Tag: ALPHA

  • Back On My Shiz

    Welcome, new subscribers and also: frogs! (Not ‘welcome to frogs’ as readers, but if there are any frogs currently subscribed, then of course, enjoy this post.) I’ve spent the best part of 2026 in Heated Rivalry psychosis (if you follow me on Threads, @SusannaAWriter, you’ll be familiar) but I couldn’t let the annual celebration of…

  • Old Pansters Never Die…

    …they merely loosely synopsize and leave room for the magic to happen. It’s an evergreen debate, pantsing vs. plotting, meaning: going in with a bunch of vibes and no plan, versus setting your course step by step. I’ve seen the light as far as synopsising goes, but still manage to surprise myself when things drop…

  • Dog Days of Summer

    (Animal idioms are everywhere) When I was trying to put words on my current malaise, the above sprang to mind without hesitation. Then, I had to find out where it came from, then I thought I’d look up why so many of our figures of speech have to do with fauna, and down the rabbit…

  • Stars Are Aligning

    I love this sort of thing, do you? Get manifesting, friends! The Lion’s Gate Portal occurs when the sun in Leo aligns with the star Sirius, and Orion’s Belt, and the pyramids in Giza. This happens every year on August 8, and every year I almost forget about it. Today is the peak, but it’s…

  • Want to Know Basis

    This whole author thing isn’t what I expected… I was working with a photographer once, back in the day when I was the design director of a music magazine, and he mentioned how much he loved doing author photos. “Really?” I said. “I actually never care about what an author looks like.” And added, no…

  • Why Choose?

    A reader writes and a writer responds. It’s hard to keep track of my correspondence as there are so many ways to get in touch. Insta DM? Facebook PM? The contact page on my website?* A reader wrote to say how much they enjoyed The Shapeshifters of the Beau Monde series and that Tabitha and…

  • Travelling in the Regency Era

    Did they experience boat lag? Carriage lag? Maybe! About one hundred years ago, I arrived back in Ireland from my Christmas visit to the States. What do you mean, it was only a little over three weeks? You will never convince me that this month has not gone on for like, four generations. Even after…

  • International Animal Rights Day

    …is today, 10 December! Well, I mean, I was always going to default to my top three alphas, right? I was also going to start this off by writing, ‘Apropos of nothing, I was thinking about horses’, but I am always thinking about horses, so I guess that is ‘apropos of something’? So I was…

  • Clearing Your Way

    It’s an rare full moon situation right now, so make the most of it! Funnily enough, I ended up on the hiring-out-goats-to-clear-other-people’s-weeds side of TikTok today, and my takeaway is: one creature’s trash is anther creature’s Michelin star feast. This is the second full moon in Capricorn, thanks to 2024 having been a leap year.…