✍️It's today! We announce the winning, shortlisted and highly-commended stories in this year's HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition at 1.30pm! The best in #histfic #shortstory writing. What gems have the judges found this year? @dunnettcentral.bsky.social @bettym.bsky.social #HWADDSS25

I don't talk about writing much but I did a thing. And the judges liked it enough to long list it for the Historical Writer's Association Dorothy Dunnett short story competition. And I am pretty excited about that. #writer

Great to hear Anna Groundwater extolling Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels- and naming Anselm Adornes as a key figure connecting Scotland to Europe and beyond. DD's archive in NLS deserves much greater recognition ( and use) as a serious academic resource. manuscripts.nls.uk/repositories...

Whispering Gallery 167: first of a series on priests and prophets; a defence of Sibylla; a first-time visitor to the Dunnett Archive at the NLS describes highlights; two essays on early Renaissance history; our new image-based series on the alchemy scene in GoK; Richard in Perth; Leicester Day.

Everything terrible right now and that's a good reason to read stories about better worlds. The Redstone Rescue is available now on Audible and it lets you escape to adventure, mystery and romance, as our heroine fights to survive, defend her utopia, and find someone who appreciates her puns.

LAST CHANCE! ENDS AT MIDNIGHT! 📚Historia giveaway: All three winning books in the 2024 HWA Crown Awards. Disobedient: Elizabeth Fremantle Four Shots In the Night: Henry Hemming The Tumbling Girl: Bridget Walsh Find out more and enter: historiamag.com/historia-giveaway-2024-hwa-crowns-winners

Whispering Gallery is the most beautiful and interesting magazine. This is an offer not to be missed!

The deadline for entries has been extended so there is still time to enter the historical short story competition!

This is a lively entertaining story read with brio! Strongly recommended.

Hurry up, deadline is near for the HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition!

Entering the 2025 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition? For inspiration, look at last year's winning story, St Kilda Bird Song by KF MacCarthy, at historiamag.com/st-kilda-bir... You'll also find links to past winners like @anniehistory.bsky.social‬ and @alicefwrites.bsky.social #HWADDSS25

Gazelles and their shadows, galloping over the Namib sands. Photo by Solly Levi www.sollylevi.com #photography #nature #wildlife

Summer Dunnett Day 2025 You have one last chance to book your place for Summer Dunnett Day in Leicester. Details and booking form here: dunnettcentral.org/weekend/dunn... Booking will close at midnight, UK time, on Sunday 15 June. Looking forward to seeing those who have already booked.

#historicalfiction #histfic

I need a new car and if only a few thousand more people buy my book I'll be able to afford one!.

She had decided to come on a walk with us and her determined leaping through the long meadow grass was adorable.

I just finished re-reading Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment and many elements reminded me of Ben's great book.

If you've just finished A Drop Of Corruption and you're thinking how you'd like more fantasy detective fiction that doesn't care for kings, allow me to introduce The Redstone Rescue. It has less body horror and more jokes, but I think you'll enjoy it nonetheless. turnanother.page/book/the-red...

I've just read "The River Has Roots". It's a short book but needs to consumed slowly because the prose is gorgeous and rich and light and heavy. It's a beautiful thing and when I got to the end I cried at the beauty of how it all came together. 10/10 hard recommend. Thank you @amalelmohtar.com

#DunnettContent Dorothy's old inverview with Jenny Brown for STV disappeared from Youtube a while back but I've found it on the Wayback Machine and have put up a new page linking to it. www.dorothydunnett.co.uk/dunnett-vide...

The penguins are seriously upset about the new tariffs, but at least they have found some uplifting reading to cheer them up. #booksky

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist at Harvard Medical School, was detained at Logan Airport after returning from France and sent to an ICE detention in Louisiana, The Insider reports. A big critic of Putin and the war in Ukraine, she may now be deported to Russia.

By @mattdaviescartoon.bsky.social - not the only people linking the ancient to the current... A x

Regulars will know I poured all my story craft into an exciting fantasy detective story about protecting a utopian realm from the greed of those who would destroy it. But I'm going to keep talking about it because not everyone is a regular: turnanother.page/book/the-red...

Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women. More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications. I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that.

Today’s DOONESBURY:

#breadsky 🍜🍽️ Semolina sandwich loaf. This uses a lot of starter for flavor but also uses commercial yeast for a consistent rise. Made in the @nethertonfoundry.bsky.social covered loaf pan. Note: if I mention a product it’s because I use it and like it. I am 100% a home cook with no sponsors.

#booksky 📚💙 Finished ER Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros. Particular thanks to @jlkaufmann.bsky.social who put me on to it. 🧵 This is a 1922 high fantasy novel that is just bonkers. It’s written in vaguely Elizabethan prose that ratchets up delightfully whenever a character writes a letter.

I did think one could write a heck of a musical about James Graham marquis of Montrose and his year of miracles. Cromwell would love that. Of course Steeleye Span sort-of did, back when fifteen minute biographical songs about historical figures were an acceptable thing to write.

This is Marco Rubio explaining how the USA promised to defend Ukraine forever if they got rid of their nuclear arsenal left after the Soviet Union fell. This is why lil marco was sinking into the couch. He was hoping we wouldn’t find it…so don’t RT right now this very second.

Reminder of what wartime leaders wear when visiting the White House

Media team @libdems.org.uk - take the rest of the day off

The Dorothy Dunnett Society’s second international online lecture, on Saturday 22 February 2025 at 3 pm UK Time, will be by Domagoj Krpan (University of Rijeka, Croatia) on ‘The influence of Marko Marulic on 16th-century European intellectual life’. Zoom link is at dunnettcentral.org/archives/9233

Thank you for sharing this, I had not seen it. Three of my books are now (beautifully) published in Ukraine, with two more on the way. I am deeply honoured by that. I hope people here will read this essay.

I doubt I'll get many hourly comics drawn this year but more than zero is still a personal best. #HourlyComicsDay #HourlyComicsDay2025

Authors, if you see this, post the first line of your book! "They say the crown lies heavy on the head of the king, but in Sataminva our crown lies on a perfectly counterbalanced plate in a display case in the Hall of Voices." - The Redstone Rescue

Read it and then enjoy the rest of the book!

Just what you need in a dismal January!

Another of my favourite men in historical fiction - Francis Crawford of Lymond, the elusive and sometimes mystifying Scottish hero of the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. Marvellous books by a marvellous author. (And I adore Scotland)

Friday night and the lights are low, Time to find a book you don't know It needs adventure, some mystery, And good jokes ideally... Why am I doing this to Abba? Why am I doing this to myself? Why am I doing this to you??? Because I care, and I need you to read my book:

Near you @glenatron.bsky.social

Now that Ukraine has become very active in the Kursk region, we would like everyone that hasn't found us on BlueSky, to be aware of the latest updates. Therefore, we would like to ask you to share this post in order to reach as many people as possible. Let's aim for 75.000 followers 👍

This a terrific read!

My first novel is out in the world now! It's s fun, brisk, fantasy adventure. It has mystery and danger, humour and heart. Even having read it so many times the ending still gets me a little bit. I'm really proud of it and I reckon you would probably enjoy it: turnanother.page/book/the-red...

Had lunch at the Clink in Brixton prison today - superb food, lovely dining area, and great service, all done by the inmates, who get great training which helps them in the labour market upon release. Do spread the word, and give it a try yourself - details here: theclinkcharity.org/restaurants/...

One of my fave forgotten military Holy Orders is the Knights of St Stephen. Started as a tax dodge by Cosimo Medici, to get the Pope to pay for his navy. It backfired. They started fanboi-ing the Knights Hospitaller, got really into holy piracy in the Med, and stopped following Medici instructions

Japanese leaf art www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

‘Tis the season, so, for the 1000th time: This photo isn’t commemorating ‘all the dead horses of WW1’ … lucybetteridgedyson.com/2019/05/21/h...