Brigid Coady

A horrific image of a someone who seems to have his hands tied behind his back. A big cat (the predator kind, not the overfed pet kind) has jumped up at him and is devouring his face. Blood splashes on the floor.

For Blue Monday we can't think of anything more appropriate than this charming depiction of a man getting his face eaten off by a leopard.

#MosaicMonday

Tweet by Ron Iver: Hot air balloons kick ass. Are they safe? Not really. Can you stop if you don’t like it? Think again. BUT can you steer? Listen don’t bring that negative energy into this wicker basket ok I’m gonna light this flamethrower.

This one makes me laugh every time.

The Wombles play Motörhead

Word of the Day is ‘uhtcearu’ [ucht-kay-aru, with the 'ch' as in the Scottish ‘loch']:

Old English for ‘the sorrow before dawn', when you lie awake in the darkness and worries crowd your mind.

Lois McMaster Bujold!!! The Five Gods world I realise has completely informed my current wip!! Love those books

a blue question mark with googly eyes and a circle below it ALT: a blue question mark with googly eyes and a circle below it

Also trying to learn what little Etruscan is known

Also adding learning hieroglyphics to my current Latin Duolingo

The research books for my current project have just multiplied as I realised there was an Egyptian connection… now looking for new bookcases!

Every day not reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by a crackling fire in an ominous château in the French countryside during a raging snowstorm is a day wasted.

My New Year’s resolution was to give up performing stunts from cowboy movies but today I fell off the wagon.

Happy Traitors Day!! I will be watching!!

Today's unpopular take: not all fantasy worlds need extensive world-building. Some books are just fine without maps.

I rank this alongside the time 5Live took a philosophy professor to see The Matrix and his review was IIRC: “Too much philosophy, not enough Kung Fu.”

I went on Radio Five once with the Bishop of London to talk about CS Lewis and was delighted that his take was broadly “these books would be absolutely wonderful if he’d ease up on all the Christian nonsense…” We had a lovely chat.

YouTube video by Eleanor Morton cs Lewis tells JRR Tolkien about his new book

youtu.be/DBKwFb9_k1Q?...

Cartoon T-rex standing with upper arms outstretched, cape and two pronounced upper fangs (from Ruscal Nature Designs)

Dinosferatu

Merry Christmas!!

You will be visited by three spirits…

✨ An outline.

✨ A synopsis.

✨ And a rough draft of a novel you keep saying you’re going to write.

Pratchett. Obvs.

Not sure what it says about me, but Robert Louis Stevenson. As a small, asthmatic girl who longed to be a writer, he inspired me. His poetry is woven through my childhood. His novels transported me. And his words about writing remind me it’s okay to write what I do, in the way that I do. #Hero

Saki. His short stories filled my teen years. I think I might write what I do because of him.

I often wander past his house in Hampstead

Love it when bookshops or libraries arrange their books appropriately...

I think stuffing and roast potatoes are my favourite part of the Xmas meal

a man in a suit and tie says tick-tock ALT: a man in a suit and tie says tick-tock

Cornbread stuffing made! The mushroom, bacon and rosemary stuffing is a step too far today. That is tomorrow’s task…

Fair enough… although my mother has a stock of wrapping paper that will take us through the next two decades

Okay that tops my ridiculousness! Why?? Although in lockdown I sewed tote bags in Xmas material to put people’s gifts in

You have come under the Paul Hollywood handshake cult!!