Zoë Marriott, PhD.

Never have I had my weirdo status confirmed more clearly than by the fact that everyone else is swooning over 'The Fate of Ophelia' and 'Opalite' when I'm listening to 'Actually Romantic' and 'Wood' on repeat.

True!

A useful note for life:

If you should ever find yourself questioning "Is that a duck? Or a goose?"

It's a duck. If it was a goose, I promise you would not need to ask.

The absolute cheek of MS Word trying to tell me that "daren't" isn't a word! If I had ever been exposed to near-lethal levels of gamma radiation you would be seeing a lot of smashing right now.

Taking a moment to imagine the incandescent outrage in the Daily Malice and the rest of the Distraction Media, if other countries demanded British 'expatriates' learn the language to a high standard, volunteer in the community etc, or they'd be uprooted from their lives and shipped back to the UK.

Me: Autumn is here, hurray! Sweater weather! Crunchy leaves! apple crumble, tweedcore and the beauty of the changing seasons!

My degenerative, inflammatory and chronic pain conditions: LOL.

Me: Oh shi-

And I'm actually incredibly grateful that once I've spent hours nagging my own parent to act like a grown-up, I don't have to spend further hours nagging kids to do it, too. So there's that.

I assume that this is what everyone's talking about when they say that childfree people like me will regret not having kids "to care for you when you're old". Just note, though, that your kid, in having to take responsibility for your life when you can't be bothered? Will lose all respect for you.

This is not a person who has been diagnosed with any issues with mental capacity. It's just, as she puts it, that she "can't be bothered anymore". The problem is that someone actually does have to bother for her life to run. So since she's given up, now basic adult responsibility for her is my job.

One of the hardest things about caring for aging parents is how, at a certain age, they just seem to revert to petulant teenagers. No: you cannot set your heat to 23 & leave it there day & night all winter. Why? Because you can't afford it! Yes: you must pay your insurance. Why? Because you need it!

I know we all enjoyed his video about male friendships, but I think this one about reading might be even better.

Passage (2007) by land artist Cornelia Konrads #WomensArt #Monday

Illustration of a fox facing right looking forward in a woodland with tall dark trees

Paula Mela, Finnish illustrator known for her fairytale-like works #WomensArt

"There's no such thing as writer's block! Plumbers don't get plumber's block!"

Take several seats, my friend: YES THEY DO. It's called 'getting stuck'! Happens to everyone in every activity at some point. You make a mistake, encounter a new problem, & need help or to do some research. So shush.

Today's 90's kid rage bait...https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOVahqdjd1w/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I hope you really enjoy it!! ❤️

Something they never warn you about when you start your doctorate: much as you spend the whole time you're doing your PhD research feeling desperate to finish (& prove you can do it) - as soon as you DO finish... you might very well find yourself yearning to go back and do it all over again.

Yes, I was! It's a truly egregious one, that. Oh, Joyce isn't scared of blood and gore, Joyce was a trauma nurse! Joyce...rushes to the patient and pronounces him dead by looking at his eyes (???) then wanders off and bakes a cake? Gah!

Oops, took me a day to realise I hadn't included the link! Only one day left now to get THE MOONLIT MAZE for 99p! www.amazon.co.uk/Moonlit-Maze...

Image of the novel THE MOONLIT MAZE's cover art on a Kindle screen with the banner 99p above it. The cover shows a girl with red hair in a glamorous yellow 1920s ballgown climbing an outdoor stone staircase toward a sky flushed with the dawn.

THE MOONLIT MAZE is 99p or 99c everywhere online - for just today and tomorrow! NYT Bestseller Ruth Ware called it 'A deliciously atmospheric mystery' so if you're into timeslippy 1920s glamour, forbidden romance, and a hint of a haunting (or is it??) then grab it now while you still can! xx

A massive pet peeve of mine in dramas of any kind: when someone who's supposed to have medical experience firmly pronounces a recently collapsed person dead, and then walks off without bothering to even attempt CPR. DO. THE. DAMN. CHEST. COMPRESSIONS.

Image of the novel THE MOONLIT MAZE's cover art on a Kindle screen with the banner 99p above it. The cover shows a girl with red hair in a glamorous yellow 1920s ballgown climbing an outdoor stone staircase toward a sky flushed with the dawn.

THE MOONLIT MAZE is 99p or 99c everywhere online - for just today and tomorrow! NYT Bestseller Ruth Ware called it 'A deliciously atmospheric mystery' so if you're into timeslippy 1920s glamour, forbidden romance, and a hint of a haunting (or is it??) then grab it now while you still can! xx

I actually got somewhere today! The key was to just make the characters shut up a bit, so there could be some tension thrummming away. And now I really *am* going to leave it, and when I come back to do another pass (in a month or so) I expect I'll cut another 30% of the dialogue & finally be happy.

Been working on this scene for 3 days now - which I think is a record for me. It *still* doesn't feel right. Just can't seem to bring it alive. Either it's actually fine & I'm word-blind at this point, or I need to give it some space to figure out the issue. But one more try today before I move on.

Painted portrait of a white woman, head and shoulders, with head tilted to the left, wearing a dark coloured hat, pearl necklace and earings and silk top

Venetian Rococo painter Rosalba Giovana Carriera (1675-1757), the first woman in Western art credited as influential in creating a painting style #womensart

Painting with a series of images, one above the other, showing the same scene of a park with grass trees, a pond, over a 24 hour period with xhanging light and changing interactions from people and animals

One day to the next, 2020 by UK painter Emma Haworth #WomensArt

Fossilized Goniatites like galaxies spiraling through space. Over 300 million years in the making.
County Clare, Ireland.

Fantasy titles in the 80s: 'A Battle of Crows and Bloodaxes'

Fantasy titles now: 'A Corset of Crowns and Kisses'

Horror titles in the 50s: 'The THING'

Horror titles now: 'Sweet the Flowers that Grow from the Ivory of my Skull'

Science fiction story & film titles in the 50s: 'The Wicked Stars Sing Tenderly to the Victorious'

Science Fiction story and film titles now: 'MEGASMASH!!'