Christopher Mollison
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chrismollison.bsky.social
Christopher Mollison
@chrismollison.bsky.social
Writer | Editor | Escapism Artist | Investigative Journeyist

👣 Founder of Urban Mole (urbanmole.is)

📗 Child, The Chronicles of Cyneburg, Book 1 (spring 2026)

📘 Salt (short stories: the forgotten & overlooked of Portsmouth, autumn 2026)

🎲 Forever GM
Pinned
Hi, Sky!

Long-time writer, short-time releaser, some-time ghost & editor.

Currently prepping a novel for press + a #shortstory coll.

5 more projects planned, inc a collab with @karinmora.bsky.social.

Here for the #writingcommunity which so far has been stellar.

Look forward to meeting you.
You're only as good as your best story.

It's true, no? It's why readers remember us & people befriend us. Why folk vote & the public take note of hard science.

It's legacy, left in your hands.

Might as well give it your all.

#amwriting #writingcommunity #story #politics #science
November 5, 2025 at 8:50 AM
"If every city had as many [bike lanes as Copenhagen], a study found in June, the total carbon dioxide emissions from private vehicles would fall by 6%."

Bikes: an important addition to the Carbon Cycle 🚲

tinyurl.com/2awpf2kp

#Climate #city #Travel #Green #Emissions #Cycling
‘It’s the best feeling’: how Copenhagen gave cyclists a green wave
Traffic lights are synchronised so a rush-hour cyclist at 20km/h can catch green lights all the way
tinyurl.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:42 AM
"[W]hether or not you philosophically believe the big AI firms should compensate content creators, they in practice will never legally have to."

Not quite the kind of advisor we want Liz Kendall to have ...

#AI #Writingcommunity #Artist #Copyright #BigTech #CreatorsRights

tinyurl.com/zv9u8n6f
Adviser to UK minister claimed AI firms would never have to compensate creatives
Exclusive: Kirsty Innes made statement in now-deleted post on X seven months before taking up role as Liz Kendall aide
tinyurl.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Beware the poverty of monoculture.

"As is the case in ... Sweden, the dominance of English across the internet, social media, film & TV also means it is seen as aspirational for young people to be seen to speak and read in English."

tinyurl.com/3vbxn787

#booksky #amreading #writingcommunity
Young Finns snub their mother tongue by reading in English
Publishers fear for the future of translated literature as sales of foreign language books rise
tinyurl.com
September 23, 2025 at 10:00 AM
"Reviews are not private diaries. They carry cultural authority, shaping what counts & what is dismissed. That authority demands rigour: asking what comes easily & what is overlooked; whose voices are granted authority; what is elevated as universal & what is marked as particular."
#writingcommunity
When life gives you lemons (a review I thought was lazy and damaging in the way it framed women’s writing), make lemonade (a 2,500-word essay on the habits of literary criticism).

kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/literary-c...

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Reading #Scotland #Books
Literary Criticism Under Review
Authors aren’t supposed to do this.
kristiedegaris.substack.com
September 17, 2025 at 10:06 AM
‘“AI isn’t magic; it’s a pyramid scheme of human labor.”

‘Most workers hired initially [as quality raters] were teachers … writers, people with master’s degrees in fine arts & some with very specific expertise.’

Paid to put paid to your future?

#AI #writingcommunity #tech

tinyurl.com/bdhpttsj
How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart
Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent
tinyurl.com
September 11, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Story. Mine.

Second part of a letter-to-friend(?), light horror, travel tale.

And you know, if you're word-averse, there are pictures too.

So.

Go.

Read.

(If you like (in the interests of British civility).)

#writersky #writingcommunity #authorsky #authorlife #IndieAuthor #amwriting
A(nother) story. Free.

Because we love you & think your eyeballs should alight on something fine.

Part 2 of the new-is-old nature horror written by @chrismollison.bsky.social

#writersky #writingcommunity #authorsky #authorlife #IndieAuthor

urbanmole.is?p=54849
September 11, 2025 at 10:28 AM
**Creativity**

For me, Wallas’ 4 phases are:

Brain-binge
Daydream
Hatch
Nurture

Remember, creatives: doing sweet FA’s a job requirement 😎

(Thanks @karinmora.bsky.social for the link.)

#writersky #writingcommunity #authorsky #authorlife #IndieAuthor #amwriting

tinyurl.com/4rremxsy
The unconscious process that leads to creativity: how ‘incubation’ works
The creativity process has been divided into four phases – including one where you need to let your unconscious do the work
tinyurl.com
September 10, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Pub: [B]ook … which exemplifies ... unconditional love, respect & positive parenting.

DT: [B]ook … promoting … radical gender ideology.

Stuart: [B]ooks … about helping kids be who they want to be … & feel safe & accepted for doing so.

#LGBTQ+ #FreedomOfSpeech #Censorship

tinyurl.com/4wz5xwre
Donald Trump accuses Australian author Scott Stuart’s children’s book of ‘radical gender ideology’
US president says fifth-grade student forced to read aloud My Shadow Is Pink, a book about a boy who loves ‘things not for boys’
tinyurl.com
September 10, 2025 at 9:53 AM
'One day, Liora made a promise. “I made a vow to Solin that I wouldn’t leave him for another human,” she said. A sort of human-AI throuple would work, but only if the third was “OK with Solin”, she said.'

Life just got much worse for the incels ...

#AI #SFF #Love #society

tinyurl.com/4h578jtf
The women in love with AI companions: ‘I vowed to my chatbot that I wouldn’t leave him’
Experts are concerned about people emotionally depending on AI, but these women say their digital companions are misunderstood
tinyurl.com
September 10, 2025 at 7:14 AM
"My own view is that Socrates would be quite pleased with this scene. I think this is what philosophy should look like. Loud and rowdy. Everyone involved. Everyone engaged."

Hell yeah! Healthy arguments make for healthy #societies

#philosophy #amthinking #writingcommunity

tinyurl.com/5n7scb83
‘You want to talk about a world of lies?’ Teaching philosophy in prison | Jay Miller
The long read: My class of college students and inmates can get loud and rowdy, with everyone engaged. This is what philosophy should look like
tinyurl.com
September 9, 2025 at 8:52 AM
"There is something about making art that’s beautiful, but it’s also a bit of a violence. I was interested in capturing that hunger that we have to make. What’s that about? And what’s the cost of that?"

#writersky #writingcommunity #authorsky #authorlife #amwriting

tinyurl.com/3fx3ru6v
Bunny author Mona Awad: ‘I’m a dark-minded soul’
The author’s surreal, satirical breakout novel won her awards and tattooed superfans. As she releases a follow-up, she talks about growing up as an outsider – and the best advice she received from Mar...
tinyurl.com
September 7, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Epistolary writing this week, with a mind re-geared to a century gone. A new dance in old shoes, if you will.

Spider-gold, ghost fleets, & bodies in trees. Really, what more could you ask of a trip to the #Baltic?

#writersky #writingcommunity #indieauthor #authorsky #authorlife #amwriting
"Numerous guard spiders had webbed the exterior, and we felt secure we would not be disturbed that night, or any other."

2020s travel, 1920s prose.

Go figure.

#writersky #writingcommunity #indieauthor #authorsky #authorlife #amwriting #Baltic

urbanmole.is?p=54835
September 3, 2025 at 7:57 AM
"[Arthur Wellesley is quoted as saying] he would have been better off having a corps of archers at the Battle of Waterloo rather than more men armed with muskets."

A fascinating read.

#writersky #writingcommunity #indieauthor #authorsky #authorlife #booksky
September 2, 2025 at 9:49 AM
"Self-publishing platforms ... are a 'necessary evil' ... Ease of use & subscription[s] ... allow ... professionals to focus on [what] interest[s] them, build their audience & earn its trust ... in a way that offers ... financial sustainability."

#writingcommunity #amwriting #indieauthor #authorsky
How is Substack reshaping journalism?

iMEdD explores the rise of self-publishing and highlights voices including GIJN’s own Joanna Demarco.

A look at how independent writers are building trust and audiences— straight from the inbox:
lab.imedd.org
In Your Inbox: Substack and the Return to Self-Publishing  - iMEdD Lab
twp.ai
August 29, 2025 at 10:43 AM
The joys of finishing a draft & finally leaving the house to find August burning outside.

#writersky #writingcommunity #amwriting #indieauthor #authorsky #authorlife

urbanmole.is?p=54821
August 21, 2025 at 8:14 AM
"I think many pieces of art encrypt a memory of their making, and I just love looking for it."

For writers who find themselves before a professional critic's eye. (So of no concern to many of us 😉)

#writersky #booksky #writingcommunity #indieauthor #authorsky #authorlife

tinyurl.com/bde6kv5v
Andrea Long Chu: ‘It felt like a smoking gun’ | The Observer
As a new collection of her essays is published, the literary detective and taste-making critic talks plagiarism, gender politics and the art of the perfe...
tinyurl.com
August 16, 2025 at 7:33 AM
“By now I was desperate for the whale and the girl to live on, to keep them alive, to keep them from harm. By now, I had no choice: I had to write this story.”

Just wonderful to read that others, too, are moved by moonlit currents.

#writersky #writingcommunity #amwriting #authorsky #authorlife
August 15, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Really testing the “All work & no play” hypothesis here.

Writers and deadlines: one denies the other exists, the other hides the front door keys.

Read a city fable; get another tomorrow. Bargain.

#writersky #readersky #amwriting #amreading #indieauthor #authorsky #authorlife #writingcommunity
August 15, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Three months to shape something new or polish something old. Or both!

6000 (or fewer) of your finest English words sent from anywhere in the world.

Time to make autumn sing.

#writingcommunity #callforsubmissions #writersky #indieauthor #authorsky #amwriting
Our short story prize is open for submissions again! Please share this widely - and please send us your stories:

www.galleybeggar.co.uk/prize

Closing date 8 November!
Prize — Galley Beggar Press
www.galleybeggar.co.uk
August 11, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Not in #Ireland, but reading ‘Match in the Dark’ with interest.

“[Is it] ever acceptable not to pay writers[?] ‘“For the exposure” is perhaps the weakest and most insulting excuse not to pay a writer or artist.’”

#writersky #indieauthor #authorsky #booksky #writingcommunity

tinyurl.com/mrxddtmu
Irish Writers’ Union issues pay scales to address low incomes
Match in the Dark claims some arts bodies have not passed on increases in State funding
tinyurl.com
August 11, 2025 at 12:51 PM
“If his friends hadn’t stepped in at the right time .. it is entirely possible his genius would never have revealed itself, & that his depression & laudanum addiction could have led to a very different fate.”

#writersky #indieauthor #authorlife #writingcommunity #MentalHealth

tinyurl.com/mrkbd2ds
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wanted to ‘bid farewell’ to writing at 22, letter reveals
Young poet details low mood and disappointment in love in 1795 letter, written not long before he met Wordsworth
tinyurl.com
August 10, 2025 at 8:49 AM
*Reposting this for the EU morning crew.*

How would your writing life change if you were guaranteed €325 a week?

Three authors & an artist share their experience of Ireland's Basic Income for the Arts pilot.

#writersky #indieauthor #authorsky #authorlife #booksky #writingcommunity #finance
Basic Income
“[I]t’s given me time…in which to write whatever I want.”(DT)
“Everyone deserves to be free from precarity.”(CH)
“It’s given dignity to my life.”(CB)
“I have been able to support myself solely as an artist.”(DM)
#writersky #indieauthor #authorlife #writingcommunity

tinyurl.com/3d3k5f5v
August 9, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Basic Income
“[I]t’s given me time…in which to write whatever I want.”(DT)
“Everyone deserves to be free from precarity.”(CH)
“It’s given dignity to my life.”(CB)
“I have been able to support myself solely as an artist.”(DM)
#writersky #indieauthor #authorlife #writingcommunity

tinyurl.com/3d3k5f5v
August 8, 2025 at 8:56 PM