I'd be stuffed if it was fiction, I think! It's a nonfiction book so just me - and happily they have approved me to do it so I just need to work out how to pronounce some of the words 🤣
Off to London today to see if I'm allowed to read the audio version of my book 📖
Will I speak waaaay too fast?
Do I *actually* know how to pronounce all the words I've written? The answer to one of those is yes, the other is no. #booksky
💯 absolutely!
I saw an actual copy of my book in book form yesterday. I wasn't allowed to keep it though, it went to a lovely bookshop owner as a preview! Deep in the very last tiny edits now, hoping I've caught everything 🫣
These are apparently facial reconstructions of a 2,300-year-old Pazyryk Scythian male and female from the same kurgan in Berel, Kazakhstan and not - as I first thought - that couple I met at a Spiral Tribe soundsystem in 1992 who sold me E that turned out to be paracetamol.
Some news! 🥳
This book has been in the works for a long time, and to see its birthday now approaching is so exciting. So grateful to the team at Faber for making this dream a reality 🌳🦌🐇 When I've got more time I have so much to say, but for now it can be preordered here! linktr.ee/wilderlandsb...
I love those! We have lots of them for playing Dracula (like dark hide and seek crossed with Traitors). I love the flicker effect they have.
Is there a phase of life called 'candles'? I think I'm in it.
Surely this is my birthday and Christmas present in one @mk.gg
Going through proofreader's queries and I can almost feel their relief when they have managed to read a whole page without finding anything wrong.
For anyone looking to live out their best witchy life in a little cottage with lots of garden for fantastical herbs and strange looking poultry:
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...
A crystal clear, wide but shallow river with a light blue hue curves from the foreground to the right and into a valley. The sides of the valley are mostly coniferous, a dark green, with some lighter green trees. The shore of the river is covered in white rock. In the background, a craggy mountain rises, grey and bare of trees along the top.
Slovenia might actually be the most beautiful place I've ever visited.
Close up shot of pale ears of wheat in a field soon to be harvested. All creams and beige, some stooping over.
Peak folk horror season is loading 👏
The dream! Maybe after book ten.
Really I just like to whinge. Having it all mapped out was extremely helpful when I had to write the first one, even though I still managed to go off on big tangents that didn't make the final cut 🫣
I don't have tonnes of experience as I've only written one book which is still in the publishing pipeline, but both ideas have come from questions which then morphed into the hook. I have a working title but don't mind it changing if something else is better. Publishing is collaborative.
It's a bit like planning a holiday: I choose a region & country, research to make a broad itinerary, fix a few things but allow space for stuff to happen on the go. I wrote the pitch for this a few months ago, but it's been steeping while its predecessor went through editing. Now nailing chapters.
I know the broad shape, but need to nail down and flesh out the chapters in such a way that shows the publisher what it'll look like without having every single detail lined up. This is non-fiction trade, where much of the research will be done along the way.
Nailing the book proposal is much harder than writing the actual book 🫠
By the time the whole thing has a proper shape it sort of writes itself (but this time next year I'll definitely whinge about having to finish another whole book, if anyone wants to publish this one 👀)
The independent researcher joy continues. How can I get access to bits of AM Digital without doing another PhD?
An orange pumpkin-shaped candle on a wooden table, two other lit candles in the background
It rained today, lit the spooky season candles to celebrate 🙌
Good point! Our next door neighbour is. They're well mapped, but it's nice to see.
Have been quite disengaged from general arch for much of this year but it occurred to me I hadn't seen any of the usual news reports, as I looked at the outline of the old ironworks on the village green!
Must have been a good year for crop marks, right? Or was the dry too late?
Once again, may I suggest to my future self and anyone else who would benefit from this sage advice:
Don't leave adding in your references to the very end 🫠
JADE for empress of everything.
A table of candles and printed maps, an open book with quest info on it. A man in the background is looking through a big book. An orange cocktail in a small glass sits in the foreground.
Cocktails and one of the girls' Christmas presents, like DnD-lite!
It's never too late!
She literally sellotaped her nose up so she could round the corner and ask 'What's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here.'
The long game is worth it. So proud. Her younger sister doesn't get it at all 😆
I'm just waiting for her to find the Easter egg that is every time I tell her dad, 'I did a bad murder', it's a quote.
She got on it straight away & has done them all already, is planning to incorporate bits into drama next term 🤣 She's gunning for Psychoville but we've only got it on DVD and it's clearly a step too far. Would mean discovering the origin of the name of our cat tho - older than her and named Tealeaf.
