RJ Barker
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rjbarker.bsky.social
RJ Barker
@rjbarker.bsky.social
Award winning fantasy author. Gad about, small tree grower and procrastinationist to the stars. Truly, I am RJ Barker in all departments.

"their worlds are completely and entirely original." BFS

Agent: @teddyfromtheblock.bsky.social
Pinned
It is time for a PROPER pinned tweet with a list of books in reverse order of publication and a little bit of info about each series. Buckle up buckos, here we go.

(I may even correct typos in it, but probably not, Life's too short, right?)
That time @tomparker.bsky.social drew me as Beaker.
November 25, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Befire Mortedant's Peril comes out I need a pack of flamboyant and badly behaved small dogs.

That's right, I'm planning a lot of......sShameless pugs.
November 24, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Watching Cooper and Fry and have twice burst out laughing cos of some of the accents. Imaging a director shouting "MORE NORTHERN BY ECK LAD ILKLEY MORE BAR TAT".

Probably my fault for playing too much Thank Goodness You're Here.
November 24, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by RJ Barker
If you like an author's work, the best thing you can do is buy it. The second best thing you can do is ask your local library to buy it. Or, do both!
A reminder that the median book deal for a debut author in the UK is £7000, paid over 12-18 months. (from 2022 Society of Authors report). Some of your favourite writers are struggling. societyofauthors.org/2022/12/06/a....
A profession struggling to sustain itself - The Society of Authors
ALCS report on author incomes shows 60% drop in median incomes since 2006
societyofauthors.org
November 24, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
November 24, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Lovely NORWEGIANS and your GLORIOUS FOREST CATS, can also pick up GODS OF THE WYRDWOOD for cheap. Do it for the cats.
In Norway I just got it for that price (12 kroner, in my case) on Apple books.
November 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Just realised it's a year since we finished the New Kitchen(tm, see picture). So it's about eighteen months since my health crashed out on me while finishing the Wyrdwood books. The pendulum has swing back of course, much better now. But never swung all the way back.
November 24, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by RJ Barker
Thinking of making a horror movie about a man who keeps discovering 12-inch rulers in his home. It's a found footage film.
November 24, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by RJ Barker
I'm about 60% through HOTWW. Incredible, each arc could be a book of its own.

You've done it again RJ. Thank you.
November 24, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by RJ Barker
Today I'm on the Write and Wrong Podcast, talking about our series of Writing... books from Dead Ink, ways of worldbuilding in fantasy fiction, and the rather chaotic path I've taken through publishing. Maybe give it a listen!

www.writeandwrong.co.uk/home/episode...
The Write and Wrong Podcast
Join us as we chat with our amazing guests from the world of professional storytelling. Authors, agents, directors, game devs, editors, journalists, screenwriters and everything in between!
www.writeandwrong.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by RJ Barker
Posting this partially as service to fellow writers, partly to motivate myself to get it done today. November 30 is deadline to log your year's work at @alcs.co.uk, in return for which you *will* get free money, possibly quite startling quantities of it. If you haven't signed up, do. www.alcs.co.uk
ALCS
www.alcs.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Head up, UK types. Looks like you can pick up GODS OF THE WYRDWOOD for just 99p on ereader. So if huge trees and deep weirdness that will only get weirder are your thing THIS MAY BE FOR YOU.

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/gods...
Gods of the Wyrdwood: The Forsaken Trilogy, Book 1: 'Avatar meets Dune - on shrooms. Five stars.' -SFX
'Avatar meets Dune - on shrooms. Five stars.' -SFX
uk.bookshop.org
November 24, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Am very tired and Youtube is showing me videos for warm milk and Horlicks so clearly it's started mind reading now. Badly, as I hate both those things, but still.
November 24, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by RJ Barker
Inspired by someone elsewhere, I hereby vow to try to avoid the terms "content" and "content creator," unless I *must* talk about work across so many fields that a generic term is the only one that will suffice. Let's not reduce art, criticism, journalism, etc. to an undifferentiated smear of Stuff.
November 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Thanks to @shaunalawless.bsky.social and @kitgonzo.bsky.social I think "explaining salad cream to Americans" is my new metaphor for an impossible task.
November 23, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Can't help reading this in the voice of the A-Team narrator guy.

...and if you can find them...
"Thirty-eight years ago today a Chicago television signal was hijacked and the airing program was replaced by a stranger in a Max Headroom mask. The perpetrator has never been identified."
November 22, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Muppet Christmas Carol, of course.
Name a film you've seen six times.
November 22, 2025 at 8:53 PM
I think my favourite usage of it is the opening to Beowulf
Wheat is a really strange word if you say it enough times. I'm going to spend a lot of tomorrow trying to wheatle it into conversation.
November 21, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Wheat is a really strange word if you say it enough times. I'm going to spend a lot of tomorrow trying to wheatle it into conversation.
November 21, 2025 at 10:12 PM
If you're wondering what Simon means. He was the first person in publishing to pick something up of mine. It's still one of my favourite shorts I've written and you can read it free here. www.patreon.com/posts/shephe...
November 21, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by RJ Barker
6 Books with @stewarthotston.com
Today at the blog, @princejvstin.com asks Stew, who also is joining the NOAF team, about his six books, focused on his new novel Project Hanuman, from @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social

www.nerds-feather.com/2025/11/six-...
6 Books with Stew Hotston
With a Celtic-Indian mother and a father of North African/Roma descent, Stewart Hotston is a somewhat confused second-generation immigrant l...
www.nerds-feather.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:24 AM
I know answering emails and doing various bits of admin counts as work. But it isn't writing so it doesn't feel like I am doing anything.
November 21, 2025 at 10:03 AM
I can't say much about this just yet. But IYKYK...
November 21, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Because MrsRJ is not a quitter we are watching episode 3 of Game of Wool. Hmph.
November 20, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Oh LOOK, the judges have been announced for the inaugural Great Northern Read award for Northern writers with a prize of £2500 and mentoring by my agency Johnson and Alcock.

And WAIT, ONE OF THOSE JUDGES LOOKS FAMILAIR!

newwritingnorth.com/judges-annou...
Judges announced for the inaugural Great Northern Read Award - New Writing North
RJ Barker, the critically acclaimed author of award-winning fantasy fiction including the Tide Child trilogy, The Wounded Kingdom trilogy and...
newwritingnorth.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:37 PM