Louise Nicholas
LightNews LightNews
banner
louisenicholas.bsky.social
Louise Nicholas
@louisenicholas.bsky.social
880 followers 1.7K following 400 posts
Fantasy author. Former criminologist. Works @pgogy as sustainability and strategy lead and learning developer. Interested in folklore. She/her

Fantasy Focus newsletter at louisenicholas.substack.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
mytholder.bsky.social
“Are the fae open source?” is such a terrifying question in so many ways.
lethalityjane.bsky.social ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 6d
Turning into my father one "the problem is no one reads enough books these days" grumble at a time
Post from Threads user "missjenbeck" Romantasy question: are the fae open source? I had only known them from SJM books, but didn't expect to see them in Quicksilver!
November 20, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
tadethompson.bsky.social
I dunno, buddy, maybe if it didn't encourage young folks to kill themselves, or drink all the potable water, or pollute the Infoverse with fallacies, or add glue to recipes, or be that guy who lies rather than admits a mistake, or, and this is important, buddy, or IF WE WERE GIVEN A FUCKING CHOICE!
Microsoft Exec Asks: Why Aren't More People Impressed With AI?
Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft's head of AI, vents after the company receives backlash for saying 'Windows is evolving into an agentic OS.'
uk.pcmag.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
bookspotlight.bsky.social
📝 400+ pages
🥀 urban fantasy
🌃 set in washington state
🔥 slow burn
🤍 romance and angst
🗡️ demons and vampires
📕 first in a duology

🔖 universal link: mybook.to/D3rL5
💌 itch.io link: rebecca-crunden.itch.io/the-wish-and...
📖 goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...
Cover for The Wish and the Demon, book one in the Half Swallowed by Shadows duology, by Rebecca Crunden. Cover shows three men's silhouettes standing in the middle of a road in winter. There's dark red trees and snow on the ground. One figure is approaching the other two, surrounded by shadows.
November 10, 2025 at 5:18 AM
louisenicholas.bsky.social
Just pre-ordered this - finished the series a few weeks back and loved it, so can't wait to read the prequel :)
patricksamphire.bsky.social Patrick Samphire 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 16d
It's now only 8 days until The Dead Man is out. If you've enjoyed the Mennik Thorn books or if you're curious as to what they're like, the prequel novella is for you!

books2read.com/thedeadman
Promo image showing the cover of The Dead Man, A Mennik Thorn Prequel Novella, by Patrick Samphire. Image includes the text: I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that Benny looked like a ferret that had drowned then been left to dry on the cobblestones. There were stalls in Penitent’s Ear market that sold strips of dried goat meat that looked healthier than my best friend. “You look shit, mate,” he told me before I could share my observation. 8 days to go.
November 10, 2025 at 2:01 PM
louisenicholas.bsky.social
Could anyone please recommend a comprehensive guide on grammar, speech, and tense in fiction? I'm usually ok with self-editing, but finding some issues that I never came across in academic writing. I'm happy to buy a book, but preferably not several books.
#AmWriting #AmEditing #WritingCommunity
a woman is holding a yellow sticky note with help written on it
Alt: April Ludgate, played by Aubrey Plaza, is holding up a yellow square sticky note. As she looks to one side, the camera zooms in so the text becomes legible. The note is handwritten and says HELP!
media.tenor.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
slimyswampghost.bsky.social
Columbo, the detective!
November 7, 2025 at 8:37 PM
louisenicholas.bsky.social
This looks promising
November 6, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
amy.wrestlejoy.com
I don't see a lot of people talking about this, so I want to highlight something GOOD

Billie Eilish stood in a room full of billionaires and said "you're billionaires... Why?"

She donated 11.5 MILLION DOLLARS to food equity and climate orgs, which Stephen Colbert announced to said billionaires.
Billie Eilish Calls on Billionaires to Support People in Need: 'No Hate, But Give Your Money Away'
Billie Eilish donates $11.5 million from 'Hit Me Hard and Soft' tour to charity and calls on billionaires to support people in need during hard times.
www.rollingstone.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
bigbeardybooks.bsky.social
It's the end of the week so it must be #PublisherFriday!

If you are an #IndependentPublisher why not let us know a bit about your press, some links, current projects, crowdfunders, submission windows, some of your authors

#publisher #SmallPress #publishing #IndiePress

alt text in pictures please
old engraving of a Tunis Press, which is a large wooden structure, with one man pulling the lever to make a print and another man who is smoking a pipe checking some copy, with sheets of paper strewn on the ground
October 31, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
stephenblackmoore.com
With SNAP benefits going to shit because of rich assholes and corruption running rampant through politics I'd like to point your attention to a Clinton.

No, not one of those Clintons. This Clinton. Clifford Clinton.
Clifford Clinton - 1937
October 30, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
marissalingen.bsky.social
Exciting news! I've been working all year on a vertigo arts project in collaboration with others in academia, physical therapy, puppetry, and dance. Now the first part is out: I'm running a creative writing workshop for people who are directly or indirectly affected by vertigo. >
October 29, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
enniusredloeb.bsky.social
These terrifying bats are looking forward to #Halloween 🦇🦇🦇😱
Bodl. Library MS. Ashmole 304; 13th century; England, St. Albans; f.47v @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
October 29, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
hellohistoria.bsky.social
The spookiest words of them all 🎃
October 29, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
nils.readindiefantasy.com
It occurred to me that I should start telling people, repeatedly, that I have a new book coming out.

It's called At the Road's End, and it's about how even a villain might have loved ones they wish would accept them.

Here's a picture Toini, the main character.

Art by @nushdeco.bsky.social
A cartoony-isy drawing of Toini and Raoul from my novel At the Road's End. They're both sitting on a fallen tree in a forest. Toini is looking up at a break in the clouds and Raoul is in the shadows looking at his notes.
October 29, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
hellocullen.bsky.social
dracula
adoptabledogs.bsky.social Adoptable Dogs @adoptabledogs.bsky.social · Oct 26
Dracula 🐕
Young male Labrador Retriever mix
Adoptable from Elk County Humane Society (Saint Marys, PA)

https://www.petfinder.com/dog/dracula-78972313/pa/saint-marys/elk-county-humane-society-pa413/
Dracula is a Young Labrador Retriever mix described as: Affectionate, Friendly, Curious, Playful and Gentle
October 26, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
etvpod.bsky.social
Apparently some folks are playing real dumb about skull symbols so let’s play a little game I like to call “Nazi skull or not a Nazi skull”

First up, the Jolly Roger. This is a pirate skull, not a Nazi skull. It means you might get robbed, but prolly not genocided.

With me so far? 1/x
The Jolly Roger flag
October 22, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
jessicacalarco.com
Why did Indiana University attack and cut its own student newspaper?

Well, in a twist of irony any English professor would call clichéd, it turns out IU did it because they were angry about the students' reporting on a FIRE report naming IU as the worst public university for free speech in the US.
Indiana University banned its student newspaper from printing just days before homecoming weekend — after firing the paper’s advisor when he refused to censor critical coverage. That would be bad enough on its own, but FIRE is taking this one personally, as the Indiana Daily Student reported this hostile campaign was due in part to its coverage of FIRE’s ranking Indiana University as the worst public university for free speech. You read that right. The school’s response to the news that they are bad at free speech … is to censor the news. It’s ironic — and not just in the Alanis Morissette sense — that these actions will likely push its overall ranking even lower next year. At least we can’t fault them for consistency.
October 25, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Barker called me up one night and without preamble said "It's opinions, not onions. Not onions. This is Clive Barker. I've been trying to track down and stop this error in editions for decades. OPINIONS."
melikhovo.bsky.social Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · Oct 25
(It wasn't until Jeff and Ann VanderMeer were working on their anthology The Weird that I learned that "onions" is a typo. Either Jeff or Ann mentioned to me that Barker asked them to fix the typo that had haunted the story in countless reprintings, incl in their own earlier antho The New Weird.)
October 25, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
clarkesworldmagazine.com
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Not cool.
Not here.
Not ever.

We will keep working with real translators and narrators (and artists and proofreaders and authors and...) without any of this "AI" bullshit.
thebookseller.com The Bookseller @thebookseller.com · Oct 15
The 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair heard that developments in AI audiobooks mean publishers will no longer have to decide whether to translate a book, but instead just choose which market to translate into 👇 #FBM25
AI audio means publishers ‘don’t have to choose whether to translate, only which market’, FBF hears
ebx.sh
October 15, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
darkandwondrous.bsky.social
As October begins, we contemplate how the sea wind had its way with this now-fungal saint.
scary sea-weathered saint on the church near Hartlepool headland (body of saint is heavily eroded down to a veined or boxwork-like underlying structure of the stone, which looks like weird branching fungus).
October 1, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
thebhp.bsky.social
🐓🦖🐸
A Message From The Frog Resistance
YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
youtu.be
October 14, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
sarahgailey.bsky.social
books should have an anti-acknowledgements section where the author talks shit about all the people who fucked them over while they were trying to write the thing. not bc I personally want to write one but bc I love gossip
rachelfeder.bsky.social Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · Oct 13
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
October 14, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
tylerhuckabee.bsky.social
In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”
Members of the force's sports squad, responsible - among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access. Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said. Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs". There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said. A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said. "The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there." Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."
October 12, 2025 at 1:30 PM
louisenicholas.bsky.social
On my final push to get this draft finished before the half term break interrupts in a week. I reckon a chapter a day will see me right, unless my MC goes off on any more side quests - as she is wont to do! So we both need to focus this week :)
#AmWriting #WritingCommunity
a man with a beard has the words you stay focused on his face
Alt: Mr Miyagi instructs, "you stay focused"
media.tenor.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Reposted by Louise Nicholas
stewarthotston.com
More evidence of what i had to report to the @bsfa.bsky.social and @britfantasysoc.bsky.social this year - that publishers made a lot of noise about inclusion but have largely, in my experience, stopped working on this.

As you might imagine i have opinions.
louiestowell.bsky.social Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · Oct 10
One of the things about this study is that a lot of baby and toddler books are written in house, by editors. So the study reveals the whiteness of editorial in kidlit even if not explicitly. But, big picture, this trend is unacceptable. I remember so many promises www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
‘Catastrophic decline’ in Black representation in children’s books
A report by charity Inclusive Books for Children found that of the 2,721 books surveyed, only 51 featured a Black main character, down by 21.5% since 2023
www.theguardian.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:33 AM