Thomas D. Lee
banner
thomasdlee.bsky.social
Thomas D. Lee
@thomasdlee.bsky.social
Sunday Times bestselling author (he/him)
Buy PERILOUS TIMES, it has a talking squirrel
Visiting Lecturer at City St George's University London
Worried about climate stuff
Repped by Harry Illingworth at @dhhlitagency
Linktree: https://t.co/psdOEXpR3h
Thoroughly enjoyed the 'Dr Dee:Mortlake to Manchester' exhibition at @chethamslibrary.bsky.social which rendered Dee's dreams as mesmerising light displays. Very impressive.
November 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
I have always hated the "but is it Art?" debate, because I think anything can be art, some art is just bad. But AI/generated art is not art. It is plagiarism, it is outright theft, it is cruel and extreme mining and exploitation of living artists.
November 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
If you fancy a rollicking detective story set in an alternate Victorian London then you're in luck: HIGH VAULTAGE by my friends @jensugden.bsky.social and @chrissugden.bsky.social is only 99¢ on Kindle in the US!
November 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
a world without trans people has never existed and never will
April 5, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
We’re watching a shift where AI simulates the cohesion and reinforcement that used to require an entire online community. A single person can now build a complete parallel reality with nothing more than a prompt window. Which seems bad.
November 19, 2025 at 2:25 PM
I'm submitting my PhD thesis today, so obviously I went to bed early last night. And obviously I woke up at 1AM and couldn't get back to sleep. So obviously I read a book about the Normans on my phone for seven hours and am now editing my thesis whilst hugely sleep deprived.
November 19, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
This feels like a real, are we the baddies, moment for the people in the Labour Party who still consider themselves soft left
The Sun has been told Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will on Monday propose confiscating jewellery, watches, necklaces from asylum seekers to meet asylum costs

This reflects the most controversial aspect of the Danish scheme - the Jewellery Law. The toughest Labour MPs thought this was OTT
November 17, 2025 at 8:08 AM
This has made me realise that I now CANNOT REMEMBER what I wrote in the accompanying essay for this book, so it'll be a nice surprise for us all
I spent over a year of my life writing this collaborative craft book with eleven other (fantastic! talented! good-looking!) writers.

"Sometimes a story emerges fully formed in your mind, and sometimes it’s an onion, requiring several ‘peels’ to get to the real, eye-watering heart of the matter."
November 11, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
I spent over a year of my life writing this collaborative craft book with eleven other (fantastic! talented! good-looking!) writers.

"Sometimes a story emerges fully formed in your mind, and sometimes it’s an onion, requiring several ‘peels’ to get to the real, eye-watering heart of the matter."
November 5, 2025 at 9:12 PM
There's a great passage in one of the Aubrey/Maturin books where Dr. Maturin wonders why all tyrants are so given to tawdriness and lack of aesthetic taste - concluding eventually that nobody with good taste could ever become a tyrant. He was thinking about Napoleon, but it's equally true for Trump.
Just a little more gold and it will be perfect
November 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
My apartment building has a 'free stuff' area in the lobby, where people leave things that they don't want anymore. Over the years I have benefitted from this arrangement by gaining a large whiteboard, a second-hand PS3 with controllers, and - crucially, for this story - a weird rocking stool.
November 8, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
Good morning! AI is being force-fed to you by a handful of billionaires who will lose a bunch of money if they fail to convince you that you need it. You do not need it 🫶
November 6, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
🚨Editor Seeking Emergency Paid Work🚨

My cat, Herakles, is in need of some help as he’s got some health complications thay have arisen and the vet is expensive. Opening 4 editing spots up to 32 pages for $200.
November 7, 2025 at 2:32 PM
I co-authored a fun story about a reformed supervillain with @lindzmcleod.bsky.social for An Honour And a Privilege - an ambitious craft anthology of stories & essays in which Lindz has teamed up with other authors, working collaboratively and then writing reflections on the process. Out next month!
If you have a writer in your life and you'd like them to know that you care about their ambitions, may I suggest ordering a copy of my collaborative craft anthology, An Honour And A Privilege, as a Christmas present? (trust me, you'll get the MOST brownie points)
November 7, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
THIS IS SO GOOD
November 6, 2025 at 4:42 AM
I saw somebody else on here talking about this already, but it bears repeating: the profusion of terrible chatbots masquerading as AI has only reaffirmed the mad genius of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is full of obsequious robots who are bad at their jobs.
November 6, 2025 at 9:38 AM
I really enjoyed the mass signing event at WorldCon on Saturday. I signed a few books, had some fun conversations, and I got invited to do a bookshop event because I got chatting with a lovely reader, even though they didn't have a book for me to sign. It was all very wholesome and worthwhile.
November 4, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I had a lovely time down in Brighton this weekend making new friends, catching up with old ones, and feeling very supported by the writerly community. Thanks to @britfantasysoc.bsky.social and all the organisers for doing a great job in difficult circumstances. See you all in Glasgow next year!
November 3, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Restorative walk along the beach is very much alleviating my hangover this morning
November 1, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
October 31, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Morning, Brighton!
October 31, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
It's that time of year again... to re-listen to Perilous Times by @thomasdlee.bsky.social ⚔️I need a dash of Arthurian hijinks with my dystopia.
October 30, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Tolkien would have abhorred Elon Musk and his ilk, who 'prefer the acquiescence of the “quisling” to the resistance of the patriot'
October 29, 2025 at 11:17 AM
I don't need help beating writers block, I need publishers to invest more in their authors rather than paying the man in the John Searle thought experiment to keep slipping pieces of paper under the door
Nigel Newton, CEO of Bloomsbury, telling us why AI is good for publishing with this fun caveat: “We are programmed deep in our DNA to be comforted by the authority and the reliability of big brand names, & that applies more than ever to the names of big writers."

www.theguardian.com/business/202...
AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief
Publisher last week reported jump in revenue in academic and professional arm thanks to AI licensing deal
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Thomas D. Lee
The AWS outage today is a good reminder that there is no "cloud", there's just somebody else's computer.
October 20, 2025 at 4:19 PM