Thomas D. Lee
@thomasdlee.bsky.social
Sunday Times bestselling author (he/him)
Buy PERILOUS TIMES, it has a talking squirrel
Visiting Lecturer at City St George's University London
Worried about climate stuff
Repped by Harry Illingworth at @dhhlitagency
Linktree: https://t.co/psdOEXpR3h
Buy PERILOUS TIMES, it has a talking squirrel
Visiting Lecturer at City St George's University London
Worried about climate stuff
Repped by Harry Illingworth at @dhhlitagency
Linktree: https://t.co/psdOEXpR3h
Careful, you'll be doing research next 😉
November 29, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Careful, you'll be doing research next 😉
One of my favourite films
November 27, 2025 at 6:50 PM
One of my favourite films
The rich bastards want it to be a luxury, so that they're the only ones who get to do it. I just wish the big publishing companies weren't enabling them.
November 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
The rich bastards want it to be a luxury, so that they're the only ones who get to do it. I just wish the big publishing companies weren't enabling them.
I know the feeling. I used to do 10ks, then I got an ankle injury (by hitting it on a stool, of all things!) and now I just can't do it anymore. Really frustrating.
November 27, 2025 at 12:47 PM
I know the feeling. I used to do 10ks, then I got an ankle injury (by hitting it on a stool, of all things!) and now I just can't do it anymore. Really frustrating.
Yes one of the solutions to the Gromit.gif problem is to slow down the train so that you burn through the track more slowly - unfortunately I'm not very good at that part 😆
November 27, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Yes one of the solutions to the Gromit.gif problem is to slow down the train so that you burn through the track more slowly - unfortunately I'm not very good at that part 😆
Yeah working yourself to death is not the answer - I learned that the hard way, as well! Unfortunately I think the answer is 'get a boring 9-5 and write around it', but that shouldn't be the only answer.
November 27, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Yeah working yourself to death is not the answer - I learned that the hard way, as well! Unfortunately I think the answer is 'get a boring 9-5 and write around it', but that shouldn't be the only answer.
You have my sympathies. I had a similar breakdown a few days ago. The insidious thing about academia is that it places so many demands upon your time, pays you so little, and still expects the research and writing to happen at some point!
November 27, 2025 at 9:53 AM
You have my sympathies. I had a similar breakdown a few days ago. The insidious thing about academia is that it places so many demands upon your time, pays you so little, and still expects the research and writing to happen at some point!
That's very kleptomatic of you 😛
November 27, 2025 at 8:44 AM
That's very kleptomatic of you 😛
Would just be nice if it was a little easier to make an honest living out of it, that's all.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Would just be nice if it was a little easier to make an honest living out of it, that's all.
But I should get off my soapbox and stop 'crying over diamonds', to quote an author friend of mine. I'm lucky. I have a great agent and a wonderful editor and friends who I love, and I've got another book coming out next year, and I'll keep writing even if I have to do it on cardboard or cave walls.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
But I should get off my soapbox and stop 'crying over diamonds', to quote an author friend of mine. I'm lucky. I have a great agent and a wonderful editor and friends who I love, and I've got another book coming out next year, and I'll keep writing even if I have to do it on cardboard or cave walls.
And the big tycoons are relieved, of course, because they see AI as the magical solution. They're willing to do anything, drink any snake oil, toady to any fascist, fellate any tech bro, complement the emperor's new clothes, if it saves them from having to fairly remunerate workers for their labour.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
And the big tycoons are relieved, of course, because they see AI as the magical solution. They're willing to do anything, drink any snake oil, toady to any fascist, fellate any tech bro, complement the emperor's new clothes, if it saves them from having to fairly remunerate workers for their labour.
All of which illustrates how infuriating it is when dipshits say that AI can 'help me to brainstorm ideas'. It can't do that. It can plaster a deepfake smile onto the corpse of zombie capitalism as it shambles towards the precipice of climate catastrophe, but it can't create meaningful literature.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
All of which illustrates how infuriating it is when dipshits say that AI can 'help me to brainstorm ideas'. It can't do that. It can plaster a deepfake smile onto the corpse of zombie capitalism as it shambles towards the precipice of climate catastrophe, but it can't create meaningful literature.
And for some people that's inherited wealth and for others it's bar work. Now that I've submitted my PhD I'm probably going to take a break and then start applying for part-time jobs in cafes in the New Year (I'm also teaching at universities, but spoiler alert: that doesn't pay the rent either)
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
And for some people that's inherited wealth and for others it's bar work. Now that I've submitted my PhD I'm probably going to take a break and then start applying for part-time jobs in cafes in the New Year (I'm also teaching at universities, but spoiler alert: that doesn't pay the rent either)
Which is partly because my American publishers tore up my contract for Book 2 and left me in the lurch, but it's also because of how this industry works and how it's still really only feasible to write for a living if you have other money that you can fall back on.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Which is partly because my American publishers tore up my contract for Book 2 and left me in the lurch, but it's also because of how this industry works and how it's still really only feasible to write for a living if you have other money that you can fall back on.
This isn't really about me, but I'm a Sunday Times bestselling author who had a big advance on my first book and a reasonably successful debut and my financial situation looks like this:
a cartoon dog is carrying a box on a train track
Alt: A gif of the scene from Wallace and Gromit: The Wring Trousers where Gromit is riding a toy train and frantically placing track down in front of the train so that it doesn't derail
media.tenor.com
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
This isn't really about me, but I'm a Sunday Times bestselling author who had a big advance on my first book and a reasonably successful debut and my financial situation looks like this:
So a wondrous new technology (or more accurately, a kleptomatic bullshit generator) that does the writing for you is not remotely helpful. Nobody asked for it. What would be more helpful would be if the big publishing companies paid us more and weren't so predatory or inscrutable in their practices.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
So a wondrous new technology (or more accurately, a kleptomatic bullshit generator) that does the writing for you is not remotely helpful. Nobody asked for it. What would be more helpful would be if the big publishing companies paid us more and weren't so predatory or inscrutable in their practices.
You can't just write the book, you also have to buy food and pay the rent and look after your mental health. You can try to ignore these things in the service of your ART but you are very unlikely to flourish or succeed (unless, of course, you have inherited wealth or a spouse who earns millions)
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
You can't just write the book, you also have to buy food and pay the rent and look after your mental health. You can try to ignore these things in the service of your ART but you are very unlikely to flourish or succeed (unless, of course, you have inherited wealth or a spouse who earns millions)
The problem is not that we hate doing the work or want to do it faster. The problem is that authors aren't just idea factories hooked up to a set of typing fingers: those things are part of a larger body that needs to be fed and clothed and sheltered and loved the same as everyone else.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
The problem is not that we hate doing the work or want to do it faster. The problem is that authors aren't just idea factories hooked up to a set of typing fingers: those things are part of a larger body that needs to be fed and clothed and sheltered and loved the same as everyone else.
And by 'write' I mean the real hard work of writing, where you slowly develop the idea into a bad first draft, leave it to breathe for a while, come back to it, rewrite half of it, then lovingly craft it into an edited and publishable manuscript.
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
And by 'write' I mean the real hard work of writing, where you slowly develop the idea into a bad first draft, leave it to breathe for a while, come back to it, rewrite half of it, then lovingly craft it into an edited and publishable manuscript.