TC Parker (she/her)

@tcparker

Neuroqueer Luddite. Angry intersectional feminist. Co-owner, Nefarious Bat Press 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ PhD, media/politics. Work in social/cultural semiotics, CDA, storytelling. Rage as deep as the abyss Books at

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TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 23d

So... Velox is using "AI" for cover design now? Jesus Christ. Have some fucking self-respect Huge sympathies, as always, to the writers publishing with them, who - as always - deserve better

Teners1 • 27d
Thank you for your answer.
Regarding collections, does this mean that you have artists within your team who produce your covers or do you use generative software?
Sorry, I'm still a little unclear.

VeloxBooks OP • 27d
For collection covers created internally, an artist draws from range of potential source materials, including licensed stock art/photos, generated elements, and hand-created elements. Every cover takes a human designer extensive work to shape, edit, compose, and finalize. We publish everything in paperback (in addition to eBook), so all books require a full wrap cover created to print specs.
Here is one of our latest full wraps: Twelve Nails in the Coffin

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 23d

For a Hard Facts Data Guy, he's not doing brilliantly on correlation/causation And for an Economics Editor, he's got a worryingly shaky grasp of supply chains

Increasingly it seems the label is the cure, with the diagnosis becoming a tal explanation of the self, a means of medicalising eccentricity or ‹plaining away bad behaviour. Don't take my word for it, it's in the data.
Prescriptions for amphetamines - a pretty effective treatment for ADHD - have not kept pace with the diagnostic boom, which shows that once they've got their desired label, many patients don't want to bother with any treatment.

From North East London NHS Trust:

Update on ADHD medication shortage in the UK
We are providing an important update on the ongoing ADHD medication shortages affecting the
UK. This situation impacts several medications commonly used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), leading to significant disruptions for patients. We acknowledge the challenges this shortage presents and are committed to providing support to our clinicians and patients.

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 23d

Today in I Read This So You Don't Have To: Ignore the clickbait headline. This is just another "neurodivergent people aren't real, but also need to be punished" public therapy session. This time from a man who seems to have a genuine unresolved terror of any sort of Otherness

Yet the rise is overwhelmingly driven largely by mental-health and neurodevelopmental conditions. Other data shows that the traditional categories - multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, serious physical disability - have barely moved. The boom is taking place at the softer, more subjective end of the definition.

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 24d

Forever scanning the skies for my signal

The Batsignal projected into the sky, with a special guest appearance from Canadian dykon kd lang

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 24d

If I had any skill at all as a cover design, I would have a field day with this bad boy (One of my WIPs has the working title Little Pig. I'm taking this as a sign, though of what I'm not sure)

Ominous-looking wood carving of a pig, or possibly boar

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 26d

Thanks Gabino! We're offering 25% off all ebooks at the Nefarious Bat store this month - including my books & titles by @brennanlafaro.bsky.social, @anna-orridge.bsky.social & @shaunamceleney.bsky.social - so would love everyone to have a browse! Code is BUYINDIE :) payhip.com/NefariousBat...

25% off all ebooks at the Bat Store with coupon BUYINDIE

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 27d

A good time to encourage everyone you know to read @bcmerchant.bsky.social's excellent BLOOD IN THE MACHINE, which draws parallels between the (actual) Luddite movement and contemporary technofascism George would really benefit from someone getting him a copy for Xmas

Cover of Brian Merchant's Blood In The Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 27d

Freeman's column, tomorrow: Why Bulldog Briscoe Is The Real Man We All Need Right Now (No disrespect at all to Dan Butler, who seems like a solid bloke with no time for any TERF bullshit)

Bulldog from Frasier in a radio recording studio

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 28d

It's #BookQuoteWednesday, so here's one of my favourites: the Nuckelavee's characteristically dramatic entrance in Saltblood... payhip.com/b/wm14g #booksky #BQW 📚💙

"LIKE THE STATUES IN THE CHAPEL, IT HAD THE SHAPE OF A HORSE, ALBEIT DRAWN TO A LARGER SCALE: THE SAME THICK, MUSCULAR BODY; THE SAME FOUR LEGS; THE SAME LONG EQUINE SNOUT.

BUT THE PROPORTIONS WERE ALL WRONG, DISTORTING THE FAMILIAR INTO SOMETHING ENTIRELY ALIEN - THE LEGS TOO LONG, THE TAIL TOO THIN, THE NECK TOO SHORT, THE CLOVEN HOOVES MORE GOAT- THAN HORSE-LIKE.

ITS PUPILS GLOWED RED, THE EYEBALLS BULGING OUT FROM THE SIDES OF ITS HEAD LIKE THE COMPOUND EYES OF AN INSECT. IT WAS ENTIRELY SKINLESS, RED TENDONS AND BLACK ARTERIES CRISSCROSSING AGAINST BLUEISH MUSCLE AND, IN PLACES, GREY AND YELLOW BONE. A HUMAN HEAD AND TORSO BURST UP FROM ITS MIDSECTION, BALD AND FLAYED, ITS EYES CLOSED.

ITS ARMS, TOO, WERE OUT OF PROPORTION - TOO LONG AND TOO THIN FOR THE BODY THEY GREW FROM, TRAILING DOWNWARDS, FINGERS SCRAPING THE SURFACE OF THE WATER.

IT SMELLED LIKE DEATH; LIKE BRINE, AND ROTTING MEAT"

Image of the Nuckelavee, a skinless and monstrous half-man/half-horse cryptid of Orcadian legend

Text above it reads: FYI, this is the Nuckelavee

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· 29d

Queer horror, crime and dark fic at a low, low price? We've got it... Featuring titles from me, @anna-orridge.bsky.social, @brennanlafaro.bsky.social, @shaunamceleney.bsky.social and more... payhip.com/NefariousBat...

Promo image reading:

25% off all ebooks at the Bat store with coupon BUYINDIE

www.payhip.com/NefariousBatPress

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jul 12

Morning Womble! I'm listening (as quickly as the kids will allow) to Jonathan Sims' THE BURN LINE, and it's absolutely brilliant so far

Cover of Jonathan Sims' The Burn Line, showing a burned-out thermometer on a London Underground tiled wall

Strapline reads: Something is lurking in the stifling darkness below London

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jul 11

The Long Con (my Leverage-esque crime trilogy) is one of those series that I love and am hugely proud of, but that never really landed with readers on release So it's wonderful to hear that people are still reading and enjoying it @bleakhousing.bsky.social - think TLC might be my Boris :)

Promo image for The Long Con trilogy, featuring a book cover in the centre of a wooden pin board and text promising:

- Smart, Fearless Female Con Artists
- Ocean's 11 In 90s London
- Big Twists
- Bad Guys You'll Want To Suffer
- BRITISH GRIFTER CRIME

"FANTASTIC HEIST WITH HEART"
- LAUREL HIGHTOWER, AUTHOR OF CROSSROADS AND BELOW

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jul 6

Non-bookish people: oh my god, you run an indie horror press? That's so cool! You must get to go to loads of amazing events. Have you met anyone famous? Sign on the Nefarious Batcave door, this Monday morning:

Hi Mum!
I'm on the treadmill + Milo has peed in the bathroom - will clean up when I'm done!
Nat xx

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jul 6

Not since Boys of Summer have I wanted to do such violence to a pain of sunglasses

As for panopticonist-abomination Meta sunglasses, showing shit-looking (and probably AI-generated) said abominations

Copy reads:

NEW COLOURS ARE HERE
Shop Performance AI glasses in new shades.

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jul 3

Thanks Gabino! The Bat's just started a Ten Good Reasons (To Read Our Books) promo campaign... so here's the entry for one of mine, A Press Of Feathers payhip.com/b/jHS8G

Promo image of cover of novel A Press of Feathers

Text reads: 10 GOOD REASONS YOU SHOULD READ A PRESS OF FEATHERS

1. YOU LIKE MONSTER BIRDS
2. YOU LIKE HAUNTED HOUSES
3. YOU LIKE CREEPY COMMUNITIES &
SUBURBAN NIGHTMARES
4. YOU LIKE ABANDONED VICTORIAN
ASYLUMS AND THE HORRORS THEREIN
5. YOU LIKE ANGRY FEMINISM
6. YOU LIKE COSMIC FEARS AND THE GREAT, VAST UNKNOWABLE
7. YOU LIKE BODY HORROR AND M*RDER MYSTERY
8. YOU HAVE STRONG VIEWS ABOUT SOCIAL INEQUALITY
9. YOU LOVED THE SHINING
10. MONSTER BIRDS

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jul 2

Tell me you've never seen this guy clapping and whooping in the audience when the Year 6 choir brings Little Donkey to a close

Smiling and waving Keanu Reeves circa 2026, with grey beard, flat cap and black graphic tee

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jul 2

I'm a fan of this one - partly because I'm a cultural context fiend, but mostly because my youngest watches a lot of Minecraft videos and after long enough staring at that screen with him, all sound images are rendered brick and TNT

This picture is used as a test to demonstrate that people may not attach sounds to shapes arbitrarily. When given the names "kiki" and "bouba", many cultural and linguistic communities worldwide robustly tend to label the shape on the left "kiki" and the one on the right "bouba"

Image is of 2 identical grey Minecraft bricks

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 30

Never change, Bluesky

Appeal "Sexually Suggestive" label
This appeal will be sent to @moderation.bsky.app.

It's the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen harbour

Submit
Back

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 30

Sometimes, just sometimes - much as a stopped clock occasionally tells the time - end-stage capitalism delivers the perfect solution to an intractable problem Presenting, therefore, the Snuuzu Tesla Mattress: for the man more likely than most to be sleeping in his car on the family driveway

A mattress and pillows, inflated inside a car

Text reads:

Snuuzu Tesla Model Y Car Mattress

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 30

Horror fiction needs more Komodo dragons That is all

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 30

Every day I'm more ashamed to live in this country "Generosity": not the word I'd use for a levying a retroactive tax on people fleeing war and persecution, for the privilege of living in substandard conditions while politicians abuse them and strangers threaten to burn them out of their bedrooms

The Guardian @theguardian.com

Asylum seekers to pay £10,000 towards living costs under new UK law

Asylum seekers to pay £10,000 towards living costs under new UK law

Means-tested scheme included in immigration and asylum bill condemned by charities for placing tax o...

www.theguardian.com

Image: UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood

She added: "Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so."

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 29

A fine reminder! Lately, I've loved: Reading: @toddkeisling.com's cosmic wormfest THE SUNDOWNER'S DANCE Listening: Sapphic vampire audio drama WOODBINE, c/o @saltandketchup.bsky.social & Emily Kellogg Watching: THE BOROUGHS: like Todd's book, but not quite as good Hugely recommend them all!

Cover of Todd Keisling's THE SUNDOWNER'S DANCE, showing an aerial view of an archetypal US suburb with what looks like a flaming meteorite in its centre

Promo image for audio drama WOODBINE: a stylised, deep red Pop Art-style image of a woman with vampire fangs biting another woman's neck

Text reads:
A SUPERNATURAL MYSTERY
PODCAST FROM THE CREATORS OF PARKDALE HAUNT

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 27

Hello - I'm a person living in a country with a cost of living crisis + housing and infrastructure designed for significantly lower temperatures than currently For more on why I don't have air conditioning, see below I've never met anyone "ideologically opposed" to it. We're all just skint

& Key takeaways:
• Single-room split system installation:
usually £2,000 to £3,500
• Multi-split air conditioning installation:
usually £3,500 to £6,000+
• Ducted air conditioning installation: usually £5,000 to £10,000+
• Portable air conditioners: usually £300 to
£1,000, with no fixed installation
• Typical running costs: around 7p to 25p per hour, depending on the system and electricity rate
• Extra costs can apply for awkward access, longer pipe runs, electrical upgrades, premium units and specialist installation work
• For most UK homes, a single-room split system offers the best balance of comfort, efficiency and long-term value

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 25

I've read this article so you don't have to This end comment particularly would be risible, if so many in my community weren't being threatened with cultural extermination How do you think representation and visibility are constructed in the public sphere, Bryan, you absolutely fucking bellend?

Bryan: As y'all have been talking, I've been thinking that kids do need life models, right? As Christina was saying, we need to be able to imagine ourselves as whatever we're going to be under the LGBTQ umbrella. And so if you don't have any visibility, that doesn't really work. But maybe we can draw a distinction between, let's say organic visibility, where it's like people just living their lives openly in your community, and then the kind of visibility that was really exploited by brands and corporations, which kind of plastered gay people, and then trans people, a little later, for three years or so, on billboards for Pride and made this big deal about it.
That actually wasn't about advancing equality or acceptance or anything like that. It was about capitalizing on a trend of the moment. And I think that's probably the kind of visibility that didn't do anyone any favors.

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 25

Want to bag a quick, Not-At-That-Other-Place book bargain? Tradwife is £2.99 all weekend at the Bat store And, if that's not sufficient enticement: here's a definitely-not-photoshopped Sheela na gig getting stuck into her copy... payhip.com/b/TDowG

Sheela na gig statue in Hertfordshire, brandishing a copy of Tradwife in lieu of a vagina

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 23

If I had a penny for every time in my life I'd read a think-piece about the imagined cultural-structural oppression endured by white, cishet women as a consequence of their whiteness and cishetness, I would have enough money to buy the Walrus and repurpose it, Infowars-style, as actual journalism

The Walrus • @thewalrus.ca
Straight women are often portrayed as people who must endure male desire rather than enthusiastically embrace it. Cultural critic Phoebe Maltz Bovy argues that feminism has lost sight of a simple fact: plenty of women genuinely want men. thewalrus.ca/are-there-an...
Are There
Any Straight Women Left?
We live in a time where desiring men makes you reactionary, prudish, conventional,

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 21

From the Mirror today Left without comment, for anyone who's read Tradwife...

A British "trad wife" has revealed she charges women up to £25,000 to learn how to become a "high-tier wife" - including how to look good, speak to and support their husbands.

"I teach women to praise [their] husbands, enjoy being married and to remove modern feminism thinking from their marriage."

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 21

And of course...

John Witherow, Long's former editor at The Sunday Times who is now chairman of Times Newspapers, told me he thought Long had learnt a lot from working with AA Gill in her younger days. "He judged the merit of his copy, which was essentially peerless, on whether Camilla thought it was funny or not," said Witherow. "And if she didn't think it was funny, he'd often change it. So she became a sort of arbiter of Adrian's copy. And I think in the process, she became a better writer.

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 21

Never a bad time to revisit this banger UK legacy media journalists never beating those Genital Inspector accusations, even when they happen to be doing racism that particular day

In January 2012, Long interviewed the actor Michael Fassbender. Her opening question referred to the large size of the actor's penis ("That's kind of you to say", he replied). A section of Long's article was read to Fassbender in a subsequent interview for GQ magazine, including Long's statement that she was "quite certain that [Fassbender] would willingly show me his penis, given slightly different circumstances and a bucket of champagne," prompting Fassbender to respond that "I don't think I would touch her with a barge pole!" [61I7]

TC Parker (she/her)@tcparker· Jun 20

#BacklistSaturday ahoy! Here are a couple from my back catalogue... (links in 🧵)