Allyson Shaw
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allysonshaw.bsky.social
Allyson Shaw
@allysonshaw.bsky.social
1.2K followers 420 following 700 posts
Writer, cat botherer, firebrand based in Orkney.Author of Ashes & Stones-shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize.🍉🏳️‍⚧️ally. Any pronouns 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 https://linktr.ee/AllysonShaw More active on Mastodon. https://wandering.shop/@AllysonShaw
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allysonshaw.bsky.social
Forget life is short--what if you had all the time in the world? 
Widdershins COVER REVEAL. Kara's story is vibrant retelling of the selkie myth and an epic tale of connected lives spanning a thousand years. Sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter goes live:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/all...
A collage of the cover illustration of widdershins, a white woman looking sidelong in black and white and a seal looking at the viewer. Behind is the north sea and over all it says KICKSTARTER WIDDERSHINS is -Viking Age time slip -literary fantasy -weird girl fiction -subversive folklore -selkie myth retelling -cozy apocalypse -atmospheric islands -dark academia vibes -Scotland, but riddled with fairies -poetic survival story -a smattering of spice The cover of Widdershins, with swirling oceanic imagery, a crow, moth, seal and woman in profile
October 30, 2025 at 8:04 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Drawing Hands, M C Escher. This image encapsulates #dyslexia for me--the good side of being #neurodiverse in this way is that even two dimensional things like text are three dimensional, or spacial in a way that is nonlinear. It feels a lot like the visual puzzle of Escher's work. #neurospicy
A drawing of two hands drawing each other. The hands are very realistic, and each holds a pencil drawing the minimal lines of the cuffs below the wrists--as if the hands are surfacing from the drawing, coming alive
September 10, 2025 at 10:46 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
The Westray Wifey is giving you the Monday side-eye. This #Neolithic figure from the Stone Age found on Westray #orkney is the first depiction of a face found in the UK to date. #FavouriteThings
A small stone figure with a round head and square body. She has two eyes, a unibrow line across her forehead and two lines for a nose.
September 8, 2025 at 10:36 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Sketching a preliminary map. I love second world maps-once I get something down that works I’ll ink it. Does anyone else draw maps for their books? (This the map of the world of my novel. Do you recognise it?) #WritingCommunity #cartography #maps #fantasy
A pencil sketch of a map of Scotland but weird
September 3, 2025 at 10:45 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Little doodles, big plans. Images for chapter headings for a novel I have just finished. Once I’m happy with them I’ll ink them up with some pilot carbon black & a zebra G nib. #booksky #FountainPens
Six circular drawings of a serpent with a book, a dragon headed torc a seal an eye and two crows.
September 1, 2025 at 10:17 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
I believe this illustration is by Kay Neilson-it’s a bit distorted but I love her troll bling-complete with temple rings!
An illustration of a large troll woman wearing rings beside her ears
August 29, 2025 at 9:19 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
From heritage museum in Sanday, #orkney Gutter dolls (one complete with knife) and knitted herring in tiny barrels #knitting
Three dolls dressed in aprons and kerchiefs stand on a shelf behind barrels of tiny, knitted fish.
August 27, 2025 at 10:32 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
#flashbackFriday to the last time I was on Hoy. (2024). Rackwick is beautiful. #orkney
A photo of a dramatic landscape of cliffs and a pebble beach with a small stone cottage and drystone wall
August 22, 2025 at 6:26 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
This detail is a ring of midges from the Scottish £10 note visible under UV light. The bill also features scientist Mary Somerville who discovered the planet Neptune. (I believe this midge wreath also appears on other denominations. Has anyone seen them?) #Scotland #midges
A ring of five midges form a circle around the number 10. They form a hexagon like shape and are glowing blue on a black ground.
August 20, 2025 at 4:37 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Looking back at some old photos. This is me at Long Meg--about twenty years ago! That spiral, tho...#Megalithic #StandingStones #StoneCircle #MegalithicMonday #StandingStone
A photo of a young white woman with red hair in a blue anorak posing in front of a lichen covered standing stone etched with a spiral. Her expression is thoughtful and and maybe a bit surprised.
August 4, 2025 at 1:28 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Too soon? New Weather Forecast Symbols by Tom Gauld. @tomgauld.bsky.social #ClimateCrisis
A grid of ten infograms each with a small drawing and text like: megahail, firenado, Plague of Locusts, Sentient Nano-fog, Solar Death Ray, Scattered Sattelite Debris, Haunted Tornado, Frost Giants...
July 8, 2025 at 8:49 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Dead women surrealists are setting records at high stakes auctions. Would this vogue mean that living women writers can tell stories in ways, outside of the hegemonic consensus reality and five act structure? I dream #WritingCommunity
#WomenSurrealists www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/05/13/r...
Endgame by Dorothea Tanning is a painting depicting a chessboard like a torn curtain. Over this a satin court shoe steps on a bishop's mitred hat, crushing out bubbly tears from it. Below the tear in the curtain reveals a wide open pastoral vista. Board is marked with dotted lines like a dance diagram or map of a battle.
May 14, 2025 at 6:11 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
A THIMBLE FULL OF DUST is my #debut adult literary #speculative novel. I'm supported by @creativescots.bsky.social
My acclaimed nonfiction, Ashes & Stones was
shortlisted for the #RSL Christopher Bland Prize, @waterstones.bsky.social Scottish BOTM
‘Lyrical Magic’—#NYT. #scotwriterpitch2025 4.5/4
Text on image reads 'Shaw passes over centuries-old footsteps like fingers on Braille; the lilt of her voice on the page is lyrical magic.' --The New York Times
March 28, 2025 at 7:24 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
A THIMBLE FULL OF DUST is informed by my extensive research into Scottish witchcraft folklore & the mysterious landscape of Orkney. The islands are a sea ravaged time machine, & their rugged, otherworldly atmosphere has inspired my novel. Adult Speculative Literary Debut #scotwriterpitch2025 4/4
Breaking the Vicious Circle, painting by Remedios Varo depicts a single figure on a rustic, dried blood red background. The figure is non binary, slender and tall with wild grey fur like hair. Their garments float around them like weather, forming ghostly, totemic figures of animals. They're garment parts revealing a wood in the gloaming at their heart. A broken cord orbits around their shoulders, they are either breaking it or putting it back together. Their expression is serious, slightly ominous, looking directly at the viewer.
March 28, 2025 at 5:44 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Set in an alternative Scotland, A THIMBLE FULL OF DUST travels from the Northern Isles to Edina in a rollicking, lyrical fairy tale for our modern age. My lived experience as a #queer, #workingclass, #neurodiverse writer informs the work in subversive, exciting ways. 3/4 #scotwriterpitch2025
Kopakonan, Mikladalur, Faroe Islands. A bronze statue of a naked woman standing on a craggy outcrop in front of a calm grey sea. Low cloud cover obscures the sky and farther island at the horizon. The statue is green with verdigris and the woman holds a garment--she is halted in the act of stepping out of a seal skin. She looks out at the horizon or the viewer as if beckoned.
March 28, 2025 at 1:24 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
A THIMBLE FULL OF DUST is Cloud Atlas meets Orlando: a queering of the selkie myth & an epic tale of connected lives spanning a thousand years. Kára’s story time-slips through folklore to a post-apocalyptic future & back again, playing with disruptive narrative & convention. #scotwriterpitch2025 2/4
Illustration for Moby Dick by Vail Myers. A Surreal painting of a naked (except for her stocking) white woman with volumous red hair lays on a bed dreaming of the sea. Creatures curl up and sleep with her. The dream swoons above her of a whale and a ship on the waves, flanked by stern and mysterious profiles and decorated landscapes.
March 28, 2025 at 11:14 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
I've written about Alison Balfour, a woman accused of Witchcraft in #Orkney and her relationship to the landscape. Part of a series for paid subscribers. open.substack.com/pub/allysons... #Hauntology #Psychogeography #Neolithic #Folklore #Witchsky #Scotland #HopePunk #WomensHistory
A promotional image created with a digital collage of the Standing Stones of Stenness, a large dark blue moon in the background that has a floral motif and a woman in the foreground dressed in the same woad-blue with an apron and simple head covering, holding a basket The text reads "Against the Dying of the Light: hope seeded in the darkest of places. A promotional image that reads "In many of the confessions, seeded deep, is a model of resistance." A text image with a quote that says "Here is a doorway between worlds. They are everywhere in Orkney, in every hollow hill, every passage tombs. Each standing stone connects earth to sky.
February 6, 2025 at 7:01 AM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Without downloading any new pictures where are you at mentally
A photo of a graveyard with a stone angel fallen face first into the ground. Her head is buried but her wings are still flexed open
February 4, 2025 at 7:00 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
#FridayPhotoClub!

—>search “flora” in your camera roll & post your favourite/s<—
Faded artificial flowers in a bouquet of hydrangeas and pink and lilac roses and tattered leaves stuck in the drystone wall of an old Kirkyard
January 31, 2025 at 9:15 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
In this latest blog post: thoughts on moving through despair & making truth irresistible, plus practical tips for making your online life less oppressive. #Meta #Mastodon #NoAI #ResistanceIsFertile #OnlineCommunity #AudreLorde #CreativeResistance #Fediverse #IG

open.substack.com/pub/allysons...
A portion of a digital collage featuring three Hermit tarot cards, one from the trad Smith deck featuring an old man in a grey cloak with a staff, another is from the wild unknown tarot, with a turtle in their shell and a old oil lamp shining on their shell and the third is Kermit holding a lantern up with a star in it. His card says The Kermit.
January 29, 2025 at 5:21 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Grissell Jaffray’s stone for #StandingStoneSunday. This is not a Neolithic menhir—it’s actually quite small and its origins are unknown, but centuries ago, guilds would seal bargains over this stone in the Howff kirkyard in central #Dundee.🧵1/2
A photo of a kirkyard with very old, lichen covered gravestones shifting and crooked with age. In the background, a modern brutalist structure made of concrete hems in the kirkyard. A small, two-by-four shaped stone is in the foreground. It is weathered and unmarked, leaning to the side. The ground is tended with care in a circle around the base of the stone.
January 26, 2025 at 1:20 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
#FridayPhotoClub.

—>search “street” in your camera roll & post your favourite/s<—(inspired by @sglaisteryoung.bsky.social this is the Kirkwall #PipeBand #Orkney #Scotland #Bagpipes
A pipe band waiting at a crossroads in front of an ice cream shop called The Daily Scoop.
January 24, 2025 at 6:18 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
#creatuanary2025 2. Jorōgumo (Japan). This is my take on the spider woman of Japanese myth. Done on watercolour paper with Zebra G nib dip pen & brush with Pilot carbon black ink and white gel pen. (This challenge will take me all year 😹)
#spiderwoman #InkDrawing #Ink #ArtistsBlusky #Horror
A drawing in black ink of an ear with three stud earrings surrounded by tendrils of black hair. A large orb weaver spider with a girl’s face dangles from a thread and two front legs touch the ear. A wavy line, like a musical score connects the spider girl’s mouth to the ear, as if she is whispering. Underneath a text box with whimsical letters says “What did the spider whisper in your ear?” And all around the small square with the picture are washes of black ink in spindly formations. A drawing in black ink of an ear with three stud earrings surrounded by tendrils of black hair. A large orb weaver spider with a girl’s face dangles from a thread and two front legs touch the ear. A wavy line, like a musical score connects the spider girl’s mouth to the ear, as if she is whispering. Underneath a text box with whimsical letters says “What did the spider whisper in your ear?” And all around the small square with the picture are washes of black ink in spindly formations.
January 23, 2025 at 7:14 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
Ironshisuku ‘yama-guri’ Wild Chestnut ink is different on every paper: dusty plum, grey-green or khaki brown. This Mnemosyne not great for swatches, but old habits die hard. One hell of a goblin core ink. In my Sailor x Wancher pen. sample done w/ a glass dip pen & Zebra G nib dip pen. #InkSwatch
A page of decorative alphabets in a brownish green ink, with illustrations of a chestnut tree leave and seed in its prickly case A card with a purple- brown ink splatter with decorative spindly marks and a moss green sheen
January 12, 2025 at 4:20 PM
allysonshaw.bsky.social
#caturday and I’m sick as all get out. Floki looks concerned.
A photo of a black and white cat with exceptionally long whiskers and eyebrow whiskers looking sad and serious in front of a woven pillow case embellished with flowers-it used to be a rug.
January 11, 2025 at 6:37 PM