iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 16h

I'm tidying out my study library now my son has set up his studio in what used to be the spare bedroom. It's not as if I have guests, so why keep a room for them? Anyway, I've found 4 broken keyboards among my clutter. No idea why I kept them. They're off to the skip on the next visit.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 17h

Really don't miss out. This is a fantastic series.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 17h

Just over one week to go until the launch of Her Borrowed Grave. ● Urban fantasy ● Folklore and hidden histories ● Characters forced to question what they believe ● Stories where the past has not finished with the present Thursday 8 October. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HL4PFK8... #UrbanFantasy #BookSky 🌃📚

A flyer for Her Borrowed Grave. The book cover shows a silhouetted figure walking over a rain-washed, cobbled street. Behind them is winged serpent on an intaglio, such as you might find on a signet ring.

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Ben Jeapes @benjeapes.bsky.social · 23h

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is TREAT. Quin is making friends and enemies in equal measure, hatching chickens that one day will come home to roost in a big way. #bookqw #spaceopera #morality www.benjeapes.com/index.php/ph... Here me read a longer extract at benjeapes.substack.com.

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Susan Murray @pulpthorn.bsky.social · 18h

Today's Book Quote Wednesday and the #BookQW word is 'treat'. In Waterborne Exile the freemerchant Marten's plans - years in the making - are unravelling.

Extract from Waterborne Exile by Susan Murray:

“Marten, the sight raises more questions than it ever answers. I’ve seen you as a great man. You had everything in place before Tresilian betrayed us all. And you can again. You will. But you must stay true to your people.”

“What, the people who made me a laughing-stock today?”

“They are still your people. You risked everything for them once.”

“Never again.” Marten stood up slowly, his eyes on Alwenna. “I’ll see you set back on your throne as queen of all the Peninsular Kingdoms before I’ll treat with them.” He pushed away from the table and the wine in the bottle was stirred by his movement, ripples spreading across the dark surface. Alwenna’s attention was drawn into the darkness beneath the perturbed surface and she could no more resist her sight than she could convince Marten of what he must do.

She dived down and down, deeper into darkness, moving through the liquid as if it were nothing more than a breeze. Her hair trailed loose behind her, free and unfettered and her heart pumped blood through her veins with a wicked glee. It was so good to be alive, so good. And revenge would be even better. Ahead of her lay a small cairn. As she drew closer she could see it was composed not of rocks as she had assumed, but of bones. Reposing on the very top of the cairn lay the jewelled dagger.

#BookQW – treat

Cover of Waterborne Exile by Susan Murray. A woman in a blood-spattered white gown moves past the viewer, holding a bowl of blood in both hands. A bloodstained dagger is tucked in her belt. Cover art by Paul Young.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 21h

Today is book quote wednesday #bookqw and today's word is 'treat'. As we just over a week away from publication, here's a hint as to why the book is called Her Borrowed Grave. Pre-order for 99p/¢ here: UK www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HL4PFK8... US www.amazon.com/Her-Borrowed...

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Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 22h

We're hiring! We're looking for a Writer and Narrative Designer to join the Fallen London team at a senior or mid level. This position is permanent, remote, and full time, which for us means 35 hours a week. #GamesJobs

Night. The House of Chimes - a tower which you might immediately think of as Big Ben - is adrift in the River Thames. It still seems to be keeping time. In the background, a large, alien building looms over the city of London.

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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 22h

Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'treat' #BookQW #BookSky They say, if you want to really know someone, watch how they behave towards people who they think don't matter. The Riven Kingdom will be published on 27th October 2026. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GK5RVZWT/

The Riven Kingdom cover art by Alice Claire Coleman is in the style of a stained glass window. Blue-green leaves and vines dotted with golden flowers coil around silver swords in panels on either side. These are topped with a golden sun on the left and a yellow crescent moon on the right. In the centre, rival hands stretch upwards trying to get hold of a crown that's just out of reach...

Book extract reads: The woman brandished a letter in the light of the oil lamp hanging over the door. ‘The boy wasn’t injured. The lightning strike didn’t touch him. Now the shock has faded, he may recall further details of that day. I insist on asking him myself.’
‘You may consult his account of that day held by the high shrine’s infirmarians. They wrote down the recollections of everyone they treated who witnessed the tragedy.’ Brother Haber tucked his hands inside the sleeves of his thick black robe. ‘I can vouch for the boy’s honesty.’
No one could argue with that. The Moon God granted his priests the power to hear falsehoods. Everyone saw such magic at work when the nobility held assizes to punish criminals within their fiefdoms, where the justiciars delivered their verdicts in the crown’s name. A priest was always on hand to unmask anyone telling lies. Just as a pale-robed priestess used the power the Goddess granted her to endorse truth.
‘Your obstruction is unacceptable.’ The woman took a half-step sideways.
Startled, Reske thought she was going to force her way past the priest.

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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 23h

Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'treat' #BookQW #BookSky If you've been thinking about getting yourself a little morale boost with this ebook bargain, today's the last day to do it. Price-matched on other platforms as well as here on UK Kindle. www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...

Cover art by Ben Baldwin shows a creature crouching in a low tunnel entrance lined with grey stones and partly hidden by green undergrowth and white flowers. The creature has pale skin covered in sparse black hair and it looks a bit like an ape, a bit like a bear, and completely unlike either of those.

Book extract reads: I put down the tin and put the kettle on to boil. Then I washed my hands. The formula tin emphasised the importance of keeping things clean. Taking the bottle out of the packaging, I fitted it together. The packaging said I should sterilise it before using it for the first time, but I didn’t have time if I was going to shut the screaming changeling up with a feed.
I didn’t only want some silence. I knew the changeling wasn’t a real baby, but on the way here, I had decided I’d better treat it like one. When whoever was behind this wanted their creature back, I needed it to be healthy. Especially if I had to trade the thing for Fin, or for whatever I needed to know to get her back from wherever she was stuck. That was my priority now Alice was safe with her parents. I’d just have to hope this little monster was as resistant to germs as I am, generally speaking.

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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Still need to catch up with The Green Man's Holiday before reading The Green Man's Debt? You have today and tomorrow to catch the 99p ebook deal on UK Kindle 99p and price-matched with other retailers. So you could buy both titles for £5.98... just saying... 😁 www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Mans-H...

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I had Monsters of the Greek Myths.

In the centre is medusa's head, there is scylla and carybdis, a harpy, a griffon, the cyclops, a gryphon, cerberus and a chimera.

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Ruth EJ Booth (she/they) @ruthejbooth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Event News! #Haverin, celebrating 40 years of the GSFWC, comes out this October. Join me at the launch parties at Fantasycon (9th October) and Waterstones Sauchiehall ST (21st October). Click below for all the details: ruthbooth.com/2026/09/have... @britfantasysoc.bsky.social #GSFWC40

The cover of Haverin, the GSFWC anthology, which features a red-haired girl reading while surrounded by books and a cat in a green space. Text reads: Featuring: Neil Williamson, E.M. Faulds, Christopher Caldwell, Eliza Chan and many more. Haverin, Edited by Brian M. Milton, Peter Morrison and Heather Valentine.

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Read Indie Fantasy.com @blog.readindiefantasy.com · 28/09/2026

Are you an indie SFFH author with a new book release or launching a crowdfund in October? Let us know and we'll include it in our monthly new release roundup! www.readindiefantasy.com/new-releases/

readindiefantasy.com

New Releases – Read Indie Fantasy

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I turned one of my short stories into a script and a start-up studio is animating it. I'm happy to turn any of my short stories into scripts (gratis) for up&coming studios in need of a bit of a leg up. Trailer for Gnome for Christmas www.youtube.com/shorts/AvpEl...

youtube.com

This ain't no fairy tale! "Gnome for Christmas" #animation #2danimation #pilot #filmnoir #trailer

YouTube video by Benedict Terry

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Gwenno @rocesradur.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Hôff iawn o'r cerflun newydd yn Abergwaun prynhawn ma! I like Fishguard's new sculpture very much!

Large sculpture of a seahorse, metalwork, in Fishguard today

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

What are the sneak preview readers saying about Her Borrowed Grave? www.vanessajknipe.com/my-new-book

A book. The cover of Her Borrowed Grave shows a silhouette walks a wet, cobbled street. Behind them is a serpent set into a circle, as if it’s the intaglio of a ring.
Text reads: Her Borrowed Grave. Old Magic Cold Cases book one. Coming on 8th October.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Any book advert that starts 'don't read if...' I generally don't read any further. Serious question, does that sort of negative advertising interest you?

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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Happy Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Saves The World day to all who celebrate.

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Paul Deane @rhunedhel.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

...The baleful wolf · will be our bane, our learning wasted, our wisdom vain. We can’t avoid · or evade our ends. Forgotten Ground Regained is proud to nominate D.A. Cooper's "On Odin's Journey" to Orison Press's Best Spiritual Literature competition. alliteration.net/poetry/on-od... #Odin #poem

alliteration.net

On Odin’s Journey, a poem in alliterative verse by D.A. Cooper

With an opening line, it all begins: / We’re formed when fire · and frost collide / deep inside · the soundless abyss ...

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It's book quote Wednesday #BookQW and today's word is knew. Meet George from Her Borrowed Grave, before he changed his name to George to escape his family. Find the character short story, Our Ancestors' Gifts here. www.vanessajknipe.com/post/our-anc...

A flyer for Her Borrowed Grave. It shows a copy of a news paper with headline of Man's best friend and five found dead on Walmgate stray.
Text reads: “Arthur!” Papa stood waiting with his brother Uncle George. “What’s Arthur doing here? It should be Oliver.”
Arthur shrank away. Of course it should be his big brother Oliver. At eleven, he was starting at the boarding school too, but he would enter the big school, not the prep part where Arthur was enrolled.
Uncle George crouched to bring his head level with Arthur’s. “Why are you here?”
“Someone called me,” Arthur whispered, staring over his uncle’s shoulder at where Papa smouldered. “And woke me. I knew I had to bring the spear to the giant.”

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dr joshua phillips @woolfianjosh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Hwæt! We Capūlets in gærdagum þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða Montagūen ellen fremedon

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Glasgow SF Writers' Circle @gsfwc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Kick off your week with some new short fiction! The new Cthonic Matter Quarterly (#15) boasts a brand new tale from our own William Couper. Check out 'Dreaming in Dust and Petals' in print and e-versions at the link below. @willcouper.bsky.social chthonicmatter.wordpress.com/2026/09/14/c...

chthonicmatter.wordpress.com

Dark Offerings

Chthonic Matter Quarterly #15 — Vol. 4, Issue 3 (Fall 2026)> Order Paperback via Publisher> Order ePub via Publisher> Order Paperback or Kindle via Amazon Table of Contents:”Green A…

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I truly loath these 'heartwarming narratives' that are all AI-slop.

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maryanneyarde.bsky.social 💙📚📜 @maryanneyarde.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

🔎📚 Looking for your next gripping crime mystery? Two missing bodies. Thirty years apart. One killer determined to keep the truth buried. Discover Murder in the Braids by Val Penny. 📖 Read with #KindleUnlimited maryanneyarde.blogspot.com/2026/09/murd... @valpennyauthor.bsky.social

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Her Borrowed Grave, will be published on 8th October. Here's a little hint of what it's about. I can't alt text the video but the individual picture are on my website with alt text. www.vanessajknipe.com/my-new-book #UrbanFantasy 📚 #Booksky youtube.com/shorts/XfDIP...

youtube.com

Cover Reveal for Her Borrowed Grave

YouTube video by Vanessa Knipe

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Kernow 〓〓 @kernow.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

The Cornish Minack Theatre (Gwariva Veynek) is an open-air theatre, constructed in a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea, at Porthcurno. First performance was 'The Tempest' in the summer of 1932. Built by Rowena Cade (1893 -1983)

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I keep forgetting there's no point in clicking on videos on bluesky. There are adverts on top of adverts before anything shows up of interest.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Quote with your bird art Wren, ink and watercolours.

A line drawing using pictish designs of a wren perched on a twig, but painted in with watercolours. The twig has holy leaves and berries, mistletoe, fir, ivy and Christmas rose. The Wren has brighter colours than in real life.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

If you see this, post your green art.

A drawing in the style of a mediaeval tapestry. A woman stands central, she wears early anglo-saxon dress. In her right hand she hold a spindle, into which the three fates send thread. around her are smaller women staring at her. Pictures of herbs fill her background. To her right a man holds a spear raised to attack a serpent (more probably an eel) which slithers towards him.

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Every year on 19 December, the famous Christmas lights at Mousehole in Cornwall are dimmed between 8 and 9pm, leaving just the Cross and Angels shining down across the village and out to sea.

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Stewart Horn he/they @thenakedpoet.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

There's a cute little story of mine in this. It's a lovely folk tale I'm sure people will enjoy. But don't let that put you off - there are some brilliant writers here.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Caroline Walters didn't realise her hobby was so dangerous. Meet Caroline, as she learns how to weave tapestries. www.vanessajknipe.com/post/making-... #Booksky #UrbanFantasy🪐📚

a pile of books and scrolls. The top book is open. On the left page is a picture of a knight and his lady surrounded by flowers and intricate border designs. On the facing pace is a hand drawing of a woman’s head and shoulders. Text reads: Meet Caroline. English teacher. Mother. Mostly holding it together. When she weaves tapestries, using designs handed down her family for generations, it has unexpected results.

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Stephanie Burgis @stephanieburgis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday! This week's prompt is "tree," so - with just 4 weeks until publication day! - here's a snippet from my upcoming novella A Waltz of Sinister Import, which you can preorder now: books2read.com/waltzSinister #romance #fantasy #bookqw #

The cover of A Waltz of Sinister Import, by Stephanie Burgis, shows a pair of late nineteenth-century dancing slippers hanging over the title and a bat with outstretched wings underneath the author's name. Framing the cover's text are branches with golden leaves. Above, beside, and below that cover image is this snippet of text: The orchestra struck up a new waltz—and Margaret’s whole body thrummed with the power of its first chord. The greater din of the room faded away; only vaguely, somewhere in the back of her brain, did she note that every other guest had fallen silent around her.
That music...!
It was a powerful river current, sweeping her up without conscious thought. Even as it locked her in place with sheer wonder, dark forests and rippling streams took shape all around her. At first, she thought they were mere fantasies hinted at by the music, but then—there! Just before her: giant, twisting, black oak trees rose within the ballroom of the Hofburg where other guests had congregated only an instant ago. More and more trees appeared until they filled the room with their unnaturally dark, spreading branches, ebony draped with glinting gold and silver leaves.
The rich, distinctive scent of a forest floor rose through her senses.

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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'tree' #BookQW #BookSky The Hunter's antlers may remind Dan Mackmain of branches, but nothing else about this dream is remotely familiar. Visit Wizard's Tower Press for a wide range of national and international purchase options. wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/book...

Cover art by Ben Baldwin for The Green Man's Debt by Juliet E McKenna. A grey wolf with pale eyes stands in the shadows of a derelict building with a black and white tiled floor. The wolf is looking straight at you. Its snarl reveals blood on its teeth and jaw.

Book extract reads: The Hunter stopped walking. The birds fell silent. A long-eared owl soared up from a cluster of silver birch saplings and headed for the horizon. A massive animal reared up from a hollow that had been hidden by the little trees and the swathes of bright green, arrowhead-shaped leaves hanging from their twisted branches.
It was some sort of deer, and it was sodding enormous. As far as I could tell at this distance, that hump rising above its shoulder blades was roughly the same height as my head. The beast must need those muscles and its thick neck to counterbalance its antlers. They had to be more than three metres across. Where the Hunter’s branched tree-like and narrowed to points, the huge deer’s were broad and flat, fringed with lethal-looking spikes. Like a fallow deer’s, if you could scale a fallow buck up to more than twice its natural height and eight times the bulk.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Bother! (and that's only because I was brought up to believe that nice girls don't swear) The Doomed novel strikes again. Good job I ran a test now while I still have three weeks to solve the problems. Or maybe the Universe isn't ready for this book yet, and it's sending me signals. 😒

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Last Day on the September sale of SF&F at 99¢. mybook.to/SFFPROMO_Sep... #booksky 💙 📚 🪐

On one side of the picture starship glide past impossible cities of the future, while on the other dragons fly over a fantasy citadel. An open illuminates the scene. Text reads: 99¢ Sci-Fi &Fantasy ebooks.

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Edmonds Scanner @edmondsscanner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Your daily affirmation: It's ok to not feel ok. It's ok to look like a confused creature who shambled out of the weird end of the forest.

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Brian M. Milton @munchkinstein.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Back in early August I did a blog post with my thoughts on being in the GSFWC as it celebrates its 40th anniversary. And I promised more. Well, finally, I've done so, it is all about the fun of being an anthology editor, and you can find it here: www.munchkinstein.co.uk/index.php/20...

munchkinstein.co.uk

On editing an anthology: A haver – Brian M. Milton, SF&F writing and nonsense

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The wicked become even worse when they are tolerated ~ attributed to Leo Tolstoy.

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Vanessa Knipe @vjknipe.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I went to Garnock Valley Carves on Saturday. It's a chainsaw carving competion. The results are auctioned off, shame they're outside my price range.

A man kneels at the base of a column of wood carved with a Green Man. On the Green Man's head is an owl.

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