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WARREN ELLIS LTD Posts

cold snap: 11may26

Published May 11, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Another cold snap. Had to take a rootbound acer out of a pot yesterday and plant it in the ground, sowed some seeds around it, so of course I woke up today to discover the local wildlife turned over the ground and tried to dig the acer out.

New newsletter went out yesterday, in which we are trying something new.

Found on Taco Bell Quarterly:

I think looping and iteration are very much a part of the creative process. Often I find myself starting with a feeling or an idea. I know I want to get to a place and then it’s just a matter of putting in the time, the thought, and the effort until I get there. You can be looping and looping, and then sometimes you’ll have a conversation with a friend, or you’ll encounter new ideas about technology while you’re working, and that’s what kicks off new ideas. Maybe you’re running a lot of loops simultaneously and they’re all informing each other—so it’s not so much a closed, but expansive system. I don’t think of loops as a trap.

Simon Reynolds’ Hauntology Parish Newsletter.

Accessions: the new Laura Cannell arrived.

OPERATIONS: dev day. Too many half-finished ideas and outlines hanging
STATUS: running all the damn heaters in the middle of May
READING: THE REVOLUTIONISTS, Jason Burke (UK) (US+)

…when Timothy Leary, the counterculture icon who advocated the use of hallucinogenic drugs, wanted to travel to Jordan he was rudely rebuffed.


LAST WATCHED: Season 1 of THE BOYS.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Tags: Cannell library music writing
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8may26

Published May 8, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Offline.

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7may26

Published May 7, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Yesterday was a braindrain day, so my plan is to mostly check out for the next couple of days and just get Sunday’s newsletter done. New material coming in that newsletter.

READING: HERE WHERE WE LIVE IS OUR COUNTRY, Molly Crabapple (UK) (US+)

LISTENING: Le Jardin S4 E9

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sailing by: 6may26

Published May 6, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Alex Senna.

Public Domain Review.

“Internet Cinema” at DO NOT RESEARCH

Accessions:

OCEANINE, Jolanda Moletta: digital-only for me, as the only other offering is vinyl, but necessary.

Oceanine, Jolanda Moletta’s third album and her first for Beacon Sound, is a powerful and ethereal statement of artistic community. Expanding on her previous work, each track represents a collaboration with a different female vocalist (see list below), with the foundational elements being generated entirely by her own voice.

PLAYFORD 1, Barn Hoppit: also digital-only, but fuck it, I love these people.

OPERATIONS: scripting day, converting up development notes
STATUS: it turned colder, so I’m staying in
READING: THE REVOLUTIONISTS, Jason Burke (UK) (US+), THE PASSAGE OF POWER: THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON Vol 4, Robert A Caro (UK) (US+)

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Tags: library music
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5may26

Published May 5, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Picked up a smaller sling bag for those days where I just need the phone, earbuds or MP3 player and card wallet.

Denim/kapok blend long-cut chore jacket from MUJI turns out to be the perfect weight for a mild spring day. I like the big pockets, too.

New trailer for THE ODYSSEY, which has… odd choices.

Just bought herself a CD, which is apparently black metal with bagpipes:

OPERATIONS: today is script development aaaaall fucking day
READING: THE REVOLUTIONISTS, Jason Burke (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: Playford 1, Barn Hoppit


MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Tags: ai
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fig: 4may26

Published May 4, 2026 by Warren Ellis

This is going to be a fig.

  • I am very much sick of people sticking -maxxing on the end of words, just like I’m sick of -punk as a suffix, but the looksmaxxer pentastack is worthy of note, the “enhancement” cocktail consisting of Adderall, dextromethorphan, pregabalin, ketamine… and an industrial solvent called BDO.
  • Cellular rejuvenation for life extension may actually have some possibilities
  • 4000 year old magical texts from Syria preserved on clay tablets! There’s an anti-witchcraft ritual in there, and get this:
  • “The purpose extended beyond personal protection. These rites aimed to stabilize political authority, ward off misfortune, and neutralize perceived supernatural dangers that could undermine a king’s rule. This reflects a broader Mesopotamian worldview in which cosmic order and political stability were inseparable. A threat from witches or malevolent forces was not merely spiritual—it was a potential crisis of governance.”
  • “A new study explores the role of sound in medieval English imagery. Employing a combined approach that integrates neurobiology and the framework of the “sound milieu,” the researcher argues that early medieval images were never “silent.” Instead, they could evoke imagined acoustic environments, allowing immersive, multisensory interaction with the scene.”

Accessions:

HOLLYWOOD HAUNTS THE WORLD was gifted me to the author, for which I am very grateful because it looks very much My Shit. BLANK SPACE had conflicting reviews, but when it showed up on Kindle for 99p, I figured I may as well find out for myself.

HOLLYWOOD HAUNTS THE WORLD, Robert Guffey (UK) (US+)

BLANK SPACE, W David Marx (UK) (US+)

OPERATIONS: Crash week. By Friday night I want to have moved at least eighty pages of material out of the office.
STATUS: Major reset. I’ve booked two gigs to go and see on the 16th and currently wondering where I can fit some small amounts of travel in. Inbox at 100, but a ton of those are delivery notifications
READING: THE REVOLUTIONISTS, Jason Burke (UK) (US+)

But despite the defeat of the Arab armies in 1948 they, like most of the approximately 750,000 Palestinian refugees scattered across the region, still believed they would one day regain their villages, land, businesses and property. The nakba, meaning simply ‘catastrophe’, as it became known, prompted feverish debate among the refugees and throughout the Middle East.


LISTENING: SONGDREAMING, Saadet Turkoz & Nils Wogram (UK) (US+)

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Tags: books drugs history library magic med sound
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potatoes: 3may26

Published May 3, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Potatoes.

Haven’t been able to do anything in the garden all week, and things don’t look great out there – but things are growing, too.

New newsletter is out.

Back at this properly tomorrow, I think.

OPERATIONS: work pressure is real now
STATUS: 8hrs 40m sleep! Sleep isn’t cumulative, but lack of sleep is, and I’m hoping I’ve handled the sleep deficit from the last six weeks now.
READING: THE REVOLUTIONISTS, Jason Burke (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: THE MEDIEVAL DRONE SOCIETY III, Laura Cannell


LAST WATCHED: dunno how we ended up rewatching the first two VENOM films last night, but we did. Here are my notes on the third.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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29apr26

Published April 29, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Accessions:

Somehow missed this one on release. Showed up on a Kindle sale.

HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT, Olga Tokarczuk (UK) (US+)

PREVIOUSLY:

And I was given a late birthday present:

THE NOMA GUIDE TO BUILDING FLAVOUR, Rene Redzepi etc (UK) (US+)

PREVIOUSLY:

OPERATIONS: I need to finish a piece today, but my mind seems to be wandering towards a couple of new project requests I’ve received.
STATUS: 8hrs 26m sleep, finally clearing the sleep deficit. The wind is BOOMING out there.
READING: finished THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN, Giuliano da Empoli (UK) (US+) last night, back into HERE WHERE WE LIVE IS OUR COUNTRY, Molly Crabapple (UK) (US+)
LAST WATCHED: ARMAGEDDON was on last night and I always have to sit and watch at least the start, for the camera moves. The camera is always pushing in, in that first sequence, hurtling towards the scene.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Tags: food books Tokarczuk library
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28apr26

Published April 28, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I hate these “recalibration” weeks where I have to reset routines, intents and diet back to zero.

Headline: Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out a Way to Get to Alpha Centauri in Just 20 Years. Actuality: it’s laser propulsion again, and it currently only works at the microscopic level. Takes me back to the days of Leik Myrabo and his “lightcraft” laser launch system, which didn’t scale up beyond the size of a coaster and got seventy metres up before they fell off the laser or melted.

The actual paper coins the term “metajets,” which I like.

OPERATIONS: got a 20pp piece out yesterday, so today is clean-up and development
STATUS: finally, sleep. 8hr 21m. About to savage my inbox, which is around 130
READING: THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN, Giuliano da Empoli (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: I have a stack of CDs to listen to, but I’m also thinking about adding a playlist to the newsletter, almost as if I didn’t have fucking enough to do

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Tags: space
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