David Bridger

Mastodon since Nov 2022. Migrated to Writing Exchange Mar 2026.

I am a novelist, playwright, and poet. Draoi of the Mórrígan. Pagan. Animist. Old salt. Old biker. Cold War rebel -> present day anarchist. We are the resistance. 🇵🇸 Palestine Action. Eco-justice activist. Friend of crows, rescuer of dogs, adopter of donkeys. Trans ally. he/him #pwME

If I get an unlikeable vibe off you, I'll block you. No argument. No trading of insults. No warning.

My books are my activism.

Publisher: https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/?ref=DavidBridger
WIP Blog: https://davidbridgerwip.wordpress.com

Public Key

npub1k4vh92skmuezm7wwk695c3rrvs3kpf02yjfvrc8df8x9hrve82msm879h8

NIP-05 Address

davidbridger_at_writing.exchange@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqst2ktj4gtd7v3dl88tdz6vg33kggmq5h4zfykpurk5nnzm3kvn4dcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntzuxgsf

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1k4vh92skmuezm7wwk695c3rrvs3kpf02yjfvrc8df8x9hrve82msm879h8

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Last Notes

2026-09-25 08:11:56 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
25th Sept 2026. Our next featured creator uses a separate Fedi account dedicated to their book. Do you use different accounts for different creative purposes?
No.
I want and need only this one account. Simplicity and integrity are important to me. I find the thought of 'creative promotion' tiresome and distasteful.

2026-09-24 17:24:44 UTC

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Wonderful. I'm guessing those two shapes on the bucket might be slots for a belt so someone could carry it hands-free at waist height when gathering berries.

2026-09-23 06:22:06 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
23rd Sept 2026. Choose a noun that is representative of you as a creative person.
Dedication.

2026-09-22 11:34:14 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
22nd Sept 2026. If you wrote a memoir on your writing journey so far, what would it be called?
Sea Legs

2026-09-22 11:28:52 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
22nd Sept 2026. Promo day. Self, someone else, or both.
All my currently available books are here: https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/?ref=DavidBridger

2026-09-20 08:09:58 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
20th Sept 2026. How do your characters access water or whatever they need to drink?
My WIP community's land base is on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, where there has never been any shortage of water. Their shipyard is built deliberately where a river flows into the ocean. Planning for a sea voyage includes storing sufficient fresh water onboard, but again that's part of normal life.

2026-09-18 06:13:33 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
18th Sept 2026. What are three personality strengths your MC has?
Medb's quiet strengths are resilience, confidence, and determination.

2026-09-17 07:00:10 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
17th Sept 2026. By the end of your story, how many injuries has your MC had?
A 65yo wooden boatbuilder's lifetime of healed cuts on her hands and bruise-blackened fingernails, and similarly a lifetime of wear and tear on her joints. Nothing out of the ordinary in that respect. What's unusual is the emotional wound she's carried since in her 20s her entire family except her infant daughter were killed in a big waterwheel accident.

2026-09-17 06:48:02 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
17th Sept 2026. Link to or summarise yesterday's poll and reveal the answer.
The spaceship that is a character (11% of respondents) is in Space Train 1 & 2.
The robot that is a character (37% of respondents) is in A Flight of Thieves.
The ship that is a character (15% of respondents) is in my WIP.
The house I refer to (37% of respondents) that is in Gifted, is haunted but not a character.

2026-09-16 21:06:01 UTC

#WritersCoffeeClub #WritingCommunity
16th Sept 2026. Is there a topic you could really use an expert’s help with? What is it?
For my next WIP, only an idea but quite developed at the pre-plan stage, understanding of and attitudes towards transgenderism (modern terminology not used then, I know) in the royal court and wider world of Henry VIII's time.

2026-09-16 09:06:12 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
16th Sept 2026. If your MC was elected mayor of your own town, would you stay or move? Why?
I'd stay. Medb doesn't for a moment imagine herself leading any sort of community, which is why she's a perfect elder for the boatbuilding tuath I'm writing and would also make an excellent mayor of my town. Can't think of anyone better.

2026-09-16 09:02:00 UTC

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I love that no one so far has chosen your cursed cockring! :D

2026-09-16 08:55:28 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
16th Sept 2026. Create a poll listing 2-3 objects that have featured in your work and one that hasn't. Ask people to pick the one that hasn't.
From across my 30+ years of novellng. Not expecting anyone to have read everything I've written, so this will be a bit of a lottery. Here you go...

2026-09-15 05:49:27 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
15th Sept 2026. Your characters get one completely ordinary day with no villains, quests, murders, wars, prophecies, romantic disasters, or impending apocalypses. How do they spend it?
In this WIP, they will continue building a great wooden ship on the shore.

2026-09-15 05:28:53 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
15th Sept 2026. What's a situation where you feel a semicolon definitely works better than a full stop?
Ten or fifteen years ago, to reduce my American editor's discomfort, I replaced all my semicolons with full stops in narrative text. Never got back into the habit. I still use semicolons in lists and see no reason to change that.

2026-09-14 07:22:51 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
14th Sept 2026. What's your favourite type of story setting?
Found family, over and over with different groups of characters through all my books. Clearly, I'm answering a question that at first I didn't even know I was asking.

2026-09-10 07:48:53 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
10th Sept 2026: Share a description from your WIP that establishes atmosphere without explicitly naming the emotion.
She loved her kin fiercely, and in an autumn of her youth they all drowned fiercely when the riverbank crumbled after heavy rains and their big waterwheel toppled while they worked beneath trying to shore it up. Her love didn't drown with them.

2026-09-10 07:36:55 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
10th Sept 2026. Our next featured creator is an acronym. Do you use acronyms in your work?
There were acronyms everywhere in my twenty years at sea. I might have used one or two in my writing, to denote some remote governmental body maybe if it's how my characters refer to them, but no more than that.

2026-09-09 06:40:08 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
9th Sept 2026. Share something you've been working on this month.
Last week being a scheduled rest & review week in my academic course, I decided to extend that to include my novel WIP too so my brain could enjoy a proper holiday. It was good. I've come back refreshed and stronger. So what I've been working on is myself.

2026-09-05 07:34:03 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
5th Sept 2026. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, what is your favourite colour of ice cream?
Rum & Raisin for its associations, which are memories of past deliciousness and the promise of more.

2026-09-04 06:51:01 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
4th Sept 2026. What seemingly insignificant object in your story carries a lot of emotional weight?
Medb's spokeshave, the smalll two-handled plane she uses to shape, fair, and smooth curved wooden surfaces. It was her Nana's favourite boatbuilding tool, inherited from her ma before her, and Madb treasures it.

2026-09-04 06:24:50 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
4th Sept 2026. Reverse of last month's question: if e-books stopped being produced, how much would you miss them?
I wouldn't. Some authors would be hit hard if that happened, and I sympathise, but for me the only effect would be that thieves could no longer steal my work and sell it for their own illegal profit.

2026-09-02 06:26:13 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
2nd Sept 2026. What would your MC notice first upon entering a crowded room?
Medb is a forest steward who builds wooden boats on the shore. In all her 65 years, she's never been in a crowded room, so I imagine the first thing she would notice on entering one would be her own discomfort.

2026-09-02 06:09:09 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
2nd Sept 2026. How do you think where you live affects your creative work?
I live in a quiet wooded valley in Devon, the loveliest place I know, including all those pretty islands I visited as a sailor. It's very good for achieving a quiet mind for writing.
Extending my focus, I despise Britain's empire history and neoliberal present, and hurt for our world in the climate emergency that humanity has caused and is still causing. I write about all of that.

2026-09-01 07:42:25 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
1st Sept 2026. List 7 things about your creativity (accomplishments, goals, etc.)
1. I've worked at my craft for 33 years
2. I will do so until I can no longer
3. 13 of my published books are SFF novels, plus there's a collection of short stories, the book of a play, and my memoir
4. Every book represents the peak of my abilities at the time of its release
5. 4 more are in the editing queue
6. 2 more are works-in-progress
7. 1 more is a zygote of an idea

2026-08-31 08:17:38 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
31st Aug 2026. What's one thing you hope readers remember long after they finish your story?
The depth of love and support in this community living close to the land and sea, to one another, and to their various crafts.

2026-08-31 08:02:35 UTC

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Your current publisher sounds honest and fair, which are rare qualities in the industry. I found one eventually who has the same qualities and I stayed with them, reflecting their loyalty and integrity with my own, because to my mind these are more important than money.

2026-08-31 07:57:32 UTC

#WritingCommunity 31st Aug 2026.
#WritersCoffeeClub: How did this month go for you, writing-wise?
#ScribesAndMakers: Choose an adverb to sum up how your month went.
Richly. My academic work moved into a delicious area, my Otherworld journeying practice is rewarding, my observations of wildlife in our valley are closer and more regular, and my physical health improved a little. All of which fed into my novel WIP.
August has been a rich harvest for me. Best month of this year so far.

2026-08-30 10:27:30 UTC

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It's very much something I've integrated in my practice. The best resource I know of is my alma mater, the Irish Pagan School, where for example this introductory course is available: https://irishpaganschool.com/p/cycles

2026-08-30 09:08:20 UTC

#FediCoven Q7: What have seasonal changes taught you that books or teachers could not?
For me, it's been the other way around. I spent many years immersed in nature, living with seasonal changes, and probably felt there wasn't too much more for me to learn about them. Then I started studying the history of Irish paganism and eventually immersed myself in that tradition, and books and my teachers taught me how ancient Irish people lived with the seasonal changes.

2026-08-30 08:09:07 UTC

#WordWeavers #WritingCommunity
30th Aug 2026. If you could interview one of your characters over coffee, what would be the first question you asked?
Raising my cup, "How does it compare with chicory?"
Medb holds her half-drunk cup of hot coffee beneath her nose and breathes the aroma. "It's heaven."
"I'll leave you a sack of it."
She drains the cup and opens her eyes. "I want a ship of it. Where's it from? What might they accept in trade for it?"

2026-08-29 10:42:14 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
29th Aug 2026. At age 11, our TTMD guest answered 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' with 'Author.' Do you know what you wanted to be at 11?
Two years after that, aged 13, I definitely knew I wanted to first sail the world and then write novels, which is actually how my life panned out over the next five decades. Aged 11, that was the year I learned to sail a 13ft Enterprise dinghy on Marine Lake at West Kirkby, and from there grew my plan for life.

2026-08-27 07:15:23 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WRitingCommunity
27th Aug 2026. Tell a story, real or fictional, about an object on your desk.
300 million years ago, magma cooled in airless silence deep underground and eventually I formed of it into this mass that I still hold today. David calls me the shape of a hand axe, and indeed one of his distant ancestors did once use me to strike flakes from other rocks. He says I am striated granite. Whatever.

2026-08-23 20:53:35 UTC

#FediCoven
Our granddaughter will ring the bell in the children's cancer ward this Wednesday. She is officially clear. It's huge. Three-year treatment plan ahead with weekly tests and no one is guaranteeing anything, but right now at this moment there's no cancer in our little girl.
Huge gratitude to the Mórrígan who promised me she would rid our girl of the cancer, and to all of you my dear friends here for your love and prayers and support. Thank you. I love you. x

2026-08-19 07:40:59 UTC

#ScribesAndMakers #WritingCommunity
19th Aug 2026. If paper books stopped being produced, how much would you miss them?
Hugely. It would symbolise for me the end of our civilisation. I would spend the rest of my days enjoying my modest library and adding books to it.

2026-06-28 23:26:32 UTC

#WritingCommunity #SolarPunk #SolarPunkSunday
Throughout this long productive day, I paused the narrative timeline I'd started working on and instead created the pre-narrative timeline my C25th novel needs. Mainly, it dates the C21st climate catastrophes that destroyed civilisation. I bit that bullet hard. Had to detail the shit and get past all the billionaires dying in disgrace so Earth could start recovering and my story can start.

2026-06-25 09:56:58 UTC

#Fedihelp Is anyone here in contact with #LadyGaga? My 14yo grandson who I love dearly is lying in hospital on life support. His mum, my daughter, is reading aloud for him the David Attenborough book he was planning to get. His favourite artist is Lady Gaga and my daughter is trying to contact her, to ask if she might send our boy a message to be read to him. It would mean a lot. I know this is a long shot, but can anyone put me in touch?

2026-06-18 18:24:16 UTC

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I like being on Mastodon though. I've culled my sm presence until I'm only here, and I'm not inclined to expand my reach back outside. Not rubbishing this option. It just isn't me.

2026-06-18 17:36:44 UTC

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Possibly a daft question, this. It's been a long tiring day. What I'm wondering is, how would someone who isn't on Mastodon see a toot in the first place before seeing an option to subscribe to the poster's newsletter?

2026-06-17 08:35:04 UTC

#WritersCoffeeClub #WritingCommunity
17th Jun 2026. How colourful is your writing?
It's fucking fluorescent.

2026-06-06 11:29:20 UTC

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I'm wearing green today, I agree with your associations, plus for me connection and oneness with all life.

2026-05-24 17:06:34 UTC

RE: https://todon.eu/@dbattistella/116624745179319154
#SolarPunkSunday
#note1w87…v5a9

2026-05-20 15:28:39 UTC

Just saw my first bee of this summer! Think the bee might have just seen his first happy dancer of the season too.

2026-05-17 01:06:18 UTC

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I haven't yet, because my study is now half-filled with mum's. At christmas my daughter bought me an LP that I'd mentioned, bought in a second-hand records shop I think.

2026-05-17 00:58:24 UTC

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I enjoyed a similar experience last year when my mum had to downsize for moving into sheltered accommodation, and I got her huge collection of LPs. Still enjoying it.

2026-04-20 08:12:16 UTC

#PennedPossibilities⁩ 991: #WritingCommunity
Tell us about your WIP. What is its genre or genres?
A #SolarPunk novel set on the Atlantic coast of Ireland. In the 25th century CE, 400 years after climate catastrophes killed the fossil-fuelled civilisation, a community of artisans and their families assembles in a forest boatyard to build a big wooden cargo ship of sail. Trade in products, skills, and traditions from across oceans is part of the process of building the ship and the community.

2026-04-05 08:19:58 UTC

#PennedPossibilities 976 #WritingCommunity #SolarPunkSunday
What aspect of your SC’s personality are they most insecure about?
Ash grew up learning from her ma and pa, the boat yard engineers, and now in her mid-20s she is the yard's valued maker/repairer of tools and machinery.
"I'm nervous around Charlie, our new wind and waves engineer. Dark and brooding. Suspicious of anything that might be like old human ownership of nature. Pa says he's a firecracker. He makes my tummy flip."

2026-03-30 15:09:53 UTC

This primrose bank in our front garden makes me smile.
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/116/318/739/779/597/664/original/119aa4694dcf337c.jpg

2026-03-29 10:59:25 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/116/312/089/303/812/339/original/29dfcb7b2602a539.jpeg

2026-03-21 15:53:58 UTC

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Your novel sounds delightful!

2026-03-19 12:50:31 UTC

Mood.
Qajar Jazz - The Last Dance in Tehran
https://youtu.be/lpSEXfVFc70?si=yRi-YWMikmfStF-t

2026-03-14 23:34:07 UTC

#WritingCommunity
My next novel will be a #Solarpunk one about a community of shipwrights building a big wooden cargo ship of sail in the 25th century CE, 400 years after the collapse of fossil-fuelled capitalist civilisation. Wooden boatbuilding I know, but the pre-industrial-revolution way with all hand tools etc. is going to be a big research job. Delicious! :)

2026-03-14 10:11:46 UTC

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I believe the deliberately engineered "lesser of two evils" choices that we in the UK and the USA live with in our political systems is exactly why we are where we are today.

2026-03-14 10:01:52 UTC

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I'm not in the USA, but I hope it's okay if I respond to your question. It wouldn't have been as bad for Iran, but it would certainly have been at least as bad for Palestine. Who is to say that an attack taking us close to WW3 is worse than a genocide?