Mark Cantrell

You know, sometimes I can't help the feeling that the world would be a much better place if the Black Death had wiped we Europeans out back in the 14th Century...

The Broligarchy's First World War? AI-guided weapons, two out-of-control authoritarians, no legal authority and a toxic mess of masculinity: welcome to the manosphere's first major conflict

NEW: Is this the broligarchy’s first world war? AI, like war & rape, is a hyper-masculine fantasy of God-like power, a myth at the dark heart of what we’re seeing play out in the Gulf. This war hasn’t replaced the Epstein scandal. It is the Epstein scandal.

open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

Watching Amazon Prime while the Iranians burn.
Stuffing our mouths with cheesysugarbacon
while the sky turns black over Tehran.
Laughing without smiling.
Laughing with full mouths and empty eyes
while their water mixes with oil and blood.

One side effect of the relentless slop of AI-generated spam targeting authors -- I almost disregarded a genuine email from a community radio station.

#writerslife

Home Office may forcibly remove child asylum seekers from UK in handcuffs Move is part of scheme to target families for expedited voluntary removals before enforced removal proceedings

Children in handcuffs... Labour 'values' at work.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

A woman in the dark aims a gun. Text reads: Making Mercy: Sing a song of a shanties girl. Subtext reads: From a child refugee fleeing conflict to a renowned singing sensation, the glare of Mercy's life in the limelight dazzles some darker truths.

The latest post on my author blog offers a visit to the world of Forever Mercy, providing a glimpse into the early life of the novel's protagonist...

markcantrellauthor.substack.com/p/making-mer...

#booksky #books #fiction #WIP #amwriting

Utterly disgusting -- but not surprising -- that zombie PM Keir Starmer has declared his support to aggressors conducting an illegal war.

"Major combat operations", "special military operation", the US and Israel have much in common with Putin's Russia, yet we're required to applaud the first and condemn the second. They're all war-mongering crooks, perverts, and imperialists.

Fuck the US.

Fuck Israel.

Fuck Trump.

Fuck Netanyahu.

Fuck Zionism.

Fuck Trump supporters.

Fuck the Republican Party.

Fuck the Democratic Party.

Fuck war.

Fuck everyone who helped make this war possible.

Fuck the western press.

Fuck warmongering think tanks.

Fuck the Israel lobby.

Here we go again. Another unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation for the sake of political vanity and Imperial domination.

Ah, Labour and Reform, I feel their pain. What is the world coming to? People should know their place, tug their forelocks, and vote for their betters, not for a... white, working class woman plumber running for the Greens with a positive message of change.

Has anyone asked Keir Starmer how he likes his toast? Because the Greens have handed him a slice.

Congratulations to the Green Party's Hannah Spencer for an inspiring win.

I need some of this anticrastination. Currently stuck on chapter three of a new book. I shall take inspiration from your example...

If AI makes human labor obsolete, who decides who gets to eat? Amid talk of artificial intelligence taking our jobs, the big unasked question is: how will we be fed?

Surely we surplus livestock will be mulched, processed and refined into biofuels to power the techlords' fake AI machines...

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Fancy a pint? Bela Lugosi is bled… From the archives: How long would it take a vampire to drink you up?

One form the archives on the author newsletter this week. Technically, it's way past its use-by date, but it's a fun topic...

markcantrellauthor.substack.com/p/fancy-a-pi...

#writing #authorblog #fiction #science #vampires

All Gothed Up, With Nowhere to Go Novel: Forever Mercy, Draft Chapter 1

Read the draft of Forever Mercy's first chapter...

open.substack.com/pub/markcant...

#fiction #booksky #WIP

It's National Library Lover's Month! The spaces are great, but it's the people who work in them that make them so special.

I have zero doubt that 'librarians riding on horseback to post-apocalypse wastelands to deliver books to folks in need' would be an actual thing they'd do, too...

Assembling furniture* is so exhausting, but I finally have a new armchair to replace the knackered, slumped old thing I've been using for years. In fact, I think I might now have a doze in my new comfy seat...

(*No, it hasn't fallen apart. Yet...)

#writerslife

Dip into a dystopian future in this gripping sci-fi thriller from @inspiredquill.bsky.social...

Paperback and digital editions available from the publisher: www.inspired-quill.com/product/citi...

Alternatively, order your copy from any good bookstore...

#booksky #fiction #novels #scifi #dystopia

I'm told it's a massive nuclear fusion furnace that could engulf the entire planet, but some people will say anything. I take hope that it is not a harbinger of doom, but the return from legend of the life-giving Sol...

I confess I was amused by them at first, but months on the flurry has become tedious. I've even started getting them on my work address.

Say no to Palantir in the NHS NHS England is rolling out software to run our health records from Palantir - fight back

Say no to this fascist spyware being used in the NHS...

notopalantir.goodlawproject.org/email-to-tar...

“Reading really is a superpower,” says Stormzy The British rapper is backing a national campaign to encourage more people to pick up a book

British rapper Stormzy has thrown his weight behind the national Quick Reads campaign to encourage more people to reap the benefits of reading. Catch the story on my #author newsletter...

markcantrellauthor.substack.com/p/reading-re...

#booksky #literature #books #reading

Photo of Hugo Jackson's books, Edge of Ascension and Remnant's Hope published by Inspired Quill.

Now I have the full set. Looking forward to reading my fellow IQ author's latest works. Wasn't expecting to see my name on the cover, though. I stand by every word! 😊

#booksky @inspiredquill.bsky.social

Reading was the key to breaking through the fog of my parents' dementia | Jo Glanville It was hard to communicate with my mother or father, until reading a book out loud led to a discovery, says journalist and radio producer Jo Glanville

Me, a lifelong reader, and I never thought to read aloud for my dad. Mind you, he was very active in his dementia, he'd probably have been too 'busy' to pay attention...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Image depicts two people examining some realy old books in a library. Text reads: You don't get that with a Kindle. Sub-heading: Second-hand books are a trove of readers lives.

The latest on my author site...

As readers we often write ourselves into the 'biography' of a book, contributing tantalising clues to the human connection they represent.

markcantrellauthor.substack.com/p/you-dont-g...

#books #literature #booksky #readers #history #heritage

Did you know we've only ever published ONE book in January!? 😅

Happy 14th(!!) birthday to Claiming One by E.J. Runyon!

Indie Authors - share your January-publications! (Yes, really. Let's give the readers of BlueSky some ideas for their 2026 TBR piles!)

‘Fascists threatened us but we always took them on’: the anarchic Bradford club still fighting after 45 years A new book and podcast tell the story of a 1 in 12, a venue that used community and artistic passion as bulwarks against poverty and grim politics. Its founders and key acts recall gigs, plays and pra...

Good article in the Grauniad about Bradford's 1-12 club which I have been to loads of times, always really liked but to me it is a weird magical place as if you set me down in Bradford and told me to go there I absolutely could not find it. Ever.

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

Citizens and Serfs, your servitude is required on behalf of our masters in Silicon Valley, so if you could report for AI conditioning your conformity would be greatly appreciated (don't make us tell you again). This is a partly political broadcast on behalf of the TechBro Oligarchy...