Who else is pre-ordering some of the best books coming out this year? This weekend - 25% off preorders - see Waterstones.com or the app for full details. @waterstones.bsky.social I would really recommend @naomikelsey.bsky.social The Darkening Globe

You can win an advance review copy of THE BEWITCHING, out July 2025. Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie horror saga. 💀 Open worldwide. gleam.io/zUcKj/the-be...

Writer wanted to work with young writers in Spring 2025 on developing a programme of activity at Exeter Custom House for young writers aged 16-19 during the Spring Season in March/April 2025. Please share.

Unpublished writers of middle-grade and early teen fiction can enter to win £3000 and 9 months of mentoring and professional development from Hachette Children’s Group. Part of the Northern Writers’ Awards. Other prizes and awards on their site. Please share

So, it turns out that the New Year is a terrible time to launch a new series, because all the journalists and publicity people are off work... BUT WE'RE DOING IT ANYWAY! BBC You're Dead To Me, series 9, starts January 3rd. Shorter radio edits every saturday morning at 10am on BBC Radio 4

Cover reveal! My second novel, THE DARKENING GLOBE, will be out in April with Harper North! It’s a spooky, sinister story featuring explorers, a frozen river, secretive women, and murder, with cameos from Queen Elizabeth I and also a monkey: you decide which is more exciting!

Two years after its felling, the Sycamore Gap tree lives on through 49 saplings donated to causes around the country as 'Trees of Hope'. Here's where they'll be sprouting up 🌳

Giveaway! To mark Mary, Queen of Scots’ birthday yesterday, I’m giving away two signed copies of THE TOWER (your pick of the UK or US edition), addressed to whomever you like — just in time for Christmas gifting! Follow, like and re-share for a chance to win one of the copies! (1/2) #BookSky

A list of my favourite names for a horse... 10. Lana Del Neigh 9. David Hasselhoof 8. Usain Colt 7. Filly Eilish 6. Roboclop (if it’s a police horse) 5. Forrest Jump 4. Liam or Noel Galloper 3. Leon Trot-sky 2. Joseph Stallion 1. Al Capony

If you’re looking for an uplifting crime novel that merges Elizabeth Is Missing with Three Things about Elsie, I highly recommend you preorder The Margaret Code by Richard Hooton - out in April. Wry, compelling, and ever so poignant, it’s a wonderful mystery to curl up with.

'Doing a history PhD is useless and a waste of taxpayers' money' blah blah... Researching the past can yield so many treasures we have no idea we need until we actually need them.

The ✨spectacular✨ cover reveal for THE SHOW WOMAN, my debut novel about the first all-female circus act. Set in Edwardian Scotland it’s a story about unconventional women and family secrets, for fans of The Whalebone Theatre & The Greatest Showman. Available for preorder, and to request on NetGalley

'Look up, ladies and gentlemen, this woman is about to FLY' Insanely proud to reveal the cover for @emmacowing.bsky.social's The Show Woman. Four feisty, feminist, brilliant young women brought together when life and everyone around them wrote them off and cast them aside. Now watch them fly...

Running a giveaway over on the picture place - if you would like a signed copy of The Burnings and a matching T-shirt, head on over there!

I wrote a fantasy book like this but it turns out it's REAL? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We close for entries to our kids’ prize in exactly one month’s time on 1st January 2025 so do enter your work if you are writing for children! Thats only 30 days to go. www.cheshirenovelprizekids.com

Quite simply, I was! Spellbound by Georgia Leighton is a captivating retelling of Sleeping Beauty: immersive, magical, and of course, spellbinding! For all those who grew up on Robin McKinley and Stardust, who love Katherine Arden, Frances Hardinge and Joanne Harris, this book is sheer joy.

Cove Park awards residencies for writers and artists every year and you can also self fund. I’ve lusted after one of their cabins for years. Beautiful. Take a look. Please share.

Hi #BookSky 🥰 I got my first author copy of my debut novel today 🥹 look no further for the next IT girl folk horror, because you found her baby 🎀🐑🥩

Etymology of the day: before a tapering piece of hanging ice was called an ‘icicle’ it was an ‘ickle’. In the Middle Ages people decided to add ‘ice’ for extra oomph and (tautologically) called it an ‘ice ickle’, until the two words eventually blended together.

#SimmondsWritingTips Today I'm going to talk about mental health and how to cope with the ridiculousness of working in the arts. Writing (like any creative field) is not a meritocracy, it's subjective, which means success isn't a result of talent or hard work. So how do you navigate that?

You know what would **really** disrupt the publishing industry? Fair contracts and decent pay for authors. No AI training without the creator’s consent. Artists and translators on the cover. No NDAs for ghostwriters.

Stop👏🏾giving👏🏾children👏🏾enchanted👏🏾swords👏🏾and👏🏾perilous👏🏾 quests👏🏾

Every now and then I think about how useful it would be, as a medievalist, if google maps had a “by horse” option

Next year, Murder Squad will be 25 years old. To celebrate this friendship, we’re running a short story competition. There will be prizes and the chance to join us at our birthday party. Details here: murdersquad.co.uk Please spread the word.

I think the people behind Spines AI publishing are spineless cowards who don’t care about books, don’t care about art, don’t care about the instinctive human talent it takes to write, edit and produce a book. They want the magic, quick and cheap and without the work. They are snake oil salesmen.

Thought I'd do a thread on writing tips that I might add to from time to time... 1) I've cited this one before on the other place... A description of a person or a place should tell you as much about the person doing the describing as the person or place being described. Examples below.

If you crossed The Miniaturist with Promising Young Woman, you’d get The House of Barbary by Isabelle Schuler - a blazing feminist roar of a novel set in C17th Bern. Twists abound in this gripping tale: it’s a thrilling, visceral, complex follow-up to the very brilliant Lady Macbethad.

This incredible inking that hangs in my office is by @landisblair.bsky.social! He's one of my favorite artists on #bluesky - a modern-day Edward Gorey. Give him a follow. You won't be disappointed. 💀

🚨Release week🚨 This Thursday, we release The Wicked of the Earth by the wonderful @adberginwriter.bsky.social A powerful book about the corruption behind the biggest British witch trial, this tense and absorbing historical fiction novel is not to be missed! www.northodox.co.uk/product-page...

Such an insightful thread!

Shakespeare for the 21st century... 7. “To even, or can’t even, that is the question” 6. “All that glisters is not goals” 5. “Out, dammed Spotify!” 4. “As You, like, Like It” 3. “Romeo, Romeo, WTF Romeo?!” 2. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your earbuds” 1. “Alas, poor Yorick. He got ratio'd”

Bad luck or good luck? Violet Jessop survived the RMS Olympic after it crashed in 1911; and she survived the sinking of RMS Titanic a year later. During WWI, she was a nurse on the hospital ship HMHS Britannic when it hit a naval mine. She helped patients evacuate before abandoning ship herself.

This is a GORGEOUS book, inside and out!

To celebrate 2,000 BlueSky followers, I'm going to do a little giveaway. Repost and follow and I'll pick one lucky person at random to win a 12-month Gift Subscription at Bert's Books worth OVER £100. You have until noon on Sunday 17th November

Making new friends as a grown up is HARD, and this app seems lovely but I am still pathetic at these things and therefore snuggling up to Mog and the hungriest of tigers.

A message for anybody else trying to write today…

On the 1st of January, the #Curae prize for writer-carers opens for a second time. The demise of twitter is making it harder to get the word out, so do share! thecuraeprize.uk There are around 7 million unpaid carers in the UK alone & Curae shines a light on the role & much more. #carers #writing

Many commentators say that vigilante groups are never the answer. But they clearly don't know about the masked Ecuadorian trio named “Acción Ortográfica Quito,” who roam the streets at night with a singular purpose: to correct all the spelling and grammar mistakes they find in graffiti.