#AllIsBrightAdvent As alluded to in today’s chapter, Welsh children must scream-sing this song as loudly as possible in order to summon Father Christmas: youtu.be/Y-HN-3ckAls?... And a huge thank you to everyone who’s been reading and following along all month, I appreciate you all so much! 🎄✨💞

#AllIsBrightAdvent Part of what inspired this book was a Pride Month display I saw a couple of years ago on a visit to my teenage mooching spot, the Waterstones (formerly Ottakars) in Llandudno. Teen me could never have imagined seeing queer books front and centre like that.

In case you can’t quite place the name, this is the writer of classic Trek’s Trouble with Tribbles. Let’s help him out.

The BMA has come out swinging for the rights of all trans people in healthcare settings and beyond - both patients and healthcare providers. Genuinely brilliant news amongst the bad - please read it and share, and remember that we are NOT alone. Not by a long stretch.

[Spelled coupon wrong 4 times writing this (How?!?)] 25% off a bunch of our books from now until year end using code SBP25 smallbeerpress.com/not-a-journa... indiepubs.com/collections/...

For anyone in the US (and maybe Canada as well? Please let me know if so!), Wooing the Witch Queen is on sale for $2.99 on Amazon, Kobo, and B&N for 7 days, starting today: www.amazon.com/Wooing-Witch... www.kobo.com/us/en/search... www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wooing-the... Enjoy! :) #romancelandia

POV: You just read a book on the history of Liverpool.

It's 20 December and here in London we have 17 hours of darkness. so, as I do, I commend to you Sing For The Coming of the Longest Night, co-written by me & my bff @krfabian.bsky.social: a solstice poly romance, complete with jolly vicars, haunted theremins, & deep, sweet, weird-ancient magic. ❄️🎄🏳️‍🌈

#AllIsBrightAdvent Mali’s tattoo was partly inspired by the beautiful ink otters that Jackie Morris paints - like these ones here: www.sevenfables.co.uk/product-page...

The perfect Christmas read! 💜 After unexpectedly inheriting a house in the village where she was born, Bethan just wants to clear it out, sell up, and escape back to London before Christmas...🎄 All Is Bright by @llincathryn.bsky.social is a novella with one chapter for each day from December 1-25.

#AllIsBrightAdvent It took a while to decide what Bethan’s skill set would be and how it would help solve Mali’s problem, but I knew I wanted it to be the type of work that’s often happening behind the scenes, not necessarily super visible but essential for getting good stuff done.

#AllIsBrightAdvent I was searching for a thing Mali could be doing at work in this chapter and got sucked into a deep dive about bioacoustics, which is basically recording the sounds animals make as a way to monitor and study them: www.ibac.info/about Super interesting!

Wearable monarch butterfly wings in child size - a commission. Pattern from @twigandtale.bsky.social #sewing #sewsky

"If you won't support our sisters, we won't run your units"

Recommended! 💜 All is Bright Another beautiful romance novella from @llincathryn.bsky.social. The North Wales setting. Bethan's return to her childhood village. Revisiting her feelings about growing up, differences, acceptance are all treated with care and love. A wonderful Christmas read.

#AllIsBrightAdvent Well I fell off Bluesky for a few days so I won't try to catch up on every day I've missed, but I will say that Day 13 is my favourite day and features one specific image that came to me early on and made me want to write this whole story in the first place.

You still have time to get 50% off any Libreture subscription for 12 months. That's like 6 months of Extra storage FREE! 🎫 Use code: DOWNLOADYOUREBOOKS at the checkout. The code expires at the end of this year. ⌛

now why are you doing my boy dirty with this headline?

I am having SO much fun with this, the temptation to read ahead is huge but I'm so enjoying having a little bit to read each day!

#AllIsBrightAdvent Early versions of this story were more otter-heavy, hence the joke working title that this book had for quite a while - "An Otterly De-Light-ful Christmas". The otters got scaled back and the book's definitely not silly enough to justify it, but I still liked it! 😂

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported our Big Give #ChristmasChallenge - we've raised a record £46,819 so far! The appeal is open until midday tomorrow - every donation means more people in prison can gain qualifications and build towards a brighter future: https://bit.ly/PET-BigGive-2

This is a fabulous list, tho full disclosure I am the first thing on it, and the very last entry made me chuckle. 🖤

Just read and adored I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm by @marilock.bsky.social - so heartwarming and Christmassy without shying away from the messiness and sharp edges of life, and protagonists it’s impossible not to root for!

#AllIsBrightAdvent Bethan’s last name, Evans, is one of the top ten most common surnames in Wales, even though it has a V, which doesn’t appear in the Welsh alphabet. (There’s no J either, even though Jones is the commonest surname in Wales!)

My favourite tidbit about the Mari Lwyd will always be the folklore collection interview where some guy says "it just gave incredibly annoying people the license to be obnoxious because they were dressed as a dead horse, I'm glad World War I killed it off"

My pins have EXCELLENT working conditions thank you very much. (Let’s not talk about the overcrowding…)

Ahhh! It was so lovely to spot Wooing the Witch Queen on @libraryjournal.bsky.social 's list of the Best Books of 2025: www.libraryjournal.com/story/Editor... (& I love that they describe "a delightful supporting cast of people and crows" because the crows are IMPORTANT!) #romancelandia

I know I’ve made it as an author now that I’ve had one of these scammy ChatGPT book club emails! 🥰 I admire the attempt to neg my Amazon ranking, truly a masterpiece of psychological manipulation.

This is how I learned my book is on sale. Go buy it! 😂

#AllIsBrightAdvent The name of the nature reserve Mali visits, Dôl Bedw, means "birch meadow", and those were some of the last words I wrote - coming up with fake place names is hard, so most of them said [name of nature reserve] for quite a long time until I put them all in at the very end.

I am reading @llincathryn.bsky.social’s f/f romance novella All Is Bright as an advent calendar, one short chapter a day in December as recommended by the wonderful author. It’s a perfect warm, fuzzy bedtime ending to the day #AllIsBrightAdvent

I absolutely loved this book!

New preprint, a follow-up to my work from last year: *over 10%* of scholarly papers published in 2024 appear to have had LLM involvement arxiv.org/abs/2512.01560

For today's #AllIsBrightAdvent, a music recommendation - this song's not only part of my mental soundtrack for the book, it also has the title in it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqBX...

There's a huge site wide Audible sale on right now for US members, and you can even grab THE GLOWING LIFE OF LEEANN WU, narrated by Natalie Naudus for 51% off til 12/8. www.audible.com/pd/The-Glowi...

Really glad to see the Good Law Project jumping straight in on this, some really useful info in here.

Any trans people struggling with the news from Girl Guides and Women’s Institute… Can I send you a @polari.press book to lift your spirits? DM me and I’ll see what I can do. 💜

So the WI will be asking for all their members birth certificates or just demanding trans women out themselves (or else?) or what? This seems completely impractical. I mean and cowardly, obviously.

With Girlguides and the WI announcing that the new laws are forcing them to exclude trans girls and women, it seems like a good time for any cis women who haven't signed Not In Our Name yet to do so. Stand with our sisters. notinourname.org.uk

Last day to get a bunch of cool fantasy old & new with strong female leads on @storybundle.bsky.social storybundle.com/fantasy

SHAME on everyone who has pushed and paid for this. You are not feminists. You are not allies. You KNOWINGLY work with ultra-conservative and far right organisations. SHAME on you. Also, your daughters think you’re shitheads.

If you’re a Guide Leader you can join this public Facebook group, created to push back against the trans-exclusionary policy they’ve just adopted… 👉 www.facebook.com/share/g/16i8...

I’m so angry and sad about the Girlguiding news. I joined in part because their trans inclusion policy was so welcoming and thoughtful, and this is making me reconsider my future in the organisation. In the meantime I’ll be pushing back as hard as I can at district, regional and national level.

It's December, which means it's time for holiday romance novellas! THE SOLSTICE CABIN is a gay historical romance set in Canada's far north. Ghosts, snow magic, northern lights, and best friends to lovers with mutual pining 🎄❄️ ✨$2.99 on Amz and KU: www.amazon.com/dp/B0BN6W753D

Today’s chapter is the first appearance of an important Welsh vocab word - panad - meaning a cup of tea (or sometimes coffee). Depending on where you are in Wales, you might also say paned, dishgled or dished. #AllIsBrightAdvent

OK just read Day 1 and I'm totally charmed! Can't wait to see where this is going.

Between 1905 and 1911, the sheet music covers of Gotham-Attucks Co. — a song-publisher managed by some of the most famous Black writers and performers of the day — revolutionised how Black popular music was shown to the public: publicdomainreview.org/collection/g...

This "painting of an old lady in a chapel", from today's chapter of #AllIsBrightAdvent, is famous/ubiquitous in Wales because of: - its vivid depiction of Welsh life - the suggestion it might secretly portray the devil - a marketing campaign for Sunlight Soap: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_(...