Tiny Owl Workshop

I'm not from the publishing industry. I was 49 and working fulltime when I started publishing stuff. There are things I still find infathomable about the industry, like the insistence that literature and genre are separate: they aren't. There's just different kinds of literature. #booksky

I love this graphic from #JoshuaSantospirito c/- @overlandjournal.bsky.social It looks at literary festivals in Aus and their failure to include comics and zines creators - one of the most inclusive sectors in publishing. Games publishers are highly unlikely to be there either.

Meta also desperately using 'public' settings on social media as a - what they think to be - clever way to bypass copyright. They recommend turning your settings to 'private' so they won't copy and scrape your posts for #AI Making something 'public' doesn't remove copyright, ask any librarian.

My #Instagram account is being smashed with ads for SUVs, pubs, betting, earth moving etc. All #AI generated. Like #Meta is trying to prove to investors that AI has a BIG ad revenue base all while disrupting distribution (no kings style) & making their product unuseable. Bubble bursting desperation?

Joshua Santospirito on Aus literary festivals, publishers, grants bodies et al and how they fail readers, writers, diversity and their communities by consistently leaving out comics and zines. It's a great and very welcome illustrated read from @overlandjournal.bsky.social

"What is the book that will be written on #AnthonyAlbanese 's prime ministership?" #FranKelly, host of The #RadioNational Hour, recently put this question to veteran political journalist #KerryO'Brien. The former 7.30 host's response was characteristically blunt. #AUSPOL #Neoliberalism #Albo

Blaming social media for a rise in violence against women and politicians, but taking selfies with someone found liable for sexual abuse and sharing such selfies via social media and trad media must take some horrifically twisted internal logic involving a lot of denial about cause and effect.

Moomins creater Tove Jansson created illustrations for 'Garm', an anti-fascist Finnish-Swedish satirical magazine between 1929 (age 15) and 1953 #WomensArt

#Brisbane. October.

Had a gorgeously illuminating conversation with artist-author Caroline Magerl recently on all things publishing, writing and 'the arts', and what pathways there are when your privileges are few or non-existent. #booksky

The history of the #booker prize is fascinating. It's named after food distribution company Booker-McConnell. The company Chair established an author's division and bought rights to various works, then used the $$ from Ian Fleming, Georgette Heyer and Agatha Christie sales to set up the Booker.

It is really chilling to see how quickly Black, Caribbean, and African writers and academics have become the global face of AI use and accusations of plagiarism. For such a serious charge, @vauhinivara.bsky.social's article rests on...a Pangram scan. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/1...

A government hosting and promoting #AusArtDay to get folk to fund the arts while also working to legalise the lawlessness of #AI companies who've committed a global art heist and continue to openly launder all that stolen stuff through apps - for profit - is some next level kind of hypocrisy.

A haunted house where every room is a library filled with comfortable chairs and cozy nooks and every bookshelf is stacked with nothing but copies of The Art of the Deal.

New tissue paper landed for various projects.

Students made their first minicomics in my intro making course - mostly standard format but this student, a first time maker(!), did something so off the charts I’m still reeling from it! & he made like 12 of them for his classmates! A paper engineering feat of flipbookery as well as killer drawing!

Key questions are: Who has the right to enclose your labour & sell it to market? Who has the right to enclose your property & sell it to market? Who has the right to your private info (health, financial, education etc) & to sell it to market? #AI companies want the answer to be them, not you.

Enough Trope has a newsletter! It goes out on the last day of every month and includes an exclusive editorial, news about genre, book recommendations, and (this month at least) a special giveaway. You can subscribe for free here: enoughtrope.com

How I arrived on #Bluesky.

Folk can't work this out because they didn't grow up with cursive writing.

He's 'helping.'

This is a super personal story that i never expected to see the light of day let alone in such a beautiful format. tinyowlworkshop.com/the-adumbrals/

A few years back my partner was grasping to remember the term Dunning-Kruger and said Bunnings-Kruger instead. It's now my preferred term.

New on Enough Trope: @petermball.bsky.social talks about Load-Bearing Fans, and the inherent danger to speculative fiction communities. Find it here: www.enoughtrope.com/journal/load...

My partner's friend made him this small battle loaf. After thorough testing it's now bound for the Dwarf Bread Museum in Ankh-Morpork.

The business of being a literary agent is changing along with its ethical boundaries, leading agents to question how to maintain integrity and a sustainable revenue stream. buff.ly/JHiMA6E

Brisbane. October.

Three decades as Jim Chalmers is quite a feat.

I missed the speech #JonKlassen made when accepting the Astrid Lindgren Award, but if you love writing or making things or both it's quite lovely and worth a listen.

Letterpress flyers we made for Hunted Down and Other Tales by Marcus Clarke. The text is taken directly from Clarke’s 1870 story ‘When the Circus came to Bullocktown’.

That time some lovely authors wrote stories, artist Nancy Brown screen printed them onto linen, I sewed the linen onto other hand-printed material and made them into lots of fringed pillows to be strewn around Brisbane Writers Festival venues. They were all 'acquired' as the Festival progressed.

The ASA has launched our Annual Survey for 2026 and we need to hear from you! The survey is open to all authors and illustrators, including ASA members and non-members. And please share! For more details and to take the survey please visit: www.asauthors.org.au/news/have-yo...

My review of tesla amazing Magnetic Notes: paper that clings to anything

We Crossed the Bright Blue Water by Trent Jamieson is the first short story released as part of our limited edition Adumbrals series.

Minting coins to get folk across the River Styx.

Modest and Misunderstood An excellent read.

Small #wip

Sublime work from Eric Orchard.

Best use of coffee stains, ever. From the exhibition Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of the Jim Henson Company.

Never underestimate punctuation.

If u need more letterpress+measurement joy or nerdy history miniessays for today's Type High Day festivities, @shane.logoff.website & my zine "Absolute Units of Letterpress: Plus Rad Measurement Facts" is always free: zinebakery.com/bakeshop/abs...

If I stole lots of stuff, systematically, in cozy crime lit that'd be 'a crime'. There'd be forensics etc. When #AI companies steal stuff then 'launder' it via apps they just do deals to change laws, pointing to laundering activity as evidence of consumer demand. Cozies are justice fantasy. #booksky

As a result of going to Jim Henson's Make, Believe, Magic show at QAGOMA this week, I must now rewatch: - The Dark Crystal - Labyrinth, and - A Muppet Christmas Carol