To boldly go where no writer has gone before. — There’s a trepidation that comes with writing about Sci-Fi and about the Star Trek franchise in particular. Let’s remember I’m the sort of bird who wades into race and trans debates with all the cares of an MDMA-infused toddler. My work is often controversial and not to everyone’s liking. People…

Five things you’re allowed to know about my identity and four things you’re not. — What constitutes your identity? If society is determined that we play identity politics then this is a question I feel compelled to ask. Who gets to define the parameters of who I am. What’s their agenda and why does it matter? Here are five things I think I have defined…

And does it really matter as long as your output doesn’t stink? — The more I interact with other writers, the more I learn there’s no tried and tested method for writing. Some of us write slowly and purposefully, others dash things out in a matter of minutes. Some people fill their screens with deeply thought out paragraphs Others scatter their work around…

Someone needs to check in on the Duffer brothers before their collective ego puts us all in the upside down. — I’m part way through season 4 of Stranger Things and it’s starting to get tough. Not emotionally. Not spiritually. Not even because the kids are no longer as cute and the show has lost the Goonies-esque/Stephen King quality I really enjoyed. It’s just turning into an absolute fucking slog.

I’m not convinced this is the win society thinks it is. The bird watcher and the bitch, the story rumbles on. — If you and I had a semi-hostile interaction in a public park then straight after you attempted to feed a dog in my care from a snack-pouch, the outcome would be fairly quick and one sided. I would thump you. I might hesitate if you were a child, were elderly…

Because there’s this woman from Texas who keeps shouting nonsense at me about her rights and it’s getting on my nerves. — I don’t often rage write — I’m normally a cool and dispassionate Penguin. However, amongst the many things I hate, trying to have a reasoned debate and discussion with someone with all the mental coherence of fog is top of the list. It’s frustrating because no questions are ever answered…

I think I’d prefer an algorithm for all my future health needs thank you very much, doctors need not apply. — Much of my hatchling youth was spent being shuffled from doctor to doctor, I had childhood eczema and asthma which repeatedly flared up. I’d be waddled off to the doctor who would get me to breathe in a tube, tell me I have asthma, give me an inhaler and then…

What does society have to gain from playing power games with long dead authors. — The ‘privilege’ discussion jumped a Megladon last week when it emerged that one of the faces of ‘white privilege’ was none other than Anne Frank. In case you’re wondering who the hell Anne Frank is… she’s the plucky go-getter Jewish girl who got a publishing deal and top of the…

I’m making the case for the centre ground on ‘White Supremacy’ using only my tiny avian brain and historical knowledge — Before we begin hunting down Penguins and stringing them up by their beaks I have no doubt this is going to be a controversial article. I can tell that because it has been in my drafts for an age. I fiddle with it. I re-write it. I fiddle with it…