Lots of mead today celebrating Yule with friends and family. Blessings to everyone xx

Back from two days in York with my best friend. Fabulous time. Already planning next year's trip! Just wish I could take the dog. He looks so sad when mama leaves him behind.

My friend is taking me out to dinner! YUM

Seeing my oldest bestest friend for dinner this week. York dungeon and then an eight course tasting menu. So much fun and I reckon I deserve it after writing seven novels this year!

He's going to be apopleptic when he discovers verbs, adverbs and adjectives...

@mrjamesob.bsky.social ChatGPT and I voted you the best person to represent the earth if aliens ever turn up!

Next few years are taken up with writing novels to pay off my mortgage and bring retirement down to 60. But the long term goal is doing my PHD in retirement. Only specific topic and only only one proposed thesis - it's that or nothing. Had a look at the reading requirements today. #Bloodylong

Major row with my editor this morning. I'm releasing my historicals next year under a separate pen name to my modern dark romance and she wants at least two of them watered down. It's so annoying!

Broke the top 5000 in the Kindle store. Not bad out of millions of books.

There will be a short pause in painting and writing while I binge all three series of 'Harlots' on Netflix.

Bit more work on the water and I'm changing the shape of the tree again. Did some layering on the building to improve the quality of the light. Enjoying this painting a lot.

Hit half a million pages read on KU. Not bad for year 1 of my series. (This doesn't include sales).

People were warned about #Brexit. They were told it would impact the country financially. They still voted for Brexit. Now prices are sky high and everyone is worse off... We told them this would happen. But they'd rather blame refugees than admit they were wrong. Idiots.

Progress on the tree but I've changed the shape of it so will need more layers. Darkened the sky and added some detail to the water. Time for some of the finer details on the next session. #art #landscape #oilpainting

Next stage of Carlingford Castle. It's coming together but the wall, the foliage and the water all need a lot more work. #oilpainting #landscapepainting #art

Husband (who was at a whisky tasting event all afternoon so can't drive) realised he had run out of cheese the very second I poured myself a glass of wine. He was like 'you've literally only had one sip, you're safe to drive.' NOPE NOT EVEN AFTER ONE SIP! He can make do without cheese!

Got the foliage darks in now and the tree is taking shape. Will have another few layers building up the light levels. Next I want to darken the water at the bottom so it changes the vantage point to be more looking out across the water.

TikTok is a weird platform. It seems to move faster than everything else! My favourite platform to use these days is Tumblr but it doesn't get the traction Tik Tok and You Tube do so I use those for promo. I do feel I might be the wrong side of 45 for tik tok though! 🤣

Spending the day writing with my Morricone playlist on in the background. #Bliss

Latest poll puts Greens just two points behind Labour. When I said we weren't here to be disappointed in Labour but to replace them, I meant it. Join us and let's make hope normal again. join.greenparty.org.uk

Up till midnight designing new book covers. That should mean early night and wine. But it won't. Life's one long marketing journey these days.

Quite an early rendition of Hardwick Hall. I loved painting the flowers and the reflection on the building windows but I felt the bottom diagonal third of the pictire could have been used better. I should have tweaked the path too to lead into the house grounds. #landscapepainting #oilpainting

Supposed to be writing torrid romance but I keep watching videos of cats on pool tables! Really addictive. youtu.be/cbMHIxGx3eo

I think what social media showed us is the root cause of the problems in our society. And it isn't racial, gender, class or cultural divides. It isn't left v right. It isn't Jews, Muslims or Christians. We're destroying our home, our history and each other. We're the problem. Humans.

I’m not Palestinian. I’m not Israeli. I’m not from Manchester. But I am human. And being human means my heart breaks when innocent people are killed no matter where, no matter who. Grief isn’t political. Compassion doesn’t need a side. If you still have empathy, hold onto it.

🙏 💚

Supposed to be writing but I'm actually procrastinating by getting AI to make images of the surface of different planets. Pretty amazing.

Writing novels is a bit like painting the Forth bridge. You finish book 7 then realise book 1 isn't as good. So you go back to book 1 and make it better.... It's going to be a long Winter!

My dog is one of the cleverest three dog breeds in the world. I've just had to explain to him why he can't eat a hair bobble... #dogsofbluesky

If someone had told me a few years ago that the social media platform I'd use most in 2025 would be Tik Tok I'd have thought they were barking. But I've met some really interesting people on there and it's great for promoting my books!

Unusually nice afternoon for mid September. I've spent most of the afternoon writing with the window open. Dog keeps giving me pointed looks. He thinks the autumn sunshine warrants a fourth walk* *It doesn't

#Bluesky has been bad enough the last two days. I don't even check Twitter any more. I can only imagine what a cesspit it's been with one bunch of idiots celebrating a murder and another bunch of idiots yelling about civil war. The only way to stay sane in today's world is to stay off the internet.

The only way to calm the inflammatory rhetoric that had led once again to a fatal shooting is to stop the divisive tribal talk of "left and right" and start talking about human values. We are dividing ourselves with the polarity of our language. It's driving countries apart.

The murder of Charlie Kirk was criminal, wrong, and should be condemned. And Charlie Kirk was a horrible, hateful man who spent his life radicalizing young people to embrace their worst demons by targeting women, people of color, immigrants, and the marginalized. I refuse to sanitize him.

As I have long suspected, it's mostly racists putting up flags, painting roundabouts and screaming at hotels. The ones who aren't racists are probably just cunts.

Could we please stop pretending that the flags being hung from streetlamps or painted on roundabouts are innocent expressions of patriotic pride? This is the far right marking out its territory. It uses these flags to intimidate its traditional victims and opponents. 🧵1/3

My boss outed me as a dark romance author in a work meeting today. All my colleagues immediately started buying my books. I'm going to be blushing like mad next time I see any of them! Good sales day though, lol.

Found a few spare minutes to do a bit of work on this. Got the tree skeleton in and startd on the water layers. I wish I had more time to paint because this is really going well. Alas, there's only so many hours in the day and I have a very demanding German Shepherd dog...

Just finished writing my fifth novel of the year. I've barely stopped to breathe since February but it's been amazing to get my series out there and engage with readers. Saved money too being an artist, I've done all my own book covers!

Worked on the sky and background mountains today and put a bit of texture in the water. Not sure I like the water though, it's too abstract for the rest of the piece. Sorted my walls out a bit too. Not even halfway through yet though. #art #landscapepainting #oilpainting

Hit quarter of a million pages read for the month. Working round the clock is really paying off. I'll treat myself to doing some painting to celebrate!

Old Soviet joke for today: A man walks into a newsstand every day, looks around, and leaves. After a long time of this, the owner says “Can I help you find something?” “I’m looking for the obituaries.” “The obituaries are in the back of the newspaper, comrade.” “Not the one I’m looking for.”

Worked on the sky and put the bones of the tree in. Going to sort out the walls and put another layer on the water in the next sitting. I'm enjoying this one. It's a very relaxing paint. #art #oilpainting #landscape

Not sure if this is working. Going to take more sessions. A lot of the lines are very black and inky and its hard to tell what it will look like softened and weathered. Kind of wish I'd done a different angle too... Time will tell. It might come together, it might not. #art #landscape #oilpainting

I've been pretty anti flag recently. But I may have changed my mind this morning...

Bit more work on the castle and the mountains in the back. Hoping to get the sky finished next week. #art #landscapeart #oilpainting

Found a local dog swimming pool. Tempted to take The Beast...

Even Grok hates Donald Trump

Sunday dinner and wine in the garden then back to writing. #PeacefulDays

You know you're getting old when you plan a trip to Alton Towers and the first thing you think is how much you'd enjoy the gardens at this time of year!