D Franklin

@dlibris.bsky.social

537 Followers 282 Following

Weegie bookseller and book enthusiast. SFF reader. Co-head of Programme, Eastercon 2027. Angry queer. Nonbinary. They/them.

Text reading "Increasingly, public debate demands that policing chooses a side, and yet the role of police leadership is not to participate in the culture wars. It is to uphold the law impartially, maintain public confidence and focus relentlessly on preventing crime, protecting victims and bringing offenders to justice." skip past newsletter promotion
A hand holding a book against a white background. The cover of the book shows a red planet covered in cracks with a city on, half in shadow, and a green planet with holes showing green parks, half in shadow as if from the same light source. A couple, standing between the planets, are holding hands. Text reads The Stars Are Waiting in white.
Text reading "He said: “I’m so happy to be releasing the second Pagans novel with Moonflower. They’ve been incredible with everything from editing to book design to somehow getting me into television studios to talk about my weird alt-history crime procedural with interviewers who seemed as startled about the whole thing as I was. Basically, everything authors are constantly being told publishers can no longer do for them. On top of that, they got it in front of Waterstones who gave it their full support, meaning the first book did better than any of us had any right to expect. Thankfully, no real pressure for book two, so that’s good.” Waring commented: “Returning to the world of Pagans has been an absolute gift and I am so excited to share the next instalment of Aedith and Drustan’s adventures with the world. With James’ signature blend of grit, wit and glorious world-building, Dead Gods takes everything that made Pagans so special and turns it up to 11. Alt-history at its finest, it’s going to appeal to crime and fantasy readers alike – and they won’t be able to put it down.” Spackman added: “As a reader, I couldn’t have been happier to spend more time with Aedith and Drustan – a ‘buddy cop’ pairing for the ages – in their sweary, sarky, violent, pagan world. As an agent, I felt the same about continuing James’ partnership with Moonflower, whose work on Pagans I literally, hand on heart, cannot fault. Emma Waring is simply the perfect editor and the creative commitment and commercial hustle she and the Moonflower team have applied to this series has been extraordinary. Hence the sales – not rune-science, is it?”"
A block of text reading "In urging his audience to see children’s books as “real books,” Barnett skips over larger, more pressing questions about why so many children aren’t reading books at all, real or otherwise."
A screenshot of text reading "Wes Streeting allies say he’s prepared to go for the leadership if Keir Starmer’s premiership falls apart – but that he won’t make the first move – and that he has relayed this message to Downing Street. But the health secretary is understood to be aware that a contest may not happen without him triggering it – and some supporters feel now is his best chance."
An angry white man in a suit shouting into a handheld microphone. The photo is captioned "Richard Tice: ‘The scourge of antisemitism has been allowed to flourish in our country.’ Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Guardian"
An early reader copy of Seasons of Glass and Iron, Amal El-Mohtar's short story collection, held closed with a fingertip on a wooden surface
A picture of a small black cottage with yellow windowframes on a stony beach with beautiful flowers planted around it on the stones. The picture is on top of a book titled The Two Roberts by Damian Barr.
A photo of a hand holding up a large size paperback book, The Isle In The Silver Sea by Tasha Suri, with the front cover facing the camera and the right- hand edge visible to give an impression of the thickness of the book. The cover shows the hands of two South Asian women touching, one wearing a gauntlet, over a circular opening through which a castle on the sea is visible. The cover also has a small white circle with the text "Not for sale. This is an uncorrected bound proof from Orbit."
A photo of the backs of the heads of a crowded audience looking towards a stage on which Kirsty Logan and Juno Dawson are sitting. Juno is speaking into a handheld microphone.
A screenshot of text reading In this context I feel obliged to state once more that – like the hundreds of protesters arrested last weekend – I too support Palestine Action. If this makes me a “supporter of terror” under UK law, so be it. My books, at least for now, are still published in Britain, and are widely available in bookshops and even supermarkets. In recent years the UK’s state broadcaster has also televised two fine adaptations of my novels, and therefore regularly pays me residual fees. I want to be clear that I intend to use these proceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can. If the British state considers this “terrorism”, then perhaps it should investigate the shady organisations that continue to promote my work and fund my activities, such as WH Smith and the BBC
A screenshot of text, headed with a black bar with text reading The Irish Times. The main text reads "The arrest of a protester in Belfast surely represents a particularly egregious example of political policing. When a storm damaged an infamous loyalist mural in north Belfast last year, rebuilding commenced immediately, and the wall is now once again emblazoned with the iconography of the Ulster Volunteer Force. No arrests were made on that basis, nor has the mural been taken down, though the UVF is a proscribed terrorist organisation responsible for the murders of hundreds of civilians. Palestine Action, proscribed under the same law, is responsible for zero deaths and has never advocated the use of violence against any human being. Why then are its supporters arrested for wearing T-shirts, while murals celebrating loyalist death squads are left untouched?
A gif of a posh white man in a suit, in the back of a car, saying "you might very well think that. I could not possibly comment". The gif is from the original House of Cards TV series
A display of shelves alternating Penguin Archive titles with 404 Inklings just inside the front door of a bookshop
A photograph of the copyright page of the UK edition of This Is How You Lose The Time War showing it is on its 40th printing
A copy of Erik Satie Three Piece Suite by Ian Penman, a plain white book with blue text of the title, author, and publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions.
A screenshot from the Guardian liveblog posted at 19.36 BST reading "The UK foreign minister David Lammy said that he has spoken to his Iranian and Israeli counterparts on Sunday and said that he “urged a diplomatic, negotiated solution to end this crisis”. “Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. The US has now taken action to alleviate that threat,” Lammy added."
A screenshot from a Guardian liveblog, written by Julian Borger, posted at 13.47 BST, reading "Benjamin Netanyahu has just left Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva. He toured the site and gave a statement to the press. According Ynet news, he said: “The entire people of Israel are paying a price. We are going through a blitz, and we are going through it in an astonishing way.” “There are personal costs, people have been hurt, families have lost their loved ones. Each of us bears a personal cost, and my family has not been exempt – this is the second time that my son Avner has cancelled a wedding due to missile threats. It is a personal cost for his fiancee as well, and I must say that my dear wife is a hero, and she bears a personal cost.”"
A screenshot from the Guardian news liveblog, posted at 7.20 BST and updated at 7.37 BST. The screenshot reads "Hospital attack by 'terrorist tyrants', says Netanyahu Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will exact the full price from the “tyrants” in Tehran. “This morning, Iran’s ‘terrorist tyrants’ launched missiles at Soroka hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in central Israel,” he said in a post on X"
A segment of a black knitted beanie. In white it has a skull wearing aviators with the roman numeral 9 on the forehead, and the word ONE beneath it.
The cover of a Tingler. It shows a muscled conventionally attractive white man wearing only white shorts and glasses next to a phone the same size as him with the face of a different conventionally attractive white man emerging from a white screen. The title is Journalist Pounded By The Physical Manifestation Of An Egregiously Mishandled Group Text From Members Of The Tromp Administration Containing Highly Sensitive Government Information
A clay egg-coloured egg with the text Freedom Truth Justice Reasonably Priced Love carved into it and coloured in a dark pigment.
A copy of the UK original hardback edition of Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett and a copy of Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins, on top of which, obscuring both a bit, are a postcard showing Death and Terry Pratchett playing chess drawn by Paul Kidby which reads "Professor Sir Terry Pratchett OBE 1948-2015" and at the bottom of which reads ""DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING," said Death. "JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.", and a pin badge of a caricature of Terry Pratchett's head in his characteristic black hat.
A screenshot of text reading Rishi Sunak made jokes at the expense of trans people, she says. By contrast, she claims, the Labour government will ensure trans people are treated with respect.
A screenshot of a series of headlines on the Guardian home page, illustrated with a blurred image of a hospital ward. The first headline, tagged NHS, reads "NHS warned it must change guidance on single sex spaces after court ruling". The second headline, tagged rail transport, reads "British Transport Police amends strip searching policy after supreme court ruling". The third, tagged UK, reads "Trans activists accuse head of UK equalities regulator of 'overreach' for suggesting bans". The fourth headline, tagged explainer, reads "How will UK judgement on legal definition of womanhood affect policy?"
A screenshot of a panel listing in dark mode. The panel is titled Into The Painting: The Joys of Portal Fantasy and is scheduled to be held on Monday 21st April at 12.30 in ICC Hall 1A. The panelists are listed as D Franklin (moderator), Edward James, Jeannette Ng, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Charles Stross. The panel description reads "From CS Lewis' Narnia to Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, SFF is full of stories about people from this world visiting another. What do we love about this genre? What are the attractions of stories about people from our world slipping into others? What stories do these ideas make possible that Tolkienesque secondary world fantasies can't tell?" The panel will be streamed and available to catch up after the convention for members.
A snippet of an email with two headlines. The first headline reads Taylor & Francis to use AI translation tools to publish books ‘otherwise unavailable in English’, with a lede reading Academic publisher Taylor & Francis has announced plans to use AI translation tools to publish books “that would otherwise be unavailable to English-language readers”. The second headline reads Society of Authors condemns ‘appalling’ use of pirated books in AI training.
A photograph of a segment of a crocheted shawl made of treble stitches and puff stitches (UK terminology). The yarn is a beautiful teal with flashes of aubergine.
A photo, through the backs of the heads of the audience at the event, of Rivers Solomon, a Black nonbinary person dressed in all black, cross-legged on stage talking to Rebecca Wojturska, a white woman in a black top, all in a well lit, light, and welcoming bookshop space
A brief video of Zeal & Ardor performing in Glasgow
A screenshot of text reading The Trump administration and the broader revanchist movement are targeting trans people because they are a tiny minority that they think can be bullied and dehumanized without great political pushback. They are targeting trans people because trans life represents the principles of dignity, self-determination and gender equality that they abhor. And they are targeting trans people because they are hateful, sadistic and cruel – because they want to make people suffer for the crime of being different from them, and because they do not have the courage to pick on anyone who is more capable of fighting back.
A selection of items laid out on a carpet. From left to right, on the top row: a plastic pouch with a set of charms including a watermelon charm, four bobbins of silk thread, one each in black, white, red, and green, each individually labelled, two watermelon stickers, a Black History Month card bookmark with a picture of Africa on, a sticker of a woman holding a sword, a Republic of Yarnia promotional postcard, a fun size pack each of Haribo Starmix and Haribo Tangfastics. On the bottom row: a small canvas coloured cloth pouch with watermelons on, three 100g skeins of aubergine-teal DK weight merino silk yarn, one 100g skein of lavender DK weight tencel yarn, one 100g skein of black yarn with white accents, sock weight, labelled as Hope For Gaza, and one 100g skein of red, white, green, and black merino yarn, in DK weight, labelled Palestine Solidarity.
A copy of the UK hardback edition of Wooing The Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis on a wooden surface
A photograph of the SS Discovery, a steam and sail ship, in dry dock, prow facing just to the side of the viewer, with the Dundee V&A in the background showing off its ambitions and shortcomings
An image of the bottom of a page of text. The footnote reads I'm as pro-wassailing as the next person, but I am baffled by a newspaper that thinks wassails are what will mend our society rather than a reinstatement of the social safety net, and perhaps a touch less racism, misogyny and transphobia
An image of a person in a blue checked shirt. On the breast pocket are a wooden pronoun pin reading they them and a crocheted white poppy
A photo of a forearm arm. The cover of This Is How You Lose The Time War is tattooed along the arm, a little faded with time but still crisp. Across the two birds is a signature in black ink. Beneath that is a black sticker with white text reading signed by the author.
An image of a white blonde woman in a black loose tshirt with one arm raised, mouth open singing. Text reads Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be bunnies! Refer back to this in exactly 3 years...
A screenshot of a search in the Waterstones app. The search is for the word unnecessary, underneath which is a suggested search for an unnecessary woman and three results; first, an unnecessary woman by Rabih Alameddine, second Zero by Jeremy Hunt, third The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older
A broken ring with sigils on the inside and simple decorations on the outside, looking aged, with a chain attached to and lying under it, with the words "there must be darkness to see the stars" around it in a cursive font, tattooed on skin
An image with the text the age of extinction is supported by followed by the graphic text logo for the guardian dot org
A parcel wrapped in white wrapping paper with gold stars on. The name Kayden is written in silver on the paper
A photograph over the heads of the audience of a stage with four seats on, with a projected image introducing the event, reading The Dark Is Rising And Other Stories, Friday 27 October 2023. Susan Cooper In Conversation With Natalie Haynes with guests Robert Macfarlane and Simon McBurney. To the right of the text is the cover of the CD of the BBC World Service audio dramatisation of the book.
Text reading "In the podcast, CIA spokesperson Walter Trosin cites the claims of agency historians that the majority of the CIA’s clandestine activities in its history “bolstered” popularly elected governments. “We should acknowledge, though, that this is, therefore, a really significant exception to that rule,” Trosin says of the 1953 coup."
A block headed Bookseller Favourite. In the top left of the block, the cover of Wildfire by Hannah Grace, to the right of which is quoted text reading "Addictive from the first page. I'd happily read this woman's shopping list", credited to Jessica at Oxford, with a link to a Bookseller Review and a link to Find Out More. Below that, on the right, is the cover of Bibliomaniac by Robin Ince, to the left of which is quoted text reading "The descriptions of bookshops are full of warmth and love. An absolute joy of a read." credited to D at Glasgow Sauchiehall Street, with a link to a Bookseller Review and a link to Find Out More.