Zena Ryder
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zenaryder.bsky.social
Zena Ryder
@zenaryder.bsky.social
650 followers 310 following 740 posts
📚 Historical fiction writer & writing community builder | Free download: "10 Bizarre Beliefs About Insanity in the 19th Century" → www.zenaryder.com | LOVE IS LOVE ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 | 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zena.ryder
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zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 A good reading month! Have you read any of these, or plan to?

#books #booksky #histfic #historicalfiction #booksandcats
Text says "My October Reads" surrounded by 6 book covers on a background image of pumpkins. The book covers are: Days of Light by Megan Hunter, 11/22/63 by Stephen King, Sorted by Jackson Bird, Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins, Write Through It by Kate McKean, Creativity by John Cleese.
November 1, 2025 at 4:51 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 Dove wishes you a Happy Halloween! She also hopes to get lots of treats! 🎃

#blackcat #halloween #cats #booksandcats
black cat with yellow-green eyes lying inside a cardboard box
October 31, 2025 at 7:57 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 I was happy to get an email this morning saying my short story, Lucky, was shortlisted in the History Through Fiction contest 🎉

Along with 9 other shortlisted stories, it'll be published in an anthology in March 2026.

#historicalfiction #histfic #fiction #writer #shortstory
Brown logo that says: 2025 History Through Fiction, Shortlisted, Short Story Contest
October 16, 2025 at 5:04 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 After many, MANY rejections (and silence), I have two stories longlisted in the History Through Fiction contest 🎉🎉

Rejections are part and parcel of the writerly life. Perseverance is essential!

#histfic #historicalfiction
A brown, round badge with the text: 2025 History Through Fiction: Longlisted Short Story Context, with a stylized quill pen at the bottom.
September 15, 2025 at 6:50 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 When Squid was a kitten, he liked to leap onto our jade plant, climb on the branches & knock leaves off. I put two 8lb weights in the pot, so he doesn't knock the whole thing over.

Now, he still enjoys hanging out in the jade, but it looks a bit different now he's bigger 😂

#catsandbooks #cats
September 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 I finished unpacking from a trip, and Dove decided I'd emptied this bag just for her to hop into.

What you reading this weekend?

I'm LOVING Charles Dickens' Great Expectations! I've read other Dickens and enjoyed them, but, so far, I'm loving GE even more.

#caturday #booksandcats #booksky
A black kitten with yellow eyes looking out of a purple and green bag.
August 23, 2025 at 11:45 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 Gotta push past that ugly first draft 😂

#writers #writing #histfic #historicalfiction
In a museum, in the slight distance is a beautiful marble sculpture of a human head. In the foreground is a crude clay sculpture of a human head with stuck-on smiley face features.
August 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 I read more than usual in July because my novel-writing time has been reading for research.

I enjoyed all these! (I usually DNF books I’m not enjoying, so if I finished it, I liked it.)

Any you’ve read here? Or that are on your TBR?

#booksky #books #reading #writer #histfic #historicalfiction
A graphic that says My July Reads, with 10 book covers: The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, No One Left by Lisa Boyle, Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Rebel Richmond by Stephen V. Ash, The Business of Being a Writer by Jane Friedman, Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster by Gerri Willis, A Yankee Spy in Richmond (Elizabeth Van Lew’s papers) edited by David D. Ryan, and A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers.
August 2, 2025 at 8:08 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 What a wonderful book! Fascinating science of moss, mixed with a little bit of personal anecdote, plenty of Indigenous wisdom & legend, all expressed in absolutely beautiful prose.

Recommended for anyone who loves natural history writing.

#reading #booksky #books
On a blue cushion, a copy of a book called Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The cover shows moss in a forest.
July 27, 2025 at 9:03 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚I guess I won’t be using my notebook for a while…

#writing #reading #booksandcats #books #writer #histfic #historicalfiction #booksky
Fluffy black cat sleeping on a notebook, which is on a grey loveseat.
July 27, 2025 at 6:46 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
This is Squid. He’s got big plans… right after he’s finished his nap.
Fluffy black cat sleeping on the back of a grey chair.
July 27, 2025 at 3:44 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
One day, he hopes to read War and Peace. Until then:
Fluffy black cat sleeping on the back of a grey chair.
July 26, 2025 at 8:30 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
I've got a few books on the go. One of them is Lincoln's Lady Spymaster by Gerri Willis.
Cover of a book showing a woman in a 19th century dark green gown. Text reads: Lincoln's Lady Spymaster — The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War by Gerri Willis.
July 26, 2025 at 1:51 AM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 Squid says Hi and What are you reading this weekend?

#catsandbooks #booksky #books #reading
Fluffy black cat on wood floor.
July 26, 2025 at 1:47 AM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚Little Dove making my messy desk much cuter.

#booksky #writing #writer
A black cat sleeping on an untidy desk.
July 25, 2025 at 8:22 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 I'm #querying my first novel & these books are like having level-headed, knowledgeable friends in my corner!

Essential reading if you plan to earn money from writing.

Dove is in the 2nd pic. You can see her one white whisker, which my son calls her antenna 😂

#writing #histfic #historicalfiction
Two books on wood floor: Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum and The Business of Being a Writer by Jane Friedman. Same two books as before on wood floor, plus the face of a black cat with one white whisker.
July 15, 2025 at 1:19 AM
zenaryder.bsky.social
This is Dove, our very sleepy kitten.
Sleeping fluffy black kitten
July 6, 2025 at 4:31 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚We're over half way through 2025 & I've had only 17 rejections of my short stories so far. Better put my skates on & get some more! 😂

Fellow #writers, how about you? Gathering plenty of rejections? Any successes on the way?

Pic of my cat for no reason.

#writing #writesky #write #writingcommunity
Sleeping fluffy black cat
July 6, 2025 at 12:41 AM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚This is the new kitkat in the house. I’ll have no shortage of reading and writing buddies. We now have a trio of black cats 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

#booksandcats #cats #writer #catadoption #booksky
Face of fuzzy black cat with green eyes, lying on beige carpet
July 1, 2025 at 2:35 AM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 This is Nova, a sweetheart who was the only cat left over from an adoption event with 22 cats 😭

We already have two cats. Should we adopt a third…? 😉

#cats #catadoption #catrescue #booksandcats
Black cat with white spot on her chest looking at the camera.
June 30, 2025 at 1:49 AM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 A day late for #caturday. This is Dove living her best life.
Fluffy black cat, asleep on her back on grey and white fleece cat bed.
June 29, 2025 at 8:18 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 Historical fiction writers: you’ve probably heard that HF isn’t selling right now. I went on Publishers Marketplace & looked at all the HF deals so far in 2025. The list is too long to post. PM me if you want it.

#histfic #historicalfiction #writersky #writers

Random pic of our cat, Squid.
Fluffy black cat on black piano
June 17, 2025 at 1:15 AM
zenaryder.bsky.social
He says, "Thank you very much!"
June 16, 2025 at 3:03 AM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 Thought my next novel would be about Kate Warne, 1st female detective in the US. Now leaning towards Elizabeth Van Lew, Union spy who lived in Richmond, Virginia. She hid escaped Federal prisoners in her house WHILE a Confederate general boarded there!

#histfic #historicalfiction #writer #writing
1866 black and white image of a young woman — Kate Warne — wearing a dark-coloured dress. She's standing, with one hand resting on the back of a chair. Black and white image of a woman — Elizabeth Van Lew — wearing a dark dress, sitting in a tasselled chair.
June 15, 2025 at 11:58 PM
zenaryder.bsky.social
📚 When the world’s going to 💩 you need a cat sleeping in an awkward position. This is Squid, who’s very fluffy and flexible.

#caturday #cats #booksky #booksandcats #cat
Fluffy black cat sleeping on a grey love seat with his head at a weird angle.
June 15, 2025 at 12:50 AM