Replying to
@susankayequinn@wandering.shop good idea, I'll give it a go next time I see her.
Remote
Russell (Robin) Phillips
@rpbook@gts.phillipsuk.org
#UK based #MilitaryHistory and #RPG #author. #TTRPG and #BoardGame player. Lapsed #wargame and #LARP player. #NonBinary and #autistic.
My legal name is Robin, but my pen name is Russell. I answer to both names.
729 Followers
468 Following
43 Posts
Joined May 12, 2025
Author website:
RPG website:
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Pronouns:
They/them
Replying to
@susankayequinn@wandering.shop honestly, I'd not thought of it like that, but you're right.
And I really hate the denigration of romance etc. I love my sister and she's generally cool, but she insists on looking down at romance authors.
Replying to
@susankayequinn@wandering.shop I think also that some people think "real authors" don't care about money. That can lead to people almost thinking they're not allowed to want money.
I saw an author once say something like, "I love writing. I don't want to do anything else. Making money from writing allows me to do more if it." Which I think is exactly right.
I'd love for people to be able to spend as much time as they want writing without having to worry about money, but that's not the society we live in right now.
Replying to
@p@raru.re consent is simple when it's between a few individuals. It's a lot more complex on a population level.
Since Ireland is a democracy, there's an argument for saying that the population consent to what the government do, since they chose the government. It's not that simple, of course.
But then, it's also not as simple as saying that taxes are charity, which appears to be your position.
Replying to
@p@raru.re @codinghorror@infosec.exchange it's only charity if you consider any form of welfare state spending to be charity.
But also, the giver benefits financially:
for every €1 Ireland invested in the artists during the three-year pilot, €1.39 was returned to the economy
I'd give a lot more to charity if I got £1.39 back for every £1 I gave. At that point, it's simply a sensible investment.
Replying to
@apps@toot.fedilab.app @PaintedDurian@mstdn.social I think I misunderstood something in your original post, but you've answered my question. It's all good 🙂
Replying to
@apps@toot.fedilab.app @PaintedDurian@mstdn.social so if I install v1.30.0 now, will it update to v2,or will that need to be installed separately?
Replying to
@novelwriter that's the day after my birthday. It'll be a nice birthday present 🙂
Replying to
@Tattie I'd never thought of it this way before, but you're absolutely right.
Replying to
@Tattie Yes, agreed. When I was a teenager in the 80s, many progressives referred to being gay as a "lifestyle choice".
I always thought that was a stupid term, because who would have chosen to be gay in the 80s? Realising I'm non-binary made me happier, but life would have been simpler and easier if I was cis.
Replying to
@Tattie agreed. I've always said that any large group of people will include arseholes. There are lots of trans people, therefore some trans people are arseholes.
For that to not be true, trans people would have to be something other than human.
Replying to
@Tattie when I was 18 I read the Dune books. The face dancers led me to think seriously about how it would feel to have a female body instead of a male one.
I thought it would be awesome to be able to change my body type. I was vaguely aware of trans people, but had no interest in being a woman. I just wanted to be able to have a female body sometimes.
Thirty years later, I realised I'm non-binary. It would have saved me a lot of grief if I'd realised as a teenager, but the concept was unheard of (at least in my world) in the late 1980s.
All of which is to agree with you, and add that representation is important.
Replying to
@SJohnRoss that would be great, for both the reasons you gave 😀
Replying to
@gizmomathboy@mastodon.xyz @zachleat@fediverse.zachleat.com @erkhyan@yiff.life I like a time-based one:
A million seconds is about 12 days.
A billion seconds is over 30 years.
Replying to
@gisgeek@floss.social @sjn@chaos.social
The truth is that copyright and licenses cannot be used to avoid abuses per se. They need to be defended in court
And when creators try to do that, we're told that the law can't be enforced because it would destroy the AI industry.
They had the money to buy ebooks for training, but they chose to pirate the books instead. Then, having been caught in a clear case of copyright infringement, they're trying to avoid any consequences.
Replying to
@cstross @mhartle @johncarlosbaez I hadn't realised that the money is already in escrow. That's excellent news - I've submitted claims for my two eligible books, but I'd half expected them to go bust before the payout and thus avoid paying.
I don't think it's enough, but I also think that it's the best we'll get 🙄
I've been self hosting email for years. This morning, an email to a Gmail account was blocked because of "the very low reputation of the sending domain".
Any advice on how to fix this? Presumably using a hosted email service won't help because I'd still want to use my domain, and Gmail says the domain is the issue.
#SelfHosting #email
Replying to
@ElisesWritings@wandering.shop good luck!
I recently heard a suggestion that authors should have an AI policy, so that readers know what to expect.
Simply put, I don't and won't use best-guess machines to write my books. Full policy on my website:
https://russellphillips.uk/about-russell-phillips/ai-policy/
#histodons #WritersOfMastodon #IndieAuthor
@histodons@fedigroups.social @writingbooks@fedigroups.social
New instance, new #introduction post. I'm an author of #MilitaryHistory and #TTRPG books, and I'm a #BoardGame player.
Most of my posts are likely to be about the #SecondWorldWar, the #ColdWar, and #RPGs.
I'm #ActuallyAutistic and #NonBinary, so might post or boost posts about those topics.
If you would like to get my blog posts direct to your feed, you can do so by following @Russell@russellphillips.uk.
The Battle of the River Plate took place #OnThisDay in 1939.
https://russellphillips.uk/battle-of-the-river-plate/
#histodons #MilitaryHistory #SecondWorldWar #WW2 #history
@history@newsmast.community @militaryhistory@fedigroups.social @histodons@fedigroups.social
Progress on the writing of my next book is slower than I would like, but the cover artist is making progress. This is the first time I’ve hired an artist, and I’m finding the process interesting.
The image shows how he’s blocked out colours and started to block out buildings. I’m very pleased to note that he asks a lot of questions because he's keen to get the details right.
#MilitaryHistory #SecondWorldWar #WW2 #WritersOfMastodon
@militaryhistory@fedigroups.social
#FreeSoftwareAdvent day 8: Geany
Geany is my text editor of choice. I have it configured to display the main text window in the middle, with sidebars on both sides.
The left sidebar usually displays "Symbols". If I'm in a Markdown document, headings will be displayed here. If I'm in code, functions and the like will be displayed.
The right sidebar generally displays "Tasks", which shows me anywhere I've got something like FIXME or TODO in the current file. If I'm editing Markdown, I usually switch it to show me a preview of the file I'm editing.
For me, Geany is the Goldilocks of text editors. It has just enough features, not too few nor too many.
Replying to
@acallegaro@mas.to I love RSS. I use Nextcloud News. Browser on laptop, app on my phone. This way, everything synchronises, so if I read an article on my phone, it's marked read when I go to my laptop.
Replying to
@_elena@mastodon.social I love KOReader. I use it on a Kobo, and find it much better than the native reading app.
All of my books are half price in the #Smashwords end of year sale.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/RussellPhillips864
#histodons #MilitaryHistory #SecondWorldWar #WW2 #history
@history@newsmast.community @militaryhistory@fedigroups.social @histodons@fedigroups.social
Replying to
@thermia@sk.girlthi.ng you say that like it's a bad thing 🙂
At 7:24pm on this day in 1980, B Squadron of 22 SAS stormed the Iranian embassy in London, ending a six-day siege. At the time of the assault, there were twenty-one hostages and six terrorists in the embassy.
One hostage and five terrorists were killed. Twenty hostages were rescued, and one terrorist was captured and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
https://russellphillips.uk/product/operation-nimrod-the-iranian-embassy-siege/
#histodons #MilitaryHistory #history
@history@newsmast.community @militaryhistory@fedigroups.social @histodons@fedigroups.social
Replying to
@bobdvb@mastodonapp.uk it works surprisingly well.
Replying to
@elena@aseachange.com for what it's worth, I think it will be good to have such a guide in the world.
An interesting blog on writing in British English.
This blog is written in en-GB – Terence Eden’s Blog
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/this-blog-is-written-in-en-gb/#fnref:accent
Time for a bit of a rant. I've mentioned before that I'm currently researching Operation Colossus, the first British paratroop operation. I recently watched the 2002 Channel 4 documentary Commando, which propagates some myths about Operation Colossus.
https://russellphillips.uk/rant-channel-4-commando-2002/
#histodons #MilitaryHistory #SecondWorldWar #WW2 #history
@history@newsmast.community @militaryhistory@fedigroups.social @histodons@fedigroups.social
Replying to
@Alsy@theforkiverse.com @gizmomathboy@mastodon.xyz @zachleat@fediverse.zachleat.com @erkhyan@yiff.life I find it emphasises the difference much better, which is why I like it.
I'm at a writer's retreat. When I arrived, we were offered fruit cake and cheese, which seems to be a very Yorkshire delicacy.
So I'm curious. Have you ever had fruit cake & cheese?
"Yorkshire connection" could mean that you were in Yorkshire at the time, or you have family from Yorkshire, etc.
#Yorkshire #food
Is there anyone here that could translate a letter from Italian to English for me? It's about 150 words.
I'm happy to pay, but I'm wary of going somewhere live Fiverr because I want a human translation and I doubt I'd be able to tell if someone used an AI.
Boosts welcome.
Edit: I've got some offers of help, so I should be good. Thank you to everyone that replied and/or boosted 😀
On this day in 1942, British troops invaded Madagascar. The operation proved the usefulness of tank landing ships (LSTs), which were to be widely used in future invasions. It also featured dummy paratroopers, which were more famously used during the invasion of Normandy in 1944.
https://russellphillips.uk/product/a-strange-campaign-the-battle-for-madagascar/
#histodons #MilitaryHistory #SecondWorldWar #WW2 #history
@history@newsmast.community @militaryhistory@fedigroups.social @histodons@fedigroups.social
@TotesTanked@aus.social look what my kids got me for Christmas 😀
#SecondWorldWar #WW2 #tank @militaryhistory@fedigroups.social
Replying to
@burger_jaap@mastodon.social @clacksee@wandering.shop one for your good news items?
Someone shared this elsewhere. Apparently it's the unofficial squadron emblem for 521 Meteorological Squadron RAF during the Second World War. 🙂
#histodons #MilitaryHistory #SecondWorldWar #WW2
@history@newsmast.community @militaryhistory@fedigroups.social
Replying to
@gisgeek@floss.social @sjn@chaos.social I'm very aware of the Anthropic case, I'm a part of it.
Part of their defence has been that if they have to pay damages for everything they pirated, they'd go out of business. And now governments are talking about adding AI exceptions to copyright laws.
Telling people to not share things so they don't get stolen is not a solution. It's simple victim blaming.
Replying to
@_elena@mastodon.social I suggest adding @WeirdWriter@caneandable.social
My next book will be about Operation Colossus, the first ever use of paratroopers by the British Army. I need to choose a title and subtitle, so I’ve set up a poll to help me choose.
Enter your preference here: https://cloud.phillipsuk.org/apps/forms/s/oqb4YoEbqYedpYZRSzPjxxMS
#bookstodon #histodons #MilitaryHistory #SecondWorldWar #WW2 #history
@history@newsmast.community @militaryhistory@fedigroups.social @histodons@fedigroups.social
Replying to
@gisgeek@floss.social @sjn@chaos.social
licenses and copyright exist for that.
Yes, they do. One of my big frustrations with LLMs is that AI companies violated licenses and copyrights on a vast scale.
Yet, when creators seek recompense for that, we're told that can't be allowed to happen because it would destroy the AI industry.