Can I mention 2 I'm involved with?:
@fireflypress.bsky.social is a fantastic, award-winning children's press based in Wales
and
@honnopress.bsky.social will be celebrating 40 years next year as a indie Welsh women's press.
Thank you to everyone supporting all these fantastic indie presses listed

This is so sad. It's a huge loss to the industry. Wishing you all good luck for what you do next.

I think this is heartbreaking.

This is wonderful! It feels like such a jolt of encouragement in such dark times.

The Booker Prize Foundation launches Children’s Booker Prize

The Booker Prize Foundation has launched the Children’s Booker Prize, the charity’s first award for children’s fiction. 👇 #BookSky

We are delighted to reveal that @onewomanwalks is the winner of the inaugural #TheIlseSchwepckePrize for her book, ONE WOMAN WALKS EUROPE.

A huge congratulations to Ursula, and to all shortlisted authors

@theilseschwepckeprize #literaryprize #womentravellers #travelwriting #bookstagram

Stephanie Yeboah said: ‘...The author takes readers on a journey not just across landscapes but into the heart of perseverance and self-discovery, with warmth and honesty shining through every page.’

Read more about the 2025 shortlist through the link in our bio.

Arabella Friesen said: ‘Martin’s five and a half thousand mile walk across Europe is a feat by any measure: for sheer guts, determination, courage both physical and mental, dauntlessness and good humour. She is a marvel … The world seems wider after reading this book.’

A huge congratulations to Ursula, and to our shortlisted authors.

ONE WOMAN WALKS EUROPE is Ursula’s 5,500 mile trek across Europe – a raw and inspiring journey of wild camping, resilience, and self-discovery. Battling fear and isolation she finds strength in solitude, connection in nature, and a deeper understanding of home and belonging.

Brilliant! Congratulations, Ursula!!

We are delighted to reveal that Ursula Martin is the winner of the inaugural #TheIlseSchwepckePrize for her book, ONE WOMAN WALKS EUROPE (@honnopress.bsky.social).

This is what she said about winning the Prize ⬇️

Firefly Press signs English adaptation of Megan Angharad Hunter’s award-winning novel

Firefly Press has signed an English adaptation of Megan Angharad Hunter’s Wales Book of the Year-winning novel, Behind the Sky, with publication scheduled for September 2026 👇 #BookSky

⭐️Kindle Deal Alert⭐️
Joining #Grimstink in the #UKKindleDeals this month:

#Wilde by Eloise Williams
#TheDollTwin by Janine Beacham
and
#BlackfinSky @katelliswrites.bsky.social

Perfect for Halloween. Deal runs until the end of the month. Don’t miss it!
www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=firefly+...

Monochrome photograph featuring a white woman sitting sideways on a patterned armchair dressed in a dark jacket and skirt and with her hand raised to her face

I will cut adrift—I will sit on pavements and drink coffee—I will dream; I will take my mind out of its iron cage and let it swim—this fine October.

- Virginia Woolf
#Womensart

"Black History is all our history. It’s an integral part of the wonderful, fascinating, outrageous, incredible history of this country." Thank you @catwrote.bsky.social for this fantastic blog on the importance of teaching Black History. #BlackHistoryMonth
Full blog: bit.ly/3W4Vkvd

How Lego MRI scanner sets are reducing anxiety in children undergoing medical treatment Lego's MRI scanner play sets, which launched in 2023, are significantly reducing anxiety and the use of sedation in children, according to new research.

How Lego MRI scanner sets are reducing anxiety in children undergoing medical treatment www.cnbc.com/2025/10/13/l...

Ready for some perfect Sunday night telly? 😍

The first episode of Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles airs tonight on BBC One at 6.15pm!

Booming bitterns at Minsmere, badgers in the bluebells, Nightingales in song...

We can’t wait! Who'll be tuning in?

In Carmarthen next Saturday?
Enjoy crime fiction?
Then come along to Carmarthen Library at 2pm to enjoy a panel with Crime Cymru authors @alishawkinsauthor.bsky.social @gbwilliams.bsky.social and me.
Tickets are free on the Carmarthenshire Libraries website.

Happy Bookshop Day! There are over 200 independent children's bookshops on my map so do pay your local one a visit. It's regularly updated but please let me know of any more I could add. padlet.com/Jon_Biddle/r...

Indie presses in ‘existential crisis’ call for trade support

More than 20 independent publishing houses – including Bluemoose Books, Tilted Axis Press and Influx Press – have written an open letter calling for the trade to “work together to ensure the longevity of the UK’s independent presses” as they face an “existential crisis” 👇

Open letter on the future of small press publishing in the UK The industry must work together to ensure the longevity of the UK’s independent presses.

Wars, tariffs , paper, production costs and the battle to get our books seen means there is a crisis in publishing.

Indies do most of the heavy lifting in finding great new stories that the risk averse conglomerates shy away from.

Support Indies!

www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...

Just finished this incredible book. I knew a little bit about Josephine Baker but Dance of Resistance does an incredible job of packing in the life story of a woman we can only wonder at. Catherine Johnson does it again! @barringtonstoke.bsky.social @catwrote.bsky.social

Trust and Secrets The two things in families that make or break the familial bond.

Trust and Secrets
open.substack.com/pub/walkingw...

Carys Shannon in conversation with her editor Carly Holmes. Wednesday 15th of October, 7pm at Goldstone Books in Carmarthen. Free entry 'As atmospheric and evocative as the scent of the salt marsh itself ... quietly devastating.' - Emma Darwin 'Welsh Noir at its best. Sparkling prose, complex characters, and an intimate plot that shimmers with honesty.' - Philippa Holloway

Carys Shannon will be joining her editor Carly Holmes at Goldstone Books Carmarthen to discuss her atmospheric debut novel Truth Like Water.

Wednesday October 15th at 7pm. Free entry!

What does it cost to produce a book? Why small presses in the UK are struggling - and what can be done about it.

An article on the pressures on publishing, rising costs, what can be done about it - and how readers can also help.

open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/w...

(This ran in the Society of Authors quarterly, The Author, earlier this year. They've kindly given me permission to reproduce it on my Substack.)

The Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) urgent appealing to children’s authors, writers and publishers to donate stories to its new bedtime stories app.

The charity relies on stories in the public domain but are running out of books.

Anyone willing to donate should contact media@rsbc.org.

I really loved the new audio of The Truth, about starting a newspaper. But you can’t go wrong really with whichever one catches your eye.

Curses, whispers and a demon fly: this is the story of the first Welshwoman executed for witchcraft Mari Ellis Dunning, Associate Lecturer at the School of Languages and Literature and PhD Candidate, Aberystwyth University On an October’s day in 1594, Gwen ferch Ellis was led to the gallows in the…

While thousands of women – and some men – were executed for witchcraft across Scotland, England and mainland Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries, only five executions took place in Wales ✍️Mari Ellis Dunning, Aberystwyth University

A photograph of Nicola Davies, appointed Children's Laureate Wales 2025 - 2027. She is outdoors, and is smiling into the sky.

‘I want all children in Wales to experience the pleasure of reading, the superpower of writing, to find their own voices as creative change-makers & advocates for a fairer, more sustainable future.’ Nicola Davies, new Children's Laureate Wales 👏 #KidlitUK
booksforkeeps.co.uk/nicola-davie...