Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Victoria Lilly

@victorialilly.bsky.social

1.4K followers 540 following 420 posts

Victoria. She/her ✒️ Author of literary and folk-horror short stories 📖 Writer for the Independent Book Review 📚 victorialillywriter.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Victoria Lilly

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Mar 29

‘Some themes, perhaps, resist temporal shaping. The moment at which the marked sheet morphs from functional investigation to aesthetic collectible is endlessly repeated.’

Julian Bell on drawing: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Julian Bell · On Drawing

While engaged in drawing, we are aware that there is something yet to be brought into sight, some impact on the surface...

www.lrb.co.uk

2 20

Reposted by Victoria Lilly

zilla @zillawrites.bsky.social · Mar 25

📚🩸Meet the Author🩸📚

I write horror-tinged stories that blend:
💀 selfish & messy final girls
🏚️ creepy, inescapable settings
🔪 slow-burn dread with visceral payoffs

#amquerying #writingcommunity #agentsguide

moody picture of a stormy sky over a rundown farmhouse with round bales in front.
text reads: Meet the Author zillawrites
author of unsettling, atmospheric horror
with speculative elements,
often exploring the darkest corners of the mind, where fear festers quietly before it consumes

moody picture of a stormy sky over a rundown farmhouse with round bales in front.
text reads: Tone & Style
My writing is dark, atmospheric, and psychologically immersive. I focus on slow-burn tension, allowing fear to build gradually. My style is propulsive yet restrained. I prefer using subtlety and implication to create unease and often avoid heavy exposition, preferring to let the horror unfold through atmospheric settings.

moody picture of a stormy sky over a rundown farmhouse with round bales in front.
text reads: Favorite Authors & Tropes
Grady Hendrix, Nick Cutter, Alma Katsu, Virginia Feito, Paul Tremblay
Final girl, impossible choices, body count rising, the monster is part of you, no easy escape

moody picture of a stormy sky over a rundown farmhouse with round bales in front.
text reads: What to Expect
Flawed and complex characters
Slow-burn horror
Supernatural elements designed to amplify the fears rather than overshadow them
Atmospheric settings that are as much a part of the horror as other threats

3 5 18

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 25

Yeah, I was planning to try indie publishers that accept unagented submissions should I fail in querying agents, but now I'm either back to the drawing board or turning to a whole new project. Watersheds and all that. Oh well. But thank you for the support ❤️

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 25

Oh I don't think it's bad because of (un)marketability, but because of some flaws that were pointed out to me in feedback. A radical overhaul is in order anyhow

1 1

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 25

Shelving my dead (also bad) querying novel leave me feeling like
#WritingCommunity

3 6

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 25

Life update

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 24

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Bert’s Books @bertsbooks.bsky.social · Mar 24

Good morning. We are open. 📖☕️

You’re on a first date with someone, and they tell you the name of their favourite book. You immediately start planning the wedding. What’s the book?

Reposted by Victoria Lilly

it looks like you're writing a novel @gr8writingtips.bsky.social · Mar 24

if anyone ever tells you that you should cut a scene you really like because it doesn’t add to the plot, you have my permission to say that you need to include it because i told you you have to

3 11

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 24

At a crossroads of what to do about my writing career (lol, career) and I'm just, spinning like a top
#WritingCommunity

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 19

You sell yourself short :p

1 1

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 19

Well there was all that giant hog business going on...

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 19

I love this so much, I'd pay a pretty penny to read a 18th c. Slovakian mag like this <3

1 1

Reposted by Victoria Lilly

Bunika Vampire @bunikanovel.com · Mar 19

The beautiful model on @gothicbeautymag.bsky.social #57 reminded me so much of Marika from Bunika 🇸🇰

So I created this fictional 18th C 'Slovak Beauty' cover which DOES feature her! [I contacted the magazine with no response, oh well:)]

This is a creative tribute, no commercial intent! 1/2

1 2 13

Reposted by Victoria Lilly

The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · Mar 19

the pinnacle of human achievement

A Google search for 'how many rs in museum of english rural life'. Google's AI overview responds to say: The Museum of English Rural Life in Reading has no "Rs" in its name, it is simply called "Museum of English Rural Life.

33 110 560

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 19

God, it's pathetic

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 19

Would that I could return to a state of innocence. Alas, too much internet

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 19

To me a title like that outside of children's lit-grade shelves just screams food kink. And more.

1 2

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 18

Hellraiser
I need to see more of fem!Pinhead playing people's vocal chords like a fiddle

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 18

The unspeakable trauma *is* the love for the characters

1 1

Reposted by Victoria Lilly

Maureen Johnson @maureenjohnsonbooks.com · Mar 18

How your email finds me.

Erika Rier @erikarier.bsky.social · Mar 18

Creepiest thing I’ve seen at the bus stop for a minute.

Very dirty plastic foot with red nail polish on the side of the road.

3 1 85

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 18

Maybe I will

it looks like you're writing a novel @gr8writingtips.bsky.social · Mar 18

liven up your tired writing by pouring coffee allllll over it

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 18

Truly twitter v2

Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · Mar 18

Weird but true: Bluesky is an experiment to see who can make the most correct politics post that fits into 300 characters and does not invite any critique for what it left out, a feat long theorized but so far undemonstrated.

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 17

I like treats <3

Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · Mar 17

Super creepy, excellent pitch <3

1 1

Reposted by Victoria Lilly

Nell @nelsnote.bsky.social · Mar 17

A burned-out jazz pianist seeking refuge at a seaside inn is drawn into the orbit of a brilliant painter whose work doesn’t just capture his subjects—it devours them. And now she's caught in his frame.

Art by the lovely saranillustration

#LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #A

Character art of a young woman with long black hair, and a man with blonde hair behind her. They're very close together and it seems like the man may be pulling her backwards.

The background is ocean waves, with a smidge of red.

8 14 20