Meanwhile, over on Book DNA, my top reads of 2025… ❤️ 📚 #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #sff bookdna.com/bboy/2025/f/...

Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'yellow' #BookQW #Booksky To try my writing without potentially committing to a series, take a look at The Cleaving, my standalone retelling of King Arthur's story from the perspective of the women involved. Published by @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social

Two great fantasy reads featured in this month's blog - The Green Man's Heir by Juliet McKenna, & Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon. 📚 #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #fantasy #fantasybooks #thegreenmansheir #julietmckenna #sorrowland #riverssolomon #SFF susiewilliamson.blog/2026/01/25/f...

Almost twenty and reliving her youth, too fast to snap while leaf-chasing on a windy day, before trotting over for second breakfast. 😻

Catching a break in the rains for the winter sculpture trail at Rosemoor Gardens. 🫶 #rosemoor #rosemoorgardens

Always a pleasure to see #returnofthemantra out in the wild, this time gracing the bookshop shelves of #liznojan 🥰 📚 #bloodgiftchronicles #magic #animism #fantasy 🍃

Highlights, reflections, colour & creations, walking into the new year with optimism & inspiration. 💫 Wishing everyone a joyful, peaceful, gift-filled and Happy New Year 2026! #bloodgiftchronicles #returnofthemantra #thewarder #magic #animism #dragons #fantasy susiewilliamson.blog/2025/12/31/h...

The to-read pile is not quite leaning, and stories are a writer’s best friend. Not to mention super-posh notebooks too smart to write in, although maybe, just maybe, 2026 will be the year. ✍️ #sff

Wishing everyone a magical festive season filled with joy and wonder. And books. And for those looking for some reading inspiration, click the link for my #SFF Book Advent 2025. susiewilliamson.blog/.../susies-s... 🎄📚🌟🐉🍃 💫

Day 24 of Book Advent 📚 Death of the Author by @nnedi.bsky.social Zelu's mother was a Yoruba princess, her father is Igbo with a PhD. She is paraplegic, flawed, sassy, hard-working, & an author, writing robots into a complex world of death, circuits, energy & what it means to be human.

Day 23 of Book Advent 📚 Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt A 17th century woman accused of witchcraft in the days of puritanical colonies, chained, eyes & mouth sewn shut, haunts the town of Black Spring. The townsfolk's responses are fascinating & chilling. Brilliant & horrifying read.

Day 22 of Book Advent 📚 Nine Bar Blues by @shereereneethomas.bsky.social Golden mermaids, curse-bound sisterhoods, poisoned landscapes & an otherworldly earth. Evocative, inventive & contemporary tales that haunt, uplift, & ascend, while moving with the rhythm of cultural change.

#WinterSolstice ❤️

Day 21 of Book Advent 📚 Binding the Cuckoo by @gabrielahouston.bsky.social In high society London, Hare must keep her mythic status secret, in this historical romantasy where fae and human collide and Eastern European folklore is brought to life. A vivid & magical tale beautifully told.

Day 20 of Book Advent 📚 Lord of Snow and Shadows by @sarahash7.bsky.social In the wintry kingdom of Azhkendir, Gavril must face his true identity, & uncover the truth of the shadow. With a vivid & fearless supporting cast, this fantasy is a masterclass. A wonderful winter read.

Day 19 of Book Advent 📚 Learning Monkey & Crocodile by Nick Wood. Collection of shorts with immersive African landscapes, vivid imagery, and a rich tapestry of imagination, folklore, dread & desire. A clear and inventive lens, astute, innovative & unique.

Day 18 of Book Advent 📚 Book of Fire by Michelle Kenney Talia & her friends navigate the ultimate rescue mission in a cataclysmic world. Feral people, hidden forests & a holy war. Lifedome is a landmark, monsters can be heroes, and fantasy, science & mythology form a perfect blend.

Day 17 of Book Advent 📚 The Four Profound Weaves by @rblemberg.bsky.social Weaves woven from wind to signify change, invisible threads woven into whispered weaves, a search for the weave of death, & a Nameless Man searching for his name amid his journey of transformation. 🏳️‍⚧️

Day 16 of Book Advent 📚 The Iron Brooch by Yvonne Hendrie 1940s London, Brigid receives a mysterious heirloom as her something old on her wedding day. Strange callings bring visions of Scotland's Doon Hill, time slips, the veil grows thin to mysterious fae, & Scotland awaits.

It’s wet out there but colourful and cosy with the latest art installation by Sarah Ryder, abstract manifestations of non-linear time, at #exeterphoenix #exeter

Day 15 of Book Advent 📚 Children of Blood & Bone by @tomiadeyemi.bsky.social The soil of Orisha once hummed with magic, but the maji were killed. Now danger lurks, snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters, as Zelie & her companions head a quest to see magic restored.

Day 14 of Book Advent 📚 Threading the Labyrinth by Tiffani Angus American Arts dealer, Toni, uncovers her inheritance in a haunted Manor House, where mysterious gardens change in twilight, revealing ghosts from the past. A rich, immersive & haunting read.

Day 13 of Book Advent 📚 The Green Man's Heir by @julietemckenna.bsky.social Contemporary fantasy rooted in ancient myth & British folklore. The son of a dryad seeks to understand his heritage while his sights are drawn to mysterious other realms. Meanwhile, there is a murder case to solve.

Day 12 of Book Advent 📚 A Natural History of Dragons by @swantower.bsky.social Lady Isabella Trent defies Victorian conventions with her love of books, natural history & dragons. From childhood obsession collecting sparklings, to a dragon-finding expedition to the mountains of Vystrana.

Day 11 of Book Advent 📚 Mexican Gothic @silviamg.bsky.social 1950s Mexico: a remote mansion, an eccentric, macabre family set a menacing scene of wealth, fading empire, & family secrets of violence and madness. Noemi fights to stand her ground, but the family's indomitable will is strong.

Day 10 of Book Advent 📚 At Night White Bracken by @garethwoodwrites.bsky.social Realities collide, dread & merriment entwine, in a world of malevolent, sinister magic. Cosmic horror blending magic with pallid reality. A horrifying, brilliantly inventive, thought-provoking tale beautifully told.

Day 9 of Book Advent 📚 An Unkindness of Ghosts by @riverssolomon.bsky.social - an extraordinary MC, flawed, self-effacing, courageous, fierce and with a huge heart. On board a space ship organised like the Antebellum south, Aster works to sow the seeds of civil war. Deeply memorable.

Day 8 of Book Advent 📚 Songspinners by @sarahash7.bsky.social Architects of an ancient Undercity lost to myth; a world of mystical reservoirs, musical telepathy, faeries & dragonflies, where music is forbidden, yet flows like water from Orial. Intricately woven, evocative and beautiful.

Day 7 of Book Advent 📚 No introductions necessary. I savoured every word... "Feminism is freedom. It's the freedom to be who you are and not who someone else wants you to be. And science fiction? Science fiction is wide open. You can go anywhere your imagination can go."

Day 6 of Book Advent 📚 The Second Bell by @gabrielahouston.bsky.social One of my all-time-fave reads. Salka was born a striga, a girl with two hearts. In a world that believes her to be a monster, she is considered a demon, abandoned into exile. But Salka is drawn to her true nature.

Day 5 of Book Advent 📚 Danged Black Thing by @genni.bsky.social, a unique & inventive collection of shorts traversing the west & Africa, bringing tales of migration, gender & class, patriarchy & womanhood, pushing boundaries of creativity & science, revenge, aliens, ancestors & beasts. #sff

Day 4 of Book Advent 📚 A Master of Djinn by @pdjeliclark.bsky.social, with a secret brotherhood, a Soudanese mystic, an assassin with powerful magic, sorcery conjured in hookah smoke, gold masks, ghouls & elemental djinn, this is a mystical tale of identity, exploitation, oppression & magic

Day 3 of Book Advent 📚 Fire Logic by @lauriejmarks.bsky.social, epic war fantasy with guerrilla warfare among the farmsteads and iron workers, with a wonderfully diverse cast reflecting the equality they are fighting for, and elemental magic and touches of fantasy bringing colour to life.

Day 2 of Book Advent 📚 The Subjugate by @amandabridgeman.bsky.social; in a watchful world humanity is complemented by AI, cities are ruled by security companies, murder is commonplace & violent criminals face extreme 'treatments'. An intriguing future dystopia tackling big questions.

Day 1 of Book Advent. 📚 Dark Matter by @michellepaver.bsky.social, deliciously creepy & atmospheric, with Jack Miller on an arctic mission where a malevolent spirit walks the icy wilderness. Lethal accidents, marauding bears, science, madness & terror. Lingering dread & fabulously haunting.

Rehoming at the grand old feline age of 19yrs, and Tiggy is enjoying her new-fashioned retirement, complete with a streak of kitty playfulness, and content in living her life in style. 😻

RETURN OF THE MANTRA is a book club read this December on Plymouth's Ferndale Community Radio. I'm looking forward to hearing what readers think of this first story in my series BLOOD GIFT CHRONICLES, & talking behind the scenes of the world, the characters, magic & mystery. #magic #dragons #fantasy

Warming up a chilly November with a little poetic nature and magic. 🍃 💫 🐉 www.facebook.com/share/v/1B7L...

All the light at Slapton Ley, where the reeds grow tall, herons keep watch, Canada geese flock, grebes and coots and mute swans swim, greenfinch sing, and a buzzard swoops, beady eyed… 🌾 #devon #writerslife

Morning Tiggy… 😻

Exeter on the move today with a positive and powerful message against hate. This is what community looks like, saying it loud and clear, REFUGEES ARE WELCOME HERE. Diversity is our strength, united in love, strong in opposition to hate. 🙌 #RefugeesWelcome #lovenothate

Exeter on the move today with a positive and powerful message against hate. This is what community looks like, saying it loud and clear, REFUGEES ARE WELCOME HERE. Diversity is our strength, united in love, strong in opposition to hate. 🙌 Stand Up To Racism Exeter #RefugeesWelcome #lovenothate

…And now my novel has landed on BookPage’s Best Fiction of the Year list. Ha! Look at her flying. ✨ 🤖🐬🇳🇬🇺🇸 Full list here: www.bookpage.com/best-books/b...

A recent read for me, Binding the Cuckoo - evocative & enchanting, sharp & filled with mystery, oozing with folklore & magic, with characters to root for, in a world reflective of modern day issues. A vivid & magical tale of love, betrayal, loyalty & survival, beautifully told.

The end of a perfectly busy and colourful week working on the first draft of a new novel, while awaiting edits on the previous instalment, & planning art for four book covers, all for the love of #bloodgiftchronicles #magic #animism #dragons #fantasybookseries #SFF #fantasy

Must be poetry night, and very happy to rhyme about a very special dryad and spirit of the hazel tree… ❤️

BOOK NEWS 🪶 COVER REVEAL 📚 WOOOOP! My new book NATURE NEEDS YOU - The Fight To Save Our Swifts Published by @eandtbooks Out 1st May 2025 Pre order hannahbournetaylor.com/books/ #NatureNeedsYou #swifts #BookNews

More from a great weekend at #worldfantasyconvention. Loved the poetry open mic, sharing my brooding, 'Gothic Chime'. So much to inspire from this world of shared stories... #fantasy

The morning after a busy weekend in Brighton for World Fantasy Convention 2025. Click the link for more: susiewilliamson.blog/2025/11/03/w... #bloodgiftchronicles #returnofthemantra #thewarder #fantasy #worldfantasyconvention2025 #fantasybookseries #magic #animism #dragons

Final day at #worldfantasyconvention Yesterday’s fantasy ecology panel was a blast. Looking forward to bringing the fantasy to reading from #bloodgiftchronicles at 12 noon. #fantasy #returnofthemantra #thewarder