Writer of the BSFA Award-winning audio drama,
@TheDexLegacy
. Novelist repped by John Jarrold. Social Media Officer
@BSFA
, gamer, INFJ, bi, aspiring adult.
If you’re into dark, political sci-fi, this is for you!
Seasons 1 and 2 of the BSFA Award-winning Dex Legacy audio drama are free to listen to on all podcast platforms.
Search now in your favourite podcast app!
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I’ve spent too much time worrying about whether my image fits expectations for a writer of dark sci-fi.
I’m over it.
This is what a dark sci-fi writer looks like. If that goes against your grain, get a new grain.
I just observed my spouse eating a kitkat for the first time…
Reader - they did not break it apart first, but just took a bite out of the end as if it were nothing but a common snickers 🥺
I may have inadvertently married a psychopath… 😄
@ask_aubry
What if she said the same? “Alright love, I’m off for 2 weeks. Youll be alright with the baby I’m sure. I have other family I need to see.”
I’m pretty sure he’d freak the f out 😄
I am super happy to announce that I am now the Social Media Officer for the British Science Fiction Association (
@BSFA
)!
It’s extremely intimidating to be amongst such a legendary crowd of people, and I’m already getting started! Watch this space…
When I’m reading I stop seeing the words and start to see pictures and images instead. It all plays-out like a movie in my mind.
I’ve just found out not everyone has this. Does anyone else here experience books like I do!?
Happy weekend feelings!
Today I say goodbye to 33 and hello to 34. Boom! Another year, another orbit. We like this journey. My presents include a water butt, wine and a lovely grown up Waterman fountain pen! Not a bad haul!
I hope you’re having a lovely Sunday! ❤️
Ok I held off saying this for a couple of days, for obvious reasons, but I have had 2 full manuscript requests and I can’t keep it in anymore!!!
I know it may not progress any further, but to have even reached this point is amazing.
Keep querying people and celebrate your wins!
I had another full manuscript request today. I am so overwhelmed! This is more than exciting. And I know it may come to nothing and I am preparing myself for that, but in the “now” I have to enjoy the ups where I can!!!
I just experienced American “biscuits” for the first time… which are, in fact, scones.
Not sure where this baffling misunderstanding came from, but people, you eat them with jam, not gravy!
😄 - commence pile-on.
Question to the world... do ALL men hate jumpsuits? If so, why?
All the guys I know hate them! But all the women I know love them. Is this division universal!?
Dear USA
The rest of the world can’t vote in your elections, but watching what’s happened to you in the last few years has been truly painful. Please end it today.
All best,
Everyone else
Woke up to an acceptance email for a story I wrote and submitted several months ago!
And they’re going to pay me!
This is a very good start to the day 🍾
@SorrentiThott
There are some people on this thread saying you made this up. I just wanted to say that when I read this, my thoughts were “I know it’s true, and she’s not the only one.” The people casting doubt are privileged enough to not need to understand. I’m so sorry this happened to you.
I love how people think writers keep their methods secret...
We literally don’t shut up about how we write, why we write, where we write, when we write, and how we have no idea what we’re writing most of the time!
Keep sharing people, THAT’s what writing is all about.
Most block unfriendly people, I get that, but I just blocked someone who wanted to be my best friend in the world and know everything about me and call me... and he kept pestering me for replies.
I can’t take that kind of demanding.
Did I do a bad thing..?
To all those who say “reading sci-fi/fantasy is so hard because of all the unusual place names and character names…”
You’re assuming people should always write to Western ideas of “normal”. Try reading War & Peace or Crime & Punishment and get back to me.
Very unexpectedly, yesterday evening I received a request for a full manuscript through the contact form on my website, from an Agent at a US Agency!
I mention this because if anyone out there is wondering if it’s worth having a website, it is!!!
Its really bad that “working while sick” is considered a positive in the UK. We have incredible guilt attached to taking sick leave and it’s toxic.
Rest is important. Recovery is important. There’s never a good time for it, but it happens. Managers need to be stronger on this.
As of today I am a copywriter for a game studio.
This is totally crazy and I never thought it would happen given my accidental career in healthcare. But, it has.
It hasn’t really sunk in yet...
Ok, so I am very excited to be able to share this news with you all! After the craziness of the last month, I am happy to say I am now represented by the
@johnjarrold
Agency. Thank you so much, John, for believing in my book! I am very much looking forward to working with you!
Fun fact: If you don’t wear pearls semi-regularly and expose them to the natural oils in your skin, they yellow.
Result: I am now practically forced to dress up as a lady for the day 😅
Also, apparently my eyes are going through a greenish phase…
Reading an article about “how to plot a sci-fi novel” and getting depressed. It’s the Hero’s Journey.
I already get bored reading stories and watching shows that fit this structure… is it really the only way to tell a story?!
I know books are products, but come on!
Take all writing advice that commands you to “remove all”, “replace all”, and “never do” and replace those words with a “avoid using”, “try not to” and “be mindful of the over-use of”.
No rules are absolute. Ever. Under any circumstances.
Right now I have 4 full manuscripts in play. It’s like I’ve sent out invitations to my own personal firing squad of professional-level “no thank you”s and I’m waiting to see who RSVPs!
I really don’t like the terms “hard” and “soft” sci-fi.
The word choice suggests the superiority of “hard sci-fi” over “soft sci-fi” - but that’s like saying the “how?” is more important/harder than the “why?”
But I n my experience “why” is the hardest to quantify.
My dad died 9 years ago today.
This anniversary always hits me. He was given 2 months to live and made 8.
My dad was a stargazer and a dreamer, an engineer and a poet.
I don’t think he’d like my books… but I like to think he’d be proud of me for writing them 💪
To write a book through to completion requires obsession.
I think this is true. It has to occupy your mind like a parasite and niggle and make itself an annoyance when you’re not working on it.
My sister is my best friend in the whole world and she has just had a baby, who is amazing.
She is currently in the ICU because of an infection, sepsis and septic shock. 36 hours ago she almost died of a cardiac arrest.
I am terrified
She can’t die
Sorry, but... this is my now
My aims for 2020: deserve a place in the professional novel writing business... then find someone in the professional novel writing business, who thinks I belong in the professional novel writing business :)
I know a lot of people don’t want to hear this, but after years as a medical writer I can confirm that our bodies are complicated. That modern medicine is the most sci-fi thing in our lives… and no, you can’t cure viruses and diseases with positive thinking and tea infusions.
I am officially 32 years old. I’ve made it around the sun 32 times… which isn’t that many really. Still getting the hang of things!
Also VERY happy to be in an industry where I’m considered young, because that’s how I feel. I can only endeavour to improve with age!
Cheers!!!
I’m reading Foundation by Asimov - the great and glorious - and the highly acclaimed dialogue is littered with adverbs.
Can we all please stop with the blanket rules on excluding these. It’s tiresome, and sometimes they do work hard to highlight tone and emotion in a scene.
Oh yay! Great message to wake up to! Guys, do you get these? Or is it just women who have to wake up to preemptive criticism over the ambitious scale of their narrative via DM?
It’s about time I showed you all my fabulous skirt. Yellow corduroy with rainbow dinosaurs 😄
I don’t think I shall ever settle for grown up clothes again! 😂
On this day, 4 years ago, I married my Daniel 🥰 it was the most fun I’ve had, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat! There’s no one else I’d want to spend 7 months in lockdown with! ❤️
Recently I’ve been asked if I’ll be working towards stage performances or aiming to be the next Jacqueline du Pre.
No. I’m 31 and still a beginner. I’ll never be amazing at cello, but that’s ok. It’s good for my mind and it makes me happy.
It’s not always about being the best.
I have much to celebrate!
I have officially joined Alternative Stories as Creative Director. Many audio adventures are about to begin!!! 🍾 I literally can’t wait!
Omgomgomgomhomgomg I have my story. It just worked out in my head! The snowy wastes I’ve been dreaming about... they were on the other bloody planet!!! I was trying to make the story work on the wrong planet!!! Ahhhhhhhhh!
I just want to say, as a vegan, evangelical vegans piss me off.
It’s not a religion, it’s a diet/lifestyle choice. If they stopped being such nobs, more people would see vegan choices as manageable and casual and acceptable, rather than a flippin cult.
In response to a bunch of “Men want a woman who…” posts I’ve seen lately, I’m just going to scream this one into the void…
- women want a man who doesn’t expect her to be a character in his story, but the lead in her own! -
I’m so exhausted.
@ask_aubry
If a family member expected me to audition food for a place on a menu, they’d be getting 0 from me. Add to that the male/female slant and I’d be refusing to participate quicker than you could say jingle bells.
I don’t lose friends often. Actually never. People grow distant and we lose touch, but never has it been outwardly said “I don’t want to be your friend anymore”, not since primary school anyway, until tonight.
I’m feeling bruised and confused. That’s 10 years of friendship lost.
The latest nerdy t-shirt, and boy, what a mood!
This is too accurate most of the time 😅
(For non-Skyrim fans, it’s when you’ve picked up too much loot and you’re going to have to drop some things if you want to get anywhere in life 😂 )
A very festive lunch, courtesy of my legendary agent, John Jarrold! Much talk of many things and a lovely time in general!
Also, a beer the size of my head, because I’m a classy bird 😄