I'm pleased to add these authors (and a few of their credits) to the Highly-Rated Authors page on the Literary Retweet website. @allangaw.bsky.social @fionawriter.bsky.social @therealjackfinn.bsky.social @timwalker1666.bsky.social @helengrantsays.bsky.social www.literaryretweet.com/highly-rated...

Pre-order Luna Novella 2026! In This City, Where it rains by @lyndseycroal.bsky.social In an alternative Edinburgh, Maggie is haunted by ghosts that only appear in the rain - and it always rains in this city. ☔︎ www.lunapresspublishing.com/lunanovella

Daughter and I are both reading WAR AND PEACE one chapter a day all year. 17 days in and we are both worrying about Pierre.

Hotel California? You can check out anytime but you can never leave?

I have ordered this intriguing volume from @paulfinchauthor.bsky.social - love me a bit of Gothic! www.tgjonesonline.co.uk/Product/Paul...

My OH did the Strathpuffer 24 hour mountain bike event at the weekend. 24 hours of riding a steep circuit with ice, snow and big gnarly rocks. Happy to say he survived.

Went into a second hand bookshop in the Highlands today and found this:

Just a wee reminder that this is available, with a truly gorgeous cover by @johncoulthart.com! Eldritch tales set in Scotland, Flanders, Paris and a secret location somewhere hot and sandy... swanriverpress.ie/srp-title/at...

US readers there’s 70% off #BeyondandWithinFolkHorror at ToyGameHub right now - link below: www.toygamehub.com/products/bey...

Aberfoyle in Scotland is the setting for Helen Grant’s new tale of visionary horror for Tales of Occult Britain. This is the grave of the Reverend Robert Kirk, whose spirit is said to be trapped in Faerie for daring to reveal their secrets. 👉🏼 helleborezine.com 📸: @helengrantsays.bsky.social

My #childhoodcinema was the Embassy in Chesham. I saw Star Wars (1977) there. cinematreasures.org/theaters/44377

Unsinn in Burgsinn www.tagesanzeiger.ch/burgsinn-50-...

Ah, life in rural Scotland. I am on a FB group entirely dedicated to discussing whether the local roads are passable in the current snow, ice, sleet, rain, lightning strikes, acts of God etc.

In other news, this evening the dog's sworn enemies, Those Two Little Dogs From Down The Road, walked by. They saw the dog at the same moment she saw them, and honestly the three of them were like kites on the end of their leads, practically taking off with fury.

We have bought the cat a timed feeder for when we are away for the night. I have been trying it out, because I wouldn't want to trial it when we were actually away, in case it didn't work (it does work). The dog has been going bananas at it. She knows there is food inside but she can't get at it...

I hope the objections are successful. I know the site in question and the proposed work would ruin an area of great natural beauty. www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-n...

Whenever I am cuddling the dog, the cat looks at her like the Puritan bloke is looking at the Cavalier in this pic. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wou...

Just watched HOUSE OF WAX starring Vincent Price

Well, I'm finally onto that short story I was going to write. Doug has had his hour in the pub and now he's walking off down the glen to his inevitable doom.

Reading WAR AND PEACE one chapter a day all year. It's extremely entertaining so far, but I am still having to think quite hard about who's who! No doubt this will get easier.

Very pleased to see several of my stories on the recommended list in @datlow.bsky.social's Best Horror of the Year 17 - also tales by Steve Duffy, @unheimlichmanvr.bsky.social and Sean Hogan, and... well, loads of amazing stories here, folks! ellendatlow.com/category/new...

Daughter has had a horrid few days driving to and from work in the ice and snow, so this morning she had a long lie in and at 9:30 I took her a cup of hot chocolate, in the manner of Dorian Gray's valet.

If I were driving about the snowy lanes right now instead of shivering over a cup of tea, I'd be listening to this. I love this song. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHcf...

The day began with clearing up cat sick. Then I put two teacakes in the toaster and a fuse tripped.

OH took son and niece out winter hillwalking today. He and I like to think we are, ahem, mature and wise, but I suspect it was a bit like Gandalf taking hobbits about.

Went to bed at 00:30 and woke up at 06:30, half an hour later than normal. 🙄

Apparently it's still New Year's Eve in American Samoa right now so if anyone fancies a Prosecco with their breakfast, go right ahead

The dog has gone to bed. She is just too exhausted to stay up for the Bells.

OH is back from the call out, looking thrilled to have been out on Hogmanay. He is now eating a prodigious plate of parmigiana.

Parmigiana and The Masque of the Red Death 📽️❤️

It's so effing cold out that we decided to stay in and I am cooking aubergine parmigiana, which everyone loves. However, OH has just been called out... 😱

Made me think of Dunwich... www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Another cooking marathon tonight. It's Hogmanay and we were debating on going out for the bells, but it's so COLD and the dog won't like that. So I'm doing aubergine parmigiana by request of my daughter. I am getting to the outer of limits of being-arsed-to-cook so we are having Aldi pies for lunch.

In other news, LinkedIn has just suggested a copywriting job which is for "AI training" and it can f*** off into the sun as regards that.

Someone was asking, either on here or somewhere else, I forget, about people's proudest achievements of 2025. I think one of mine was making a Christmas cake for my old Dad (something I had never done before Mum died) and then going on a Mighty Quest™ to deliver it to him in the south of England.

I was agreeing with the lady in the vet's that Christmas is a lot of work! Great fun, and lovely, but a lot of work.

Took the tiny doggo to the vet to have her claws clipped. She went bananas as usual. After three of us had managed to gently restrain her enough to clip them, she struggled free, went straight for the pot in which I had brought bits of cheese as a bribe, and wolfed the lot in a fury.

Reflecting on all the disgustingly cold places the dog and I could go for a walk after lunch. 😱

Sis and I were discussing the Ghost Story for Christmas and then we moved on to ghost story writers. I recommended LTC Rolt's collection "Sleep No More" - and it turns out she has an unread copy that I gave her ages ago!! A treat in store there then.

I'm not gonna do a great long retrospective on 2025's reading, because that's not my thing, but: Wildest ride of 2025: Moby Dick Glorious gem: Beowulf I wish I'd read both of those earlier.

Decisions, decisions...

I opened my wardrobe to put a jigsaw on the shelf and saw the beautiful green ruffled shirt I bought for Christmas still hanging there, unworn. So much hosting that I forgot all about it. 😭

Watching THE WOMAN IN BLACK (1989) 😱👻⚰️

Told son and his GF "we ride at dawn" and it's now 09.24 and they're not ready 🙄

I am about halfway through The Vourdalak on Channel 4 film (had to stop as it was dinner time) and not entirely sure what to make of it. The puppet was a bold choice. However the whole thing looks as if it was filmed in the ordinary countryside on a rather dull day.

Well, well. Everyone else is going out! So I may prepare tonight's dinner in advance and listen to some more ghost stories, probably MRJ ones read by Robert Powell, who is, one must say, rather charmant.

The young 'uns have sat down with a jigsaw and the intention of watching all the LOTR films.

Christmas dinner cooked, served, eaten and mostly cleared up. Last night we had French Canadian Christmas dinner for a guest, so by 1pm today I was getting a bit Julian Slowik.

A small sherry and a Ghost Story for Christmas 🌲❤️

I really like cooking, especially trying out new recipes, but I must say the festive season must be grim for anyone who hates it. I reckon I spent a good proportion of yesterday in the kitchen and I probably shall today too!