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marandina.bsky.social
marandina
@marandina.bsky.social
200 followers 88 following 810 posts
Writer, poet, editor, loves sport, movies and other stuff. Writes fiction at abctales.com/user/marandina
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marandina.bsky.social
marandina @marandina.bsky.social · Sep 25
Delighted to have a short story published by the wonderful @darkwinterlitmag.bsky.social

Thank you 🙏
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
A poem of mine for this slow approach of Wintering. It’s called Blackthorn.
Illustration of blackthorn and its dark berries. I am the seed that knows no name, I am the happenstance of germination, of endurance. I am the blackthorn, each twist and contortion, I am every layer of bark and every leaf grown and fallen, I am the nighttide of fruit, bletted or food for mistle thrush, the star-white bloom and friend of mottled pug and lonely bee. I am Winter's hope of crooked tree, I am the mistbright blossom of a Hawthorn's sister, I am the Maypole. I am the root and the unturned earth, I am the North Wind, a fence of prickles, I am the rain and the cloud it fell from, I am the worm. I am the black rod, I am a giant's cudgel, I am the pin of slumber, the wood's mother, a broken spell, I am all the tales you tell about me, I am an old wound, healed.
November 16, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
My poetry collection, In the Shadow of Gods, is currently selling for eleven whole pence less than usual! amzn.eu/d/8GeJEBX
Cover of my 2024 collection: In the Shadow of Gods Rachel Deering
November 16, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by marandina
bookwormsat.bsky.social
🧚 @racheldeering.bsky.social Keeping an eye on #BookWormSat from enchanted woods. There are definitely some little folk hereabouts.
Photo of autumnal hillside currently being walked by me.
November 15, 2025 at 2:26 PM
marandina.bsky.social
Shelley spying storm Claudia outside
November 14, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by marandina
jumpingjulespoetry.bsky.social
Looking forward to hearing my interview and poem on BBC Upload tonight and Saturday night at 6pm with Rob Jelly. Thanks Rob!
November 13, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
Great new review from the lovely @raindegrey.bsky.social. Very grateful.
Haunting, Elegant, Memorable Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2025 Format: Paperback GET THIS BOOK! Haunting, mythic, incredibly well-written, memorable, deep woods, old legends. Treat yourself to a worthy addition to the bookshelf. You won't regret it. Reviewer’s photo of my book, In the Shadow of Gods.
November 13, 2025 at 5:27 AM
marandina.bsky.social
And, of course..

#AstonVillavBournemouth
November 9, 2025 at 12:47 PM
marandina.bsky.social
Here we go again! 🍂

Fanzone

#AstonVillavBournemouth
November 9, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
A poem from my collection, In the Shadow of Gods. Consider getting yourself a copy, links in post below or reviewing it. 👇
blackboughpoetry.bsky.social Black Bough Poetry @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social · 9d
‘We have eyed the mystery of one another'

'Wren' by Rachel Deering from 'In the Shadow of Gods', available with Black Bough, a bumper collection. @racheldeering.bsky.social

www.blackboughpoetry.com/rachel-deering
November 8, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by marandina
bookwormsat.bsky.social
‘When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you’ll remember.’ ~ Charles Hamilton Sorley

And @racheldeering.bsky.social here for the rest of a war and peace #BookWormSat
Photo of Charles Hamilton Sorley who was 20 years old when he died in 1915 at the Battle of Loos. He was the youngest of the major war poets, having been born in 1895. He left this poem, probably his most famous, untitled at his death.
November 8, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
‘To the men of both sides alike, worn out… it began equally to appear doubtful whether they should continue to slaughter one another…‘For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?…You may go and kill whom you please, but I don’t want to do so any more!’— Tolstoy, W&P for #BookWormSat
🖼️ Igor Karash
An illustration by Igor Karash for a 2014 edition of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. The illustration depicts a dramatic battle scene with a central figure in a military uniform, possibly a commander, in a dynamic pose. In the background, soldiers on horseback and on foot are engaged in combat on a hilly landscape under a stormy sky. A flag with a crest is visible at the top of the image.
November 8, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by marandina
ewanl.bsky.social
#Poetry collection: 'The Paper Over The Cracks' available now at the 'Zon.

Other books are available: www.amazon.co.uk/stores/autho...
October 27, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by marandina
thispersona.bsky.social
Story: Standing Around

www.abctales.com/story/sean-m...

Splinters, diggers, and daisies.
November 1, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
A poem from my collection, In the Shadow of Gods. 👇
blackboughpoetry.bsky.social Black Bough Poetry @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social · 15d
‘a yearning of notes flung
to the sky gods that sail
upon the high wind’ 🐺

@racheldeering.bsky.social from ‘In the Shadow of Gods’

www.blackboughpoetry.com/rachel-deering
November 2, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
‘(F)rom some dark recess with ghastly stare…
The moping scriech-owl, fatal bird of night,
Claps ominous her wings, foreboding death.’ ~ The ruins of Netley Abby, Anon, 1765. #BookWormSat
Illustration of Abbey ruins with trees.
November 1, 2025 at 11:54 AM
marandina.bsky.social
Last night's fireworks on Halloween at the sea front
November 1, 2025 at 10:55 AM
marandina.bsky.social
Happy #Caturday

A Perkins baguette
November 1, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by marandina
janeayrie.bsky.social
This is a piece I wrote some time ago on ABCTales.com, about the shock and grief I felt when my daughter had her first tonic clonic epileptic seizure: tinyurl.com/3sb4mv6y. 12 years later, prejudice around epilepsy still appals me. Please take a moment to read #epilepsyawareness #writing #amwriting
28K views · 273 reactions | If I told you I have epilepsy… how would you react? Would you treat me differently at work? Would you pull away in a relationship? Would you avoid the topic with friends? ...
If I told you I have epilepsy… how would you react? Would you treat me differently at work? Would you pull away in a relationship? Would you avoid the topic with friends? Too many people with...
www.facebook.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
Another of my spooky poems for an October past. This one is Wintered Thin.
🖼️ Kittelsen ~ a Nøkken or nicor in Old English
Again, originally shared on the lovely @abctales.bsky.social
www.abctales.com/story/onemor...
Nøkken rising from rippled water with glowing eyes, the pool is covered with lily pads and the reflections of reeds and trees. Painting. At first, it was the fog that grew upon us as a shroud so gently that it was unremarked. Not a gäst, but still worse, formed in the mere, snapped at the heels of children, found us in our beds. The water coursed to flod, surged over stones until they sang of her, and her vengeance - the way it hammers out a monster like a blacksmith in his forge, and here, at last, we felt the teeth of history, ea to brim, when the salmon leaps run, and the night bird cries fly, we wintered thin, blood thickened, frightened of ourselves. (In Old English: gāst - spirit, flöd - flood, ea - river, brim - sea)
October 26, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by marandina
thispersona.bsky.social
Story: Heartbeats

www.abctales.com/story/sean-m...

Jesuits, washerwomen, and peeping toms too.
October 25, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Reposted by marandina
drewgum.bsky.social
If you’ve been thinking about buying Saltbrun now might be the time.

It’s a perfect gift!

Or any other Renard title obviously!

renardpress.com/books/saltbu...
October 25, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
A few years ago, I wrote a series of spooky poems for October. I’m going to try to add to them, but this is one of them. It’s about the case of Esther Cox. Posted, of course, on @abctales.bsky.social
www.abctales.com/story/onemor...
This is my second ghostly poem for October. It's based on the Amherst Case of poltergeist activity that was reported to have centred on Esther Fox. Esther was 18 and had been the victim of an attempted sexual assault. These events occurred between 1878 and 1879 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada. He says, 'Esther Cox, you are mine to kill', he writes it on the wall. Hysterical or paranormal, subject to an unknown will - she is needled and scratched, and her body, swollen with pain, she asks, 'what still belongs to me?' as something or someone slides her bed sheets down, unseen. Bring in the clergymen with godly, holy water, let them put their tests to Esther who hears a loud ghost, who knocks once for yes and twice for no, let them examine how this suffering manifests. A 14-year-old domestic servant, Therese Selles, experiences poltergeist / spontaneous PK activity in the home of her employer, the Todeschini family at Chéraga, Algeria, as featured on the cover of the French magazine La Vie Mysterieuse in 1911.
October 25, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by marandina
racheldeering.bsky.social
‘Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Harpier cries "'Tis time, 'tis time.’ ~ Macbeth for #BookWormSat
🖼️ George Cattermole, C19th.
Three witches scene around cauldron, painting.
October 25, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by marandina
blackboughpoetry.bsky.social
‘An unexpected winter in
timber, spare and black.’

Regine Ebner from ‘Mountains that See in the Dark’

www.blackboughpoetry.com/regine-ebner...
October 24, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by marandina
ewanl.bsky.social
#Poetryalert 'The Paper Over The Cracks'. Not for the prosaically-minded.
Get yours here!
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FSCXQH4F
October 24, 2025 at 6:22 AM