Competition Opens Midnight 30th September — The Second Authentic Eclectic competition opens at midnight on September 30th — depending on where you find yourself on the globe, that’s either today or tomorrow. The facts: You’ll have to be an AE writer to enter — please take a look at our submission guidelines here if you’re interested. The theme…

So Why Do We Keep Seeing Sexist, Sexualised Adverts? — You’ve probably been repeatedly informed that sex sells. It’s sold to us as a truism, supposedly explaining why it’s acceptable for many advertisers to treat one half of the human race as though their only value lies in being a set of sexually attractive, available body parts. The only problem…

I’d Rather Be Billy Connolly Than Hyacinth Bucket — Nobody swears as fluently as a Glaswegian, though some of our Southern cousins may beg to differ. There are many different cultural and class expectations all around the world. Where I grew up, not swearing could earn you a skelp from members of the crab pot. People raised in pretentious…

It’s Poison — The internet has damaged the mental stability, personal relationships, resilience and well being of large chunks of a whole generation, and compromised the learning and critical thinking skills of most young Western people to some extent. We all fell for the comforting notion that each older generation believes the worst…

Images and Endings — The best boy in the world was black and white, he had ticklish toe beans, and his ears smelled like McVitie’s digestive biscuits.

Spotlight on Patricia and Baird — I’ve always loved bright people. People with a bit of substance over style. One of these writers publishes in the AE — the other does not. But they have two things in common. They're both intelligent and thoughtful, and they’re both ridiculously underfollowed. Remarking that a writer is a bright…

Seven Hints That It’s Not Us — It’s You — Just as there’s a subset of bottom dwellers too stupid to know they’re stupid — the Dunning Krugerites of Medium as I fondly think of them — there’s a small but vociferous carnival of catastrophe roaming the back alleys of online forums in a semi-permanent state of outrage, bloviating about…

Feelings Aren’t Facts — and Some Important Publication Updates — Dear friends, foes and constant readers, today we’re talking about the upcoming competition, the new trending tab, two talented authors, and the AE’s upcoming birthday. We all know, thanks to my recent little temper tantrum, that I’ve been feeling very disheartened lately, ever since our lovely wee bobbleheads vanished. When…

Did You Know It Was Banned Books Week? — Last week was banned book week, so I’m told. I first heard of it on Medium a few days ago. It seems there’s a week and sometimes even a month for everything now, and I no longer care much about most of them. But naturally, as a writer, the idea…