Two months inside Project Mirror and I have to take regular walks through Hyde Park just to remember what unfiltered reality looks like. The corporate structure behind my fictional beauty-tech empire is becoming terrifyingly plausible. I’m calling them Aesthetic Dynamics Corp – chose the name for its bland corporate poetry, the kind that hides sinister […]
Beautiful Nightmares, Inc. Read More »
Visited Iris Colomb’s exhibition at the National Poetry Library today. Her approach to poetry as multimedia experience feels completely fresh. The ‘Try destruction!’ installation caught my attention immediately. A carefully constructed pyramid of crumpled paper balls where Colomb had systematically fragmented existing texts, transforming written words into sculptural form. The methodical destruction becomes an act
Three weeks deep into Project Mirror research and reality keeps making my dystopian fiction look tame. My protagonist is shaping up as a tech support specialist for people’s faces. When someone’s lip enhancement algorithm crashes mid-Zoom call, she fixes it. When their eye color update conflicts with skin tone optimization, she debugs their entire aesthetic
Yesterday a client asked for ‘influencer hands.’ Not the manicure – she wanted surgery to match some AI-generated beauty standard from TikTok. Her actual hand shape wasn’t good enough anymore. That conversation gave me my next book idea. I’ve been sketching this world where beauty isn’t just aspirational – it’s algorithmic. Your reflection gets software
When Your Mirror Needs an Update Read More »
Sometimes the best way to test whether your stories have actual pulse is to watch faces while you tell them. Last night I found myself in Principal Tower’s cinema room, surrounded by the kind of glass and steel that makes you feel simultaneously insignificant and invincible, talking about the messy, impossible journey of turning ideas
From Concept to Publication: My impressions Read More »
Sometimes the most meaningful validation comes from unexpected quarters. This week, I discovered that Eastern Empire had been the subject of a comprehensive critical analysis in Arts & Culture UK, penned by respected critic and reviewer Yulia Tulegenova. Reading Tulegenova’s piece felt like watching someone carefully dissect the architectural blueprints of a building you’d constructed
Critical Recognition Read More »
Tomorrow at 7 PM, I’m sitting down with anyone curious about how stories actually get made. Twelve months ago, I stood in front of fifteen people in Moscow, sharing Omnichannel Hearts in Russian and wondering if these narratives would resonate beyond that room. Now Eastern Empire and Omnichannel Hearts carry awards I never expected —
Tomorrow Night: Two Books, One Journey Read More »
Yesterday evening at Goethe-Institut’s library felt like stepping into a literary time capsule. The discussion around Iris Wolff’s Blurred wasn’t just another book launch — it was a masterclass in how stories cross borders, both geographical and linguistic. Watching Wolff speak about her Transylvanian childhood while Ruth Martin explained her translation choices from German made
Language, Borders, and the Alchemy of Translation Read More »
Yesterday’s visit to Yoshitomo Nara’s retrospective at the Hayward Gallery left me contemplating the intersection of childhood consciousness and artistic resistance—themes surprisingly relevant to contemporary storytelling. Nara’s wide-eyed, large-headed figures possess an unsettling directness that reminded me of writing character psychology. These aren’t cute children; they’re complex beings carrying both vulnerability and defiance. Standing before
Nara’s Defiant Eyes at the Hayward Read More »
Yesterday’s “At Your Own Pace” at the Southbank Centre reminded me why London’s creative scene continues to inspire my writing. Curated entirely by young London creatives, the event moved through three acts—prelude, interlude, outro—that felt remarkably similar to how I structure my novels. The afternoon collage session, creating album artwork inspired by Little Simz’s aesthetic,
At Your Own Pace: Reflections on Creativity and Community Read More »
Dive into my latest novel that explores art meets algorithm in our hyperconnected world. Multilingual storytelling with visual elements—questioning what’s authentic behind perfectly curated facades.
