Craig Shackleton

@craigshackleton

SFF writer and Swordplay instructor || Founder of Ottawa Swordplay || Lapsed TTRPG writer || AuDHD Currently seeking a literary agent and writing more novels. #IndigoEmployee || My posted opinions are my own, I don't speak for my employer.

1,078 Following1,524 Followers3,225 Posts

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Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 10

Look what I have! @macarrick.bsky.social @swantower.bsky.social @alychelms.bsky.social (No Leviathan book has ever let me down)

A hand holding a book; The Eye of Leviathan by M. A. Carrick.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 8

I just got the professional photos of this and wow! (photo credit: heatherdoughtyphotography.com )

Brandon and I saluting each other before the fight.

Action shot of Brandon and I fighting with swords.

Another shot of Brandon and I fighting, This is one of my favourite gambits with single sword, taken from Meyer's rapier, but Brandon knows all of that. Still, I'm reassured to see my form here is excellent.

One of Brandon's hits on me, unfortunately obscured by the angle. They scored 2 of 3 passes, this was the best hit of the 3. We both look fantastic.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 1

This has been my main experience of the storms yesterday and today.

A screenshot of a weather radar map. A blue dot indicates my location, where the weather is not bad, with storms passing close by to the north and the south.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 1

Seems bad.

Red Warning - Tornado
Orange Warning - Heat
Yellow Watch - Severe Thunderstorm
23° C
Feels like 33
Wind calm

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jun 5

Here's a picture of @thebrandoneby.bsky.social and I fighting, rapier vs. backsword. They beat me in two of three passes.

Two people in nice clothes sword fighting beside a river.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· May 31

Hey @taowong.bsky.social , they've put you front of store, centre aisle.

Rack of books with "The First Step" front and centre.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Apr 30

One of them is enjoying this arrangement more than the other.

Two cats in a cat bed The tortoiseshell is cleaning herself and squishing her orange brother who is squinting and flicking his tail.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Apr 19

Here you go!

A bookshelf in an Indigo store featuring fantasy novels

Close up of the same bookshelf showing The First Step featured beside Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Apr 7

There are birds and squirrels and chipmunks outside, but Spark and Cinder are on the case.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Apr 3

Spark says that Steve is one handsome fella!

An orange cat on a pale blue patterned carpet.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Mar 1

2/ There's a model of the learning path that I find is pretty accurate, and I like it because it has multiple applications. To my surprise, I couldn't quickly find this online, so I drew a crappy one:

A simple x-y axis with a path of arrows starting in the bottom left, moving to the upper left, then upper right, then lower right.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Feb 21

Important update:

A dilute tortoiseshell cat sleeping in a cat bed. Her front paws are crossed in front of her.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Feb 21

An orange cat curled up in a cat bed, with one paw covering his eyes.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Feb 18

I found this congruence of posts in my timeline funny. The computer isn't interested in you anymore, it's dating the CEO instead.

Two Bluesky posts:

Erik Hane
please do not try to date the computer

Aiden Mother

CEOs love AI chatbots because for the first time in their life they feel like they have a friend.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jan 19

Something football just happened.

Several posts from people I follow who often mention football things, all exclaiming about something.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Oct 12

This seems like a fire risk, Finch app.

A screen cap from the Finch app showing a green bird in fancy clothes sleeping in a bed while holding a lit candle.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Oct 6

My medieval wardrobe had mostly worn out or no longer fit me. This weekend a friend gifted me with replacements for everything and I am so incredibly grateful. This is my favourite among them.

Me, standing in a medieval camp wearing a burgundy cotte, blue chausses, and a green hat.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Sep 28

Feeling called out now.

Screencap of a Scrivener drop down menu that says "No Style"

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Sep 14

Y'all, this used to say 55000, I have edited relentlessly and my novel is officially a novella.

Screenshot from Word saying "40000 words"

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Aug 4

This is probably only funny to people from Ottawa.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 31

I forgot Bluesky's cardinal rule and engaged instead of blocking and moving on. I only aggravated myself by doing so, and have course corrected. As penance, here is a picture of a cat.

An orange cat, sleeping in a blue storage cube in a Kallax shelf.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 27

This is so funny to me, they blocked all of the quote posts, but you can still see how high the ratio got before they shut it down.

Screencap from the bottom of the Codenames HP announcement post:
July 23, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Replies disabled
1 repost 10 likes
[Comments] 705 [reposts] 162 [likes] 10

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 26

Not really a selfie, but dramatic and black and white.

A picture of me from a newspaper from 2000. I am wearing a steel gorget and holding a rapier, guard-to-guard with another rapier held by someone out of frame. I am staring directly at the camera with ice in my eyes.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 16

Banana cake with peanut butter icing for my birthday because my spouse is the best.

A slice of double-layer cake on a plate.

A big round cake with pale brown icing on a tray.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 9

Something tells me there's a chipmunk on the front deck.

Two cats, one ginger and one dilute tortoiseshell, sitting on the back of an old chair, facing away from the camera to stare intently out the window of a log house.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jul 4

A while ago we bought a bunch of meat from a local farm. My spouse just cooked this steak. I think it is biggest steak I have ever seen in real life. It's at least an inch thick after being on the bbq. It could tip over Fred Flintstone's car.

A big steak cut into pieces that covers most of a full-sized blue dinner plate.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jun 19

Out my window today.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· Jun 7

Nice.

A screenshot showing a green cartoon finch from the finch app above the words "69 day streak."

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· May 28

I just found the newspaper clipping from July 29, 2000, announcing my first swordplay class/event in Ottawa. This photo accompanied the article.

Two absolute children (me, age 31 and my brother, age 27 (we are older now)) standing with rapiers crossed, guard to guard, staring menacingly into the camera. Please ignore the fact that my brother is holding his rapier wrong, I'd strongarmed him into doing the photo shoot with me, and he learned better later.

Craig Shackleton@craigshackleton· May 17

Includes a really nice mug! ;-)