Simon Spanton
@simonguy.bsky.social
"I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself."
Wandering. Wondering. Freelancing. Often acquiring and editing SFFH for Angry Robot Books. Live in Edinburgh. Views my own and independent of my employers. Photos my own unless otherwise etc.
Wandering. Wondering. Freelancing. Often acquiring and editing SFFH for Angry Robot Books. Live in Edinburgh. Views my own and independent of my employers. Photos my own unless otherwise etc.
My dad's painting of a Flower class corvette making her way through awful weather and heavy seas.
He painted this for me for my 21st birthday.
He painted this for me for my 21st birthday.
December 7, 2025 at 8:11 PM
My dad's painting of a Flower class corvette making her way through awful weather and heavy seas.
He painted this for me for my 21st birthday.
He painted this for me for my 21st birthday.
"But there was little time to cry, and lovers now they fell ravenously on the quick seconds while outside the taxi windows the green and cream twilight faded, and the fire-red, gas blue, ghost green signs began to shine smokily through the tranquil rain."
December 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
"But there was little time to cry, and lovers now they fell ravenously on the quick seconds while outside the taxi windows the green and cream twilight faded, and the fire-red, gas blue, ghost green signs began to shine smokily through the tranquil rain."
Last weekend's frosty whin.
December 7, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Last weekend's frosty whin.
"A closer darkness upon her slumber, a deeper voice in the murmuring leaves overhead—that would be all she would know of his undesiring and unjudging gaze, his satisfied but profoundly indifferent ownership."
A happy birthday to the delightful power that was Olivia Townsend Warner.
A happy birthday to the delightful power that was Olivia Townsend Warner.
December 6, 2025 at 2:24 PM
"A closer darkness upon her slumber, a deeper voice in the murmuring leaves overhead—that would be all she would know of his undesiring and unjudging gaze, his satisfied but profoundly indifferent ownership."
A happy birthday to the delightful power that was Olivia Townsend Warner.
A happy birthday to the delightful power that was Olivia Townsend Warner.
This is great. As anthemic as you might expect but personal and so, so furious as well.
December 6, 2025 at 1:04 PM
This is great. As anthemic as you might expect but personal and so, so furious as well.
Took a photo of Edinburgh castle last night and ended up with William Hope Hodgson's House on the Borderland.
December 5, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Took a photo of Edinburgh castle last night and ended up with William Hope Hodgson's House on the Borderland.
I've had this address book for more than 30 years. It's begun to look like the cursed tome the foolish academic takes home from the cathedral library in a M.R. James story.
December 5, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I've had this address book for more than 30 years. It's begun to look like the cursed tome the foolish academic takes home from the cathedral library in a M.R. James story.
"These beings were referred to politely as the Tylwyth Teg, the Fair People, but some townsfolk asserted that the name should really be Fur People, or Fur Niskies, and many believed that they were the black imps of Old Bogey-Boo himself."
The Whispering Mountain, Joan Aiken
The Whispering Mountain, Joan Aiken
December 5, 2025 at 12:42 PM
"These beings were referred to politely as the Tylwyth Teg, the Fair People, but some townsfolk asserted that the name should really be Fur People, or Fur Niskies, and many believed that they were the black imps of Old Bogey-Boo himself."
The Whispering Mountain, Joan Aiken
The Whispering Mountain, Joan Aiken
"Laura stretched her gleaming neck
Like a rush-imbedded swan,
Like a lily from the beck,
Like a moonlit poplar branch,
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone."
Happy birthday, Christina Rossetti
Like a rush-imbedded swan,
Like a lily from the beck,
Like a moonlit poplar branch,
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone."
Happy birthday, Christina Rossetti
December 5, 2025 at 9:04 AM
"Laura stretched her gleaming neck
Like a rush-imbedded swan,
Like a lily from the beck,
Like a moonlit poplar branch,
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone."
Happy birthday, Christina Rossetti
Like a rush-imbedded swan,
Like a lily from the beck,
Like a moonlit poplar branch,
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone."
Happy birthday, Christina Rossetti
Clearing up after tea music.
December 4, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Clearing up after tea music.
"Womb-trapped, friendless foetus, she traipsed through Mother's ornamented veins, past trompe l'oeil capitals, false doors, false columns and false perspectives towards her hunting ground, turning and turning, up ramps, down stairs, through colonnades hung with stucco grapes..."
Hotwire, Simon Ings
Hotwire, Simon Ings
December 4, 2025 at 5:55 PM
"Womb-trapped, friendless foetus, she traipsed through Mother's ornamented veins, past trompe l'oeil capitals, false doors, false columns and false perspectives towards her hunting ground, turning and turning, up ramps, down stairs, through colonnades hung with stucco grapes..."
Hotwire, Simon Ings
Hotwire, Simon Ings
Book Token and @goldenharebooks.bsky.social combined to provide this excellent haul.
December 4, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Book Token and @goldenharebooks.bsky.social combined to provide this excellent haul.
My dad would have LOVED to have painted that sky. Here's one he did paint...
December 3, 2025 at 1:53 PM
My dad would have LOVED to have painted that sky. Here's one he did paint...
"When I look in that mirror, I see images in oil paint, spirals, feathers, creatures metamorphosizing from leaf to flesh and back again. Cooper, of course, sees language in the mirror of the stones, the sky, the trees."
@terriwindling.bsky.social
@terriwindling.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 12:15 PM
"When I look in that mirror, I see images in oil paint, spirals, feathers, creatures metamorphosizing from leaf to flesh and back again. Cooper, of course, sees language in the mirror of the stones, the sky, the trees."
@terriwindling.bsky.social
@terriwindling.bsky.social
She's sat there waiting for me to put my hand on the arm of the chair, at which point she savages it. Every. Single. Time.
December 2, 2025 at 9:41 PM
She's sat there waiting for me to put my hand on the arm of the chair, at which point she savages it. Every. Single. Time.
"Finally, he felt cold, tender arms wrap themselves around him, pulling him softly down to the bottom, or else their own promised world."
Published today. Translated by @missadadoom.bsky.social.
Published today. Translated by @missadadoom.bsky.social.
December 2, 2025 at 4:18 PM
"Finally, he felt cold, tender arms wrap themselves around him, pulling him softly down to the bottom, or else their own promised world."
Published today. Translated by @missadadoom.bsky.social.
Published today. Translated by @missadadoom.bsky.social.
"For the Silver Shoes had fallen off in her flight through the air, and were lost forever in the desert."
"With a light heart she turned and began to walk, to anywhere."
From Oz to Was.
"With a light heart she turned and began to walk, to anywhere."
From Oz to Was.
December 2, 2025 at 3:15 PM
"For the Silver Shoes had fallen off in her flight through the air, and were lost forever in the desert."
"With a light heart she turned and began to walk, to anywhere."
From Oz to Was.
"With a light heart she turned and began to walk, to anywhere."
From Oz to Was.
Sir Edwin Landseer's "Spaniel in a Green Armchair."
December 2, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Sir Edwin Landseer's "Spaniel in a Green Armchair."
Between the hum and the hills.
December 2, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Between the hum and the hills.
The birthday present from my excellent mother-in-law was a Book Token. Which, I would maintain, is the PERFECT gift for any book lover in your life. Allows them the luxury of an ENTIRELY guilt-free book purchase. You literally HAVE TO spend money on a book.
December 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM
The birthday present from my excellent mother-in-law was a Book Token. Which, I would maintain, is the PERFECT gift for any book lover in your life. Allows them the luxury of an ENTIRELY guilt-free book purchase. You literally HAVE TO spend money on a book.
Two crabshells from the lochshore.
December 1, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Two crabshells from the lochshore.
"Beyond the inky sea and far up that high, black shadow of a hill lived the Divers. She thought of them both together, heard them still singing faintly a song like rising smoke, like a hymn, very remote in time and far away. Their children slept, their gate was shut for the night."
December 1, 2025 at 9:37 AM
"Beyond the inky sea and far up that high, black shadow of a hill lived the Divers. She thought of them both together, heard them still singing faintly a song like rising smoke, like a hymn, very remote in time and far away. Their children slept, their gate was shut for the night."
First time I've seen feather ice.
November 30, 2025 at 2:11 PM
First time I've seen feather ice.
"When I wake next, I will be a midwife,
Because the Calypso is expecting.
The Calypso will soon be a mother.
She is ready, and expecting to birth
Skies, and rivers, and trees, and animals.
The Calypso will birth a whole new world."
@oliverklangmead.bsky.social
Because the Calypso is expecting.
The Calypso will soon be a mother.
She is ready, and expecting to birth
Skies, and rivers, and trees, and animals.
The Calypso will birth a whole new world."
@oliverklangmead.bsky.social
November 30, 2025 at 11:21 AM
"When I wake next, I will be a midwife,
Because the Calypso is expecting.
The Calypso will soon be a mother.
She is ready, and expecting to birth
Skies, and rivers, and trees, and animals.
The Calypso will birth a whole new world."
@oliverklangmead.bsky.social
Because the Calypso is expecting.
The Calypso will soon be a mother.
She is ready, and expecting to birth
Skies, and rivers, and trees, and animals.
The Calypso will birth a whole new world."
@oliverklangmead.bsky.social