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Barry Ryerson

@barryryerson.bsky.social

5K followers 5.2K following 2.2K posts

Writer. Audio nerd. Ninja. Cat dad. He/him. Pan 🌈 Books: 📖 The Child of Fire and Earth (MG fantasy) 📖 The Magic Circle (YA/NA scifi fantasy) 📘 Origins (scifi short stories) Website: www.barryryerson.com Quick link to books: www.linktr.ee/bryerson

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · Aug 2

Decades after nuclear war, magic returns.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "The pacing was spot-on, and the last chapters—Wow!"

"I’d highly recommend this one for anyone craving a fun, action packed adventure that mixes science and magic in a way that absolutely sucks you in."

Link: relinks.me/B09XJBQMRK

#scifi 💙📚

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Reposted by Barry Ryerson

Boze the Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 11h

Reading for pleasure has fallen by 40 percent since 2000. This is not progress. You should read because it's good for your brain, your soul. You should read because our freedoms will not long endure in a post-literate world. Most of all, you should read because it's fun.

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Reposted by Barry Ryerson

Alan K. Dell @alankdell.bsky.social · 1h

New #BookReview!

Today on the blog I have YA lunarpunk sci-fantasy adventure, The Secret of the Sapphire Sentinel by @jendiagammon.bsky.social — a sequel I've very much been looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint.

http://www.alankdell...

💙📚🪐 #SFF 📢📚

Book Review banner for The Secret of the Sapphire Sentinel by Jendia Gammon writing as J. Dianne Dotson with the book cover in the middle on a starry background.

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 12h

The push for AI seems very short-sighted to me.

The idea seems to be: pay <insert AI company here> and you don't have to pay wages to make your product/service.

Extrapolate that, and you get so many unemployed who can't buy your product or service. What happens to your company then?

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 12h

Exactly!

It's all about point scoring, headline grabbing, and making appeals to voters to "vote for me next time" without caring about what we need or even want longer term.

After all, if the next gvt comes in and smashes it, why bother?

But if it already had cross-party support...

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 12h

One thing that frustrates me with politics is the short term-ism. Parties will do whatever it is they think will keep them in power.

The idea of making something with cross-party support, something that can benefit the citizens of the country for decades, just never enters their calculus.

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Steve Hill 🏴‍☠️📚 @stevehillwriter.com · 18h

As a wise man once said, “ “*

*he kept his thoughts to himself.

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 1d

Reminds me a story about a Japanese drumming group called Ondekoza. In the 1980s, I think it was, the group prided itself on their level of fitness (Japanese drumming is very athletic and intensive).

To show it off, they'd run a marathon, then perform for the people who came in after them.

Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 1d

Hey, hive mind!

Has anyone on here had experience of using the bus in Rome?

I'm going there next month and I'm hoping to use it, but I'm getting really confused with how it works. For instance, Google Maps says one route exists, MooneyGo says it doesn't. And how does validation work?

Any help?

a fluffy cat is sitting on a wooden table with the words `` help '' written on it .

ALT: a fluffy cat is sitting on a wooden table with the words `` help '' written on it .

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Barry Ryerson

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 1d

LLMs are doubly deceptive. Most people think that they can ask it a question and get an answer. The majority of the rest think that you can ask an LLM a question and it will return what an answer might look like, statistically.

But it's actually even worse. It doesn't "read" the prompt; it guesses.

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 1d

That's fair.

I think, as humans, we love to put everything in boxes. Got swords? Must be fantasy. Got fancy tech? Scifi.

Which just begs us, as creatives, to make stories with swords, in the future with fancy tech, and maybe romance and thriller and just anything else that makes it good.

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 1d

Yes! It's far more fun (and, arguably, realistic) to have an MC who might be *good* at their skills, but not necessarily *great*.

Been reading a fantasy lately where a character gets magical healing; they can even be killed yet come back. And that happens a lot, as they're not a great fighter!

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 1d

Honestly, it's one of the reasons I wrote The Magic Circle, with a secret agent who can fight hand to hand or with a sniper rifle or coil gun, and *also* use magical powers to disguise himself or throw dirt in his opponent's eyes.

relinks.me/B09XJBQMRK

Book cover for The Magic Circle, a dystopian scifi fantasy suitable for 15+. A gold, circular emblem rests over a dark and smoky cityscape.

Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 1d

I love #fantasy and #scifi books, but I've always been dubious of urban fantasy that rely on swords and bows as weapons.

I mean, surely in a modern setting, they'd use modern gear?

Do you have any pet genre peeves?

#WritingCommunity #authorquestion #ReadingCommunity

a man in a wig and scarf is dancing

ALT: a man in a wig and scarf is dancing

media.tenor.com

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Tagonist Knights Publishing @tagonistknight.bsky.social · 2d

I am crying writing this. I admit this because I feel overwhelmed. Humbled. Happy. My books are my life. I cherish every novel, every person within their pages, and to me, they are my heart and soul. So, when someone else is excited for me because of what I created... It is the greatest joy to feel.

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 2d

Nice to see someone else pointing out that copyright isn't just for Christmas.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It’s Sam Altman: the man who stole the rights from copyright. If he’s the future, can we go backwards? | Marina Hyde

His AI video generator Sora 2 has been reviled for pinching the work of others. One giant leap for Sam: for everyone else, not so much, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

www.theguardian.com

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 3d

I had a post before now get out of containment over on Xitter, and the constant notifications (not to mention trolls that surfaced) put me off social media for over a week. It was just too much.

Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 3d

Yevgeny is a spy with a difference.

Yes, there's gadgets and guns. But he also has magical powers that help him recruit others with similar gifts.

But what happens when he falls in love with his mark?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "...mixes science and magic in a way that absolutely sucks you in."

relinks.me/B09XJBQMRK

Blond young man wearing a black leather jacket stands on a lawn outside a white church. He frowns towards the camera, deciding if you are friend or foe.

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 3d

Just comfort-watched Johnny English 3 and damn but it feels so relevant today.

Particularly the part where the villain is an AI-using Silicon Valley nerd wanting to steal everyone's data and coerce other countries to give him control over them.

a man in armor is holding a tablet that says nokia on it

ALT: a man in armor is holding a tablet that says nokia on it

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Barry Ryerson

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 4d

Picking up a bunch of new followers coz of that viral post. 👋

If you think the wording of that one post was clever and succinct you should check out my books, where I sneak in political commentary in oh so many smart and funny ways. 😁

👇

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · Nov 9

Hi New Followers 👋

You've made a wise choice. 👍

As well as posting silliness and hope for a better world I also write books (full of silliness and hope for a better world). Start with this free book of shorts written to introduce you to the #steampunk world of Hammersmyth.

mybook.to/hammersmyth2

Book Cover for The Hammersmith Tales (spelt with a y instead of an i). A beige background with shadowy images of cogs and clock faces. In the bottom right corner sits a grey cat wearing brass goggles and a green scarf. H elooks out at us with a lopsided grin. His tail is segmented with metal joints and his eyes have mechanical irises. The book's title is across the top in red and gold. Written in white below it says "A collection of steampunk shorts from the author of", then in yellow/gold "Dexter & Sinister Detecting Agents." Below that is the author's name in white, Keith W Dickinson.

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 3d

I mean, if they've got the money to spare to get these "specialist advisors" into GP surgeries, why not spend it on, you know, more GPs to help people get better quicker?

Reposted by Barry Ryerson

Alan K. Dell @alankdell.bsky.social · 4d

Just a semi-regular reminder that all of my books are available on Kobo, Apple, Google Play, library services like Libby, and free to read on Kobo+

And for UK residents, signed paperbacks/merch available on my website.

Plus a free short story for newsletter subscribers. All links in bio

📢📚🪐

Five tablet mock-ups of the augment saga books in a group (with SFINCS finalist badge attached to The Re-Emergence) with the series title above, and five stars plus a review quote below which reads: "I rarely find as successful a blend of science, intrigue, and mystery as I have with this series."

The God Sun book cover tablet mockup in the middle on a background with a red dwarf star with a review quote underneath which reads: “[The God Sun] had that creeping discomfort I’ve come to expect from space sci-fi stories that lean towards the dark side. I was hooked!”

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Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 4d

And then asking them for £300 for an Uber

Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 4d

Thank you. It sounded nice at first (like a small book club wanted me to talk or something) but swiftly went to payment and me writing a 2 page document for them!

Didn't realise it was a new scam, though it definitely smelt like an old one in new clothes.

Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 4d

It's a little known fact that teenage boys will wait until the last possible second to inform you that they now have no clean trousers for school tomorrow because they messed them up earlier and didn't bother to tell you.

Barry Ryerson @barryryerson.bsky.social · 4d

Mate, it's giving more red flags than a matador party that's just gatecrashed a flag factory that specialises in red flags.

My particularly favourite part is how they haven't even named the book properly, yet their readers are interested and excited to read it.

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