Justin Lee Anderson
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justinleeanderson.com
Justin Lee Anderson
@justinleeanderson.com
4.2K followers 3.1K following 2.1K posts
Scottish fantasy author of Carpet Diem as well as The Eidyn Saga from @orbitbooks.bsky.social. The Damned King OUT NOW. He/Him. Rep by @canonizer.bsky.social #Edinburgh, @afc.co.uk and @scottishgreens.org
Author support at: TheWriteAdvice.co.uk
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justinleeanderson.com
Justin Lee Anderson @justinleeanderson.com · Jan 4
If you are a self-published / indie SFFH writer or reviewer, I have exciting news. We’ve just soft launched our new site, BookMatch, a matchmaking site for reviewers and books. We’re currently recruiting reviewers to our community. Want to be part of it? Come sign up! bookmatch.co.uk
bookmatch.co.uk
justinleeanderson.com
I meant in a ‘creative’ aspect. I am, for example, all for AI being used as a tool to help with medical diagnoses. I understand it is very good at catching early signs of breast cancer. I am not anti-AI in all its forms. To borrow a phrase, I want it to do the dishes while we make art.
February 11, 2026 at 8:30 AM
justinleeanderson.com
Art is about humans sharing experiences. It’s a conversation between souls. The minute software enters that equation, it’s no longer art, it’s just commerce. I’m not interested in what software thinks the best next words might be. I want to know what an author has lived.
February 11, 2026 at 7:37 AM
justinleeanderson.com
That “if” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
February 10, 2026 at 11:36 PM
justinleeanderson.com
Generative AI is built on stolen work. Authors rightly complaining about having our work stolen to feed AI that’s then trying to compete with us can’t turn around and use it to generate art based on work stolen from artists in exactly the same position. We’re all in this together.
February 10, 2026 at 8:50 PM
justinleeanderson.com
Even the covers. Solidarity with all artists. 🤜🏻 🤛🏻
February 10, 2026 at 5:34 PM
justinleeanderson.com
In light of the current #AI conversation, just to say that BookMatch will have a zero tolerance policy for AI. Any book found to have been created with AI, including the use of AI covers, will be removed from the site without refund. We’re only interested in books someone could be bothered to write.
An image of two planets in space featuring the logo for BookMatch, and text reading “The spark to set your book on fire”. The web address BookMatch.co.uk appears in the corner.
February 9, 2026 at 2:49 PM
justinleeanderson.com
Thank you. Financially, we’re OK for now!
February 8, 2026 at 5:55 PM
justinleeanderson.com
Absolutely. It’s hard accepting your body has limits.
February 8, 2026 at 5:32 PM
justinleeanderson.com
So, in short, 2025 was awful. Bear with me. I have always known how this series ends. I just need the time, health and energy to get it all down and do it justice. Thanks for waiting. I’ll try to make it worth it. Slainte Justin
February 8, 2026 at 5:09 PM
justinleeanderson.com
Over Christmas, I caught the third bug I’d had since the end of November, and also managed to fall and break a bone in my hand. In January, drugs I’d been given for the chronic pain disorder flared up my chronic sinusitis and led to a sinus infection. Last week, I had a lip biopsy as part of confirming the autoimmune diagnosis and on Thursday I woke up with the wound extremely painful, swollen and infected. That was the point where I finally accepted I needed to take some time off sick to let my body recover (along with a course of antibiotics). Today, I finally woke up without the sharp, throbbing pain in my face. Again, none of this is to say “woe is me”. People live with worse. But if you don’t live with chronic illness or don’t know someone who does, you might not be aware of how much we just “keep going” and “push through” against pain, fatigue and illness before we finally stop and rest, because we have to. I know a lot of authors do - there is an unusually high incidence of both chronic illness and neurodiversity amongst authors - certainly in the SFFH genres. What I realised over Christmas was that I have to cut back on what I do. I cannot do a full time job, write and manage just about anything else. So I’ve ended my active participation in the Scottish Green party, and I’m retiring from mentoring other authors because I just don’t have the spoons for it. I’ve started actively avoiding making plans with friends except for special occasions. I’m trying to pare my life down to work/rest/write - with the exception of one long-term project that’s been ongoing for over a year and is just coming to fruition - and I’m trying other things to improve my health and wellbeing too. All of this is to say - the final book is coming. I promise. It’s late, but it’s late for good reasons, which I have had to accept and come to terms with over the last year, and particularly the last few months. I’m actively working on my health and making space for more writing in my life. I will finish it this year, hopefully sooner rather than later. I’m very happy to say that my editor at Orbit, Bradley, has been nothing but an absolute support - I’m very, very lucky to work with him.
February 8, 2026 at 5:09 PM
justinleeanderson.com
A bit of news:
So the world’s on fire and everything sucks. Anyone else really tired of living through interesting times? During a time when everything is so fucking awful, it’s hard to write about how shitty and difficult my own life has been because, well, I wasn’t bombed out of my home, kidnapped or murdered in the street, so everything sort of pales, right? But in the interest of transparency, I wanted to share something to give context to why I haven’t finished writing the last Eidyn book yet. Even saying that, I feel like “who fucking cares, man? The world is falling apart.” And I think the reason it’s taken me so long to get around to writing this - other than what will become obvious - is that exact notion that it’s all so unimportant in the grand scheme. But if you’re interested in personal context, here’s where my last 18 months or so have gone. In late 2024, for different reasons, my wife and I both found ourselves suddenly with no income. Over the next ten months, a combination of the benefits system, freelancing anything I could, cutting our outgoings to the bone and eventually picking up a living wage job somehow allowed us to keep the house until we got back on our feet. I’m still genuinely unsure how we didn’t lose the house, and I’m very grateful for the Scottish systems in place to catch people when they fall. It was a deeply, deeply stressful and worrying year. On top of that, you may or may not know my health has been crappy most of my adult life. In the last year, I have finally been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, a chronic pain disorder (possibly caused by the autoimmune disease), and early symptoms of arthritis, and I’m under investigation for the cause of a second chronic pain issue causing migraines (which there might actually be something they can do about, and that alone would be life-changing). Oh, and I’ve been on a waiting list for an official ADHD assessment for over a year (at least). None of this is to say “woe is me” - people live with a lot worse than chronic underlying pain and fatigue, and a regular complete inability to focus. Unfortunately a side effect of the autoimmune disease is that I have a barely functioning immune system, meaning I also catch every bug going and I usually get it worse than most. A bug that might last a few days in other people can lay me out for two weeks. And I’ve had even more of them since Covid - like a lot of people.
February 8, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Justin Lee Anderson
laurenwrites.bsky.social
Joining us at Writing the Occult: Love & Death on 14 February, with their OPINIONS and reflections on Wuthering Heights, are gothic and fantasy author @rflong.bsky.social , editor and author @justinleeanderson.com, and horror writer and token Yorkshire panelist @corinnepwriter.bsky.social

🧵⬇️
February 6, 2026 at 6:17 PM
justinleeanderson.com
Take ten minutes and watch Mark Kermode absolutely eviscerate ‘Melania’. It will cheer you up.
Mark Kermode reviews Melania
YouTube video by Kermode and Mayo's Take
youtu.be
February 6, 2026 at 5:18 PM
justinleeanderson.com
I have drugs and rest. But it bloody stings, I can tell you!
February 6, 2026 at 12:15 AM
justinleeanderson.com
In case you’ve ever wondered, having a biopsy of minor saliva glands taken out of your lip is really quite bloody unpleasant, painful and, it seems, prone to infection. :/
February 5, 2026 at 11:11 PM
justinleeanderson.com
Haven’t seen it yet. Cannot wait.
February 5, 2026 at 11:07 PM
justinleeanderson.com
I was today years old. Well.
scalzi.com John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 8d
To everyone just now finding out Isaac Asimov was rather famously a sex pest: He's been gone 34 years now, you can handle this truth, I believe in you
February 5, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Justin Lee Anderson
laurenwrites.bsky.social
🖤And a special panel discussion about Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, featuring @rflong.bsky.social, @justinleeanderson.com & @corinnepwriter.bsky.social.

It's going to be one big day of gothic delights. Can we add your name to our dance card?

🧵⬇️
February 5, 2026 at 2:07 PM
justinleeanderson.com
The more things change…
lalahaenzy.com Omg. WTF is Happening? @lalahaenzy.com · 9d
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
February 5, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Justin Lee Anderson
robertbrice.bsky.social
Also, haven't properly pumped up any fiction on my TL in a minute.

If you're a Grimdark fantasy fan, I just tore through @anthonyryan.bsky.social's Raven Shadow series and as I just posted, @justinleeanderson.com's Eidyn Saga is quite the ride as well.
February 4, 2026 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Justin Lee Anderson
robertbrice.bsky.social
So I finished reading @justinleeanderson.com's The Damned King on the weekend and I am still not over it despite having read another book over the last 3 days. That ending left me REELING in a way that felt reminiscent to reading George R R Martin's A Storm Of Swords about 20 years ago.
February 4, 2026 at 9:15 PM
justinleeanderson.com
Come on now. Camelon is right in the middle of Scotland. ;)
February 4, 2026 at 8:02 AM
justinleeanderson.com
Scotland! Only a few weeks until I get to hang out with @ryancahill.bsky.social to talk about the massive Of Blood and Fire, the first book in his epic series The Bound and the Broken, coming out from @thebrokenbinding.bsky.social. Come see us at Toppings St Andrews on the 21st!
Promo image for Ryan Cahill in conversation with Justin Lee Anderson to celebrate Of Blood a Fire. Saturday 21st February, 7PM, Topping & Company, St Andrews. Tickets available now!
February 4, 2026 at 7:33 AM
justinleeanderson.com
All the AI marketing telling me how much they loved the ‘finale’ of The Damned King, giving away they don’t know there’s a fourth book coming. Falling at the first hurdle, LLM dudes.
February 3, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Justin Lee Anderson
laurenwrites.bsky.social
Also joining us to reflect on Emily Bronte's classic, Wuthering Heights, is @justinleeanderson.com, whose own works span the gamut of humour, epic fantasy, politics, animation, and TV & film scripts. Meet Justin in the thread below, or head straight to writingtheoccult.carrd.co to get details & tix!
A text-heavy graphic features a short bio for the writer Justin Lee Anderson. He is pictured at right: a man with shoulder-length curly hair, wearing glasses and a burgundy leather jacket, and standing in front of old stonework.
January 31, 2026 at 4:57 PM