Bethan James

And oops, meant to tag @davewragg.com !

And thanks @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social team!!👏

Image:Panel of 4 authors at a table with microphones

Thanks @BritFantasySoc.bsky.social for making #WorldFantasyCon accessible by streaming it!👏🐉

Some author panel highlights:
✨British Urban Fantasy
✨Occult Adventures
✨Blending the Genres
✨Playing for Laughs in SFF (incl @Davidwragg.com & BSF winner @Franceswrites.bsky.social)

Feeling inspired ✍️🔮

Happy Halloween! 🎃 Here’s some spooky book picks for you…

❤️📚Missing #TheakstoneCrime @harrogatefestivals.bsky.social already!

Incredible author panels, lovely writer catch-ups, murder mystery dinner, publisher popups, and tons of fabulous freebies

Wow, massive congrats! 🥳

It’s day 1 of #1000WordsofSummer from @jamiattenberg.bsky.social ! Can’t wait to kick off this 2 week challenge ✍️

A reminder that every small bit of good you do - whether it be putting art into the world, helping a friend or stranger, donating to a good cause, or just listening to someone who needs to vent - offsets all the evil in the world just a little bit. And sometimes that's just what the world needs.

Book Festival theatre stage with authors reading and audience at tables

Thanks/ diolch to for an inspiring weekend, Wales International Crime Fiction Festival, aka Gwyl Crime Cymru! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿📚

A photo of a murder board that says “Alessandra Ranelli Announces the Killer Twist Pitch Prize for Unagented Crime Writers!”  A clipboard bears a note that says 1st Place Prize Weekend Rover Ticket to Theakston’s Crime Writing Festival 2025 incl. Creative Thursday AND a3-Night Hotel Stay in Harrogate,UK!* **Terms & Conditions Apply. Visit Site for Details. The Prize also includes a pitch revision, query critique, and 1-on-1 coaching to practice live pitching. To enter you should like and share the post and comment TWIST, then go to alessandraranelli.com/prize to enter.

Introducing The Killer Twist Pitch Prize for Unagented Crime Writers!
Top Prize: 4-Day Pass #TheakstonsCrime + 3-night hotel stay in #Harrogate, Pitch Revision & Coaching. (a $1250 value)
2nd Place: @JerichoWriters Agent 1-on-1! T&Cs apply, See www.alessandraranelli.com/prize for details.🧵1/4

📣 Last call for early bird tickets! Are you joining us for Capital Crime 2025?

Our early bird pricing ends THIS WEEK, on Friday 31st January 2025. Save nearly 20% on weekend tickets and 15% on day tickets.

➡️ www.capitalcrime.org

#crimefiction #thrillerfiction

Water moon blue book by river

How enchanting is this @Illumicrate special edition of #WaterMoon by Samantha Sotto Yambao 🌊💙

✨ “Would you rewrite your destiny if it meant losing a part of your past?✨

#FantasyBooks #Illumicrate #BookBox

My New Year hopes for you (credit to Positive Present) 🎉 #HappyNewYear

‘Perfect for winter nights’: the best crime novels to read at Christmas according to Ian Rankin, Bella Mackie and more From Maigret to Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, authors choose the whodunnits they love to hunker down with at this time of year A Maigret Christmas and Other Stories by Georges Simenon Continue reading...

‘Perfect for winter nights’: the best crime novels to read at Christmas according to Ian Rankin, Bella Mackie and more

My word of the day (and personal recommendation) is ‘snerdling’ (18th century): nestling cosily beneath the covers and holding off the day a little longer.

Morning.

Hello to my new followers! #writingcommunity 👋

Thank you, Edinburgh Fringe Fest. What a week of comedy, storytelling, new writing, magic and mayhem ❤️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Good morning. We are open. 📖☕️

Stunning isn’t it! Lingered with me long after reading

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White I’m is a spellbinding new murder mystery set on a boat full of magic. 💙🌊

This enchanting read is well worth checking out ✨

30 of the best fantasy novels of all time Not all those who wander are lost

A really interesting list, and not the usual click bait. I think.

www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esb...

Anatomy of a fall

Writers, you NEED to watch #AnatomyOfAFall 👀

A heartbreakingly beautiful film about obsession, jealousy, and the thin line between truth and lies in storytelling ✍️

#AmWriting #WritingCommmunity

Thank you! 😀

Thanks so much! 🎉😀

Picked up the keys to my first home.

A new chapter begins 🏡🔑❤️

Nine cartoon panels each leading to the next via an arrow 1. The writer shares their opinion online 2. A brouhaha swiftly erupts 3. The writer attempts to clarify the opinion on a podcast 4. The uproar intensifies 5. The writer examines the opinion in a long essay for a serious magazine 6. Opinions are divided 7. The writer expands the essay into a thoughtful memoir which discusses the opinion and the reaction from a political and historical perspective 8. The controversy abates 9. A different writer reads the memoir and forms an opinion.. This ninth panel has an arrow that joins back to the first panel, restarting the cycle….

‘The writer shares their opinion online’. My cartoon for this week’s Guardian Books.

This looks amazing! 🤩

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

New Year’s Eve words of wisdom from Neil Gaiman 🥂

I hope 2024 brings you good stories 🎉

Believe it or not I wrote and scheduled this post three weeks ago. I considered not posting as it feels a little opportunistic but maybe it'll be helpful?
Anyway, some thoughts on how to look at the long game beyond the debut year:
open.substack.com/pub/lorraine...
#authors #books #publishing