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Jonathan Laidlow

@jonlaidlow

Cumbrian in Brum, writes a bit. Stories in Strange Horizons, Liminal Stories, StarshipSofa, Interzone and IZ Digital, and more. Codexian. Short fiction reviews at supernova.reviews, short fiction at jonlaidlow.com, webmaster & editor at ultan.org.uk

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10.08.2023
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Latest posts by Jonathan Laidlow @jonlaidlow

Preview
Wyldblood #17 Finally pulled my finger out to review the latest Wyldblood, which is, as ever, a mixture of strange and interesting stories.    

Alan reviews Wyldblood 16 @wyldblood.bsky.social and asks why you're not subscribing to this excellent publication! Standout story this time from
@robgillham.bsky.social but they're all great!

07.03.2026 16:46 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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The Best of All Possible Planets Hilarious space opera comedy for the fans of Futurama and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Cozy science fiction humor, and corgis!

We're live and the campaign is taking off faster than a space corgi!

Listen to LEWIS BLACK read from the book here:

www.kickstarter.com/projects/ufo...

24.02.2026 16:45 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

While I've been busy writing a novella set in my fictional seaside town of Seaforth, Alan kept the Supernova burning and here reviews a horror edition of Mythaxis - do check it out, a free to read zine full of quality fiction @mythaxis.bsky.social

14.02.2026 15:28 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A cyberpunk cityscape in shades of blue, pink, and grey with the text 'Trans in the Machine: Chronicling the New Cyberpunk Canon. Insight // Analysis // Experience From Trans+ Community'

A cyberpunk cityscape in shades of blue, pink, and grey with the text 'Trans in the Machine: Chronicling the New Cyberpunk Canon. Insight // Analysis // Experience From Trans+ Community'

Trans in the Machine: Chronicling the new Cyberpunk Canon is now live!

The crowdfund runs all month.

Accessible pricing and a portion of funds go to good causes.

Let’s make this happen together!

🔗 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

02.02.2026 07:20 👍 302 🔁 156 💬 9 📌 33

Fellow writers! I can’t make it to Halifax this May but maybe you can?

19.01.2026 20:28 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I would share a picture of him except he's.... in the other room, obviously.

22.12.2025 14:52 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I have flu and the cat refuses to give me cuddles... He views the enforced distancing from my partner as a clear sign of the end times and he's making it clear who he's moving in with....

22.12.2025 14:50 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I knew that @rickandwrite.bsky.social and @tinybookcase.bsky.social would be a match made in heaven when in introduced them to each other at World Fantasy in Brighton! Give this a listen people!

09.12.2025 00:05 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 0
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Read "Bone and Acid and Rushing Waves," from Addison Smith / @addi.social: Nova carries her captain’s head into battle. Read for free in Bullet Points: zurl.co/gBV5V

27.11.2025 23:15 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

What do you mean you don't have an ebook of Last Dragoners, get it now from the Subterranean site!

12.11.2025 22:01 👍 2 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

It's true, I'm busy talking puffins with the corpse-dredger, the murderer, and PC Beak in Seaforth. But I did take the time to read this issue of Parsec and it's fabulous, as Alan says in his review. Why aren't you subscribing to Parsec? pspublishing.co.uk/parsec-79-c....

12.10.2025 14:11 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A wonderful read, and a beautifully presented book too!

22.07.2025 10:16 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Filling my current story with em-dashes (or en-dashes, I'm entirely unsure at this point) because that's the way the prose wants to be. If it was good enough for Sterne in Tristram Shandy (subject of my long abandoned attempt to become a Dr) then it's good enough for me!

21.07.2025 15:53 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Bystanding (2018) First published at Factor Four magazine 2018 Dave sits on the roof of the old Ford out by the farm gate with a beer. It hasn’t been a working farm for nearly a decade, but the yard and outbuildings were why he bought the place, and they’re filled with the broken-down vehicles he collects and occasionally repairs. The Ford Cortina, though, is beyond restoration, and with the engine stripped out it’s just a place for the kids to play, or for him to go sit with his thoughts in the night.

Bystanding (2018)

First published at Factor Four magazine 2018 Dave sits on the roof of the old Ford out by the farm gate with a beer. It hasn’t been a working farm for nearly a decade, but the yard and outbuildings were why he bought the place, and they’re filled with the broken-down vehicles he…

21.07.2025 15:26 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Shoreline of Infinity #39 (Summer 2025) Omniscient computers, ghosts in machines, and cellular communication all crop up in this edition of Shoreline, and there seems to be a loose theme of lives that take place within non-corporeal and hidden states.  Alan reviews the latest Shoreline of Infinity

Alan reviews the latest edition of the excellent @shoreinf.bsky.social‬ - Omniscient computers, ghosts in machines, and cellular communication all crop up in this edition of Shoreline, and there seems to be a loose theme of lives that take place within non-corporeal and hidden states.

19.07.2025 16:17 👍 8 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0

Random literary ramble post about how an idea can travel. In Gene Wolfe's Book of the Short Sun (2000) we meet the inhumi of Green, shapeshifting aliens that take on the characteristics of their prey in order to impersonate them and get close enough to feed...

13.07.2025 10:58 👍 195 🔁 25 💬 8 📌 5
Preview
Ultan's Library a web resource for the study of Gene Wolfe

If you ever want to write this up we’d publish it at Ultan’s library! (Ultan.org.uk, largely dormant because of *life*)

13.07.2025 11:49 👍 11 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Andrew’s story is brilliant! @deadinkbooks.bsky.social

07.07.2025 19:08 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
PodCastle Disability Pride and Magic

PodCastle Disability Pride and Magic

PodCastle is very proud to join in celebrating Disability Pride Month with Disability Pride & Magic: a month of fantastic stories centering disabled characters and experiences.

See announcement on our website: podcastle.org/2025/06/30/d...

30.06.2025 16:57 👍 69 🔁 39 💬 2 📌 5
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Issue 42 of Mythaxis Magazine is out now!
mythaxis.co.uk/issue-42/

Six new stories in text and audio formats, and reviews too!

Many thanks to @SeanMacKendrick.bsky.social, Cheryl Ntumy, Anna Ziegelhof, Travis Ezell, Charlie Winter, Josh Pearce, @faceyouhate.bsky.social, and Micah Hyatt on voice!

30.06.2025 20:26 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 4
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Inundated (2015)  Yuri woke up to the sound of waves breaking at the end of the street, and knew that the undines had breached the final defences. Even his house, one of the furthest from the harbour, would be theirs once again, like the rest of the city. He had slept in the upper bedroom and now looked out into the morning, surveying the city.

Republishing an old story as I rebuild my website - this is "Inundated" a fantasy which is my Mum's favourite. It was also a Far Fetched Fable podcast. It was sold to Ecotones - an original small press anthology - and it was my first sale.

30.06.2025 21:28 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

While avoiding writing more of the puffin story, I thought I'd revisit an old draft of a near future short that I really liked. Oh. Nope! I don't think that's fixable! What about this story about aliens and sandwiches....

25.06.2025 14:26 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The puffins will have their revenge....

25.06.2025 14:24 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Am going to celebrate #Bloomsday by putting on the audiobook of Ulysses read by Jim Norton (Father Ted's Bishop Brennan) that I bought three Bloomsdays ago and and have still failed to complete... (not because he's not bloomin' marvellous, I might add). The failure is mine...

16.06.2025 20:29 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Today is the last day for Plott Hound's summer submission period! Slip those animal stories, poems and essay pitches through the dog door before midnight MST.

15.06.2025 17:40 👍 7 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0
Writing Queer People, Editing Queer People – a Workshop with Bona Books – The British Fantasy Society

There’s still time to grab your ticket for this brilliant workshop with @bonabooks.bsky.social. Tomorrow, June 16th at 7pm. Tickets are £5 for BFS members and £10 for non-members

britishfantasysociety.org/events-calen...

15.06.2025 14:48 👍 10 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 6