Rachel Handley 🏳️‍🌈

Irish pals! There are lots of tickets left for this and it is FREE. Shocking stuff. Come write some climate crisis fiction with me on Halloween! Awe, hope, despair! Conscious plants and more await you. Tickets: kildare.spydus.ie/cgi-bin/spyd...

A bit windy, isn't it.

Irish pals! There are lots of tickets left for this and it is FREE. Shocking stuff. Come write some climate crisis fiction with me on Halloween! Awe, hope, despair! Conscious plants and more await you. Tickets: kildare.spydus.ie/cgi-bin/spyd...

Dublin friends! I will be one of the featured readers at Pride Poets this Tuesday (27th October) at Street 66. There will be an open mic on afterwards, and the event is entirely free!

It is me and my partner's 17th anniversary today! Our plans are to drink tea and read in bed whilst under at least three blankets at all times. That's right, storm outside, we are defying you by being cosy. Possibly too cosy.

Next week!

Next week!

I've just written a new poem! Yay!

I'm delighted to say that I'll be running a creative writing workshop as a part of @kildarelibrary.bsky.social's Climate Readers Day on Halloween! Come along and write some weird fiction with me! Reposts are very much appreciated! Tickets: kildare.spydus.ie/cgi-bin/spyd...

Home Bargains already having Christmas decorations feels outrageous. I demand spooky pumpkins and poorly made skeletons!

What's the best translation of War and Peace?

My writing process seems to now involve me placing my laptop on the floor with the screen showing the story, sitting on the bed, then scowling at the document from a distance as if that'll learn it.

"We hope that our collective annoyance is enough to make the person listening to 30 seconds of music at a time stop. They have been judged Rude by the rest of us and a telepathic caution issued." notesfromabus.substack.com/p/tin-notes

I'm delighted to say that I'll be running a creative writing workshop as a part of @kildarelibrary.bsky.social's Climate Readers Day on Halloween! Come along and write some weird fiction with me! Reposts are very much appreciated! Tickets: kildare.spydus.ie/cgi-bin/spyd...

"We hope that our collective annoyance is enough to make the person listening to 30 seconds of music at a time stop. They have been judged Rude by the rest of us and a telepathic caution issued." notesfromabus.substack.com/p/tin-notes

Earlier this year I was invited to be a judge for a local poetry competition and it was such a pleasure to read all of the entries. Today I'll be attending the awards ceremony. I am so excited to congratulate the winning poets!

Is the "ethical use" in the room with us?

Hey Bluesky, I don't have enough polyamorous books in. Particularly looking for things with an established polycule (plot being adding someone new is fine, plot not being related to their relationships is also fine) Suggestions? #RecQuest

New plants! New plants! Name suggestions are very welcome 🪴

This is awful. When were members consulted about this? (As far as I know, we weren't.) There is no ethical use of GenAI!

I've just drunk an absolutely cracking cup of tea. Top work, Monday.

It's national poetry day! Here is a poem of mine first published by Arlen House in Washing Windows II and then republished by Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann 's volume Vital Signs: Poems for Illness and Healing.

I discovered that Home Bargains sell palma violets and I am now the proud owner of a massive bag of them. They are the best sweets and I will die on this hill.

First lecture of the semester went well! AND there was a book fair between the lecture theatre and my office.

I had such a lovely time reading my short story, The Sound, at Undertow: An Evening of New Strange & Speculative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre yesterday! Many thanks again to @theactualemma.bsky.social and Niall for organising such a wonderful event!

Landed in Belfast! I'm super excited for my reading tomorrow!

Merry #bivisibilityday! Here I am, being visible. Bisivile, one might say.

I really need new shirts for work. Any recommendations for colourful/interesting shirts? I love an absolutely absurd pattern/colour combo.

He wants a coffee.

It's chucking down outside and I'm delighted to announce that I'm inside with a cup of tea.

Hair freshly chopped! My body weight in coffee imbibed! Soon: writing group meet-up joy 😊

The pigeon which sounds like it smokes 40 packs of cigarettes a day is coo-coughing so loud that I suspect he is calling for his fellow cigarette pigeon brethren to join him in smoking a human sized cigarette. The ultimate cigarette of pigeon culture. Once lit, a human sized pigeon appears.

I'll be reading a short story as part of the Doors Into The Dark event dedicated to weird & wonderful fiction on 26th September at The Seamus Heaney Centre (Queen's University Belfast). Organised by @theactualemma.bsky.social and Niall McKenna. Tickets: www.seamusheaneycentre.com/Events/Doors...

I am out of oat milk. A six word horror story.

What is the last short story or book you read and loved that was written by a trans author?

I walked past Home Bargains yesterday and there were Christmas Trees in their window. CHRISTMAS. TREES. Sirs, it is September.

There is nothing quite like the tiny joy of clean sheets.

I received psychic damage from this.

Writer's problem number 743: the writing machine is also the giant distraction machine. But fear not, noble scribe, the notepad and pen solve problem 743! Writer's problem 744: Writer can no longer write due to being buried under yet another "ooo another new one won't hurt" notebook.

The pigeon that sounds like it smokes 40 packs of cigerattes a day is back, coo-coughing by my flat window like an unrepentent gran. I've come to expect that, should I ever see this pigeon, it will not only be smoking a cigar, but selling them to easily influenced younger pigeons.

Today: resit marking, finishing off a story comissioned by [redacted cool place], drinking my weight in iced oat lattes as is my bisexual right.

Guy: I'm not a robot! Sarah Connor: Prove it. How would you email Stephen King? Guy: Dear Stephen King, Carrie White is a complicated young woman whose story needs to be told. I spent last night reading everything I could about Carrie-- Sarah Connor: *empties her entire clip*

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"