Author: terribleminds (page 30 of 466)

I went to a small liberal arts college that was around 70% women — it was one fraternity and, if I recall, four or five sororities. It was a nice school, emphasis on nice. Parties were never huge. It was pleasant, if not always entirely exciting.

Then, one day, I was invited to a party at a Big University. This one, at PITT. So, I went to this party, and my first image of that party was that, outside on the sidewalk, there was a couch. And that couch was on fire. Not a raging fire, I think just the arm? But it was on fire.

The party would escalate from there. There was a dog fight on the front porch (not the kind you bet on, but the kind where two people brought dogs and they got into a fight). A meth dealer wandered in at one point. (He was, if I recall, quite friendly.) There was a lot of drinking and throwing up. Hallucinogens were at play. It was a blast. It was also the kind of party where you think, pretty constantly, “This could get fucked up kinda fast.” Like, it was already on an edge, teetering like a car on a rock at the lip of a cliff. One person gets in or out of the car and the whole thing is going over.

Related: yesterday I joined the Newest Social Media Network, Bluesky.

(No, I don’t have an invite code for you. I’ve no idea how to get one.)

Bluesky — which should really be BlueSky, because otherwise it reads like “blooski” — is almost exactly Twitter. Which makes sense, because it was ushered into existence by Jack Dorsey who, y’know, ran Twitter. It looks like Twitter. It acts like Twitter. It vibes like Twitter. More specifically, it vibes like Twitter from the early days of 2008. It has a wild, feral-cat aura about it. It’s shitposter central, right now: memelords rule the wasteland, and honestly, it’s a lot of fun. It has an energy that the other social media replacements haven’t really manifested yet.

And yet, it’s a lot like that party. Or put differently, it’s like a Philly sports game. We’re all having fun and the team is winning and woooooo. But the energy in the air is weird, and at any point people might start flipping cars or throwing batteries at Santa Claus. The hunger for people to dunk on is tightening everyone’s jaws. (Heidi Moore posted a good thread about the vibe here. As one user said: “too many predators in the ecosystem. where are the deer.” And yes, ironically, that thread is on Twitter. Sue me.) It doesn’t take much to turn shitposts into something else, something worse.

Pretty fast you can see that the biggest downside to the place is that there is…

No way to block people.

I just want to say that again:

You cannot block other users.

You can mute them.

But they can see you.

You cannot block other users.

This, to me, is a bedrock basic-ass social media necessity. There is no safety in a place where you cannot block other users. You can be harassed, stalked, threatened, and so forth, because there is no block and, far as I can tell, minimal moderation. I understand there are reasons for this, I guess, in terms of how the coding happened (the service will be diffuse and decentralized, more like Mastodon)? And it’s reportedly coming, the ability to block other users. But for me, blocking as a functionality should be a day one priority. It’s like designing a sports car without any windshield. Without it, you’re eating bugs and dust.

Also, the current name for posts over there is “skeets.”

As in, I skeeted on the blooski? Eeennh. Hmm. Okay. Skeets is funny. It’s hilarious. And no serious platform will ever survive calling them that. I may be wrong (and part of me very much hopes I am wrong) but I just don’t see a celebrity saying seriously about how you can find them skeeting on the blooski. A newscaster, “The shooting suspect skeeted violent images on his blooski…”

Then again, stranger things have happened.

So for me part of the question is always, how valuable is this for writers? As yet, not very — there’s not much Writer Community happening there, nor do I see a lot of promotion. Or news or serious talk of any kind. It’s honestly mostly shitposters. (A fascinating choice to have opened the platform up to that before, say, more serious journalists or celebrities. Probably smart? Also weird?) But I also figure it could become something. If they open the gates wide on this there’s very little stopping it from becoming The New Twitter, in the sense that it is mostly The Old Twitter, just without Elon Musk. (This is not an endorsement of Jack, to be clear, only that he, unlike Musk, is not likely sitting there at his computer with his pants unbuttoned, fondling himself as he talks to someone named Cat Turd on His Big Boy Platform.) It feels like, once they start… you know, making Bluesky a safer place, it could go big.

Then again, it will just as likely belly flop into pig shit, as most of the other platforms have. I mean, on the one hand, we’re all just looking for Next Twitter. On the other hand, Twitter wasn’t that fucking great before, so to replace it with… itself? Well, that’s also not ideal. (And there’s a thread about Bluesky’s terms of service being pretty problematic for content creators, but I also find that panic about terms of service is often quite easy, and further, the creators have said they’re going to work on it. Even still, keep your eyes open and remain generally wary. No social media platform is your friend.)

How are those other platforms doing, by the way? A quick rundown from me, from my POV, anyway —

Twitter is a front row seat to the apocalypse. It is the Champagne of Doomscrollers. But the fun is nearly dead. Musk fucked it all up, and it wasn’t even that great before. Engagement is also extra-fucked. Tweets are erratic in if they’re even seen at all. It’s not awesome. It is the walking dead.

Facebook is, well, who fucking cares. It is only a walled garden for me.

Tumblr, I dunno, I don’t yet use it much, but I know Chuck Tingle was just saying he still digs it over there, and for writers, seems like there’s meaningful value.

Post is boring. Are people even on Post still? Did I dream Post? Was it real?

Hive is — well, I dunno. I haven’t checked, which probably tells you how Hive is doing. I really liked it before the wheels came off. Not sure it can come back. I wouldn’t hate if it did. I liked it, in theory. It had just enough to feel like it was different from Twitter while still vibing like Twitter.

Mastodon — honestly, I still like it. It’s like an oaty bran cereal. I think I want something more exciting but inevitably I return to it. No algorithm, and despite that, still good engagement, lots of chatter and conversation.

Spoutible is real quiet. Maybe just down to the communities I follow bailed on it. But they did. And now it’s quiet. Most of my timeline comprises retweets, er, reskeets, er, respouts from like, one or two people.

Instagram is part of Facebook and so it is by its nature, awful, but I can’t lie, I still like it, and use it, and have a generally good time there.

TikTok is probably great, readers love it, writers seem to like it, I remain off it lest I destroy it with my cringe. I have thought about migrating Heirloom Apple Reviews there, but not sure the juice would be worth the squeeze.

And finally, why am I even talking about this at all? Why does it matter? It may not. But social media for a long time has been one of the ways writers and artists connect in part with their audience and doubly so with their communities. And publishers have shoved a lot of our collective eggs into those baskets, so when Twitter really shits the bed, we need to find alternatives. We were kicked out of the plane without a parachute, and we either need to figure out how to build one while falling, or somehow dive into another fucking plane.

Otherwise, we’re gonna pancake into viscera when we hit the ground.

So. Those are my thoughts. Very personal, YMMV, you likely have very different views of this stuff, and that’s entirely fine.

Okay bye.

No.

…

Wait, you want more than that?

Umm, how about, “fuck no?”

…

Shit no? Hell no? Oh god no, and why the absolute crap would you bother?

Okay, that’s not helpful.

In case you’ve been hiding under a social media rock (which would actually be very wise)… Twitter finally, after what felt like decades of threats, removed the old-school Verified Blue Checks (which were actually white, btw) from us Fancy Verified Blue Check People. They did so on what seemed to be the basis that those with such checkmarks were corrupt corps d’élite who had — I guess? — bullied their way into the limitless power that the Blue Check afforded. This was of course nonsense; verification was literally what it said it was, a badge verifying that the person you were talking to was the person they said they were. That’s not to say Twitter didn’t fuck that all up before Musk Melon came along. They did, in that they were erratic about who got them, how you got one, and so forth. It wasn’t a corrupt system, but it was certainly an inept one.

Orlon Husk then instituted some kind of pay-for-play verification badge that… provided dubious benefits? It gave you algorithmic value, supposedly, though some people have suggested it didn’t really do anything. It was supposed to give you priority too in what might’ve been the FYP, but again, not sure that actually happened. Is there an edit button? And “long” book-length tweets? I guess. Whatever. Point was, it’s eight bucks a month, which is to say, the cost of some streaming services. On the one hand, you could pay that amount to consume content from NBC. On the other hand, you could pay that amount to be content. Which is what Musk seems to gravely misunderstand about the platform: it is made of people. It is not of value by itself. It is only of value when people are on it, and if people have to pay to be on it, then its value shifts — the value becomes access to all the people, but that only works if all the people pay for it.

It’s a huge gamble based on a very bad understanding of social media. In part because it is the contributions to that social platform in the form of content that provide value — it’s not the dollars, it’s the sense.

The other irony is, the blue check was valuable because it (ostensibly, falsely) marked you as the aforementioned elite — but if anybody can pay for it, and the people who got it before are now getting them taken away, elite isn’t elite anymore. You’re not the band, you’re just wearing the t-shirt.

Twitter was able to for free attract huge celebrities to its platform and for free have those people provide for free content to that platform. That cannot be understated — authors, actors, politicians, journalists, all part of the feed, heaving up free content on behalf of the feed.

And now, Musk wants to charge them for the privilege.

Which, okay, whatever. The notion here is, I guess, “they aren’t special, they’re just like everybody else,” except of course now Musk is paying for the blue checks of some celebrities anyway in the hopes you’re convinced that Stephen King and LeBron James are paying for theirs. (And they aren’t.)

It’s all very goofy.

So, should you pay for one?

Well, obviously, that’s up to you, but why would you?

Let’s unpack the reasons you shouldn’t.

First, Twitter fucking sucks right now. It wasn’t amazing before? For real, it’s been getting wonky for years. But now, the wheels are rattling off the thing, and it’s turned into a Nazi Bar. It’s not great. Nobody’s having much fun. It’s mostly just doom and weird ads running on an infomercial scroll. It’s buggy and inconsistent. Musk gets priority. Weirdos show in your feed. It’s ass. It’s a boat that may not be sinking, exactly, but it’s taking on water and there’s norovirus in every corner, so being on that boat for free is already a dubious proposition. Paying for it feels like hitting yourself in the nuts with a wrench.

Second, I’m not sure Twitter Blue is even helping anybody. Knowing a few folks who experimented with it, it didn’t seem to provide much value. Engagement is still throttled, and even if it’s boosted, it’s boosted into the existing dumpster fire that is Twitter. It’s like buying billboard advertising space in the middle of the apocalypse. You’re not getting a deal.

Which is to say —

Ennnh I really don’t want to judge the Twitter Blue folks but I’m gonna judge you a little bit. And so is everyone else. There’s a stink on it. Some people will think you’re a Musk Fanboy or a Nazi, which, hey, I understand probably isn’t the case. But in the probably best case scenario, they’re going to think you’re a bit of a chump for kicking in to help fund Musk’s Ongoing Embarrassment Parade. It seems like a bad idea and so, paying in feels like a chump move.

Further, and arguably more important than the optics, are the ethics. Is it… good to fund this? Musk is currently shepherding a platform that is becoming even more hostile to trans people and to other marginalized communities. He’s taking personal requests from the worst people, some of whom apparently are named after pet feces. He’s inviting Literal Actual Nazis back in, letting them have blue checks, letting them advertise right into your feed. Hate speech is up — way, way up, in fact. I’m not suggesting this means you should abandon the platform — more on that in a moment — but it certainly feels a little weird to give them money to continue doing this.

Listen, there’s definitely no ethical consumption under capitalism. You are inevitably giving money to awful people and helping to make the world worse when you spend money. You put gas in your car, you buy plastic bottles, whatever. Anybody who watched The Good Place (which you should do, if you have not) gets the sentiment: the point system is rigged and our actions have endless unseen consequences. We buy a Nestle Crunch on Tuesday, and a megadrought ravages California on Thursday.

That said —

There are also foreseen consequences, the kind where you just give money to an awful person to allow them to promote more awfulness. It’s the JKR problem — sure, you may really love Harry Potter, you’re Team Hufflenuts or whatever, but the money you give to her is going into her pocket, then out of her pocket, and potentially into helping boost or even fund anti-trans voices and efforts.

No, we cannot With Individual Actions save the world, but one might argue we also can at least withhold those Individual Actions from making things worse.

Is this that? Does contributing to Twitter Blue make the world worse? I don’t know. I certainly think it elevates Musk and his profile and helps him make a little hay off a platform he’s actively shitting up. I think it rewards that behavior. I’d personally not feel comfortable giving him that money, just as I’d suggest you should not give money to JKR. But your mileage may of course vary, and maybe for you Twitter Blue is a survivability factor. Maybe you think you need it to stay relevant and be seen. I’d argue it won’t help as much as you think it will, and I’d also suggest that the vibe around the blue check now is that it’s going to create visible stink vapors around those who use it — but maybe it won’t.

For my mileage, I’m not paying for it.

I’d say I won’t judge you for paying for it, but let’s be real, it doesn’t matter. Someone is going to judge you for it, for better or for worse.

Also, eight bucks a month could buy you ice cream, or you could give it to a charity, or whatever. Better spent, I suspect.

(The other question then is: should you leave Twitter? I’m not, but I’m also not really using it to provide content. Mostly, it’s an apocalyptic stock-ticker, and an effective one. I see news there and advocacy/activism that I don’t really see anywhere else, as yet. But it’s also not fun. I do not enjoy it. For enjoyment, I go to Instagram or Mastodon currently, and am at the other platforms too, less so. For doomscrolling, though, you still can’t beat Twitter. Midnight inches ever closer, and Twitter offers us the best seats in the house.)

MONSTER MOVIE!

(The exclamation point is important.)

Anyway, hey! I’m writing more middle grade! And it’s coming out next fall! Exclamation points ahoy! Thanks to my agent, Stacia Decker for brokering the deal with Deirdre Jones at LBYR, I’m excited to have this out in front of readers young and old. It’s the story of a boy who is frightened to go see what he’s heard is “the scariest movie ever made,” even though his whole class is sneaking out to watch it — and it turns out, he has good reason to worry, because the movie is the monster.

No pre-order link available, and cover won’t be out for a while — er, honestly, I still have to finish up the book.

I’m also currently finishing page proofs for Black River Orchard, but the ARCs of that have started to go out and I think are appearing digitally on NetGalley, so that’s nice. It’s a big scary book about evil apples taking over a small town, and hopefully people dig that, too.

That’s out 9/26, and you can pre-order in all the places you’re able to, and you can be sure I’ll do signed copies through Doylestown Bookshop.

Also out (even sooner!) is Gentle Writing Advice, also available through Doylestown if you want me to SCANDALIZE your book with my HERETICAL YET ENTICING SCRAWL. I mean, I can also be encouraging, I guess. Pssh.

ANYWAY, them’s the news. Gotta get back to the word mines. Bye.

*steps into Chuck’s Terrible Minds blog. Chuck gives the thumbs up signal to get started*

Thank you, Chuck! *clears throat awkwardly* Greetings, everybody! Can y’all hear me? Yes? Right – let’s get this started:

The Pixel Project, a 501(c)3 anti-violence against women nonprofit, has been running our Read For Pixels program since September 2014 when Chuck himself, Joe Hill, Sarah J. Maas, and nine other award-winning bestselling SF/F, Horror, and YA authors helped us reach out to their readers and fandoms about violence against women (VAW) and raise funds to keep our anti-VAW work alive.

Little did we know that that inaugural Read For Pixels livestream series and fundraiser would be a resounding success. Now, over 220 author livestreams, 80+ AMAs, 19 fundraisers, and 1 Shirley Jackson Award-nominated short story charity anthology later, we are continuing to build a trove of accessible resources about VAW for geeks, book lovers, fandoms, parents, teachers, and kids worldwide as well as leveraging the power of genre fiction and storytelling to educate people about VAW. Authors, editors, publishers, and agents have also helped us raise approximately $10,000 per year by providing exclusive goodies as giveaways for readers, fans, and book collectors who donate to support our work.

You’re probably thinking: “Ooooh! I’ll go check it out. So why the guest post on Chuck’s blog?”

The short answer: “This [insert expletive of your choice] year called twenty twenty-three”.

Like many small nonprofits, we are continuing to fight the good fight while navigating the ongoing fallout from the pandemic and spiraling global inflation in 2023. Women’s organizations have experienced decades of scarce funding for the overall women’s rights movement and women’s human rights are often one of the first casualties in turbulent times such as these. So, with our current Read For Pixels fundraiser progressing at a snail’s pace like Grogu toddling along attempting to keep up with Mando (it’s been a month and we’re stuck at $3,175, which is only part of the way to our modest $5,000 goal), you can imagine our growing concern. While we are 100% volunteer-staffed, we do have bills to pay so we can keep our campaigns, programs, and services running.

Chuck being the kind soul that he is, received our call for help and basically paraphrased “Mi casa es su casa”, then published this blog post to boost the signal for our fundraiser.

So here I am, as Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2023 kicks off, presenting five really good reasons why you should consider giving to our fundraiser to help get us to our $5,000 finish line by our extended deadline of April 30^th 2023:

Really Good Reason to Give #1: Support access to life-saving information for victims and survivors of VAW… while slaying your summer reading list

One of the core services that The Pixel Project provides is bridging the information gap that victims and survivors encounter when trying to get help. Programs such as our daily helpline retweet session on Twitter, which tweets out domestic violence and rape/sexual assault helplines for women in 205 countries worldwide from 8.00PM to midnight Eastern Time, 24/7, 365 days a year.  We also respond to individuals contacting us for help, doing the research legwork to provide them with information about specific victim assistance services in their part of the world.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: When you donate to us, you can also start adding to your summertime TBR pile. From signed rare or 1st editions from authors’ personal stashes to mystery book boxes by publishers large and small, we have bookish treats in various genres for every donation level. And while you’re trying out new authors or appreciating your acquisition for your book collection, also bask in the glow of knowing that your donation will be going towards keeping our programs and initiatives that connect victims and survivors of VAW with the help that they need.

Really Good Reason to Give #2: Support resources for educating folks about VAW… while getting your WIP workshopped

We have built an ever-expanding archive of over 200 resource articles to date about everything from how to stop street harassment to lists of organizations tackling everything from child marriage to MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women). Additionally, our website has beginner-level primers about different types of VAW, including violence against trans women and obstetric violence and our Facebook page is an excellent just-in-time source for the latest headlines and articles about VAW.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: If you are a budding author who is thinking of making a donation, we have a stellar line-up of Read For Pixels authors offering critique bundles for WIPs (works-in-progress), including Adiba Jaigirdar (Contemporary YA), Chloe Liese (Romance), Karen Odden (Historical Mysteries), Kathryn Purdie (YA Fantasy), and Romina Garber (YA Fantasy in English or Spanish). Some have a post-critique video chat bundled in; some welcome writing pairs; others allow for up to five questions via email from the donor about the critique. Enjoy knowing that while you are getting expert help for your WIP, you’re also supporting the creation and growth of online resources for educating folks around the world about VAW.

Really Good Reason to Give #3: Support online platforms for people to speak up about VAW… while shooting the breeze with your favorite author

A key pillar of our activism and advocacy work is providing digital platforms that are safe spaces for people from different walks of life to speak up about VAW. In April 2022, we hosted the Giving The Devil His Due blog tour featuring book bloggers using our first charity anthology to speak up about VAW during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. We also offer VAW survivors and dads who are male allies opportunities to speak up via blog interview initiatives such as the Survivor Stories blog interview series and the Voices of Dads Against VAW interview series.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: While your donation keeps our platforms available for folks to speak up about VAW, you can enjoy a chat with your favorite author in the name of supporting a good cause. For this fundraiser, Swati Teerdhala (YA Fantasy), Kimberly Belle (Crime/Thriller), Karen Odden (Historical Mystery), and Liz Williams (Fantasy) are all happy to have a video chat with donors to natter about everything from books and writing to furbabies and geeky hobbies. These video chats are open to individual donors and groups – fan friends, book clubs or library groups are also welcome to pool together the donation to get one or more of these chat sessions. 

Really Good Reason to Give #4: Shine a light on anti-VAW activists and advocates worldwide… while surprising your geeky loved ones with cool treats

Part of our work involves shining a spotlight on how anti-VAW advocates, activists, and organizations worldwide are changing the world for women and girls, as well as their ideas about what people can do to help stop VAW in their communities and countries. Our Inspirational Interviews series has been running for a decade and counting. We also run topical sessions with anti-VAW advocates and activists speaking about their work and educating people about VAW.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: If you have a geeky friend or family member with a birthday coming up and you see a Read For Pixels goodie offered by their favorite author available on our fundraising page, donate to snag that unique treat and delight them while supporting signal boosts for anti-VAW activists and advocates. BONUS: You’ll have an interesting story to tell them about where the gift came from. It might even be a great opener for chatting with them about VAW.

Really Good Reason to Give #5: Support the right of women and girls to live a life without VAW… while your donation benefits TWO anti-VAW nonprofits

Nearly 1 in 3 women and girls worldwide experience some form of VAW in their lifetime. In terms of domestic violence alone, over 1 in 4 women under 50 have experienced physical or sexual violence from a male partner. So donate to our fundraiser because you believe in supporting efforts to prevent, stop, and end VAW. Whether you can give us $5 or $500 to help us reach our $5,000 goal, every dollar counts.

THE WIN-WIN FACTOR: If you choose Mystery/Thriller author Carol Goodman’s THE NIGHT VISITORS $50/$50 Matching Donation treat, your $50 donation will not just support our work but Carol will make sure your impact is doubled by donating $50 in your name to the domestic violence shelter run by Family of Woodstock in Ulster County, New York, USA where she volunteers.

(And even if you don’t choose Carol’s treat, when you donate to us, please also consider donating either cash or supplies to your local rape crisis center to honour Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Like us, they need all the help they can get.)

It’s time to stop violence against women. Together.

***

Interested in checking out The Pixel Project’s anti-violence against women work? Visit us at https://www.thepixelproject.net/

Interested in checking out our Read For Pixels fundraiser and making a donation to help keep our work alive? Go here.

***

Regina Yau is the founder and president of The Pixel Project, a virtual volunteer-led global 501(c)3 nonprofit organization on a mission to raise awareness, funds and volunteer power for the cause to end violence against women at the intersection of social media, new technologies, and popular culture/the Arts. A Rhodes Scholar with a double Masters in Women’s Studies and Chinese Studies, she has a lifelong commitment to fighting for women’s rights. In addition to running The Pixel Project, Regina also teaches English to middle-schoolers and high-schoolers, writes stories about cheeky little fox spirits and terrorist chickens, and bakes far too many carb-and-sugar-loaded goodies.

Hey, so here’s a cool thing: Montana Book Company, a truly excellent bookstore in the heart of every LGBT-centered fight in the state of Montana, is marking today’s Trans Day of Visibility by donating a portion of today’s profits into a pot to continue the fight against discrimination in their state.

To quote the store directly —

“…during these legislative tough times we’re going to do what we do best…GIVE MONEY AWAY!!! A portion of Friday’s entire day of sales will go into a kitty that we will dole out to the appropriate organizations who take these anti-trans bills to court here in Montana. So come down and help us help the amazing people who are going to take these terrible laws on.”

Will they ship? They sure will.

Check them out here and please order something.

Do preorders count? WHY YES THEY DO. And here I casually note that you can preorder my upcoming books from them, should you so choose —

BLACK RIVER ORCHARD, and GENTLE WRITING ADVICE.

Might I also recommend buying books from Hailey Piper, Cassandra Khaw, Eric LaRocca, Charlie Jane Anders, Jadzia Axelrod, Mags Visaggio, Caitlin Kiernan?

Also give the store a follow over on Instagram.

TERFs can walk into the sea.

Support and love your trans friends and the trans community.

Donate to trans and LGBT charities. (Trans Lifeline, Trevor Project, Transgender Law Center, for example.)

Protect trans kids, and while we’re at it, protect trans adults, too, k?

It befell in the days of Arthur Pendragon that there lived a thief and a lover of men called Tomas, the Red Rose Knight… When Tomas O’Lincoln, half-fairy and outlaw, learns that knights from Camelot hunt him in the forest, he fears he must pay for his crimes. Desperate for shelter, the Enchantress sends him on a reluctant quest to find his way to the Fortress Impenetrable, deep in the darkling heartwood. Only behind the high black walls of the Archimago’s castle will Tomas learn a Truth Most Vital and come face-to-face with his destiny… But is it a destiny he wants?

Bawdy, humorous and magical, ‘The Dust of the Red Rose Knight’ is a queer Arthurian romance from the acclaimed author of The Ben Garston Novels, in the finest tradition that never was.

‘A stylish Arthurian romp offering swords, sorcery and witches seen through a contemporary comic prism.’ — Juliet E McKenna

‘A joyous romp of a thing that will no doubt annoy all the right people. A most excellent addition to Arthurian legend.’ — James Oswald author of ‘The Inspector McLean’ novels

***

King Arthur never died. Oh, I know that the myths said he did, fallen to his bastard son at the Battle of Camlann and sleeping somewhere in a cave until a time when Britain needs him again. I explored as much in my post-Arthurian trilogy The Ben Garston Novels, published worldwide by Orbit Books. There is still so much to tell in that world, if not directly connected to those stories, and I thank kickass writer Chuck Wendig for letting me waffle about the subject here today.

As I prepared to release my sort-of-spinoff novelette The Dust of the Red Rose Knight, I considered the long history of Arthurian retellings and it was plain to see that, no, Arthur Pendragon, Dux Bellorum, the Bear, Subduer of Giants, Conqueror of Saxon and Pict, the King of All Logres, has been with us the whole time, one of our most abiding mythographies. These stories have always struck me as an example of the noblest heights of human endeavour, along with the peril of pursuing perfection, the poison of betrayal, and eventual downfall. All heady stuff!

Where did you first find Arthur? In the hills? Under a mountain? Travel in Britain and you’ll find Arthur everywhere, from old stones to pub signs to theme parks, each laying claim to our cherished national tradition. For me, I found Arthur in the pages of Susan Cooper’s seminal The Dark Is Rising sequence. Or perhaps in the tales of Roger Lancelyn Green. These tales themselves are retellings, of course, going back centuries to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King (1859) and back again to Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur (1485) and again to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain (1136) and then spinning on into the mists of Welsh myth and who knows how many previous iterations? Arthur has paraded on screen, in music and in comic books throughout the modern era. Hell, you can buy tea towels that feature Arthur. Some historians even suppose that Arthur was a real person, a Romano-Celtic war leader who inspired all of these stories, which Monmouth greatly embellished to give the English nobility some form of numinous and indisputable source.

Yes, King Arthur has always been here, threaded in various shape and form through the famous works of Mark Twain, TH White, Mary Stewart, Rosemary Sutcliff and others. Innocent, martyr, tyrant, zombie (yes, I went there) and more… Visit any bookshop and you’ll find Arthur, most notably in recent times in Bernard Cornwell’s grounded outing The Winter King, Lavie Tidhar’s grimdark take in By Force Alone, the upcoming The Cleaving by Juliet McKenna and the magical gender-swapping of Nicola Griffth’s standout 2022 novel Spear. Fair to say that Arthur is hardly dozing under a rock somewhere. Nope. Our particularly British adaptation of the Bible myth (messiah, betrayal, reincarnation – it’s all there) has remained a central, vital and possibly immortal part of our collective cultural consciousness for age upon age.

We all know Arthur, don’t we? As a character, he’s impressive, a Chosen One from a backwater briar who pulled a sword from a stone and rose to a shimmering throne, but he’s perhaps too well-trodden to write about distinctly. Thankfully, there were offshoots from the central saga that have gone overlooked, forgotten, dusty and lingering on the fringes of classical literature. One such figure is Tom a Lincoln, that ‘ever renowned soldier’, the Red Rose Knight. The Most Pleasant History of Tom a Lincoln was an Arthurian oddity written in two parts in the late 16^th and early 17^th century by a (then) well-known Elizabethan writer called Richard Johnson. Johnson himself became more obscure than the character in question and not much is known about him these days. We know he lived in London, an apprentice and later freeman who was the author of chapbooks, almanacs and devotionals that featured the Nine Worthies and the Champions of Christendom, the fantastical adventures of the saints who served as the superheroes of the day. It seems that Johnson, popular at the time, is rather eclipsed by Shakespeare when it comes to our historical regard.

During the upheaval of the 17^th century, the Arthurian tradition fell out of favour, with the notion of kings and queens itself coming under attack (and some overthrown and beheaded to boot). Back then, Arthur became more of a political device than a romantic one, the followers of James I heralding him as the ancestor and heir of the legendary king, a dubious claim at best. When James made a bid for absolute power, his fabled origin got trashed as a result with many insisting that Britain was in fact a Saxon nation, founded upon the ancient laws of those people, and thereby distancing themselves from a perceived Welsh and Celtic threat. As the dispute exploded into civil war, Arthur got ‘cancelled’ and all but vanished from the literary scene, sinking into the smoke and mists of history. Ironically, after 1634 saw the publication of Sir Thomas Malory’s weighty and tragic epic Le Morte d’Arthur, Arthur himself didn’t fully re-emerge from his cave for two whole centuries.

And Tom a Lincoln was politely forgotten. When you consider Johnson’s bastardisation of the original text, a winding yarn about a low-born hero, plus the non-canonical mash-up of mythical figures ranging from Prester John to Robin Hood (not to mention the themes of theft, adultery and cannibalism(!) in the tale), it isn’t hard to see why his prose was popular at the time, challenging as it does the divine right of kings and poking fun at the nobility. Nor why the prudish Victorians coughed behind their handkerchiefs and swept poor Tom under the rug. The grand revival of the myth in those times left the Red Rose Knight in the dust.

Today, scholars regard Tom in less than glowing terms. Seen through the lens of a modern perspective, The Most Pleasant History of Tom a Lincoln is admittedly critical of aristocracy, a misogynistic and staunchly anti-romantic outing that while reprinted several times in its own era was never going to make the cut in a more forward-thinking and inclusive world. But the figure of Tom himself remains fascinating nonetheless. If one were to draw on the essential threads of it, rework it into a modern retelling and naturally, queer it to kingdom come, then surely one might redeem the character – after a fashion – and present him afresh for today’s audiences.

Have to say, the idea appealed. When Alistair Sims of Books on the Hill contacted me about his ongoing ‘dyslexia-friendly books for adults’ campaign, I fired up my chaos engines and decided to have a crack at it. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects reading and writing skills. The NHS estimates that up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK have some form of dyslexia, while other dyslexic organisations believe that more than 2 million people in the country are severely affected by the condition, from children to adults, and ostensibly many more worldwide. To call on major publishers to consider releasing dyslexia-friendly books struck me as an inclusive, progressive and noble cause, and the campaign has garnered much praise in the national press, attracting works from bestselling authors such as Peter James, Bernard Cornwell and Gareth Powell (Further information can be found here: https://www.booksonthehill.co.uk/dyslexic-friendly-books-for-adults-/)

And now it’s my turn with Tom a Lincoln. As a lifelong sufferer of dyscalculia, the numerical form of dyslexia, and with a love of all things Arthurian, I put my mind to writing something for the campaign. The result was The Dust of the Red Rose Knight, a fairy tale romp for adult readers in which I was able to retain Tom’s wayward, raunchy and fiercely independent character and send him forth on a brand new adventure. The historical resonance that Tom is doing so in a slender volume much like an Elizabethan chapbook isn’t lost on me. Our dubious hero gallops out of the past in red leather armour with a macaw feather stuck in his cap, mischief in his heart and an eye for the knights. At heart, this is a tale of gay emancipation, high adventure and derring-do, and it’s as gleefully anti-romantic as it gets in these terms. But what fun! And it’s such an honour to add, in my own small way, to the long, rich history of Arthurian retellings.

You see, Arthur isn’t dead. Far from it. Nor is Tom. Nor is any old story that finds a reader, brought back to life whenever we crack open a book.

I hope readers enjoy The Dust of the Red Rose Knight. Perhaps, if fortune is kind, then Tom a Lincoln will ride out again.

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James Bennett is a British writer raised in Sussex and South Africa. His travels have furnished him with an abiding love of diverse cultures, history and mythology. His short fiction has appeared internationally and his debut novel ‘Chasing Embers’ was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards 2017. His latest fiction can be found in the well-received ‘The Book of Queer Saints’, BFS Horizons and The Dark magazine. Novella ‘The Dust of the Red Rose Knight’ comes out in March 2023 and a short story collection ‘Preaching to the Perverted’ is set to follow next year from esteemed publisher Lethe Press.

James lives in the South of Spain where he’s currently working on a new novel.

James Bennett: Twitter

The Dust of the Red Rose Knight: Amazon