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Simon Madine

@thingsinjars.com

bookish; plays both kinds of keyboards; misuser of semi-colons; New book – Journey to the Comet – out now

Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 19/09/2026

Another character from the book: Meet Professor Joseph Garamond - Laconic Geology professor and President of the Royal Society. And 7’ tall Belfast man.

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 07/09/2026

“The outer door opened. The silence was the first thing I noticed. Not merely quiet, but the complete absence of sound.” - Nathaniel steps onto the comet for the first time. Charcoal from my Edwardian adventure Journey to the Comet.

Charcoal drawing of someone walking on a comet wearing an old fashioned diving suit

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 31/08/2026

Journey to the Comet out now

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 31/08/2026

It’s been aaaages since I did any charcoal. Here’s Sir A Armstrong Armitage from my book. The kind of man who neither asks for permission nor seeks forgiveness. #journeytothecomet #edwardian #scifi

Charcoal portrait of a dynamic Edwardian explorer

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 27/08/2026

"We walked in silence for half a mile more before coming round the final bend before Dunsapie Loch." This is where Nathaniel and the crew don heavy leather and brass diving suits for their underwater practice in Journey to the Comet. The fictional version is considerably deeper than the real one.

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 02/08/2026

Journey to the Comet is finally out! Available on Amazon or sign up to booksirens and grab a review copy. booksirens.com/book/HKZP5QV... Bet you can't find the deliberate typo… #edinburgh #steampunk #edwardian #kidlit #childrenlit

A toy goose reading a copy of Journey to the Comet

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 26/07/2026

Sneak preview of the cover of my next book – Journey to the Comet. It’s a historical scientific adventure based in Edinburgh (and in the stars) in the tradition of Jules Verne for ages 10+ Available 1st August! #kidlit #kidsbooks #childrensbooks #edinburgh

Edwardian book-cover style woodcut illustration of a comet hurtling through space. The cover of the book 'Journey to the Comet' by Simon Madine

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 11/07/2025

I've been working on a locally-generated Personalised Podcast recently. I pick the presenters and RSS feeds, generate the conversation using an offline LLM, and produce a 2 minute morning news podcast. If anyone knows a way to turn this into an actual product, let me know.

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 01/03/2025

I know it’s only showing us at the top because I’m logged in and I’m the maker but it’s still nice to see Komment at the top of the list. www.producthunt.com/posts/komment

Komment being awesome at the top of the product hunt leaderboard.

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 26/12/2024

I collected my various notes from playing my Corporate Comedy Monster homebrew RPG "Monster Coffee Break" into something that looks like a game adventure guide (but isn't): thingsinjars.com/monster-coff...

A humorous corporate monsterscape featuring gelatinous blob bureaucrats and a filing cabinet labyrinth minotaur.

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 17/12/2024

Latest little elixir experiment: A multiplayer moria-like dungeon explorer but with ray cast torch light. Fun!

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Simon Madine @thingsinjars.com · 05/12/2024

It’s been a while since I made anything with Elixir. It’s also been a while since I played Snake. So I made multiplayer snake in Elixir: thingsinjars.com/post/535/sne... Latency's terrible, code's scrappy, UI's flaky. But it was fun. Which was the point.

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