Abe & Eddie

Blown away by this review of "Flowers from the Black Sea" that appeared on Amazon yesterday: "A joy to devour. A great read. The author is as significant as Eric Ambler, Ian Fleming and Graham Greene in bringing the vivid, often brutal, setting of Turkey alive almost as an additional character...."

Gen-AI vs. human-authored is the difference between the birthday card desgned by a computer and printed in a factory with millions of identical cards and the birthday card your six-year-old drew for you in secret one night, tongue stuck out in concentration, and signed with a hundred kisses.

New Album : An Ordinary Man “My truth is so simple For simple I am The ordinary wisdom of An Ordinary Man” I hope you enjoy this album, I think it is my best so far. This will be my last before Christmas (the musical)…. Which has always been my destination. ffm.to/an-ordinary-man

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” ~ Aldous Huxley, ‘A Case of Voluntary Ignorance’ (1956) #Painting by Frederick Sandys, 1867.

How to build a police state "Working against democracy is an alliance of ideologues and the tech industry. Trump is less the architect than a salesman fronting for people who want authoritarian rule and regard citizens with contempt" www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Der Windbohrer (by Thomas Rees) on Schauinsland, Black Forest. He's changed over the years, but this is my preferred version

The Australian government is introducing legislation to allow AI companies to use authors’ work to build their models. This would apply to authors from anywhere in the world. Authors: To sign the US Author's Guild petition against (you don't need to be a member): authorsguild.org/news/austral...

I’m so tired of hearing what Ukraine must give up for peace. Our land? Our homes? Our future? Why is the victim always expected to make the sacrifice?

US journalist in Kyiv faces White House online attacks while under fire from Putin’s missiles.

So, it will soon be impossible to buy Sally Rooney books, but if you want to order a copy of Mein Kampf, no problem. What’s happened to the UK? www.theguardian.com/books/2026/o...

“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” ― Robert Frost

‘Blood on the Tyne: Body Parts’ by Colin Garrow ‘…a gripping and authentic Northeast murder mystery…’ geni.us/8tJeTc #bloodonthetyne #murder #mystery

Chaos in Washington The new Private Eye is out now.

Don't give up because machines generate stories. If you care about language, and have genuine ability, keep going. Your work still matters. www.debbivoisey.co.uk visit my writing craft blog and leave a message #writingcommunity #writersofbluesky #SundayReflection #HumanWriters

Indie collabs brings you Monday Markdowns, for you to "Experience Life Like You've Never Known It" (Historical Fiction) books.bookfunnel.com/experience_l... 💙📚🖋️ #booksky ⏳📚 #historicalfiction some #literaryfiction and mine has 🪐 #dragons & #mythology retelling

What makes ordinary people obey an immoral order – and how to resist. www.bbc.com/future/artic...

A dreary, grey, wet Sunday, but at least there's a hint of sunlight in the yellowing leaves of the maple tree outside my office window

just how this has worked out over the last few days will be the lead story. In a word, the US-Russian alliance is being sealed in Ukrainian blood. phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-up...

If a Constitution can be amended to defend supposed human liberty, surely it's time to amend it to protect human life?

"Some people travel to find themselves, others to lose themselves" - Nietzsche, Nice 1884

Carrier Pigeons What is it that disturbs me, distresses me, and how does a poem help? The answer to the first of these questions is, in a sense, simple. War. More than that it is the hypocrisy... tonyearnshaw.substack.com/p/carrier-pi... #writesky #booksky #writingcommunity #poetry #poetrycommunity

Poetry goes to waste in Rotterdam www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

“Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence… “ ~ Franz Kafka, ‘The Silence of the Sirens’ (1917) #Painting by Pietro Spica.

The Faust Bible: The Making of F.W. Murnau’s Masterpiece www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oc...

It's a shame the headline makes it seem this article is all about the corrupt, senile felon. It's far more interesting than that. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

An excellent interview. The concluding words should be of particular interest to the UK in light of Andy Burnham’s recent remarks

She had a knack for inflicting exquisite pain with her fingers. Today the thickness of his jacket may have dulled the effect, but the gesture quickened the pulse in a way he had neither expected nor wanted. He avoided sharing any further memories. #wipsnips #writesky #writingcommunity

In St Moritz last week, I couldn’t resist a visit to the Segantini museum. As a contemporary of Nietzsche, who spent his summers in nearby Sils Maria, it’s hard to imagine they never met

Girl standing tall on her books, spotted in Sils Maria

When you buy diesel you ride with Putin. Image from @bikeportland.org

Good to see the Pope taking a stand against AI and promoting the arts, but I do wonder how broad this alliance might be, as many artists and cultural institutions touch on subjects that I can imagine would be anathema to the Catholic Church

Just another attempt to destroy a culture: destroy their books. The Nazis tried it with Jewish culture, and that didn’t work out well. Nor will it for Russia. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Out now and available everywhere good books are sold. desou.uk/dh5nxm #DeathAndSourdough #WritingCommunity #IndieAuthor #SelfPublishing #BookSky

"You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Announcing German Literature Month XVI November 2026 beautyisasleepingcat.com/2026/10/02/a...

Naomi Klein Is Spot On.......

Remember books? Weight in your hands. Paper beneath your fingers. A cover you keep looking at. Poems you return to. BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS is a proper hardback made to last. Edited by Alan Parry He/Him & Karen Pierce Gonzalez shorturl.at/126Ks

“Lord, here I am. Send me,” Hegseth said. “Send me to fight the Redcoats, send me to fight the communists, send me to fight the Islamists. Send me.” Someone should put this insane speech to music.

"In 1930, Hitler wasn’t a political genius. He was a lazy criminal who slept in until noon." Der Rückfall (The Relapse), published by Penguin, sounds like a fascinating book with some myth-busting ideas about the rise of the Nazis www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

“The truth can be spoken only by someone who is already at home in it; not by someone who still lives in untruthfulness, and does no more than reach out towards it from within untruthfulness.” ~ ‘Culture and Value’ by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) #Painting by Christiaan Tonnis.

daily words today: "Giving women education, work, the ability to control their own income, inherit and own property, benefits the society. If a woman is empowered, her children and her family will be better off. If families prosper, the village p... #writingcommunity

For Sally Carson, #BornOnThisDay in 1902, my thoughts on CROOKED CROSS. A gripping, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency and the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...