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maiqueen.bsky.social
The Mai Queen
@maiqueen.bsky.social
100 followers 300 following 28 posts
Bookshop woman. Guttersnipe. Chrysalid. Crone. She/her.
Be kind, babies.
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maiqueen.bsky.social
Today’s five minute drawing, by Ben (11) and Mai (51)
An overlapping drawing of two flying crows, in posca pen and watercolour felt tip
November 20, 2025 at 3:38 PM
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chowleen.bsky.social
I read this poem to my students today.
chowleen.bsky.social eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · Oct 19
You wonder who they mean,
but then you see. Their poison hemlock? That
is you. Their brown tree snake. Their killer bee.

-Amit Majmudar, 'Invasive Species'
#everynightapoem
We flower where we flower.
AMIT MAJMUDAR Invasive Species The bees are Africanized. All elm disease is Dutch. The carp is Asian, the python of the Everglades specifically Burmese. The plague bacillus sailed from India to Europe. Europe coughed khaki back at India. Everything is alien, especially star thistle with its spurs and bursts, unearthly, mapping its home galaxy like a foundling with a fleur-de-lys foot tattoo. Though even lilies hitchhike— every ditch lily was once a tiger lily, treasured in the garden of a Mughal. Everybody thinks the Mughals Indian, but Mughal comes from Mongol. Invaders make themselves at home and home remakes them into natives. Everybody comes from someplace else where they were royal refugees. We flower where we flower, flinging roots like ropes from runaway hot air balloons to snag a city's skyline. It never feels like an invasion when you're doing it. It feels like parenting, like cooking what you've always cooked, like dancing with your grandma at a noisy wedding But then you turn to see the horrified park rangers staring at you, calling in the experts-look at this, what do we do, they're everywhere. You wonder who they mean, but then you see. Their poison hemlock? That is you. Their brown tree snake. Their killer bee.
November 19, 2025 at 4:48 PM
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mattthr.bsky.social
This mural has gone up in Kingston, ostensibly for Christmas but AI has ensured it's actually to celebrate the return of our dark lord Cthulhu
November 18, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by The Mai Queen
chloecumming.bsky.social
These puffins and kings have also just been added to the following gallery/shop. Lots of interesting resonant ghosty kinda stuff there, if you’re interested. And you should be dammit

www.chloecumming.com/monoprintdra...
Puffin made of vibes, diaphanous atmospheric puffin standing sideways in a prismatic landscape King of self belief, pink and blue Charles I type king, watch out buddy A bollard and a cone and a puffin with intense deep warm colours and pastel and monoprint textures Cautionary king, Turin shroud ass king who looks like he’s done a ghost print of his own face on Thora Hird’s best tea towel. Plantagenet
November 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
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raynewman.bsky.social
I've got a fresh batch of paperbacks in if anyone wants to buy directly from me for Christmas. Same deal as back in July: £13 each, or both for £25, including UK postage.

precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/07/25/a...
A rare chance to buy books direct from me
I’ve got a limited supply of paperback copies of both Municipal Gothic and Intervals of Darkness ready to ship to anyone in the UK who wants to buy one. They’re £13 each including delivery in the U…
precastreinforced.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by The Mai Queen
maisiechanwrites.bsky.social
It's Remembrance Sunday and let's remember that the black and brown people fought and died as part of the Allies too.

In my new novel - Nate Yu's Blast From the Past
I feature a ghost from the Chinese Labour Corp because it was important for me to tell readers about this often untold history.
November 9, 2025 at 11:18 AM
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chloecumming.bsky.social
A floating skull being clumsily ominous
Part monoprint part acrylic part pastel skull drawing with soft grainy textures, dark blue yellow and red
November 6, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by The Mai Queen
newyorker.com
A sneak peek at the cover of next week’s issue, which celebrates Zohran Mamdani’s historic win. #NewYorkerCovers
https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/451hFM
November 5, 2025 at 3:15 AM
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nickkapur.bsky.social
Japan's "Mundane Halloween" costume contest is back!

Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary.

Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest!

#MundaneHalloween
November 2, 2025 at 9:15 AM
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theemmapress.bsky.social
🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!🎃

It's so brilliant to see reviews by The Igniting Writing creative writing group about POEMS FROM A WITCH'S POCKET by Laura Theis!

🔮Order a copy here:https://buff.ly/aUT2rfl🔮
October 31, 2025 at 12:02 PM
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raynewman.bsky.social
FICTION: “This small monograph was compiled by members of the St Philips Folklore and History Society in order to record that which would otherwise be lost...”

precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/10/30/f...
FICTION: Local Legends
I’ve extracted the text from the booklet The Boiled Egg Lady and Other Local Legends of East Bristol which I found on an online auction site earlier this year. It doesn’t seem to have been reprinte…
precastreinforced.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
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archivetvmusings.bsky.social
Top of the Pops (29th October 1981). Altered Images open the show with 'Happy Birthday'.
October 29, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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adamzed.bsky.social
BlueSky! We need your help. Sign up for our Kickstarter for a brand new audio horror anthology series: DEADVAULT!

Find out more here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/mik...
October 25, 2025 at 11:33 AM
maiqueen.bsky.social
Today’s 50p charity shop treasure:
A vintage hardback book, ‘Undesirable Properties’, edited by Peter C. Smith, propped up between a kokeshi doll and a Victorian apothecary bottle.
October 28, 2025 at 4:25 PM
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generalwitch.bsky.social
Our Samhain horror 'zine is out now:

76 pages of fresh nightmares, haunted nostalgia, and British strangeness. A fine fireside read for the turning of the year.
#GeneralWitchfinders #Zine #HorrorZine #BritishHorror

Buy it here
tinyurl.com/gwZINE

Please repost
Cover of General Witchfinders Issue 3, Samhain 2025. The A5 horror zine features a felted grey monster sculpture with big yellow eyes by artist Felt Mistress, set against a brick wall. A yellow circular badge beside it reads “Out Now” with skull and floral illustrations.
October 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM
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societyofauthors.bsky.social
Today is Bookshop Day, a day to celebrate ALL bookshops on our high streets.

Bookshops are an integral part of an author's livelihood, and we celebrate all the talented booksellers who share their guidance and expertise.

Visit your local bookshop today and show them your support.

#bookshopday
October 11, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by The Mai Queen
chloecumming.bsky.social
Oh go on then. I’ve also added the skull and Corbett. To my shop. These are a bloody bargain, there’s 45 years of wisdom infused and contained within them

www.chloecumming.com
A squiggly wibbly skull in oil pastels on grey paper, slightly collapsed Oil pastel drawing of Matthew Corbett, a white man with reddish brown hair, Sooty Sweep and Soo, three hand puppets, part of a 1980s tv programme that’s fondly remembered by some
October 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
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galleybeggars.bsky.social
"What is at stake if we cannot continue?"

Simultaneously very happy and crestfallen to be part of this Open Letter (written to the industry, as well as readers, writers, and - well - everyone who cares).

Please read, and share:

www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...
Open letter on the future of small press publishing in the UK
The industry must work together to ensure the longevity of the UK’s independent presses.
www.thebookseller.com
October 10, 2025 at 11:45 AM
maiqueen.bsky.social
Very exciting book delivery 💀⚰️🪦
A large, lime green hardback book, resting on some cushions. The book is Graveyards: A History of Living with the Dead by Roger Luckhurst. The cover features a debossed image of a shrouded skeletal body in a narrow grave. The cushions feature fruit, flowers and parrots (and obscured monkeys).
October 8, 2025 at 4:41 PM
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naomialderman.bsky.social
have they read so little & thought with such shallowness that they think the purpose of human life is "be a valuable cog in the productivity machine of your country, purchase an acceptable home, keep it filled with the usual items, consume media but don't get any ideas, raise your replacements"?
October 8, 2025 at 8:25 AM
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marcmorris.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 8:06 AM
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raynewman.bsky.social
FICTION: The Newhamstead Goblin – “In the daytime it’s alright. You don’t see it, not a sign. Maybe the odd footprint. Maybe a big pile of shit. Maybe an upturned car. You ignore it, though. Well, you have to, don’t you? You just get on with your life.”

precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/08/21/f...
FICTION: The Newhamstead Goblin
You stop calling the police after a while, d’yer know worrimean? What’s the point? Either they don’t come at all, or by the time they turn up, the bloody thing’s gone to ground. They think we’re da…
precastreinforced.co.uk
August 21, 2025 at 6:52 AM
maiqueen.bsky.social
Today’s exciting book post:
Three books on a table: the paperback edition of Bound in Blood (ed. by Johnny Mains), a proof copy of Bog People (ed. by Hollie Starling) and the forthcoming UK (Peninsula Press) edition of Thrilled to Death by Lynne Tillman.
August 15, 2025 at 3:35 PM
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raynewman.bsky.social
FICTION: A very short story about a hot air balloon.

precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/08/11/f...
FICTION: Mothership
Penny does not expect to hear the roar of an invisible dragon on the path on the edge of a potato field. It takes a moment for her to think to look up. The hot air balloon passing above her head is…
precastreinforced.co.uk
August 11, 2025 at 5:34 AM
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youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
every single woman I've brought it up with at some point has been sexually assaulted before, myself included, and not a single one of these men has ever cared about the reality of that, but now it's maybe looking like some black and brown men are moving to Britain and oh, suddenly women are people?
August 9, 2025 at 10:03 PM