Mike Fox

You're a poet in my eyes, Niamh.

'No one’s going to die on my watch, she says, no one’s going to die.' Fascinated by this brief, dark gem from @niamhmaccabe.bsky.social. So much unsaid, such a sense of hinterland.

Highly recommended!

Thanks Eleanor. I can't claim to be religious but this one means a lot to me. I'm hoping it might be available online too. Hope your writing's going well.

Sounds a very empathetic approach. We all need respite at times.

It's a fascinating subject, isn't it?

You might also be interested in Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives by Brian Dillon, Deborah (Proust, Charlotte Bronte, Florence Nightingale, Glenn Gould...).

"This is a story of a woman growing into herself, who is more than the sum of her parts, a woman who has something important to say."
I'm absolutely thrilled with this review of 'sum of her PARTS' #published by @vpresslit.bsky.social 💜
#amwriting #writingcommunity #fiction #poetry #microfiction

Thanks, Ian. It's not due out till next March, but hopefully will be published online.

Thanks, Rosanna. I'm hoping it will be made available online, if so I'll definitely put it up. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a journal in Britain for historical work? (I understand that currently means anything over 40yrs old!).

Thanks, Sarah. It's been my quietest writing year ever, though there will be a new story in Fictive Dream early September. I hope we can read some more of your stories soon.

Thanks, Kieran, I'm hoping it will available online. There's something about the medieval mind, isn't there?

So delighted to have found an ideal home for my St Francis story, A Meeting in the Groves of Assisi. I'll say more when it comes out next spring. A story set in medieval times can be so hard to place. Will now try to re-house my Julian of Norwich story, Anchoress, recently made homeless.

Tomorrow... Join us for the launch of Elizabeth Gibson's debut collection of poetry, A love the weight of an animal. Also featuring guest poets Amy L. King, Rachael Hill and Katrina Moinet. Venue: Seesaw. 7.30 p.m. - 9.30 p.m. Free entry/free canapés. Paid bar. confingopublishing.uk/event-list

Embracing the Pace August marks two years since I started writing my novel.

‪My #CraftArticle for August is on strategies for pacing yourself as a writer as well as how to deal with writing troughs and what we think of as success:

prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/embracing-...

Today from #MicroMonday please enjoy two superb stories: Boots by Beatriu Delaveda and Everyone Who Looked in This Mirror Before First Period on a Day in Late April by Martha Keller #microfiction #writingcommunity. Just follow the link to access fictivedream.com/2025/08/04/m...

Dereliction & Breath in the Age of Grief Between loss and living

Essay on Grief in 'IN THIS SLOW UNDOING on Substack

literarygypsy.substack.com/p/derelictio...

Another chance to catch the latest episode of Sherry's Shorts featuring excellent short stories on @highlandhradio.bsky.social 'live' at 12 noon UK time today (Friday) on hhr.scot. Or listen anytime using the link ⬇️

Week 30 of documenting everything I buy at the supermarket counter this year. This week, some flat doughnuts, basically.

Really kind of @poemsonthetube.bsky.social to reply with a poem that's stayed with me since I first read it on a tube journey. Apparently, when reading, Charlotte Mew would enter a trance-like state and channel the narrators of her poems. After, it would take her some minutes to return to her self.

Thanks so much. I remember it and found it mesmerising. It lifted my day and made me want to read more.

Was there ever a more persuasive writer than Penelope Fitzgerald? I'm back to this biography for the third time. What it would be to hear Charlotte Mew reading The Farmers Bride, at the Poetry Bookshop, circa 1919. I have @poemsonthetube.bsky.social to thank for discovering the sublime Miss Mew.

Well done, Ian, many congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Saul Hay gallery on Wednesday to celebrate the launch of Sightings by David Bevan, with images by Maya Sharp. Thanks, too, to Ian Hay for hosting the event and @nicholasroyle.bsky.social for chairing it. Photo by David Gaffney.

Glad you didn't stop at one, Jo.

A terrible recognition crept upon me as I read this. Couldn't be more relatable - Bravo!

For me, knowing this would be close to grasping the meaning of life.

I get it, Cathy. Dementia was my field for a decade, and the only thing I can say is that at last funding is going there, and already there are breakthroughs. One of my friends was involved in very successful diet based interventions for people with mild cognitive impairment, in many cases reversed.

I once quoted a spoken comment by DH about being in her late nineties: 'A time when the body gives no more pleasure.' It really made me think. I've often thought the experiential aspect of extreme old age must be unknowable until it's lived through.

Absolutely, Cathy, processing abilities can fluctuate for all sorts of reasons. If you haven't come across it, might I recommend Ammonites and Leaping Fish - A Life in Time by Penelope Lively? Such a subtle and relatable reflection on the facets of ageing, written in the most gorgeous prose.