Sylvia Leatham

It’s finally here! Publication day! And not, as my phone keeps autocorrecting it, ‘pub location’ day. 😂 ‘Chaos Theory’ has been nurtured for 4.5 years, and now it’s finally out in the world, going on its own adventures. You can get it as paperback, e-book and audiobook. Linktr.ee/SylviaLeatham

My ten year old daughter wrote a story for today's Irish Examiner. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Spent a lovely afternoon in @chaptersbookstore.bsky.social yesterday - innovative event format: Afternoon tea with author @fhayesmccoy.bsky.social . The conversation was wide-ranging and included pressing issues for authors such as genAI & copyright law + reflections on the history of technology.

Dads.

Express Dublin-Cork train, c.2003. PACKED. Hot. I had a pastry covered in icing sugar, and as I lifted it for the first bite, my body decided I needed a sneeze, and tried to inhale in preparation. I inhaled the sugar, which turned the sneeze nuclear (and included a fart), spraying everyone.

There’s renovations going on in the apartment building, so the elevator has been covered in new drawing material; you only get about 20 seconds at a time to doodle, though! #inktober

I’ve slept on it now and when I woke up, I was still still mad about it. This morning, I’m going to ring the constituent office of my local FF TD and tell him just how mad it made me. Then I’m going to call the constituency office of my local SF TD, and ask if Matt Carthy’s support is their view.

They said: “This is not normal, people.”

Dubliners! If you have any teenagers who want to learn how to write excellent Bluesky posts - I mean scary stories over midterm, this is your chance!

I haven’t read this yet but already have to share it because of the coining of the term “the age of the grifter-narcissist”.

Don't miss the friendly, free and fun online salon this week. Always a delight and different every time.....

Thanks to @oisinmcgann.bsky.social and @chaptersbookstore.bsky.social for a lovely pre-Halloween drawing workshop this morning! Can report that Chapters seems to have more books than ever! Plus a whole table of book-related jigsaws!

A reminder that I'll be running another illustration workshop for children in @chaptersbookstore.bsky.social in Dublin city centre tomorrow at 11am. If you're in town with your kids, come along!

Hey, authors, illustrators, poets, etc in the UK and Ireland! I’ve put together a statement in support of Sally Rooney with the help of others. Message me if you’d like to sign?

Dublin friends! Free event in the lovely @chaptersbookstore.bsky.social's beautiful Parnell St shop Booking essential. Tickets going fast according to an email I received this morning 🎉🫖 I'm massively looking forward to it. Hope to see you there. #spéirgorm #booksky 💙📚 #tae tinyurl.com/4mwd7ynp

"Today's AI summit brings together businesses, governments and civil society together" Minister Peter Burke TD (fact: there are no civil society representatives, not in the list of speakers) #AISummitIE

mark zuckerberg, everyman

This is one of those bits of Irish history that sounds suspiciously like someone has written a film. Six Fenian prisoners. Fremantle Prison. An American whaling ship. A 28-hour escape through storm & surf. Historian Michael B. Barry popped in to sign Catalpa. Copies now instore & online! 💚📚

I’m asking the important questions this week in @thejournal.ie this spooky season. Was WB Yeats a vampire? The proof is in the poetry jrnl.ie/7188070

we have a policy for the use of genAI at the @aial.ie. we reflect on values key to scientific integrity, such as replicability, and err on the side of not using it blogpost: aial.ie/blog/gen-ai-... pdf: zenodo.org/records/2322...

I’m not very good with names; also very sleepy in the mornings. I’ve been very confused this week waking up to my radio alarm, hearing about Chris Bryant and in my head thinking of Zach Bryan.

Anne Carson is only the 19th woman out of 123 Lit Nobel Laureates & there are as many men named Patrick who’ve won (2) as Black women (1), Asian woman (1), and Latinas (0) combined. So go read some Maryse Conde, Jamaica Kincaid, Yoko Ogawa, Ling Ma, Isabel Allende, an embarrassment of riches really

Making a square/rectangular Halloween costume? We can help!

“Cosy autumn” is a myth perpetuated by Big Pumpkin.

A cyclist who just broke a red light and nearly ran me over told me to “chill out” when I objected to the situation.

Is the business profitable? No It’s on the road to profitability though, right? Also no But it will be extremely beneficial for the future of humanity? It might kill us all #OpenAI #GenAI #AIHype

He should get a hero’s welcome at the airport.

@cethanleahy.com Cethan, we have entered the Pantheon* together! (*Possibly not entirely sure of exact meaning of the word Pantheon.)

Take the €100,000 Govt-commissioned report provided by KPMG to justify continuing Ireland’s unrestricted data centre growth. (Recently described in a UN report as a “cautionary tale”)

over the past few weeks several AI evaluation/cybersecurity experts have explained how what's happening is a result of human incompetence rather than "AI going rogue". I'm begging the media to show a shred of journalistic integrity and stop parroting what altman or amodei say

"In a leaked document, the Irish Presidency proposes to EU Member States that the interest of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and SpaceX to make profits should take precedence over the fundamental right to data protection" noyb.eu/en/ai-eu-mem...

I'll be launching #NoVacancy @booksupstairs.bsky.social in Dublin on Friday October 16th. There'll be extra bonus Cathy Sweeney and some mad stories about hotels. Please come. Tickets are free but you need to reserve in advance (link below) booksupstairs.ie/all-events/l...

There are still a few places available for my 6-Week Book Illustration at @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social in Dublin. It's about communication first, telling a story, not drawing beautiful pictures, so only basic drawing skills are required. irishwriterscentre.ie/courses/book...

the trash talker On South Anne Street in Dublin city centre, a satirical statue of Donald Trump in a wheelie bin with a banana on his head titled 'The Trash Talker' has appeared. www.rte.ie/news/post/10...

Don’t often see Ireland in an Ars Technica headline. It doesn’t say where in Ireland, though. Quite scary!

Our government is pandering to the racist right with the new citizenship legislation The GAA has yet again proven itself to be a intractable misogynistic boys club And we are paying for a rapist to stay in the state guest house at Farmleigh Not a good week for the country

A rare day with the house to myself and a book deadline looming so OF COURSE I couldn’t sleep for hours last night and am now shattered. 🥲

What’s it like living with someone who’s pun-obsessed? Last night I was upstairs and yelled down: “Let’s get a takeaway! What are you in the mood for?” Husband comes racing upstairs like the house is on fire and throws two flyers on the table, then collapses laughing. @thejoegriffin.bsky.social

Today’s stories from Ireland

One of my fondest childhood memories was not knowing the name of any CEO of any company.

Bump! My writing masterclass in Derry is coming up on 12 September. I'll have loads to say. Do come! @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social irishwriterscentre.ie/courses/writ...

Oh, HELL no. Do not consent to allowing genAI to record your sessions or to access your private medical data. #SpeirGorm

If you ever visit Venice and are feeling homesick, you can always go to…

Last year, 80 Palestinian scholarship students were granted visas. This year, at least half have been refused. What has changed? asks Angie Gough www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...