Mastodawn

Bye-bye Metaverse, hello spring. Magic coffees and iced buns all round!
https://wp.me/pjmMI-Jyc

The Swipe Volume 4 Chapter 11

We’ve turned a corner, Readership. The Spring Equinox was on the 20th, while the 25th was Lady Day, in old calendars the starting point of the New Year. Our windowsills are filled with seed trays, …

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Rob Wickings Mar 21

Different kinds of covers, and cautionary tales on gambling and the patient/therapist relationship. Also, Aunt Meg's gravy. So much nourishment!
https://wp.me/pjmMI-JxK

The Swipe Volume 4 Chapter 10

It feels like everywhere you turn, service providers are jamming AI into your crevices and expecting you to be happy about it. Grammarly were caught in shenanigans this week with the whole author m…

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Rob Wickings Mar 14

In which I seriously overthink a minor detail in one of the most divisive films of 2026.
https://wp.me/pjmMI-JxJ

Disobedient Geometry — metafiction, multiverse and The Bride!

There is a moment towards the end of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s daring, divisive movie The Bride! which completely recontextualised everything I’d seen up to that point. Don’t get me wrong, I was enjoying…

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Rob Wickings Feb 28

An opportunity for you to spend a little money on me. Capitalism ahoy!
https://wp.me/pjmMI-Jx0

The Swipe Volume 4 Chapter 8

Great news for all readers! I have finally got my sorry ass in gear and stuck some new writing up in place where you lucky sorts can read it. Poems For Monoliths is a novelette comprising six inter…

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Rob Wickings Feb 21

Fire Horses, Pancakes and the wisdom of Ed and Tim. Get your skates on, it's Swipe Time!
http://excusesandhalftruths.com/2026/02/21/the-swipe-volume-4-chapter-7/

Rob Wickings Feb 7

A Ninth Art-heavy Swipe this week, but if that ain't your jam we have Tetris, Dada-cubist funk and a most excellent hat. Righteous!
https://wp.me/pjmMI-JvO

The Swipe Volume 4 Chapter 5

C and I rejoined our local library. It took five minutes, was all done online and feels like a sensible thing to do. I grew up in libraries, pretty much. They were where my love of SF and fantasy w…

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Rob Wickings Jan 31

70s SF two ways, the best way to protest against tyranny and a poem which acts like a machine. Fret not, pet, The Swipe has got you covered for all eventualities.
https://wp.me/pjmMI-Jvl

The Swipe Volume 4 Chapter 4

Apparently I have a doppelgänger. Two separate pals on two separate occasions have sworn, hand on heart, that they have seen a fella with not just my physical appearance but gait and stance stridin…

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Rob Wickings Jan 24

Hostile caramel, sparkly prog and sonic cathedrals. Let's get it on!
https://wp.me/pjmMI-JuK

The Swipe Volume 4 Chapter 3

I’m under both the clock and the gun a bit this week, so let’s jump straight into the serious business. Enjoy links on dangerous caramel, drone metal, skronky jazz and a Disney movie you really nee…

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Rob Wickings Jan 17

Pockets for all!
http://excusesandhalftruths.com/2026/01/17/pockets/

Pockets

Cover image by beasturnchen on Pixabay I have a little ritual I have to enact before I leave the house. A simpler version of the old Catholic mnemonic — spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch. Thi…

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Rob Wickings Jan 10

Make some Middle English noise, pasta for breakfast and MTV your way. Time to boss 2026.

http://excusesandhalftruths.com/2026/01/10/the-swipe-volume-4-chapter-2/

The Swipe Volume 4 Chapter 2

Hands up who had ‘actual flippin’ blizzard, ICE murder in Minnesota and a potential annexation of Greenland’ on their scorecards for the first week of 2026. The soap opera of life in the second qua…

EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS