D Franklin
@dlibris.bsky.social
Weegie bookseller and book enthusiast. SFF reader. Co-head of Programme, Eastercon 2027. Angry queer. Nonbinary. They/them.
Reposted by D Franklin
The trans community’s trust in the NHS’ new puberty blocker trial is low and I can’t help but wonder whether they could have prevented that by involving ANY trans people in its design or operation, and maybe not involving several people who have attended conferences of anti-LGBTQ hate groups
November 22, 2025 at 8:43 AM
The trans community’s trust in the NHS’ new puberty blocker trial is low and I can’t help but wonder whether they could have prevented that by involving ANY trans people in its design or operation, and maybe not involving several people who have attended conferences of anti-LGBTQ hate groups
Reposted by D Franklin
I wish more reporting on this made the point that novelists won't be displaced by LLMs suddenly producing literature instead of story mulch, but because decision makers focused only on the bottom line, who don't understand what makes a good book, will be persuaded story mulch has got 'good enough'.
New research by @mctd.bsky.social shows the impact of generative AI on authors in the UK. They found over a third of novelists report their income has already been negatively impacted by AI and 85% expect their future income will be negatively impacted.
www.mctd.ac.uk/impact-of-ge...
www.mctd.ac.uk/impact-of-ge...
Impact of Generative AI on the Novel
A report examining how literary creatives being affected by GenAI and what measures they want see implemented by the government to protect the UK’s literary scene.
www.mctd.ac.uk
November 20, 2025 at 11:05 PM
I wish more reporting on this made the point that novelists won't be displaced by LLMs suddenly producing literature instead of story mulch, but because decision makers focused only on the bottom line, who don't understand what makes a good book, will be persuaded story mulch has got 'good enough'.
This is... insane. This country is just being driven straight into fascism because Labour want to stop Reform's... fascism.
MoJ to remove right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in controversial overhaul
MoJ to remove right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in controversial overhaul
Exclusive: Courts minister says change needed to stop criminals opting for juries to delay cases, sometimes by years, and clear huge backlog
*
UK politics live – latest updates
Criminals will be stopped from “gaming the system” by choosing trial by jury in order to increase the chances of proceedings collapsing, the courts minister has said, promising to enact radical changes to limit jury trials by the next election.
Drug dealers and career criminals were “laughing in the dock” knowing cases can take years to come to trial, Sarah Sackman told the Guardian, saying inaction would be a road to “chaos and ruin”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:13 PM
This is... insane. This country is just being driven straight into fascism because Labour want to stop Reform's... fascism.
Reposted by D Franklin
“But I have to enable Holocaust denialism because my favorite sports reporters are there”
I haven’t seen this get covered in English yet so let me translate.
Grok is saying that the crematories at Auschwitz’s were conceived as disinfectant chambers, not mass execution and that the law has made it taboo to acknowledge that this is what they were
X is a Nazi site. Get off the Nazi site.
Grok is saying that the crematories at Auschwitz’s were conceived as disinfectant chambers, not mass execution and that the law has made it taboo to acknowledge that this is what they were
X is a Nazi site. Get off the Nazi site.
November 20, 2025 at 12:04 PM
“But I have to enable Holocaust denialism because my favorite sports reporters are there”
Reposted by D Franklin
I would put it like this. Minority communities and the majority of the majority community have integrated v.well. However, a significant minority of the majority community and a significant majority of the political class are stubbornly refusing to integrate, and that is where the real problem lies.
Fundamentally, the UK is a massive success story on integration and most of the anxiety around it from the right should be treated as in insincere concern trolling it actually is.
Remember integration? That thing voters "really, really" care about? Where's that in the latest plans?
My column:
My column:
November 20, 2025 at 9:23 AM
I would put it like this. Minority communities and the majority of the majority community have integrated v.well. However, a significant minority of the majority community and a significant majority of the political class are stubbornly refusing to integrate, and that is where the real problem lies.
I'm still very sad @404ink.bsky.social are in a position to have to (in a very controlled, careful way) close, but this is such a cool - and very Laura and Heather - way to go.
www.thebookseller.com/news/404-ink...
www.thebookseller.com/news/404-ink...
404 Ink founders to release final Inklings title as part of industry fundraiser
The co-founders of 404 Ink will release a final title under their tenure, titled Publisher Not Found: A Decade of Disruption, 404 Ink 2016-2026.
www.thebookseller.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:41 AM
I'm still very sad @404ink.bsky.social are in a position to have to (in a very controlled, careful way) close, but this is such a cool - and very Laura and Heather - way to go.
www.thebookseller.com/news/404-ink...
www.thebookseller.com/news/404-ink...
Reposted by D Franklin
turns out in elite circles "misunderstood" is how you spell "pedophile"
Really wild how all these Harvard scientists and mathematics guys constantly talked about how Jeffrey Epstein was this brilliant, "misunderstood" man and then you read his emails and he's clearly a barely literate lecher, extremely easy to understand
November 12, 2025 at 9:36 PM
turns out in elite circles "misunderstood" is how you spell "pedophile"
Reposted by D Franklin
"What I like most about the speculative is the joy... The exuberance, the joie de lire, the fucking about. It’s such a fun form to work in. You can free yourselves to any degree that you please from constraints that otherwise tend to be invisibly ubiquitous, such as physics, location, and selfhood."
Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me)'s Rakesfall recently received the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. In this new interview, Senior Books Editor @cxorlando.bsky.social asks him the author about genre boundaries, violence in fiction, and how Le Guin has inspired his writing:
A Conversation With Vajra Chandrasekera, Author of Rakesfall - Reactor
"I think writers, like all artists, have a responsibility to act as human cultural workers in an actual society"
reactormag.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:56 PM
"What I like most about the speculative is the joy... The exuberance, the joie de lire, the fucking about. It’s such a fun form to work in. You can free yourselves to any degree that you please from constraints that otherwise tend to be invisibly ubiquitous, such as physics, location, and selfhood."
Reposted by D Franklin
the BBC Director-General has faced more consequences for reporting on how Donald Trump incited an attempted coup on Jan 6th than Donald Trump faced for inciting an attempted coup on Jan 6th
November 10, 2025 at 12:05 PM
the BBC Director-General has faced more consequences for reporting on how Donald Trump incited an attempted coup on Jan 6th than Donald Trump faced for inciting an attempted coup on Jan 6th
Reposted by D Franklin
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
Reposted by D Franklin
A great day for the golden rule of political analysis: when the right wins it is a resounding ideological victory that humiliates the left and when the left wins it is a precarious fluke that will surely end up humiliating the left. Conservatives are power’s landlords and the left merely tenants
November 5, 2025 at 10:35 AM
A great day for the golden rule of political analysis: when the right wins it is a resounding ideological victory that humiliates the left and when the left wins it is a precarious fluke that will surely end up humiliating the left. Conservatives are power’s landlords and the left merely tenants
Reposted by D Franklin
But - like Cheney aiming at his friend's face while hunting birds - I'mma give it a shot.
Dick Cheney was so evil it's hard to even make a funny joke bout his departure from this plane of existence.
November 4, 2025 at 3:36 PM
But - like Cheney aiming at his friend's face while hunting birds - I'mma give it a shot.
Reposted by D Franklin
Happy Election Day. Some people really meant it when they said they were gonna leave if Mamdani won.
November 4, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Happy Election Day. Some people really meant it when they said they were gonna leave if Mamdani won.
Reposted by D Franklin
If your response to my prediction of a Labour/Reform coalition earlier was "Pfft! Never!"... you're in denial as to what Labour have become. I hadn't even heard of Sarwar's comment at the time.
bsky.app/profile/hald...
bsky.app/profile/hald...
November 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
If your response to my prediction of a Labour/Reform coalition earlier was "Pfft! Never!"... you're in denial as to what Labour have become. I hadn't even heard of Sarwar's comment at the time.
bsky.app/profile/hald...
bsky.app/profile/hald...
Reposted by D Franklin
They just gutted Teen Vogue which had top notch political journalism. The media is continuing to purge any sort of political dissent to Trump and the oligarchs.
www.vogue.com/article/teen...
www.vogue.com/article/teen...
November 3, 2025 at 8:01 PM
They just gutted Teen Vogue which had top notch political journalism. The media is continuing to purge any sort of political dissent to Trump and the oligarchs.
www.vogue.com/article/teen...
www.vogue.com/article/teen...
Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein is... very pretty sentimental nonsense. The aesthetic is impeccable, the Marenghi approach to subtext is intense, and poor Polidori (unlike Byron and Percy) gets shut out. It is fascinating the ways it hews close to, and diverges from, the book. Good fun, though.
November 1, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein is... very pretty sentimental nonsense. The aesthetic is impeccable, the Marenghi approach to subtext is intense, and poor Polidori (unlike Byron and Percy) gets shut out. It is fascinating the ways it hews close to, and diverges from, the book. Good fun, though.
Reposted by D Franklin
Happy Halloween to all the Glaswegian guys dressing up as a girl today as a "joke", good luck with your gender affirming care appointments in two centuries time
November 1, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Happy Halloween to all the Glaswegian guys dressing up as a girl today as a "joke", good luck with your gender affirming care appointments in two centuries time
This is extremely good to see.
And also suggests these writers have a better understanding of picket lines than the front bench Labour Party...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
And also suggests these writers have a better understanding of picket lines than the front bench Labour Party...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
Stephen King’s son among writers boycotting British Library event in solidarity with striking workers
King’s son, Joe Hill, joins V Castro and Keith Rosson in withdrawing from the Tales of the Weird festival this weekend in support of industrial action
www.theguardian.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:53 PM
This is extremely good to see.
And also suggests these writers have a better understanding of picket lines than the front bench Labour Party...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
And also suggests these writers have a better understanding of picket lines than the front bench Labour Party...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
Reposted by D Franklin
Tolkien is not perfect but he did, in fact, hate the fucking Nazis.
DHS just posted a Lord of the Rings meme as an appeal to join ICE
October 29, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Tolkien is not perfect but he did, in fact, hate the fucking Nazis.
Reposted by D Franklin
I really want cis folks to understand the situation - trans women face widespread employment discrimination and live in devastating poverty.
Meanwhile, the woman who came in fifth place in a swimming competition, ONCE, makes a million+ a year to advocate for destroying our rights.
Meanwhile, the woman who came in fifth place in a swimming competition, ONCE, makes a million+ a year to advocate for destroying our rights.
If Riley's doing speeches 40 times a year, assuming breaks, she'd be making between $600,000 and $999,960 a year pre-tax. She's a fucking millionaire who has made her entire career of harassing a singular trans woman into exile. I legit thought Lia Thomas was dead until she did a recent interview.
October 29, 2025 at 1:44 PM
I really want cis folks to understand the situation - trans women face widespread employment discrimination and live in devastating poverty.
Meanwhile, the woman who came in fifth place in a swimming competition, ONCE, makes a million+ a year to advocate for destroying our rights.
Meanwhile, the woman who came in fifth place in a swimming competition, ONCE, makes a million+ a year to advocate for destroying our rights.
Reposted by D Franklin
These people are the absolute best and do so much to support our local community. Buy their books, I beseech you. I'm not sure that I know how to spell 'beseech' but hopefully it's like that.
Obviously always support indies but the lovely and wonderful @portalbookshop.bsky.social are really going through it right now so please give them some love! And the best way to do that is with sales! Buy books from them!
Where to find us:
In person! 5 Patrick Pool, York, YO1 8BB
Website! (With indie and import books) http://the-portal-bookshop.square.site
Other website! (With everything available through the UK wholesaler) http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/portalbookshop
Other social media! Portalbookshop everywhere
In person! 5 Patrick Pool, York, YO1 8BB
Website! (With indie and import books) http://the-portal-bookshop.square.site
Other website! (With everything available through the UK wholesaler) http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/portalbookshop
Other social media! Portalbookshop everywhere
October 26, 2025 at 4:43 PM
These people are the absolute best and do so much to support our local community. Buy their books, I beseech you. I'm not sure that I know how to spell 'beseech' but hopefully it's like that.
Reposted by D Franklin
Portal is a wonderful bookstore, run by wonderful people. If you're in the UK looking for titles by American authors that have not yet received UK editions, Portal is your new best friend. They sell more copies of each new Toby Daye book than many US bookstores do.
Obviously always support indies but the lovely and wonderful @portalbookshop.bsky.social are really going through it right now so please give them some love! And the best way to do that is with sales! Buy books from them!
Where to find us:
In person! 5 Patrick Pool, York, YO1 8BB
Website! (With indie and import books) http://the-portal-bookshop.square.site
Other website! (With everything available through the UK wholesaler) http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/portalbookshop
Other social media! Portalbookshop everywhere
In person! 5 Patrick Pool, York, YO1 8BB
Website! (With indie and import books) http://the-portal-bookshop.square.site
Other website! (With everything available through the UK wholesaler) http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/portalbookshop
Other social media! Portalbookshop everywhere
October 26, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Portal is a wonderful bookstore, run by wonderful people. If you're in the UK looking for titles by American authors that have not yet received UK editions, Portal is your new best friend. They sell more copies of each new Toby Daye book than many US bookstores do.
Obviously always support indies but the lovely and wonderful @portalbookshop.bsky.social are really going through it right now so please give them some love! And the best way to do that is with sales! Buy books from them!
Where to find us:
In person! 5 Patrick Pool, York, YO1 8BB
Website! (With indie and import books) http://the-portal-bookshop.square.site
Other website! (With everything available through the UK wholesaler) http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/portalbookshop
Other social media! Portalbookshop everywhere
In person! 5 Patrick Pool, York, YO1 8BB
Website! (With indie and import books) http://the-portal-bookshop.square.site
Other website! (With everything available through the UK wholesaler) http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/portalbookshop
Other social media! Portalbookshop everywhere
Home | The Portal Bookshop
Sci-fi, Fantasy and LGBTQIA books sold by a York based Independent Bookstore. We take Pre-Orders and Import US titles too.
the-portal-bookshop.square.site
October 26, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Obviously always support indies but the lovely and wonderful @portalbookshop.bsky.social are really going through it right now so please give them some love! And the best way to do that is with sales! Buy books from them!
This will be PHENOMENAL, sad I've got to miss it!
Needing a Sunday morning fix of coffee & fiction? We got you!
10.30, the bookshop TODAY: Park Seolyeon & Anton Hur with us to chat fiction & translation & freshly published, wickedly sharp feminist novel CAPITALISTS MUST STARVE.
Join us, a wee hour of book chat w/
@tiltedaxispress.bsky.social
10.30, the bookshop TODAY: Park Seolyeon & Anton Hur with us to chat fiction & translation & freshly published, wickedly sharp feminist novel CAPITALISTS MUST STARVE.
Join us, a wee hour of book chat w/
@tiltedaxispress.bsky.social
October 26, 2025 at 9:10 AM
This will be PHENOMENAL, sad I've got to miss it!
So uh Spread Me really takes Horny Horror and leans ALL the way in, huh, @sarahgailey.bsky.social!
October 25, 2025 at 11:30 PM
So uh Spread Me really takes Horny Horror and leans ALL the way in, huh, @sarahgailey.bsky.social!