Unsolicited writing advice, no. 16867: Follow your own enthusiasms. Don't try to follow a trend. By the time a trend has been identified, it's nearly aways over by the time you've finished the book, and publishing has moved on to the next thing.

🌷Tulips🌷

Beautiful response from Joanne Harris when asked about Magic Realism. 'Magic' is about creativity and believing you can influence the world. Because 'monsters' still exist [insert topical reference...].

Enjoyed listening to Nydia Hetherington @nydiawriter.bsky.social talking about her intriguing novel #Sycorax at @favlit.org She described her love of Shakespeare & desire to tell a much fuller story about the unseen character from The Tempest. I bought the book & can’t wait to get reading it.

My thoughts on Sycorax by @nydiawriter.bsky.social is over on instagram - a lyrical imagining of the formative years of Shakespeare’s character from The Tempest. 💙📚🔮🪐🖋️ #booksky www.instagram.com/p/DRHNp5ajLh...

Primrose, Sweet Violet, Wood Anemone (1957) Artists: Edith Hilder, Rowland Hilder

I would laugh if this wasn't so true 😭

In case we haven't been clear over the last couple of years, Writers’ HQ is absolutely not here for using generative AI to write, to create art, to do any of those most human of things. Read the newsletter? Send us your best Dune gif (we're sort of sorry about the whole Sting in eagle pants thing)

Hey, do you know why AI "writing" has em-dashes? BECAUSE IT STOLE THEM FROM US! It's been 'trained' on all of our work: we've used em-dashes, and so now the AI does too!

Today's @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange is land and sea for Of Land and Sea at @scarbsmuseums.bsky.social ⛵ We have chosen 'Purple Sea, Leigh-on-Sea' by Anthony Farrell from the collection of Epping Forest District Museum. This has us dreaming of sunnier beach days 🌅

Good morning! 🌱 A camellia to brighten this once-again grey weather. Have a fantastic day! ✨

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Forest Xiao, from Seven Babies (Walker Books), one of the 19 picturebooks on the www.klausfluggeprize.co.uk/longlist-2026/ for a new illustrator, announced today. (Nine more of the longlist have already featured in #NewIllustrationOfTheDay.) @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

What's in our free monthly members’ newsletter? News about accessible transport campaigns, events, opportunities to shape decisions, and jobs. All sent straight to your inbox. We're finalising February's issue now. Why not sign up and get involved? https://bit.ly/4n8me0m

2026 basically

🧵What is going on with Measles in England? UKHSA has reported 96 confirmed measles cases since 1 Jan 2026, concentrated in London (64% of cases) and the West Midlands (26% of cases). But what does this all mean? Is 96 a lot? Why is it happening? And what can we do about it? 1/8

'Kensington Gardens.' (c1901) Paul Maitland's pictures are modest, attentive, and closely observed. He was a flaneur, a walker of the city, alert to its passing life, scenes which are rendered with a clarity that resists the dissolving shimmer associated with French Impressionism

There is a very simple reason I have been fond of Jack Seale for many years now. He is prepared to really, really love things. One of the few people in his field who, one gets the sense, goes into watching everything *wanting* to enjoy it and does not only seem happy when panning stuff.

What’s going on with Measles in England? open.substack.com/pub/christin...

A disabled actor just being their 'normal' in Netflix Run Away. #AmbulatoryWheelchairUser The Bendy Bulletin hypermobilitymd.substack.com?utm_source=n...

We've been hiking in the Lakes for over 25 years and today was one of our very best days. Feel very lucky.

Eric Ravilious designs for his garden themed crockery service. In the Aberdeen art gallery.

Celebrating the 55th Anniversary of Tapestry at Apple Music. music.apple.com/us/album/tap...

Tramps, assemble! Got the newsletter? Come tell us about all your doings and beings, right here in this very thread.

Waving at you from the coast across the water! 😁👋

Snowy scenes in Denmark #reporting

One of the greatest love stories, a pair who were destined to meet among spilt milk and trampled lettuce...it's Arabel 7 Mortimer of course, Joan Aiken's enduring pair... Read how they first met: joanaiken.wordpress.com/2026/02/13/a...

If you sent this lovely card with payment to join The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society please could you email me at [email protected]. Nothing major, just need to confirm something. Thanks everso! Dinah ☺️✉️👍

It's friday! That means it's time for the weekly good news thread. What's your good news from the week? What's made you smile?

#author #indieauthor #amwriting #writingcommunity #authorsky

Rain, rain, blah, blah, blah. Seems like it’s been forever. I know. Would be nice to see some Winter Sun though. Like this, maybe? #ireland

To be honest, I need to move into a library.🤷‍♀️📚 #Booksky #ReadingCommunity #WritingCommunity #Bookworm

“Never grow up...always down.” – Roald Dahl writingforwellbeing.co.uk #writing #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity

#COVID19, Mast Cells, Cytokine Storm, Psychological Stress, and Neuroinflammation - Kempuraj, Selvakumar, Ahmed et al July 2020 - in which the role of mast cells in COVID-19 sequelae are recognized: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... #MCAS #EDS #HSD #MedEd #MedTwitter #doctors #NEISvoid

#Hamnet is about a plague from another time, but it resounds with audiences who lived through covid-19’s horrors, argues @thelakshmik.bsky.social#Hamnet "In Hamnet’s pathos is a shared remembrance." https://bit.ly/4ax899E

Here’s a weeknight quick turnaround 🎶parody on the UK fallout linked to #EpsteinFiles #PeterMandelson's friendship with him, and the bigger implications ... we chose song #mrsrobinson from #thegraduate about vice/virtue! youtu.be/h870VJsLk_c Link to forthcoming album at end: orcd.co/hollowchapters

Raining again. Two days in Florence in January, rain both days. Some streaks don’t break. 😮‍💨

In an amazing twist of fate, I had a visit to Painswick Rococo Garden yesterday without getting rained on. It seems to be a good snowdrop year, and we went round the garden twice, before and after a pit stop, to get full value. Have a good day! xx

Louise V Durham, stained glass and driftwood sculpture, Shoreham by Sea, UK #WomensArt

And this morning the Shed is a sunny veranda underneath a persimmon tree…

We are open, incidentally, I just had customers first thing and forgot to post the board. - Michael

Just One Look at You - Jill Mansell | Book Review | #JustOneLookAtYou @JillMansell @headlinepg @RandomTTours #Booksky www.myreadingcorner.co.uk/2026/02/just... @karendennise.bsky.social

And here's a video - Wild beaches! Cosy house! Gorgeous views! Ammonites galore! Gifts for #MaryAnning! The Cobb! Palaeontology-themed wine!

Instead of listening to the news, I watched/listened to curling. I highly encourage everyone to take this path.

Bramall Hall, Tudor manor house, undergoes major restoration work in £1.6m project. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Double rainbow seen through windscreen, driving in the rain yesterday. Alexander’s [dark] Band between two rainbows, with colours reversed

A closed road, a wrong turn and a bus lane fine. 🤯 Sometimes modern motoring deserves a spikey poem ⤵️ @eastangliabylines.co.uk

THROUGH A FOREST.#photo Francis H Powell #photoshare #trees #BlueSkyMonday