She willingly accepted the invitation from the opening lines to step in. Outside life carried on. People with places to go walked by, post landed on the doormat, somewhere in the house her phone buzzed. Texts arriving. Inside she was #spellbound, time and self lost in the alchemy of story. #vss365
An author - LC Winter reading from her debut novel Spider Spider
An author L C Winter reading from her debut novel Spider Spider at Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham.
Ross holding a copy of Spider Spider at a book launch at Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham. Book by L C Winter
I was thrilled to join @lcwinter.bsky.social at her book launch for #SpiderSpider on Friday night published by @duckworthbooks.bsky.social
This is a deliciously dark novel and if you enjoy historical crime and gothic vibes you’ll love it.
Shout out to @fiveleavesbooks.bsky.social for a fab night
A bank full of snowdrops
We fall #enchanted under their spell. Delicate white heads push up through the frozen ground and despite frost and snow and ice, they prove that if we can be resilient and persevere, Spring will be right along. We just need to be patient a little longer. #vss365
A #minuscule ray of sunshine broke through this morning giving hope that spring is coming.
#vss365
Enjoy your break. Hope to see you back again some time.
Thank you to @nathanbrazil.bsky.social for the last two weeks. A wonderful selection of inspiring words I tried to show up as often as I could to submit my own vss and to read the work of others. Wishing you a restful Sunday #vss365
Thanks for reposting for a second time @jangoeswriting.bsky.social I realised I had put intently rather than intensely.
The #kiss tasted of bubblegum and candy floss. Of cherry lipgloss and pink panther chocolate. Of sherbet bonbons and strawberry milkshake.
Positively
Intensely
Never-endingly
Kissably
PINK
#vss365
In the #lacuna of my dreams you come. I hold you close, whispering words of love and share all you’ve missed. As day breaks you are torn from me and I return to long days of nothingness assuring others I’m fine for what else is there to say. I yearn for sleep, when we’ll meet again. #vss365
3:17 a.m., the lights flickered.
And in the breathless hush that followed, a #lacuna opened where the truth used to live.
Clocks kept ticking, but the seconds felt hollow, like something had slipped between them.
Not gone. Not broken. Just carefully removed, leaving behind a smiling void.
#vss365
Wonderful writing 👏👏👏
Doing a bit of catch up here @nathanbrazil.bsky.social 😊
The #ache in my #bones tells me something #dark is approaching. I #touch you gently on the wrist waking you from sleep.
‘We must go,’ I say.
‘Again?’
But you rise and pull on clothing laid out by the bed. Always ready. For we have grown to trust my intuition and so far it has kept us safe. #vss365
Spooky
3:17 a.m. All the streetlights died together.
Silence.
Then wet dragging footsteps, slow, deliberate.
It knew my full name.
Whispered it through the glass.
I didn’t look.
But the darkness outside had grown one #pale patch that stared back.
#vss365
Wonderful piece 👏👏👏
#vss365 #pale
The photos were faded, yet daily she turned back the pages, searched through every pale image, trapped in a lifetime of faint memories.
I love this 👏👏👏
I love snowdrops.
We stare at the girl left in the woods like discarded rubbish someone couldn’t be bothered to take home. Despite the sun you grow #pale.
‘Your first?’ I ask.
You nod.
‘It gets easier.’ It seems the right thing to say. But it’s 18 years for me. Each one still feels like the first time. #vss365
You winced, dropping the knife and I pushed our thumbs together.
#Blood sisters now,’ I announced. ‘We’ll be friends forever, stand up for each other.’
But when the day came, you looked away, stood with the other girls, your new friends and my thumb throbbed with the pain of loss. #vss365
.
In the book of #wounds your name was there right next to mine scratched in midnight blue ink. When did it begin this hurtful game. The clerk asked if I wanted to settle my debt. I wasn’t sure I knew how. He said it started with sorry. I said I’d try and I watched as the ink faded a smidge. #vss365
Sunshine hit the gold tramlines etched into his skin, exposed for all to see. Kintsugi - if you could repair a broken pot, why not a broken man. People stared, a child ran and touched the #wound on his hand gently, smiled. A young woman invited him to sit. ‘Tell me,’ she said and he did. #vss365
Each time you use that word against me, you believe my #wound grows deeper. Instead a shiny scar covers it each time. Fresh skin, protecting me, covering over the hurt and a constant reminder that when others show you who they are, don’t forget. #vss365
Houses stand where our crooked orchard once breathed. At night the #ghost trees return, pressing through floorboards, hanging small red apples in the dark. Their sharp-sweet scent wakes the tongue; yellow flesh remembers every vanished hand. By morning, bloated brown fruit sours the rooms.
#vss365
Trees disappearing into mist
Morning mist creates #ghost trees. Strong, silent, sentient, they gather, choosing not to reveal yesterday’s secrets. #vss365
😁 that’s cats for you
Wonderful 👏👏👏
It wasn’t #pain, it was a sliver of glass in her heart, a rucksack of rocks on her back, a black hole in the core of her being. It dragged her soul down to hell’s coals. And it chilled her like the snow dusting the tiny headstone and mound of earth. #vss365
An amazing piece of writing 👏👏👏
Oh my. Such beautiful writing Bethany 👏👏👏👏
