Eggplant.place

24d

30 Years of Creative Writing Festival
28 Feb & 1 March, University of Glasgow – free

A 2-day festival of readings, workshops, panel discussions & activities celebrating the discipline of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, featuring alumni, current students & staff

@writingcommunity

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/30-years-of-creative-writing-festival-tickets-1980884011402

#Scottish #literature #writing #creativewriting #Glasgow

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230d

Don't trust cloud services with your creative work.

#enshittification #privacy #infosec #security #cybersecurity #writing #art

Tumblr post by maerossi.

screenshot - "Google Sheets
We're sorry. You can’t access this item because it is in violation of our
Terms of Service."

Everyone: Please please please don't write your books in Google Docs. Frankly don't use Google Drive for personal stuff. Their terms of service say they take down stuff like content related to terrorism and trafficking, but this Google Sheet was literally a list of movies I'd watched this year and books I'd read.

23 Jul
Holy smokes, guys. It's way worse than | thought. Google actually took away access to every single file of fiction writing I'd made on that account. BUT |
backed it all up on Scrivener yesterday by coincidence. So | haven't lost my work, but I could have just lost the 12,000 words I've written this month after a year of really intense writer's block. I honestly don't know what that would have done to
my psyche. Please be careful out there, folks! <3

ALT

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16d

Wondering if Mastodon is really the right space for me. Even with 10,000 characters, my last post still felt cramped. I have so much to say, and trying to pour that into any fixed container is a challenge. Perhaps Substack suits my long-form tendencies better. Is lengthy content considered poor etiquette here? Genuinely curious what others think.

#Mastodon #LongForm #Writing #Substack #FediEtiquette

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240d

WRITERS!

New Writing Scotland seeks a new co-editor for English- & Scots-language work. Applicants should be currently based in Scotland & have a strong publishing record, with a focus on prose. Post is up to 3 years: stipend £1500 per issue.

@writingcommunity

Details 👇

https://asls.org.uk/new-writing-scotland-seeks-co-editor/

#Scottish #Scotland #writers #writing #writingcommunity

NEW WRITING SCOTLAND

ASL is seeking applications to be a co-editor of New Writing Scotland, from writers currently based in Scotland. Applicants should have a strong publishing record of their own, with a focus on prose; previous editorial experience would be an advantage. The post will run for up to three years from 2026, for volumes 44, 45, and 46, publishing in 2026, 2027, and 2028 (dependent on funding).

Our editors jointly select approximately 50 pieces – poetry and prose – from the English- and Scots-language submissions we receive each year. The submissions are anonymised, and we provide editors with paper copies to read. As an editor, we’d ask you to attend launches in Edinburgh and Glasgow (travelling expenses would be paid). Editors receive an annual £1500 stipend and full editorial credit.

We encourage applications from all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from people who are under-represented within the sector, including from BPOC applicants (Black people and People of Colour), disabled people, LGBTQIA+ applicants and those from a low socioeconomic background.

Please send a CV and a one-page application letter, outlining your qualifications for the position, to admin@asls.org.uk by midnight on Monday 4 August 2025.

Submission to New Writing Scotland is free and open to all. You can find our submission instructions here.

ALT

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23d

Excellent article by @wojtekpow

On AI in response to: A Positive Technologist Identity

https://behindtheviewfinder.com/on-ai-in-response-to-a-positive-technologist-identity/

#llm #ai #writing #blog #indentity #creativity #photography #painting #indieweb #personalwebsite #positive

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231d

https://screwlisp.small-web.org/emacs/writing-experience/

My #emacs #writing #writingExperience #emacsCarnival submission.

Discussing my transition to #eev away from being a heavy user of the popular #orgmode.

My writing primarily concerns #lisp #programming, so the difference between #eepitch and #orgBabel features heavily.

Looking forward to hearing from everyone including the other emacs carnivalians.

CC @greg (Writing Experience emacs carnival host)

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23d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/TrollSong

Having an abusive assassin for a sister was bad enough, but when Lyra’s older sister, Nicole, becomes obsessed with killing the teenage troll, her life becomes a special kind of nightmare. Will she escape, or become just another victim of the unstoppable woman?

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Troll Song, by Owen Tyme, Illustrated by Ryan Johnson.

There's a woman in mud spattered white, leather armor crossing a pair of short swords against the neck of a terrified, shirtless dwarf.

The woman has white hair and a darker skin tone on the left side of her face. Her left eye is green and her right eye is blue.

The dwarf's hair and beard are blond.

The background is a green forest, with some flowers among the tall grass.

(Right) The background is a snow-covered forest, with a pair of dark silhouettes in it, one small and the other large, like a giant. The smaller silhouette is of a young woman walking away and the interior is filled with musical symbols, in green, white and two shades of blue. The larger silhouette is a woman wielding two swords and the interior is full of blood spatter. The larger one appears to be chasing the smaller one.

The following text is laid over the scene:

“I can’t die until Lyra takes her last breath! She’ll regret betraying her sisters!”

“There’s no price I won’t pay to see that happen, no pain I won’t endure and I’d sacrifice the whole world to seal her fate!”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TrollSong

ALT

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23d

The Prologue of She Consumes Poison is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/153820/scarlet-eye

This is volume five of Ashen Blades, but also volume one of a sub-series titled Scarlet Eye.

Detective Yasu considers the day she met a strange goth girl that can turn into a panther and the card one of the girl's associates gave her, for the day she's ready for the real truth...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #actionadventure #fiction #witches #demons #vampires #webseries

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19d

Chapter 17 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Irkith, the first king of the Ulkun, is restored to life, while Nicole's neck continues to ache.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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25d

Wrote and published a blog post last night on why I finally decided to delete my TikTok account 👀😃

#blog #tiktok #socialMedia #tech #writing

https://bookswithnoelle.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/first-step-to-freedom-deleting-tiktok/

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219d

“[I]f you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat.”

—Nancy Hawkins, the majestic narrator of Muriel Spark’s A FAR CRY FROM KENSINGTON, on why a writer should own a cat

Today, 8 August, is International Cat Day (don’t tell them) 🐈‍⬛

1/3

#Scottish #literature #writing #cats #InternationalCatDay #MurielSpark

So I passed him some very good advice, that if you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work, I explained, the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk-lamp. The light from a lamp, I explained, gives a cat great satisfaction. The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquillity of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious.

ALT

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22d

Chapter 16 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Nicole takes center stage for the dress rehearsal of the command performance, but she has an odd little ache in her neck, the whole time...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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219d

What kind of maniac launches their website on a Friday?!

Hi, hello there, it's me. I'm that kind of maniac. How you doin'.

Today, I'm excited to launch the place where I'll be putting my energy where my mouth is, the website where I'll show (AND tell) you what I've learned.

It is my great honor to invite you to check out www.Get-Frosty.com

This is just a sample of what I've got cooking; there's more to come. Stay, and I cannot stress this enough, tuned.

#TTRPG #Gaming #3dPrinting #Writing

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20d

Chapter 1 of She Consumes Poison is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/153820/scarlet-eye

Back in 1922, Silver Dollar wakes in Hell, after a particular half-demon smashed her skull.

After learning her operations on Earth have been destroyed by the same, she contacts her master, to report her failure.

He gives her a new assignment, which chills the demon woman to the bone...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #actionadventure #fiction #witches #demons #vampires #webseries

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18d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/TheThirdWish

Spies, aliens, trolls, wizards and a disowned prince use a time machine, to improve their place in history, but Levi Jacobs stands in their way, despite having just lost his parents in war. Will he stop them or will the time travelers kill his father at a pivotal moment, on which the fate of the galaxy hangs?

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of The Third Wish, by Owen Tyme, illustrated by Ryan Johnson.

A wizard in a black robe that glitters with hints of gold stands on a mountain and looks down at a city of sky scrapers covered in greenery. In his shadow lurks a creature with glowing red eyes.

In the background, the sun is setting and stars are becoming visible.

(Right Background) Four images separated by black lines, with the silhouette of a woman wielding two swords laid over them. She's outlined in black and her interior is yellow clock-based imagery that spirals outward from the center.

The upper left quarter is a queen in a red, furred robe, wearing a gold and diamond crown. She has dark eyebrows and blond hair.

Upper right is a planet seen from orbit.

Lower left is a symbolic wire frame representation of the view inside a wormhole, in green and yellow.

Lower right is dandelions among grass.

The angle of the planet, one of the woman's swords, the yellow highlights of the wormhole and some of the dandelions form a line that draws the eye along a sweeping curve.

(Right Foreground) The following quote:

He admired the flawless beauty of the insane swordswoman’s fluid movements as Ida took desperate step after step, backwards!

He felt waves of mental energy pour off the panic-stricken troll, but the energy bounced right off of Nicole’s mind, as though she’d shut herself inside a solid, red-hot, steel box of rage!

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TheThirdWish

ALT

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18d

Chapter 2 of She Consumes Poison is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/153820/scarlet-eye

Verda Bagley, the leader of the Order of Ash and Smoke, interrogates Ulmoch, getting some disturbing answers she didn't expected, regarding Silver Dollar having gained serious political power in Hell, on top of the ability to see the future...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #actionadventure #fiction #witches #demons #vampires #webseries

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19d

This is how I do most of my #writing.

Sometimes diagrams.
Mostly text.
A comfortable pen.

Coffee stains sometimes.
Circular water marks from condensation sometimes.

The sketch pad allows less ink build up on the pen.

A bad pen drags or slides.
That's not good.

Handwritten text on sketch paper, with a pen next to it:

Most of my ideas start here.
Most of my 'writing' is done this way.
Because most of my writing ^ tjinking is done...
This way.
This -- the em-dash-- I put here.
I favor ellipses... because i want the reader to
Slow
Down.
THINK.
Writing is not about technology.
That should be invisible.
It's about sharing
Ideas
Thoughts.
Trapped in words.

ALT

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16d

Author event: Tom Newlands, Natalie Jayne Clark and Elspeth Wilson
28 Feb, Central Library, Stirling. Free, booking required

Three neurodivergent debut authors discuss their different journeys to publication and their writing processes.

https://www.stirling.gov.uk/community-life-and-leisure/libraries-and-archives/libraries/what-on-in-the-libraries/#tom-newlands-elspeth-wilson-natalie-jayne-cla-1

#Scottish #literature #writing #writingcommunity #neurodivergent #neurodivergence #Stirling

AUTHOR EVENT at Central Library
Saturday 28th February, 2–3pm, FREE

Tom Newlands: Award winning author of Only Here, Only Now, a powerful coming-of-age novel about friendship, identity, and modern Scottish life.

Natalie Jayne Clark: Bloody Scotland Debut
Award-nominated author of The Whisky Murders, a gripping Scottish crime novel set in the world of whisky and small-town secrets...

Elspeth Wilson: Author of These Mortal Bodies, a powerful novel exploring love, loss, and the past. Perfect for fans of the The Secret History.

Join us for an intimate, lively blether with three neurodivergent debut authors, each with different journeys to publication, writing processes, and obsessions to share with you.

To book a space: Ask in the library, phone 01786 237760 or email centrallibrary@stirling.gov.uk

ALT

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12d

25% off @ Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1667520

The Hunter seeks peace and quiet to mourn the loss of her best friend in a world that seems bound and determined to make that task impossible. Enemies attack when she’d rather be alone, allies can’t take a hint and the arch-demon Wrath seeks the Hunter’s hand in marriage, even though she’d sooner kill him.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of She Seeks Peace, by Owen Tyme.

The background is a snow-capped, craggy mountain with green, grassy hills at its base, which feature yellow and blue flowers.

The foreground is dominated by the round symbol for peace, in gold. Along the bottom of it are two olive branches. At the top is a dove in flight. Arranged on the lower three spokes of it are three figures based on the AIGA symbol for a woman. The figure on the right is blue. The one in the middle is a very dark gray, bordering on black, which includes a top hat. The figure on the left is red and has horns, like a demon.

(Right) The background is a view from the interior of a gun's barrel, with the rifling very apparent and the following quote over the top:

Reggie looked down the barrel of one of his own pistols, which the girl held in both hands, because the M1911 was a little large for someone so small.

There was a long, silent moment as the girl giggled and met his gaze. The murderous look was gone, replaced by something more playful, like a cat toying with a mouse.

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/SheSeeksPeace

ALT

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72d

Finally read this essay that I saw so highly recommended — and those recommending it were right. Love heartfelt writing? Hate AI slop? Give yourself a treat to start the new year and read this glorious piece by @WeirdWriter if you haven’t done so yet.

https://sightlessscribbles.com/the-colonization-of-confidence/

h/t @mayintoronto

#writing #AI #LLM #GenAI

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11d

25% off @ Smashwrods: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1657116

After encountering the worst life has to offer, including the death of his wife and child, destruction of his home world, an addiction forced on him by the one responsible and a third of the galaxy falling under the heel of that tyrant, Levi Jacobs, a wizard, seeks to unravel the secrets of time and fate.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of The Inverted Glass, by Owen Tyme.

The Background is a pink and purple nebula in space.

The foreground is largely line art, in white, with a black shadow outline.

At the center is an hourglass. The bottom has black sand, with a white figure standing in it. The top has is an inverted mirror image of the bottom, with a black figure in white sand.

The hourglass serves as the balance point for a set of scales, which hold a heart and a feather. The heart is on the left and the feather on the right. The heart is lower than the feather.

(Right) Lying in blue sand is a heart made of the same sand, full of cracks. It glows from the inside in a warm, yellow color. Over that is the following quote:

Nicole felt an extreme kind of loss, realizing she’d been stolen away from the afterlife, just before finding out if she deserved punishment or not!

“How dare you do this to me? Why?”

“I’m always in need of strong spirits and I’ve seen none stronger. You have unique talents I refuse to see go to waste.”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TheInvertedGlass

ALT

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10d

The Clockwork Orange Project is an experimental literary project taking place on the Glasgow Subway, sponsored by the Royal Society of Literature, & is open to anyone living in or around (or with some meaningful connection to) Glasgow.

The goal of the project is to reimagine urban public spaces as sites of community and creativity, and to produce work that is collaborative, interactive and experimental.

https://kelvingrovewriters.wordpress.com/2026/03/02/the-clockwork-orange-project/

#Scottish #literature #writing #writers #Glasgow

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8d

The text editor a reader---and fan---is making for me, a fork, got another update. I contributed a small thing to the ReadMe. yayness! I couldn't find a text editor that was really for *me* so now this is coming along nicely! Next is export using Pandoc, for those that need Shun Manuscript format like I do, that's also being in the works. https://github.com/stefano-pogliani/AME #OpenSource #PlainText #Text #TextEditor #Writing #Publishing

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9d

Marketing scams aimed at writers via email are on the uptick. Here’s the latest list of scammers:David Warteno <davidwarteno@gmail.com>Wordsmith & Writers <wixhelpspecialist@gmail.com>#bookmarketingscam #writingcommunity #author #writing #amwriting #writer #writerslife #indieauthor #booksky

com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:qboml6pqgrceeoykk57n52jp&cid=bafkreif7evkk6zs5hppus4zqajwdjke5iyxfxwurb3cyc56trjrez7h4ey

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8d

Who the fuck taught people how to pen business emails? Holy Christ on a cracker! Absolutely nothing creams my corn more than having to actively translate what these professional suits are typing to me. I just received an email that was 5 paragraphs that essentially boiled down to, hey, I really liked your report you sent last Monday. Can we schedule a Zoom call tomorrow? Yes or no? I am so tired of professional communications. I am frankly exhausted with having to translate professional sludge. Why in the healthiest of hell is it OK, even desirable, that our society likes this kind of mind nummingcommunication? Everybody calls it professional but I just call it a gigantic fucking headache. And who the hell came up with professionalism anyhow? I’m really starting to hate the concept of professionalism and professional writing styles. No wonder everyone has meetings. No one can write. No one can string together a competent business sentence without 90,000 corporate qualifiers. You can have perfect grammar and perfect spelling and in fact be the worst writer. Can we change what it means to write professionally? Because this is a level of hell that I never noticed prior to getting away from corporate offices. #Writing #Business

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