What's Going On

Woke up to find a Chinese company who I’ve dealt with previously has successfully billed my credit card four times for goods not ordered. It’s a lot of money. Credit card company says – “wait for the good to arrive, then see if you can return them for a refund”. This is so wrong! All my morning will now be devoted to sorting this out

I entered my first-ever screenplay of my first-ever adaptation of my first-ever novel (The Panopticon). I didn't get into the finals, but I did get a lovely letter:

"We’re so sorry to tell you that your script was not selected for the final shortlist.

However, it remained after several stages of top choice votes and was then on the long list of the top 42 in this category so please be assured that your script was highly rated by our screenplay literary committee.

We really appreciate the high standard of your scriptwriting and wish you luck with this and all your future projects."

I doubled checked with a few screenwriting teachers and they told me that I can be very pleased. So that's what I'm going with today.
PS Given the quality of the writing of this rejection letter, maybe they don't know what they're talking about LOL

What people don’t understand about the London Book Fair is that, like other book fairs, it goes out of its way to prevent authors from “bothering” agents. I’ve never minded that at all, but let it pass. More seriously, it’s still very hard for new agents to just wander around and meet publishers. You would think that the whole point of a fair... wouldn’t you?

This dark ritual could have been an email.

My life. For days. It really is coming together...

I have won an Urban Writers scholarship to do their Six Month Novel writing online retreat. It runs from 10/3/25-7/9/25. The trouble is, now I have to do the work!! I proposed an eco/political thriller (so far from my comfort zone, I can't even see it on the horizon). But I'm really, really excited about it.

Was never able to successfully make sauerkraut in Baker St. Don’t know why, but each attempt came out mouldy However, first attempt in Hastings has just turned out wonderfully! Sea air…?

Wow, I made the BSFA longlist for Rarkyn's Fall and A Night So Dark And Full Of Stars! (I didn't even know I was eligible ) Vote for the BSFA Awards

So I spent the evening toying around with DeepSeek, the Chinese ChatGPT-killer, running it locally on a machine here. Truthfully, it feels pretty much the same as ChatGPT, although the interface has been tuned to feel friendlier, to the extent of being somewhat conspiratorial – which an odd affectation for a program. It let’s you in on its “reasoning” process, which is interesting the first few times, then quickly pales. Main thing is… it’s free to run on your own machine! Hard to see how the others can compete against that.

Former close friend of E Musk delivers insider’s view of his pathology. Much as we all suspected.

I do declare... voting is now open!

Been shorn, given my locks to the (nesting) birds. Felt oddly like I was propitiating them. So part of me will soon be nurturing fledglings...

I didn't like all of David Lynch's projects by any means; but I always liked the fact that there was a David Lynch.
Now, there's not

I'm attending a reversion of rights webinar by the Alliance of Independent Authors, and wow the questions are flooding into the Q&A from authors. 20 minutes in (it goes for an hour) and there are already over 60 questions.

Several stories have been going around claiming Hollywood agents and managers have received emails saying, "I hope you are okay after the fires, but have you had time to read my script yet?" I've seen some of them, so I know it is true. This is seriously tacky behaviour. Likewise, I've seen FB posts celebrating the suffering of Los Angeles as karma. But how can we expect to live in a peaceful world, if we constantly diminish each other's pain?

Two foxes in the frosty garden this morning, mating. Apparently this takes an hour or more. Judging by the screams, I’d say it isn’t entirely enjoyable? Or maybe I’m just not a fox…

The Litopia website, litopia.com, is currently down. This doesn’t affect the Colony, nor will it affect today’s Huddle.

English channel before dawn this morning

I would love to post an image here wishing you all the best for the season and the year to come, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. But I'm thinking of you all and hoping to more present in 2025.

Just shared the Ant Game publicly… pass it around! The Ant Game – Litopia

My religion is "eat all the desserts."

I'm an unhealthiest.