The 6 spellbinding novels that make up the 2024 #WomensPrize for Fiction shortlist capture between their pages the enormous breadth of the human experience.

Congratulations to all the authors!
Audible UK 🎧 Baileys

📣Applications for our Open Doors internship OR mentorship, close tomorrow! 📣

Internship: 10 days in London (paid for) or hybrid working with our team & meeting editors etc.

Mentorship: One online session a month over 6 months.

More info here: blakefriedmann.co.uk/carole-blake-o…

I am not on Pakefield beach. It is not ten days ago. I am definitely not as warm as I was in this picture.

But I have just submitted 122,782 words of third-draft edits so actually, as feelings go, I'd say this photo has it down to a T 😉
#amwriting

Discovered at 9.16am that a baby spiny anteater is called a puggle and I think my day may have peaked.

Missing watch discovered after a frustrating three weeks, lurking behind a Christmas cracker of gin and tonic.

Taking this as definitive proof that storing alcohol instead of drinking it is - quite literally - a total waste of time.

My feed is awash with people worried and nervous about submitting to literary agents as a result of a couple of things that have been shown on this site in recent days. I want to say that the vast majority of literary agents are kind and upstanding and thoroughly professional

Sometimes you get a bird nest on your porch fan, and sometimes you get a nest built by birds who apparently have a degree in design. They’ve woven dried hydrangea blooms through the whole thing--it’s got a great Victorian vibe.

'Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.'

James Baldwin, No Name in the Street

Absolutely best joke, amongst scores of other brilliant jokes, from Milton Jones last night:

If you Google 'lost medieval servant boy', it comes up with 'this page cannot be found'.

Came downstairs without makeup this morning and inadvertently startled the Christmas cake...

Peter George Colby
13th February 1942 - 14th January 2024
A man who squeezed every ounce of juice out of life

I may be a little quiet for a while

lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/24053452.…

First email of 2024 from my boss. Subject: Yoghurt Arrow Sock Bath.

It's going to be an interesting year.

If anyone's wondering how I'm coping with the the adrenaline rush of my action-packed mid-festive break, here's the latest question on my Google search history:

Climb over the pew and dance in the chancel. That's how to celebrate a life.

#ShaneMcGowan #fairytaleofnewyork

‘I used to think poets were boring/until I became one of them’

- RIP Benjamin Zephaniah 🎆

Winter reflections
#Norfolk #Cromer

Escaped for a walk. Got lost in the woods. Didn't find a gingerbread house. Worst fairytale ever.

After The Lamplighters I spent 3 yrs writing a book that never worked - 4 drafts, a million words, so much toil & heartache. Earlier this year I decided to let it go; it was the hardest thing I've ever done, professionally. I've written something else now. Setbacks can be sparks.

A list of books to read in a bakery...

10. Scone with the Wind
9. Yeast of Eden
8. Flours for Algernon
7. Crêpes of Wrath
6. Pannetonement
5. Finnegans Cake
4. The Taming of the Choux
3. Bready Player One
2. Tart of Darkness
1. The Focaccia in the Rye

One wet November weekend later and Bathroom Mouthwash has finally been given the boot by Nouveau Bordello Rose...

#housework #makingitmine