Day 19/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology is a big one - 431 years ago today, #christophermarlowe was k*lled by Ingram Frizer in Deptford. Tomorrow: an investigation is launched, but the results bring more questions than answers. @Brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙 📚

We're on Day 18/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! With the Queen's spies closing in, a desperate #christophermarlowe flees to Deptford. Tomorrow, Marlowe meets his end at the hands of the unlikeliest of k*llers, and an enduring mystery is born. @brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙 📚

We've made it to Day 17/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology. The de*th of #christophermarlowe in 1593 coincided with a heatwave, plague, solar eclipse, and political unrest. Tomorrow, Marlowe makes a run for Deptford, but his journey will end there. @Brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙 📚

It's Day 15/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! Today marks a turning point in #christophermarlowe 's story. On 26/5/1593, the infamous document known as the "Baines Note" was delivered. Tomorrow, Marlowe begins planning an escape. #booksky 💙📚 @Brianlangan.bsky.social

We're on Day 14/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! #christophermarlowe 's poem 'Hero & Leander' queers a familiar love story. Tomorrow, 5/26, Marlowe’s nemesis Richard Baines delivers a note to the authorities that will seal Marlowe’s fate. @Brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙 📚

It's Day 13/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology, and time to meet Robin Poley, one of the Elizabethan era's most notorious spies. Tomorrow, we'll take a look at #ChristopherMarlowe ’s epic poem, "Hero & Leander." Was it left unfinished at his d*ath? @Brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙 📚

It's Day 12/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! Time to tackle one of the biggest questions behind #christophermarlowe 's final days: who was Ingram Frizer? Tomorrow, we dive into the most sinister figure in this story: spy and assassin Robin Poley. @Brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙 📚

It's Day 11/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! #christophermarlowe is now under investigation, and the Privy Council has a witness - Richard Baines, Marlowe’s former mentor turned enemy. Tomorrow: who was Ingram Frizer? @brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙 📚

It's already Day 10/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology, and #christophermarlowe is now held on bail by the Privy Court. Tomorrow: who is Richard Baines, and what is the secret he knows that could spell Marlowe's doom? @brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙📚

It's Day 9/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! From this day forward, #christophermarlowe 's time is running out. Tomorrow, Marlowe begins making his daily reports to the Privy Council, as proof that he remains within London. @brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 📚💙

It's Day 8/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! 431 years ago yesterday, a warrant was issued for #christophermarlowe 's arrest. By 20 May, guards will have tracked Marlowe to Scadbury, an estate owned by his friend and patron Thomas Walsingham. Tomorrow, Marlowe is arrested. @brianlangan.bsky.social

It's Day 7/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology, and this is when the clock begins to run out for #christophermarlowe. Tomorrow, I'll talk about Thomas Walsingham's complicated role in this story. Was he friend or foe to Marlowe? @brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 📚💙

Onto Day 6/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology, and it's time to dig into one of the biggest controversies in the life of #ChristopherMarlowe - was Marlowe a spy? Tomorrow: Marlowe is arrested and brought to London. Who will he trust now? #booksky 💙📚 @brianlangan.bsky.social

It's Day 5/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! Today I'm diving into #ChristopherMarlowe 's Edward II. Fun fact: the title Lightborne comes from the name of the brutal k*ller hired to "take care" of King Edward in Marlowe's play. Tomorrow: was Marlowe a spy? @brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙📚

Welcome to Day 4/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology! Today it's all about #christophermarlowe as a playwright. Tomorrow I'll talk more about Edward II and it's important legacy in the queer literary canon. #booksky 💙📚 @brianlangan.bsky.social

It's Day 3/20 of the #Lightborne Chronology, and today we're looking at a few of the suspects, esp the enigmatic Ingram Frizer. Was he just the man holding the 🗡, or was he something more? Tomorrow, it's all about Marlowe's plays! #booksky 💙📚 @brianlangan.bsky.social

It's Day 2 of 20 of the #Lightborne Chronology, where I take you through the real-life people and events from my debut #novel! Join me every day till 1 June for historical tidbits and excerpts from the book, which is out now in the UK & Ireland. #booksky 💙📚 @brianlangan.bsky.social

It's Day 1 of 20 of the #Lightborne Chronology, where I take you through the real-life people and events from my debut #novel! Join me every day till 1 June for historical tidbits and excerpts from the book, which is out now in the UK & Ireland. @brianlangan.bsky.social 📚💙 #booksky

Yup, I'm that nerd! Bc all of the major events of my novel #Lightborne take place from 12 - 31 May 1593, I went ahead and created a full timeline complete with excerpts from the book! Through 1 June, please follow along for daily historical tidbits and more. @brianlangan.bsky.social #booksky 💙📚

One more blog post for #LGBTQ+HistoryMonth! In which I offer a crash course on Anglo-American queer history and dissect the debate over queer identity while dunking on Gore Vidal. Come with me, learn how we became the big, weird, queer family we are today! hessephillips.com/2024/02/22/r...

It's here!! Check out @hessephillips.bsky.social excellent blog post with the (gorgeous, sumptuous) cover reveal for #Lightborne, published on 2 May by Atlantic Books.

There's an interview with me in the Books Are My Business column in today's @irishexaminer. Thanks to Marjorie Brennan for translating my rambling. www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ar...

A great listen, some excellent insights from @hessephillips.bsky.social into the many revisions of LIGHTBORNE.

This will be one of the best novels of 2024...

Great blog post by @HessePhillips, on discovering something unexpected in the course of research. #Lightborne coming in May from @AtlanticBooks

Great blog post from @HessePhillips on the experience of holding an ARC of their novel LIGHTBORNE for the first time. And it's a beautiful thing! Copies will soon start emerging into the world, blinking in the light, from the lovely people @AtlanticBooks. Publishing May 2024.

How's this for timing? This showed up in my Facebook memories. I took it at the Irish Book Awards exactly ten years ago today. Ciaran Collins, Paul Lynch, Gavin Corbett and Donal Ryan. Congratulations @paullynchwriter on your brilliant Booker win - been a long journey!

I'm very very proud of my supremely talented daughter Holly who graduated with a BA in Animation from IADT today, and won the Aileen MacKeogh award for the student who "contributed most in practice and principle to the vision of Arts".

It's getting real, folks! LIGHTBORNE will be published in May 2024.

Now that I am mentioning it. €6,200 in just under a week. Genuinely astonishing... Every fiver helps. Every share too *ahem* www.gofundme.com/f/therickosh...

I'm very happy to have an article on freelance editing and the work of AFEPI Ireland in the excellent new Irish Writers Handbook, edited by Ruth McKee, launching in a couple of weeks.

We just had a lovely week in Tuscany. Unfortunately seem to have brought COVID home with us...

Congratulations to all the writers shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards. I'm especially thrilled for Jennifer McMahon @jmcm.bsky.social whose brilliant story In the Same Darkness is shortlisted for the writing.ie Short Story of the Year Award. www.irishbookawards.ie/2021-awards/...

First time! Wordle 847 1/6 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Hello there. I've run away from the other place (for now at least), and I'm here for all things bookish.