I'm usually writing to music anyway tbh.
Author: Children of Time, Shadows of the Apt, Final Architecture, City of Last Chances and others. adriantchaikovsky.com
44,467 followers 5,609 following 8,223 posts
view profile on Bluesky
I'm usually writing to music anyway tbh.
The Kickstarter for Ersatz is LIVE! Consider supporting the production of a solo-animated indie pilot! When a nameless amnesiac wakes up in a bunker, they're immediately thrust into the trenches of an endless war. Trailer below đ
Honestly a lot of my work is "here's an appalling alien horrorshow that's still somehow better than what the humans are doing."
Mostly the whole thing. Always the world in depth, though with some selected books (Tyrant Philosophers series) I just do the world and characters and let the plot unravel as it will.
Hello #booksky! Today marks two years since we set up this account, so we have done our first starter pack! This is authors we know and have been to store, authors we read, authors we think should be included. To be added to as I notice who has been missed. go.bsky.app/JcSXPVv
Oo, deep cut :)
I do know that, and I've done it for proper nouns, or occasionally for usages that are so close to real worlds they keep getting autocorrected, but in this case it's characters speaking in a mangled vernacular all the time so there'd be far too many.
Youâre not far off.
New project started, one chapter done. Main first impression is this will be the one to break my spellchecker.
Chirp has all 3 of @aptshadow.bsky.socialâs Architects books for under $5 (audiobooks). www.chirpbooks.com/purchases/ne...
I mean I did the book about humans being pets of giant spiders, that's sort of the same thing.
All the best, hope they turn up soon.
I do think weâve got to the point where just having a âthe prophecy is wrong/evilâ twist is in itself becoming overused and doesnât constitute an interesting take any more.
Like everything, itâs how you use them. I feel, for most tropes that are historically overused you need a new and interesting take to avoid just adding a bucket of dull to your plot.
XD
You think theyâd fail?
Not specifically - but both relate to my pre-existing interests :)
(there are also Gangs of Permian New York, ice age criminals of Victorian London and 20th century dinosaurs at war)
As it's currently #invertefest I've unearthed some old art and I give you... the palaeozoic invertebrates of the revolution! Part of a sequence of historical/palaeofauna images I did a while back.
I kid you not, when Christmas comes around and this song starts playing, my mind always goes to this version.
Is it the same piece of fish? How long have you had it?
Aha! It's the novella this year, the novel next, for that series.
A boneless what� :)
Just in time for Labour Day, our list of stories depicting labour unions in science fiction and fantasy has reached 250 entries. Thanks to @joachimboaz.bsky.social for all the help on this. List as HTML: hugoclub.blogspot.com/2018/12/orga... List as Google Doc: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... 1/
Holiday book! Service Model is basically Post-Societal collapse Candide starring Kryten from Red Dwarf, desperately trying to find someone to make a cup of tea for. I love Tchaikovsky, and was especially delighted to see him write his in his comic register for a whole novel.
Thank you!
The accounts department though... blood everywhere...
Itâs weird cos the front string passes through the shaft of the bow so itâs specifically being kept out of the way of the bolt.
I donât know! Genuinely curious.
That makes sense. Was also wondering if it prevented the arms curling too far forward when unstrung, or as a foot rest to preserve the arms when bracing to draw back the string.
Do you know what the function of that second string is?
maybe try a different hat. That's probably the problem.
if scatterplot what would the other axis(axes?) be? I suspect you're right, but just trying to pin down the most salient other variable.
Still waiting for 17,997 of those waters.
Thanks! No concrete plans for a book 4 btw, though it's always possible.
It's a #bookreview for #BearHead by @aptshadow.bsky.social #LoveToRead #BookTube youtu.be/T-5czxVEUSk
This is a moth? It's... converged on mantis stance? Bizarre.
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 186: Always try to be aware of how much you're telling the reader. Is it enough? Is it too much? Are you feeding them just the right amount, or are you overwhelming them with unnecessary detail? If in doubt, just ask yourself: "Why do they need to know this?"
Are there any authors on here? They might want to take a look at this, and take action by Sunday: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
What the F?
âI have read over this so many times I canât tell if itâs bobbins or notâ - the author
Tyrant Philosophers series or Dogs of War. Some of my best :)
Your point with the Beatles (that they had already created fictional personas for themselves ) is an interesting one though presumably there canât be many examples like that.
Or like theyâre read out by William Shatner
The Avatars will continue until morale improves.
The Beano giving more incisive political coverage than any of the broadsheets there.
The over-explanation of a concept thatâs simultaneously obvious and not core to the story suggests AI writing âassistanceâ maybe?
Or maybe much earlier given fictionalised exploits of historical chivalric figures like Roland?
Maybe fantography to distinguish from simple alt-historical, given the focus on a revision/fictionalisation of a historical character. A tradition going back to the (unfortunate) Edisonades - @jessnevins.bsky.social ?
Fan-historical? Fantasiography?
Ideally you should think about foreshadowing around 2-3 weeks before writing your story.
Not happened yet! Still planned.
It gives the players more levers to get interesting results from rolls. I donât think it imposes a bigger rp burden on the gm - the fun stuff is all mechanical, unusually for a new game. The rp is like D&D - something you add on top.
Ran my first Daggerheart session yesterday. Proved relatively easy to GM (esp with one player whoâd played before) and a fun engaging system. Converted a D&D scenario I had lying around and that was easy too.
Fair :)
High praise, thank you!
Fascinating collection I have some work in too - came out of a top level brainstorming project about future tech and culture.
Fantastic cover.
The art within Sword of the Sea is beyond beautiful and impressive. It is nothing short of a tragedy Natalie is looking for work right now. Please share this and hire her ASAP.
At which point the AI techbro "should our autocorrect have rights" crowd will shut up about it and start insisting it's just an app.
Someone's surely done a dark nordic amphibian fantasy RPG called MĂśrk FrĂśg
Beautiful cover!
Cover reveal!!! Yes, at a time like this. My latest, at LGBTQ Reads! SONG OF SPORES coming from Broken Eye Books November 2025! Trans & intersex space opera! Total chaos! More! With cover art by Galen Dara: lgbtqreads.com/2025/08/11/e... Preorder here: www.brokeneyebooks.com/store/c62/So...
Cheers!
XD
âThe horror of never peeling your own grapes - why wealthy patricians were the real losers in Roman society.â
Runbot can F off :)
Oh man, *that* would be an interesting GSC unit/piece of lore.
Genuinely wonder if this existed as just a random time travel script and then some genius though "I know what will make this better: merge it with that Biggles script we've had lingering in the slush pile for a decade."
Perfect.
Surely the canonically accurate images would just be little pieces of heavily gnawed power armour?
Nosferantula.
Becky Chambers is good for optimism.
Sometimes feels that information management is 75% of writing :)
Honestly good advice for a number of reasons.
Not with my sense of direction.
Just finished listening to @aptshadow.bsky.social âs âShroud.â Let me put this in words youâll understand: Holy crap itâs good! (And the narrator, Sophie Aldred, is a treasure)
XD
Enjoy!
I keep trying but thereâs never anyone there to tell.
Dude I keep telling people Iâm not a vampire.
I mean you can, just not for very long.
A hundred miles in the US, youâre in another state; in Europe youâre in another country; in the UK youâre in the sea.
Ah - maybe that was what I played then.
A super-reactor? Is that what powers the mech suits in Pacific Rim?
Well OK but you also have to slap them across the face at the same time. Them's the rules.
So I played the original Endeavour a while ago and found it mechanically very good but thematically awkward. The Deep Sea version is an improvement both in replayability (scenarios and changing tile layout board) and in theme (not colonialism). I don't think I know Age of Sail.
I love that "in the area" for you is "opposite end of the country" for me.
I mean it sometimes seems every small European town has a board game named after it. There are a lot of them :)
Honestly I'm considering it myself.
The Sons of Adam are/were bioforms with a peculiar creed regarding the relationship of humans, bioforms and god. It definitely travelled to Mars and there's always a possibility that a Factory-style arrangement exists somewhere on Earth where it's still practised by Bioforms and humans.
I backed it, yes.
Weekend of intensive boardgaming done. Played: Exoworld Survival, Endeavour Deep Sea, Hunt for the RIng, Crypt. Similo and Deep Regrets (swiftly becoming a MVP in my collection).
See my Final Architecture series and Sea Watch in the Shadows of the Apt books. How many clam people do you want exactly? :)
Loving the @aptshadow.bsky.social and @emmanewman.bsky.social Starship Alexandria podcast. Most of the way through the John Wyndham The Kraken Wakes episode (a book I love) and itâs just so fun and well informed. A new favourite podcast.
Thanks!
I had the privilege to get an ALC of Spiderlight, written and narrated by @aptshadow.bsky.social, from #netgalley. The story and narration is EXCEPTIONAL, and I HIGHLY recommend everyone give it a listen. âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸ #booksky đŞđ app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/d2b7...
I think it may just be the first one (or it may depend on takeup).
This is really cool: @orbitbooks.bsky.social is publishing a special edition of @aptshadow.bsky.social's (fantastic) book Children of Time this fall! If you haven't read it, it's a really fun book about terraforming, evolution, and sentient spiders. Here are some details:
That would be cool!