Marian L Thorpe: writer & birder
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marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Marian L Thorpe: writer & birder
@marianlthorpe.bsky.social
1.4K followers 410 following 830 posts
Writing and nature posts, mostly.
Books at https://scarletferret.com/authors/marian-l-thorpe and all the other usual on-line places.
Also at https://substack.com/@marianlthorpe
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marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Do you live near #Guelph (Ontario)? I'm co-launching my new story collection Beyond the Wall at Peter Szabo's launch for his debut novel The Revived, at the Albion, Thursday Nov 6th 6 - 8:30 pm. I'd love to see you there!
(No elevator, sadly, so be aware.)
October 30, 2025 at 10:51 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
The e-book of Beyond the Wall, my new short story collection, is now available for pre-order. Oct 31 release.
(Not a fan of the particular e-book platform? DM me.)
books2read.com/u/3LO82w
The paperback will be available about the same time, and I'll post that information then. #booksky
The cover of Marian L Thorpe's new collection of short stories and verse. It shows Hadrian's Wall from a distance, with a small figure beyond in near the left hand edge, and rolling hills in the distance.
September 14, 2025 at 9:09 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Surpassed 100,000 words on An Unwise Prince today. I might get the first draft finished this year after all!

#booksky
September 9, 2025 at 11:07 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
The working cover -- not the final one -- for my next book, a collection of my best short stories and verse from the past 25 years (!) of being a published author. Out in late October - more details to come. #poetry #shortstories #fiction #Booksky
August 28, 2025 at 8:13 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 26th #WIPSnips 'bail' -- or in this case, one of its many synonyms: 'pledge'
#WIP #AnUnwisePrince
“Fifty years ago, when Göran of Varsland declared war on the Casillard, Ésparias and Linrathe and Vilkmë supported us,” Wilnoth said. “Ésparias and Linrathe provided money, not soldiers. Funds with which to pay mercenaries, and the loan of ships of Ésparias’s navy to transport them. Neither country made a declaration of war against Varsland.” Guthlaf spoke authoritatively. “But,” Cenric said, “if the threat is real, and we had this warning and did nothing, surely that violates the precepts of the Casillard? We are pledged to aid other cities of the Confederacy.”
July 26, 2025 at 11:23 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 25th #WIPSnipes 'thrive' - or in this case, a synonym, 'prosper'. MC Cenric discussing an investment.#WIP #AnUnwisePrince
“Are you saying I should have asked the Guild first, before agreeing to the investment?” Guthlaf chuckled. “No. Just that we do not expect such surprises from Cenric bé Casille. What made you accept the proposal?” “The terms were good, and if the safran prospers in Beria, the return should be excellent,” Cenric said. “I had been looking for a suitable investment in Beria, one perhaps Audun could keep an eye on while he studies there.”
July 25, 2025 at 12:14 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 24 #WIPSnips 'inside'

#WIP #AnUnwisePrince
Unlocking the door to the warehouse, Cenric beckoned him inside. The furs lay on a long table, piled and tied with bands of cloth. Kirt was no real judge of fur, but he knew what trimmed his own cloaks and gloves and winter tunics, and it wasn’t fur like this, thin, brittle, shedding. These should be thick, lustrous, soft, the pelts taken at the height of winter. “I see your concern.”
July 24, 2025 at 11:16 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 23 #WIPSnips: 'minor'. A bit of worldbuilding from #AnUnwisePrince #WIP
The inn wasn't busy. If ships had arrived on today’s tide, Casille’s merchants had more pressing things to do; if not, they were occupied with the shipments from yesterday or the day before. Once the contents of barrels and bales had been assessed and deals made in the warehouses and offices and houses of the traders, Ferrand’s tables would be full. Only minor or routine business was conducted in public.
July 23, 2025 at 11:28 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Truth mirroring (my) fiction: a headline from my local paper today, and a snippet from Empire’s Exile.
July 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 22 #WIPSnips: needle.
MC Luce, a physician, being concerned and frustrated by her uncle's reluctance to consider cataract surgery. (In the equivalent of the 13th C, so I might be on his side in this.) #WIP #AnUnwisePrince
Luce stood, placing her wine glass on the low table, looking down at her uncle in the flickering light. His face was drawn. “Are you all right, Magister?” “A headache, nothing more. They are becoming more frequent.” “And will, if you continue to refuse to have those cataracts removed.” An old dispute. The surgery was new. Luce had learned it in Agade; had performed it a few times. Her uncle would not countenance it. The thought of a needle inserted into his eye made him ill, he said.
July 22, 2025 at 12:24 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 21 #WIPSnips. A synonym today; 'guarantee'

MC Cenric at work. #WIP #AnUnwisePrince
Ships were due, there would be cargo to be unloaded and goods to move from quay to warehouse, and while Cenric had perfectly competent people to oversee all this, he liked both to be seen, and to offer words of appreciation – or sometimes rebuke – to the labourers. And if there was wine or oil to be accepted, he trusted only his own tongue to taste it, so that he could guarantee its quality to purchasers.
July 21, 2025 at 11:07 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Jly 20 #WIPSnips 'moon'. An unexpected - and almost fatal - meeting of comrades after a battle. #WIP #AnUnwisePrince
Andric’s ability to see in the dark saved them. Rothgar saw the upward lunge of the man who’d lain hidden, half covered with the tatters of last year’s leaves, but it was Andric who launched himself forward, his knife on a downward arc, to knock the assailant away from his captain. The clouds cleared the moon. The man stared up at his attacker, choking out, “Andric?” “Wulf?” The knife’s descent stopped.
July 20, 2025 at 11:35 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Summer colours.
July 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
'Search' for #WIPSnips. Luce is dealing with the responsibilities that fall to her after her uncle's stroke. #WIP #AnUnwisePrince.
An hour, perhaps two or three, to inform everyone, to deal with questions and concerns and words of sympathy; to give comfort where she could. Only then could she go back to her uncle’s rooms, to begin a search, one that she must disguise as simply familiarizing herself with the administration of the Taèchsel. Somewhere in his papers there should be – must be – a list, no doubt in code, of the men and women who had reported to Rainard. Reported not to the Magister of Berncastre, but to the spymaster for the Prince of Ésparias.
July 19, 2025 at 11:56 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Not your usual Little Free Library
July 18, 2025 at 9:10 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 18 #WIPSnips 'together'. MC Audun, a few weeks short of eighteen, is an aspiring poet, aware he's got a lot to learn. #WIP #AnUnwisePrince
Audun sighed and put down his pen. Through the open shutters of his bedroom window, he gazed out over the interlaced tidal creeks where curlews and seapies fed. In a few hours, water would lap within a few paces of his mother’s house. He’d been writing a poem about this changing, ephemeral land, attempting an allegory. Lives changed with tides too: tides of opportunity or disaster, chances taken, choices made. But he couldn’t make it work. However he put the words together, the subtlety he sought wasn’t there.
July 18, 2025 at 9:56 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 17 #WIPSnips The only synonym/vibe this week: 'sardonic' in place of 'jaded'. MC Kirt is used to (and a bit fed up with) being the centre of covert attention. #WIP #AnUnwisePrince
“I have been, this afternoon, the object of many a glance, or even some stares, and the subject, I believe, of many whispered conversations.” Kirt did not seem upset by the attention; the words were spoken with a sardonic amusement, softened by a smile. They were waiting for their meal, at the same table as before. A jug of Cyrennisi wine and a bowl of olives had been brought; the main course was being prepared.
July 17, 2025 at 10:50 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Jul 16 #WIPSnips 'memory' - Luce giving the eulogy for her uncle Rainard. #WIP #AnUnwisePrince
Looking out the men and women gathered before her, Luce said, more quietly, “He was my uncle, my teacher, my mentor,” She stopped then to blink, rapidly. Not for effect, Cenric thought. She had loved their uncle; there was no feigned emotion here. “That he chose me to be his successor is an honour and responsibility. His teachings and his memory will be my guide in all I do as Magister of Berncastre. I give you my promise, in Rainard en Berncastre’s name.”
July 16, 2025 at 11:10 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Today's theme was orange.
July 15, 2025 at 2:05 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 15 #WIPSnips: sister. MC Cenric wondering about his life choices. #AnUnwisePrince #WIP
Had he been too eager to become that respectable merchant, first to take his place beside his father and then in his own right in the guild hall and eventually in the Casillard? While his twin sister had travelled the length of the Nivéan Sea, studied medicine under the best physicians to be found, east or west, was privy to secrets of the men and women of courts from Beria to Varsland, Cenric had gone on buying journeys within Ésparias and Linrathe, trusted with nothing more than baskets and smoked fish to go in them, at first.
July 15, 2025 at 10:31 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Hello to all my new followers! I post about birds, nature, walking, history & my books, which are non-magical historical fantasy. An Unwise Prince is the #WIP.

Find my short work at:
- substack.com/@marianlthorpe
For books:
- scarletferret.com/authors/mari...
or all the usual places
500 years later, the saga continues.
July 14, 2025 at 11:24 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 14 #WIPSnips 'rumble'. MC Cenric, contemplating the offer(s) from a potential new partner. #AnUnwisePrince
Kirthan de Guerdián had offered him something – exciting. Not just their night together, but the investment in safran. He might go to see the crop growing, this summer. Or in the autumn, for the harvest. Yes, the harvest. Before the seas grew too unpredictable, although the journey to Occida took only a day or two. Cenric’s stomach rumbled. Breakfast awaited him downstairs. He would eat, and then go over the accounts, to determine how much he was willing to invest in a farm in Beria, weighing, as Cenric bé Casille was expected to, risk against potential gain.
July 14, 2025 at 10:56 AM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Random: #WIPSnips for July 13 from #AnUnwisePrince. MC Cenric bé Casille, thinking he's met his match (in more ways than one, but he doesn't know that yet) in the Lestian merchant, Kirthan del Candre de Guerdián en Leste.
Kirt could not be surprised, surely, if Cenric expressed curiosity about his friendship with Aife. Or perhaps he should begin by reminding Kirt that he had met Dario di Sylana and Luce in Agade? There were several ways for Cenric to begin his casual questions. And, he thought, with a rueful, private smile, as many ways for de Guerdián to deflect them. Cenric sighed as he rose from his chair. He had been asked to acquire information, and he wasn’t inexperienced at doing that, over wine or a meal, in apparently random conversation with a ship’s master or visiting merchant – although never before one of Kirt’s sophistication.
July 13, 2025 at 1:37 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
Blue things from this morning's city walk.
Spiky blue thistles intermixed with yellow/green leaves. An old brick wall, once painted blue, now a mix of terra cotta and white and blue. The rose window of a limestone church, with tree leaves framing it.
July 12, 2025 at 8:10 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
July 12 #WIPSnips 'locker' - another synonym for me: 'cupboard' - in this snippet showing MC Cenric, lonely in his empty house. #AnUnwisePrince #WIP
A small fire burned in the hearth, although the day had been warm enough. Cenric sank into his chair. Nothing had changed: the same thick carpet softened the floor; the cushions of his chair hadn’t been replaced. The wood of chests and cupboards still gleamed with beeswax and polishing. But the other chairs were empty; the wine glasses on the sideboard would remain untouched. He was alone, and he would now always be. Luce, with whom he had shared this house for all his life – at least when she was in Casille, which, except for her years of travelling, had been most of the time – would not return now except for brief visits. The same would be true of his son.
July 12, 2025 at 11:34 AM