Simon Spanton
@simonguy.bsky.social
"I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself."
Wandering. Wondering. Freelancing. Often acquiring and editing SFFH for Angry Robot Books. Live in Edinburgh. Views my own and independent of my employers. Photos my own unless otherwise etc.
Wandering. Wondering. Freelancing. Often acquiring and editing SFFH for Angry Robot Books. Live in Edinburgh. Views my own and independent of my employers. Photos my own unless otherwise etc.
Pinned
Simon Spanton
@simonguy.bsky.social
· Nov 26
"Out on the pale criss-crossed sand, high-stepping, fringed, gauntleted, stalked some fantastic leviathan..."
To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
They say never meet your heroes but she would be so worth the risk.
What an extraordinary writer and fierce spirit.
What an extraordinary writer and fierce spirit.
January 7, 2026 at 3:41 PM
They say never meet your heroes but she would be so worth the risk.
What an extraordinary writer and fierce spirit.
What an extraordinary writer and fierce spirit.
Forging on through the first working Wednesday afternoon of the year like...
January 7, 2026 at 3:38 PM
Forging on through the first working Wednesday afternoon of the year like...
Reposted by Simon Spanton
I do love a carnyx. Imagine being a regular Iron Age guy and hearing this in the distance like the voice of God.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6oS...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6oS...
Ancient War Horns (Carnyx + Bronze Lur)
YouTube video by Vingul
www.youtube.com
January 7, 2026 at 12:14 PM
I do love a carnyx. Imagine being a regular Iron Age guy and hearing this in the distance like the voice of God.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6oS...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6oS...
"One Ringo to rule them all and in the darkness park them."
reading moby-dick and getting brainwashed by Big Spermaceti
January 7, 2026 at 12:02 PM
"One Ringo to rule them all and in the darkness park them."
"The boy never thought it strange that his father should be a rainstorm, his mother an apple tree; it was so; that was all; and he loved the tree quite as much as if she had been a person. I am the tree's son, he thought; I am the rain child; they are both looking after me."
January 7, 2026 at 11:41 AM
"The boy never thought it strange that his father should be a rainstorm, his mother an apple tree; it was so; that was all; and he loved the tree quite as much as if she had been a person. I am the tree's son, he thought; I am the rain child; they are both looking after me."
All of these. But oh boy, the car, obviously, hanging there amongst the crows.
But also that first one, that first one...
But also that first one, that first one...
A (slightly belated) happy new year! Allow me to introduce myself to those of you unfamiliar with my work; I’m Lee, I’m a painter from England, I’m a fan of abandoned buildings, moody narratives and quiet, mildly foreboding landscapes.
January 7, 2026 at 10:17 AM
All of these. But oh boy, the car, obviously, hanging there amongst the crows.
But also that first one, that first one...
But also that first one, that first one...
This is a wonderful piece.
Here is a piece I wrote about banned books.
Featuring none of my favourite people - Joey Barton, Rishi Sunak, Bro-normative and his best female-coded-services gal
And some of my favourite things - libraries, dangerous ideas, unthinkable kinks, spanking flamboyance
dorseteye.com/alert-alert-...
Featuring none of my favourite people - Joey Barton, Rishi Sunak, Bro-normative and his best female-coded-services gal
And some of my favourite things - libraries, dangerous ideas, unthinkable kinks, spanking flamboyance
dorseteye.com/alert-alert-...
Alert! Alert! Freaks and Weirdos and Scary Ideas! - Dorset Eye
In a mindless scroll through social media yesterday, due, I hasten to add, to a friend’s indignation rather than my own preferences, I accidentally noticed ex-footballer Joey Barton. Joey Barton, foun...
dorseteye.com
January 7, 2026 at 10:04 AM
This is a wonderful piece.
Reposted by Simon Spanton
"Hard times are coming, when we'll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope...realists of a larger reality."
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
January 7, 2026 at 9:34 AM
"Hard times are coming, when we'll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope...realists of a larger reality."
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
"The day broke wild and shaggy. What light there was seeped into the glass buildings as though ashamed. All but a fraction of the guests who had attended the Cusp-Canines' party lay like fossils in their separate beds, or, for various sunken causes, tossed and turned in seas of dreams."
January 7, 2026 at 9:19 AM
"The day broke wild and shaggy. What light there was seeped into the glass buildings as though ashamed. All but a fraction of the guests who had attended the Cusp-Canines' party lay like fossils in their separate beds, or, for various sunken causes, tossed and turned in seas of dreams."
"I knew that she would come, like bitter winter, like the storm clouds rolling to us dark across the fields."
@ellenkushner.bsky.social
@ellenkushner.bsky.social
January 6, 2026 at 4:07 PM
"I knew that she would come, like bitter winter, like the storm clouds rolling to us dark across the fields."
@ellenkushner.bsky.social
@ellenkushner.bsky.social
The Trouble with Cacti.
—
Cactus, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Lone Pine, California
—
Cactus, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Lone Pine, California
—
January 6, 2026 at 2:28 PM
The Trouble with Cacti.
Whatever issues I may or may not have with the TV Amadeus it did at least mean that I watched the 1984 film again (Abraham's old Salieri surely an inspiration for Oldman's old Dracula?). It also prompted me to get this, which I'd not heard before and is incredibly lovely.
So two times a win.
So two times a win.
January 6, 2026 at 11:37 AM
Whatever issues I may or may not have with the TV Amadeus it did at least mean that I watched the 1984 film again (Abraham's old Salieri surely an inspiration for Oldman's old Dracula?). It also prompted me to get this, which I'd not heard before and is incredibly lovely.
So two times a win.
So two times a win.
"Empty, silent, forbidding as a lunar landscape, and as uncharted, a tract of Gormenghast lay all about him.
There was no sound, no call of a bird or screech of an insect to break the silence of the stone. No rivulet slid lisping across the flagstones of Great Halls.
He was quite lost."
There was no sound, no call of a bird or screech of an insect to break the silence of the stone. No rivulet slid lisping across the flagstones of Great Halls.
He was quite lost."
January 6, 2026 at 10:25 AM
"Empty, silent, forbidding as a lunar landscape, and as uncharted, a tract of Gormenghast lay all about him.
There was no sound, no call of a bird or screech of an insect to break the silence of the stone. No rivulet slid lisping across the flagstones of Great Halls.
He was quite lost."
There was no sound, no call of a bird or screech of an insect to break the silence of the stone. No rivulet slid lisping across the flagstones of Great Halls.
He was quite lost."
Yes this one. But also the utter joy and purity of My Neighbour Totoro.
Never watched a Ghibli film before my forties so the childlike wonder of the films was all the more powerful.
Never watched a Ghibli film before my forties so the childlike wonder of the films was all the more powerful.
Laputa / Castle in the Sky for sure. The robots! The pirates! The score! (And the silence!) The tree! I first saw it when I was 7 or 8 maybe, and it sank right into my marrow.
January 5, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Yes this one. But also the utter joy and purity of My Neighbour Totoro.
Never watched a Ghibli film before my forties so the childlike wonder of the films was all the more powerful.
Never watched a Ghibli film before my forties so the childlike wonder of the films was all the more powerful.
Cooking tea music.
All This is Chance by Lisa O'Neill.
And never did a singer look more like she sounds.
All This is Chance by Lisa O'Neill.
And never did a singer look more like she sounds.
January 5, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Cooking tea music.
All This is Chance by Lisa O'Neill.
And never did a singer look more like she sounds.
All This is Chance by Lisa O'Neill.
And never did a singer look more like she sounds.
If you have read more than half a dozen SF or Fantasy books the chances are very high that Patrick will have had something to do with at least one of them or, at the very least, the author of that book will have been influenced or inspired by a book he was involved with.
News of me: I’m retiring. I’m 67 years old and I’ve worked full-time at Tor Books for 37 of those years. Today, January 5, is my official last day. This has been in train for several months, and while it hasn’t been a secret for some time, I haven’t mentioned it on social media until now. (1/3)
January 5, 2026 at 2:51 PM
If you have read more than half a dozen SF or Fantasy books the chances are very high that Patrick will have had something to do with at least one of them or, at the very least, the author of that book will have been influenced or inspired by a book he was involved with.
"She was reading aloud in a deep voice that rose above the steady drone of a hundred cats. They filled the room. Whiter than the tallow that hung from the candelabra or lay broken on the table of birdseed. Whiter than the pillows on the bed. They sat everywhere. The counterpane was hidden with them"
January 5, 2026 at 2:35 PM
"She was reading aloud in a deep voice that rose above the steady drone of a hundred cats. They filled the room. Whiter than the tallow that hung from the candelabra or lay broken on the table of birdseed. Whiter than the pillows on the bed. They sat everywhere. The counterpane was hidden with them"
Oh for goodness' sake...
January 5, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Oh for goodness' sake...
"I experienced tremendous happiness as I was making this film."
Happy birthday Hayao Miyazaki.
Happy birthday Hayao Miyazaki.
January 5, 2026 at 10:17 AM
"I experienced tremendous happiness as I was making this film."
Happy birthday Hayao Miyazaki.
Happy birthday Hayao Miyazaki.
"Indeed Bilbo found he had lost more than spoons - he had lost his reputation."
There and back again after a six hour drive through snow, behind snowplows and gritters.
There and back again after a six hour drive through snow, behind snowplows and gritters.
January 4, 2026 at 6:40 PM
"Indeed Bilbo found he had lost more than spoons - he had lost his reputation."
There and back again after a six hour drive through snow, behind snowplows and gritters.
There and back again after a six hour drive through snow, behind snowplows and gritters.
Film:
Spirited Away
Books:
Gogmagog and Ludluda by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg.
Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle
Spirited Away
Books:
Gogmagog and Ludluda by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg.
Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle
Are there some more fantasy movies and books in the realm of NeverEnding Story, Phantom Tollbooth, or Labyrinth that I'm unaware of?
Fantasy stories that aren't about elves and dragons and other Tolkien-esque things?
Where all of the creatures and concepts and races are new and made up and weird?
Fantasy stories that aren't about elves and dragons and other Tolkien-esque things?
Where all of the creatures and concepts and races are new and made up and weird?
January 4, 2026 at 7:51 AM
Film:
Spirited Away
Books:
Gogmagog and Ludluda by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg.
Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle
Spirited Away
Books:
Gogmagog and Ludluda by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg.
Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle
Geometric portalage.
Oh @simonguy.bsky.social ...
Which door to the best #newyear ? ...Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
#photography #bloomington #blueskyartshow
#photography #bloomington #blueskyartshow
January 3, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Geometric portalage.
Alison's photo of the hill above the village and the snow that fell on it.
January 3, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Alison's photo of the hill above the village and the snow that fell on it.
Please enjoy Alison's video (and voiceover) of the dog in the snow.
January 3, 2026 at 12:38 PM
Please enjoy Alison's video (and voiceover) of the dog in the snow.
I think we will need the help of Scotland's gritting lorries (Gritty Gritty Bang Bang and Gritallica amongst them) to get us home tomorrow.
January 3, 2026 at 12:25 PM
I think we will need the help of Scotland's gritting lorries (Gritty Gritty Bang Bang and Gritallica amongst them) to get us home tomorrow.