Mastodawn

How Fiction Works

I’m rereading James Wood’s How Fiction Works, which I last read fifteen years ago at the tail end of my post graduation unemployment. Naively, those were the end of the happy days before I had responsibilities and all I did was read, write, and climb. I know this because tucked inside between pages 36 & 37 is an Amazon invoice from the 27th of January 2011 for Penguin’s…

http://blog.will-ellwood.com/2026/03/21/how-fiction-works/

How Fiction Works

The Shelter Stone

Will Ellwood 1d ago

A rough start to the year. One hopes it improves.

http://blog.will-ellwood.com/2026/03/20/the-first-quarter/

The First Quarter

It’s been a rough start to the year. The day job has been intense and there was a death in the family which has all coincided with a long period of extended illness. Until mid January, I’d been abl…

The Shelter Stone

Will Ellwood Mar 11

Chris Townsend Mar 11

https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/03/11/gamebirds-dumped-in-a-pit-on-a-shooting-estate-in-cairngorms-national-park/

Gamebirds dumped in a pit on a shooting estate in Cairngorms National Park

A large pit containing dead Pheasants, Red-legged Partridges, Wood Pigeons, deer parts, and a lot of rubbish, including a burnt mattress, has been found on a shooting estate in the Cairngorms Natio…

Raptor Persecution UK

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Will Ellwood Mar 11

@Taskerland Interesting. I don't have the time to dive into these for SFF/RPGs/sports, but could probably lose a few days here.

Will Ellwood Mar 9

Chris Townsend Mar 6

The Scottish avalanche forecasters – photo essay | Scotland | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/mar/06/avalanche-forecasters-scotland-photo-essay

The Scottish avalanche forecasters – photo essay

Photographer Murdo MacLeod patrols the snow with members of the Scottish Avalanche Information Service, which has for several decades published a vital daily avalanche forecast for mountain areas

The Guardian

Will Ellwood Feb 26

Ski Snacks - Food BOOK!

http://blog.will-ellwood.com/2026/02/26/ski-snacks/

Ski Snacks

Arrived today. I’m going through a rough patch at the moment, but I’m looking forward to healing myself with the recipes in here. The web page for the book can be found here:

The Shelter Stone

Will Ellwood Feb 26

@Taskerland Tellingly James is a designer and artist as much as a tech person.

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Will Ellwood Feb 26

@Taskerland Why do you think I host my site on Wordpress? I've occasional thoughts about making something beautiful like https://www.jamesreeves.co/, but it'd become its own hobby.

James A. Reeves

James is a writer and designer in the Middle West who makes midnight mixtapes and writes about highways and the search for god.

James A. Reeves

Will Ellwood Feb 25

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Jonathan Hogg Feb 18

I will say one thing for generative AI: since these tools function by remixing/translating existing information, that vibe programming is so popular demonstrates a colossal failure on the part of our industry in not making this stuff easier. If a giant ball of statistics can mostly knock up a working app in minutes, this shows not that gen-AI is insanely clever, but that most of the work in making an app has always been stupid. We have gatekeeped programming behind vast walls of nonsense.

Will Ellwood Jan 21

@Taskerland That is the ideal.