Greenwich is incredible!

Had a great time last night at the Local Authors Showcase at the Play On Words Festival📕 A fantastic initiative and a great community feel of creative people. Also so pleased to find Leeward at Waterstones Lymington amongst some lovely company including Hornblower ⚓🌈

From today, I'm officially on submission! 🌈⚓👻

DOUBLE WINNER!!! To say I'm shocked and so grateful is an understatement! I have notoriously bad luck with awards so to win the Fiction category and Book of the Year at the Isle of Wight Book Awards 2025 is amazing 😭😭😭😭🥰 I'm so appreciative to the judges ❤️

Today is A Merciful Sea's paperback release day! There are a lot of mixed emotions today - excitement, sadness, gratitude... Mostly I am so appreciative of all the people who have supported this trilogy and given it a chance 🥰

Press ganging my assistant into service to show off the paperback edition of A Merciful Sea!! The paperback is out on October 2, a week from today! 🌊🌈 It's amazing to see AMS in paperback, she looks gorgeous 😭😭😭 (Also representing my Leeward jumper 🤣)

My author copies of the paperback of A Merciful Sea are on their way!! 🌊🌈⚓

I'm starting a new series on Substack exploring the true history of the Nightingale and Courtney series! We begin with the Battle of the Nile, the extraordinary event which kicks off Leeward and haunts Captain Nightingale throughout the book. open.substack.com/pub/kdayshau...

Now my manuscript is complete, I have to do the worst part: the dreaded synopsis!! 😭

Always a strange feeling to send your manuscript off to your agent! It's hard to emphasise how intense and all-consuming this story has been. There were many times I wanted to abandon it all but it's finally done 😭😭

Really excited to be talking at the Book Lovers' Lunch on Oct 22 at the Play on Words Festival this year! I'll be chatting about my books and writing and joining people for a lovely lunch 😋🍴 Tickets are available here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-lover...

My thoughts towards this manuscript atm fluctuate between 'Nothing is unsalvageable' and 'This is the worst thing ever written' 😂 I cannot wait until it is done 😅

Trying to channel the love I still have for Leeward as I struggle through my current (nightmarish) manuscript 😅😂

Suddenly, she did not stand on the Amalthea, but far away on the threshold of some white space with unseen eyes watching her. #WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

Another bright flash and the terrible form of that ship flickered again, right off their starboard bow, lurching down the hills of towering waters. In the darkness, it appeared to be flying, and Hawthorne could see all its sails set on the ghostly masts, torn to ribbons like broken wings. #WIPSNIPS

If there is one thing you can be assured of in my writing, it's a shipwreck. In naval fiction, there is nothing better to describe 🌊

I'm sure my Feathers McGraw has a mind of his own 🤣 Every time I sit down at my computer in the mornings, he's turned to look another direction 🤣🤣

Living on the Isle of Wight always feels like you've got to be a millionaire to travel anywhere on the mainland 😅 Trains are already expensive, then I've got to pay a billion more on the ferries 🙃🙃🙃

He seemed to be looking at something far beyond the boat. A dark place, a rotten banquet, and a dead man at the head of the table. That was what he had said to Frances. His terrors had stepped out of the night and become real. #WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

The reminder of home gave him no comfort. He looked again at the watercolour sketch and for a moment, felt the flowers beneath his fingers. He feared he would never touch them again. #WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #WritingPrompts

🍒 A not so brief post about why I love Apsley Cherry-Garrard and why you should love him too🍒 substack.com/@kdayshautho...

How I periodically feel while writing 😱😂

This is who runs this account.

Reached Part 3 of my WIP, the final part!!! (I accidentally wrote Part 43, and that is definitely how it's felt 😂 It's been a humbling experience re-reading this, and has been a devil to edit and rewrite haha)

If you fancy reading about my thoughts on queer rep in historical fiction (specifically historical naval fiction!), come read my latest Substack post 🏳️‍🌈⚓🌊 open.substack.com/pub/kdayshau...

Pleased to say that A MERCIFUL SEA is in Waterstones' pre-order sale! Just use the code SUMMER25 when ordering 😍 The paperback is due out on 2 October 🌊🏳️‍🌈

I'm officially moving over from the bird app! Currently following as many people as I can here haha. Here are my babies, the queer Age of Sail Nightingale/Courtney series ⚓🌊🏳️‍🌈

Hey everyone! I'm Katie, and I write queer historical fiction set on the sea 🌊⚓ I'm the author of the Nightingale/Courtney series with the first two books, Leeward + The Devil to Pay, currently out through Canelo ♥️🌈