Kylie
@kyliemmason.com
390 followers 210 following 730 posts
Freelance book editor based in Sydney, Australia. AuDHD. Working on Bidjigal land. I created a workbook to help writers self-edit their novel: https://kyliemmason.com/after-the-first-draft-workbook/ Also my kid's stan account.
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kyliemmason.com
If you're a writer who's recently finished the first draft of their novel, have you thought about self-editing it in preparation for a second draft? I've created a workbook to help you get deep insights into your story and solve common problems! #amediting #amwriting
After the First Draft Workbook
A writer’s guide to self-editing manuscripts. Writing a novel is an amazing achievement! Congratulations! Take a moment to celebrate what you’ve accomplished, because it’s incredible. But wha…
kyliemmason.com
Reposted by Kylie
keithwdickinson.bsky.social
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.
Reposted by Kylie
blipstress.bsky.social
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
Reposted by Kylie
newtownbooks.bsky.social
Australian #BookGiveaway fans -- it's our 3rd and final spring giveaway, and you could win books by Ashley Kalagian Blunt, @roffwrites.bsky.social, Michael Adams and Amy Lovat. Be quick - entries close midnight TONIGHT Thurs 9 Oct 2025.
newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/2025-spring-...
#BookSky 💙 📚
Image of covers of books Cold Truth by Ashley Kalagian Blunt, Here Are My Demands by Andrew Roff, They’ll Never Hold Me by Michael Adams and Big Feelings by Amy Lovat, featured in the Newtown Review of Books 2025 Spring Giveaway #3.
Reposted by Kylie
newtownbooks.bsky.social
Attn Australian book fans! Our 2nd spring giveaway is now on, and you could win this fab bundle of books by Samantha Byres, Murray Middleton, Gretchen Shirm, & Katharine Pollock. Entries close midnight TONIGHT Wed 8 Oct 2025.
newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/2025-spring-...
#BookGIveaway
#BookSky 💙 📚
Image of covers of books Dead Ends by Samantha Byres, U Want It Darker by Murray Middleton, Out of the Woods by Gretchen Shirm and Starry Eyed by Katharine Pollock, featured in the Newtown Review of Books 2025 Spring Giveaway #2.
kyliemmason.com
He had a true 'No Homers' moment today.
Reposted by Kylie
estherschindler.bsky.social
I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.
kyliemmason.com
Today's reason for non-Autistic kids telling my kid he couldn't play with them was he wasn't 'sigma' enough. From a bunch of 8- and 9-year-olds.
kyliemmason.com
Really struggling today with the fact that Autistic kids are 'encouraged' to get various kinds of therapy to help with social skills yet non-Autistic kids can be vicious little arseholes to anyone who's different and that's just 'normal'.
Reposted by Kylie
newtownbooks.bsky.social
Attn Australian #BookSky: our 2025 spring giveaway is on! Win a great bundle of books by Laura McCluskey, Antigone Kefala, Grant Dooley and William Lane. Be quick - entries close midnight TONIGHT Tues 7 Oct 2025.
newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/2025-spring-...
#BookGiveaway
@giramondobooks.bsky.social
Image of covers of books The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey, Collected Works – Fiction by Antigone Kefala, Bomb Season in Jakarta by Grant Dooley and Saturation by William Lane, featured in the Newtown Review of Books 2025 Spring Giveaway #1.
Reposted by Kylie
dieworkwear.bsky.social
the best answer i got for this:
awaitsync on Threads writes: "Metrognome"
kyliemmason.com
Well that would set a certain tone, wouldn't it?
kyliemmason.com
This reminds me of nothing less than Cameo's very mid-80s 'Word Up' music video, but the designer clearly thinks leggings would be a step too far.
criminalerin.bsky.social
Tag yourself in the Gaultier Spring 2026 Ready to Wear looks lol this is basically my gender
A white male model in, okay. Well, it's fashion! His face and exposed chest are very pale, and his long legs are very tan. You can see all of his legs, from above the hip bone, because he is wearing a black maybe leather longsleeved body suit. He is also wearing inexplicably clunky black open toed sandals. The texture of the leather bodysuit is thick and wrinkles. It's really hard to describe how this or any of these looks look, because they're very future space looking with extremely dystopian vibes.
kyliemmason.com
The 8yo asked me to cut his hair for the first time in three years. Between me being out of practice and him changing his mind halfway through, he now slightly resembles a child of the 1920s rather than the 2020s.
kyliemmason.com
Australians whose hobby is American politics are really very boring.
Reposted by Kylie
lucasbrowneyes.bsky.social
Microsoft shoved their AI Copilot into everything in Windows 11. Which lead to an increase in Windows 10 use. So they announced they'd stop support for Windows 10, but its usage was still strong. So they started to put Copilot into Windows 10.

Windows 7 use is surging 5x now.

AI is product poison.
Reposted by Kylie
planetoffinks.bsky.social
Hi I'm an A list actor and I've written a novel and/or a children's book. It's fine. Solid B minus writing. First printing is 800,000 copies
kyliemmason.com
Also the language classes you can only attend if your family speaks that language at home. This term, my kid spent 'language class time' making a pencil holder that he was apparently not allowed to bring home.
kyliemmason.com
Do not even get me started on the time wasted by the scripture classes public schools are required to offer, which few students attend. My kid tells me those who don't attend scripture in his class have been watching moves until the others get back.
kyliemmason.com
My kid's public school is lucky to touch on music education once a term, if at all. Nothing outside what's required by the curriculum and no extracurricular musical activities because parents can't afford to pay for it.

At this point, I'd *welcome* recorder lessons as part of curriculum.
chrisnsimms.bsky.social
We knew learning to play an instrument seemed to help reading skills in young children, but we didn't know how.

It turns out that it seems to work by enhancing the ability to recognise and manipulate the sounds that make up words. 🧪 #mind #reading #music

www.newscientist.com/article/2498...
How playing a musical instrument helps children learn to read
Learning to play an instrument has long been linked to improved reading skills among children, and we may finally understand why
www.newscientist.com
Reposted by Kylie
joshuajfriedman.com
One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."
A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute.
Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.
I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way.
Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose.
The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why.
Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes.
I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic).
"To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus
Reposted by Kylie
arrantpedantry.com
I'd also add that there's a lot more to life than work. Having a well-rounded education enriches one's life in a lot of ways.
labyrinthrat.bsky.social
We don't know what the jobs or technology of the future will look like, which is why education should not be job-prep, it should be learning how to be critical thinkers.

Teaching students to use AI is the opposite of teaching them to think critically.
kyliemmason.com
First day of school holidays and the 8yo just put in orders for breakfast and lunch like this is some kind of all-inclusive resort.