iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

This month: Writing progress, visit to Murrayfield Stadium archives, and a 5000 year old tree with a surprising legend. Subscribe to get my newsletter direct to your inbox on the first Monday of each month. florajohnston.substack.com/p/april-2026...

florajohnston.substack.com

April 2026: I submitted the book!

Stories from Scotland and beyond

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

You love books. Your house is full of them and you would *never* shelve them in that back-to-front way that is periodically fashionable but never forgiveable. Allow me to direct you to the UK's *only* books TV show: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... #booksky

bbc.co.uk

BBC Scotland - The Big Scottish Book Club

Damian Barr interviews some of the biggest names in fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

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Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Welcome to my January newsletter! open.substack.com/pub/florajoh...

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seasidereader.bsky.social @seasidereader.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Set 1918-1920 this focuses on two sisters and the parts they play in what comes after the War. Stella goes to Paris as a typist at the peace conference; Corran joins the YMCA School of Education to teach soldiers about to be demobbed. Loved it @florajowriter.bsky.social @allisonandbusby.bsky.social

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HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 24/09/2025

Farage wanting to kick people out of the country because they migrated here made me angry and made me think about which best of British people and things wouldn't have happened were it not for the brilliance of immigration to the UK.

Sgt Peppers album cover consisting of things that only made it because of immigration in to the UK, either immigrants themselves, the children of or as a result of someone else coming here.

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Shona MacLean @shonamaclean.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

The programme for this year's Bookmark Blairgowrie book festival. A really excellent, high quality book festival in the heart of Perthshire. This year feat. @seanluskauthor.bsky.social @linanderson.bsky.social @billykayscot.bsky.social @florajowriter.bsky.social and many others. Well worth a visit.

The programme for this year's Bookmark book festival in Blairgowrie, 4-5 October. Tickets www.bookmarkblair.com

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TRE - Talk Radio Europe @tre.radio · 16/08/2025

Coming up in the second hour of the #TREBookshow, with Hannah Murray from 21.00CET - Ed Needham, editor of Strong Words Magazine , ‪@ragriggsauthor.bsky.social‬ , and @florajowriter.bsky.social ‬ #TuneIn on tre.radio or TRE Radio App

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Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Look who's arrived in paperback! Well hello there, Elsie! #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay

Paperback copies of the novel The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay on a garden table

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Dani Garavelli @danigaravelli.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

This is so niche I can't believe I am asking, but does anyone know anyone who might be an expert in Protestantism in Italy during the Reformation? (Stranger things have happened). RTs welcome.

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Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Thrilled to read this review of #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay in @writing.ie '... a beautifully written historical fiction novel set against the bustling shipyards of the Clyde in Glasgow between 1927 and 1928 amid the burgeoning beginning of the golden age of aviation.' www.writing.ie/readers/the-...

Extract from a review of The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 22/06/2025

My seventy-seven-year-old father put his reading glasses on to help my mother do the buttons on the back of her dress… —“George Square”, by Jackie Kay LIFE MASK, @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 2005 Hear Jackie Kay read this poem on the @thepoetryarchive.bsky.social: poetryarchive.org/poem/george-...

George Square
by Jackie Kay

My seventy-seven-year-old father
put his reading glasses on
to help my mother do the buttons
on the back of her dress.
‘What a pair the two of us are!’
my mother said, ‘Me with my sore wrist,
you with your bad eyes, your soft thumbs!’

And off they went, my two parents
to march against the war in Iraq,
him with his plastic hips, her with her arthritis
to congregate at George Square where the banners
waved at each other like old friends, flapping,
where they’d met for so many marches over their years,
for peace on earth, for pity’s sake, for peace, for peace.

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Sara Sheridan @sarasheridan.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

It's rainy but what a view. Hi Dundee Book Festival 👋 If you're in Dundee come in out of the wet at 4.30 to hear @florajowriter.bsky.social and I with all the histfic chat. tix: dundeebookfestival.com/product/sara-s…

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Malcolm Guite @malcolmguite.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

A sonnet for St. Columba's day You called me and I came to Colmcille To learn at last the meaning of my name Though you yourself were called, and not the caller, He called through you and when He called I came malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/06/09/c....

malcolmguite.wordpress.com

Columba and my calling.

June the 9th is Saint Columba’s day, a saint who has a special place for me, as somehow, he feels bound up in my own journey to Faith. When I was 19, and moving from atheism, towards a great…

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Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Lovely evening celebrating the publication of #WhispersintheGlen by Sue Lawrence at Edinburgh Blackwell's. A trip to Glen Clova is now a must do for this summer! @jennybrownagency.bsky.social @saraband-books.bsky.social

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Fictive Dream @fictivedream.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

We're thrilled to welcome back Susan Elsley with her #shortstory Sheepskin, out tomorrow @susanelsley.bsky.social

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Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

So pleased to see Elsie included in Scottish Field's feature on 50 Greatest Scotswomen, accompanied by this haunting sketch of her by Sandy Morrison @sandysdrawingsroom. #gettingtheexposureshedeserves #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay

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Malcolm Guite @malcolmguite.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

See, as they strip the robe from off his back And spread his arms and nail them to the cross, The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black, And love is firmly fastened onto loss. malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/04/18/g...

malcolmguite.wordpress.com

Good Friday: the first 12 Stations of the Cross

image courtesy of my Anthology of poems for Leant and Holy Week The Word in the Wilderness, I set just one of my Stations of the cross sonnets for Good Friday, Station XII, but as this blog is not …

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Bee Quammie @beequammie.blacksky.app · 17/04/2025

Shelly-Ann racing in her kid's Parents Day race at the school is the funniest thing I've seen all week LMAO

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Big Bearded Spookseller @bigbeardedbookseller.com · 16/04/2025

Let's hear from all you writers today, tell us all a little bit about yourself, what projects you have on the go, what you have written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other #WritersLiftWednesday #Writers #Authors #WritersLift #BookSky 💙📚

stylised sketch of four books in a pile with the words 'Meet the Author' overaid

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

And people say Church History isn’t important

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RG Poulussen @rgpoulussen.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

So Trump controls the stock market because he's in charge of tariffs, so to speak. So he buys low, i.e. yesterday, and announces some "good news" about tariffs today. Stock market bounces up. After some time, again "bad news" and the stock market dips again. He will do that over and over.

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Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Here’s a poem about going for a walk to clear my head of all the news.

Escape into Nature

There are times when it all gets too much
and I have to switch off my phone and the radio
and my brain, and escape outside.

I say good afternoon to next door’s dog.
Have you seen the latest about the government, he barks,
you couldn’t make it up. I offer a weak smile
and make my excuses before walking on past the pub,
whose sign creaks in protest
against the steep rise in the cost of living.

From the tall branches of a tree, a seminar
is in progress: a squirrel sets out his ideas
about how to alleviate the refugee crisis,
while a chaffinch flaps his wings angrily.
It all gets too much for one leaf,
who hurls itself down, remembering Trump.

I feel the eyes of a murderous-looking crow upon me,
annoyed no doubt about global warming,
so make my way down to the river where –
for a few precious, stolen moments –
I close my eyes and listen to the water
as it laps gently against the bank,

until I hear the slap of wet feet approaching.
Thought I’d find you here, the duck quacks,
Now what the hell we gonna do about Putin?

Brian Bilston

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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

A quick 🧵of the incredible sights in cities across the USA right now. Millions are on the street speaking out against Trump & Musk trampling the Constitution. Let’s start here with Salt Lake City 😳👏 #HandsOff #HandsOff2025 #FiftyFiftyOne (📸Nate Blouin)

Thousands are seen spread out for hundreds of metres towards buildings in the distance. The mountains are seen on the horizon.

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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Wow Chicago! #HandsOff #FiftyFiftyOne (🎥 Marco Foster)

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The Bookseller @thebookseller.com · 05/04/2025

ICYMI: The Society of Authors (SoA) gathered outside Meta’s London HQ on Thursday (3rd April) to protest Meta’s alleged use of pirated books to train AI models. 👇 #BookSky

thebookseller.com

'Get the Zuck off our books': Authors call for inquiry into Meta over 'pirated books being used to train AI'

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Cory Booker @corybooker.com · 02/04/2025

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

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Alderney Literary Trust @alderneylit.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

To open our final day of this fabulous festival is @florajowriter.bsky.social. Flora Johnston takes us through the lives of her characters and we explore not only the global decision making but the impact of the trauma of war on individuals and the ongoing quest for peace. #AlderneyLitFest 2025

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Jenny Brown Associates @jennybrownagency.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Writers, get those pitches in! ⏱️⏱️⏱️ We can’t wait to read them.

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European Writers Salon @saloneurope.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

The Berlin salon @lettretage.de is on! Our first reader! @ruralunease.bsky.social

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Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

This time next week I'll be in #Alderney for #AlderneyLitFest! I'm so looking forward to exploring the island, meeting readers and fellow writers, taking part in a book club and speaking about #TheParisPeacemakers (with a wee bit of #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay).

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PeterUrpeth @peterurpeth.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

I made a Starter pack of Scottish Writers. If you’d like to be included, msg me. go.bsky.app/QVgoAEA

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Writers' Guild of Great Britain @writersguildgb.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

We're aware that some of our members have found that their work has been used without consent in LibGen, a pirated books database Meta has used to train AI We've put together advice for those affected + you can also find out about our campaigning work 🔽 writersguild.org.uk/libgen-datab...

writersguild.org.uk

LibGen database – advice for authors - The Writers' Guild of Great Britain

We have become aware that some of our members have found that their work has been used without their consent in LibGen, a pirated books database that Meta has used to …

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Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

13 March 1928 #OTD Scottish aviatrix Elsie Mackay and her co-pilot Captain Hinchliffe set off from @rafcranwell on a secret flight in their plane 'Endeavour'. (portrait of Elsie by Sandy Morrison)

Portrait of a woman, Elsie Mackay, dressed in 1920s flying gear.

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Women's Prize @womensprize.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Jenni Daiches’ ‘Somewhere Else’ is an epic generational novel about womanhood and the Judaeo-Scottish experience across two World Wars, the creation of Israel and the fall of the Berlin Wall. We spoke to Jenni about her inspirations, writing process and favourite books: bit.ly/4bFv95a

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Dani Garavelli @danigaravelli.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Alex Massie’s substack pieces on the US and Ukraine feel like essential reading right now.

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Paul Brand @paulbrand.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Starmer tells Zelenskyy: "As you heard from the cheers in the street outside, you have full backing in the United Kingdom... that is the people of the UK coming out to demonstrate how much they support you and the people of Ukraine."

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Flora Johnston @florajowriter.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I've spent today working on some personal letters from 1938 in prep for next book. Then I turned on the news. Praying America can stop these bullies from destroying everything their nation has stood for, because it wasn't Zelensky who disrespected the Oval Office today. This was written in Nov 1938.

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