Does I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! reclaim the idea of pulp for a queer audience, centre masculinities in a new light, and take the reader on a damn fun ride?
British Fantasy Award winning author. 🏳️🌈 The Ben Garston Novels. The Book of Queer Saints. The Dark magazine. New collection 'Preaching to the Perverted' Out Now! www.lethepressbooks.com 'Inventive and vivid' Publishers Weekly
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Does I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! reclaim the idea of pulp for a queer audience, centre masculinities in a new light, and take the reader on a damn fun ride?
Again, there was absolutely no need to take an evil decision, and yet this UK Government took an evil decision. It's just an evil government, I'm sorry, it's an evil government that has declared war on the LGBT community - my community - and I've never despised a government more than I do this one.
Peak tone-deafness with a side order of far right pandering. There hasn't been a single thing since Brexit to make me regret leaving the country. Not one.
I'll whip your ruby Scotch bum!
And yet I'm still here in your house.
That's exactly the intention. It's also why the right-wing media platformed Farage pre-Brexit. Brexit was the sound of the stable door slamming and all the ppl have now for choice are varying flavours of the right wing. It's also why over a million UK citizens left.
Yet here you are using two consecutive "thats" in a sentence.
Rectangle?
In the part two weeks, we've taken a lot of junk to the dump. Sold some equipment - enough to reassure my Mum that she *can* sell them. Fixed up the house a bit. Healed a 10 year rift and given comfort where I can. It's been both positive and exhausting. Feel bad for leaving. But life.
Really? Looks it.
"Or is it?"
Nope.
And that was a corpse! Now here's Mandy with the weather.
This morning, I have swept out a flooded garage (again), identified the problem in a drainpipe blocked by pine needles, unclogged that, dug a fresh channel and lain a pipe.
Feel better soon, Shona.
Speaking of Spain, the time has come to make my way home. I miss it and I need to get back to my own life.
Worth a shot?
Today is my eighth anniversary of living in Spain, a day I will always mark. 'Hay oro, y es inquietante e inquietante; Me atrae como antaño; Pero no es el oro lo que quiero Tanto como encontrar el oro.' 🇪🇸💙🏳️🌈 #España
To separate the artist from the art is a privilege. But you can't rightly claim "allyship" if you buy books by living authors who are actively funding oppression and hate against LGBTQ+ ppl. I'm afraid you have to choose a side. 🏳️⚧️💙🏳️🌈
In among research, I'm still reading "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Le Guin, which I tend to re-read every 5 years. The illustrations by Charles Vess give it a whole new dimension. Such a beautiful edition.
Most bigots are cis het. They are not closeted gay or trans people. They are cis het. Stop blaming queer people for their own oppression. And stop making me have to keep repeating this.
Happy birthday! 🎉 Oh, you don't have to prepare gifts and cake for me on this special day. Tomorrow will suffice.
It all seemed rather forced.
Not to mention the novel itself. They've taken their ball home so many times, they live in a ball pool.
Science fiction died.
Gah! Tbh making the endless effigies has also become a chore.
Same energy.
No, science fiction this time. Horror is "elevated". We are going to parade you to the edge of a volcano covered in gold.
The hubris of declaring an entire genre dead. The presumption that one has the authority to do so. The denial of anything that doesn't exclude all others to centre oneself. The absolute tired, tedious, narrowminded joke of it all.
A matter of time isn't soon enough.
Disappointing.
Had a wee walk around the village and made a friend this fine Saturday afternoon. 🇫🇷 #Provence
They laid the concrete too soon.
Nope. I thought the mezi tasted a bit weird.
Lol it's pretty bohemian down here.
This evening Mother and I are inadvertently high because her upmarket hippie friend spiked our lunch. 🙄
Yes! It starts well. But it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, even by its own standards.
Ugh. Switched off immediately.
"Unfortunately, he is real and he is Jon Oliver."
Maybe you only think you need sleep. It's Gaslight!
Do I sound best placed for that?
So... no need to wake you up when September ends then?
One day, I'll take the £50 I've gained from my writing "career" and retire under a bridge somewhere. But it will be a nice bridge. By the coast. And in a country that is neither obsessed with nor led by xenophobia and hate. 📚💙
Longevity is something I'm thankful for. I've been in print for 18 years now. Some things have hit bigger than others. I've seen a lot of fads come and go. I've seen the whole industry change (for the better). I'm still here and I still get work out there. That means a lot, so thank you! 🏳️🌈📚💙
The trad books are still out there. I still get occasional reviews and feedback even 9 years after publication. In this, I'm quite old fashioned. I like the fact that readers don't have to know a thing about me or care to pick up my books. 🤷♂️
I love the creative freedom and quick turnaround of indie publishing. But the reality is that a marketing budget and footfall account for a LOT in my experience, and that's why I'm still pursuing the shiny golden carrot of trad publishing. Mostly, I just love writing.
Thank you to everyone who picked up a copy of my latest collection. Pickup by reviewers was minimal. It wasn't mentioned anywhere during Pride. But it does feature a British Fantasy Award winning story and has been shortlisted this year for Best Collection. TY! 🏳️🌈📚💙 www.amazon.com/Preaching-Pe...
The things that break you. After years apart following a disagreement, I walked into my Mum's house and found all of my books on her bookshelf. I did not expect that. 💙
I appreciate the ethereal yet lucid nature of your work.
Mum: Is it too early for gin? Me:
It's OK. It's clear now. But these items hold precious memories for my Mum and it became rather emotionally fraught. Stuff is selling. I'm often asserting that what's really of value aren't *things* But yeah. Hard.
Spent a sweaty, dirty week sorting out my late Stepdad's effects in the garage for sale. Last night we had a massive storm, so I've spent the afternoon bailing it out and salvaging machinery. This is hard.
Sounding it out. Preparing the way. Same as they did with Brexit. It's a signal.
"So what do you think about body horror?"
I'm no political pundit. Nine years ago, I proposed guillotines on Parliament Green, but nobody listens to me. 🤷♂️
Hags, porridge and now apples.
The fact that the UK media is even discussing Toadface Farage as PM is an alarm bell. There he is, condemning Brexit and the boats, a political "disaster" [his words] in which Toadface played a huge part in bringing about. #Grift
OK, Goldilocks. Is it it breaking and entering season too?
The Nazis wear smiles these days. Slowly but surely, talk of a fascist PM, mass deportations and concentration camps have become framed as "political discourse". Following Brexit, France has no obligation to stop the boats and so the EU gets blamed. It's all strategy. The long game. A coup.
"Why is Toadface Farage given so much airtime?" Well, because the UK media is controlled by only 3 right-wing corporations and a Tory-controlled BBC. Brexit afforded them even greater power and fascists don't cleave to democracy when you vote them in. That was the argument at the time.
Rude. I prefer "crone".
Big storm here last night. Big storm this morning. Quite thrilling apart from the large golden retriever that keeps trying to sit on my head. 🐶
Yup. I've filed.
My body is a template.
My Mum got an email in France this morning to inform her of this idiocy.
By insisting that Brexit is a roaring success for the past 8 years, the UK Government has painted itself into a corner. Nigel Farage, a grifting bigot who hugely influenced the Leave vote, can now call Brexit a "disaster" and put himself on the road to Number 10. What a joke.
Morning boop!
💯
Just go with the pyroclastic flow.
Taylor Swift, known for her coded messages to fans, releases her new album on my birthday.
Sure, you get right wing gays. You get bigoted gays. You get nazi gays. That's because gays are just ppl (as we've been saying since forever). And whatever an individual's personal views, airing yours against *an entire minority* based on that is still homophobic. TY
Publishers Weekly gave a shout-out for my story in an upcoming anthology (Nov). Which is nice. More news as we have it. 🎭📚💙
The pub?
I like the days that involve big French castles.
And the garnish is piss.
"Like a fool". Yup.
A cruel and unusual punishment.
Here's the problem - the right make up a story and the media plaster it everywhere. The left tell a true story and the media ignore it. The right hasn't actually 'hijacked' anything. The right have been given an open door while the left - the majority - are barricaded away.
One of the most pressing issues that a reformed Britain must tackle is the media. It's hugely responsible for Brexit and everything after. But the hope of getting to a place of reformation where that can happen seems faint.
Floof!
Sorry. Misread you.
I also think it's a poor approach to reading, only wanting to read books by ppl like you about ppl like you. But the general idea is to advance the idea that cishet white men are the best at everything, because then it tacitly means those sharing such lists.
Sure. I know it sucks. But it's still encouraging.
I fucking hate it and resolve to not listen to another word they say, the thoughtless chuds.
Grief is a teacher too. Not a kind one, but it's painfully clear that my losses in the past 10 years have prepared me to support someone in this situation, even while somewhat out of my depth. I'm told I've changed. Not a criticism. We're doing OK, I think. Thanks. 💙
Getting a request for a full is encouraging. It doesn't happen too often.
Maybe. For me, it's more a case of living through 4 decades of oppression and systemic exclusion that most ppl were perfectly fine with until it was no longer deemed "cool" to do so. Now they cry, "resist!" and bang on about how great this towering transphobe is. 🤷♂️
Spot on. One only has to look at the preceding decades of oppression to realise that many in the privileged majority only dislike fascism when they can no longer ignore it. Newsom is a case in point.
Oof. I had a year of that once and eventually quit my job and ran away to Wales. Day sleep can be tough.
Thank you. 💙
She keeps blaming herself for stuff that was entirely out of her control. If anything, I keep assuring her of that. But it's difficult when you've just moved into your dream home in the middle of nowhere and you lose your husband. I don't have any contrast to draw on. Kind of floundering at times.
Staying on here another week. Everything seems fine - a pleasant holiday catching up - and then my Mum completely falls apart. It's rather difficult, but I'm doing my best. Grief sucks. ☹️
It is always fear of rejection day.
Alas, Man™️ is an anagram of his name.
Golden hour.
Or Stuporman, which I just noticed haha
The dog was overdone, I thought. It's a frenetic film which for the most part I enjoyed (but didn't love). The all-embracing message is somewhat undermined by the chauvinism on display and the community it excludes. Still not *my* Superman, I'm afraid.
It's OK. I got you.
Not as yet. I've read "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "Steering the Craft" though.