Stark Holborn 🔜 AdventureX
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starkholborn.bsky.social
Stark Holborn 🔜 AdventureX
@starkholborn.bsky.social
5.3K followers 560 following 580 posts
Author of the Factus Sequence, Nunslinger & Triggernometry. Games Writer on Shadows of Doubt. Visiting Lecturer in Interactive Narrative at Glasgow School of Art 🏳️‍🌈

https://linktr.ee/starkholborn
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starkholborn.bsky.social
I've been in solitary confinement trying to get my new novel finished (nearly there), but will be emerging, haggard and wild-eyed to be in the following places over the next few weeks/months 👇
Poster headed Upcoming Events. Listing: 14th Oct: with E.J. Swift at Stanfords, Bristol. 31-2 Nov, World Fantasy Con. 8 Nov: Secret Thing, Bristol. 23rd Nov: AdventureX London.
October 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Absolutely thrilled to be heading to @porticohispacon.bsky.social this weekend to talk dystopias, pirates and fugitives with some wonderful people. Here's where you can find me. ¿Estarás ahí? ¡Saluda!

@mangrii.bsky.social @elenatorro.bsky.social
Poster for Hispacon with portrait of Stark Holborn and name label Donde encontrame! Sabado 20: auditorio lacy: hablando de distopias, 12-12:50. Auditorio Lacy: piratas, soldados y fugitivas, 18:00-18:50. Domingo 21: Auditorio Lacy: conversando con Stark, 12:00-12:50
September 18, 2025 at 9:17 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Finished copies of FOR THE ROAD are here and they are stunning; look at those endpapers. Huge thanks to @marieoregan.bsky.social and all at PS Publishing for their hard work.

(Art by Ashni Wilson).

You can find it here: pspublishing.co.uk/for-the-road...
Cover of For the Road: a hand with a heart on a teal background wrapped in a chain Endpapers: double suns on a desert landscape internal decoration: For the Road on a handprint Back cover: "In the desert is a railroad track made from iron and bone..."
August 19, 2025 at 10:17 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Going over my Develop talk today (Authored Narrative in a Proc Gen World). Who will I see there??

Also if you'd like to grab some time for a coffee and chat about interactive narrative, writing for proc-gen *without* using Gen AI, or anything in between, give me a shout! @developconference.com
Develop Brighton card with "I'm a speaker" in white letters
June 16, 2025 at 9:21 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
VUIT DE HEL – the Catalan translation of Hel's Eight – is out now from @chronoscat.bsky.social. Let's all take a minute to admire the gorgeous cover art by @cristianeres.bsky.social.

With big thanks to @annallis.bsky.social for translation

chronos.cat/vuit-de-hel/
A moebius style illustration that shows a woman holding a flare facing a dark cave where red eyes glow
June 13, 2025 at 10:57 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
I mean...
a man sitting on a chimney while a woman with a brush says "I will brush you into a million pieces if you don't stop shitting down my fucking chimney" A man with an arrow in his leg saying "Wow! This is way more painful than I anticipated!" while a man shot through with arrows reclines in the background
April 28, 2025 at 10:17 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Voting for the BSFA shortlist closes tomorrow. If you're feeling magnanimous I'd be delighted if you'd consider winging a vote the way of Ninth Life (the best Factus book, IMO).

Voting link is here!

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Card with cover of Ninth Life and BSFA logo
February 27, 2025 at 9:49 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Oh ho who's this I found lurking in Paris

@jonathanlhoward.bsky.social
French edition of Johannes Cabal Necromancer
February 20, 2025 at 8:45 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Woohoo, Triggernometry Finals is #2 on the bestselling chart (in its category, science fiction westerns but whatever!). Thank you everyone! Question is, can we get it to #1?

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
screenshot of Triggernometry Finals in #2 ranking on Amazon
February 5, 2025 at 12:07 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Sharpen your protractors, fill your ink cartridges and polish those spectacles because my satirical, alt-history maths western – TRIGGERNOMETRY FINALS, aka Triggernometry #3 – is hitting (digital) shelves TODAY! 📐

RTs most welcome!

starkholborn.com/triggernomet...
3 covers for the Triggernometry novellas, each showing a central female figure with glasses, figure holding a rifle and a set square.
February 4, 2025 at 9:25 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Here it is! The cover for TRIGGERNOMETRY #3, aka TRIGGERNOMETRY FINALS!

Artwork by the absurdly talented Philip Harris who has done an amazing job over bringing my renegade mathmos to life once again. Intrigued? Read on...

amzn.eu/d/5Nrgygz
Cover of TRIGGERNOMETRY Finals, featuring 3 central figures and two vignettes portraits of Alhazen and Du Chatelet, holding a gun and winking Detail of central figures, a white woman holding a set square, a Japanese man with a staff and a white moustaches man with a pistol Portrait of Alhazen, with a telescope over his shoulder Portrait of a woman holding a gun and winking
January 23, 2025 at 2:43 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Just a reminder that BSFA longlist nominations are open until 15th January and NINTH LIFE is eligible in the novel category!

I don't usually big up my own work, but I'm so proud of this book (I think it's the best in the Factus Sequence) and would love it if you'd consider winging a vote its way ✨
Card with a cover of Ninth Life and a quote: "Spsce cowboy fate-defying cosmic action, Ninth Life jumps the Factus series to a whole new level" - Ian Green
January 7, 2025 at 12:00 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
The Italian translation of Ten Low (Ultima fermata prima del vuoto) is out now from Moscabianca, and it's the work of SUCH a dream team: Nova on illustration, Tiffany Vecchietti on translation... Author jackpot.

moscabiancaedizioni.it/prodotto/ult...
colour illustration of Ultima fermata prima del vuoto, characters leaning on a broken down car looking at a pink sky
December 17, 2024 at 5:54 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
It's in the trees... it's coming!

www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...
screenshot of goodreads with Triggernometry Finals listing (expected 4/2/25)
November 26, 2024 at 3:17 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Great time at The Cube last night seeing Way Bad Stone - thanks to the Hellfire Video Club!

youtu.be/JIXaNJjga3A
Screenshot of webpage for Hellfire Video Club with details of Way Bad Stone Photo of cinema screen with Wizard Works logo Shot of Cube Microplex neon sign at night
November 23, 2024 at 9:04 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Anyone waiting on the audiobook of Ninth Life, good news! It's out now, and brilliantly narrated by Krystal Hammond and Ramiz Monsef:

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0D8...
Cover of Ninth Life, a face with eyes scribbled out, above the names of author and audiobook narrators
November 21, 2024 at 7:35 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
It's Friday. Fine day to buy an ebook. Or more specifically, MY ebook so I can write more (e)books:

How about starting with my satirical alt-history maths-western, Triggernometry:

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
"It's like Sergio Leone and William Gibson rewriting the Old West with a quantum calculator" - quote by Maxim Jakubowski
November 15, 2024 at 2:55 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Discovering the work of avant-garde photographer and activist Germaine Krull, once one of the most famous photographers in Paris (yes that's Jean Cocteau):

www.metmuseum.org/perspectives...
portrait of a woman as a palimpsest overlaid on portraits of other women portrait of jean cocteau
November 12, 2024 at 10:06 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
In honour of Samhain, a creepy excerpt from the most horror-adjacent of my books (Hel's Eight):

www.waterstones.com/book/hels-ei...
Screenshot from ebook of Hel's Eight: “Ask,’ a hoarse voice says. ‘Roll.’ I shouldn’t do it. Already I can feel the strange greasiness in the air, as if the world has turned and I’m on the wrong side, looking at its weft. Ask. I hold out my hand. Will what I saw come to pass? Six objects fall into my palm, knobbed and uneven. Not dice. Bones. Human knucklebones. I drop them in horror, scattering them across the table and it’s too late, I have already played and they are here, waking, watchful. The teller’s fingers spider over the bones, deciphering the language of dead hands. ‘Death in the desert,’ they whisper, ‘a trade, one life for nine. And him. Him or Hel.’ They raise their face to mine and their eyes are gone, the eyeless sockets in-filled with silver, their flesh grey as a corpse. I stumble back as they open their mouth, dark sand spilling from their tongue…”
October 31, 2024 at 11:44 AM
starkholborn.bsky.social
A few from MCM this weekend; thanks to fellow writers, panelists, staff and crew for making it happen
David Arlo, Stark Holborn, Catelyn Wilson and Dee Benson on stage at MCM Stark in a black and gold jacket Lavie Tidhar with books Signed copies of Ten Low
October 28, 2024 at 12:53 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Prepping for my Shadows of Doubt talk tonight with Bristol Games Hub with some in-game motivational messages
Note with affirmations for the week: you can do this John!
October 24, 2024 at 4:09 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Sneak peek at cover detail for something that's coming soon...
Ink drawing of a blonde woman holding a gun and winking
October 20, 2024 at 12:53 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
This is where I'll be next week:

The Bristol Games Hub talk is on Shadows of Doubt and how we used (authored) proc gen content to create an immersive detective sandbox. It's free!

www.meetup.com/bristolgames...
poster listing upcoming events, including Oct 24th at BristolGames Hub, Oct25-27th at MCM ComicCon
October 18, 2024 at 12:04 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
Shadows of Doubt is up for a TIGA award for Creativity in Games! Check out that shortlist ✨️
Shortlist for creativity in games awards, including Shadows of doubt, Jusant, Pacific drive, viewfinder, Still wakes the deep, helldivers 2, paper trail and infinite inside
October 7, 2024 at 1:27 PM
starkholborn.bsky.social
not sure if first 1% is a flex but I'll take it
celebrating 10m users, 84,044
September 17, 2024 at 7:32 AM