Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Monica Byrne

@monicabyrne13.bsky.social

5.2K followers 770 following 5.8K posts

Writer living in Ireland. AI-free. Buy THE ACTUAL STAR: https://www.monicabyrne.org/the-actual-star. Reps at CAA, DG&B, and Kaplan/Perrone. She/her. monicabyrne.substack.com patreon.com/monicabyrne

www.monicabyrne.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · Oct 23

"When a book is this ambitious, either it is a thumping success or it falls on its face. Happily, The Actual Star is a stone-cold masterpiece. It is one of the most moving novels I have read and surely a contender for major awards."

Welp. 😳

The Actual Star review: A masterpiece of imaginative world building

Monica Byrne's fantastic second novel follows three storylines in the past, present and future, all of which are linked by historical threads and religious ideas, says Michael Marshall

www.newscientist.com

2 19 120

Reposted by Monica Byrne

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 15h

I don't think most people understand what we're facing. Not really.

36 240 1.3K

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 10h

Sometimes you just need to take six minutes, put your hands over your eyes, and listen to Jeff Buckley’s “Mojo Pin” on the best immersive headphones you own

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 11h

I have a career

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 1d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

1 6

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 11h

Excellent. Good to know, thank you!

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 12h

Hehehe. Working on it.

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 12h

The one with the fingerless gloves?

2 1

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 12h

I need to choose a headshot for a proposed writing workshop in Ireland. Who would you most likely take a writing workshop from? I want the headshot to have some character, but….not too much.

Me with wavy hair and a yellow barrette, smiling

Me with pigtails and silver jewelry, smiling

Me with fingerless gloves and a patterned cotton scarf, smirking

12 8

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 12h

Does anyone else sometimes physically wave their hand when saying goodbye on the phone?

I do

2 6

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 14h

Though also, think of the most commercial movies you know. Which is unfortunately all that’s selling right now, according to my reps. 😞

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 14h

Would you say it’s easier to incorporate elements of humor in a sci-fi thriller than elements of seriousness in a romantic comedy? Or vice versa?

That formulation just popped into my head, but now of course I’m immediately trying to think of exceptions….

2 2

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 15h

Not me, a professional writer, googling “three-act structure”

3 24

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 16h

I'm sorry you have the intellect of a grapefruit

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 17h

Aaaahahahahaha oh no.

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 18h

Starting new diary. Paperblanks has come out with A4 softcovers, and well….I’m in love.

A softcover journal with a beautiful yellow and blue brocade pattern, next to a cup of coffee on a red felt saucer.

Handwritten text: October 8, 2025, Dé Céadaoin (Wednesday in Irish)

Reposted by Monica Byrne

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 1d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

1.7K 21K 55K

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 22h

Drinking more water? Because if I drink alcohol, I inevitably wake up in three hours wide awake, when my body is done processing it.

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 22h

Man, it is really hard to wake up consistently at 6am. I can manage 7am, but 6am eludes me. My white whale

1 11

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 23h

Just occurred to me that “stay tuned“ is one of those phrases we’ll have to explain to kids, because while the semantic meaning stays, the literal meaning is lost to them.

8 12 56

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 1d

That one where he was replaced by a golem, who had all his memories but wasn’t really him, still haunts me.

1 1

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 1d

Also a great entry in the “Irishman must suffer” genre, of course. O’Brien is great at suffering.

1 5

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 1d

Deep Space Nine: “Hard Time.” What an incredible episode. Moved me to tears. It seemed to me the obverse of “The Inner Light”: what if you lived an entire other life, like Picard did on Kataan; but this one was hell?

A green faced man, squatting, and instructing a bearded O’Brien to draw a circle in the sand. They’re both in a holding cell.

2 12

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 1d

When I left to live on the road, I took three pairs of Smartwool socks….and they lasted for three years, with hundreds of days’ wear. But finally, my last pair is on its last legs (so to speak). So I invested in three new pairs. 💜

On the left, three pairs of nice new fat wool socks, in brown and purple and teal. On the right, one very worn pair of gray and blue socks.

1 10

Reposted by Monica Byrne

Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 1d

Endorsing a two-state solution is racism. Or, at best, it’s rooted in the sort of shallowness of thought that sustains racism.

3 15 130

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 1d

Two years of USrael genocide, while the vast majority of humans are begging for it to stop, and the vast majority of the world’s leaders do nothing.

Free Palestine, now and forever. 🇵🇸

Me wearing a blue shirt and a red-and-white keffiyeh.

4 31 170

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 1d

🤣 that’s a great way to explain it