❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️ Happy book birthday to the North American edition of @emmasternerradley.bsky.social’s SNOWBLOODED! Now available wherever you like to buy your books ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

Yes, this is an apology video. (And a celebration!)

You can't trust Meta, but this puritanical bullshit is popping up everywhere.

It’s my book birthday! 🎉 A DANCE OF BURNING BLADES, Book 2 of The Invoker Trilogy, is out in the UK today! Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this journey! Get ready for battles, ancestor magic, and big revelations! See below for links to the Goldsboro and Illumicrate exclusion editions!

Oh gosh! This is amazing. It’s always wonderful for an author (and her agent @knifewitch.bsky.social ) to see book art, but to also get such lovely art right before the book comes out in North America? That’s the greatest gift! Thank you @vega-ly-art.bsky.social

It's actually really fucked up watching so many people clamor to watch a new television series created by a woman who has proudly bragged she'll use the money she makes to try and kill my entire community.

“Down” isn’t quite the right word but either way… Tech issues! So please watch this space for the upcoming giveaway instead! #queerbooks

This Saturday I escaped into the haze of beer at the Chester Craft Beer Expo! I highly recommend it for anyone going next year and I’m relieved that my friend wrote down what we drank since I cannot for the life of me remember. Thanks @storyhouselive.bsky.social @thatbeerplace.co.uk for arranging!

Here’s the news I’ve been hinting about: After a long journey with many heartbreaks, Snowblooded is finally available for pre-order in North America! Now North American readers, please go get your dose of assassins, queer romance, duels, and masquerades! ❄️⚔️💙 #queerbooks #queerauthors #wlw #mlm

This is the kind of atmospheric windows and weather you expect when you’re writing in the Peak District with cool fantasy authors like @franceswrites.bsky.social , @elizachanwrites.bsky.social and @gen-dimova.bsky.social !

Come join me and get all the early updates (and some news very soon!) Just scroll down the first page of my website (emmasternerradley.com) and pop your email address in. I don’t spam and I don’t tell bad jokes… very often.

This is going to sound saccharine, but in dark times sprouting seeds like these feel like hope to me. Life carries on no matter how cold or tough the times are! So, I’m a little happier every time I see these little loves growing and thriving.

This week is queer here in Chester! I can’t wait to go with my book club to the quiz tomorrow. If you have time to swing by Chester, don’t miss this little celebration of all things LGBTQIA+ at @storyhouselive.bsky.social !

With #ValentinesDay fast approaching Tis the season for love! ❤️ From regency romance to Scifi Shenanigans, demonically attractive bosses, to creepily alluring housekeepers, there's a #RomaticRead for everyone to fall in love with at Solaris! Hop downthread to see whose included in our selection!

The work day is done and I have some reading time before I have to make dinner. But on a cloudy, wet, cold, day like this one - I just want to go back to bed. So: reading in bed it is! I hope you had/are having a great Wednesday!

Good books deserve sunshine, you know? I’m reading The Unbroken by @clclark.bsky.social What are you all reading at the moment? #readingforpleasure #queerbooks #books

I’m still not over how foggy it was in Chester a few days ago. Calling it atmospheric doesn’t quite cover it!

Book shop shoutout! I and @elizachanwrites.bsky.social went to @paperandword.bsky.social today to sign some of our books (and of course to buy some books too). It is such a lovely shop with wonderful staff AND it’s totally dedicated to fantasy! Don’t sleep on this gem, folks.

There’s time for the post lunch coffee and a little reading before the lunch hour is over, right? Have a lovely Thursday!

I’ve been fighting a fever during the last few days but today I was fever-free and we celebrated that with a walk in the woods! Those who know me have heard me babble on about how much I love evergreens, and so know how happy I was to see one of them as soon as we started walking. Happy new year!

Today I’m not reading on a train but at the airport. Off to Sweden I go! I hope you all have a lovely holiday season!

Everyone I know has been saying he sets off their warning bells for years and…. here is the confirmation.

When in York, I had to pop into The Portal Bookshop and sign some copies of Snowblooded! Queer bookshops are so important and so dear to me, so it was an absolute privilege. Oh and Snowblooded was even in the display window!

Yesterday I had an “office party” with some of the best colleagues and friends imaginable. Thanks @elizachanwrites.bsky.social , @franceswrites.bsky.social , and @sarahbrooks.bsky.social for touring York with me. (Mainly through drinking mulled wine and having a publishing chat in a pub!)

"I can't afford to support my favorite author right now, I—" Reviews. Reviews are free AND they are a gift to authors that can keep on giving (i.e., exposure, marketing, algo boosts, etc.) Please, give the gift of reviews to your authors this holiday season. It really can make a difference!

This Thursday was the Saturnalia celebration here in Chester as the Winter Watch parade marched though the city to be met by the romans ready to battle the forces of the dark! This is such a magical and wonderful tradition that is very dear to my heart! #saturnalia

Today’s Chester mood is, well, this is the entrance to the Christmas market. So I guess the mood is physically chilly but emotionally warm and welcoming!

Female workers at the Rose Bridge Colliery, Wigan, UK, 1860s

An image a day for December 2025 no 6. Wintry spiraea. Spiraea is sometimes known as meadowsweet, which in Mrs Burke's 1867 Language of Flowers dictionary meant 'uselessness'.

Today Chester’s mood is crisp and sunny Xmas vibes!

The Sapphic Book Advent Calendar is officially underway and the first door is ready to be opened! Starting today and running through December 25, you can open a new door daily and enjoy free ebook downloads, enter giveaways to win sapphic books, or pick up discounted titles. Then, for the big finale

Evergreen

Chester’s current mood is… festive. (The pubs are already dressed for the holidays! So cosy!)

Sometimes something stops you in your tracks while you’re doing something mundane. Like when I found this little moth(?) on the window at my gym as I was rushing between the machines. It sat there and occasionally… (cont in threaded post)

Cyclist turns down trans exclusionary honour for woman cyclists (and you can feel the BBC’s teeth grinding about it). "If they don't want to ride with all women, then it's not the kind of ride I want to be part of".

Bluesky- please help me pick my next author photo! 1,2,3 or 4? (Yes I know they’re quite similar. That’s why I can’t pick!)

This is your daily reminder to, as my bottle says, stay HRDRATED.

Today’s Chester mood: gorgeous sunset over the river.

Here’s two things I’m eking out to make them last longer because I love them. The Tainted Cup is such a good read and those dates do ACTUALLY taste like proper Scandinavian salty liquorice (but without the added sugar.)

We've just turned the clocks back in the UK to try & embrace some brighter mornings as the year draws to a close. So, how about a selection of Solaris Books with historical and historically inspired settings ft. @natania.bsky.social @maryrobinettekowal.com @emmanewman.bsky.social & more!?

Last night was such a great night discussing publishing at the cosy @urmstonbooks.bsky.social ! Thanks to @alethearlyons.bsky.social @keithwdickinson.bsky.social , @aknighton.bsky.social and @northodoxpress.bsky.social and of course all the readers/writers who came to listen and ask questions!

Do you want to come hear about (and possibly talk about) the varied ways to publish an SFF book according to some seasoned authors and publishers? Then join us this October! @aknighton.bsky.social @keithwdickinson.bsky.social @alethearlyons.bsky.social

So guess who’s been reading on the train again? This time it was The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett and I am already in love with it. Fantasy mystery is exactly my cup of tea!

Got a question about publishing you've always wanted answered? Well now's your chance! #AuthorTalk #WritingCommunity #Manchester @aknighton.bsky.social ky.social @emmasternerradley.bsky.social @britfantasysoc.bsky.social @alethearlyons.bsky.social @urmstonbooks.bsky.social

Yeah, so the apple festival at Erddig in North Wales is beyond amazing!

Are those…? Yes! They are three newly signed copies of Snowblooded in Liverpool’s Waterstones that should on be back on the shelves now. If you’re in the vicinity, pop by and snap them up!

Did you know that if you preorder RAGWORT, @samkhorton.bsky.social 's much-anticipated sequel to his deliciously dark fantasy GORSE, you can get an exclusive pack of missing scenes from book 1? Preorder now - geni.us/ragwort - then provide your proof of purchase here: geni.us/RAGWORTPre

RIP Jane Goodall. May we all live so well. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9...

Chester is going with grey again today. It never goes out of style!

Today is the last day to get your ticket at early bird prices!