Looking forward to hearing my interview and poem on BBC Upload tonight and Saturday night at 6pm with Rob Jelly. Thanks Rob!

Great new review from the lovely @raindegrey.bsky.social. Very grateful.

And, of course.. #AstonVillavBournemouth

Here we go again! 🍂 Fanzone #AstonVillavBournemouth

A poem from my collection, In the Shadow of Gods. Consider getting yourself a copy, links in post below or reviewing it. 👇

‘When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men have said, That you’ll remember.’ ~ Charles Hamilton Sorley And @racheldeering.bsky.social here for the rest of a war and peace #BookWormSat

‘To the men of both sides alike, worn out… it began equally to appear doubtful whether they should continue to slaughter one another…‘For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?…You may go and kill whom you please, but I don’t want to do so any more!’— Tolstoy, W&P for #BookWormSat 🖼️ Igor Karash

#Poetry collection: 'The Paper Over The Cracks' available now at the 'Zon. Other books are available: www.amazon.co.uk/stores/autho...

Story: Standing Around www.abctales.com/story/sean-m... Splinters, diggers, and daisies.

A poem from my collection, In the Shadow of Gods. 👇

‘(F)rom some dark recess with ghastly stare… The moping scriech-owl, fatal bird of night, Claps ominous her wings, foreboding death.’ ~ The ruins of Netley Abby, Anon, 1765. #BookWormSat

Last night's fireworks on Halloween at the sea front

Happy #Caturday A Perkins baguette

This is a piece I wrote some time ago on ABCTales.com, about the shock and grief I felt when my daughter had her first tonic clonic epileptic seizure: tinyurl.com/3sb4mv6y. 12 years later, prejudice around epilepsy still appals me. Please take a moment to read #epilepsyawareness #writing #amwriting

Another of my spooky poems for an October past. This one is Wintered Thin. 🖼️ Kittelsen ~ a Nøkken or nicor in Old English Again, originally shared on the lovely @abctales.bsky.social www.abctales.com/story/onemor...

Story: Heartbeats www.abctales.com/story/sean-m... Jesuits, washerwomen, and peeping toms too.

If you’ve been thinking about buying Saltbrun now might be the time. It’s a perfect gift! Or any other Renard title obviously! renardpress.com/books/saltbu...

A few years ago, I wrote a series of spooky poems for October. I’m going to try to add to them, but this is one of them. It’s about the case of Esther Cox. Posted, of course, on @abctales.bsky.social www.abctales.com/story/onemor...

‘Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined. Harpier cries "'Tis time, 'tis time.’ ~ Macbeth for #BookWormSat 🖼️ George Cattermole, C19th.

‘An unexpected winter in timber, spare and black.’ Regine Ebner from ‘Mountains that See in the Dark’ www.blackboughpoetry.com/regine-ebner...

#Poetryalert 'The Paper Over The Cracks'. Not for the prosaically-minded. Get yours here! www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FSCXQH4F

Book cover of the Day:

Very happy to have my story as Pick of the Day at @abctales.bsky.social Thank you 🙏

A poem from my collection, In the Shadow of Gods 👇

If you can support this then please do. We need more tales of witches in the world and Flanders has more than most to share.

This is a story of mine recently published by @darkwinterlit now also posted at @ABC_Tales "Why does it always rain in graveyards?" www.abctales.com/story/marand... A ghost story featuring Roxy Music

In the Shadow of Gods by @racheldeering.bsky.social is a book I will read and re-read again and again. Thank you Rachel.🙏❤️

October's Blog now up on the website! My cat is ecstatic to be advertising a rant about the treatment of people with mental health conditions, boots as storage, and emergency tissue supplies. To look as happy as she does, follow this link! www.janeayrie.com/blog #writing#amwriting#writingcommunity

‘The smoke's smell, too, Flowing from where a bonfire burns The dead, the waste, the dangerous, And all to sweetness turns. It is enough To smell, to crumble the dark earth, While the robin sings over again Sad songs of Autumn mirth.’ Digging, Edward Thomas.

Story: The Doom-Seeing Eyes of McGloin www.abctales.com/story/sean-m... Patterns, proportions, and the genuine article.

The witches of Flanders are everywhere. Their tales may be forgotten, their voices unheard, but they are anything but quiet. Step into the darkness and help us give a voice to Flanders' witches! 🌙 kck.st/492NqKt 🌙 #WyrdWednesday

‘How dare you, I repeat, In disregard of all decency, call me a goose?‘ ~ Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat and Other Short Stories. @racheldeering.bsky.social here for the rest of a short story #BookWormSat

‘His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.’ ~ James Joyce , The Dead. #BookWormSat 🖼️ Winter landscape, Pekka Halonen.

‘Villains!' I shrieked. 'Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! Tear up the planks! Here, here! It is the beating of his hideous heart!’ ~ Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings. #BookWormSat #Gothtober 🖼️ Rackham

Sunrise at Stonehenge today (7th October) was at 7.14am, sunset is at 6.31pm

ABCtales is a brilliant, friendly writing site. Take a look and also give them a follow. There’s a Pick of the Day from writing on the site every day - great poems and stories. @abctales.bsky.social

Inside Fanzone at Villa Park for first time. Very civilised ⚽ #AstonVillavBurnley

Resharing an old post for #BookWormSat #WorldAnimalDay #Caturday ‘Day and night, soft purr, soft pad, Pangur Bán has learned his trade. Day and night, my own hard work Solves the cruxes, makes a mark.’ Anon ~ C9th monk trans. Heaney. 🖼️ Sydney Smith

Over 160 calls for literary competitions & submissions including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, photography, & more - contests, literary journals, residencies, bursaries etc - open or with deadlines in October 2025. Please share & best of luck! www.thisiswordbox.com/wordbox-blog...

‘after its feasting it seeks its rest in a secret place within an earthen cave— there the mighty fighter for three nights’ space wends into slumber, occupied by sleep’ ~ The Panther, From The Exeter Book. #BookWormSat #Caturday 🖼️ Wellcome Collection

Happy #Caturday

‘The quick-scut, the dew-flirt, the grass-biter, the goibert, the home-late, the do-the-dirt. The starer, the wood-cat, the purblind, the furze cat…’ ~ The Names of a Hare, trans from Middle English by Heaney. #BookWormSat 🖼️ From Cocharelli Codex, c.1330, Genoa, Italy, Brit. Library, 28841, f. 6v

Story: Truth is Written www.abctales.com/story/sean-m... Psychosis, subediting, and the stars.

And a new story by me, Collateral, over on Revolution John. Tom Cruise, a Peruvian hairdresser, a New York cabbie, a snake called Otto. And plenty of murder. revolutionjohnjournal.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/s...

Sunday stroll

‘This is the night mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door.’ ~ Night Mail, W.H. Auden ~ Goodnight from #BookWormSat 🖼️ Abraham Neumann m.youtube.com/watch?v=-EZx...

‘The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, black bough.’ ~ Ezra Pound. @racheldeering.bsky.social here on the railways for #BookWormSat

‘I am never sure of time or place upon a Railroad. I can't read, I can't think, I can't sleep — I can only dream... I take it for granted I am coming from somewhere, and going somewhere else…I know nothing about myself — for anything I know, I may be coming from the Moon.’ ~ Dickens for #BookWormSat

Happy #Caturday 🎨 Zima Angela

Welcome to Saturday #Caturday Ready for some labelling