It's appreciated - and likewise if you're ever in my end of London
Mum friend transitioning to mum. Recovering medievalist. Writer of gothic, fantasy and horror. Displaced northener. True foodie. Culinary Cenobite. Pigeon möther. Synth/BM gremlin. Writing at patreon.com/lhardingwrites and https://ko-fi.com/lawrenceharding
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It's appreciated - and likewise if you're ever in my end of London
Need a #WeekendRead? By The Blood is my pay-what-you-like vampire novella about a priest with a secret protecting a child with less of a secret than the world would think It's also open of the most personal things I've written - wrestling with my transness before I knew I was #booksky 📚💙
Now is a great time to look up from scribbling my WIP novel and realising there are *pretty strong* themes of parental abandoment and found family in it 🙃
Need a #WeekendRead? By The Blood is my pay-what-you-like vampire novella about a priest with a secret protecting a child with less of a secret than the world would think It's also open of the most personal things I've written - wrestling with my transness before I knew I was #booksky 📚💙
Beans on buttered toast 🫡 Beans on toast with black garlic powder on the butter 🫡🫡🫡 Beans on black-garlic-butter toast with dinosaur nuggets 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡
being trans is not a negative outcome and neither is being autistic
Oh, the wink was meant to be playful. I was just trying to be helpful, as not all people use mate that way and it can be taken as dismissive.
*sigh* that isn't what I said and you know it.
...so why are you getting upset at the Greens for working against Labour when Corbyn is doing exactly that?
The use of "mate" here isn't helping your case - not often used gender neutrally ;)
If anything I have too much to keep track of, but that also means I get to keep rediscovering it by putting my library on shuffle occasionally.
Subscribing was probably one of my best decisions
Honestly at the moment I get all my black metal from explicitly anti-fascist channels like Fiadh just to cut down the risk
All I want is a silly little book I can fit in a jacket pocket or handbag, thank you
As a trans person (and it's notable that you're ignoring replies from people with trans flags in their handle btw), yes. Yes they are.
becoming a bit of a pet complaint at this stage but I'd love to see a study that shows that British readers actually prefer a massive chunky book, because I love a little paperback so much I can't imagine everyone else loving these huge editions
1) Labour are in power 2) Labour are continuing or intensifying the worst Tory policies So who else should a left-wing opposition party attack?
Fucking biting. Someone says it. Incredible, no notes
Welp, now my mum's upset at me too for not feeling comfortable visiting, way to confirm my lifelong crippling feeling that all my family's love was contingent on convenience I guess
The signs all point to it still being Bandcamp Friday for a few more hours, which means it's a great time to pick up my latest album of melodic, wintery dungeon synth! lunarcult.bandcamp.com/album/the-bl...
Apologies to my patrons for the jumpscare www.patreon.com/posts/consum...
Still kind of reeling from someone's feelings for a children's book series and a sitcom winning out over, you know, being my actual twin
My family is *very* white and sheltered and have never had to Think about anything So the lefty vegan trans daughter has been something of a shock to the system I guess.
That's what I wish I'd said instead of snapping but here we are
Basically this yeah
"Doesn't it get exhausting finding reasons to hate things you loved growing up?" No, that isn't the exhausting thing.
After I came out he called me drunk to say he'd always have my back and would fight anyone who caused me trouble. Guess that was just the vodka, eh?
Given he responded with "but aren't JK Rowling's concerns reasonable?" I don't think I'm going home for Christmas this year.
I guess he wasn't expecting a rant about the shitty situation trans people are in when he messaged me with a TV recc, but he has to hear it eventually.
"Mitchell and Webb are on Channel 4 tonight!" That's nice, Robert Webb has been a tad anti-trans in the past and I suspect David Mitchell is just better at hiding it.
None of my family are very good at asking how I am, but they ARE very good at communicating in pop culture references. Sadly UK pop culture is a rancid pit of transphobia.
My brother seldom talks to me and has no idea about anything outside his immediate sphere of very cis male knowledge, and every time he does it's to share something we used to enjoy that he hasn't realised is made by shits who turned out to be transphobic 😭
The EHRC Code will devastate trans people's lives. This is an emergency. Here are three ways to fight back. Take action now: www.transsolidarityalliance.com/ehrc-code
If you're an adult and have yet to learn that everyone is just as deserving of the same rights, dignity and freedom as you are, then congratulations, you've completely failed at what it means to be human.
Sometimes work gets so stressful all you can do is put a plushy triceratops in their Matilda From Robot Wars costume and stare at them.
It's a wee little light in darkness. Also my old GP was considered *amazing* by my clinic for agreeing to prescribe me hormones, so I'm pleasantly surprised to have found an even better one.
self-love, self-transformation 🧵
Bumps for the Bandcamp Friday god
My new GP not only agreed to keep prescribing my feminising hormones, but is also willing to do blood tests for my gender clinic so I don't need to pay £200 a pop for private blood tests any more.
Thanks, Gabino! bsky.app/profile/auth...
Thanks Gabino! The ebook for The Unkillable Frank Lightning has been reduced to $7.99. Please check it out and help spread the word!! For fans of Frankenstein, black magic, broken characters, and bloody murder. www.amazon.com/Unkillable-F...
Happy Friday Gabino! What Saints Fear is a dark fantasy monastic collection, with a novella and two stories, featuring clerics falling foul of the darker side of their faith, and very literal relic cults
It’s #FridayReads time! Let’s boost all signals. Repost this and let us know what to repost for you. Ebook sale ends today, so giveaway time! Get the House ebook anywhere, send me proof, and you’re in! Giving away a signed copy of TEOTWAWKI. Picking a winner at 10pm. www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CP...
Thank you, Jeremy! My debut collection has been called "a wonderful amalgamation of pulpy fun" by @johnboden.bsky.social. It's an eclectic mix of classic horror (monsters, mythos, etc.) and more gruesome body horror (parasites, weird physical transformations). journalstone.com/bookstore/ev...
Burn Up in Victory is my latest, it's a ROMANTASY (heavy on the swords, but still with kissing) I was just explaining to my coworker that it's been less than 2 months but it's old already
Life stuff has really got in the way of my radio plans recently so not a lot of recs from me today. If you buy one thing this Bandcamp Friday, please consider The Burden of I aliciacordisco.bandcamp.com/album/the-bu...
Update: is good. Is very good.
This is the most important piece of art in the world to me. Transfemme version of “Coming Out” by Cammie Sturch, with accompanying text from “Énoument” by Samantha Richardson.
Do you like gothic fiction? Architectural horror? Weird families? Capybaras? Check out my Shirley Jackson Award-nominated book The Atrocities. us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
Thanks Jeremy! I have several collections of horror and fantasy available on my Ko-Fi shop, but my most recent release is a collection of naval and polar horror. The title story, Of Castaways and Castasides, is based on a true story of shipwrecked sealers who suffered a fate that still haunts me.
Writers and artists: if you're interested, post a link to your stuff! And if you'd like, let us know a bit about your work. Everyone: let's spread the word and check out these creations and support some creators.
Wouldn't solve the problem of him getting cultural capital and a cloak of respectability for his unhinged views, alas
With Glinner and JKR, when you tell me you separate the art from the artist, you're really telling me you prioritise your comfort over my safety. So fuck you
It's #BandcampFriday, and I have dungeon synth if you have coin (or even if you don't, loads of my releases are free to download). £1 for most albums, or all 14 releases for £3.60! lunarcult.bandcamp.com/music
Honestly, every year now I find excuses not to spend Christmas with my reasonably supportive family. Partly because they keep forgetting I'm vegan. Mostly because the Father Ted Christmas Special is still Obligatory Viewing to them and they don't understand why I leave the room upset.
The longer Father Ted/Harry Potter etc have cultural capital, the less likely my life is to ever be safe. And I will not trust you nearly as much if you still openly enjoy the media.
When people talk about separating the art from the artist, look at the way Graham Linehan is exclusively described as "Father Ted creator" in the media. Why? So people sympathise with him, so transphobia is laundered and physically assaulting trans people like me becomes acceptable.
Got this from my Fiadh subscription today and I am eagerly awaiting it's place in the queue
It is BANDCAMP FRIDAY! A perfect opportunity to pick up our music! Full length album: The Elden Ring inspired "Faded Gold" - ashenheart.bandcamp.com/album/faded-gold EP: Four original tales of dark fantasy: "Tales From Eternal Dusk" - ashenheart.bandcamp.com/album/tales-from-eternal-dusk #Metalsky
and i can’t stress this enough - he spams photos of post-surgery topless teenagers (without any consent) at people he’s arguing at as part of his moral crusade. i don’t understand how he’s not been hit by revenge porn or other charges for that.
Just two small birds, the Hummingbird had a feeder to itself and the juvenile House Finch was checking out the one with birdseed. He liked seeds and proudly carried one back to the shepherd's hook. 🪶
Mothman wants you to read The Atrocities. us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
The more I listen to Round the Horne, the more it occurs to me that David Williams has built a career on trying to be Kenneth Williams, but The League of Gentlemen, without ever understanding what makes either of them work.
It's why social media's ruined as much as it's helped, we basically elevate and destroy works based on if the creator is Good At Posting as well as not being a piece of shit and being competent in their field.
That said, I increasingly feel like I've dodged a bullet (I have now found the latest F&SF news 😬)
I was ghosted by them for a similar amount of time until I pulled the story and self-published it last year. It sucks, I'm sorry it happened to you too.
🎹ARE YOU A DUNGEON SYNTH MUSICIAN?💻 🎶WOULD YOU LIKE MORE PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR DUNGEON SYNTH MUSIC?🎵 If "Yes" to both, DM us for details asap.
Funny thing is TERFs tried to claim T Rex emojis because David Lammy called them dinosaurs. Bet he wouldn't say that now. The coward.
With Glinner back in the news I can't help remembering the time my partner joked about TERFs trying to appropriate dinosaurs by making a pro-trans protest with their cuddly pterosaur they'd had since ~1 day old TERFSs cyberbullied a cuddly pterosaur for days This is the brainrot we're dealing with
Glinner once posted about me indirectly and within an hour or so his followers were posting pictures of me and speculating as to whether I "looked female" or not. Basically every trans person or ally I know has a story like this. He does nothing but post and mobilise hatred.
I have several horror collections in my Ko-Fi shop - the Fiends & Phantoms trilogy and the Of Castaways & Castasides Naval/Polar horror collection
Do you have a favourite short horror story collection or anthology that you’ve read? Have you written one yourself? If so, let me know. Thanks in advance. 😀
Featuring: Old Habits Die Hard 12000 words of dark monastic fantasy, in which Brother Statius must steal relics from his former brethren and save his saint. Featuring: - heists - monks - demons - demon monks - relic cults - battle trauma #booksky 📚💙
Another (sorta) little guy! The prompt was "prehistoric fantasy." I think I succeeded in capturing that.
Absolutely this. A friend transitioned 30+ years ago. Our circle was puzzled, uncertain, ill informed, but without today's toxic attitudes in the media, most supported our friend because this wasn't about us. We soon realised what made us friends was unchanged, and they were right about their gender
When I lived in Cambridge, the algorithm was convinced I was in Southport, for no reason. Now I'm in Tottenham, and it's decided I'm in Cambridge at last.
Did you know that I have a Ko-Fi Shop? Where you can buy all my self-published collections, novelettes and novellas? Well, now you do! Horror short stories, dark fantasies, medieval shenanigans and more! #booksky 📚💙
So fucking easy it is to get media traction for being transphobic. Unemployed Irish comedy writer gets a profile in the Guardian for his transphobia. Queer media does "here's JKR's response to former directors disavowal of her politics" while trans people who do anything fight for space on the page
I never do this, but you can find me at Bookruptcy.com. I have nothing to sell that profits me anything at the moment, but I'd be pleased as punch if you read my novelette 'Lucid Interval' in Qualia Nous vol 2. #horrorwriterschat
Thanks for hosting, I adored the questions! If folk horror, feminine rage, or a descent into madness interests you, check out The Price of Peace. A Witch's errand is in there, too, which is a lighter paranormal historical, + a preview of my upcoming horror novella senkaheksum.carrd.co#pub
I was also at a conference about him recently where I realised he had a very similar approach to me in scholarship, back when I was a PhD, so I feel a special kinship with the crotchety old sod
Awesome questions, Eryn! We've talked historical horror a lot tonight, and I've mentioned M.R. James and Charles Dickens. These titles are inspired by these great ghost story writers. bsky.app/profile/chao...
Thanks Eryn! #HorrorWritersChat, in the mood for some Victorian horror this spooky season? Then you'll love "The Pure World Comes," about a maid who goes to work for a mad scientist. Available in paperback, ebook and audio book. www.amazon.com/Pure-World-C... #HorrorSky #BookSky
Thanks Eryn, and sorry for being late! Having talked about MR James and what we'd write together I think it's only fair I share a link to a collection we might well have written together... in spirit #HorrorWritersChat
That said, if he was my doppelganger in a literal sense, MR James turning out to be a trans woman would be very amusing to me
MR James and I would probably get some properly creepy stories about medieval manuscripts out there interspersed with all the academic articles about monks I never got to write. He'd probably argue with me a lot too. He'd probably also hate me. #HorrorWritersChat
#HorrorWritersChat Time travel in and of itself can be horrific. The amount of diseases and issues that you can encounter just by going back fifty years. Alternately, the diseases you can *cause*. Existential dread. Being so insignificant that your actions don't matter. I could go on.
Birds of a feather? 😛
Not being able to communicate - not just in terms of language, but mores and cultural references. It would be so hard to fit in and navigate society. You would be fucked over by this. #HorrorWritersChat
I tend to gravitate to the 18th and 19th centuries. So many men of leisure to show the awful truth of themselves to, so little time... #HorrorWritersChat
Evening #HorrorWritersChat! I'm a bit late, but I'm Lawrence (she/her) in London, and I am basically MR James (also a nerdy medievalist theologian who likes doing nasty things to Victorian men who should know better)
MERCH ALERT - I’ve finally decided to have my first ever batch of shirts made. These will go on sale this Friday 9/3 at 10am ET. All proceeds from these shirt sales will be donated to The Palestinian Red Crescent Society to help aid the victims of the horrendous ongoing genocide in Gaza.
I just think you can't claim that Glinner's explicit threats don't deserve police action mere weeks after mass arresting people for silently holding up signs protesting a genocide. It's got to be one or the other.
Of Castaways & Castasides: Tales of Ships & Shipwreck 10 tales of nautical and polar horror, including: - cursed sea shanties - mutinous smugglers with poor timing - sandbars with a taste for blood - towns trapped by invisible waves - over helpful merfolk And more... #booksky 📚💙
Fiends & Phantoms 3 is a haunting journey through twisted faith and dark desires. Each tale dances with shadows, pulling you into a world where the sacred meets the sinister. It left me pondering the fragile line between belief and madness. #
Fiends & Phantoms 3 Gothic and horror tales of religion gone wrong - vampire priests - Frankensteined saints - an ill-advised ladder to Heaven - tormented monks - an even more tormented priest, pursued by the owner of his precious relic... #booksky 📚💙
Fiends & Phantoms 2 More horror for fans of Victorian Weird - fey porridge-makers - haunted Gospel Books - mad-scientist sculptors - an antiquarian with a mysterious guest #booksky 📚💙
Fiends & Phantoms 6 tales of horror for fans of M R James and E F Benson Featuring: - academics delving too deep into the dark - folk horror slug gods in the Bavarian hills - vengeful saints - Judiciary Mediums with regrets - ironic fates for bodysnatchers #booksky 📚💙
If I'm not already in one of these can I be?
By the Blood Ursula's new governor, the mysterious Fr Marcellus, must defend her from accusations of vampirism. He knows they're false. He should know - he's a vampire himself. But the stakes soon rise when the undead also take interest in Ursula. 💙📚 #booksky ko-fi.com/s/6793e39b5b