Jo Walton
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bluejo.bsky.social
Jo Walton
@bluejo.bsky.social
Writer of SF and fantasy. Superintelligent shade of the colour blue. "Even better than cold carrots." Vocateur reader. Philhellenist. Loves tea, trains, travel.
50 copies of our essay collection Trace Elements to give away on Goodreads, sign up for it and maybe you will be lucky enough to win! @adapalmer.bsky.social on manga, me on romance, both of us on protagonists, the history of SF publishing, the author-reader contract www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
Book giveaway for Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy by Jo Walton Nov 10-Dec 01, 2025
Enter to win one of 50 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Nov 10-Dec 01, 2025. From two of the most acclaimed writers in the field today, a groun...
www.goodreads.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:28 PM
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I didn’t think the early 20th-century’s preoccupation with the god Pan was capable of generating an actual news story, but here we are (one for @pjrobichaud.bsky.social)
November 14, 2025 at 7:49 AM
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🖼️ Emily Robertson
November 14, 2025 at 9:19 AM
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I have never shouted, booed, and made so much noise in all my life.
November 14, 2025 at 10:04 AM
"What do you call those things?" is that hardest thing to search...
November 13, 2025 at 7:45 PM
My reading list for October reactormag.com/jo-waltons-r...
Jo Walton’s Reading List: October 2025 - Reactor
Theatre! Sonnets! Philosophy! Plus some horror, SF, and fairy tales…
reactormag.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:28 PM
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I will need £1 for the socks.
November 12, 2025 at 7:54 AM
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Book Cover of the Day:
November 12, 2025 at 9:10 AM
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I need to find this manor.
Never give up.
Somewhere in the world, there's a haunted manor house on the moors with a mysterious caretaker, indifferent cats, and secret libraries within libraries, waiting for you in the darkness.
November 12, 2025 at 12:09 PM
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Fresh from the Stratford Festival, @bluejo.bsky.social offers up a reading list featuring a brilliant epistolary novel, excellent milSF, sonnets, criticism, some old favorites, and a soon-to-be-released horror novel!
Jo Walton’s Reading List: October 2025 - Reactor
Theatre! Sonnets! Philosophy! Plus some horror, SF, and fairy tales…
reactormag.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:33 PM
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November 11, 2025 at 5:07 PM
I too have spent most interesting afternoons at the Shire Horse Centre! When I was writing my first published novel, The King's Peace, which has a knight on a big horse, I used to go there all the time and watch horse body language to put in the book
We have spent a most interesting afternoon at the Shire Horse Centre.
November 11, 2025 at 3:21 PM
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We have spent a most interesting afternoon at the Shire Horse Centre.
November 11, 2025 at 1:53 PM
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Okay I want to say more about this, specifically I want to say: lampshading is a technique to use carefully.

What's lampshading? it's when the author says, yeah, I know this is a problem, I acknowledge it but I'm not going to solve it. Throw a lampshade on it, it's a lamp.
Explanations that hew to realism in a universe like this can make things worse, because they require you to examine a sequence of events which is secretly not entirely sensible in the first place.
November 11, 2025 at 1:51 PM
I have so many friends who would want this I just posted this link on two different discords. What an exciting book!
Today is the OFFICIAL publication day for TEXTILE SHAKESPEARE! Please indulge me: I want to say a little (perhaps rather a lot) about it and share my acknowledgements - and a discount code! Appropriately,🧵1/10
November 11, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Have now become obsessed with the Goodreads Giveaway page for Trace Elements. It was 872 people when I went to bed, and I was hoping it would be over 1000 by breakfast time, but it's a suspiciously round 980.

Still, 980 people wanting our book is pretty good www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
Book giveaway for Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy by Jo Walton Nov 10-Dec 01, 2025
Enter to win one of 50 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Nov 10-Dec 01, 2025. From two of the most acclaimed writers in the field today, a groun...
www.goodreads.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:00 PM
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Book giveaway! Jo Walton is one of my favorite novelists and thinkers about science-fiction and fantasy.
November 10, 2025 at 10:20 PM
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Students & researchers have a tough time keeping the names of Roman emperors and elites straight. But we do have a database to help name and number each. It is called the Prospographia Imperii Romani (=PIR) and has 15061 persons, of which 1932 are women. Please use the database! pir.bbaw.de#/search
Prosopographia Imperii Romani
pir.bbaw.de
November 10, 2025 at 8:53 PM
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I am very much looking forward to this book.
Advanced read giveaway of the essay collection on the history & craft of science fiction & fantasy that Jo & I have coming out in spring! Pacing, plot, What Is Genre?, flying grapefruit, evolution of printing tech, impact of international translation, and much more!
(This giveaway is US only, alas)
Goodreads giveaway for Trace Elements!

@adapalmer.bsky.social is very interesting, science fiction is very interesting, sometimes when it isn't a Monday morning even I can be a bit interesting -- if you use Goodreads, sign up in the hope of a free copy of our book

www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
November 10, 2025 at 7:10 PM
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November 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
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Advanced read giveaway of the essay collection on the history & craft of science fiction & fantasy that Jo & I have coming out in spring! Pacing, plot, What Is Genre?, flying grapefruit, evolution of printing tech, impact of international translation, and much more!
(This giveaway is US only, alas)
November 10, 2025 at 3:46 PM
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Do you suffer from vertigo? Or do you care for someone who does? Would you like to explore your experiences through creative writing? If so, please sign up for this online workshop with the wonderful @marissalingen.bsky.social 5pm GMT, 23rd November. Email [email protected] to register.
November 10, 2025 at 11:59 AM
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It's US only so I can't, but you absolutely should enter this. Two brilliant writers writing about a thing they love? What could be better?

I am so looking forward to reading this.
November 10, 2025 at 3:55 PM
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If the history of SFF literature is at all of interest to you, you want to read Trace Elements.

Jo and Ada taught two courses using the working draft as the textbook, and they were phenomenal. I learned so much in those two semesters!
November 10, 2025 at 2:57 PM
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If you thought Frankenstein's Tower in the Guillermo del Toro movie looked cool, check out the real-world inspiration behind it...
November 10, 2025 at 12:27 PM