Melinda Salisbury
LightNews LightNews
banner
melindasalisbury.com
Melinda Salisbury
@melindasalisbury.com
2.2K followers 770 following 2.9K posts
Athos in the streets. Aramis in the sheets. Porthos in the skeets
Author. https://linktr.ee/melsalisbury


Fix your hearts or die
she/her
Posts Replies Media Videos
melindasalisbury.com
This was the sea this morning at dawn
The sea, under a cloudy dawn sky, rendered in blues and greys
December 2, 2025 at 12:51 PM
melindasalisbury.com
I am a woman of my word
A cosy set up, featuring a blue mug with Disney's Hades from Hercules on it, a book titled "OF THE FLESH" in green writing, below a pink dog rose with an eyeball at the centre. The book rests on a silver faux fur throw. In the background a candle is burning
November 28, 2025 at 8:13 PM
melindasalisbury.com
The goods have been secured!
The DVD of The Ballad of Wallis Island, held by a hand wearing deep red nail polish. In the background is the sea and a pebbled beach. The cover of the DVD features three white people, a man with floppy hair wearing a cardigan, a cheerful bearded man in a baseball cap, and a blonde, pig tailed woman wearing sunglasses. The sea is in the background of the cover too
November 19, 2025 at 10:14 AM
melindasalisbury.com
Looking at new stills from "Wuthering Heights" and realizing in this shot Margot Robbie is clawing at a giant body, not a wall. Her hands are sinking into flesh! Veins and a mole are visible!
A still from Emerald Fennell's forthcoming film 'WUTHERING HEIGHTS". In the shot, a blonde woman wearing white, with elaborating braided hair, claws at a pink surface. At first glance it appears to be a wall, but a closer look shows her fingers are digging in, denting the surface. Veins and a mole are visible, making it possible the 'wall' is flesh, a giant body
November 18, 2025 at 9:38 PM
melindasalisbury.com
Do not talk to me. Do not look at me. Leave me the fuck alone
a screenshot of the completed screen of the 2025 Hidden Books Game. It features a tattooed Black woman in white pyjamas, her hands in her hair, a dog at her feet offering her a book. In the background is a tapestry, a bookshelf, and a calendar. To the right is a decorated tree, with a cat holding a book in a basket beneath it. Twenty of these images are clues to book titles and it is an annual rite of passage, especially for the older guard of the UK YA book community, to play the Hidden Books Game and get progressively stressed out by it
November 13, 2025 at 12:21 PM
melindasalisbury.com
Remember that time I found a pearl in my dinner? Well...
A photo of a small silver ring, set with a single, tiny pearl, resting inside a mussel shell on a blue table
November 7, 2025 at 11:15 AM
melindasalisbury.com
When I was on holiday in Wales in September I found a pearl in a seafood croqueta and I decided to have it made into a ring because it was such a lucky thing to happen. Yesterday I collected it from the silversmith!
A photo of a small silver ring, set with a single, tiny pearl, resting inside a mussel shell on a blue table A photo of the palm of a white woman's hand, on which is resting a clear plastic baggie containing a tiny pearl
November 7, 2025 at 11:12 AM
melindasalisbury.com
Logged BUGONIA on Letterboxd and got a little treat 👽
A spoof captcha on Letterboxd, featuring an image of Emma Stone in BUGONIA, split into nine squares. The captcha instructs the viewer to select any squares that contain an alien, before asking the user to confirm they're not an alien. It alleges to be a product of the Headquarters of the Human Resistance
November 5, 2025 at 9:55 PM
melindasalisbury.com
Ellie has her priorities in order
Snippet of text from an article in the Guardian: "As the dancefloor was in full swing (even as the house lights remained dangerously bright), Ellie, a 28-year-old bartender from Bed-Stuy, felt “absolutely ecstatic”. “This is the first time we’ve had hope in so long. I can’t remember a – ” She cut herself short to scream along to the chorus of Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone."
November 5, 2025 at 8:59 AM
melindasalisbury.com
God works hard but the Wikipedia elves work harder
Screenshot of Zohran Mamdani's Wikipedia page 28 minutes after the polls in New York closed. "Zohran Kwame Mamdani[c] (born October 18, 1991) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, he has served since 2021 as a member of the New York State Assembly from the 36th district, representing the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. He is the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City in the 2025 election, which he won."
November 5, 2025 at 2:31 AM
melindasalisbury.com
We already have a "personal AI" we can train on our own art: it's called our brains. We don't need to outsource it
Screenshot of a post saying "My most controversial take is that artists should be able to train their personal AI on their own art; unfortunately the only foolproof of verifying ownership I can think of is blockchain..."
October 30, 2025 at 6:30 AM
melindasalisbury.com
I'm only slightly exaggerating
An unsolicited email message I marked as phishing. The text reads: "Hey Melinda, First of all EchoStar had me side-eyeing my phone like it was plotting against me. You nailed that eerie blend of tech paranoia and teen realism. It’s sharp, fast, and way too relatable (I’m still recovering). I run a private circle of 500+ Goodreads readers who love reviewing smart YA thrillers especially ones with a dark twist like this. They’re real people (no bots, no creepy AIs like EchoStar 😅), and they actually read and post verified reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. If you’d like, you can tell me how many reviews you want to start with, and I’ll arrange everything. Once you send me a digital copy, our first five elite readers can dive in and post thoughtful reviews within 24 hours of your go-ahead. Warmly, Merel Logemann P.S. Worst case: more teens start questioning their apps. Best case: EchoStar blows up on Goodreads while you sit back like the tech oracle you are. 🔮"
October 27, 2025 at 4:06 PM
melindasalisbury.com
Further to the Great News, may I offer you a Great Cover!
a book resting on a background of fallen leaves. The book is titled LOCAL GODS, the writing in yellow, the words outlined only. The centre of the cover features a girl's face, the eyes concealed by the wings of the many, many pale, red-eyed owls that surround her, threatening to crowd her out of the picture.
October 24, 2025 at 2:20 PM
melindasalisbury.com
Feel like I've joined the Green Party, lads
An email from the Green Party in the UK, confirming I am now a member
October 21, 2025 at 11:13 AM
melindasalisbury.com
Post you from a different era.

Plus ça change
A photo of me, a white woman, when I was younger, aged 18 or 19 I think. I still have a black bob, though no fringe, and a nose ring instead of stud. I'm wearing SIGNIFICANTLY more eyeliner than I do now, and also a Barbie necklace AND a pink studded dig collar. I look fantastic
October 13, 2025 at 10:46 AM
melindasalisbury.com
For the later-in-the-day crowd, I have GREAT NEWS!
A Publishers Marketplace announcement that reads: "Deal Report: Local Gods by Melinda Salisbury. Imprint: Sarah Barley Books, David Fickling Books. Four-time Carnegie Medal-nominated author Melinda Salisbury's LOCAL GODS, a folk horror novel about a girl who must decide whether to save the hometown that hates her or burn it all down when a dying god hidden in the woods warns her of an impending catastrophe, to Sarah Barley at Sarah Barley Books, in a six-figure deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2026, by Pete Knapp and Stuti Telidevara at Park, Fine & Brower Literary Management, on behalf of Claire Wilson at Rogers, Coleridge and White (NA). Rights also to Anthony Hinton at David Fickling Books (UK), by Claire Wilson at Rogers, Coleridge & White. Rights: samcoates at rcwlitagency dot com
October 10, 2025 at 3:23 PM
melindasalisbury.com
I've entered the Vulture Movies Fantasy League and I just got my initial ranking and it's not bad!
A screencap of my Fantasy Movie League table, which lays out the following details: Team Overview Display Name: Melinda Current Score: 0 Current Rank: 7,746 out of 17,956 Movie Roster: • Sinners: 0 points • Die My Love: 0 points • Bugonia: 0 points • 28 Years Later: 0 points • Parthenope: 0 points • The Ballad of Wallis Island: 0 points • Weapons: 0 points • Twinless: 0 points
September 30, 2025 at 4:35 PM
melindasalisbury.com
I bought seafood croquettes for dinner and the seller warned me to chew carefully because there might be fragments of shell, or even a pearl in them from the mussels, and I laughed because imagine if there was a pearl in my dinner.

There was a pearl in my dinner
A photograph of a tiny pearl inside a plastic baggie, resting on the palm of a hand
September 24, 2025 at 8:40 PM
melindasalisbury.com
Me and my comfort movie.

I'm slutty for Jaws and I will not be stopped 🦈
A woman with a black, fringed bob and large sunglasses, smiling smugly and holding JAWS The Boardgame in front of the sea A smugly smiling woman with a black, fringed bob, wearing a hat that depicts Chrissie's death scene in Jaws (a blonde doll gripping a red buoy made of card and lolly sticks) and a blue dress (to represent the sea)
September 21, 2025 at 5:20 PM
melindasalisbury.com
On holiday you can have two different kinds of pie for lunch, in fact it's illegal not to
An outdoor dining set up, on a terrace. In the background is a stone wall, a green fence before it. On the table in the foreground is a glass of white wine, and a plate containing an apple cut into quarters, some tomato slices with black pepper, some cheese some crisps, and two small pies
September 21, 2025 at 12:31 PM
melindasalisbury.com
Outside it's raining but inside it's full of delicious childhood trauma ❤️‍🔥
On top of a cast iron fireplace, in front of a stone wall, is a glass of rosé wine and three, stacked paperbacks. They are Jenny Nimmo's THE SNOW SPIDER, EMLYN'S MOON, and THE CHESTNUT SOLDIER
September 20, 2025 at 6:29 PM
melindasalisbury.com
Reading Ali Smith's GLIFF is A Lot right now
A photo of page 240 of Ali Smith's novel GLIFF, which reads: A tyrant runs a country. He does this via a lot of other people doing this tyrant's work for him. They do it partly because they think he'll kill them or their families if they don't, and partly because it makes them feel powerful. One of the things you're not allowed to say in this country is that the tyrant is a tyrant. Anyway the tyrant wakes up one morning to find there's this person out there who is going round telling the populace the tyrant's a tyrant and encouraging them to say so out loud to each other. So the tyrant has the person followed, then attacked, then beaten up and stripped of all their money. Then he has the person arrested, put in prison and occasionally tortured, and starved, and kept alone in the dark. But the person doesn't seem broken by any of it
September 18, 2025 at 9:08 AM
melindasalisbury.com
This is really cool, but based on this sketch alone, I personally have concluded that as far as the dodo was concerned, it was kill or be killed and frankly we're lucky we won 🦤
A sketch of a dodo by someone who actually saw one. It shows a large bird with a vicious, hooked beak and large feet
September 17, 2025 at 8:51 PM
melindasalisbury.com
I almost choked to death on my soup when I scrolled this article and reached the photo of the man. What a shot

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
A white man wearing glasses, a black pullover and blue trousers, walks in the rain, beneath a wind-reinforced black umbrella (I think I have the same one in yellow!). He is staring incredulously at a young person with brown hair and wearing a shirt narrowly striped in white and orange. The young person is three-quarters turned away from the camera, wearing a soft-toy of Remy from Ratatouille on their left shoulder
September 17, 2025 at 12:55 PM
melindasalisbury.com
She's seen it in the back room of a pub (where she won the costume contest, don't forget).

She's seen it in 3D.

And yesterday, finally, she saw it... IN IMAX!🦈!🦈!🦈!🦈!
A photo of an IMAX screen. In the centre, in blue text, it says "JAWS 50th". Above that in red, it says "you're going to need a bigger screen", and below, also in red "experience it in IMAX", which I was about to do!!! At the bottom, bathed in red light, are the backs of other people's heads
September 11, 2025 at 7:52 AM