It all had to start somewhere… Delighted to share an #extract from Bone Lines by @brethertonwords.bsky.social. Where prehistory begins to connect with the present. Furthermore we should add that as an intro to the children of sarah series this book is just 99p in ebook at the moment! #substack 🔗 👇

Did a stack that might resonate with a few but will probably just end up with a load of unsubscribe. Serves me bloody right… substack.com/@stephaniebr...

Just seen my first swallows!

Yay! #booksky

Yet another New Scientist article confirming something I worked into the plot of The Fire In Their Eyes… #booksky #fictionintofact www.newscientist.com/article/2521...

I loved getting to know Elewa and going on such an enlightening journey with her…

Well, I think I might have something to contribute to this!

Well done, Hungary. May the tide keep turning against this hateful nonsense.

For today’s #FirstLineFriday we are diving straight into chapter one of That Summer In Puglia by Valeria Vescina (@valeriavescina.bsky.social), as if we were diving into the crystalline waters of the Mediterranean. #Puglia #Italy #HolidayReading #Bookstagram

Here’s a taster on our #substack with an #extract from the just launched second edition of That Summer In #Puglia, the beautiful and evocative debut novel by Valeria Vescina (@valeriavescina.bsky.social). Take a trip through the memories of young love and growing up in Southern #Italy with Tommaso…

A little bit of Rumi as an antidote ( searches for this mystic and poet of Persia highly recommended )

After 15 years of writing fiction that required A LOT of research — and then getting my non-scientist and non-archaeologist head around said research — it’s such a relief to work on a new project set in Cornwall (where I live) and in the present (where I mostly live.) #booksky

For this week’s #FirstLineFriday we celebrate the recently released YESENI AND THE DAUGHTER OF PEACE by Solange Burrell. #blacklit #historicalfantasy #yafantasy

My astrophysicist character and “Apollo’s Child”, Max, in The Fire In Their Eyes, would be gazing skyward with joy and excitement today even if a a little bit envious, but wishing Good Luck to Artemis! Here’s the passage where he waxes lyrical about his space dreams… #artemis #scifi #booksky

Well, my astrophysicist, Max, in Bone Lines and The Fire In Their Eyes would be looking skyward in excitement today! Good Luck #Artemis ! #booksky

Always a cause for celebration!

It is indeed a stunner! I want to be walking up those steps! Even if I’m a little past the innocent dreams of young love ;) #booksky

Proud and privileged to have had a hand in helping to bring this amazing book back to life… #booksky

Thank you, @breakthroughbook.bsky.social, for this beautiful second edition of THAT SUMMER IN PUGLIA, ahead of your publication of my second novel later in the year. Special thanks to @brethertonwords.bsky.social, the force behind Breakthrough, and to Jamie Chipperfield for the gorgeous cover!

Oh, I love this book! It made me want to be young, in love… and in Italy! #booksky

Yearning for a #writingretreat to kickstart your #writing or to breathe new energy into a work in progress? Here's a glimpse into my retreats, in participants’ own words. Come and join me in June or September 2026! valeriavescina.com/2025/01/27/a... #WritingCommunity #writingworkshop

Hear hear! #booksky

Fascinating article on our current “pathocracy” I especially like the bit about the hunter gather tribes who practice egalitarianism as it’s those principles that inspired much of the prehistoric sections in my novels #booksky #pathocracy #endoffemocracy Link in comments…

It’s hard to keep going, isn’t it? To know what is happening, to grieve what is happening, to shout out against it. And to keep living our passions, talking about our passions, celebrating our joys. But we must do both? Passion and joy and creativity are also acts of resistance.

Delighted to share an #extract from the extraordinary magical realist novel by Al Jazeera correspondent and author, Imran Khan on our substack today. open.substack.com/pub/breakthr...

This is a GREAT book. A surreal post-apocalyptic novel with a Greek Chorus like no other.

Congrats to my hilarious friend @zenabarrie.bsky.social for being named a FINALIST in the CIBA Humour & Satire Awards! Her unique collection Two Similar Looking Men With Umbilical Hernias out from @breakthroughbook.bsky.social is not to be missed… #booksky

On both #InternationalWomen’sDay and #Covid-19DayOfReflection I’m honouring all the unsung women scientists. We have never needed more wisdom aligned to empathy. And I also salute them in the acknowledgements of The Fire In Their Eyes, which confronts Covid and also won a ‘medical thriller’ award.

And what an honour on #worldbookday to be appearing on this fascinating podcast that is discussing and archiving literature that does not shy away from addressing #Covid - do check out pandemic pages on Instagram, TikTok and Spotify!

Happy World Book Day! Here’s to anyone reading or writing any kind of truly human-made book. Let’s turn up the dial on empathy, awareness, connection and let’s celebrate the quiet, simple pleasures. Let’s rediscover the humanity of sharing in inspiration, imagination and craft. #worldbookday

As ever, the powerful and the power hungry machinate and manoeuvre and murder, raining hell and hypocrisy while the vulnerable and helpless and the environment suffer. Evil puts on the cloak of righteousness to fight a rival evil. Nothing happens out of or in isolation. The ripples roll out.

Oh, those grapes are particularly sour, aren’t they?

Oh such good, good news. Go Hannah! A win for hope, a win for empathy, a win for real, grounded representation. And for aware, tactical voting.

Oh such good, good news. Go Hannah! A win for hope, a win for empathy, a win for real, grounded representation. And for aware, tactical voting.

The stuff of writerly dreams!

Someone in publishing went on a business course in the early 2000s and got very excited by one particular principle…😁 youtube.com/shorts/6h3k9...

A swirl of news and analysis. But top of mind for me, the survivors. All survivors of cultures that consume and discard the vulnerable.

BOOK BARGAIN ALERT! We have no idea how long this offer will last but The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley is now only a fiver on Waterstones’ website! Described as “a throughly engaging mystery” by the FT, this gorgeous paperback is also the perfect #BookClubRead.

Ah. Robert Duval. So reliably, quietly, masterfully good. Fondly remembered. What an innings.

We couldn’t be more delighted that Figgles & Flo, so sensitively written by Antonia Blackmore, beautifully illustrated by Sarah P Sharpe and created for the charity Families in Grief has been named a Finalist in the Little Peeps Award by Chanticleer Book Reviews & Media. #kidlit #chlidrensbooks

When things haven’t quite gone as hoped or up to (unrealistic) expectations, I say to myself, “well, you did your best.” And that’s probably true. But then I go and add, “but what if you overdid your best? Yes, you being you, you probably went and bloody overdid it.” Perfectionist’s curse. #toomuch

I do not even want to dignify that monstrosity out of the festering cesspit of the White House, but I cannot let it pass without expressing both (obvious) outrage and solidarity with black and brown people everywhere.

Thanks indeed! #booksly

Where the bloody hell is Jeremy? ;) #booksky

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Yes! I took a fictional punt that human art was much older than we currently had evidence for and I have my 74,000 year-old heroine in my novels making cave art. I love how all the new genetic and archaeological evidence keeps rewriting our story… #booksky www.newscientist.com/article/2512...

Ukrainian-born French artist and designer Sonia Delaunay, Rythme colour, 1946 #womensart

Here’s that passage that I had to imagine for my character up at an Arctic research station in The Fire In Their Eyes… so thrilled that I was able to experience the northern lights for real in Cornwall last night! #northernlights #booksky

It’s hard being human sometimes, but then there are moments to remind you of your place in the universe when you can share in joy and wonder and humility. So thankful for this experience and my Cornish neighbours who shared pictures and texted me to come outside! #northernlights #bucketlistathomeb