Jared Shurin's Blog

I love editing anthologies because they’re a form of curation. I get to assemble an answer; pull together an informed opinion from the evidence available. I believe a good anthology is not only about the quality of the stories, but about the quality of the argument. It is a truism, but it should be more than the sum of its parts. And that sum should have something to say.

With The Big Book of Cyberpunk, one of my key theses was simple: cyberpunk ain’t dead. Much the reverse: it is overgrown. It e...

The Elements of Dark Academia, stories selected by ME

It lives! The Elements of Dark Academia, my next anthology, publishes on August 27th from Vintage Classics.

Here’s where to find it:

Blackwells 

Bookshop.org

Waterstones

Foyles

Amazon

These are all UK-only links, as the book is currently a UK-only type deal. (American publishers, our agents are standing by and awaiting your call.)

I would like to point out that Blackwells continues to offer free international shipping, so if you did want a sexxxy Br...

Buster is unimpressed by your excuses.

One of the basic principles of behaviour change is the pledge mechanic. If you get someone to commit to something out loud, they’re much more likely to go on and do that thing. People are very happy to lie to themselves and to back out of things, but we hate being seen as hypocrites.

I actually think the pledge is now over-utilised: we had a few years where every. single. ‘behaviour change’ campaign drove a ‘pledge!’ CTA, and that watered it down to the poin...

Two newsletters in two weeks! Don’t worry, I’ll now go dark again until summer. Also, this is a long one, with a lot of links, so you may find it easier to read online . Sorry about that.

There were long weeks in 2025 that went by without me reading at all, which is one of those things where stress compounds stress. Reading is important! Read more, kids! I also didn’t have any awards to judge last year and Real Life Responsibilities overwhelmed all my reading challenge commitments. All in all, it ...

I was back in Kansas City briefly, and although a whirlwind trip, I did manage to sneak in visits to three different BBQ joints: Jack Stack (twice), Q39 and Joe’s Kansas City.

Jack Stack is not my favorite - my sister really likes it, because she swears by the sides. I had a rib-related disappointment there on my last visit, so I don’t trust them for those any more, and stick to the sandwiches. Given that I rate ribs above all other forms of BBQ, that’s the equivalent of the scene in a cop drama...

I am giving a talk at TEDxBristol on 8 November! 

It will, genuinely, actually, for real, be about how BBQ is the solution to some of the world’s trickiest problems…

Bad guy is cooking hot and fast with that sword.

The meme really says it all.

There’s a whole day of talks! I’ve had previews of most of them, being that we’re a pretty chatty cohort, and every one I’ve seen has been excellent. If you just want to pop in for one session (perhaps the third one), I’m sharing the evening slot with Romy Gi...

I received an email last week from Typepad, announcing that they are shutting down their whole platform, effective the end of September. Back up yer assets before they are lost to the seas of time, etc.

I have been a Typepad user since it first began. In 2006, I had outgrown our primitive Blogger- based blog and needed to port it over somewhere. At the time, it was either Typepad or WordPress. The reason I went for the former was largely confidence (or lack thereof). I had, at the time, my domain...

Some literary contributions, a belated event mention, a few things I had nothing to do with, and - of course - a BBQ update.

Make-Believe and Artifice

Make-Believe and Artifice, by Rose Biggin, publishing September 9th from NewCon Press

Rose’s long-overdue inaugural collection. Fifteen absolutely brilliant stories from an immensely talented writer. I don’t really have the words to describe Rose’s work (awkward, what with contributing the book’s foreword), because she is - in the absolute best of wa...

Well, my last newsletter, umpteen weeks ago, was a moan about declining readership. Then I went silent for ages. I’m aware probably looks like I was off on a massive sulk. Far from it!

First, everyone was LOVELY. The number of kind emails I received were really touching. I really wasn’t feeling sorry for myself - honest! I’m aware that newsletters, like podcasts, are notoriously non-transparent. Given the state of the internet (RIP), I think owned channels are all the more important, especially ...

Cast your mind back to January, my decision to enact Project V and trial the ‘dot-dot-dash’ format: weekly rambles and a monthly deep dive. Ten weeks later, the results are in, and they aren’t great.

summons back all the planners who had been totally excluded from the process since writing the creative brief

Let’s start with the data, and, oh.

The Boob of Doom

Well, that’s probably not good.

I don’t conduct exit interviews. However, I think it is safe to guess that:

Some readers that...