week 13 / 2025
Dusty with fragments of citation and punctuation, blinking in the sudden light—WEEKNOTES emerge briefly from the word-mines!
This week, the nose goes the grindstone, and Toffler goes to China.
Latest
week 12 / 2025
Up and down the west coast with a head full of viral fog, over the bridge and back to a melancholy melody—WEEKNOTES keeps moving, even when they don't feel like it.
This week, the fort is held, and Scandinavian history is scattershot.
the scenario doesn’t know it’s a scenario: an interview with Madeline Ashby
Few folk are better equipped to understand the art of worldbuilding from both sides of the futures/fiction border than Madeline Ashby, who has a fully justified reputation for excellence in both aspects. Find out how she does it!
week 11 / 2025
No ornate ironies and allusions this week—just a pared-down back-to-basics WEEKNOTES, because I am sick as a dog and it's all I can manage.
week 10 / 2025
There and back again, running the risk and riding the rails—WEEKNOTES takes a trip to That London.
This week, the Chronoberg Chronicle meets its moment, and Discworld trumps Middle Earth in almost every way.
of system and story: how narrative-based futuring expands the planner’s toolkit
What use is story in the context of serious, grown-up planning? It's the best way of finding out the flaws in your existing system model—let me tell you why.
week 09 / 2025
From dead giraffes to post-apocalyptic monastics—WEEKNOTES lays it all out on the sidewalk, and lets the kids watch, too.
This week, the world is (so much) more-then-human, and fiction is (so much) more than a signal of its author's morality.
News
schedule adjustment notice
Hello, worldbuilders!
Just a quick note to let you know: it occurred to me this morning that my spending a bunch of time compiling weeknotes which don't get emailed to you, only to then spend a shorter amount of time two days later writing a short note alerting
hot in the city 2nite
Hello worldbuilders! It's 28°C in Malmö this afternoon, and it's reliably been around that temperature in the afternoon for close to a week now.
I quite like hot weather, really, but a lot of other folk are less keen—and I dare say I'
call it in, take it off
Hello, worldbuilders! It's been quiet here this last week, because around this time on the Sunday previous I started thinking "hmm, I don't feel so great", and by the evening I was feeling (as we Brits say) like death warmed over.
Hell knows what
less magic, more traffic
Hello, worldbuilders! It feels a lot like the roundabout just hasn't stopped spinning over the week just gone—and next week it's The Conference, which means the metaphorical carny will be reaching out his hairy hand to give it another good shove... which means there'
pass the vol-au-vents
Hello, worldbuilders! And welcome to those of you who've signed up in the last few days. Glad you could come—take a chair, get yourself a drink. How are things?
We've got no Actual Announcement this week; I would announce again that I've giving
the circus comes to town
Hello, worldbuilders! This is your weekly newsthingy... and we're gonna start with An Actual Announcement.
Talk and workshop: The Conference, Malmö, Mon 26th August 2024
I will be giving a talk entitled Wisdom for worldbuilders: fictions, futures, fandoms on the morning of Mon 26th August.
Said talk is
null but not void
Hello, worldbuilders! What's been happening at Worldbuilding Agency this week?
No essay or interview
Um, yeah—bit of an absence at the middle of the week, wasn't there? Sorry about that.
There's an interview in the pipe, but it's awaiting approval from
Weeknotes
week 24 / 2025
WEEKNOTES is on something like a holiday—so not much to see here for anyone but the serious completists!
week 23 / 2025
Making stories while the sun shines, enjoying the music of the muezzin—WEEKNOTES aspires to feline reincarnation!
This week, Eid is celebrated vicariously, and the philosophy of cats is revealed as a contradiction in terms...
week 22 / 2025
Trekking through the wilderness of story, traversing the desert of the Real—WEEKNOTES wander where they will.
This week, warfare is conducted through comics, and Canada goes its own way...
week 21 / 2025
Hanging pictures on the wall / who can say when WEEKNOTES fall?
This week, pictures are exhibited, and the devil rides out...
week 20 / 2025
Firing up the neutron beam, slicing through the materiality of the text—WEEKNOTES straddles the disciplinary spectrum like Slim Pickens straddled the bomb!
This week, facilities are toured, art is produced, projects are revealed... and houses are haunted?
week 19 / 2025
Counting the beats, coming in on the one—WEEKNOTES rock the rhythm 'til the tune says stop.
This week, we're up in the mountains with Olga Tockarczuk, and down in the valleys of art.
week 18 / 2025
Dodging drunk kids, spurning pagan conflagrations—WEEKNOTES marches into May with flags unfurled!
This week, the grid goes down, but the work goes on.