Social Media For Writers - New Opportunities, New Directions - video up on YouTube with Lindsay Johnstone and Elle Nash, looking at the state of play for writers using social media, especially Substack. It’s full of very useful hands-on advice, insights and guidance. youtu.be/PT_PCxwGAuM?...

new blog - Beating The Bounds - a project I started last year that explores our deep psychological relationships to the physical world and the evocative places and spaces in our early lives. www.peterurpeth.com/beatingthebo...

Made a start on the peats…

“How can we lead if we don’t know how to grieve” closing lines of Aurora Brachman’s vital and timely documentary on the Black Panther Cubs - Full vid here: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

We are pleased to announce the new @booksource.bsky.social Go See Fund; launched today to support Scottish-based publishers/agents to attend national and international book trade fairs. Applications open until 7 May. www.publishingscotland.org/2025/04/anno...

Yesterday Publishing Scotland sent a letter to the UK Country Director of Meta, following revelations in The Atlantic that Meta used pirated works sourced from LibGen to train its Generative AI. Read the letter here: www.publishingscotland.org/2025/04/publ...

That’s a wrap for #scotwriterpitch2025 A huge thank you to all our BSky pioneers! To everyone who pitched / read / liked / shared today. I think we’ve found our new home here on Bluesky! Good luck to all who pitched, and keep an eye on those DMs! My thanks to partners - ASLA and HIE.

Writers! Keep them pitches coming! Publishers & Agents! Follow the hashtag #scotwriterpitch2025 for some very good book ideas!

Remember to enable ‘everyone’ in your chat settings so that agents or publishers can contact you. #scotwriterpitch2025

Listen to Ross and good luck with your pitching! #scotwriterpitch2025

And we’re off! Good luck with your pitch - #scotwriterpitch2025

Good luck to all writers pitching their work today in the Bluesky Writers’ Pitch 2025 - don’t forget to include the all important tag: #scotwriterpitch2025

Happening tomorrow! 🦋📝

📢 Our annual Writers' Pitch is back on 28 March and is now taking place on Bluesky! This year, the pitch is supported by two webinars: 🌟 Preparing to pitch - 20 March, 2 - 3.30pm 🌟 Social media for writers - 4 April, 2 - 3pm Find out more: ow.ly/X4xw50Vjh1Z #scotwriterpitch2025

SoA members in Scotland wanting to pitch your books to agents 📢 On 28 March 9am-9pm take part in Scotland’s BlueSky Writers’ Pitch for a chance to pitch works of unpublished original trade & commercial work. AI content is ineligible. 👇 www.publishingscotland.org/event/bluesk... #scotwriterpitch2025

I made a Starter pack of Scottish Writers. If you’d like to be included, msg me. go.bsky.app/QVgoAEA

I made a Starter Pack of Bluesky accounts for Scotland’s publishing industry. This is a wide-ranging list covering publishers, literary agents, publishing services, and publishing, writing and other literature support agencies. Msg me to be included. go.bsky.app/3niPF4E

This Thursday - @waterstones.bsky.social in Dundee! With the ace @sirbenfro.bsky.social! Join us at 6pm talking Crime, Scotland, Dundee, Edinburgh, coos, cats, & so much more! Plus its actual launch day for James's new book - & trust me, you want to read it! www.waterstones.com/events/r-d-m...

Social Media for Writers Opportunities and new directions 2025 with Elle Nash (saderotica.bsky.social) and Lindsay Johnstone Friday 4 April 2025, 2pm - online - registration required - free www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1248204526...

I made a Starter Pack of Bluesky accounts for Scotland’s publishing industry. This is a wide-ranging list covering publishers, literary agents, publishing services, and publishing, writing and other literature support agencies. Msg me to be included. go.bsky.app/3niPF4E

I'm so looking forward to #scotwriterpitch2025! I love reading other writers' pitches, making connections, feeling a part of community. Who's taking part?

Perfecting Your Bluesky Writers’ Pitch 2025 with Literary agents Louise Lamont & Lina Langlee is now available on You Tube ahead of the Bluesky Writers’ Pitch taking place on Friday 28 March - full details: www.peterurpeth.com/bluesky-writ... youtu.be/k5fN0oddH0U?...

I made a Starter pack of Scottish Writers. If you’d like to be included, msg me. go.bsky.app/QVgoAEA

One week to go for the pre-pitch event - Perfecting your Bluesky Writers' Pitch (2pm 20 March) with literary agents Lina Langlee and Louise Lament - the event is free but booking essential - booking and full details here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1247159600...

Bill T Jones - a work very much for now… youtu.be/mQIzDKxpDNo?...

I will *not* be watching the State of the Union tomorrow evening. Nothing enrages Trump more than us tuning him out. Instead, I will be viewing and contributing to the State of the People, a 24-hour livestream of counter-programming beginning this evening. Register at stateofthepeople.media.

I spoke with @jkblake.bsky.social about my upcoming biography of Malcolm X—MALCOLM LIVES!—and the enduring power of his voice during this time of the progression of racism. www.cnn.com/2025/03/01/u...

⏳ Writers, there’s still (a little more than) a day left to enter your work for our Debut Over 50 Award! Our previous winner, Glennis Silk, had her debut novel CITY OF SILK published by Allison & Busby last year. 🎉 For more info, go to jennybrownassociates.com.

On Friday 28th March, Scotland’s former ‘Tweet Pitch’ event will take place here on BlueSky! Writers - pitch your work to publishers & agents in <280 characters + the hashtag #scotwriterpitch2025. We can’t wait to read your pitches! More info at www.publishingscotland.org/ps-opportuni....

As part of our BlueSky Writers Pitch 2025 delighted to announce Perfecting Your BlueSky Pitch event with literary agents Lina Langlee and Louise Lamont 2pm 20 March - details: www.peterurpeth.com/perfecting-y...

How good to see this appearing on bluesky!

Scotland's writers' pitch event has a new home. We are now Scotland's BlueSky Writers' Pitch, and the pitch date is Friday 28 March. Full details at link below...open to all writers living in Scotland www.peterurpeth.com/bluesky-writ...

No they don’t - ‘real estate instincts’ is just BBC speak for settler colonialism, which is the central plank of the ‘America First’ playbook. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Date for the diary… performing at the fab Hundred Years Gallery, Hoxton, London 21 Feb with in inimitable Evan Parker - strong Coltrane theme to this gig, Evan on tenor sax visiting some Trane tunes, too… hundredyearsgallery.co.uk/music-poetry...

The great Sonia Sanchez honoured at Hunter amsterdamnews.com/news/2024/12...

Exploitation, neglect, deprivation, death. These are not accidents of fate but the calculated outcomes of a system that prioritizes profit over human life. Friedrich Engels called it “social murder,” a term that cuts to the heart of capitalism’s hidden violence.

Beware - the BSky account for Booker-winning author Douglas Stuart is a fake account - communicates via DMs - blocked and reported after checking with Doug directly

My favourite fact about Iceland is that we have many, many crime writers but only one forensic pathologist, and he was so busy answering all of their questions that he decided to have a small seminar for writers to get some peace. It immediately sold out so he had another one that also sold out.

Dermot Healy - photo by Dermot Seymour - Crown Bar Belfast 1984

My thanks to Northwords Now Magazine (Winter/Spring 24/25 edition) for this deep review of my poetry collection - The 4000 Nights of New York in 1988 - it feels amazing when a reviewer really connects with the work...as it does when a reader does so, too.

new album "Elements and Properties" released today on the excellent scatterArchive label - duo improvisations with Pat Thomas on piano and myself on electric guitar, recorded live in 2023 and 2024 - thanks to all who made it possible! #music #improvisation scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/elemen...

Ornette Coleman's The Shape Of Jazz To Come Recording Session, Photos by William Claxton. This group of photographs were found in a box in Ruth’s laundry room, shortly after her death. They were amongst the first I brought home. open.substack.com/pub/joshhade... #charliehaden #jazz #jazzmusic

30 Western Isles accounts in this pack now. Hopefully useful for fellow islanders arriving on #bluesky for the first time and looking for local accounts. Feel free to share and get in touch if you want to be added. #lewis #harris #uist #benbecula #barra go.bsky.app/TcoNuJN

On the road in Riga, Latvia. Had to be a visit to the #DepecheMode Bar. Dedicated to Basildon's finest, with a banging soundtrack on loop, a goth gem of a DM grotto. The counter is a glass-topped cabinet full of DM merch. Walls scrawled with dedications, and some hardcore memorabilia. WNTL?