The covers of 'The Lovely Dark' and 'The Sky Over Rebecca' by Matthew Fox.

A micro-excerpt from the THE LOVELY DARK, out today in 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦. Get it from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore or @bookshop.org!

'Sad, sweet, and special.' - Kirkus ★ review
'an evocative celebration of life, love, and hope.' - Booklist

#thelovelydark #fantasy #mythology #booksky

Kirkus ★ Review, March '26
A Financial Times Children's Book of the Year '23

by the author of THE SKY OVER REBECCA
Winner of the Bath Children's Novel Award

#thelovelydark #fantasy #mythology #booksky

This box of delights has arrived. A beautiful, definite edition of THE LOVELY DARK from Union Square Kids.

ON SALE TODAY, April 21 🇺🇸& 🇨🇦.

And there’s a strapline to die for:

‘A journey across the river Styx...’

Get it from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore... x

Kirkus ★ Review, March '26
A Financial Times Children's Book of the Year '23

by the author of THE SKY OVER REBECCA
Winner of the Bath Children's Novel Award

#thelovelydark #fantasy #mythology #booksky

This box of delights has arrived. A beautiful, definite edition of THE LOVELY DARK from Union Square Kids.

ON SALE TODAY, April 21 🇺🇸& 🇨🇦.

And there’s a strapline to die for:

‘A journey across the river Styx...’

Get it from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore... x

The covers of 'The Lovely Dark' and 'The Sky Over Rebecca' by Matthew Fox.

A micro-excerpt from the THE LOVELY DARK, out today in 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦. Get it from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore or @bookshop.org!

'Sad, sweet, and special.' - Kirkus ★ review
'an evocative celebration of life, love, and hope.' - Booklist

#thelovelydark #fantasy #mythology #booksky

The Human Authored logo from the Author's Guild.

My book THE LOVELY DARK is 100% human authored. By me. The idea came to me long before AI was even a thing...

So while I have issues with SoA/Author's Guild certification (brainstorming? outlining?), I'm supportive in principle. It's a start, it'll get better, and it will make people think.

The Human Authored logo from the Author's Guild.

My book THE LOVELY DARK is 100% human authored. By me. The idea came to me long before AI was even a thing...

So while I have issues with SoA/Author's Guild certification (brainstorming? outlining?), I'm supportive in principle. It's a start, it'll get better, and it will make people think.

A UPS transit list describing the path of my author copies of THE LOVELY DARK from Indianapolis, IN to Stockholm, Sweden via Louisville, KY and Cologne, Germany.

My author copies of THE LOVELY DARK are on their way, via Indianapolis, IN and Louisville, KY. They should arrive in Stockholm tomorrow am, the day before the book is published in 🇺🇸 and 🇨🇦.

It's three years since UK publication but it feels SO different. I'm going to enjoy it this time around.

Quote of the week

‘Reading is like going on holiday in your head. ‘

My amazing granddaughter, Hester, aged 8 years.

#books #reading #quoteoftheweek

But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?

And the UK. And authors in the UK also get paid for some overseas library borrows.

I love this.

A non-publishing person googled me the other day in front of me and said "wow it looks like you're very successful" and a bitter "yeah one would think!!" came out of me unbidden and they looked at me with confusion and alarm and I couldn't figure out how to begin to explain

Because for some of us, the only thing worse than writing is NOT writing.

co-signed, have seen a nonzero amount of books that have deserved waaaaaaaaaay more recognition than they got in tradpub. conversely, have read books where I've been like "this is mid and I don't understand the adoration"

Holy New York.

you guys…my best friend took an extra copy of my book with her on a trip and gifted it to the stranger sitting next to her on the plane who apparently read it, loved it and said she was going to buy her own copy and pass the current copy onto one of her friends.

Amazing.

There’s so many things discouraging reading for pleasure right now… but this is at least the start of a conversation.

A motivational message for parents of small children: Read them to sleep. Wake up their world.

A motivational message for young readers: If you're into it, read into it.

A motivational message for older readers: Sink your teeth into a horror.

Go all in for the National Year of Reading 2026.

Love these messages, currently flooding every school in the UK for the National Year of Reading.

And the message is: anything goes. Read what you like. There's a book out there for you.

Read who you are.

#NationalYearOfReading #GoAllIn #BookSky

A motivational message for parents of small children: Read them to sleep. Wake up their world.

A motivational message for young readers: If you're into it, read into it.

A motivational message for older readers: Sink your teeth into a horror.

Go all in for the National Year of Reading 2026.

Love these messages, currently flooding every school in the UK for the National Year of Reading.

And the message is: anything goes. Read what you like. There's a book out there for you.

Read who you are.

#NationalYearOfReading #GoAllIn #BookSky

‘CAPITALISM ‘The only TV show [he] ever watches is Scooby-Doo. Other TV shows scare him. Scooby-Doo features ghosts and mummies and vampires, but it’s a comedy about fear. Scooby and Shaggy quake to a laughter track. ‘There were only two seasons and twenty-five episodes of the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! series, and J had watched all of them several times before I learn that this series was conceived in response to parents who protested violent cartoons in the 1960s. ‘Watching it now, I realise with surprise that Scooby-Doo is all about capitalism. Every ghost, every mummy, every vampire turns out, in the end, to be someone trying to get rich.’ - from HAVING AND BEING HAD by Eula Bliss

And there it is: haunted house capitalism.

You say something that isn’t true to scare people. So they’ll believe the old amusement park is haunted and you can buy the land dirt cheap to put up a data centre…

‘CAPITALISM ‘The only TV show [he] ever watches is Scooby-Doo. Other TV shows scare him. Scooby-Doo features ghosts and mummies and vampires, but it’s a comedy about fear. Scooby and Shaggy quake to a laughter track. ‘There were only two seasons and twenty-five episodes of the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! series, and J had watched all of them several times before I learn that this series was conceived in response to parents who protested violent cartoons in the 1960s. ‘Watching it now, I realise with surprise that Scooby-Doo is all about capitalism. Every ghost, every mummy, every vampire turns out, in the end, to be someone trying to get rich.’ - from HAVING AND BEING HAD by Eula Bliss

And there it is: haunted house capitalism.

You say something that isn’t true to scare people. So they’ll believe the old amusement park is haunted and you can buy the land dirt cheap to put up a data centre…

MOUSETRAP (a four panel comic) Panel 1 - woman holds out an item saying “I got this mousetrap” to a man who asks “how’s it work?” Panel 2 - a woman’s hand plops down a miniature work cubicle on the floor and she says the mouse works in this cubicle assuming something better will come next but then 30 years go by” Panel 3 - the woman excitedly states “look it’s working !” To the man who exclaims “whoa” as a mouse scurries into the cubicle trap Panel 4 - the mouse is seated in the cubicle as if working. Speech bubble from the woman states “it’s already googling old high school classmates” to which the man replies “this is cruel” MIKEY HELLER @2019 TIMETRABBLE.COM

A book review of THE LOVELY DARK by Mia, age 9. "The Lovely Dark has changed my opinion on reading. I love reading now! It is the best book I have read so far. This is an exciting and sometimes scary book and I will definitely read it again..."

A picture of the covers of THE LOVELY DARK and THE SKY OVER REBECCA with the words Celebrate National Reading Month with Matt Fox.

The reviews you dream about always come from reluctant readers: this one is from Mia, age 9, reviewing THE LOVELY DARK for UK blog Books Up North.

THE LOVELY DARK is out in 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦 on April 21. If you have a reluctant reader in your life, this might be the book… x

#thelovelydark #reluctantreaders

A book review of THE LOVELY DARK by Mia, age 9. "The Lovely Dark has changed my opinion on reading. I love reading now! It is the best book I have read so far. This is an exciting and sometimes scary book and I will definitely read it again..."

A picture of the covers of THE LOVELY DARK and THE SKY OVER REBECCA with the words Celebrate National Reading Month with Matt Fox.

The reviews you dream about always come from reluctant readers: this one is from Mia, age 9, reviewing THE LOVELY DARK for UK blog Books Up North.

THE LOVELY DARK is out in 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦 on April 21. If you have a reluctant reader in your life, this might be the book… x

#thelovelydark #reluctantreaders

Guess what? Our top-performing search on Google is consistently "banned books." We love our community and your great taste. Tell us your favorite banned books!

The Mission, Ennio Morricone. Or maybe The Piano, Michael Nyman.

Nyman's Drowning By Numbers has religious status in my life but I have never seen the actual movie so idk if it counts.

Here are my visual notes from Sharna's talk. WHAT a brilliant day at the @literacy-trust.bsky.social conference @martingalway.bsky.social thanks for making it possible! An excellent day all round with teachers, librarians, authors, publishers and more, reminding us that reading is VARIED.

4 3 2 1 by the late Paul Auster. A thousand pages long. Half-way through, it's no longer a thought experiment but a great moral work - and it's made me think deeply about my life.