Peter M. Ball
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petermball.bsky.social
Peter M. Ball
@petermball.bsky.social
Genrepunk. Writing/Publishing Nerd. Writing neo-pulp stories at GenrePunk Books and publishing outstanding genre fiction at BrainJarPress. He/him.
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
Hello, lovelies. Here's the glorious cover for the Sourdough Compendium (Sourdough, Bitterwood Bible, Tallow-Wife). The pre-order links are here titanbooks.com/72850-the-so... but not all work yet due to circumstances beyond my control, but B&N, Waterstones and the 'zon do have preorder pages.
September 18, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
And some other books by me!
And/or while you wait, these books are available now:
• FLYAWAY (Australian Gothic) — torpublishinggroup.com/flyaway/
• TRAVELOGUES (remember my long train journey threads over elsewhere?) — tanaudel.wordpress.com/travelogues/
• KINDLING: STORIES — smallbeerpress.com/books/2024/0...
September 17, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
HONEYEATER, a haunted subtropical tale, is now out!

Order through your favourite bookstore or:
USA: torpublishinggroup.com/honeyeater/
Australia: panmacmillan.com.au/9781761562303/
September 17, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Boost Your Fiction: The Power of Objects and Objectives

What's the difference between a messy story and a great one? Often, it comes down to having clear objects that represent a character's goals...
Boost Your Fiction: The Power of Objects and Objectives
What's the difference between a messy story and a great one? Often, it comes down to having clear objects that represent a character's goals...
petermball.com
September 17, 2025 at 11:07 PM
When The Algorithm Doesn’t Love You Anymore

Here’s a dirty secret I rarely say out loud as a writer: I don’t want you to friend me on Facebook. I don’t want you to follow me on Threads or Twitter or Instagram. I sure as fuck don’t give a shit if you’re following me on TikTok.  I’m on all these…
When The Algorithm Doesn’t Love You Anymore
Here’s a dirty secret I rarely say out loud as a writer: I don’t want you to friend me on Facebook. I don’t want you to follow me on Threads or Twitter or Instagram. I sure as fuck don’t give a shit if you’re following me on TikTok.  I’m on all these places, and I’ll engage with you if they’re the only choice, but they’re not my primary focus. As a writer, I’ve got three top tiers of engagement: I want you to subscribe to my newsletter. If that’s a no-go, the second-best choice is joining my Patreon.
petermball.com
September 10, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Preserving Great Writing Advice From Internet Decay

A 2024 article about the slow decay of the internet has been making the rounds of social media recently. In it, S.E. Smith charts the speed at which old websites and links become inaccessible and asks what happens when the internet disappears?…
Preserving Great Writing Advice From Internet Decay
A 2024 article about the slow decay of the internet has been making the rounds of social media recently. In it, S.E. Smith charts the speed at which old websites and links become inaccessible and asks what happens when the internet disappears? Here’s an interesting statistic in the article: 38% of websites accessible in 2013 were inaccessible ten years later.  The websites get taken down, or restructured in such a way that old links no longer work, or individual pages get deleted. I’m very familiar with this phenomenon. In the years before I launched Brain Jar Press, I worked for the Queensland Writers Centre and spent a good chunk of my days advising writers about how to build their careers.
petermball.com
September 3, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
Peter Ball on the internet, lost knowledge, @brainjarpress.bsky.social Writer Chaps series preserving writing advice from blog heydeys, and more (free access)
www.patreon.com/posts/preser...
Preserving Great Writing Advice From Internet Decay | Peter M. Ball
Get more from Peter M. Ball on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 2, 2025 at 12:33 AM
The Most Valuable Page Of Notes I’ve Ever Written

I've been re-reading old bullet journal this morning and found this page, from 2016, which led to the most important writing gig I've ever had: I produced this on my friend Meg's back deck, trying to sort through the complicated steps required to…
The Most Valuable Page Of Notes I’ve Ever Written
I've been re-reading old bullet journal this morning and found this page, from 2016, which led to the most important writing gig I've ever had: I produced this on my friend Meg's back deck, trying to sort through the complicated steps required to apply for a PhD and break them into tangible, completable steps. I basically broke down everything I had to do--and especially the things I didn't know how to do--and laid things out. I wrote this on the 29th of August, 2016. By January of 2017 I was in the program, on scholarship, producing three short books (
petermball.com
August 15, 2025 at 12:06 AM
The Theory Of Constraints

The theory of constraints is a business management philosophy popularised in Eli Goldratt’s 1984 book, The Goal, although it builds upon work by earlier thinkers, including Germany’s Wolfgang Mewes. These days, The Goal is better known as a book Jimmy Donaldson—aka…
The Theory Of Constraints
The theory of constraints is a business management philosophy popularised in Eli Goldratt’s 1984 book, The Goal, although it builds upon work by earlier thinkers, including Germany’s Wolfgang Mewes. These days, The Goal is better known as a book Jimmy Donaldson—aka MrBeast—used to make all his employees read and assimilate. Now let’s be clear: I don’t really get Mr Beast, nor like him. I think his whole schtick is emblematic of a fundamental problem with algorithmic social media, and I’m vaguely baffled he’s a millionaire or famous. I sure as fuck don’t know how he has a line of snacks, let alone an Amazon show.
petermball.com
August 5, 2025 at 12:28 AM
How I Got From Hemmingway And Space Marines to Carver and Zombies

The assignment was to rescue a colony that had been overrun by xenomorphs. There were eight of us, nine if you counted the android, but he had malfunctioned after being hacked by separatists and could not support us as he had when I…
How I Got From Hemmingway And Space Marines to Carver and Zombies
The assignment was to rescue a colony that had been overrun by xenomorphs. There were eight of us, nine if you counted the android, but he had malfunctioned after being hacked by separatists and could not support us as he had when I first met him...
petermball.com
July 18, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
Happy Book Birthday to Lisa L. Hannett's The Fortunate Isles, coming out in ebook and paperback today!

Available everywhere good books are sold, but we always have a special love for folks who buy from Brain Jar Press directly :)

Details: www.brainjarpress.com/product/the-...
May 27, 2025 at 12:30 AM
I've joined forces with a bunch of fellow horror authors to do a little May Giveaway of stories and novels. Details here: books.bookfunnel.com/horrorreader...
Horror Giveaway May!
Searching for your next favorite story? Look no further! These bestselling authors have teamed up to offer a delightful selection of new books. Available for a limited time.
books.bookfunnel.com
May 26, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Once you've read slush, it's pretty clear the greatest "secret" in writing is finding the writer's guidelines and following them the letter.

The second greatest secret is "don't send abusive responses to rejection letters".
May 16, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
My D&D origins story: In middle school, I was so nerdy that I had no friends and knew no one who played D&D, so I read my Monster Manual like an encyclopedia. In high school, I yearned to date a long-haired poet nerd, and when I finally found one, he was sorely lacking. Insecure, awkward. But.. 1/
May 13, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
The fact that the supposedly leading newsletter platform (cite needed) stays afloat by subsidizing Nazi content seems like a thing to mention if we're talking about what "we" pay for newsletters but it's the NYT so
This story not mentioning the primary platform’s explicit agenda to promote and fund hatemongers, and perpetuating the conflation of the medium with one brand name, makes this entire piece just an ad for fascists. Fuckin terrible editing. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/b...
How Much Are We Paying for Newsletters? $50, $100 … How About $3,000 a Year.
www.nytimes.com
May 13, 2025 at 5:07 AM
The weirdest part of designing your own book covers is how quickly you find yourself ammassing a collection of images under tags like "19th century wallpaper" or "grunge concrete textures" or "waterdamaged paper" or "cracked leather" that will be used more often than any peice of art.
May 10, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
Labor's housing policies will probably hurt affordability; SQM forecasts to rise 6-10% in 2025 www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Labor wants to fix Australia’s housing issues – but there’s little hope for those not already on the ladder
Without genuine reform, experts predict house prices to ‘climb by 6-10% in 2025’ and the gap between homeowners and those locked out of market to widen
www.theguardian.com
May 10, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
Got back from vacation to find that Val Vega: Secret Ambassador of Earth had gotten this lovely 5-star review from Readers' Favorite! "Populated with a dazzling cast of humans and aliens alike, Francisco’s story is witty, moving, and impossible to put down."

readersfavorite.com/book-review/...
May 9, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Yesterday, I passed the halfway point on the draft of a new Red Rain sequence, which largely means there will be a sequel to WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT BRAINS at some point in the future.

Until then, you can grab a copy of the first collection here: petermball.com/GenrePunkSto...
May 8, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
We've been all about the new books this week, so now is a good moment to remind folks they can read Angela Slatter's NO GOOD DEED chapbook absolute free.

Check it out if you love gothic fantasy with folklore vibes, or you dig the Sourdough universe.

Details: offers.brainjarpress.com/nogooddeed
Get Your Free Copy of No Good Deed
Angela Slatter’s No Good Deed is a dark fantasy tale of magic, ghosts, and marriage set in her World Fantasy Award-winning Sourdough universe. Isobel assumed her wedding would be the grandest day of h...
offers.brainjarpress.com
May 8, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Started today with six ininterupted hours to catch up on writing and publishing projects.

Took less than an hour to end up with a pointless-but-ticks-a-box-that-allows-useful-things-to-continue 90 minute meeting in the middle of my free day.
May 7, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
We're extraordinarily pleased to open pre-orders on paperback and ebook editions of Lisa L. Hannett's The Fortunate Isles, out from Brain Jar Press on May 27.

Read a Sample: read.bookfunnel.com/read/em32gw5...
Pre-Order the Book: www.brainjarpress.com/product/the-...
May 5, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
Dutton: we must cut public sector jobs

Voters of Dickson: ok

Dutton: OH NO
May 3, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
hook it to my veins #AusVotes
May 3, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Peter M. Ball
Fuck, I needed this overwhelming sense of schadenfreude at Dutton taking the entire ship down with him #auspol
May 3, 2025 at 11:37 AM