Cuckoos, skylarks and other creatures. Welcome to Colonsay.

Made it to Colonsay. Honestly - the dream. #Scotland

So ... last night I had a message from a writer pal that he's off to a book festival on an island and someone got sick and would I like to fill the slot on their programme. Obvs, I'm a have a go her. I said YES. I did this festival in 2013 and it was funnnnn. /1

I, too, would like to be buried with the nerdiest passage of my favourite book.

I'm editing my delivery draft - posting to show how. Below: the thread about writing the book. Now the edit. This week I removed 2 characters & added a subplot. 'There's too much gossip,' said my editor (who LOVES gossip) but I'd gone overboard. + we changed the title to The Counterfeit Affair. Hi.

I'm all about the big picture edits this week over on Facebook: 👇 www.facebook.com/sheridanwrit...

Shocks me every time I turn this corner. Never getting over the fire.

New mural. #Glasgow

Alnost home

Messing about on boats can be chilly (even on sunny days) so I bought this scarf from a women-led collective. I was v pleased with myself cos the colour suits my tan. Himself kept grinning too. Eventually he told me it's Greenock Morton colours. FFS. 😂

This came up in my conversation with @sarasheridan.bsky.social - apparently some people are dismissive of historical fiction, and I'm like "but historical *has all the genres!*" youtu.be/A8_UPplO-HI?...

Green parrots in Haarlem today. Hi there. Did you fly in from London, then?

Alps!

Best read at the lido this week....

Inspirational sunrises every morning . #Valetta

I wrote this post just under a year ago, and I still stand by everything within it.

The Moulin Rouge dancers harvesting the Montmartre vineyard. 1958. Paris

The Fair Botanists is 99p today on Kindle. Hooray! Link is here: www.amazon.co.uk/Fair-Botanis...?

The Fair Botanists by @sarasheridan.bsky.social is a bargain 99p on Kindle today #affiliatelink amzn.to/4uZiNyl

Now this thread is a way to start your week.

Excellent wallpaper in today's cafe. #Malta

Out of nowhere GAWD. 10 mins ago I was writing on this terrace 😂

Holiday report so far from Malta over on FB today: facebook.com/sheridanwrit...

Here's our breakfast joy at the marina: wee ducks. However things have gone sour as yesterday the big boy drake jumped 1 of the females & held her head underwater. It stopped me mid-cappuccino. 'Look!' I said to Himself, who nonchalantly replied: he's just trying to shag her.

Kitchen garden. Villa Bologne, Attard.

Stop it, Valetta. You're showing off.

Loved this one.

I do not like this gen AI I do not like what it implies I do not want it in my art I do not think it makes you smart I do not want it in my games I do not like its goals and aims I do not want it in my books I do not like the way it looks I do not like it, I don't care I do not want it anywhere

Visited St Peter's Monastery here in Mdina, Malta. Haunting. These wee wooden boxes were for the nuns to keep personal effects. They weren't allowed much but they did have this beautiful cloister with orange trees. As a novelist I'm fascinated by this place. It's a world apart.

We made a map of locations in the Jewel Keepers. The skinny here: www.facebook.com/sheridanwrit...

Thread

If we're spending millions commemorating a woman in Scotland, I have some ideas. Here's a 🧵of high achievers worthy of statues. 1st Jennie Lee, MP & founder of @OpenUniversity . The work she did as Arts Minister was transformative. Also = Mrs Aneurin Bevan /1

Coleridge's pad in Valetta looks fancy.

I'm over on FB talking about the real-life inspo for The Jewel Keepers including the gorgeous, medieval, Princess Blanche's Crown, today housed in a German museum. www.facebook.com/sheridanwrit...

And the most glam library award goes to....

Dotty and I have decamped to the seaside cos it's cold at home. Top decision.

Booked my ticket for this event with @sarasheridan.bsky.social in May cos I like to plan ahead! www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/edinb...

Roll up! Roll up! It's The Jewel Keepers book launches. It'd be lovely to see you. Tickets here: Edinburgh Thursday 14th May: www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/edinb... Glasgow Sunday 17th May: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookface-s... St Andrews Weds 20th May: www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/st-an...

For years I've said I'm unemployable and now this.

Not quite halfway through @404ink.bsky.social’s Publisher Not Found and finding it an engrossing, honest and revealing read - thank you @heathermmcd.bsky.social & @laurafjones.bsky.social for writing and offering us this book as a final publication!

Rainbow over Motherwell for Dotty and I on our way to London.

‘As a couple, Andrew and Sarah Ferguson have always been too stupid to understand the vulnerability of the institution that supports them, and they began wrecking it from the inside as soon as they met.’ Andrew O’Hagan on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, in the next issue. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Today’s TL joy.

I ❤️ Glasgow so I'm reposting this thread re the culture of the city (sex & chips). So, ages ago (when I didn't live here) I visited my daughter. We had dinner up at the bar near her pad. High excitement cos the barman, I swear to God, *winked* at me. Now I was 51 & (as you know) a serious novelist.

We made a map of locations in the Jewel Keepers. The skinny here: www.facebook.com/sheridanwrit...

#OTD: German modern dance pioneer Hanya Holm was born March 3, 1893. Considered one of the "Big Four" of modern dance, she was influential as a choreographer and dance educator. She was one of the founding artists at Bennington College, where the American Dance Festival originated.

What. The. Fuck.

It would mean the lobbying by big US tech firms had succeeded, and the protests of the UK's creatives had been ignored. People's work is not the government's to give away. If you're in the UK and you care about creatives and the creative industries, please write to your MP! /end