smaddonwriter.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

If you're near Oxford, I'm giving the talk "Tolkien the Post-Christian? A Proposition" for the monthly Oxford Tolkien Seminar this Friday 6 June at 5pm! Free and open to the public in the Sophia Sheppard Room of Magdalen College. (More details at the link below.) I am, in a word, psyched.

submitted 2 days ago • 4 comments

Blurb feedback! 💙📚 In a world where social status is measured by knowledge, not money, a formerly spoiled and privileged teenager must grapple with being a social pariah and having to fight off a secret society on a killing spree (while also fighting off the advances of an all-too-charming boy).

submitted 12 hours ago • 0 comments

Let's hear from you writers, tell us a little bit about yourself, what projects you've on the go, what you've written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other #WritersLiftWednesday #Writers #Authors #WritersLift #BookSky 💙📚 alt text please

submitted 22 hours ago • 14 comments

Happy Pride Month! This year, LGBTQ Reads is partnering with @bookshop.org for a sale on over 100 books by LGBTQIA+ authors using code PRIDE25! bookshop.org/info/pride

submitted 15 hours ago • 2 comments

Re-writing the blurb for Your Knowledge or Your life and I want to cry, scream, throw stuff, and curl up into a tight ball on the sofa. How's your day going?! #Booksky 💙📚 #AuthorSky #IndieAuthor

submitted 15 hours ago • 0 comments

Natalie Rak, also known as Rak, is a Poland based street artist #WomensArt #Monday

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Good morning beautiful souls! School's out so the summer reading club will start Monday at my library and I'm the lead this year. Maybe some #GoodTrouble in my future 😎 Happy Friday! 🌞☕🌻🏃‍♀️🕉️

submitted 5 days ago • 163 comments

Life is complicated for a lot of creators right now, and downright dangerous and life-threatening for others. Reminding you to be compassionate with yourself. If you're not making art or the words aren't flowing, you're not a failure. You're a human being--not a robot. Take care of yourself first.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

#kobo #booksky

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I finally caved, please give me your Kobo tips and tricks! #booksky

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

An ancient, gold ring, carved with an inscription, has been found, has it? Was the person who picked it up called Sméagol?

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

What time is it? #gouache #opossum #art #illustration

submitted 6 days ago • 6 comments

My first steam game ISLANDS & TRAINS has just released!! What began as a tiny hobby project has grown into something that I'm so thankful, excited and proud of. It would mean the world if you could give this a repost and try the game on Steam 💌🌻 s.team/a/1957760

submitted 6 days ago • 42 comments

Not sure how to feel about Kobo's upcoming Ts&Cs changes... #Booksky #IndieAuthor #Authorsky

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Currently overwhelmed by the mind-blowing fact that there are so many amazing, skilled, creative writers out there, telling their incredible stories, like some secret, unearthed treasure trove. What a privilege it is to exist in the same timeline as them.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

⭐Calling cisgender women!⭐ I'm so proud of this open statement from #NotInMyName speaking up for our trans siblings. Far too often, the only women’s voices we hear seem intent on stoking the flames. Sign & share to build the inclusive world we actually want to live in. www.change.org/p/not-in-our...

submitted 8 days ago • 9 comments

These are actually extremely easy to tell - genAI images are weirdly flat and plastic looking - but I think my 9th graders will get a kick out of this activity in my digital literacy. Given other versions of this quiz I've done in the past, I'm sure they'll fail most of these.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

One of the worst parts of this AI craze is looking at a video of a super skilled artist and seeing 50% of the comments below accusing them of being fake. It took only a few years to persuade people that skill doesn't exist. How bleak.

submitted 9 days ago • 3 comments

is there anyone fluent in both Korean and English looking for a job in Korea? we're hiring a lab administrator. no science experience needed, and foreigners can also apply if they have a master's degree (in any subject). pls email me at [email protected]

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

As a writer, I noticed I have a pretty high tolerance to failure. One needs to if one is to succeed in any creative endeavour. Fellow creatives, I know we've all been there at least once. What tools & strategies did you use to weather the storms on your path? I welcome your vulnerable experiences♥️

submitted 48 days ago • 6 comments

If you buy her products, this is what you fund. An actual hate movement based on misinformation and right wing substacks. A movement that any even slightly non-conforming woman is now literally in danger from. Actual lives are more important than your Hogwarts House.

submitted 10 days ago • 5 comments

I don't need a cover artist right now, but I do want to know about some good cover artists. It may or may not be for a super secret Spotlight Indie project. Please post your recommendations (preferably with links) below 🎨⬇️ (I don't think it needs to be said, but obviously no AI, just actual people)

submitted 18 days ago • 7 comments

For anyone who wants to turn of the AI crap at the top of the google search page... tenbluelinks.org

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

the determination to try, fail, and try again is the force by which everyone improves art or skill - and these people only want the end result; they don’t want to work for the hard part (or pay for it either); they can’t tell good from bad…so why spend money on good, when mere crap will suffice?

submitted 14 days ago • 3 comments

Yup. I continue to say that AI is for those who fetishize THE IDEA and dismiss THE WORK. It's for those people who come up to writers and say, "I got a great idea for a book, I'll give it to you, you write it, and we'll split the profits 50/50," as if the idea is the hardest and most important part.

submitted 14 days ago • 74 comments

Responsible Parenting - Gator Days

submitted 14 days ago • 17 comments

“Sorry I’m late, a chickadee was collecting my dog’s hair on the porch and I’d be a monster to interrupt.”

submitted 14 days ago • 177 comments

This summer Rome opera house stages Rossini's The Barber of Seville from the back of a truck in suburbs around the city.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

This is extraordinary: "emissions by data centres needed to train and deliver AI services are estimated at around 3 per cent of the global total, close to those created by the aviation industry."

submitted 14 days ago • 15 comments

submitted 15 days ago • 206 comments

Lovely, even the draft version of my current WIP got scraped by those fuckwits. I guess that means I won't release ANY fanfics I write anywhere any more, and just write them for myself, nor will I publish OG works anywhere. Good thing I had a feeling about that and held back so far. #FuckAl 🖕🤬🖕

submitted 15 days ago • 5 comments

Another reason so many authors on your feed are furious about that A.I. generated summer reading article, is that in a media landscape where coverage for books is shrinking absolutely everywhere… this is what we get.

submitted 15 days ago • 9 comments

This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?

submitted 15 days ago • 796 comments

Ok World of Books, I'm officially impressed! #Booksky (PS: when you opt out, you also have the option of opting out of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day 💪)

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Recommend a #selfpublished book! What's a recent favorite, or one that absolutely has to be read? ##selfpublishedbooks #indieauthors #books #booksky

submitted 22 days ago • 26 comments

I just finished reading a book that I kept hoping would get better. It did not. I detested it, lol. I threw it across the room when I finished. Thanks for listening.

submitted 16 days ago • 56 comments

Hello all, if you are a bookshop in the UK with a book club that meets regularly can I ask you to reply below and I will email you? We have a book on the @calonbooks.bsky.social list publishing soon that I think might be of interest! 📚

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments