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drvandermast.bsky.social
Dr Vandermast
@drvandermast.bsky.social
1.9K followers 2.4K following 3.3K posts
Writer of this and that. Reader of the other.
Not a doctor, and my name isn't Vandermast.
https://tinyurl.com/jasonmillshq
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drvandermast.bsky.social
Flowers for Algernon, Zohran-style.
November 11, 2025 at 6:56 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Bartlett for America.
November 8, 2025 at 11:56 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Bartlett for America, in Zohran campaign style.
November 8, 2025 at 11:49 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
Privateering, by Mark Knopfler.
November 8, 2025 at 1:17 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
I've not read much that was published this year, but of those:

Written on the Dark,
by Guy Gavriel Kay

...which I reviewed this:
Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay To Ferrieres (old France enchanted), where A tavern poet, Villar, gets drawn in To winter killings, royalty’s affair, A high duke murdered, maybe by his kin. The humble scribbler, quickly in deep water, Must seal his courtly friendships while he can, For looming down the eastern road is slaughter And poets’ tongues may feature in Jad’s plan. The prosaist’s and poet’s spirits meet In telling of a close imagined war, Of lovers won and treachery’s defeat (Though some damned fiend has ravaged Agincourt!). Deftly touching prior novels’ turns, Kay strives to craft the elegance he earns.
November 7, 2025 at 5:11 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Ideal pressie for Austen fans. 😀

Pride and Prejudice in Sonnets

Jane Austen's timeless tale of romance and misunderstanding is here retold in sonnets, one poem for each chapter. Enjoy this classic story afresh in suitably genteel verse.

#JaneAusten #Regency

mybook.to/pandpsonnets
Pride and Prejudice in Sonnets. By Jason Mills.
November 1, 2025 at 6:08 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Wolf Solent, by yer man John Cowper Powys.
Wolf Solent, by yer man John Cowper Powys.
November 1, 2025 at 12:42 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Forget not the Salmon of Doubt!
The Salmon of Doubt, by Douglas Adams.
November 1, 2025 at 11:17 AM
drvandermast.bsky.social
On the Origin of Species, in Sonnets

The first edition of Charles Darwin's world-changing text, rendered into sonnet form for ease and pleasure.

#science #poetry #darwin #evolution

mybook.to/originsonnets
On the Origin of Species, in Sonnets. By Jason Mills.
October 31, 2025 at 8:53 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
My best work, if a bit niche:

The Calm Before The Storm
A Prequel To The Tempest

A younger Prospero seeks out a witch to learn her magic. But she has her own dark plans...

#tempest #shakespeare #drama

mybook.to/calmstorm
The Calm Before The Storm: A Prequel To The Tempest. By Jason Mills. Cover depicts a ship becalmed.
October 31, 2025 at 8:00 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
You all outta riddles? Gotcha covered! 😀

Resplendent Riddles

Two entire hundreds of original chin-stroking riddles, presented in finest English verse.

General fun, also handy to drop into roleplaying games. #ttrpg

mybook.to/resplendentr...
Resplendent Riddles. By Jason Mills.
October 30, 2025 at 1:15 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Review of my latest reading:

The Phantom Tollbooth
By Norton Juster.

#books
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Milo takes no interest at school. He doesn’t want to learn what he can’t use. The tollbooth leads to lands of long misrule, Where words and maths don’t mingle, but confuse. The Doldrums’ dog becomes his first companion, The next a bumbling bug of high pomposity. At length they must ascend the demons’ canyon, Besieged by every model of monstrosity. This light but lifting tale is widely cherished. Milo learns to learn, and love the new. Rhyme and reason, gone, have all but perished, And saving them must save their saviour too. This fable is as full of wit and whimsy As Shrift is short and borogroves are mimsy.
October 28, 2025 at 10:51 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Review of my latest reading:

What Have I Done?
An autobiography by Ben Elton.
Review of What Have I Done? An autobiography by Ben Elton. Honest, vulnerable, resilient, Ben presents adventures of his life (Though not much on his novels, often brilliant, And not much on his family, bar his wife): Student digs, precocious stage productions; Uneasy status, easy laughs, with Rik; Thwarted by America’s obstructions; Alternative comedians’ new schtick: A thousand projects, not always successful; A thousand treatments for psoriasis; A thousand critics’ maulings, ever stressful; Hard the heart that can’t admire this! It’s sitcoms, musicals and parenthood. (But what befell the Structure made of wood?)
October 26, 2025 at 7:38 AM
drvandermast.bsky.social
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. Saw the film about 50 years ago, time to read the book. 😀
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster.
October 25, 2025 at 2:51 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
All you need to do to enjoy this book is buy it and read it. Couldn't be simpler! 😀

The Dreams of a Seahorse
Fantasy Poems

#fantasy #poetry

mybook.to/seahorsedreams
The Dreams of a Seahorse: Fantasy Poems. By Jason Mills.
October 24, 2025 at 6:56 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
One of my stories, Plinthgate Papers, inhabits this cool anthology. 😀

The Science Fiction Tarot: Luminous Symbols of All the Tomorrows to Come.
Edited by Brandon Butler.

www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Fict...
The Science Fiction Tarot: Luminous Symbols of All the Tomorrows to Come.
October 23, 2025 at 5:45 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
What Have I Done?, by Ben Elton, via Bert. 🙂
What Have I Done?, by Ben Elton.
October 18, 2025 at 4:30 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Pretty mushroom.
October 18, 2025 at 9:56 AM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Review of my latest reading:
Daddy Edgar's Pools, by the redoubtable Mike Harding, @churchcat.bsky.social .

www.amazon.co.uk/Daddy-Edgars...
Jason Mills' review of: Daddy Edgar’s Pools by Mike Harding This first of Mike’s collections is intense, Uncompromising verse that won’t forsake One instant of what falls on every sense, One speck of spice that shocks the soul awake. Farmers, fathers, wallers, hacks and monks; Dales and desert, stone and fell and moor; Cuts of time slammed down in peaty chunks: The world is sick and words must serve as cure. Insisting on attention to the small, On lowest detail caught by highest craft, He herds his flock of years and counts them all, Bears witness to the earth, the rain, the graft. The proper sort of gardener, goes the song, The Mister Harding kind, knows all belong. Cover of Daddy Edgar's Pools, by Mike Harding, showing a uniformed brass band player.
October 14, 2025 at 10:53 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Review of latest reading, Fire and Blood, by yer man George RR Martin.
Fire and Blood by George RR Martin. From Aegon’s Conquest over Westeros That hammered seven kingdoms into one, Every struggle, triumph, double-cross, Each lord, each Hand, each hard Velaryon Is chronicled by Archmaester Gyldayn For (in this volume) six-score years and more, Equivocating when the facts aren't plain, Contending sources pushing to the fore. Sex and death and dragons, mutilation: All the dials are turned up to eleven; Yet annals hold not quite the fascination Of George’s other books, blessed by the Seven. The story closes halfway through, but neatly (Though credit’s late for portraitist Doug Wheatley).
October 13, 2025 at 10:47 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
I preach it as entertainment. 😉

The Bible in Limericks: Each Chapter in Verse

The fast, fun and irreverent way to find out what's in it!

mybook.to/biblelimericks
The Bible in Limericks: Each Chapter in Verse
October 13, 2025 at 5:59 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
No.
Beveridge's law of headlines: if a headline is a question, the answer's no.
October 11, 2025 at 8:57 AM
drvandermast.bsky.social
The Bible in Limericks: Each Chapter in Verse

The fast, fun and irreverent way to find out what's in it!

mybook.to/biblelimericks
The Bible in Limericks: Each Chapter in Verse. By Jason Mills.
October 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
Big mushroom thing.
October 4, 2025 at 11:12 PM
drvandermast.bsky.social
I like Muds.
Mudskipper.
October 2, 2025 at 6:49 PM