T.A. Moore's Blog, page 13

State of the TAM - 22 March

What’s Up

OK, first of all. Sorry about last week, I know I missed a newsletter. I had a neurologist’s appointment at the hospital last week and I was a bit het up (so far though, it’s all been positive! I have a few more appointments, but doctor is fairly sure it’s nowt bad going on in there….turns out my awful goblin plot brain doesn’t show up on an MRI :D). So I kind skipped a couple of responsibilities with online stuff.

But now I’m baaaaa-aaack!

…although I’m not sure there’s anything else worth mentioning going on! Designed some swag. Worked on potty training the puppy.

Rhys is going to show me how to make musubi this weekend!

But that’s about it :D I’ll try and do some more cool stuff next week!

Pupdate of the Week

Izzy Bo Bo continues to be a cutie. She has grown a bit and picked her favorite toy (the bunny that nearly matches her!). Off to the vet’s this week for her second jab and I can’t wait to be able to get her out for a trot. So far she’s been confined to the garden, but she can’t wait to get her nose out there into the big, wide world.

I don’t know I look so nervous in this picture :D

As for Jax, the Writing Staffie is absolutely enamoured of his wee sister. So far the main issue is stopping him going over to poke her awake so they can play again. She is a dinky girl! She needs her sleep!

Free Audio Chapter of the Week

‘Shift Plan’ by TA Moore is a Night Shift short story and a prequel to Split Shift. Find out more about who Kit Marlow was before he joined the Night Shift, and how he became the man Cade Deacon gets to meet in the books! Chapter Two up now!

Written by TA Moore
Narrated by Michael Fell

Listen Now

If you prefer to read rather than listen, you can get Shift Plan in mobi and epub on the website.

The complete Night Shift series is available on Audible, also narrated by the awesome Michael Fell.

Book of the Week

I just think this book sounds wicked cool! Look, I love teen detectives AND Scrabble, so it just sounds like a lot of fun.

Hanna Alkaf @hannaalkafThree months until QUEEN OF THE TILES drops on April 19th, so I’m doing what all the cool kids are doing

January 16th 2022

363 Retweets1,276 Likes

They Wish They Were Us meets The Queen’s Gambit in the world of competitive Scrabble when a teen girl is forced to investigate the mysterious death of her best friend a year after the fact when her Instagram comes back to life with cryptic posts and messages.

CATALYST
13 points
noun: a substance that speeds up a reaction without itself changing

When Najwa Bakri walks into her first Scrabble competition since her best friend’s death, it’s with the intention to heal and move on with her life. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to choose the very same competition where said best friend, Trina Low, died. It might be even though Najwa’s trying to change, she’s not ready to give up Trina just yet.

But the same can’t be said for all the other competitors. With Trina, the Scrabble Queen herself, gone, the throne is empty, and her friends are eager to be the next reigning champion. All’s fair in love and Scrabble, but all bets are off when Trina’s formerly inactive Instagram starts posting again, with cryptic messages suggesting that maybe Trina’s death wasn’t as straightforward as everyone thought. And maybe someone at the competition had something to do with it.

As secrets are revealed and the true colors of her friends are shown, it’s up to Najwa to find out who’s behind these mysterious posts—not just to save Trina’s memory, but to save herself.

Pre-Order Now

Oh my god, look at this unicorn. Look into its mad, staring eye and know glory. This unicorn would 100% be my companion if I’d ever gone on that magical quest into the Otherworld. He’d have been fecking useless too.

Alex Eccleston @AventuraObscuraUnicorn, Arnold Böcklin, 1885.

March 20th 2022

35 Retweets196 LikesMust Read of the Week

This sounds like the perfect job! I could give 100% to being an awkward, not very social dinner companion. I mean! It’s the job I was born to do.

More seriously, it’s fascinating. I’m intrigued by how this idea is culturally influenced. I think that the Western version of this ‘rent-a-companion’ would be a lot more drama and theatrics? There would be scripts and expectations. The quiet minimalism of a quietly reserved companion who demands nothing doesn’t seem like it would click.

I could be wrong though!

Meet the Japanese man paid to do nothingShoji Morimoto has built a cult following by offering himself as a warm body who can simply be there, liberating his clients from social expectations, write Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Julia Mio Inuma

Shoji Morimoto, 38, known as Japan’s ‘do-nothing guy’, waits for his client at an underground station outside Tokyo","title":null,"type":null,"href":null}" class="sizing-normal" alt="

Shoji Morimoto, 38, known as Japan’s ‘do-nothing guy’, waits for his client at an underground station outside Tokyo

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Shoji Morimoto, 38, known as Japan’s ‘do-nothing guy’, waits for his client at an underground station outside Tokyo

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Before moving out of Tokyo for her new job, Akari Shirai wanted to eat at the favourite restaurant she used to visit with her former husband. There was one issue: she didn’t want to be flooded with thoughts about her divorce by going alone. But she didn’t feel like inviting a friend and explaining the situation, either.

So she rented Japan’s “do-nothing guy”.

Read Moore

I am looking forward to this.

This dog does not look real.

Also help him!

WeRateDogs® @dog_ratesThis is Rocco. He's doing his best. 13/10 someone help him (IG: rocco_roni)

March 22nd 2022

1,805 Retweets21,339 Likes

State of the TAM - 8th March

What’s Up

First of all! Thank you everyone for all your support and well wishes on Dirty Work’s launch! I appreciate it all!

Don’t forget to stay on top of the blog tour! There’s gift cards, a free short story, and a picture of your’s truly! :D

Catch Up with the Tour

In other news….We’re expanding the pupdate! :D

Pupdate of the Week

Say hello to Izzy Moore! Otherwise known as Jax’s baby sister, Izzy Whizzy Let’s Get Busy, Izzy Beau Beau, and Stinkpot. She’s all of 8 weeks old and her favorite things in the world are biting, piddling, and doing a little bow legged run. She’s been here since Saturday :D

Of course, I’ll not be letting Jax’s photo album get sparse. He’s still by first born best boy :D

Here he is being a good brother:

And here just being the handsomest boy:

Book of the Week

You can not only get Dirty Work on Amazon, you can pre-order the next book in the series, Dirty Job!

I mean, it’s definitely impractically sexy. I would 100% equip my Dragon Age hero with that.

Morningstar @The_CythereanGame designers have denied me impractically sexy men's armour for too long, so I shall have it in real life instead.

March 4th 2022

15,264 Retweets138,323 Likes

You have NO IDEA how excited I am about this. I read the Wild Card books ENTIRELY out of order years before I read Game of Thrones. It is a brilliant concept, well-written, fun, and pretty brutal. I mean, there’s a centaur doctor. Whhhaaaaat?

Game of Thrones' George RR Martin to team up with Marvel

Wild Cards will soon be heading to Marvel Comics.

Game of Thrones author George RR Martin has scored a major collaboration, as he is teaming up with Marvel to bring the Wild Cards stories to life for Marvel Comics.

Superhero giant Marvel has confirmed that it will adapt the first Wild Cards novel into a comic for release in June.

The Wild Cards series, which was written by a collection of over 40 authors and developed and edited by Martin and Melinda M Snodgrass, imagines an alternate post-Second World War history, in which Earth is overrun with an alien virus called Wild Card.

Read Now

This is so cool looking. I love the food art.

Airi @pix_bunThe cook 🐔🍗More WIP's and concepts

March 2nd 2022

2,148 Retweets15,929 Likes

Speaking of food, I’ve been really enjoying Jamie Oliver’s Great Cookbook Challenge. There’s not that many recipes I’m likely to eat, but I enjoy watching them cook and compose the pictures.

creativescommunity_ A post shared by Creatives Community (@creativescommunity_)

State of the TAM - 4 March

What’s Up?

Dirty Work by TA Moore - aka me! - is out today! Yes, the newsletter is a little late but it’s been a WEEK over here.

Dirty Work: Dirty Deeds Book 1

Crime Scene Cleaner [kraɪm siːnˈkliːnə] - Cleans up crime scenes…before the cops know there is one.

People always say ‘you can’t go home again’. It turns out that doesn’t count as a guarantee…especially not during a global pandemic.

After the jobs in LA started to dry up, crime scene cleaner Grade Pulaski was forced to pack up and move home. He loves his family, but the last thing he ever wanted was to face the ghosts he’d left back in Sweeny, Kentucky.

Also, the place just sucks.

He certainly isn’t going to stay any longer than necessary. The plan is to save up enough money to move back to LA and give his business a kick-start. The problem is that, as previously mentioned, Sweeny’s a hole and the locals are anything but professional.

Now a body has gone missing, Grade’s reputation is being held hostage, and people keep asking whether his Dad really did run off with 100 grand of meth in the back of Dodge. Plus, even though you shouldn’t sleep with your employers, crime lord Clay Traynor is exactly the sort of bad idea that Grade can’t resist. Tattooed, bad news, and dangerous.

…oh, yeah. Grade’s job is to clean up the crime scene before the cops know someone’s dead. That’s why he needs to sort this out before he gets a bad review on dark net Yelp

Buy Now

Blog Tour of the Week

Don’t forget to follow the blog tour for a free short story, a chance to win prizes, and more about me and my writing!

First stop is at mmromancereviewed!

Pupdate of the Week TA Moore @tamoorewritesDirty Work by TA Moore is out today! TikTokvm.tiktok.com

March 4th 2022

4 LikesFree Audio Chapter of the Week

‘Shift Plan’ by TA Moore is a Night Shift short story and a prequel to Split Shift. Find out more about who Kit Marlow was before he joined the Night Shift, and how he became the man Cade Deacon gets to meet in the books! Chapter Two up now!

Written by TA Moore
Narrated by Michael Fell

Listen Now

If you prefer to read rather than listen, you can get Shift Plan in mobi and epub on the website.

The complete Night Shift series is available on Audible, also narrated by the awesome Michael Fell.

This is just so cute!

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State of the TAM - 23rd Feb

What’s Up

First of all, sorry I’m late! I know, I know - but it was Jax’s exam last night. I basically spent an hour running in a circle in a room where—god knows why—the heating was on.

And then Jax did not pass. :( 90% of the puppy syllabus he had rock solid. No dog can beat him at waiting to go through a door or giving kisses (not officially on the exam, but I think it counts for extra credit). However, he failed sit and stay. It was borderline. I mean, he sat but he didn’t stay. So…

To be honest, I think he was just bored.

But they’re doing it again in September, so…try, try again!

Back to writing stuff!

So in September of this year I will be attending UK Meet! Then in October I’m going to be at GRL as a spotlight author! Now I just have to look at flights and more swag and…lots of stuff!

Can’t wait though.

I just have to think up the traditional Poe Prank. Well, I’ve done it twice before. And for the record, she’s a good friend…this is how I express my affection. It’s the Northern Irish way.

I’m thinkin’….this.

70s Dinner Party @70s_partyGetting my drink on

January 20th 2022

702 Retweets3,494 Likes

What do you guys think? Is it emotionally scarring enough to convey that I’ve missed seeing her?

Pupdate of the Week

So Jax didn’t pass his class, but the teacher did say he was her favorite! And can you blame her? If it had been serving looks he would have definitely gotten through!

ALSO! For EVIDENCE! This is him sitting and staying at home. For a full minute! Look at him. He just didn’t want to do it last night.

Free Audio Chapter of the Week

‘Shift Plan’ by TA Moore is a Night Shift short story and a prequel to Split Shift. Find out more about who Kit Marlow was before he joined the Night Shift, and how he became the man Cade Deacon gets to meet in the books! Chapter Two up now!

Written by TA Moore
Narrated by Michael Fell

Listen Now

If you prefer to read rather than listen, you can get Shift Plan in mobi and epub on the website.

The complete Night Shift series is available on Audible, also narrated by the awesome Michael Fell.

I mean, yes. Except, of course, Sidhe is the right way :D

🎄✨ Alix E. Harrow ✨🎄 @AlixEHarrowi respect that fantasy as a genre has simply refused to standardize the spelling of "fairy." faerie. fae. fay. fair folk. fayrie. just an F followed by whatever vowels you have in your heart

February 22nd 2022

6,733 Retweets42,920 LikesMust Read of the Week

In honor of GRL check out Wonderland City by Rhys Ford, which was originally part of the Devil Take Me Anthology launched at GRL. Only $2.22 in the February sale!

When Xander Spade went through the Looking Glass, he wasn’t looking for salvation. He’d been running from the devil who took his soul, only to fall prey to the greatest monster in Wonderland City, the Queen of Hearts. Years later, the Queen is dead and Xander has a chance to go through the Looking Glass and back home where he belongs.

Xander’s devil wants him to find a little girl who escaped into Wonderland City, before her presence brings down an apocalypse of uncontrollable chaos to the already mad world. Along with Jean Michel, the former Knave of Hearts, Xander now is in a race against time to find the missing child before all Hell breaks loose and he loses his chance to go home.

Buy Now

Vampira🦇 @DraculasswifeArt by Matsuyama Miyabi.

February 16th 2022

531 Retweets2,694 LikesMust Read of the Week

I find articles like these FASCINATING. We all think we have free will, but we never take into account that the brain running the free will software is buggy as hell and easily distracted.

If I sound judgy? I am not. No one is as weak to the allure to ‘Buy One Get One Free’ as me. Just ask the amount of soup I own!

Casinos do the same thing! It’s a whole art form.

Surviving the Sneaky Psychology of Supermarkets A shopper peruses the grocery aisles at a South Africa based supermarket in the modern Ikeja City Mall in Lagos, NigeriaPhotograph by Robin Hammond, Nat Geo Image Collection

We’re all being manipulated by our grocery stores.

The experience of dashing into the local Price Chopper, Safeway, or Piggly Wiggly for a quart of milk and emerging with a bulging cartload of unintended food purchases is universal—and it’s not our fault. Supermarkets make us do it. Or at least they certainly try.

Grocery shopping, start to finish, is a cunningly orchestrated process. Every feature of the store—from floor plan and shelf layout to lighting, music, and ladies in aprons offering free sausages on sticks—is designed to lure us in, keep us there, and seduce us into spending money.

Read More

I love this! I wanna go here sometime.

#bookstagram #minalima #HouseOfMinaLima #HarryPotter #London ","username":"minalima","name":"MinaLima","date":"Wed Feb 16 14:13:37 +0000 2022","photos":[{"img_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/media/FLuVCD...MinaLima @minalimaDiscover the magic of MinaLima's classics collection and illustrated Harry Potter editions at House of MinaLima ✨ #bookstagram #minalima #HouseOfMinaLima #HarryPotter #London

February 16th 2022

16 Retweets229 Likes

I like murders, but the occasional ridiculous crime has its place!

Zaron Burnett III @Zaron3there’s plenty of true crime podcasts, but how about one with no murders? “This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It’s always 99% murder free… and 100% ridiculous.”I’ll be co-hosting, show starts Feb 15th

February 1st 2022

43 Retweets227 Likes

State of the TAM - 15th Feb

What’s Up

First of all! Thank you to all the readers and reviewers who voted in the Paranormal Romance Guild 2021 Reviewers Choice Awards…especially the ones who voted for me! But seriously, thank you all so much!

GHOSTS/HORROR/PARANORMAL/URBAN/FANTASY/FOLKLORE/ MYTHOLOGY/OCCULT/GOTHIC/MYSTERY/SCI-FI/EROTICA
2 Hex Work – T.A. Moore

LGBT/ROMANCE/FANTASY/FUTURISTIC/SCI-FI/URBAN FANTASY –
2 Night Shift – T.A. Moore

LGBT NOVELLAS AND SHORTS
2 Shift Work – T.A. Moore

And congratulations to C.S. Poe, Jordan Castillo Price, Jordan Hawk, and everyone else who placed! Whoot!

MEANWHILE! Don’t forget my upcoming blog tour for Dirty Work!

OH! And while I and my sweaty little fingers shall be duelling it out for GRL tickets this weekend? I am definitely - barring y’know… - going to the UK Meet!

I will have an OBSCENE amount of swag and there’s a better than good chance I’ll be a entertaining, gibbering wreck! So if you fancy coming to see all that,along with a BUNCH of other cool authors who’ll be there, then check it out! There’s still a fortnight to get the Early Bird Discount so…if you’re gonna might as well not miss that!

It’ll be my fourth? year and I can say it’s a cool event, there’s lots of fun people, no one takes themselves too seriously, and last time we all had a lot of fun! I’ll be there, Rhys Ford, KC Wells, Andi Lee, Anna Martin, KJ Charles, Clare London, and just loads more.

2-4 September in Southampton…where I have never been before, but I am determined to go to Piecaramba. It’s a pie shop that does gluten-free pies. So…nuff said.

piecarambauk A post shared by Piecaramba! (@piecarambauk)

Pupdate of the Week

This week the #WritingStaffie did not do so well in his puppy training class. He was just over-excited. Still, next week is graduation so we’re keeping our fingers crossed he’s feeling a WEE bit more like doing what he’s told!

Still, he tried really hard and he’s a good boy!

I just adore this. It’s just ridiculously awesome :D

🌸🕯📻نجاح 📻🕯🌸 @softnadjah_pngthis jc leyendecer painting

February 11th 2022

9,161 Retweets65,200 LikesShout Out of the Week

To me! On account of I can :D

My name is Jonah Carrow, and it’s been 300 days since I laid a hex.

OK, Jonah Carrow isn’t actually an alcoholic. But there’s no support group of lapsed hex-slingers in Jerusalem, so he’s got to make do. He goes for the bad coffee and the reminder that he just has to take normal one day at a time.

Unfortunately, his past isn’t willing to go down without a fight.

A chance encounter with a desperate Deborah Slater, and a warning that ‘they’re watching’, pulls Jonah back into the world he’d tried to leave behind. Now he has to navigate ghosts, curses, and the hottest bad idea warlock he’s ever met…all without a single hex to his name.

But nobody ever said normal was easy. Not to Jonah anyhow.

Buy Now

I know some people aren’t too keen on The Rings of Power, but I am fully invested! I can’t wait.

Must Read of the Week

There’s obviously a LOT of story fodder in this, but mostly it reminds me of a story about Belfast…which may or may not be true. OK, the first bit is definitely true. Years ago the Dalai Lama came to Belfast and planted a tree. It was a beautiful and very lovely event.

This is where it gets into anecdotal…it being Belfast, though, the government shortly after had to dig up the tree because there wasn’t meant to be a tree where they’d planted it. So someone—a poet—asked them what they were going to do with it and the guys said, ‘throw it away’. Poet was all, ‘You are not throwing away the Dalai Lama’s tree’ and asked if she could have it. They said ‘sure’.

So somewhere in Belfast—maybe, possibly—there still grows the Dalai Lama’s tree in a terrace house’s back yard.

We Almost Forgot About the Moon Trees

A collection of tree seeds that went round and round the moon was scattered far and wide back home.

Ron Zellar / NASA; Getty; The Atlantic

The American moon missions, more than 50 years later, are each memorable in their own way. Apollo 11, of course, is known for being the very first time human beings set foot on the moon. Apollo 12, for being a little rowdier. Apollo 13, for nearly ending in disaster. Apollo 14—the third of six moon landings—is known, as I recently discovered, for its “moon trees.”

Stuart Roosa, one of the Apollo 14 astronauts, took a small canvas bag of tree seeds with him on the journey. While his fellow astronauts walked on the lunar surface, Roosa and the seeds flew round and round the moon until the crew was ready to come back. A few years after the astronauts returned home, some of the seeds—sycamores, redwoods, pines, firs, and sweetgums—were planted across the United States, to see how they would grow, or simply to keep a piece of moon history close by.

Read More

I have barely any idea of what this game is or how it is played, but it is CLEARLY delightfully unhinged. I am deeply invested in what happens next for this dynasty…even though they have technically taken over my home.

Iron Spike @Iron_SpikeSup, it's me, the queen of Ireland.

February 7th 2021

69 Retweets1,871 Likes

Look! A writer in the wild. The delightful Andi Lee, who’s cursing my name right now :D

andileewrites A post shared by Andi Lee (@andileewrites)

This is just soooooo pretty!

malenavalcarcel A post shared by Malena Valcarcel (@malenavalcarcel)

Soup and Breakfast Sandwich are so pure!

Little Tunny 🐌🤝🧂 @itslittletunnyI CANT BELIEVE THIS 😭😭

February 14th 2022

9,882 Retweets42,684 Likes

FLASH State of the TAM - 14th Feb

Valentine’s Day Sale:

Wanted - Bad Boyfriend by TA Moore only $2.14 for the eBook.

His mother. His best friend. The barmaid at the local pub. Everyone is determined to find Nathan Moffatt a boyfriend. It’s the last thing Nathan wants. After spending every day making sure his clients experience nothing but romantic magic, the Granshire Hotel’s wedding organizer just wants to go home, binge-watch crime dramas, and eat pizza in his underwear.

Unfortunately, no one believes him, and he’s stuck with lectures about dying alone. Then inspiration strikes. He needs the people in his life to want him to stay single as much as he does. He needs a bad boyfriend.

There’s only one man for the job.

Flynn Delaney is used to people on the island of Ceremony thinking the worst of him. But he isn’t sure he wants the dubious honor of worst boyfriend on the entire island. On the other hand, if he plays along, he gets to hang out with the gorgeous Nathan and piss off the owners of the Granshire Hotel. It’s a win-win.

There’s only one problem—Flynn’s actually quite a good boyfriend, and now Nathan’s wondering if getting off the sofa occasionally is really the worst thing in the world.

Buy Now

Also hope you’re all having a happy Valentine’s Day or variant celebration :D Love you all!

State of the TAM - 8th Feb

What’s Up

Look at me! On time! That’s because I’m writing this in the afternoon before I go to Jax’s training! So you’ll have to wait till next week for the update! He’s been doing OK, though! Last week his ‘stay’ was a LITTLE wobbly, but he got there in the end. That’s what matters.

Work wise…I have swag designs all ready to go for UK Meet and GRL if my fingers are with me for the registration! I’ve also going to have Dirty Work out in paperback as well as ebook if anyone fancies it (probably! I’m going to try and get them both ready at the same time. It’s just…y’know…fiddly!).

Oh! And I did my AMA. You can watch it here…

Watch the AMA

Pupdate of the Week

I love Jax. I would argue that he is the best dog in the world and the sweetest boy. It’s gonna be said though, he’s a stuffed animal mass murderer at this point.

(I ALSO have to stop calling the stuffies his ‘babies’ because it probably does sound VERY WRONG if you’re not part of the Jax Scene.)

As a life-long arachnophobe…I would have fully abandoned bathroom for whoever went in there next. In spiders, sinking ships, and the last turkey at Xmas it’s every person for themselves.

Richy Craven @RichyCravenGATHER YE CHILDREN OF TWITTER AS I RECOUNT THE VALIANT TALE OF "RICHY VS. THE FUCKING MASSIVE SPIDER IN THE SHOWER"

June 10th 2018

4 Retweets17 LikesFree Audio Chapter of the Week

‘Shift Plan’ by TA Moore is a Night Shift short story and a prequel to Split Shift. Find out more about who Kit Marlow was before he joined the Night Shift, and how he became the man Cade Deacon gets to meet in the books! Chapter Five up now!

Written by TA Moore
Narrated by Michael Fell

Listen Now

If you prefer to read rather than listen, you can get Shift Plan in mobi and epub on the website.

The complete Night Shift series is available on Audible, also narrated by the awesome Michael Fell.

This is amazing. I used to have an RPG character who had living tattoos. They were a lot of disturbing fun to write! (Tzimisce, Sabbat, and a little tweaking of the powers to make it work :D)

mcbess @mcbessI still enjoy frame by frame more than after effect style animation.

February 7th 2022

535 Retweets4,152 LikesRecommendation of the Week

Well, sort of it! I only just found it, but it looks pretty cool!

deepdesirespress.com/podcast/\n\n#pod... #bookchat ","username":"Cameron_D_James","name":"Cameron D James (he/him)","date":"Tue Feb 08 04:59:31 +0000 2022","photos":[{"img_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/media/FLDJnm...Cameron D James (he/him) @Cameron_D_JamesI used to host Deep Desires Podcast -- a podcast with the cool authors over at Deep Desires Press! Archived episodes available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, and Stitcher!deepdesirespress.com/podcast/#podcast #bookchat

February 8th 2022

1 Like

I watched the whole series this weekend because I have NO self-control. It’s a LOT of fun. I loved it. This is definitely more Reacher than the Tom Cruise movies (which were fun, but not as nasty as they could have been? And Reacher was definitely not enough of an asshole in them…not a problem in the Amazon series!)

Must Read of the Week

This is fascinating. There’s so many sides to it that you’d need 32 hands to accurately cover them all (I have little sympathy with hunters, but getting rid of hunting altogether in areas that have traditionally functioned around it would be…a bad idea in the long term.).

Who Owns Scotland? The Rise of the Green Lairds

Climate-savvy millionaires are buying up huge areas of the Scottish Highlands and transforming how it is managed. These "green lairds," many of them from overseas, are rekindling debates about who owns Scotland’s land and what they’re doing with it.

The main road into Kildrummy, a 5,500-acre estate on the edge of the Scottish Highlands, runs past a ruined castle and across a scaffold-clad bridge to an unloved building that the new American owners, Camille and Christopher Bently, call the manor. It was built in 1901 to accommodate shooting parties held by Colonel James “Soapy” Ogston, who made his fortune from a soap factory in nearby Aberdeen.

Read Moore

I am not a great cook. Ask literally anyone. I have made some bad culinary choices in the past, but…wow. This is unpleasant sounding chilli. (I mean, everyone involved sounds awful, but that chilli just distracts from anything else going on.)

bit.ly/3Ld3Cux ","username":"AITA_online","name":"Am I the Asshole?","date":"Mon Feb 07 21:27:00 +0000 2022","photos":[{"img_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/media/FLBiBH...Am I the Asshole? @AITA_onlineAITA for kicking my mom out of my house because of how she reacted to her partner not liking my wife's chili? bit.ly/3Ld3Cux

February 7th 2022

156 Retweets3,956 LikesCE Murphy @ce_murphythis is pure gold

Irish Dresser Calendar Stan Account @hat_dogg

I would like to introduce twitter to the greatest calendar of all time https://t.co/Od4vOTVNxU

January 31st 2022

2 Retweets8 Likes

I love this visual. It’s got real Sea Witch vibes.

Abandoned Places @abandonedspacesThe last house on Holland Island, Maryland...

January 29th 2022

73 Retweets409 Likes

State of the TAM - 1st Feb

What’s Up

It is a really mild February here! This time last year there was snow, this year I’m walking the dog in a hoodie. It’s wild.

So happy Lunar New Year!

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It is the Year of the Tiger. Apparently it’s a responsible year for me! So yeah, that sounds…like a prediction I’m going to let down!

However, I can start off well! The blog tour for Dirty Work by TA Moore is coming up in March! Don’t miss it!

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Don’t forget that I’m doing an AMA. If you have any questions you can use the form and leave it there. Or you can join my Facebook Group and ask me there. Or email me, ask me on twitter. I’m really easy :D

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I’ll collate them all and do a video post on…Monday 7th February! A certain #writingstaffie might make a blurry appearance. I can’t promise anything. He moves fast.

Pupdate of the Week

The #writingstaffie had an explore up at Mount Stewart this week. He likes the sniffs! and sometimes fox widdle that she leaves behind.

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January 30th 2022

5,938 Retweets36,806 Likes

Look at these! They’re both dark and amazing.

Free Audio Chapter of the Week

‘Shift Plan’ by TA Moore is a Night Shift short story and a prequel to Split Shift. Find out more about who Kit Marlow was before he joined the Night Shift, and how he became the man Cade Deacon gets to meet in the books! Chapter Two up now!

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Written by TA Moore
Narrated by Michael Fell

Listen Now

If you prefer to read rather than listen, you can get Shift Plan in mobi and epub on the website.

The complete Night Shift series is available on Audible, also narrated by the awesome Michael Fell.

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I love a good angel and demon story. It’s just two great tastes that taste great together. I mean, Holly Lisle’s Devil’s Point books are among my FAVORITES evvvvvvaaaaaah. So this seems right up my street.

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An angel and a demon walk into a bar…

It should be the start of a joke, except Emmett and Phoenix loathe each other the moment they meet. Reluctant and mismatched partners they may be, but they’ve been given a job to do on Earth: persuade the newly dead to move on to wherever they’re destined to go.

A friendly word here, a nudge there, all the dead should need is a push in the right direction—but dark forces are working against the pair, and the mission takes a dangerous turn.

From hate at first sight, to toleration, to something more… Except time is running out, and soon Emmett and Phoenix will be torn apart and returned to the worlds from which they came. That’s not what they want, and neither is willing to go back without a fight…

…. Because even though they're dead, they've never felt more alive.

This is book 3 in the series, but all can be read as standalones.

Find Out More

Awwww.

The Scamperbeasts @scamperbeasts"It's a novel about the eternal struggle for meaning, and naps. The hero is a deeply handsome but misunderstood tuxedo cat. Yes, I *do* take elements from my own life experience, why do you ask? Now please, leave me to my work. Genius must have solitude to create."

February 1st 2022

39 Retweets314 LikesMust Read of the Week

I understand the urge, but with the amount of dogs and cats being handed in to rescues and pounds it seems grotesque to genetically clone a dog that just…looks like your dog. Also while there’s genuine grief there, it seems weirdly tangle up with career aspirations.

People are going to do what they are going to do, but it seems…pointlessly self-serving. It’s not even going to get what they want, no matter how much is spent on it.

Bring in the clones: Instagrammers are genetically replicating their petsCloning cats and dogs is expensive and controversial. But the humans behind petfluencer accounts say it’s worth it. a.image2.image-link.image2-794-728 { display: inline; padding-bottom: 109.06593406593406%; padding-bottom: min(109.06593406593406%, 794px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-794-728 img { max-width: 728px; max-height: 794px; }

Udvar-Hazy, a 29-year-old from California, documented Willow from the moment she got her, and followers watched Willow grow from a tiny puppy to a strapping adolescent who roamed California’s wilderness on hikes with her owner.

Then, in 2018, tragedy struck: Willow escaped from her pet sitter and was struck by a car. “When I got there, she was still alive. My friend was driving us to the vets,” Udvar-Hazy says, her voice quavering. “She passed away while I was holding her in the backseat.”

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This is beautiful. I can’t draw worth toffee and sometimes I am STRICKEN with envy for those who can create something like this. Plus, y’know, obvs the fey courts :D

🍖 nat 🍖 @vulpetropeStar crossed

February 1st 2022

28,449 Retweets140,635 Likes

I mean, I’m here for it.

…OK, I know it wouldn’t be tonally appropriate, but I was dying for that bald dude in the trailer to read his note and then go, “I’m the Queen!?”.

It is just so genuine. Like, you keep expecting to see some sort of artifice. The dude just really likes nice pots.

State of the TAM - 25th January

What’s Up

ETA - Jax was a GOD AMONG PUPS at the dog training this week. Probably going to fail the certification on Jax’s habit of trying to graze through people’s coats for treats…but walked nice, his sit/stay is great! And he hasn’t piddled indoors once.

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I am doing an Ask Me Anything! If you have any questions you can use the form *points to links* and leave it there. Or you can join my Facebook Group and ask me there. Or email me, ask me on twitter. I’m really easy :D

I’ll collate them all and do a video post on…Monday 7th February!

Pupdate of the Week

Sleepy puppy! The training is an hour, and it really takes it out of him.

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He went to the tide bank earlier though and posed like a handsome boy!

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Just a reminder that I DO have a Facebook Group that I am sporadically good about nattering on. It’s been a quiet start to the year, but getting back on track this Sunday!

Free Audio Chapter of the Week

‘Shift Plan’ by TA Moore is a Night Shift short story and a prequel to Split Shift. Find out more about who Kit Marlow was before he joined the Night Shift, and how he became the man Cade Deacon gets to meet in the books! Chapter Two up now!

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Written by TA Moore
Narrated by Michael Fell

Listen Now

If you prefer to read rather than listen, you can get Shift Plan in mobi and epub on the website.

The complete Night Shift series is available on Audible, also narrated by the awesome Michael Fell.

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I mean, you SHOULDN’T laugh…

Brisk God @brisk_god

January 1st 2022

241 Retweets1,636 LikesMust Read of the Week

I try to share links that are informative, interesting, or going to open people’s minds to just how WEIRD the internet can be.

This one? I just REALLY WANNA GO!

I’m going to have to add a novella about a guy solving a murder on the Cornwall train :D Madness on the Cornwall Express. Work trip to Cornwall coming up!

Sleeping around Europe: The revival of night trainsOvernight adventure to Cornwall offers beautiful sunrise views after a night of sleeping like a baby

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On board the Night Riviera to Cornwall: single-occupancy cabin costs £90 (€108) and, if you are travelling with someone else, a double-occupancy cabin is £120 (€144).

If I ever got a reputation for sleeping around, it would be because I’ve always been drawn to the romance of European sleeper trains. For a while, however, my crush on couchettes was curbed, when budget flights became everyone’s darling and many sleepovers were stopped. Thankfully, my loco-libido can be satisfied once more. As many travellers are seeing the benefits of flight-free travel, train companies are dusting off their rolling stock and refreshing their bed linen.

Read More

It is the dream!

Devereaux's Ghost @devereauxsghostWhat’s stopping you from living like this?

January 21st 2022

18,465 Retweets129,405 Likes

I watch this religiously - I have such a crush! - and Jax is just so disapproving of the dogs in this.

cityofshay A post shared by Shay | Indy Blogger (@cityofshay)

State of the TAM - 19 Jan

What’s Up

Dirty Work, first book in the Dirty Deeds series, is up for pre-order now!

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Crime Scene Cleaner [kraɪm siːnˈkliːnə] - Cleans up crime scenes…before the cops know there is one.

People always say ‘you can’t go home again’. It turns out that doesn’t count as a guarantee…especially not during a global pandemic.

After the jobs in LA started to dry up, crime scene cleaner Grade Pulaski was forced to pack up and move home. He loves his family, but the last thing he ever wanted was to face the ghosts he’d left back in Sweeny, Kentucky.

Also, the place just sucks.

He certainly isn’t going to stay any longer than necessary. The plan is to save up enough money to move back to LA and give his business a kick-start. The problem is that, as previously mentioned, Sweeny’s a hole and the locals are anything but professional.

Now a body has gone missing, Grade’s reputation is being held hostage, and people keep asking whether his Dad really did run off with 100 grand of meth in the back of Dodge. Plus, even though you shouldn’t sleep with your employers, crime lord Clay Traynor is exactly the sort of bad idea that Grade can’t resist. Tattooed, bad news, and dangerous.

…oh, yeah. Grade’s job is to clean up the crime scene before the cops know someone’s dead. That’s why he needs to sort this out before he gets a bad review on dark net Yelp.

Pre-Order Now

ALSO! Yes, a little bit late. I definitely underestimated how tired I was going to be stumbling home at half-nine with an over-stimulated pup and just…just covered in cheese and livercake. I mean, you leave the house with the treats all cubed up and neat. Then you’re trying to wrestle Jax away from the purse that’s been left at the side of the hall and there’s food on him, on me, on the purse…

Sorry! But I’ll try and get it done on Monday next week! Then I can schedule it.

What? You say, don’t you do that already. Now, you’re just insulting both of us. You know I don’t, that I am not a planner and am instead chaos covered in cheese cubes. So…

Free Audio Chapter of the Week

‘Shift Plan’ by TA Moore is a Night Shift short story and a prequel to Split Shift. Find out more about who Kit Marlow was before he joined the Night Shift, and how he became the man Cade Deacon gets to meet in the books! Chapter Two up now!

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Written by TA Moore
Narrated by Michael Fell

Listen Now

If you prefer to read rather than listen, you can get Shift Plan in mobi and epub on the website.

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Off to the Commons in Donaghadee today! He walked through the town as well, had a nice meet and sniff with a schnauzer.

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It was very windy!

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Enjoy a $1.99 eBook by Rhys Ford. Sale Ends January 31, 2022. I would like to point out that I was the one who kept saying ‘Call the book Ramen Assassin!’ and everyone was all ‘Tamm, you’re drunk again.’ Turns out I was not, and you’re all welcome!

I’ve also never had Ramen. So that just means I was being even more brilliant!

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When life gives Kuro Jenkins lemons, he wants to make ponzu to serve at his Los Angeles ramen shop.

Instead he’s dodging bullets and wondering how the hell he ended up back in the Black Ops lifestyle he left behind him. After rescuing former child star Trey Bishop from a pair of thugs in the middle of the night, he knows it’s time to pick up his gun again. But it seems trouble isn’t done with Trey, and Kuro can’t quite let go… of either the gun or Trey Bishop.

Trey Bishop never denied his life’s downward spiral was his own fault. After a few stints in rehab, he’s finally shaken off his Hollywood bad-boy lifestyle but not his reputation. The destruction of his acting career and his relationships goes deep, and no one trusts anything he says, including the LAPD. When two men dragging a dead body spot him on a late-night run and try to murder him, Trey is grateful for the tall, dark, and deadly ramen shop owner he lusts over—not just for rescuing him, but also for believing him.

Now caught in a web of murders and lies, Trey knows someone wants him dead, and the only one on his side is a man with deep, dark secrets. Trey hopes Kuro Jenkins will stick around to see what the future holds for them once the dust settles, but from the looks of things, neither of them may survive to find out.

Amazon

Dreamspinner

Depressing but illuminating read from Jack Monroe (who is amazing and you all should follow them!)

jack monroe @BootstrapCookWoke up this morning to the radio talking about the cost of living rising a further 5%. It infuriates me the index that they use for this calculation, which grossly underestimates the real cost of inflation as it happens to people with the least. Allow me to briefly explain.

January 19th 2022

5,679 Retweets12,872 LikesMust Read of the Week

I am fascinated with the idea of things that are missing. Really, best way to hook me into anything is a mysterious photograph that can’t exist or a document that has been mutilated to remove important information.

So this article is just right up my alley!

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Holes are full of potential. We can only imagine what was in them before they were emptied out, why they became nothing instead of something. Like a kaleidoscope, the picture made by holes is always changing. Like history or art itself, holes are never finished. Archaeologists use soil analysis to identify postholes, the marks of ancient settlements. They excavate sewers at the Colosseum to find things the Romans thought not worth writing about. Holes leave space for projecting both forwards and backwards in time.

Museum and library collections are full of holes. Some are the product of hungry bookworms and moths. Others are deliberate, made by humans. These holes are, arguably, the most crucial bits, even though they are missing. This is the hole’s paradox. A hole points, through absence, to importance. The object wasn’t just used; it was used up. Philosophers struggle mightily over this question: is the hole something or nothing at all?

In his small artist’s book Hole Theory (2002), the American artist William Pope.L lays out the case for holes. The spiral-bound book is annotated with handwritten notes (denoted here by square brackets) and the text is crossed out in places, making its own black holes on the page. In this text, which is a hybrid poem-manifesto, Pope.L embraces the paradox of the hole.

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C.S. Poe @cs_poeThank you for including Madison Square Murders on your Best of 2021!

All About Romance @AllAboutRomance

New on the Blog! The next in our series of BEST OF 2021 posts comes from @CazReadingRm who has chosen books by authors including: @tekhnemakre @Sally_Malcolm @kj_charles @jayhoganauthor @_LucyParker @con_riley @Charlie_Adhara @cs_poe @akaRachelReid https://t.co/eCWm8m1Mwn https://t.co/6epIfcR0Lr

January 17th 2022

2 Retweets19 Likes

Congrats Poe!

Adding wax to whiskey bottles

a.image2.image-link.image2-458-618 { display: inline; padding-bottom: 74.11003236245955%; padding-bottom: min(74.11003236245955%, 458px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-458-618 img { max-width: 618px; max-height: 458px; } Elle Em @ellle_emCat: HUMAM DO U SEE THAT THINGMe: what thing Cat: AN THING ON THE WALLMe: I can't see anything on the wallCat: OH HMCat: NEVERMINDMe: wait what do you see?Cat: IS OKMe: what do you see?Cat: DO NOT DO A WORRY Me: what is the thing on the wall?Me: what?? What is it????

January 18th 2022

256 Retweets2,338 Likes