Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

@jordanacosta.co

1.5K followers 1.7K following 1.2K posts

🇬🇧/🇵🇭 Speculative fiction writer and Creative Director at @unseenhistories.com – rep'd by @jjbker.bsky.social. https://www.jordanacosta.co

www.jordanacosta.co

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · Nov 11

Welcome, new follower!

I’m Jordan Acosta, a British-Filipino speculative writer based near London and rep’d by John Baker at Bell Lomax Moreton; soon to be on editor submission with my debut novel, Dark Century.

More info about the book and my newsletter on my website👇

www.jordanacosta.co

Jordan Acosta

News and updates from British speculative fiction writer, Jordan Acosta

www.jordanacosta.co

4 31

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 3m

Yay!!!

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 8h

‘See’ is most unfortunately the correct verb in the context.

1 2

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 10h

I’d be noping my way out of this friendship straight away.

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 10h

Hot on the heels of finishing the first pass of the audio drama script, I just signed up to do a reading at @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social on Thursday night, where I’ll be reading an extract from my novelette, The Coronet.

If I get a reading, it’s a descent into madness set on Coney Island in 1920!

1 1 6

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 11h

Congratulations Gautam! That’s huge!

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 11h

In the spirit of @cameronjohnston.bsky.social’s post, I’m marking this small milestone of completing the pass of my first ever audio drama adaption of my novelette The Coronet, working with @trackofwords.bsky.social and @storiesalt.bsky.social — once this has been whipped into shape, casting begins!

A screenshot from my audio drama adaption of my novelette, The Coronet.

Text reads:

THE CORONET
BY JORDAN ACOSTA
***
SCENE I
EXT. CONEY ISLAND - DAY.
AMBIENT NOISE OF A BUSY THOROUGHFARE WITH
AMUSEMENT PARK RIDES IN THE BACKGROUND. GROWING TENSION AS A SMALL CROWD GATHERS

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Cameron Johnston @cameronjohnston.bsky.social · 14h

As an author, especially when you're not a big-name author, you definitely have to celebrate all the small milestones along the path of publication, to stop and admire the view sometimes.
It's all-too easy to dwell on deadlines, self-doubt, bad reviews and donut-brains.

2 4 32

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16h

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."

47 1K 3.6K

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 2d

Bad. Ass.

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 3d

If you like dark folklore you must check out @samkhorton.bsky.social's Gorse and its sequel Ragwort, which is out today!

Gorgeous inside and out, it's a haunting tale of love, madness, loss, and mysterious secrets, set in Cornwall amid the clash of Enlightenment with the old magical ways

💙📚🪐

A banner from Solaris with a picture of the book and a quote from Lorraine Wilson reading "brimming with love for the wild places, for the folklore and for the fallibility and generosity of the human heart. Horton is a storyteller outside of time, I suspect he may be fae"

3 14

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 2d

Romero’s data centre will become Immortan Joe’s hideout. The water is to cool the servers.

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 2d

I will often stew on narrative issues for weeks when writing; thinking of every single permutation I can to unlock the best possible version of the story I can. Sometimes that comes in revisions, often my third or fourth go, even if it means rewriting substantial parts of the story.

Worth it.

Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 3d

I am dealing with a “thorny problem” right now, today. It is hard and scary because IT IS ALWAYS HARD AND SCARY. But it is also where you do your best work. It is where stories go from “meh” to “WOW”. When I fix it - because that is the job - I will be that much closer to something worth reading.

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 4d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 3d

Won’t be watching.

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 3d

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

110 1.7K 5.7K

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 4d

The reason the Right are so invested in the myth that the arts have no value isn’t because the arts don’t generate wealth (they do); it’s that studying the arts teaches people to imagine better ways of judging the value of an idea than by counting how much money it makes…

59 510 1.9K

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 4d

After Thatcher hollowed out our manufacturing we were left with financial services, soft cultural influence and intellectual property.

IP is being thrown under the bus with this.

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 4d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Sebas @ohlookbirdies.bsky.social · 6d

"anti-AI people should just learn more about it" motherfucker I know so much about it, that's why I'm anti-AI

12 220 830

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Coach Jerry (referee 🔵) @gopher33j.bsky.social · 6d

As somebody with asthma who uses inhalers - SHUT THE FUCK UP. THIS ARTICLE IS SHAMING PEOPLE WITH A CHRONIC CONDITION.

"Significantly" My ass. You know what else does? AI Data centers - corporations - cows - asphalt - THOUSANDS OF OTHERS THINGS THAT ARE NOT MEDICINE.

Fuck you - fuck you again.

Inhalers contribute significantly to global warming, study finds

Millions of Americans using inhalers for chronic lung diseases like asthma may be unknowingly contributing to global warming, according to new research.

local12.com

120 710 2.5K

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 5d

Absolutely fascinating and a brilliant rise of technology

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 5d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

63 2.8K 7.8K

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 5d

@natania.bsky.social, you might be interested in this if you haven’t seen it!

1 2

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Dorian Dawes @doriandawes.bsky.social · 5d

I cannot comprehend the sheer level of horror that would be millions of weird people sending me ai slop of my dead loved ones.

Chibdm @chibdm.bsky.social · 6d

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

3 14 63

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 5d

He perhaps *is*.

1 1

Reposted by 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆

Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 5d

I agree with every word Zelda Williams says. And this at the end from OpenAI makes me want to go full Ned Ludd. Creators can’t have a blanket opt-out on copyright infringement of their work and have to fill out a form appealing to OpenAI’s mercy every time? Fuck off into the sun

OpenAI told the Guardian that content owners can flag copyright infringement using a “copyright disputes form” but that individual artists or studios cannot have a blanket opt-out. Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, said: “We’ll work with rights holders to block characters from Sora at their request and respond to takedown requests.”

19 250 760

𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕬𝖈𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆 @jordanacosta.co · 5d

I’ve also been calculating some of the distances in my head. Certainly a tour of the UK… seen mainly from the inside of a car.