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benjeapes.bsky.social
Ben Jeapes
@benjeapes.bsky.social
170 followers 240 following 220 posts
Husband, stepfather, ghostwriter and author whose work spans two millennia.
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Reposted by Ben Jeapes
kitwhitfield.bsky.social
#booksky #bookqw word today was 'unbelievable', which stumped me. Went with UNLIKELY.

Sometimes the People dance in an oak grove. The fairy-smiths of Gyrford would be happy to leave them alone, but sometimes the customer insists.

Buy here: tinyurl.com/nvvetupj
To deal with a grove, you must first place iron bands around the trees, and fell them only after they are shackled. This will hold for a while, but iron rusts and must be maintained. If you can keep the People out of the grove for seven years and seven days, they generally take the point, but if you let the iron fail before then, you can expect worse than thorns in your bed and blood in your porridge: you can expect the People after you with all the fury of a stolen home, and they will seize you so thoroughly that it’s a matter of priestly speculation whether even your soul will be able to escape to Heaven. Certainly your body is unlikely to be found, at least in any form your own mother would recognise.
February 11, 2026 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
thomaswrightson.bsky.social
It's Book Quote Wednesday #BookQW and the word is 'unbelievable', specifically the paraphrase 'disbelief'. An apt description of Ambassador Laffw's lofty ambitions.
Starborn Vendetta and its sequel are available now. #scifibooks #thriller #BookSky💙📚
“If you mean any potential gains on the stock market, I assumed that would go without saying, as humans put it.” “You are correct. When the time comes, we shall be ready to buy and sell just the right stocks. It could shift the economic balance of power for decades. And who knows, one step further up the ladder toward the Synod.” Bapti nodded, though she had disbelief in her eyes. For one such as Bapti, any but high-born Kavki reaching the Synod was laughable. There was something to be said for that attitude. It was the highest administrative authority in the Cluster, covering hundreds of solar systems, thousands of inhabited worlds and satellite bodies, perhaps millions of station colonies and other space-faring groups. But why then not reach for it? All the peoples had reached for the impossible before. They had reached for fire, hunting tools, farming, building, sea crossing, flying, and finally the transcendent step beyond the atmospheres of their worlds into the great unknown. To Laffw, the Synod was a trace of that ambition given physical form. It was a means to grasp the impossible, to fly close to and beyond the sun and find a seat in the very heavens. She spoke of it to her serfs, but very few others. Her dreams and ambitions were private, and to the world she showed only her veneer of false vapidity and the changes to her body. On an impulse, Laffw glanced down at the additional fingers she had added to her hand. Kavki were naturally born with four digits per hand. Now she had five. A useful tool when shaking hands with local dignitaries was not to startle them with an unfamiliar grasp. “Bapti, when is the appointment with my stylist?” “This evening. One hour after dinner.” “Good. That gives me plenty of time to see our dear baroness. I want some straight answers from her about that stunt she pulled with Andréa and Ali.”
February 11, 2026 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
julietemckenna.bsky.social
Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'unbelievable' #BookQW #Booksky
Dan Mackmain is used to facing supernatural dangers which no one else can see. Now he has to convince the cops that this very real world crime is nothing to do with him.
See linked post for purchase options and February ebook offer.
Cover art by Ben Baldwin shows a creature crouching in a low tunnel entrance lined with grey stones and partly hidden by green undergrowth and white flowers. The creature has pale skin covered in sparse black hair and it looks a bit like an ape, a bit like a bear, and completely unlike either of those. Book extract reads: The copper wrote everything down and looked up. ‘Please can you tell me exactly what happened here this afternoon?’ That was easy enough. ‘We arrived a bit after five. We’ve rented the place for a week’s holiday. We were having a cup of tea when we heard a noise out the back. When we opened the door, there was a baby on the step.’ Saying that out loud, it did sound hard to believe. ‘What sort of noise did you hear?’ The policeman looked at me intently. ‘Voices? Footsteps? A car?’ ‘Nothing.’ I shook my head. ‘Sorry. I meant we heard the baby crying.’ ‘Nothing else?’ he persisted. I took a moment to think through everything again. ‘No. That’s all there was. Sorry.’ He should hear I was telling the truth. Fin would be saying exactly the same. I could hear low voices inside, even if I couldn’t make out her words. It was obvious these coppers had separated us to find out if our stories matched. I didn’t have to worry about that. But why had a baby been dumped on our doorstep? Who the hell had done this, and why? Now I was over the initial shock, I was getting uneasy.
February 11, 2026 at 10:33 AM
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kimberlybaerauthor.bsky.social
Today's word: UNBELIEVABLE. Excerpt is from my YA paranormal novel OUT OF BODY.

#bookqw #excerpt #yalit #bookstagram
February 11, 2026 at 11:36 AM
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scriblit.bsky.social
Book Quote Wednesday & the word is UNBELIEVABLE. And in Cursed Under London, Honkensby the swan cop can't believe our heroes believed they'd be safe from her pursuit of them by going to Deep London. They don't BELIEEVE IT! #BookSky #BookQW Buying links: farragobooks.com/book-series/...
Quote from Cursed Under London. Quote reads: Honkensby swore to herself. The suspects weren’t hiding after all. They must have already escaped. The New Cross tube, after all, was but a short walk away. She’d posted a couple of guards there when she’d started the search, but they could have already fled down there while she was wasting her time at the Pegasus. They must have snuck Deepside, where for all its many fraught dangers down there they might believe the long wing of Upper London’s law couldn’t reach them. Honkensby took a deep, calming breath, and hung her Seal of the Upper Crown’s Special Diplomatic Protection around her long neck. Any thieves or villains who believed Captain Isobel Honkensby would shy away from pursuing a royally mandated case into the Deepside were, frankly, stupid. She just hoped they weren’t stupid enough to get themselves killed first.
February 11, 2026 at 1:01 PM
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joanneguidoccio.bsky.social
It's Book Quote Wednesday! Today's word: UNBELIEVABLE. #Excerpt is from BETWEEN LAND AND SEA. #bookqw #fantasy #mermaidtransformation
February 11, 2026 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
triempery.bsky.social
Today is Book Quote Wednesday and the word is UNBELIEVEABLE

In THE GOD SPEAR a few unbelievable things happen, largest of which is the Dorilian is in Amallar at all. But nearly as unbelievable is that a Kheld woman insists on flirting with him.
#BookQW #BookSky
Left side is the book cover of THE GOD SPEAR, book four of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. Cover is orange and gold and shows a young woman walking down a country lane toward a tall, strange hill crowned with antlers. On the right side is a text excerpt from THE GOD SPEAR: Thron shook his head. “Prophecies, in my experience, are difficult to outmaneuver. They can dog one’s footsteps to the end.” “Your experience? What prophecies dog you?” He laughed, a low sound that acknowledged Aubrey’s interest. “I would be a fool to answer such a question. Why should I provide you with conversation from which—I am certain—you would concoct an absurdity?” “You talk with others. Why not me?” “They are not forever laying traps with their questions.” “Maybe I’m just interested in you.” Thron gave Aubrey a ghost of a smile, then looked away again. She laughed. “Is that so unbelievable?” “No. It is undoubtedly part of the truth. Just not enough of it.”
February 11, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
jonathanlhoward.bsky.social
Book Quote Wednesday: UNBELIEVABLE. It transpires that I only rarely use the word "unbelievable," which is reasonable given the unlikely tosh that I write. I finally ran down an example in the short story "The Sound of Gyroscopes," featured in the anthology AIRSHIP SHAPE & BRISTOL FASHION.

#bookqw
The cover of AIRSHIP SHAPE & BRISTOL FASHION, an anthology of Bristol-based steampunk edited by Jo Hall @hierath77.bsky.social and Roz Clarke @rozc.bsky.social, published by Wizard's Tower Press @wtpress.bsky.social. It's a good anthology, and I'm not just saying that because I'm in it (although that's obviously a good part of the reason). The cover shows Clifton Suspension Bridge, with a man in some sort of heavy protective armour with air pipes and an army cadet with his cap at a stroppy angle in the foreground. “The Glory was cutting it much more finely. Above and ahead of them, my father and his colleague watched with horror as the stolen gyrosphere flew far too closely for comfort to the bridge’s deck. It would only take a perturbation in the wind or the gyroscopic levitation field to drive them up into it, possibly with enough force to deform the gyro cage causing them to jam and the field to dissipate almost instantly with fatal effect. “It was then that the chase took an unexpected turn.” “I’m finding all manner of things about this tale unexpected,” muttered Kay, “not to mention unbelievable.” He was hushed immediately by the other members.
February 11, 2026 at 1:44 PM
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authorizedmusings.bsky.social
Book Quote Wednesday: UNBELIEVABLE.

from the first Run With the Hunted, narrated by Bristol!

books2read.com/runwiththehu...

#bookqw
screenshot from Run With the Hunted (2018) Chapter Ten “Break it down, Bits,” Dolly says. “Who’re the players? Who’re the good guys?” “Dolly, there are never clear-cut good guys,” Bits says. The headset has left lines on her face, and her eyes are droopy, out of focus. “You’ve done an unbelievable amount of work for us, Bits,” I say. “Don’t you want to lie down first, have a nap, and then we can form a game plan?”
February 11, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
veronicascott.bsky.social
#Bookqw 'believe' from my new release STAR CRUISE LUCKY CHARM #booksky #romancelandia www.amazon.com/CRUISE-LUCKY...
February 11, 2026 at 3:59 PM
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bandersonmysteries.bsky.social
Today is Book Quote Wednesday, and today’s word is “unbelievable.” www.brianandersonmysteries.com www.amazon.com/stores/autho... #BookQW #mystery #wrpbks #mysterybooks #BookSky
February 11, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
bandersonmysteries.bsky.social
Today is Book Quote Wednesday, and today’s word is “unbelievable.” www.brianandersonmysteries.com www.amazon.com/stores/autho... #BookQW
February 11, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
sadirastone.bsky.social
#BookQW UNBELIEVABLE
Apparently, I don't use that word in my books🤣.
This excerpt from Love, Legacy, and Little Green Aliens comes close 👽💘 (excerpt in comments) books2read.com/LoveLegacyLi...
#UFO #booksky #over40 #beachreads
background: solar eclipse Book cover: Love, Legacy, and Little Green Aliens by Sadira Stone Text: UFOs? Over-40 couple, slow burn, rivals to lovers, a pesky ghost, romcom, beach town
February 11, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
tanyahuff.bsky.social
Today's word is UNBELIEVABLE. Today's #Bookqw from INTO THE BROKEN LANDS, a created world fantasy with two timelines, six POV characters and 163,000 words -- where unbelievable appears only once. My characters believe what they see.

Available in HC, pb, ebook, and audible. Shop indie if you can.
Original DAW cover with tower and birds on lower left. Digital cover with tower and tentacles on lower right. Extra tentacles fill the space between them. It's not a squid. It's never a squid. Its dark eyes locked on his face. It had never done that before. It had always looked past him. He could only remember seeing it focus on the animals he'd sent it to kill for food on the way. It had broken rabbits' necks with unbelievable delicacy given the relative sizes. "Protect you," it said. "Horse, no." "If I order you to protect the horses?" "Yes." But it didn't seem happy about it. As far as he could tell. "No food," it added. "No horse food." Arianna spread her hands. He sighed. "Looks like we're leaving the horses."
February 11, 2026 at 4:17 PM
benjeapes.bsky.social
It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is UNBELIEVABLE, though I've had to go with DISBELIEF. Ted struggles with kleptomania, all part of the Thief's plan to rule the world. #kleptomania #yafantasy #bookqw www.benjeapes.com/index.php/th...

Hear me read a longer version at benjeapes.substack.com.
February 11, 2026 at 9:43 AM
benjeapes.bsky.social
And that is why it's no shame to ask someone for help.
#Creativity #WritingTip #WriteTip
GHOSTWRITING NOVELS: A GUIDE FOR GHOSTWRITERS AND THE GHOSTWRITTEN.
www.ghostwritingnovels.com
February 5, 2026 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
kitwhitfield.bsky.social
#booksky #bookqw word: BACK

Journeyman fairy-smith Jedediah has been called out to investigate: something uncanny has been happening to the stock.

Sometimes when the People decide to trouble folks, you need a strong stomach to examine the results.

Buy: tinyurl.com/nvvetupj
Jedediah had seen pigs butchered; Corbie had taken him to every throat-slitting possible from as early as he could remember. Inside should be wet white bones and rich red muscle and glossy baubles of offal, but this dry pouch was empty. Only some ribs and backbone pieces remained embedded in the hide, half-dissolved to a honeycomb of dry bubbles; traceries of flesh and dried strings of organ stuck to its dark insides like the burned scrapings of an overcooked stew inside a pot. Something had hollowed it out.
February 4, 2026 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
thomaswrightson.bsky.social
It's Book Quote Wednesday #BookQW and the word is 'back'. And it's two for the price of one!
Lenore recalls a distant memory, a core part of who she was and who she now is.
#scifi #scifibooks #adventure #BookSky💙📚
Memory drifted back seventeen years with the fondling of that lock. Seventeen years ago, when she and the small band of her clan had been traveling across a world made half-barren due to a terraforming accident. They had been hunting a group of colonists for no other reason than sport. They made those humans run, made them cry and flee in terror, made them hide and dash from cover to cover. She vaguely remembered an old human story, and a line within it from an old cobra to a young human. Run around and make sport, boy. Run around, and make sport. “They did run around. We had our sport.” There had been a ship, crashed there for repairs. A civilian ship attacked by pirates. It had few guns, and fewer small arms. She had felt a twinge of regret, but still followed her band down toward it. One more hunt before leaving on their ship, one more hunt and one more set of trophies. One more lock of hair or length of skin to add to their belts of honor.
February 4, 2026 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
kimberlybaerauthor.bsky.social
Today's word: BACK. Excerpt is from my paranormal YA novel THE HAUNTED PURSE.

#bookqw #excerpt #paranormal #yalit #yabooks #bookstagram
February 4, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
scriblit.bsky.social
It's Book Quote Wednesday! The word is BACK, and in Cursed Under London, not only is Lazare BACK from the dead (in a way that means even helpful vampires like Wulfric can't assist him) he also has big wings on his back. What a predicament! #Booksky#BookQW buy here: farragobooks.com/book-series/...
Quote from Cursed Under London. Quote reads: For the briefest moment, it had felt as if he had died. And then, there had been a sort of spark in the darkness, and a searing pain, and then he simply hadn’t been dead anymore. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t entirely alive, either. He definitely wasn’t human anymore – the massive wings he’d woken up with made that pretty clear – but in the past month he’d discovered he wasn’t a vampire, a ghoul, a zombie or any of the known magical demographics of Deep London either. As for the question of where he belonged, he definitely didn’t know the answer to that either, but certainly hoped it wasn’t ‘in the gutter’. ‘Before you ask,’ added Lazare, anticipating what usually came next whenever a vampire respectfully approached him, ‘I don’t want you to take me Deepside and finish me off or fully turn me, either. I just feel like that would make things more complicated.’ ‘No.’ Wulfric stopped sniffing and stood back again, with a troubled expression. ‘I don’t think I could, even if you did want that. You smell… off.’ As an enthusiastic consumer of the finest perfumes available on a tutor’s wage, Lazare couldn’t help but feel a little affronted at that. ‘“Off”..?’ ‘Off,’ repeated Wulfric, still frowning. ‘I’m so sorry, Monsieur. I don’t think I can help you, at all.’
February 4, 2026 at 11:51 AM
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wtpress.bsky.social
It is Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'back'. In The Sky Slayer by Joel Cornah, Rob Sardan is a prisoner of the Pengs, and is learning to live with being under a curse for killing the king of the pterosaurs. #BookQW
On pre-order now: wizardstowerpress.co...
“Rob Sardan, you must live with who you are and you must find a way to survive. That is how you will change. When you are no longer the person who gloried in blood and death, then the dreams will no longer harm you.” “That’s not how it works, and you know it. The screams will follow me until I die, they’ll never leave, never dim, and they’ll always be there!” “But they will not always have power over you.” “Just you try it! Try having someone scream in your ear every night, have them dying in your dreams, weeping and crying as they’re torn to pieces. I can’t live with it! Nobody can!” He slammed his fist into the table and trembled. His back ached, and a sickly jab went through his chest. Lomi watched him through narrowed eyes. She shook her head and poured more tea into her beak before setting her cup down and standing. “Go to the hot springs. Now. I will send a medic. Tomorrow you will be taken to the glass houses where you will aid the potting and care of my teas.”
February 4, 2026 at 11:53 AM
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queex.bsky.social
It's #BookQW! Essendra's adventuring party is attacked by stealth.

www.patreon.com/posts/weapon...
Gadja reached towards the fire. There was a whisper in the air, a dull wooden thud, and Gadja’s hand was pinned to a log by the shaft of an arrow. Toolan stood up, drawing back his hands for a spell, but a cloaked figure was suddenly behind him with a knife. One deep slash across his belly and he dropped to the ground, limp. Essendra felt something hit her on the back of the head and she was too startled to do anything other than topple forwards. More figures emerged from the dark, all cloaked, all armed. One kept a sword near Gadja’s face. “These two are down,” someone said.
February 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
shonak.bsky.social
It's #BookQW and the word this week is 'back'. In Daughters of Nicnevin, Constance considers how her life might have been different if her witchcraft was not something that had to be hidden.

www.flametreepublishing.com/daughters-of...
Book cover - two women in 18th century dress stand back to back, surrounded by men made of straw and wheat. The atmosphere is threatening Text reads - She sighed and sat back on her heels, pushing stray wisps of hair out of her face. In front of her, the brush continued to scrub on its own, moving in the same careful circles that Constance had been using. She stared at its movement, entranced for a moment. What could her life be if she didn’t have to spend so much of it hiding who she truly was? The sound of small, skipping footsteps and a nonsense song alerted her to Elspeth’s return in plenty of time for her to grab the scrubbing brush and get back to work herself.
February 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
shonak.bsky.social
It's #BookQW and the word this week is 'back'. In The Heart of Winter, Brigit creates a dolly out of oat stalks in honour of the Cailleach, the goddess of winter, who she prays to for help getting out of an arranged marriage to Aengus, god of summer.

www.flametreepublishing.com/the-heart-of...
Book cover - a young woman with long, pleated red hair and a tartan dress faces away from the viewer, looking over a winter landscape. Flowers and vines bloom around her feet. Text reads - When she had reached the widest point of the doll, before she turned her weaving back on itself, she took from the pouch a small rock she had found a few days ago. At first glance it looked rather ordinary, but when one tilted it just right, the light caught flecks of color and turned it into something beautiful. Brigit had spent the last three nights carving a small triskele into the center of its largest face and then polishing it to a sheen. Now, she placed the rock into the center of the doll, an offering to the goddess. She turned the weaving in and completed the doll, resuming her prayers as the token took form in her hands. It wasn’t long before the doll was complete. Brigit passed it over the candle flame, then sprinkled it with ale and placed it carefully on the small shelf above her bed. It comforted her to think that the Cailleach was watching over her as she drifted off to sleep.
February 4, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Ben Jeapes
skyemueller.bsky.social
#Bookqw word: BACK
#booksky #romance #suspense #womensfiction
✨CONDITIONS is available in eBook and Print✨
skyemueller.com/books
February 4, 2026 at 12:52 PM