechipwhisp...
books2read.com
Available now at your favorite digital store!
The Chip Whisperer by Steve Trower
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
#Octember | Day 13 Charlotte and Gary both have their ninja skills - with or without blades depending on friend or foe. Sam would lurk in her Mini and rev loudly as her victim passed. Phil would just make them play 3D Monster Maze in a darkened room. #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Broader GameLit rather than crunchy LitRPG, but yes that's basically the premise. With a side of 80s Easter eggs and a healthy dollop of Hitchhiker-esque British humour.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 13 | 🫖 👨🏻‍🎤 The Kinks 🎵 Have a Cuppa Tea (1971) 💿 Muswell Hillbillies Yes I've posted it before, and I'll probably post it again because it is the alternative English national anthem. Hallelujah Rosie Lee!
youtu.be
The Kinks - Have A Cuppa Tea (2022 Remaster) [Official Audio]
YouTube video by The Kinks
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
There are two spooky houses, and the Romford Municipal Landmark - part active castle, part tourist trap. The Kempston Interface has the archetypal underground villains lair. Bit #3: The Road Worrier has all the Road Trip archetypes: racing circuit, motorway service station, dodgy repair yard. 2/2
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
#LitHodgePodge | Day 13 Being set in a universe of 8-bit games, The Ambivalence Chronicles is full of these. Mazes come up a few times, notably in The Chip Whisperer (from 3D Monster Maze) and The Knight Errors (in homage to Finders Keepers). 1/2 #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Aaaaand there's the back cover quote! Thank you for appreciating the fun!
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
The WIP quoted from here is Bit #6 of The Ambivalence Chronicles, a GameLit Comedy in 8 Bits. Buts 1-4 are available now, Bit #5 imminent and Bit #6 editing to be available next spring.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 12 | 🤔 👨🏾‍🎤 C+C Music Factory 🎵 Things That Make You Go Hmmm... (1991) 💿 Gonna Make You Sweat The Music Factory never explicitly stated what C+C stood for, but internet speculation suggests it was Camel+Camel.
youtu.be
C+C Music Factory - Things That Make You Go Hmmmm... ft. Freedom Williams
YouTube video by CCMusicFactoryVEVO
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Thanks #WIPSnips - todays word has highlighted just how often variations of 'neon pulse' appear in the current draft of The Master System! #AmEditing #TheAmbivalenceChronicles #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity
Phil Grundy did not know where he was.

A few moments ago he was in a dark tower in a spooky forest in the grounds of Romford Castle. He had rescued Charlie, and then... somehow he must have glitched that world out of existence and ended up here, landing awkwardly with an uncomfortable clatter on a floor which was hard and glass-like, denting his armour and bruising his bottom. An angry squall of pixels illuminated the void as they fell around him, drawn into neat lines which then flowed away in neon blue pulses toward the horizon, which was marked with vast towers, pyramids and monoliths of bright green and red, which struck a weird note of familiarity despite the utter weirdness of the entire place. 'Fascinating,' he Spocked, peering into the glassy floor at the gridlines which glowed deep within it, all silver and angular, and giving off the same backlit Tron vibes as the neon pulses and monochrome background illustration. 'What is this place?'
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
#Octember | Day 11 Canonically, it was Sam, in the car park, with a wheel brace; I'll not identify the victim. Charlotte, who by default is Miss Black, would subvert the whole thing and bump someone off in the Ambivalence with a 5 pin DIN cable. #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 11 | 🐪 👨🏾‍🎤 Rizzle Kicks 🎵 Mama Do the Hump (2011) 💿 Stereo Typical Rizzle Kicks are two hip-hop camels from Brighton Zoo. This, their third single, failed to chart anywhere in Saharan Africa.
youtu.be
Rizzle Kicks - Mama Do The Hump (Live Lounge)
YouTube video by stereo1869
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
No cousins, but a cousin's dad makes a cameo appearance in The Dragon Download. #WIPSnips #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #TheAmbivalenceChronicles
'Dexy?' he said cautiously, as if talking to an early 80s micro in the name of the scientific method might irrevocably damage physics.

'He's buzzing,' Charlotte whispered, placing an ear as close as she dare to the fragile set up.

'Out of tune?' Nectarine suggested, already reaching for the TV's fine tuning controls.

Phil nodded silently.

As Nectarine tweaked the TV, it made a sound like an uncle who overdid the sprouts on Christmas Day, then went silent.

'Anything?' Phil didn't dare look.

'I think you better see for yourself,' Nectarine said.

His heart thrumming like that uncle in the middle of a whiskey-fuelled game of Star Wars Monopoly, Phil leaned closer. 'Dexy?'
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
#SciFiOdyssey #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 10 | The X-Files 👩🏼‍🎤 Catatonia 🎵 Mulder and Scully (1998) 💿 International Velvet From the Detroit Police Department to the Federal Bureau of Investigation - and that Agent Sulky sings in a convincing Welsh accent!
youtu.be
Catatonia - Mulder And Scully (Official Music Video) [HD]
YouTube video by RHINO
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
#pretendpanel In no particular order, my writing is inspired by: 🔸️Things I've read. 🔸️People who've enjoyed things I've written. 🔸️My children, whose neurospicy disabled lives deserve to be in stories. 🔸️Manic Miner. #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
One day I will introduce my books here properly, so you'll get that the book River Song is not spoiling is about two friends who get stuck in the greatest 8-bit game of them all, which was of course the #Octember question of the day.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
#Octember | Day 10 Spoilers! #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
River Song from out of Doctor Who (Alex Kingston) reading The Ballad of Matthew Smith (about characters getting caught in an 8-bit computer game), saying 'sshhh, spoilers!'.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 10 | 🇪🇺 👨‍🎤 Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine 🎵 The Impossible Dream (1992) 💿 1992 - The Love Album I'm not sure what the rest of you are on about, today's emoji is clearly the cover of Jimbob and Fruitbat's third LP.
youtu.be
The Impossible Dream (2023 Remaster)
YouTube video by Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Topic
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
📖 In the moment Sam let go a sigh of relief, another buzzard swooped in, and with a fuzzy digitised squark, knocked the knight into the lava. 📙 from Bit#5: The Knight Errors #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #TheAmbivalenceChronicles
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
#pretendpanel I've always read a lot, and throughout childhood was always creating epic space comic strips (unfortunately my drawing was pretty terrible). Then at some point I read a million-selling novel and thought, I could do better than that! #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
#LitHodgePodge | Day 9 I have soundtrack playlists for most of my books (which are just as eclectic as my books), but if we're talking about original music, I would call upon games music supremo Allister Brimble to soundtrack The Ambivalence Chronicles. #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 9 | 🪘 👨‍🎤 Chad Jackson 🎵 Hear The Drummer (Get Wicked) (1990) This months sample of early 90s UK House comes from Mark from St Helens. Unconfirmed reports suggest that might be his gran in the video.
youtu.be
Chad Jackson - Hear The Drummer (Get Wicked) (Official Video)
YouTube video by Altra Moda Music
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Today on #WIPSnips, the opening paragraph from Bit#6: The Master System (unedited!). #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #TheAmbivalenceChronicles
A First Degree Chuntey Breach at Bootlesquith Manor sounded like a TED Talk on the history of alarms rattled out in a single lesson at Surbiton High, squeezed in between Philosophy and double French to the utter bamboozlement of both Year 9 and the entire faculty. Loud electronic wails and rotating beacons competed with awooga horns, an World War 2 air raid siren, and eventually the tinkling of bells desperately hoping to summon assistance from an Edwardian butler lost deep inside the mansion. Somewhere a bonobo was probably banging rocks together frantically.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
#Octember | Day 8 Obviously Bug-Byte's 'Constellation', a 1981 educational program for the 16k ZX81, which features surely the most tortuous means of entering a time and date ever to appear in a serious piece of software. #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
youtu.be
Constellation for the ZX81
YouTube video by Highretrogamelord
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It's not remotely the same, but the #BannedBooksWeek posts have reminded me of the time the church book shop in my town wouldn't stock my Old Testament Space Opera. Presumably because of all the sex, drugs, and violence. In hindsight maybe I shouldn't have followed the source material so closely...
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yes, and yes 😀
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The pace isn't as impressive as it sounds, each Bit is around 20k words, and Bit#3 was finished in 2018! There is a Bits 1-3 paperback, Bits 4-6 paperback ready for release once Bit#6 is edited, with Bits 7-8 to follow at some point, and I'll start putting ebook sets together next year.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
4 out of 8 Bits available, Bit#5 imminent & Bit#6 for Christmas all being well.
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yes it's a broadly 80s-themed GameLit comedy fantasy, so I'm glad the tone hits that note!
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Steve Trower @sptroweresq.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
#emojisounds #MusicChallenge #MusicSky Day 8 | 🍽️ 👩‍🎤 The Sugarcubes 🎵 Eat the Menu (1989) 💿 Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! This song makes perfect sense in Icelandic, but an error in translation meant the English version was about some bloke wanting to chow down on a submarine or something.
youtu.be
The Sugarcubes : Eat the Menu (Icelandic) Tunglið, Reykjavik August 1989
YouTube video by Björk's Joyous Tunes
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