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9nov26

Published November 9, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I sat through the Avengers trailer at the cinema on Saturday night. Does anyone know why Robert Downey Jr is doing Werner Herzog’s voice?

If you’re just joining me: this is my digital notebook, which gets added to one or twice a day, usually just once, sometimes not at all.

TODAY:

  • Serpent Mound is a Native American earthwork – I did a bunch of research on these a few years ago for a graphic novella that comes out in 2027 – and I came across this wonderful bit in a new article on it: “Those who built Serpent Mound could not have known that it sits amid an astrobleme, Greek for “star wound”—a five-mile-wide eroded crater left behind by a meteor impact 320 million years ago.”
  • The Eden Book Society: a literary hoax project from Dead Ink Books
  • An asteroid photographed from 37 miles away

Heard from my old friend Mac Rey last night, who’s developing his personal project STRANGE COMBAT. Back in the 60s and 70s, DC used to mash up genres in odd ways, and one of the stickiest was the “supernatural war story.” The Haunted Tank and that sort of thing. If you’re my age, then you found tattered copies of these in charity shops and rummage sales at fairs, and thought, what the fuck even is this thing? But if you were Mac, it got stuck in your head and laid eggs:

Quick happy exchange with Nika Zola Jesus about her launching her own label/house, which I find completely inspirational. And she joined the growing group of people poking me to start my own house, which I’ve been thinking a lot about this year. Self-publishing is hardly new to me, and I have an ebook process partly figured out. I just need the jolt, and it hasn’t come yet.

New Soeur L’Enfer song is dropping later today.

OPERATIONS: I need to get 8pp of script out the door and then pivot to personal projects
STATUS: this first cold of the winter is hanging on. Spent yesterday offline batching meals and fixing the coffee machine. Tonight I need to clean out and reposition the coffee bean roaster. I love roasting coffee: the sound, the aroma, and that golden seam on the bean.


READING:THE ROUSE, China Mieville (UK) (US+)

Nineteen fifteen, Robert King, “Occult Aspects of the Battlefield,” invoked “swirling groups of combatants who had left the body, locked together in an intense emotional stress, fancying they were still engaged in slaughter.” You could be sure the War Office had its copies of that. What’s the word for something that is a nightmare and a dream, a dreaded outcome and an aspiration all in one?


LISTENING: THE WAY APPEARS, India Gailey & Leah Plave

On The Way Appears, cellists India Gailey and Leah Plave offer a collection of uniquely collaborative new music for two celli. From the synchronicity of flocking birds and the fractal symmetry of snowflakes, to the self-organized structures of political movements, the music illustrates emergence…


LAST WATCHED: HAMLET AT ELSINORE was on last night, preceded by a short interview with Steven Berkoff. I enjoy Berkoff, as he is completely mad and never not acting. Berkoff also gave us one of the great televisual moments of 2003. He was so restrained and almost respectful in performing Stilgar in CHILDREN OF DUNE, keeping the volume turned down so he didn’t run over the other actors. And then, finally, he couldn’t take it any more:


DRINK: Fraoch Heather Ale

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Find me at Orbital Operations every Sunday.

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8nov26

Published November 8, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Last night was lusciously misty and just the right kind of cold.

Today’s newsletter is out.

Today I am thinking about connecting this notebook to Substack as a syndication. A lot will depend on whether I can disable comments and whether or not I can be arsed to do it at all.

(Via Pink Beam Press)

STATUS: once I have beaten my coffee machine into making actual fucking coffee, I intend to spend the day in the kitchen cooking and batching meals
READING: THE ROUSE, China Mieville (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: SUNERGY, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani
LAST WATCHED: GODZILLA MINUS ZERO

GODZILLA MINUS ZERO is mostly very well done. The last half hour was, for me, a bit of a letdown – there’s an energy drop, the final battle takes less space than expected and there’s a lot more of actors emoting at things off-screen than felt right or effective. But the things that work, really work. The score is excellent, and very much knows when and how to unleash the original GODZILLA signature music. The aerial set piece is extraordinary, and the pace of the thing is generally marvellous – it does not fuck around, and I really appreciated that. It’s a machine gun of a film, moving at a hell of a crackalong. It picks up pieces from GODZILLA MINUS ONE (which I’ve only seen in the monochrome version!) and juggles them around to fine effect, and a few of the themes too. One of which is a gorgeous twist on the protagonist’s past as a kamikaze pilot. 

No spoilers, but there is a revenge plot in there that is illustrated beautifully.

There is very clearly going to be a third film, as they set up one big cliffhanger and a few loose threads.  Which, perhaps weirdly, I think is a shame, because it felt to me like a writer and director summoning the last of their energies. The effects budget is larger, and you can tell, but that comes with its own pressure to achieve more, and there’s the sense that effects led the nose of the structure a bit. 

As good as MINUS ONE? Probably not, quite. But for a good two thirds of its runtime it is inventive, high speed, gorgeous and ruthlessly brutal. 


PAPERWORK: Sharpening one of these up later, as I have some visual development to do.

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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morning computer one by one

Published October 9, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I’ve sometimes thought that that’s why I became a painter, because I have all these pictures inside me, yes, so many pictures that they’re a kind of agony, yes, it hurts me when they keep popping up again and again, like visions almost, and in all kinds of contexts, and I can’t do anything about it, the only thing I can do is paint, yes, try to paint away these pictures that are lodged inside me, there’s nothing to do but paint them away, one by one

THE OTHER NAME, Jon Fosse

NOMAS 23

Mars’ oddest cloud: the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud. 

Roberta Gentry:

“While the idea of God has received much attention from philosophers and progressive theologians, its counterpart, the dark figure of the Evil One, has been much neglected”. So begins The History of the Devil, wherein this perceived wrong is to be righted by Paul Carus, a self-described “theologian of science”.

Although an unfamiliar name now, at the end the nineteenth century Carus was hailed for his attempts to “conciliate science and religion”. He also played a key role in the introduction of Buddhist thought to the United States, to which he emigrated from his native Germany in the mid-1880s.

THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL AND THE IDEA OF EVIL

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23sep26

Published September 23, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Running late today.

ACCESSIONS:

Apparently this thing is 1200 pages long.

THE ROUSE, China Mieville (UK) (US+)

I’ve seen reviews for DIGGER start to appear, and, as with MEGALOPOLIS, it makes me want to see it more. Which is not something I thought I’d ever say about a Tom Cruise film.


READING: finished TENTACLES LONGER THAN NIGHT, Eugene Thacker (UK) (US+). Wondering if it’s time to descend into some of the Very Long books I have in the pile. 
LISTENING: Posterior Vitreous Detachment (Video Soundtracks Vol 1) by Seymour Glass


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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17aug26

Published August 17, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Imagine a story where the events in our lives that happen online are never depicted or mentioned. A day would seem twelve hours long and the protagonists would spend two thirds of that time asleep.

I was gifted this Panerai Table Clock by a client a few weeks ago. I should be keeping it in its box, as it’s crazy expensive. But what’s the point in having things and not enjoying them? So it lives on my work desk, sitting on top of the little box containing a medal I was given in Ireland years ago. It’s a reminder to myself that I need to stay disconnected from the internet. Testing a site blocker on the laptop today.

Had dinner at the local haute restaurant on Friday night and it was as ever fully insane. There was a mushroom risotto with walnuts, walnut ketchup, fresh Parmesan and riced mushroom in place of the rice that was simply MAD and they made it just for us. We also got experimented on with a few dishes and god damn please keep doing that. We have been informed that we are Regulars now, and that is delightful.

I had an Idea on Saturday and realised I’d lost the day to sitting thinking about it, which was annoying, so I’ve booked myself a gig for next Saturday to make sure I leave the house. I am naturally so bad at leaving the house and I really need to.

ACCESSIONS:

MAIGRET IN VICHY, Georges Simenon (UK) (US+) was on sale, and it’s one I haven’t read.

MUD DUCK, Travis Malone (UK) (US+), because the author emailed me yesterday and since it’s currently free on Kindle (in the UK at least, I dunno about the US right now) it was easier to just grab a copy there.

Recently divorced and having drank himself to unemployment, Iain McHughes has no idea who he wants to be anymore. When his former rehab roommate offers him a second chance he hasn’t earned by way of a business opportunity he can’t afford to pass up, he loads everything he owns into his car and points it west on I-10.

Somewhere between San Antonio and Las Vegas, in the miles of nothing between the man he used to be and the man he hopes to become, mania, anxiety and a CB radio are the only tools left at his disposal that can help him rewrite his eulogy. Mysterious towers dot the countryside, phantom voices bleed through his radio, and Iain struggles to ascertain whether his mind is deteriorating or the world around him is. When Iain’s new business partner inadvertently pushes him into the middle of a dangerous business transaction, Iain must finally determine the legacy he wants to leave, and what it will cost him to leave it.

OPERATIONS: updating the boards, getting into scripting with one hand and story development with the other
STATUS: slow to get started.
READING: THE KILLER’S MARK, MW Craven (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: THE REGYKLA VARIATIONS I-III, ASHTORETH & ONSTURICHEIT

LAST WATCHED: PORTH TRETHEK, Mark Jenkin (2020)


DRINK: Black Cherry Mead.

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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20jul26

Published July 20, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Wearing a Victor Victoria shirt from the Nineties and a Swatch Metropolis from the Eighties and accepting that all this is “vintage,” not “last year.” Julbo don’t even make those shades anymore. DEPRESSING

ACCESSIONS:

While I was reading PHENOMENA by Annie Jacobsen (click this link and scroll halfway down for my initial notes), which is in large part about remote viewing used by the US military, I kept being reminded of this book I read when I was a kid. Written in 1973, FLIGHT FROM TIME ONE was about a cadre of military remote viewers sending their “astral bodies” out into the world, and I remember there was a bit about sliding into an alternate reality termed Algeria-A, or Time Two. So I hunted a copy down on eBay for a whole one pound plus postage. I’m going to be very curious to see how it reads to me, more than forty years later.

OPERATIONS: This week is a bit of a sprint – essay for a reprint collection, story solve, generate two new projects – but hardly the worst.
STATUS: attention reclamation attempt once again
READING: IF RUSSIA WINS, Carlo Masala (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: SEA SWALLOWED WANDS
DRINK: Boulevardier, amended – half-shot Campari, half-shot red vermouth, one shot whisky, dash of orange bitters. Victory.

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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wavy

Published June 2, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Craig Hubbard.

Searching hard for my motivation today, because I am not particularly in my body or particularly with it. Not enough coffee in the world, everything is kind of wavy, and I really need to wipe down the boards and reset things. And also start backing things off this machine in prep for the arrival of the new one. But a musician has been sending me raws of her new music videos and maybe I’ll just sit and watch them for a while.

Received in post, a gift from the author as routed through my literary agent: A POCKETFUL OF HELLFIRE, Alan LaRue (UK) (US+)

Alan LaRue was a devoted reader of the Ken Socrates World News Organization when he was young. Like any fan, he read all the articles and books, he knew and adored the Gonzo journalism, the crazy adventures and the wild personalities. He was especially enamoured with Ken himself, the wildest and most Gonzo of them all. He had even written and sent in few fan letters full of glowing praise and insight only a truly dedicated follower would appreciate. The letters included his return address, and a joking offer of drinks on him, someday, should Ken ever find his way to Alan’s neck of the woods.

Then, after the sad collapse of the KSWNO, after its founder being missing, assumed dead for years, Ken showed up at Alan’s door, looking for those drinks, and his quiet life as a librarian and amateur pie baker was turned on its doughy little head. Humanity itself was under dire, imminent threat and, according to Ken, only they could save it.

TODAY

TELEMETRY:

  • Here’s the weird flex of the day: the cover of Charli xcx’s new record MUSIC, FASHION, FILM is a simple shot of… John Cale, Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorcese. And an ashtray.

OPERATIONS: script and pitch
STATUS: The weather has turned cool and rainy, and the mancub is sad and needs comforting, as he’s been living in the garden ever since the top of the summer arrived. Or, as I have long suspected, he thinks I control the weather and he figures that if he’s nice to me I’ll bring the sun back.
READING: THE REVOLUTIONISTS, Jason Burke (UK) (US+) (hey, it’s a really long book)
LISTENING: “Vika Hidas,” Draamakuu:

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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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.

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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.

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moonbase: 25mar26

Published March 25, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I noticed yesterday that NASA announced “President Trump’s Moon Base” will be commenced before the end of 2028, therefore the end of the President’s term. Given that the delayed Artemis 2 mission is a lunar flyby and Artemis 3 was reconfigured from a lunar landing to a low earth orbit test of new spacesuits and the dock/undock of a lander – and note that Apollo did those missions the other way around, Apollo 7 crew-rated the boat and lander configuration in LEO, Apollo 8 was the lunar flyby – this may get a little scary/deathy. Twenty-five launches between now and the end of 2028, ten lunar launches next year alone, is a hell of a swing.

I took this ten minutes before the HAIL started.

Absolutely dismal day out there, with a “feels like” of -4 C and 40mph winds. The mancub has made it clear that he blames me – he hates the wind, and is punishing me for taking the sun away. For some reason, he made the very specific decision, not long after we got him, that the weather is always my fault.

Accessions:

OPERATION PAPERCLIP: NAZI SCIENTISTS IN AMERICA, Annie Jacobsen (UK) (US+)

BIOLOGICAL WAR: A SCENARIO, Annie Jacobsen (UK) (US+) – PRE-ORDER

OPERATIONS: Zoom call later, and I need to ship out eight pages, review some story documents and get 500 words down on another thing, as well as start Sunday’s newsletter.
STATUS: 7hrs sleep.
READING: NETTLES AND PETALS, Jamie Walton (UK) (US+), which I got given for Xmas and I’m opening now because food growing season has begun. THE VISIONARIES, Wolfram Eilenberger (UK) (US+), re-reading REALITY HUNGER, David Shields (UK) (US+)

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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