Feeling very honoured to be part of this line up! Can't wait to read everyone else's pieces. #WritersOfBlueSky #AmWriting

Piranesi shouldn't be on a shelf, it should be on a plinth in the centre of every bookshop, bathed by the glow of a warm, soft spotlight, and when you are wise enough to ask for a copy to purchase, everyone else in the shop should break into applause and offer you champagne and Malteasers

2025 reads: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. Surprisingly jolly for horror! People keep recommending T. Kingfisher to me so I'm glad to have finally got acquainted with one of her books. #BookSky #AmReading

I've technically been off on maternity leave since last March, but I seem to have spent quite a lot of time thinking about stories and books anyway. Here's a little update about how I've been keeping myself busy (feral baby aside), and the best things I read in 2024. lexicalpeaks.com/blog/materni...

Had a brilliant time at my local book club last night! We chatted about our favourite reads of 2024, which was lovely apart from now I have even more books to add to my TBR list and it is already several lifetimes long. #BookProblems

An incredible weekend out on the snowy hills of Eryri. I spent Saturday out on my skis, and then on Sunday I took my baby on a lovely sunny stroll in the hills. Today I am VERY achy but very happy!

Spectacular snowy scenes in the mountains yesterday. It's strange not heading up with skis or ice axes for a big day - but if I didn't have to do a baby-paced day, I'd have missed this wonderful view. The mountains will still be there next year!

The most effective editing move is still the one I stole from George Saunders: read your draft over and over and over again, out loud, until you have to fix the bad parts because you will literally die if you have to read them more time

In more cheerful news, I'm super proud to have a short story in Dark Mountain Project's latest anthology, Dark Ocean. (I have tried endless times to post this with a photo and BlueSky keeps refusing to post it soooo you'll just have to take my word for it!) #WritersOfBlueSky #SpecLit #AmWriting

I very rarely (never?) talk about chronic pain stuff publicly because it is just boring and miserable, but I felt a bit less alone after reading this post and the replies to it ❤️

My laptop is once again in laptop hospital, so this evening I'm re-drafting a short story by hand. I actually really enjoy re-writing like this but rarely find the time/focus/energy to do it. The slowness makes me consider every word and often takes me down paths I wouldn't have expected. #AmWriting

Probably one of my favourite ways to hang out with the baby is watching him snooze through the monitor whilst I'm enjoying a slow breakfast with a book. Turns out it is possible to love someone more than you could ever express and still be delighted that they are not awake yet.

Spending my evening reading Emily Henry's Beach Read and it is a delight. Highly recommended if bookish romances are your thing! #booksky #AmReading

Hello again! Is this where everyone's hanging out now? I'm Philippa and I like to chat about books, writing, editing, cats, mountains, and the sea. I've had a baby since I was last on here so I will probably mostly be around between the hours of 1am and 6am and in a slightly delirious state.

Lunchtime swimtime! Getting pretty chilly out there but I always feel approximately a billion times better afterwards (once I've stopped shivering).

Starting a new developmental edit for an author today, which means I get to have one of my favourite type of editing days: manuscript on tablet to read through, notebook, sofa, cat snuggles. What a dream. #AmEditing #FreelanceEditors #EditorsOfWords #EditingCommunity

Endlessly bemused by the contrast between how much of a joy it is to edit other people's stories and how much of an absolute battle it is to edit my own. #AmWriting #WritingCommunity #ShortStories #AmEditing #EditorsOfWords

Not saying I'm tired but this morning I sat down at my computer and very confidently opened up all the editing documents (manuscript, style sheet, time tracker...) for entirely the wrong book. #AmEditing #FreelanceEditors #EditorsOfWords

My husband and I are at a relative's house today so we're both working at the same dining table. I feel like I'm in school and going to get told off every time I check my phone or stare off into space for a few moments.

Silky sunrise sea swim. First one this season that's felt properly chilly! It was an absolute delight (once I'd stopped faffing around on the slipway whining about it being cold) and totally worth getting up early for. #coldwater #seaswimming

Today has been a lovely mix of big storms and big rainbows. The brightest one in the photo stretched all the way across the sky! Now it's just cold and half dark and very, very windy - perfect cosy reading weather.

Good morning, I have just discovered this thing called iced coffee, not sure if anyone else has heard of it yet but turns out it is amazing. Considerably nicer than regular coffee 😍

Well hey seven of my books have been stolen by Meta, ChatGPT etc to train their AI. That's *my work*, pirated and used without payment or permission to make more tech bro billionaires and let a bunch of lazy scammers generate 'books' for Kindle Unlimited. From the bottom of my heart, fuck you all.

Really gutted in general about The White Review closing, but the loss of their short story prize in particular will have a massive impact. Such a huge, huge shame to lose that and the Costa prize within a couple of years - both were so key for getting new short story writers started. #AmWriting

Treated myself to a few minutes reading a chapter of the updated edition of The Bone Season before starting work today. It's so much tighter than the original and despite knowing exactly what happens, I still struggled to drag myself away from it. Is there an #AmReading feed yet...?

Shocked to discover that after an excellent time away at the CIEP editing conference, today I have to actually...do some editing?? I can't just sit around chatting to editor pals all day?? Unbelievable.

Having a lovely civilised lunch stop on my way up to Glasgow for the CIEP conference. Excited to finally meet some editing pals in person! #CIEP2023

Woke up to an email from the library (😍) telling me a book I had reserved has arrived. I have absolutely no recollection of ever hearing about or reserving said book, but I had a look at the blurb and it sounds incredible. Thanks for the treat, past me!

Mine is The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I completely understand why people hate it (the last third is an absolute maze), but it also has every single one of my favourite things in it (stories! mysterious libraries! cats! underground seas!) and I quite simply could not love it more if I tried 💖

Hi Bluesky! Still figuring out how this works, but I'm excited to be here. Please enjoy this photo of my cat refusing to get up this morning.