Our thanks to our stellar lineup of January #authors: Mark Jacobs, @ruthabrandt.bsky.social Tim Pears, Patricia Fuentes Burns, @kerryhp.bsky.social @emilyrinkema.bsky.social Lindsay Hill and @gillistories.bsky.social. We'll be sharing these #shortstories again over the next few days

#amwriting #shortstories

Really happy to have my #vspritchettshortstoryprize shortlisted story find a home with @fictivedream.bsky.social Hope you like it. #shortstories #antihero and a big thanks to Julia Armfield for championing it.. (also - bad language alert.. sorry, that's Knipe for you)

Really looking forward to it @fictivedream.bsky.social #shortstories #antihero

Now begins the Long Dark. Running through it, tales strung out like a chain of lights, stories strange enough to make the bear stir in his slumber and the children gasp; while the goblin twists his beard around his knuckles as he dreams of perilous caves, and the mortal chill of gold.

And so, as the eve of Christmas draws near, old friends gather again, Baba Yaga, old Nikolai with stooped back and open sack, the swan princess. Here at last comes the tailor, arm in arm with the gnome, and the matryoshkas, giggling and blushing as they crowd towards the light of the Tree.

Humanities research matters - ‘soft’ degrees matter…

Also - just discovered that @bbciplayer.bsky.social is showing the marvellous magical Box Of Delights from 1984 - one of the library books (with The Midnight Folk) that forever taught me to look for the magic - off to binge the series 🥳😂 #childrensbooks #magic

I’ve cracked - stove lit, door barred and I’m pulling together my notes on novel 2, starring a fake medium, a timeslip baddie and an aged Greenham Common activist with a serious attitude problem - what else is there to do with my wild and precious life? (Also it’s blowing a hooley outside 😅)

Wow.

"Books coverage now rises or falls in the slipstream of social media. The basic imperatives of the review—analysis and evaluation—are being abandoned in favor of a nodding routine of recommendation." #MakesYouThink #Bookish #Publishing #LiteraryCriticism harpers.org/archive/2019...

(Basically, what we're saying is, please buy books. Which is what we always say. But now especially. Thank you!!)

Final hours of a massive 85k edit. There may be whisky in that glass. Long live tales that hug the liminal - religions, folklore, superstition - stories we tell ourselves in order to feel safe when the lights go out. This story - who knows. #ancestors #preseli #debut #books #amwriting #tylwythteg

This is fascinating:

Please say hello! - when I was small I’d sit on the darkened stairs at night listening to raised voices in the kitchen. Now I write stories as slim as the yellow light under that door - the gap between what we know, and what we believe in, is where magic lies. Mid-edit on first novel #writer