Charlotte Clutterbuck
@wordfinch.bsky.social
Writer, editor, wife, mother, grandmother, birdwatcher, star-watcher, kayaker, on a mission to keep stuff out of landfill.
My stone-age novel, 'Twin Stars' on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Twin-Stars-Gannet-Quartet-Book-ebook/dp/B0CCT7VLD9
My stone-age novel, 'Twin Stars' on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Twin-Stars-Gannet-Quartet-Book-ebook/dp/B0CCT7VLD9
No weeks in the stone-age, no months. They measure in moons and summers.
In a Moon Year––the full moon rising at Midsummer––the sacred salmon ran free up the river to spawn and die in the Salmon Loch where they’d been born.
#WIPSnips
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
In a Moon Year––the full moon rising at Midsummer––the sacred salmon ran free up the river to spawn and die in the Salmon Loch where they’d been born.
#WIPSnips
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
November 14, 2025 at 10:23 PM
No weeks in the stone-age, no months. They measure in moons and summers.
In a Moon Year––the full moon rising at Midsummer––the sacred salmon ran free up the river to spawn and die in the Salmon Loch where they’d been born.
#WIPSnips
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
In a Moon Year––the full moon rising at Midsummer––the sacred salmon ran free up the river to spawn and die in the Salmon Loch where they’d been born.
#WIPSnips
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Rilke's 'Letters to a Young Poet', about how hard it is to keep up the creative journey, and how necessary, My dear Mr Kappus.
#Bookvember
#Bookvember
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 14!
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
November 14, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Rilke's 'Letters to a Young Poet', about how hard it is to keep up the creative journey, and how necessary, My dear Mr Kappus.
#Bookvember
#Bookvember
Masochism many days. Self-promotion is like trying to run with a ball and chain. But maybe on the best days the faith in your characters and the belief they deserve a hearing?
Self-publishing is either masochism or the search for praise kink. On most days, I'm unclear as to which it is.
#WritingCommunity #WritingLife #AuthorSky #BookSky #IndieAuthor
#WritingCommunity #WritingLife #AuthorSky #BookSky #IndieAuthor
November 14, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Masochism many days. Self-promotion is like trying to run with a ball and chain. But maybe on the best days the faith in your characters and the belief they deserve a hearing?
No building of death rays in the stone-age, just thatch:
When Bhòid took up the thatching tools to help Thorn, the dust got into his nose and slivers of reed got under his nails, and his haunches grew stiff with squatting.'
#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
When Bhòid took up the thatching tools to help Thorn, the dust got into his nose and slivers of reed got under his nails, and his haunches grew stiff with squatting.'
#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
#WIPSnips November 13 "build"
The Writing Machine. From the final performance of The Deviant Behaviour Theatre Company, the James Bond spoof,. 'L', the head of MI6 briefs secret agent Dick Bonanza in the super-villain, "Clownface"
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
The Writing Machine. From the final performance of The Deviant Behaviour Theatre Company, the James Bond spoof,. 'L', the head of MI6 briefs secret agent Dick Bonanza in the super-villain, "Clownface"
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
November 14, 2025 at 5:29 AM
No building of death rays in the stone-age, just thatch:
When Bhòid took up the thatching tools to help Thorn, the dust got into his nose and slivers of reed got under his nails, and his haunches grew stiff with squatting.'
#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
When Bhòid took up the thatching tools to help Thorn, the dust got into his nose and slivers of reed got under his nails, and his haunches grew stiff with squatting.'
#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
J.H. Williams 'Elephant Bill'. A wonderful, unassuming account of his work with elephants in Burma between the wars, and the epic endeavour of saving the elephants from the Japanese invasion.
#Bookvember
#Bookvember
"Heart Mountain: The story of an American Concentration Camp" by Douglas Nelson (I just finished it) covered the little know history of a #JapaneseInternment camp and draft resistance during #WW2. Didn't know anything about that and was blown away.
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 13!
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
November 14, 2025 at 5:15 AM
J.H. Williams 'Elephant Bill'. A wonderful, unassuming account of his work with elephants in Burma between the wars, and the epic endeavour of saving the elephants from the Japanese invasion.
#Bookvember
#Bookvember
Reposted by Charlotte Clutterbuck
Allan Rohan Crite's 1946 "Streetcar Madonna," which I got to see two weeks ago in show of Crite's work at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston www.gardnermuseum.org/allan-rohan-...
November 14, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Allan Rohan Crite's 1946 "Streetcar Madonna," which I got to see two weeks ago in show of Crite's work at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston www.gardnermuseum.org/allan-rohan-...
No shirts: just tanned leather kilts and jerkins.
'Parsa pulled off his tunic and held it against Cu’s belly to staunch the wound. When Sulaire knelt to examine the dog, Parsa looked up at her, pleading. She pushed the stained leather aside, and saw a big gash, bare entrails.
#WIPsnips
'Parsa pulled off his tunic and held it against Cu’s belly to staunch the wound. When Sulaire knelt to examine the dog, Parsa looked up at her, pleading. She pushed the stained leather aside, and saw a big gash, bare entrails.
#WIPsnips
#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #shirt
Drisal and Rush are summoned to report to the king in the aftermath of … something.
- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.
Drisal and Rush are summoned to report to the king in the aftermath of … something.
- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.
November 12, 2025 at 10:35 PM
No shirts: just tanned leather kilts and jerkins.
'Parsa pulled off his tunic and held it against Cu’s belly to staunch the wound. When Sulaire knelt to examine the dog, Parsa looked up at her, pleading. She pushed the stained leather aside, and saw a big gash, bare entrails.
#WIPsnips
'Parsa pulled off his tunic and held it against Cu’s belly to staunch the wound. When Sulaire knelt to examine the dog, Parsa looked up at her, pleading. She pushed the stained leather aside, and saw a big gash, bare entrails.
#WIPsnips
'Ten Steps to Nanette' by Hannah Gadsby. Enlightening, sad, funny it led to recognising my own (mild) autism. Confronting but useful at 72. 'What took you so long?' my wife asked. It's given us both useful strategies. #BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity #Bookvember
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 11!
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
November 11, 2025 at 10:55 PM
'Ten Steps to Nanette' by Hannah Gadsby. Enlightening, sad, funny it led to recognising my own (mild) autism. Confronting but useful at 72. 'What took you so long?' my wife asked. It's given us both useful strategies. #BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity #Bookvember
Reposted by Charlotte Clutterbuck
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 11!
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
November 11, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 11!
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
#WIPsnips
No Maccas in the stone age. My people have to kill their own elks:
'Two spear-throws away, the elk stood motionless. Bhòid could see the tufty patches on his hide, the sharp hip-bones and hollow flanks––a tough, old beast. Then slowly the elk lumbered away through the reeds, limping.'
No Maccas in the stone age. My people have to kill their own elks:
'Two spear-throws away, the elk stood motionless. Bhòid could see the tufty patches on his hide, the sharp hip-bones and hollow flanks––a tough, old beast. Then slowly the elk lumbered away through the reeds, limping.'
November 11, 2025 at 10:44 PM
#WIPsnips
No Maccas in the stone age. My people have to kill their own elks:
'Two spear-throws away, the elk stood motionless. Bhòid could see the tufty patches on his hide, the sharp hip-bones and hollow flanks––a tough, old beast. Then slowly the elk lumbered away through the reeds, limping.'
No Maccas in the stone age. My people have to kill their own elks:
'Two spear-throws away, the elk stood motionless. Bhòid could see the tufty patches on his hide, the sharp hip-bones and hollow flanks––a tough, old beast. Then slowly the elk lumbered away through the reeds, limping.'
'Local' isn't part of my stone-age vocabulary, but place is important, especially the Island of Bute, where I lived as a child, and most of Water-stone is set. My characters call it 'Eilean' (island in Gaelic) and have just claimed it as their 'Belonging'.
#WIPsnips
#WIPsnips
November 10, 2025 at 9:14 PM
'Local' isn't part of my stone-age vocabulary, but place is important, especially the Island of Bute, where I lived as a child, and most of Water-stone is set. My characters call it 'Eilean' (island in Gaelic) and have just claimed it as their 'Belonging'.
#WIPsnips
#WIPsnips
👍
“If it’s so easy to conquer us, why don’t you?” snapped Ethan.
“For the same reason one does invite lepers into one’s tent,” sniffed Tharron, ignoring how the locals scowled at him, “Or mix rotten fruit with fresh. Bringing Midra into Redata would be to our obvious detriment.”
#WIPSnips
“For the same reason one does invite lepers into one’s tent,” sniffed Tharron, ignoring how the locals scowled at him, “Or mix rotten fruit with fresh. Bringing Midra into Redata would be to our obvious detriment.”
#WIPSnips
Welcome to a new week of #WIPSnips
The word for November 10th is "local"
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
The word for November 10th is "local"
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
November 10, 2025 at 9:05 PM
👍
It's not a book, it's a poem by Langston Hughes, 'Mother and Son'.
But I also loved Colin Mcphedran's beautiful and harrowing account of escaping from Burma during the war.
unsw.press/books/white-...
Bookvember #Booksky
But I also loved Colin Mcphedran's beautiful and harrowing account of escaping from Burma during the war.
unsw.press/books/white-...
Bookvember #Booksky
November 10, 2025 at 9:03 PM
It's not a book, it's a poem by Langston Hughes, 'Mother and Son'.
But I also loved Colin Mcphedran's beautiful and harrowing account of escaping from Burma during the war.
unsw.press/books/white-...
Bookvember #Booksky
But I also loved Colin Mcphedran's beautiful and harrowing account of escaping from Burma during the war.
unsw.press/books/white-...
Bookvember #Booksky
8. In chapter 1 of 'Twin Stars' I tell the legend of Seren and Speir, the sky twins (Gemini) who saved the child of Merak the Great Bear from Ullr the Hunter (Orion).
#NovemberWorldbuilders #writesky
#NovemberWorldbuilders #writesky
8. I haven't actually given much thought to heroes. Since the gods themselves roamed the planet, they tended to do the hero-ing. An important figure is the Philonax Asterionis, who ruled Ithae at the time of its great cataclysm. He saved everyone--after a fashion. #NovemberWorldbuilders #writesky
Hello, #NovemberWorldbulders! This week’s theme is GOOD and EVIL where we share morality in our fictional worlds. Today's question is about HEROES from the past. Do you have any characters who lived and performed acts of heroism before the main story starts?
November 9, 2025 at 10:43 PM
8. In chapter 1 of 'Twin Stars' I tell the legend of Seren and Speir, the sky twins (Gemini) who saved the child of Merak the Great Bear from Ullr the Hunter (Orion).
#NovemberWorldbuilders #writesky
#NovemberWorldbuilders #writesky
M G Bruce's Billabong Books were of her time. Her language about Aboriginal can seem patronising today, but also show insight and compassion. Norah, her heroine, has kindness, courage, honesty. And 'Billabong' gave me, a 'site slicker' a deep appreciation of rural life and care for animals.
8. Everyone in my life would expect me to choose Jane Austen here, since she's my favorite author, but that's too obvious. I'll go with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin. Don't know about female experience, but it did inspire an entire secondary world for me. #Bookvember #writingcommunity
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 8!
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.
#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
November 9, 2025 at 6:04 AM
M G Bruce's Billabong Books were of her time. Her language about Aboriginal can seem patronising today, but also show insight and compassion. Norah, her heroine, has kindness, courage, honesty. And 'Billabong' gave me, a 'site slicker' a deep appreciation of rural life and care for animals.
Success on the estuary
Last summer, the Australian Pied Oystercatchers who live on an island in our estuary, brought their two adolescents to visit us during a king tide. I'd seen them as babies when out kayaking. This morning I saw this year's babies from my kayak. Too far away to photograph.
Last summer, the Australian Pied Oystercatchers who live on an island in our estuary, brought their two adolescents to visit us during a king tide. I'd seen them as babies when out kayaking. This morning I saw this year's babies from my kayak. Too far away to photograph.
November 6, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Success on the estuary
Last summer, the Australian Pied Oystercatchers who live on an island in our estuary, brought their two adolescents to visit us during a king tide. I'd seen them as babies when out kayaking. This morning I saw this year's babies from my kayak. Too far away to photograph.
Last summer, the Australian Pied Oystercatchers who live on an island in our estuary, brought their two adolescents to visit us during a king tide. I'd seen them as babies when out kayaking. This morning I saw this year's babies from my kayak. Too far away to photograph.
My WIP is Water-stone, set on the Island of Bute in Stone-Age Scotland. Sulaire, a gifted healer, has just stood up to the High Priestess Sagart, and become wise woman of the Gannet Clan. But at what cost? Will the Gannets have to retreat to their Dun at the south of Eileen?
#writesky
#writesky
November 3, 2025 at 10:39 PM
My WIP is Water-stone, set on the Island of Bute in Stone-Age Scotland. Sulaire, a gifted healer, has just stood up to the High Priestess Sagart, and become wise woman of the Gannet Clan. But at what cost? Will the Gannets have to retreat to their Dun at the south of Eileen?
#writesky
#writesky
Choosing the right stone to sling: a metaphor for writing a scene in fiction.
charlotteclutterbuck.com/3-ways-to-us...
charlotteclutterbuck.com/3-ways-to-us...
October 26, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Choosing the right stone to sling: a metaphor for writing a scene in fiction.
charlotteclutterbuck.com/3-ways-to-us...
charlotteclutterbuck.com/3-ways-to-us...
Brahminy Kite, Mangroves, Davistown
Seen from my kayak recently. They are only just moving this far south. Last time I saw one, my bird app wanted me to prove the sighting. This time it just accepted it.
Seen from my kayak recently. They are only just moving this far south. Last time I saw one, my bird app wanted me to prove the sighting. This time it just accepted it.
October 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Brahminy Kite, Mangroves, Davistown
Seen from my kayak recently. They are only just moving this far south. Last time I saw one, my bird app wanted me to prove the sighting. This time it just accepted it.
Seen from my kayak recently. They are only just moving this far south. Last time I saw one, my bird app wanted me to prove the sighting. This time it just accepted it.
Little Pied Cormorant, morning mist.
October 9, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Little Pied Cormorant, morning mist.
Where's Granny?
One of the more challenging items found in our estuary and brought home on my kayak.
One of the more challenging items found in our estuary and brought home on my kayak.
October 8, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Where's Granny?
One of the more challenging items found in our estuary and brought home on my kayak.
One of the more challenging items found in our estuary and brought home on my kayak.
Measuring with coffee spoons
The language of measurement can help writers generate new metaphors . Not the metric system ('he centimetred himself carefully away from the cliff's edge'), but good old body measurements: hands, fathoms, feet, cubits.
charlotteclutterbuck.com/measurement-...
The language of measurement can help writers generate new metaphors . Not the metric system ('he centimetred himself carefully away from the cliff's edge'), but good old body measurements: hands, fathoms, feet, cubits.
charlotteclutterbuck.com/measurement-...
October 4, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Measuring with coffee spoons
The language of measurement can help writers generate new metaphors . Not the metric system ('he centimetred himself carefully away from the cliff's edge'), but good old body measurements: hands, fathoms, feet, cubits.
charlotteclutterbuck.com/measurement-...
The language of measurement can help writers generate new metaphors . Not the metric system ('he centimetred himself carefully away from the cliff's edge'), but good old body measurements: hands, fathoms, feet, cubits.
charlotteclutterbuck.com/measurement-...
Young sea eagle seen from my kayak, early morning.A
September 19, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Young sea eagle seen from my kayak, early morning.A