Katie Daysh || Queer histfic author ⚓🌈
@kdayshauthor.bsky.social
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Katie (she/her) || Author of queer histfic set on the sea || LEEWARD (2023), THE DEVIL TO PAY (2024) and A MERCIFUL SEA (2025) out now from Canelo || rep'd by Francesca Riccardi at Kate Nash Literary Agency
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I'm officially moving over from the bird app! Currently following as many people as I can here haha. Here are my babies, the queer Age of Sail Nightingale/Courtney series ⚓🌊🏳️‍🌈
DOUBLE WINNER!!!

To say I'm shocked and so grateful is an understatement! I have notoriously bad luck with awards so to win the Fiction category and Book of the Year at the Isle of Wight Book Awards 2025 is amazing 😭😭😭😭🥰 I'm so appreciative to the judges ❤️
Today is A Merciful Sea's paperback release day! There are a lot of mixed emotions today - excitement, sadness, gratitude... Mostly I am so appreciative of all the people who have supported this trilogy and given it a chance 🥰
Press ganging my assistant into service to show off the paperback edition of A Merciful Sea!! The paperback is out on October 2, a week from today! 🌊🌈 It's amazing to see AMS in paperback, she looks gorgeous 😭😭😭

(Also representing my Leeward jumper 🤣)
My author copies of the paperback of A Merciful Sea are on their way!! 🌊🌈⚓
I'm starting a new series on Substack exploring the true history of the Nightingale and Courtney series! We begin with the Battle of the Nile, the extraordinary event which kicks off Leeward and haunts Captain Nightingale throughout the book.

open.substack.com/pub/kdayshau...
The True History of Leeward: The Battle of the Nile
The extraordinary true story of the battle which begins Leeward and haunts Captain Nightingale
open.substack.com
Now my manuscript is complete, I have to do the worst part: the dreaded synopsis!! 😭
Always a strange feeling to send your manuscript off to your agent! It's hard to emphasise how intense and all-consuming this story has been. There were many times I wanted to abandon it all but it's finally done 😭😭
Really excited to be talking at the Book Lovers' Lunch on Oct 22 at the Play on Words Festival this year! I'll be chatting about my books and writing and joining people for a lovely lunch 😋🍴 Tickets are available here:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-lover...
Book Lovers' Lunch
Join us at the Cliff House for a literary lunch with a best selling author.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
My thoughts towards this manuscript atm fluctuate between 'Nothing is unsalvageable' and 'This is the worst thing ever written' 😂 I cannot wait until it is done 😅
Trying to channel the love I still have for Leeward as I struggle through my current (nightmarish) manuscript 😅😂
Suddenly, she did not stand on the Amalthea, but far away on the threshold of some white space with unseen eyes watching her.

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Another bright flash and the terrible form of that ship flickered again, right off their starboard bow, lurching down the hills of towering waters. In the darkness, it appeared to be flying, and Hawthorne could see all its sails set on the ghostly masts, torn to ribbons like broken wings.

#WIPSNIPS
Welcome to a new week of #WIPSnips

The word for August 18th is "bow"

Will you tie a bow or take a bow? Use a bow and arrow or stand near the bow of a ship?

Your choice! And synonyms, variations or ✨vibes✨ for either choice is fine.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
If there is one thing you can be assured of in my writing, it's a shipwreck. In naval fiction, there is nothing better to describe 🌊
I'm sure my Feathers McGraw has a mind of his own 🤣 Every time I sit down at my computer in the mornings, he's turned to look another direction 🤣🤣
Living on the Isle of Wight always feels like you've got to be a millionaire to travel anywhere on the mainland 😅 Trains are already expensive, then I've got to pay a billion more on the ferries 🙃🙃🙃
Thank you! Hoping to go out on sub with it sooooon 🤩
He seemed to be looking at something far beyond the boat. A dark place, a rotten banquet, and a dead man at the head of the table. That was what he had said to Frances. His terrors had stepped out of the night and become real.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
The reminder of home gave him no comfort. He looked again at the watercolour sketch and for a moment, felt the flowers beneath his fingers. He feared he would never touch them again.

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #WritingPrompts
It's a relatively serious piece but you should know that I unironically used this meme in it 😂
How I periodically feel while writing 😱😂
Reached Part 3 of my WIP, the final part!!! (I accidentally wrote Part 43, and that is definitely how it's felt 😂 It's been a humbling experience re-reading this, and has been a devil to edit and rewrite haha)