Planning a fictional murder is not for the faint hearted. Google is torn between believing I am a) dying of carbon monoxide poisoning and b) in need of being detained by the authorities.

5 Top Tips for How to Write a Murder Mystery | The Novelry share.google/5bLfCuDk8QDn...

'Weil reminds us that real evil, unlike its scripted counterpart, is stupid and predictable.'

A. Rebecca Rozelle-Stone: Simone Weil’s ethical life class

When your book makes it to the Christmas window display of a local shop 💙

What an inspiring and hilarious evening with @margaretatwood.bsky.social. I don't think I've ever stroked the cover of a book so much as this one #bookoflives #amemoirofsorts

Enjoyed a slow Sunday scroll this morning and came across this piece in Vogue by @zadiesmith.bsky.social on fashion and intellectual life.

www.vogue.co.uk/article/zadi...

Congratulations to @irismurdoch.bsky.social on the posthumous publication of Iris Murdoch's poetry collection 'Poems from an Attic'

Every day for the last week I have left work when it is pitch black outside. Yesterday I had the opportunity to leave a little earlier and I took the opportunity to come home and do some of my own writing.

The sky rewarded me with an impressive display, which I'm taking as a sign to keep going.

Happy Publication Day to 'Poems from an Attic' from @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social!

Here's a new podcast with the editors and our friends at Chatto and Windus: soundcloud.com/user-5488042...

We're more connected than ever, so why does writing about friendship feel so hard.

open.substack.com/pub/thehopel...

Lemn Sissay reminding me to take it one day at a time, when getting up at 6am in the dark and cold to get some writing in before work starts to feel hard.

In the absence of NaNoWriMo I've decided to take up the Substack 'First Draft November' challenge. 50,000 words in November. Are any other writers giving something similar a go?

open.substack.com/pub/firstdra...

The double-edged bookends of my working week:

Friday - I will curate my own path as a writer and follow my heart.
Monday - there is no way I can do this with a full time job, why am I even trying?!

'Du Maurier is a portraitist of the grotesque, coolly judgemental, aroused to aesthetic as well as moral disdain for those of her characters who seem to be more evidently physical than others.'

Joyce Carol Oates on tales of the uncanny

Scurryfunge (v): old English, to rush around cleaning when company is on their way over.

I have spent my whole morning scurryfunging since my husband announced that my in-laws are coming over later today.

Such a fun word and one that almost makes the process of doing it bearable!

Tentatively starting out on Substack, would love fellow writers, millennials, humans to give me a follow ❤️

This is my first post for Halloween 🎃

open.substack.com/pub/thehopel...