Writing Christmas cards. Absolutely zero recollection of the names of my friends’ children. Obviously, I remember the names of all their pets, past and present.

Christmas quiz at the pub. We’ve been told to dress festively; but I ain’t wearing no hot jumper in a crowded pub. Pagan The Spark Company tshirt FTW! (I do have Holly jewellery!)

Always a super fun adventure when you’re mid-shower (on a pitch-black December Eve)and the electricity goes out. The shower is electric, so a fun half-hour ensues of unplugging every fucking thing to find the culprit before the leccy will come back on & I can wash the damn conditioner out of my hair

Today’s supplies are: plastic sheeting, bleach, scrubbing brush, latex gloves. Oh, and some of this.

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

Getting the Christmas decs out. I’m not sure how I’ve ended up with five (5) Christmas trees.

Due to playing too many games on my iPad, I’ve discovered my right-hand dexterity has improved to the standard where I have the handwriting of an eight year old. (As opposed to my left hand sinistry, which has the handwriting of a spider that’s fallen in a vat of ink)

Get 20% off the special Goldsboro edition of The Lore of Silver this weekend. Use the code Book-Friday25 before pumpkin time on the 1st! It's a truly beautiful collector's edition. goldsborobooks.com/products/the... @goldsborobooks.bsky.social @hodderscape.bsky.social

Dad: was it you who left the mouse on your plate? Me: wtf? No? Guys the cats caught a mouse and LEFT IT ON A PLATE FOR ME.

Oh good, my headphones have decided to do a fun thing where if I make any vocalisation they stop the music. Sometimes they open Siri. Mostly they just go silent. Lovely. I talk to myself a LOT. But it just did it when I *sighed*

Me: I’ll get some sewing done Tomkin: like hell you will

What’s that, children? Oh… that’s the period of the pandemic lockdowns when Auntie Kate was so bored she decided to knit her own book covers.

Today is a day of sewing and putting together furniture. I contain multitudes.

Reasons winter is better than summer no. 196726: excuse to get the Magic Blanket out so Billy will come and sit with me

May have spent too long drawing on my iPad. Just tried to swipe on the screen with a fork.

Made some fudge. Every time I see the Tate & Lyle logo I am overwhelmed with WTF

Today I learned that my hair is super rare and special. Which really ought to make it cooler: when will celebrities start thinning and straightening their hair for that painted-to-the-scalp, limp-as-a-dishrag, allergic-to-curls rarity value?

Billy got his paw stuck in his collar yesterday. I nearly had a heart attack cos I thought he’d dislocated his leg, so he wriggled his way into wearing the collar as a sort of shoulder brace instead. Poor baby is now traumatised—not from the collar, but from me getting close enough to fix it.

Me: okay this email is quite full of rage. Maybe I’ll let the AI do what it insists on offering and ask it to make it more friendly AI: changes “extremely upsetting” to “a bit disappointing” and the salutation to “hey” Me: adds MORE RAGE

Just started Strictly. If I took a shot every time they said “Blackpool” I’d be drunk under the table already.

Cleared the counter in the utility before the boiler service tomorrow. There had been a few wasps crawling over the window and Tom considered eating them (good job he’s pretty cos he ain’t bright). Found more than 20 dead wasps there. In November.

Oh dear, it’s only the 12th and I’ve already run out of fucks to give this month. You could come back in December, but honestly we’ve got serious supply issues here so it ain’t looking good.

Aaaand I’m reading a book where the British characters are worried about a cold house and cold water because the electricity is off.

Played the Ballad of the Witch’s Road and both Tommy & Billy looked up. Look, the names were accidental… weren’t they?

Glad I’ve stopped growing cos I’ve run out of table for this pattern.

A second attempt at this scene from The Promised Queen in a different style. Remind me to never write a book with a tree motif again: I have hand cramp from drawing all those goddamn leaves! #drawing #handdrawn #procreate #procreateart #digitalart #characterart #thepromisedqueen

Got a pattern I want to adapt into an Agatha Harkness coat. Am just pinning and staring at bits of paper at this point, but Tomkin has decided to Help.

No trick or treaters. Went to he pub and left the bowl of chocolates by the door. Checked the doorcam: word had got around

Imagining Charles sitting at his desk in Buckingham Palace, whispering, “I protect the family,” as the Godfather music plays.

If those ears survive tomorrow it’ll be a Samhain miracle

Went for a walk. Felt troubled by a) the Halloween trend of hanging apparent lynched bodies wrapped in black plastic from trees, and b) the number of bungalows accessed by steps.

Bought a box of fun size chocolate bars in case we get any trick or treaters. But I forgot to hide it from myself so there, er, might not be a lot left come Halloween…

On the way to the station I saw a bag of bread tied to a shop sign. Thought that was really weird and then I realised it was one of those Hovis bags with the Union flag on it and this was someone’s attempt at hanging a fucking flag. Jesus.

Sequel to last week’s drawing. Poor Rhaell isn’t doing too well, is he? #ThePromisedQueen #ProcreateArt #fanart #ProcreateDrawing #handdrawn

An email at 3am talking to me in the third person about a book I didn’t write. Oh, so profesh, please take all of my money. You know what a good use of AI would be? Designing a filter to keep its own shit out of my inbox.

A story in two parts

Warning! This ones’s a bit gory. Turns out I like drawing blood as much as I like writing about it 😏 Here’s Rhaell from #ThePromisedQueen, following a certain fight in the Moonlight Highlands. Yes I had to re-read the scene to remember exactly where he got hacked into 😂 #ProcreateArt #Fanart

Getting so much AI-generated fake publicist spam that I nearly deleted an actual email from my actual publisher because it referenced actual books I have written.

The daring jewel heist at the Louvre was a masterclass in efficient planning, skill and organisation. It's imperative that the culprits are now apprehended and asked to form a government.

Y’see, this is why I (Kate’s apparently) don’t write to my MP any more. Because she’s a piece of shit who tells me I’m wrong about everything. I bet the more complaints she gets the more she does the thing. Ugh. I hate her.

Been tinkering with this one so long the app kept crashing 😬 So here’s Rhaell & Ember from #ThePromisedQueen, in the secret room of the library, leaning that the history Yskara might not be what they’ve always been told… #procreate #procreateart #characterart #romantasybooks #fantasyart #noaiart

The spam filter isn’t even trying any more, is it

Fuck me, that was sexy

Right. Off to watch Ncuti Gatwa & Edward Bluemel doing flirting. Don’t wait up! www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk/whats-on/bor...

To get LinkedIn to stop emailing me I have to go through a process that involves LinkedIn emailing me four fucking times. I see nothing has changed since the last time I tried to cut this malignant tumour of my social media. This is why no one likes you, LinkedIn. Just…shut up.

This contains a form letter you can send to your MP with a few clicks. Super, super easy. Please do it.

Related: deciding this book needs to be 1st person so I don’t have to describe the character using any name at all

Attempting to name a character loosely based on a fairytale where she has *my exact name*. I’ve found it. The impossible task. Forget straw into gold, this is it.

Been ill for a bit, so didn’t get around to listening to Taylor’s new album until last night. Whereupon I stayed up until 6am plotting a new book about a team of feminist fairytale villainesses doing revenge on men. So, good album I guess?

It all fucking happens here, I tell you