Ollie
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olliefern.bsky.social
Ollie
@olliefern.bsky.social
Fiction writer, literary translator and travelling pet sitter. 🏳️‍🌈🧘🏼‍♂️
https://ollieredfern.substack.com/
Reposted by Ollie
More. Gay hockey. Now.
December 28, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Coffee pause in Covent Garden to write a letter to one of my “Between the Pines” pen pals.
#LetterWriting
December 29, 2025 at 4:10 PM
I'm kinda tempted??
December 29, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Found at the London Review of Books bookshop what I was looking for (the latest Paris Review) and what I didn't know I was looking for (Ursula K. le Guin’s “Book of Cats”.)
December 29, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Thanks Tom for recommending this unique documentary - a mixture of "cute" & "trainwreck". Think Netflix's "Fyre Festival" meets teen cosplayers. I'm left wondering what would have happened if Livejournal users had decided to run a convention back in its heyday! (Maybe Whitby fulfilled that role?!)
No worries! Well worth watching the complete history of the original 2014 Dashcon for context if you have time
DashCon: An Extensive Oral History
YouTube video by STRANGE ÆONS
youtu.be
December 28, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I've spotted these around Camberwell, South London. I actually did try to WhatsApp them last night but the number is not listed. (Intentionally difficult to reach?) Today, I'm pondering if I should send them a text or even call...
#artproject?
December 28, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Thanks for sharing Tom, this is exactly the kind of content I want to watch on this holiday break!
Watched this video about Tumblr nerds reviving a legendarily disastrous convention and it might be the most wholesome thing I’ve ever seen
Dashcon Is Resurrected: The Entire Story Of Dashcon 2
YouTube video by STRANGE ÆONS
youtu.be
December 27, 2025 at 4:51 PM
2025 was the year I turned 50, became a nomadic petsitter, paid off debt, reconnected with old crushes, fell in love with "Just Kids," and spent Christmas alone with a cat named after a Roman empress.

"Magnanimity" was my Word of the Year… what was yours?

picosgemeos.substack.com/p/the-fifty-...
The Fifty-Year-Old Nomad
2025 in review
picosgemeos.substack.com
December 27, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Boxing Day @ Mona's Cafe, Camberwell.
Cappuccino-fueled letters for pen pals.
#letterwriting
December 26, 2025 at 1:24 PM
2026 New Year resolution: to always have three books on the go. A work of fiction, a work of non-fiction, and a poetry collection.
December 25, 2025 at 12:00 PM
"A translator, then, isn’t just a lexical go-between, interpreting one word at a time. A translator, rather, is a reader who re-creates their own path through the textual world of a book."

A really good read in the New Yorker about translation - and currently free to access.
December 24, 2025 at 8:41 AM
I'm not one for End of the Year Lists... except for @rachelondon.bsky.social's Best of Music!

I always discover new bands, and love how she sneaks in a couple of Eurovision tracks. Delighted to see Coach Party back in the charts as well as Suede.

millionreasons.livejournal.com/674939.html
2025 in Song
As usual, the first few songs are bands I saw at Rockaway Beach in Bognor, the festival that basically carries on New Years celebrations for a few more days. The Pill - Woman Driver. Often I find that...
millionreasons.livejournal.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Is there a better feeling than post arriving in the mail?! Not when it's a beautiful Christmas card from one of your pen pals. 🤩

(My own are also out there, on their way to homes across the planet.)
#PenPals
December 17, 2025 at 8:44 PM
I've been running for nearly two years now a series of 100-words-only flash fiction and memoir on #Substack. No. 71 has just arrived:

open.substack.com/pub/picosgem...
The Candle
#71
open.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Iced Mocha Coffee with pashmak, plus Christmas cards and journal @ Persepolis in Peckham, South London. And they are playing the Human League! 👌🏼💫
December 14, 2025 at 4:17 PM
This is the only End of Year Music List that counts.
December 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Ollie
i think if you have a juicy enough tale therapists should give you the session for free because let's be real they love that shit and ought to be paying you for the experience
December 8, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Ham & cheese croissant (I should really go back to being a vegetarian), cappuccino, Foray journal and Muji 0.38 pen @ Mona’s Cafe, Camberwell, South London.
#BlueskyWriters
December 13, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Watched this gorgeous #film last night on MUBI, “Winter in Sokcho”. Three words to describe it: Franco-Korean, Melancholic and Wintry.

Highly recommended for its Korean dishes, cinematography and sensitive character portrayals.
#cinema
December 12, 2025 at 12:08 PM
December 10, 2025 at 6:19 PM
"Between the Pines" - my new epistolary series - has just launched. First exchange is with Stefan, where we write about London cafes, gay life, cats, and books. Excited to see where this goes... More correspondents to follow. 📬🌲

open.substack.com/pub/picosgem...
#epistolary #letterwriting #substack
Between the Pines
A new epistolary series featuring letters, cards, postcards and photography
open.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 9:00 AM
November 30, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Messalina.
#Caturday
November 29, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Number 70 in my series of 100-word-long pieces for Substack. Originally published 10 years ago, when I lived in a tower block by Victoria Park. I adapted it to my current nomadic life and temporary stay in Shoreditch.
#Memoir

open.substack.com/pub/picosgem...
Autumn
#70
open.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Current read: a compelling, page-turning horror about lesbian cannibals in Cumbria. What else do you need to know?!
#TheLamb
November 17, 2025 at 12:52 PM