iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 6h

Another year older, another year apter.

Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 10h

Edgar Allan Poe died on this day in 1849. Doom. Plague. Despair. Madness. Creeping existential horror. He would have loved 2026.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 10h

Delighted to have made it onto this shortlist. Many congratulations to my fellow writers and to the winner.

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Reposted by Paul Bassett Davies

Historia – the HWA @historia-hwa.bsky.social · 12h

The winning and shortlisted stories in the 2026 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition are announced! See which historical short fiction triumphed this year in Historia at historiamag.com/hwaddss-2026-winner-shortlist @thewritertype.bsky.social @mcinrob.bsky.social

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I must confess that when I was younger I expected the future to have more robot butlers and jetpacks, and less fascism and plague, but life is full of surprises.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

In England, "Back to School!" is a slogan to sell pencil cases. In France, it’s an order issued by riot police with teargas.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Attending the Tory conference? These are your LARP character options: Tax-dodging hedge fund beef enthusiast. Coked up assistant call centre manager on team building weekend. Last of the Summer Wine extra. Shipwrecked alien youth. Haunted Victorian ghoul. Homicidal granny. Goebbels Jr. Grim Reaper.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It seems remarkably easy to chase American bombers out of Britain. Maybe all you need is a clown car and a person holding a sign saying "BOO". Very encouraging.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It's World Teachers' Day. I wrote a really good joke about it, but I left it on the bus.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

IS IT ABOUT A BICYCLE? Happy birthday Flann O’Brien, born this day 1911, my literary hero and a comic genius. "What you think is the point is not the point at all but only the beginning of the sharpness." ('The Third Policeman')

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

NEWSREADER IN 2006: "And finally, on a lighter note, an ostrich in Prague has learned to play backgammon." NEWSREADER IN 2026: "And finally, on a lighter note…" *peers at autocue* "Sorry, once again I’ve got nothing.” *taps papers on desk, drinks from hip flask*

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Every time the tech industry assures us that AI poses no threat, and we should just trust them to control it, we're being told there are no monsters under the bed by a voice that's coming from under the bed.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing Sun, Which seems extremely warm for October, And El Niño is going to unleash hell, Whoa, there’s nothing mellow about this, Holy shit, this is scary and we’re doomed.” - Keats, Ode to Autumn, updated

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Only if the cagoule is house trained.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Hi Neil, unfortunately I don’t have space on my houseboat, but there’s a lovely bench on the cliffs not far away. You’re sure to meet some interesting people.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

My new play is on in Brighton. I'm performing one of the two roles. Running time 70 mins, so if you're coming from London you can get back the same evening. Or stay over. (I can remember when "a dirty weekend at the seaside" didn't refer to sewage in the water.) www.ticketsource.com/act/2nd-chan...

ticketsource.com

2nd CHANCE FRINGE26! The Summer Palace by Paul Bassett Davies at The Lantern Theatre Brighton

Tickets are now available for 2nd CHANCE FRINGE26! The Summer Palace by Paul Bassett Davies at The Lantern Theatre Brighton, Brighton between Fri 6 Nov 2026 and Sun 8 Nov 2026. Click the link for furt...

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Give them to me and I promise to pass them on.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. But give a monkey a beer and some fireworks, and the weekend starts here.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Can’t believe that a plumber rushed into the cockpit of a nosediving aircraft and saved the day. A real plumber would have arrived late, dismantled vital equipment, and left without fixing it because they were booked to save two other nosediving aircraft in the area the same day.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Trump is being forced to issue threats about diesel supplies to help him deal with astronomical prices caused by a totally unpredictable war in the Middle East that was started by some irresponsible idiot, and oh boy they'll be in big trouble when he finds out who it was.

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Reposted by Paul Bassett Davies

Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

As Churchill famously said, we shall debate fascist semantics in the New York Times, we shall debate it on Channel 4 News, we shall debate it on the BBC (coming soon)... We shall never surrender! @astra.bsky.social youtube.com/shorts/cd0kC...

youtube.com

But IS IT fascism

YouTube video by Naomi Klein

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Discussing what should happen to a woman whom a state has twice tried and failed to execute is not a moral debate. The moral debate has concluded when a state decides to commit judicial murder in the first place.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Coffee is the key that unlocks the vault wherein I store my lifelike human carapace, without which I could not walk undetected among the living.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's International Coffee Day. A morning without coffee is like an amusing simile I'll think of when I've had enough coffee. #InternationalCoffeeDay

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Andy Burnham: Ok, everyone can see that Brexit is a worse disaster than the Titanic, so we're gradually rejoining Europe. Diehard brexiteers: NO! WE LIKE ICEBERGS! COLD WATER IS GOOD FOR YOU! WE WANT TO LIVE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA WHERE WE'LL BE SAFE FROM IMMIGRANTS!

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This year, please don't let the cynical commercialisation of Halloween cheapen its deeper spiritual message about zombies eating people's brains.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Before you judge me, take a bath in my shoes. But what kind of idiot wears shoes in the bath? And yet you have the nerve to judge me? Unbelievable.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE RAF FAIRFORD INVESTIGATION: Five men have been released on bail. WHAT WE DON'T KNOW: Anything else, including everything that assorted racist fuckwads seem to think they know. WHAT WE MAY NEVER KNOW: What makes Marco Rubio such a creepy, insufferable prick.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Whoever is currently in charge of the weather has clearly fallen asleep on the couch with the remote control underneath them.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I found a magic lamp, and when I rubbed it an AI genie emerged and offered me three wishes. It repeated my first wish back to me, got it wrong, apologised, got it wrong again, then everything went dark and now I’m inside the lamp and the genie is out there pretending to be me. Send help.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Can't believe they want to ban killer robots. What happened to tolerance? We may disagree with killer robots but banning them forces their robotic homicidal views underground. Engaging them in respectful debate is the answer. NB: this is definitely not written by a killer robot.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Amazing to think that Google is 28 years old today. I wouldn't have had any way of finding that information before Google.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I love this time of year, just before whatever terrible thing happens next.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It’s Pavlov’s birthday. Pavlov was famous for making his wife, the ballerina Pavlova, salivate and ring a bell whenever he fed his dog a meringue-based pudding.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I don’t know who’s idea it was, but I’m very much in favour of the new legislation that requires racist thugs to assemble outside a local police station every evening so the cops can keep an eye on them and the rest of us know where they are. Very useful.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The two giant pandas that Xi Jinping has gifted to America are a male and a female, but there’s no guarantee they’ll mate. Persuading them to have sex is tricky, and the most difficult part is arranging for them to go out for dinner and a movie.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It’s not that Kemi Badenoch isn’t reading the room, it’s that the room she’s reading is the dining hall in the workhouse from Oliver Twist, while she and her friends sit in armchairs around a fire, delivering morally improving lectures to the paupers.

Photo of Kemi Bedanoch; headline about punishing benefit claimants.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Trump and Xi Jinping will not be discussing human rights. It would be like two blind men at the movies, wondering what the film is about.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Maaaaaaybe. Anyway, your pedant medal is in the post.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My train is travelling through a strange parallel universe: an alternative historical timeline in which certain technologies haven’t been invented. It’s the only possible explanation for the cacophony assailing me from the phones of people who have clearly never encountered FUCKING EARPHONES.

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Dear fellow pedants, it’s National Punctuation Day and I’m not going to make it. Leave me here with some apostrophes, Oxford commas, and a loaded semicolon; I’ll try to hold them off - save yourselves: run!

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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Many people have legitimate concerns about things. The moment you choose to express them by joining a violent mob of vigilantes, there's no longer anything legitimate about you, your concerns, or the unprincipled grifters cynically exploiting them.

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