The Twisted Road - concepts During the concept stage of @simonkewin.co.uk's cover art, having settled on a Möbius strip-shaped space station, I produced several rough sketches for composition and different iterations for a station design that defies the laws of construction.

Sometimes you just need to keep your eyes open if you need ideas for a fantasy yarn. This is the “Doomstone” in the crypt of York Minster. It depicts a cauldron and three mouths of hell into which the souls of the damned are being pushed and tortured by fearsome demons.

Unveiling the cover for The Twisted Road, book 1 in my new Möbius Sequence #scifi series. It's a thing of beauty! Cover art by @thelightdreams.bsky.social. Published by @elsewhen.press in paperback and ebook, 27th March 2026. Find out more at elsewhen.press/index.php/ca... #CoverReveal #booksky

Four days until the cover reveal for my new sci/fi novel. I need to get on with the pages on my web site; a coming soon placeholder doesn’t really cut it. simonkewin.co.uk/the-mobius-s...

Quite a well known magazine rejects a story because they didn't like something that very specifically didn't even happen in the story.

Looking forward to the Superb Owl tonight. Alas no New York Giants, but Bad Bunny should be fun. A reminder that the USA is not all madness, lies and cruelty. Go Seahawks.

Absolutely delighted to see First Light reviewed in the latest issue of Odyssey, the magazine for members of the British Interplanetary Society - I couldn't ask to reach a more perfect audience!

It's time to give you a look at our 2026 live event line up. We can't wait to bring you a fantastic day of talks, book signings and writing chat. Our 2026 event is free to attend and is designed for indie authors and book fans #AuthorEvents #Shrewsbury #IndieAuthors #IndieBooks

Wordle 1,693 6/6* ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨 ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 My 1000th Wordle. Phew.

Streets that sound like they belong in a book #17.

To Oxford to complete my #parkrun alphabet. The fantasy lover in me enjoyed running past the Tolkien bench.

It’ll soon by time for the Winter Olympics to start, and I can commence my quadrennial infatuation with the sport of curling.

The snowdrops are coming up in our local churchyard. As the man said, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

The importance of good spelling. From the menu of a restaurant I went to today. I didn’t do as they asked.

Got my first cover art concepts for The Twisted Road from @thelightdreams.bsky.social. Really wonderful. I felt quite emotional seeing this book and setting that's been in my head all this time rendered as an actual book cover in the real world. #scifi #booksky

My upcoming #scifi book The Twisted Road, to be published by @elsewhen.press, is going to have original cover art created by the awesome @thelightdreams.bsky.social. Very cool!

This week we want to know what you look for at events. This will help us shape our upcoming live and online events, so your answers will be helping us support indie authors better and more effectively #IndieAuthor #IndieBooks #AuthorLife #WritersCommunity #WritingCommunity #WritingLife #BookSky

The #scifi novel I’m working on has just reached 90,000 words. With another six chapters to go, it might end up as the longest novel I’ve written. Lots of editing and redrafting to do though… #booksky

Editing a large piece of text for someone. It confirms my “Conservation of commas” theory: people get the overall number of commas about right, but they generally don’t put them in the right places.

If you're a #writer, you'll find my W.R.I.T.E. interviews with @timhardieauthor.bsky.social @hollytinsl3y.bsky.social @simonkewin.co.uk & @derek-power-author.bsky.social worth reading. Full of insights into the authoring & publishing process. www.philparker-fantasywriter.com/blog #indieauthors

The fantasy short story I played around with over Christmas “for fun” came out at a shade under 10,000 words. A story combining magic and high art. Also terrible brutality and war.

Happy solstice day, wherever you are in the world.

F @frasierarmitage.bsky.social U @undyrk.bsky.social N @nicksnapeauthor.bsky.social to all you wonderful people! 🎄💞 (All worth following too!)

#Writingcommunity My next interview is with prolific speculative fiction author @simonkewin.co.uk We talk inspirations, routines and switching genres. With 100 short stories plus a bunch of novels, how does he do it?? www.philparker-fantasywriter.com/post/w-r-i-t... #booksky #authorsky

Just sending out my December newsletter. Look, I did a Christmas version of my header graphic! simonkewin.co.uk/newsletter/

Coming soon! My next interrogation - oops, that should read interview (using my contrived acronym W.R.I.T.E.) is with the authoring machine that is @simonkewin.co.uk - he of the hundred short stories, science fiction AND fantasy novels. How does he do it? Find out later this week! #booksky

I sat down to work on my #scifi novel today, and my fingers typed 1000 words of a new #fantasy short story. I let them get on with it as they seemed to know what they were doing.

Calling British short science-fiction writers who have had stories published this year - window closing soon for Best of British Science Fiction 2025. Get your story in under the door!

l’ve used several AIs in the writing of my current #scifi WIP. All entirely fictitious, though, their “output” lovingly crafted by a real human (me) as part of the story text. In my own small way I like to think I’m taking away jobs from AIs.

Enjoyed Wicked: For Good. Sumptuous. Felt longer than the 1st one, even though it’s shorter. Occasional creaking sound from the plot as the writers squared the Wicked story with the canonical film, but it mostly worked. Hard not to see Oz as a metaphor for Trump with his lies and cruelty?

Happy #DrWhoDay.

Today is the day! The long-awaited Mennik Thorn prequel novella, The Dead Man, is out now. I promised this to readers quite a long time ago. It works well either as an introduction to the series or for those who've read the other books, so no excuses! Go get it. :) books2read.com/thedeadman

Is it just me or is Severance incredibly slow and tedious?

when you support an independent artist's work you're also giving a faerie, witch or eldritch being more ancient power to fight fascism

Glorious walk in the autumn colour today. There was mud, though, oh yes.

I prefer to save talking till I know what I’m talking about.

Just had a spam email from “the illuminati world elite empire” asking me to join. It’s a little bit tempting, I’m not going to lie.

Oh, yeah, I should have mentioned - I published a collection of my poetry, including basically all the poems I've written/had published over the past 30 years or so. It's called salt water. #Poetry, #Poets #PoetryCommunity simonkewin.co.uk/book/saltwat...

WATCH NOW: 'Only Rich People Write Books, Right?' discusses the myths and realities of covering the costs of publishing, with budgeting advice for indie authors from @simonkewin.co.uk, @llmacrae.bsky.social and @timhardieauthor.bsky.social #writingcommunity #authorevents youtu.be/TPklgIoevgw

The Indie Writer's Voice is a FREE online magazine FOR writers written BY writers of #speculative fiction. There's advice about editing & marketing, #indieauthor experiences, short stories and book reviews + new releases. #booksky #writingcommunity www.philparker-fantasywriter.com/creativecomm...

I’m all excited because Kraftwerk are touring the UK next year.

WATCH NOW: Realm Raiders: The Complete Project is up now! Find out more about the collaborative writing project - how it came together and what the highlights were. With @philspeculates.bsky.social, @patricksamphire.bsky.social, @fantasticphil.bsky.social and @simonkewin.co.uk. youtu.be/X5h-87CT0Xc

Wordle 1,562 6/6* ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Tricky Wordle today.

Big Indie Weekend Panel: It can be hard to know where to start when it comes to the cost of indie publishing. @timhardieauthor.bsky.social, @llmacrae.bsky.social and @simonkewin.co.uk join Alex to talk practical ways to budget and keep your publishing costs manageable. #writingcommunity

A photo I took for my latest newsletter. These are the church doors at Stow-on-the-Wold, believed to be Tolkien’s inspiration for the Doors of Durin. It turned out they were quite easy to open. Didn’t have to fiddle around with riddles or anything.

Words Amazon thinks are spelled incorrectly in this new book I'm publishing: thicketing, cathedralling, pluralled, mayflys and kewin. Pretty sure I knew how to spell all those words, especially my own surname.

It’s funny, you think you got your novel perfect, and then you get the edits back from your editor… All good though. I enjoy the polishing process. An even better book will emerge. #amediting #scifi #booktok @elsewhen.press

Big Indie Weekend Panel: REALM RAIDERS. From initial idea to epic endings, the team behind Realm Raiders share the experience of collaborating on a writing project. Warning, there will be spoilers! With @simonkewin.co.uk, @patricksamphire.bsky.social, @philspeculates.bsky.social and Rachel V. Green.