His beautiful body had become the same pale colour of the manuscript we never read to the end. Yet we loved just like Tristan and Iseult.
My last breath – the agony of my wounds ended with my body.
Paolo and I were in a fiery embrace again. Who wants Heaven, anyway? Hell was our freedom. #WriteCBC
In 2025, I finally cleared the ashes of my post-PhD burnout. So, 2026 is the year I embrace my creativity again.
My goal is to learn to craft rather than critique, to read with pleasure and purpose, to take all this knowledge of the medieval and make something... marvellous! #WriteCBC
Remember: It ys okaye to be lonelye. It ys okaye to feel lost. It ys okaye to be sad. It ys okaye yf nobody ys arounde. It ys okaye to have no plannes or just small plannes. It ys okaye to have big plannes that seem exhausting. It ys okaye to be a mess. Take care of thyself. Thou art amazinge.
‘You are so lucky.’ Deirdre refills her glass with the wine I bought her for Christmas. She plops two ice cubes in, the liquid splashing on my shirt. ‘I wish I had your appetite.’
Without taking my eyes off of her, I grab a big roast potato from my plate and shove it whole into my mouth. #WriteCBC
This is so kind! Thank you so much 🖤 It’s inspired by the Cellardyke harbour (here in sunnier times)
This harbour, too, was made with grey stones a century ago. The wind rose, reeking of salt and rotten seaweed, but the boats stood still. Among the white linens, a sailor's rope strangled one of the washing lines, bleeding. From the stones came a grating sound, a whistle. An exhalation. #WriteCBC
A lot of ‘Beheading Girls’ projects are brewing, keep an eye on this space…
I only wish I could physically type faster!
My partner @crfirvine.bsky.social gifted me a place to this course and I’m so so so excited! ✨ cannot wait!
Great news from the wonderful folks behind Project Fergusson @rfergussonpoet.bsky.social, who've worked with
Taproot Press to produce this beauty! Very honoured to have contributed 'The Last Tavern', a Dantesque encounter between Burns and Fergusson, and to be in the company of such amazing poets!
Photos are: baroque column with cherub, baroque altar for St Anthony, baroque altar for the virgin; church of Santa Chiara
Some shots from a recent visit to Lecce!
Now back in the UK and back to writing a paper on my boy John the Baptist.
Anne hid her necklace under the black sweater. She looked at his ancestors’ portraits as she walked the Tudor room, feeling all their tiny eyes on her. Their malice radiated off the canvases as if to guide her towards their monster.
Her Henry.
Some steal for coins and some for revenge.
#WriteCBC
Cathedral of Taranto, 1071
Back to Plutarch for the summer...
Barnabas was met by the last pair of eyes he wanted to see. They had not changed since he last saw them in 1801. They were too observant and made him feel altogether too mortal. He had tried to make his body forget them – forget her. ‘Monsieur La Morte,’ she smiled. ‘You owe me a life.’ #WriteCBC
Nonna’s house smelled of fried baccalà and dust, and when I went to open the window, she swatted my hand away.
She sat me down. ‘What do you know of fattucchierìa?’
Witchcraft? I laughed.
When her face didn’t change, mine lost its smile and all colour.
‘Allora, we start with salt…’
#WriteCBC
Always as I close my eyes. A cold breath caressing my face. I smell rosemary and blood. I cannot move unassisted - my leg. My heart races, I pray.
It calls me. I open my eyes. It is a darkness I have known before. Around her neck, written in diamonds,
‘Your head is next, Henry’.
#WriteCBC
When a disgraced academic moves to the Scottish Borders, she thought she was in for a quiet life. Instead, she meets a reawakened King Arthur, discovers the world is danger, and that she is at the centre of it all. An ancient king, an unexpected enemy, and a legend come alive.
#scotwriterpitch2025
When Alamyra is chosen as the sacrificial maid for the Festival of Tyrenes, the world turns upside down. Old gods come alive, a forgotten king vows revenge, and new powers are unlocked.
She was supposed to die for the One God, but the Idols of Rhei had other plans.
‘Theogonia’ #scotwriterpitch2025
As a poet struggles to write a lauda for the marriage of the Princess of Taranto, his obsession for his patron’s wife leads him to confuse poetry and reality.
This is a story of verse, power, and violence. This is a story of Anonymous. This is the ‘Tragedy of Taranto’. #scotwriterpitch2025
It felt wrong to be able to smell the acrid sweat of the Brothers of St Domenico’s, but it was worth it to watch them take down the Baptist’s painting at the corner of the Palazzo. The Ionian Sea sang over the brothers’ ‘Credo’ and clouds obscured the disgraced Prophet. I was a free woman. #WriteCBC
Bodies everywhere. I opened the door and there they were, spread like poppies in June. Velvet chairs were laid haphazardly on a mosaic floor. I could smell sex and incense in the air – and something burnt.
I was half afraid to ask and half afraid to know: who the hell was T. O’Shanter? #WriteCBC
Ahaha fantastic!
Where is this from??? 😮
THANK YOU!!! Page by Page now has a whopping 400 subscribers!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you for helping me end 2023 on a high note!!
maryflannery.substack.com/publish/home
Of course! ❤️ and thank you Mary! 🙊
Subscribed! (But a bit embarrassed it took me so long!)
