Registrations Open! Upcoming Workshops - Early Bird Discount thru Feb. 7 Hi friends!

Hi friends! I've opened registration for my new round of 3-in-90 workshops. Would love for you to join us! open.substack.com/pub/artoffla...

Val McDermid and Damian Barr urge Scottish councils to halt library closures Authors say plan to shut more than 20 public libraries could have devastating effect on Scotland’s cultural future

Libraries and *librarians* didn’t just change my life - they saved it. Today I was honoured to be made a Centenary Champion for @natlibscot.bsky.social along with the great @valmcdermid.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Please share

I did an interview with @mandirapattnaik.bsky.social for Tiny Molecules!
www.tinymolecules.com/tiny-intervi...

Hope you enjoy 😊. Huge thanks to @fictivedream.bsky.social 😊

Really delighted and so grateful to @fictivedream Enjoy ‘Marriage Act’. #shortstory #fuctivedream

It's Kerry Hadley-Pryce Week - Kerry Hadley-Pryce Week continues with an excerpt from her new novel, Lie of the Land ...the latest story in Outsideleft Outsideleft.com an independent Arts, Music and Culture Magazine our newest story is It's Kerry Hadley-Pryce Week

Unbelievably, it’s Kerry Hadley-Pryce Week at Outsideleft Magazine @saltpublishing.com #blackcountrynoir

www.outsideleft.com/main.php?upd...

Throwback Thursday: ‘A Collection of Secrets’ - PULP Literature Monkey Business In the summer of 1967 a girl gets more than she bargained for when she succumbs to the lure of a sea monkey ad in the back of a comic book. 'A Collection of Secrets' by Rhea Rose was t...

‘A Collection of Secrets’ by Rhea Rose was the feature story in Pulp Literature Issue 35, Summer 2022, now on sale for the throwback price of $8.

pulpliterature.com/throwback-th...

#bookworm #bookish #booknerd #tbt #throwbackthursday

A group of Māori women sat outside a polling station in 1908. They are in typical Edwardian fashions, including some natty straw boater hats.

#OnThisDay, 20 Dec 1893, around 4,000 women vote in the Māori seats in Aotearoa New Zealand. Photo is from 1908.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #NZHistory #VotesForWomen

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Unbox Your Words 4b Dec 2024 A little something to read over the holiday period...

Well of course I’ve sent out the next #UnboxYourWords post on Boxing Day! I’ve not got much of a clue what sort of boxing is supposed to be happening today, I mostly ignore things you are “supposed” to do. Here’s a little something for you to read: taniahershman.substack.com/p/unbox-your...

It’s been an exciting year so far! I have had two novellas-in-flash published and a 3rd has been longlisted in the Bath novella-in-flash comp. To celebrate I am offering both of the NIFs below for £15 to include UK postage.Please dm me or contact me via my website if you would like to buy copies.

a man with a beard is talking on a cell phone while a woman stands in front of him ALT: a man with a beard is talking on a cell phone while a woman stands in front of him

If you enjoy flash fiction, please follow National Flash Fiction Day @natflashfictionday.bsky.social — at present we have 889 followers. I will pick someone at random out of our next 50 followers to receive 3 free entries to our micro comp!

Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.

Words To Live By Number 152

Books on a bookshelf with 'a liminal gathering' displayed in front of them.

I've just finished reading 'a liminal gathering', a collection about grief edited by the incredible Iona Winter. In the introduction Iona writes 'my hope is ... that it can be shared, lovingly between hands, during times when life is forever changed'. A phenomenal taonga. NZ📚

Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs: 9780593480434 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books Until now, you've only heard one side of the story: the "discovery" of America told by Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims, and the Colonists. Here's the true story of America from the Indigenous persp...

I also highly recommend Linda Coombs' excellent book COLONIZATION AND THE WAMPANOAG STORY, which you can find here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/692454...

Thank You for Attending our Holiday Launch ✨ - mailchi.mp/3d5cadd36441...

See what else we have on offer for the month of December in this Pulp Mystery newsletter...
#silentauction #holidayauction #keepthepressesrolling #writingcontest #liveactionslush #canadianlitmag #literarymagazine

We dismiss the 'fluffy' stuff at our peril | E-Tangata “Science can show us the ‘how’, but the humanities give us the ‘what’ and ‘why’. Funding one without the other is like sailing without a compass: you can move forward, but without direction or purpose...

THIS! ⬇️
"Science and the humanities aren’t rivals, but partners committed to interpreting the cosmos": Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman
e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-...

ASK ME ANYTHING, for a great cause!
(we can also just chat!)

Home - Prison Reading Groups About PRG Prison Reading Groups was set up in 1999 to help start, fund and...

Privileged to have My Name Is Leon featured in this short video about bringing prisoners and their families together through reading.

Cat in a library.

Marsden Fund cuts a win for 'convenient' evidence From the University of Auckland – Opinion: Cutting social sciences and humanities from NZ’s ‘blue skies’ research funding means dark times for independent thought.

"What cutting social sciences and humanities from the Marsden Fund dramatically reduces is the ability of researchers to produce inconvenient evidence" Prof Tom Baker
newsroom.co.nz/2024/12/06/m...

I've been very quiet here, but here's a great thing that happened recently: Theatre Studies at the U. of Glasgow has launched a *free* online introduction to playwriting in partnership with Playwrights' Studio, Scotland! www.futurelearn.com/courses/an-i... Do pass on to anybody interested!

Reposts of the kite auction are also helpful!

Isobelle Carmody (yes, as in Obernewtyn) and Red Kite (childhood cancer charity) www.redkite.org.au will be very grateful

#illustration #art

Post food coma reminder that FIYAH submissions for our 2025 unthemed issues remain OPEN through December 31st! (If you received an email from us to the contrary, that was a typo--our bad!)

Nudge a Black author you know who needs to quit dilly dallying and SUBMIT 🔥🔥🔥

Storm Bert offers stark reminder of UK’s underfunded flood defences Spending shortfall has seen 500 of 2,000 new protection projects abandoned despite growing severity of disasters

"Nature-based solutions are needed, too. Many communities that face floods.....in parts of Yorkshire, Cumbria and Wales, are directly underneath upland areas ..... burned and grazed for farming and grouse shooting over the years"

This is vital

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

You know what would **really** disrupt the publishing industry?
Fair contracts and decent pay for authors.
No AI training without the creator’s consent.
Artists and translators on the cover.
No NDAs for ghostwriters.

Behind the scenes at Real World Studios during the recording of our album with Mary Chapin Carpenter ‘Looking for the Thread’ & featuring the first single ‘Hold Everything’ written by Karine Polwart 💫

li.sten.to/lookingforth...

Please share! 💜

#music #newmusic #collaboration #LookingForTheThread

I've only watched 1 and half episodes of this and bloody hell, what a talent Robyn Malcolm is - hope to see a lot more of her in the future (whether that's we get more tv from New Zealand or she gets cast in UK/US stuff) #AfterTheParty

🚨URGENT - PLEASE SHARE

Amilah is 9 & needs a stem cell transplant, but there are no matches worldwide. Her family are calling for as many people as possible aged 16-30 to sign up and become a potential donor.

It’s simple to join the register using this link🙏
www.anthonynolan.org/help-save-a-...