iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

#Polyphemus in #TheOdyssey has me convinced Nolan is a fan of 1983 film Krull. AFAIK in Greek myth cylcopes are just born that way, in Krull they traded an eye for the power of foresight. You cannot convince me Polyphemus's twisted up face wasn't designed with the Krull origin story in mind

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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

I am pro Iranian people. I stand with them against their own government’s repression AND against the imperial violence in the form of bombs dropped from the sky from Israel & the US who have already killed hundreds. I support neither imperialism or dictatorship. Sahar Delijani said it best:

I was born in an Iranian prison. My parents were held in their jails. My uncles lie in their mass graves.
Nothing you can tell me about the crimes of the Iranian regime that I haven't lived in blood and bone.
That doesn't mean I want my people bombed, maimed, killed, their homes in ruins.
If your vision of liberation comes only through the destruction of innocent lives, then it's not freedom you're after.
Sahar Delijani, Iranian author

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

I've been sitting on my thoughts about my recent visit to @hunterianmuseum.bsky.social for a couple of weeks now. I don't work in a medical or scientific field, my interest in going was to learn more about the history of humanity, and on which triumphs and sins we now stand 1/11

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

A couple of weeks ago I visited @hunterianmuseum.bsky.social and picked up The Facemaker by @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social about how Harold Gillies revolutionised the art and science of facial reconstructive surgery in response to the horrific facial injuries sustained by soldiers in WWI 💙📚 1/

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AAAAHH-lex Plante 🐀👑 @aplante.com · 31/12/2024

i think it was from a twitter account that shared 70s recipe cards

recipe card for a lemon piglet

cut out the ears, put cloves in for eyes, coin in a slit for the mouth, toothpicks for legs etc

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I read a lot of duds this year, sadly butmy standout favourite novels, by far, were Mother Naked by Glen James Brown, and Blackwater 1: The Flood by Michael McDowell. My favourite short story writers who I first reas this year were Naomi Booth, Albert Camus, Daphne du Maurier, & Rabindranath Tagore

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I showed great restraint earlier this year when I only magpied vol 1 of Michael McDowell's southern gothic horror Blackwater hexalogy because look how SHINY the covers on this edition are! Fortunately, I loved it-so now I have one of the prettiest series in print gracing my shelf #BookSky #Horror 💙📚

Six volumes of the 2024 Penguin paperback edition of Michael McDowell's Blackwater hexalogy. With volumes 1-3 (The Flood, The Levee, and The House) along the top row and volumes 4-6 (The War, The Fortune, and Rain) along the bottom row.

Each cover is filled with detailed illustrations and border patterns symbolising various themes, moments and motifs from the books. The illustrations are heavily embossed and foiled in copper, silver, and gold.

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

A couple of weeks ago we gained access to the home of my Uncle Owen, who died last January. My dad found a couple of USB drives with documents my uncle had written about older generations of the family pieced together from his own memory and the stories his parents and grandparents had told him 1/5

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

If you ever feel like you're living in your sibling's shadow, just think about Sophia Lane Poole who wrote a whole-ass book, only for her brother to be named and have his book plugged on the title oage, but she is only credited as "his sister" 💙📚

A photo of a title page on a book reads:

The Englishwoman in Egypt:
Letters from Cairo,
Written during a residence there in 1842, 3, & 4.
With
E. W. Lane Esq.,
Author of 'The Modern Egyptians.'
BY HIS SISTER
______
In two volumes - Vol I.
______
London:
Charles Knight And Co.,
Ludgate Street.
______
1844

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Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

As a frequent user of the ponds, it disgusts me that terfs are taking a beautiful place and pouring their hate into it. Please fill in this survey if you want to protect this space for all women and make trans women feel. PS the ducks think terfs suck. And the friendly fox. And the crows.

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Running a charity 2ndhand bookshop has taught me that generally ppl are not good at estimating book numbers. "200+ books" turns out to be 80. "Huge" donations come in at anything between 50-150 books. Not this one. This one is actual huge - decently over 1000. I'm going to need more bags 💙📚 #hubris

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David Hinchliffe Bradford @dbfreelance.co.uk · 03/10/2025

Solidarity with Jewish people affected by anti-semitic terror *and* unceasing protest against the genocide in Gaza

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Catherine Baker @catbake.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

dark comes earlier the little boat of the moon capsized in the clouds

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Glen @vaguebiscuit.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Well don't I feel stupid

A headline about the James Webb Telescope potentially finding a new stellar object dubbed a black hole star

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

The thing I'm most looking forward to about Short Reads Club tomorrow is hearing a middle-aged French woman dropping F-bombs over the concept of entropy (again). Always a treat. Feels properly intellectual, somehow. We're reading J G Ballard's The Voices of Time and The Garden of Time 📚💙

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Event organizers: heads up that authors are getting absolutely inundated by AI-generated spam inviting them to be "featured" in pay-to-play "book groups." If you're a *real* book group, I recommend being specific in your email—mention something about their work a bot couldn't get by scraping a bio!

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✨️ mars 🪽 STIGMATA out Oct. 31 @marsadler.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Give me weird girl horror or give me death

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Gree_ @greethewriter.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

THE CABAL SHALL START ITS SERMON IN AN HOUR! Fellow shadow dwellers, it is almost time! And I'm VERY honoured to helm this week's #HorrorWritersChat for you all! The theme? Curses & hexes. 😈

Artwork by Heesuk Kim, featuring an ominous cathedral under a pearly white moon and darkened skies. It’s windows are stained blood red.

Horror Writers Chat

The Cabal Summons You...

7PM BST
2PM EST

#HorrorWritersChat

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Metaphorosis Publishing @metaphorosis.com · 23/09/2025

Just about one week left to submit to TRUNK. PS It's not a big deal, but to those of you who provide the info we ask for and format your titles the way we like, I see you and thank you for saving me time and trouble.

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Alex Davis @alexdavis1981.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Winter Haunts returns this November, and we have another stellar line-up of ghost story and Gothic fiction writers taking part in our range of interviews, workshops and panels! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/winter-hau... #ghoststory #ghoststories #gothic #gothicfiction #writing #writers

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Sacha Coward @sachacoward.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Horrible to discover, midway, through my, edit that I actually don't understand, how to use, commas.

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

The real suburban horror is discovering you only have a ten inch cake board left, which won't fit into the box you're going to use to transport an eight inch cake, and then one of the cake layers splitting in half when you transfer it from the cooling rack

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

I read This is Where We Live by Kate Hardie yesterday. It was an impulse buy & based on the blurb. I thought it was going to be more of a distinct gory werewolf creature feature horror juxtaposed with the mundane struggles of parenthood with clear feminist allegory. I was hoping the wolf was 💙📚 1/5

The cover of This is Where We Live by Kate Hardie, published 2025 by 4th Estate.

The cover is red with a rough style illustration of a naked woman stood with her arms by her side, looking vacantly off to the left. A large black wolf, maybe a wolf skin, is draped over her, it's large head resting on he's and it's front legs draped over her shoulders with the body behind her so it looks like it is hugging her from behind, but also could be a cloak.

The title is in bold white all caps over the top of the illustration. At the bottom, the author's name is in pink. At the top right and left corners are two quotes:

"A blistering roar against a society far too quick to judge mothers" Financial Times

"The most gripping account of motherhood since Rachel Cusk's 'A Life's Work'" Independent

From the back cover of This is Where We Live by Kate Hardie.

A single mother is doing all she can for her child. But she wakes to dried blood under her fingernails, a severed toe on her doorstep and a local boy is missing.

Her child calls out to ask if she's ok. She replies 'I'm ok, love.'

But throughout the day her mind is racing, clutching at memories, desperate to find the truth. Is she a 'good enough' mother? Or is she the very thing her child needs protecting from?

'This taut, elliptical debut questions what makes a monster' Marie Claire

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

The weird thing about cream of tomato soup is I would fully retch at the thought of eating something else the same gloopy texture & one of the reasons I hate ketchup is that it's too sweet, but slam all that sugar into a hot, viscose tomato(ish) slurry & I will fight a bitch for seconds

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

A very cosy evening to you! At them moment, I'm reading a couple of J G Ballard's short sci-fi stories for bookclub, and an anthology of horror shorts called Of the Flesh for me

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Ruin a song by adding the word "literally" to the title. Everybody Literally Hurts

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The Folklore Society @folkloresociety.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

📢The Folklore Society President’s Prize 2025: deadline 30 Sept 2025📢 The Prize is awarded to a folklore studies essay by a student on a relevant undergraduate or post-graduate or equivalent course at a university/institution of HE or FE in the UK or Republic of Ireland. tinyurl.com/423xwexv

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C.M. Rosens @cmrosens.com · 14/09/2025

Horror Flash Fiction anthology I have a short piece in - launching 30 Sept 😱📚🩸 #Horror #IndieAuthors #BookSky books2read.com/b/BHP-ALONE

Alone eBook cover - a girl faces the orange glow of a desolate land on fire, and an old tv filled with reaching dark shadow hands reach for her. It has a list of all contributors above the title.

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Below a sky swaddled in grey my heavy step startles a loose paving slab forcing a fount of cold grimy water past my knee to soak through denim & ripple goosebumps across the flesh beneath. Even so, with the promise of hot soup & a soft blanket waiting at home, I welcome the return of autumn #writing

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Ceri Houlbrook @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

My local wishing fountain was turned off and drained - so people have started knocking coins into a nearby stump (without any encouragement from me, I promise). It goes to show, wishes find a way

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Horror Tree @horrortree.com · 12/09/2025

Open Call: Astrolabe ( @astrolabe.ooo‬ ) Fall Window horrortree.com/taking-submi... Window: Sep 22 - Oct 22 Pay: $50 Theme: Stories about how we seek out, discover, & grasp onto connection in all genres with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit

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Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

All I saw was cheesecake boat and ocean for at least 5 minutes

Photo of a missing slice of cheesecake that looks like a cheesecake hull floating in a deep blue ocean. The "ocean" is actually the blueberry topping on the large cheesecake that we don't see completely.

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Today, I saw The Fantastic Four, Together & Weapons. Surprisingly pleased with FF, but absolutely not interested in multiverse shenanigans so probs won't bother with follow up. Together was entertaining but fell far short of expectations. Weapons was not what I thought but was best watch of the day

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I've been absent from here for quite a while & I want to say lots of things happened, but it's just one thing that's had me stuck in a limbo of powerless uncertainty over my future and it still hasn't been resolved I do have two lemon éclairs from M&S, tho, so it's not all doom and gloom, I guess

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Son: Bro, I just went outside and there's a whole guy stealing our hedges Me: Omg, you should call the copse!

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Armand Rosamilia @armandauthor.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

The Sea Was Angry by Armand Rosamilia "Wicked concept. This is an apocalypse story dressed up as a sea monster tale" - Amazon review buff.ly/qebi3Ue

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Son: Bro, I just went outside and there's a whole guy stealing our hedges Me: Omg, you should call the copse!

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Horror folk are, in my experience, usually the most wholesome folk.

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☠️ Skulls and Sheets 👻 @skullsandsheets.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Dip pen Tree Mari today to combat overthinking

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

I will add that every book I've ordered from bookshop.org, and there have been a fair few, has arrived in pristine condition and in fully recyclable packaging of an appropriate size. You can also make shareable wishlists to keep tabs on what you want and in case someone needs a gift idea for you.

bookshop.org

Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.

An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community.

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Vagaries of Mine @vagariesofmine.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Apropos of something I can't discuss yet, I hope I always face life with the ferocity and absolute certainty of a retired upper-management, self-styled intellectual, life-long socialist man who is incensed enough to say "We'll threaten to write to The Guardian, that'll put the shit up them."

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C.M. Rosens @cmrosens.com · 04/06/2025

eBook bundle on Ko-Fi - 10 eBooks for £10.99 (GBP) ko-fi.com/s/811fa7d3b0 Ultimate bundle on Itch - 10 eBooks & 3 audiobooks for $15.00 (USD) itch.io/s/153308/ult... #BookSky #IndieAuthors #Horror #Fantasy 🌈📚💙😱📚🩸🪐📚🎧

ko-fi.com

Complete eBook Box Set: Complete Book Bundle (epub/pdf files) - CM Rosens's Ko-fi Shop

This is a bundle of my books - minus THE CROWS and THIRTEENTH which are both now being sold by Canelo Books! THE DAY WE ATE GRANDAD - An eldritch pa...

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Madeleine Swann @madeleineswann.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

He's not sorry!

Tortoise rescued after setting house on fire, but he looks like he'll do it again

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George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

🧵Spotted at a Second-Hand Book Fair in Aotearoa New Zealand: A woman (60s?) wearing a sequinned black beret and a fluffy pink jumper is showing a friend her cookbook finds. She says: "I LOVE cookbooks. I don't often make the recipes but they're so good for ideas even if you don't follow them." (1)

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Amy Colleen @amycolleen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

The universe is sending me unmistakable signs. And all those signs point to *squints* a tendency toward confirmation bias.

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Eryn McCee @erynmccee.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

I haven't read that many recently. @KatVoleur and @mcknightwrites.bsky.social have two great sapphic horrors, and of course our lovely host, @chaoticauthor.online has a string of great books with queer characters, and I read his most recent. So these I can certainly recommend! #HorrorWritersChat

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Louise🌙 @moonlitwriting.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

I think the last one I read was Residents of The James Hotel by our lovely host @chaoticauthor.online and it was a lot of spooky fun #HorrorWritersChat

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Jez Conolly @jezconolly.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

#HorrorWritersChat The character Peter in my WIP ‘Killingholme’, who has surprised me by turning out to be not the most evil character in the story after all. That honour goes to his mother, Irene.

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