Vanessa Knipe

@vjknipe

Malaysian-born, Scottish writer. Recovering Luddite, DIY house renovation, likes canoeing, decorates a mean cake, a highly biased mother. Mastodon: @VanessaK@mastodon.scot Website:

904 Following2,061 Followers3,197 Posts

Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and vjknipe.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 1h

It's book quote Wednesday and today's word is BUSY. #bookQW Reporter, George Maskell, has seen some police activity over the river from his office at the York Tribune. His boss sends him to find out what is happening. Download the first five pages www.vanessajknipe.com/s-projects-s...

A flyer for Her Borrowed Grave. A supercell storm coils like a poisonous black snake, its forked tongue is sheet lightning. A grey book half covers the storm. A question mark is cut out of the cover revealing letters from a fancier cover beneath.
Text reads:“Oi! What are you doing here?”
Bugger, George thought as a constable stepped between him and the crime scene. Crime reporting was harder than he expected, but he pulled up a hopeful grin. “I’m George Maskell, with the York Tribune. I’m covering the tomb opening. I saw all the busyness over here and came across to find out what was going on. What did you mean about the bodies on the Stray? I found one of them, you know.”
“You need to talk to the detective inspector,” the constable said.
“Is the man in the hospital involved in a plot against the museum opening of the Dark Age tomb?” George asked.
George was silently escorted to the man who had questioned him on Walmgate Stray.
DI Davies summoned his easy familiarity. “Mr Maskell, how can we help the York Tribune, this morning?”

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 3d

Her Borrowed Grave has always been the story of a crime committed in 6th Century York, that was only resolved in the 21st Century. It includes folklore and ancient gods, unfinished Anglo-Saxon poems, forensic science and tapestry. More here: www.vanessajknipe.com/my-new-book #UrbanFantasy 📚

A flyer for Her Borrowed Grave. A supercell storm coils like a poisonous black snake, its forked tongue is sheet lightning. A brown book half covers the storm. A question mark is cut out of the cover revealing letters from a fancier cover beneath. Text reads: Her Borrowed Grave. Arriving 8th October 2026. Old Magic. Cold cases.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 5d

Artist: Morland

Cartoon: Count binface stands next to nigel farage as the results are announced. The official says: The people of clacton have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the standards commisioner completing the investigation into Nigel paul farage.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 7d

from the 2015 eclipse

With the red filter, the eclipse looks just like the cat without a grin from Alice in Wonderland.
Text Reads: A moon, worn as if it had been a shell
Washed by time’s waters as they rose and fell
About the stars and broke in days and years.
~William Butler Yeats

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 7d

Book Quote Wednesday' word is 'jolt' #BookQW A man has just realised that the accident last Sunday has stolen his memory. He doesn't know who he is. FInd out more: www.vanessajknipe.com/my-new-book

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 7d

An uncanny storm rolls over York — A teacher encounters a man who should not exist. A reporter’s dog sniffs out the first in a series of bodies, each marked by a bizarre death. The forensic results make no sense. And somewhere, a poem written over a thousand years ago waits for its final line.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 7d

Good morning Bluesky. All set up for the big sky show this evening. Bet it's tipping it down.

A bluesky shows through the window. A camera on a tripod stands proudly. Next to it are the eclipse glasses and the filters for the camera.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 9d

A rainbow climbs high over the streets and houses.
Text reads: You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down.
~ Charlie Chaplin

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· 11d

Exciting news for me and a date for your diary. My new urban fantasy novel, Her Borrowed Grave, will be released on Thursday 8 October 2026. Fantasy and forensics. Check out my website to find book news. www.vanessajknipe.com #HerBorrowedGrave #NewBook #UrbanFantasy #FantasyAuthor #ScottishAuthor

A picture of a brown book with a cut out question mark. Through the gap you can see some hidden letters.
Text Reads: Ancient stories collide with Modern Crime. Save the Date. Arriving on 8th October 2026 Her Borrowed Grave.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 30

I took advantage of my son being away for the weekend and repainted the bathroom. It was an uninspiring beige that didn't quite match the tiles.

Freshly painted bathroom walls in summer sky blue. A dark blue highligh is added as seaweed to give the fish wall ornaments something interesting to swim through. The mirror shows the other end of the bath with similar seaweed, but doesn't allow you to clearly see the wall ornament sea horses playing in the strands.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 30

We normally have white ones around here, like the one in the picture below. If your picture is a grey wagtail, then that's very likely what I saw. The brief glimpse I had was very yellow chest and a flapping tail. Thank you. I don't like things out of place.

A blurry image stolen from t'internet of a small black, white and grey bird.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 30

First Sunday in Advent. We don't get to open the doors until tomorrow but, as I don't have an Advent Crown, I'll post these.

On the left is a box with the red and blue moomin house on it. Little doors will lead to Moomin surprises for me. On the right is my son's hand-painted wooden Christmas tree advent calendar. Each little drawer has a surprise that I have chosen for him.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 16

Nostalgia may be a filthy liar, but why did the world get so drab?

Car Colours. A split picture. The top half shows a car park of cars in all hues of the rainbow and is labelled 1980. The bottom half shows a carpark of cars with only white, black and silver and is labelled 2025.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 14

First decent day (ie not tipping it down) this November, so I planted Lola Cat's rose over her ashes. I'll move the trellis when the ground has settled.

A cut back rose is planted in bare earth. A white trellis wais to be moved over to support the plant as it grows.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 14

1975 was when we discovered I was an illegal immigrant who wasn't a British Citizen and was in fact stateless. My mother tried to renew her passport with children included, as they did back then, and the Home Office said "We don't think this person is a UK citizen."

the shadows of two people on a wall. The female one is fading.
Text reads: Nostalgia is a dirty liar that insists things were better than they seemed.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 13

A gentler, kinder world.

A screenshot of a post from satirical account The Miliverse.
Picture shows Ed Miliband striding past an EU flag.
Text reads: Meanwhile in a parallel universe, Prime Minister ED Miliband has just returned from a visit to Brussels after helping push through new EU regulations to lower the price of biscuits. Jan 30, 2020.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 13

Screan shot of a satirical twitter account called The Miliverse.
Text reads: Meanwhile in the other universe, Prime Minister Miliband heads to Buckingham Palace to apologise for accidentally tripping over one of the Queen's Corgis. Aug 28, 2019

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Nov 13

A screen shot of the original David Cameron tweet.
Text reads: Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband. 04/05/2015

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 28

My latest colouring page, D is for Dragon. I'm having fun making these. I wonder what I'll draw for E. ko-fi.com/s/b83c03f48d

A colouring page with a half-coloured red dragon and a tub of marker pens to finish the job.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 20

This one?

a highly magnified tardigrade play an equally microscopic violin.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 20

Same view 2 hours later. taken from my balcony at 11.30am

The view over the garden has cleared as the sun burnt through the mist. Despite being mid-autumn the greens are still vibrant (probably all that rain) but the acer in the middle of the scene is bright red. Beyond it, the houses of the estate are visible and even the trees on the far side of the railway tracks can be seen.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 20

Season of Mists taken from my balcony at 9am

A garden shrouded in mist. The houses just beyond the trees are barely visible

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 15

It looks like the next page in my A-Z of British Mythology is nearly ready to go on my Kofi shop.

The mess on this desk has been shoved under the monitor shelf and under the fox pencil case on the shelves to the left of the picture. The centre of the desk is clear, except for a single sheet of paper containing an ink line drawing. The angle of the photograph means it's difficult to see the drawing ensure people have to guess what C is for in the A-Z of British Mythology.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 13

The formula for escape velocity.

V sub esc equals the square root of 2GM divided by R

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 10

Give in to the brain weasels. My brain weasels just want to draw pretty pictures.

A line drawing of a robin sitting on broken spear.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 8

♫... on the left you'll find my favourite axe.♪ I've added to the armoury at Wolf's Head Hall.

A plain painted wall enlivened by his and hers rapiers (for settling differences a la the Addams family), an enlistment poster for the HMS Pallas (launched in 1804) 2 truncheons, a sword with replica flintlock pistol inset, a replica flintlock pistol, a french calvary sabre from Waterloo, and the new acquistion a replica viking axe.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 7

Seagull with bag of chips it has snatched. Done in the pictish style. 😂 Yes I'm probably getting a bit silly now.

A line drawing of a seagull that hads just snatched a bag of chips (french fries for the US) using pictish symbols found carved on stones all over Scotland.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 5

Drew another one of my animals using Pictish designs. This is a fox by the way.

A line drawing of a fox highlighting designs from Scottish rock carvings.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 3

Thank you. I've also managed a Dolphin. Which I will now force you to look at because you said you liked my owl.

A line drawing of a dolphin using Pictish symbols.

Vanessa Knipe@vjknipe· Oct 3

I've been playing with Pictish symbols copied from those carved into Scottish stones and came up with this.