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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 1d

I’m excited about reading it!

Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 1d

Yay! Today I picked up my special-ordered copy of this beautiful book by poet, scholar, publisher, and wonderful person @thisisannick.bsky.social

A slender volume, with a cover image of an engraving of flowers on a linen-textured paper. “Votive,” by Annick MacAskill.

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 2d

Being a writer is such a great way to remind yourself that *so much* of how you perceive things depends on your state of mind.

One day I'm energised and in love with my WIP -- the next I can't find 10 pages good enough to use for a residency application.

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 3d

Rejoicing underway!

Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 3d

Moomins fans, rejoice!

A new Moomins movie is on the way.

Those loveable Finnish trolls are coming to the American movies! Writer and artist Tove Jansson created the Moomins in the 1940s and the characters have since become a global phenomenon, appearing …

buff.ly

Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 3d

There really isn’t a day that goes by without me swearing at some kind of LLM / AI / autocorrect.

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 3d

It really helps you get past your internal editor!

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 3d

Oof. Weird autocorrect issue there. (Another reason not to trust the robot overlords 😬)

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 3d

That sounds really good. Having a job to go to and family to look after means it doesn’t quite work like that, but I like writing early and coming back to it later.

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 3d

I get that. I write every day so it works out to being cautious about what I read or watch so it doesn’t throw me over off track!

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 3d

I find if I write every day I get the spontaneity too. It doesn’t have to be either / or!

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 3d

Yes!! This is such a good way to get unstuck. (And when I’ve done the 3-Day Novel Contest I do a bigger version of this: say an hour of writing and then a ten-minute walk. It helps with the physical stiffness / soreness and also story problems.)

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Reposted by Tove Black

Emily C. Hughes @emilyhughes.bsky.social · 6d

periodic reminder that if you write stuff that's published on the web for a publication you yourself do not own, PDF that shit as soon as it goes live

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 14d

I cannot overstate how much the process of novel-writing helps me to (temporarily) escape things happening in the so-called real world.

I spent most of today just puzzling which characters should do what and why, to make something hang together and it was absolutely great.

Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 17d

Hang on, I’ve got this!

Allison F @ablington.bsky.social · Mar 30

yes

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Reposted by Tove Black

John R'lyeh, where dead Cthulhu waits dreaming @johnryanwrites.bsky.social · 23d

*taps sign*

A sign saying "I'm not interested in competing with anyone. I hope we all make it."

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Reposted by Tove Black

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 26d

The thing everyone can do right now is to find your lane if you don't already have one and work that lane diligently and with commitment.

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · 26d

Susan Cooper and Tove Jansson too 💜

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · Sep 15

Everyone else is talking about the Emmys but I'm doing the classic thing of hunching over my keyboard working on some writing.

And not even writing new words, trying to cut back on them. (I've got my novel down to under 100K! Well, it's exciting to me.)

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · Sep 13

Defiant Nuns is not a bad band name.

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · Sep 7

I happened to be going through some of Aesop's Fables and perhaps unsurprisingly some of them are hitting the spot for me today.

Here's one for now, "The Frogs Who Asked for a King." (Source: Project Gutenberg.) I might post more later.

The Frogs Who Asked for a King

There were once some Frogs who lived together in perfect security in a
beautiful lake. They were a large company, and were very comfortable,
but they came to think that they might be still happier if they had a
King to rule over them.

So they sent to Jupiter, their god, to ask him to give them a King.

Jupiter laughed at their folly, for he knew that they were better off
as they were; but he said to them, “Well, here is a King for you,” and
into the water he threw a big Log.

It fell with such a splash that the Frogs were terrified and hid
themselves in the deep mud under the water.

By and by, one braver than the rest peeped out to look at the King, and
saw the Log, as it lay quietly on the top of the water. Soon, one after
another they all came out of their hiding places and ventured to look
at their great King.

As the Log did not move, they swam round it, keeping a safe distance
away, and at last one by one hopped upon it.

“This is not a King,” said a wise old Frog; “it is nothing but a stupid
Log. If we had a King, Jupiter would pay more attention to us.”

Again they sent to Jupiter, and begged him to give them a King who
could rule over them.

Jupiter did not like to be disturbed again by the silly Frogs, and this
time he sent them a Stork, saying, “You will have some one to rule
over you now.”

As they saw the Stork solemnly walking down to the lake, they were
delighted.

“Ah!” they said, “see how grand he looks! How he strides along! How he
throws back his head! This is a King indeed. He shall rule over us,”
and they went joyfully to meet him.

As their new King came nearer, he paused, stretched out his long neck,
picked up the head Frog, and swallowed him at one mouthful. And then
the next—and the next!

“What is this?” cried the Frogs, and they began to draw back in terror.

But the Stork with his long legs easily followed them to the water, and
kept on eating them as fast as he could.

“Oh! if we had only been—” said the oldest Frog. He was going to add
“content,” but was eaten up before he could finish the sentence.

The remaining Frogs cried to Jupiter to help them, but he would not
listen. And the Stork-King ate them for breakfast, dinner, and supper,
every day, till in a short time there was not a Frog left in the lake.
Poor, foolish Frogs, not to have known when they were well off.

A line-drawing illustration showing a crane lifting one small frog out of a pond with its beak, while other frogs look on.

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Reposted by Tove Black

Amber Sparks @ambersparks.bsky.social · Aug 30

This review in Reactor is so lovely 😭 reactormag.com/30-more-sff-...

Amber Sparks has gained a reputation as a brilliant short story writer, with the ability to blend speculative elements seamlessly into heartfelt, character-driven work. And her debut
novel, Happy People Don't Live Here, is the same: equal parts ghost story, mystery, and family drama —a little Only Murders in the Building, a little Pushing Daisies. Fern and her mother Alice are moving into a new apartment, in a building that used to be a sanatorium, and Fern seems to be the only one who can see the ghosts. But

she likes her neighbors, who include a professional mermaid, a veteran turned author, and a hot nonbinary handyperson, thankfully. Of course no one believes Fern when she says she saw a body in the dumpster, because adults are idiots, but Fern is determined to know more. What unfolds is a quirky, surrealist tale that has some of the most engaging character work I've seen in a long time.
It is just a goddamn delight through and through. October 14, Liveright

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · Aug 30

Yes, I’m doing the 3-Day Novel Contest again. The goddess help me!

3-day novel contest: “the world’s most notorious literary marathon!”

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Reposted by Tove Black

Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · Aug 24

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · Aug 18

Thank you!

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Tove Black @toveblack.bsky.social · Aug 18

❤️

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