Louisa Marchell
@louisamarchell.bsky.social
Writer of historical romance. Reader of everything. Perennial procrastinator. I'm mostly lurking while I try to avoid actually finishing a novel. Not actually a cat. she/her
In Totally Unexpected Things I Learned Today: King Ashurnasirpal II had some styling footwear.
I guess I now have to do a thread on shoes in ancient Mesopotamia in response to this (which happens to be from one of my favourite accounts).
I’m not an archaeologist, nor do I really know anything about shoes, but let’s go on this journey together.
I’m not an archaeologist, nor do I really know anything about shoes, but let’s go on this journey together.
can't believe this ancient mesopotamia shoe wearing ass said people need to dress up at the airport
November 26, 2025 at 8:55 PM
In Totally Unexpected Things I Learned Today: King Ashurnasirpal II had some styling footwear.
I have been going through a romance drought lately - everything I pick up is too cute, or not cute enough, or just so meh that I can't keep reading - but I did discover the mysteries of Michael Gilbert, who seems in a very profound way to think, "okay, how can I gut-punch the reader today?"
November 26, 2025 at 4:27 PM
I have been going through a romance drought lately - everything I pick up is too cute, or not cute enough, or just so meh that I can't keep reading - but I did discover the mysteries of Michael Gilbert, who seems in a very profound way to think, "okay, how can I gut-punch the reader today?"
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
NEW In the heart of the Eurasian steppe, a #BronzeAge metropolis has been unearthed, showing that the settlements of nomadic steppe societies were just as sophisticated as contemporary, more traditionally 'urban' civilisations.
#AntiquityThread 1/14 🧵
🏺 #Archaeology
#AntiquityThread 1/14 🧵
🏺 #Archaeology
November 18, 2025 at 5:15 PM
NEW In the heart of the Eurasian steppe, a #BronzeAge metropolis has been unearthed, showing that the settlements of nomadic steppe societies were just as sophisticated as contemporary, more traditionally 'urban' civilisations.
#AntiquityThread 1/14 🧵
🏺 #Archaeology
#AntiquityThread 1/14 🧵
🏺 #Archaeology
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
Wow! 😮🤩
There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓
itiner-e.org
We might have to have a lie-down.
There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓
itiner-e.org
We might have to have a lie-down.
November 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Wow! 😮🤩
There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓
itiner-e.org
We might have to have a lie-down.
There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓
itiner-e.org
We might have to have a lie-down.
This reminds me of college, when all of my classmates insisted that they would NEVER lower themselves to read THOSE books... and yet when my roommate and I finished our latest romance reads and put them in the unofficial book exchange, they were gone within minutes.
It looks to me like “romance for people who find reading romance embarrassing.” Which is just a hopeless, needless exercise. The actual romance readership, which buys a bajillion books and is very loyal, will clock you from a mile away, resent you, and reject you.
November 14, 2025 at 2:06 PM
This reminds me of college, when all of my classmates insisted that they would NEVER lower themselves to read THOSE books... and yet when my roommate and I finished our latest romance reads and put them in the unofficial book exchange, they were gone within minutes.
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
Right, this event needs $1500 to happen. There are 600 participating bookstores & for most it’s their busiest sales day of the year, or is second only to Indie Bookstore Day / Small Business Saturday.
Editors/publishers, this is a no-brainer of an opportunity for your imprint. Romancelandia: pls RT
Editors/publishers, this is a no-brainer of an opportunity for your imprint. Romancelandia: pls RT
I'm gonna be real-real here: Bookstore Romance Day may not happen in 2026. By this time of year, I've usually secured at least a handful of sponsors & their backing helps pay for things like newsletter services & Canva & Zoom & internet, all of which are needed for planning & off-season events.
November 12, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Right, this event needs $1500 to happen. There are 600 participating bookstores & for most it’s their busiest sales day of the year, or is second only to Indie Bookstore Day / Small Business Saturday.
Editors/publishers, this is a no-brainer of an opportunity for your imprint. Romancelandia: pls RT
Editors/publishers, this is a no-brainer of an opportunity for your imprint. Romancelandia: pls RT
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
there's a priest who's job, twice a day, is to lift a floor stone in the nave and check the water level with a Holy Dipstick and communicate if the sluice needs adjusting
again, i am not exaggerating
again, i am not exaggerating
November 12, 2025 at 12:57 PM
there's a priest who's job, twice a day, is to lift a floor stone in the nave and check the water level with a Holy Dipstick and communicate if the sluice needs adjusting
again, i am not exaggerating
again, i am not exaggerating
My cat would like you to know he is the saddest, most mistreated cat there ever was: it is almost DARK and I am in the KITCHEN so clearly it is CAT DINNER TIME when he gets his goat milk shreds (the nectar of the gods, although or perhaps because his brother won't touch them), and YET NO SHREDS.
November 11, 2025 at 9:31 PM
My cat would like you to know he is the saddest, most mistreated cat there ever was: it is almost DARK and I am in the KITCHEN so clearly it is CAT DINNER TIME when he gets his goat milk shreds (the nectar of the gods, although or perhaps because his brother won't touch them), and YET NO SHREDS.
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish
November 10, 2025 at 12:36 AM
agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
The average SNAP benefit per month is $177 a person.
The average ACA benefit per month is up to $550 a person.
People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives.
And working people want leaders whose word means something to them.
The average ACA benefit per month is up to $550 a person.
People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives.
And working people want leaders whose word means something to them.
November 10, 2025 at 1:49 AM
The average SNAP benefit per month is $177 a person.
The average ACA benefit per month is up to $550 a person.
People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives.
And working people want leaders whose word means something to them.
The average ACA benefit per month is up to $550 a person.
People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives.
And working people want leaders whose word means something to them.
This is absolutely delightful.
Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...
Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo
Fifteen-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux has become an internet sensation after an Associated Press photo captured him outside the Louvre on the day of a crown jewels heist.
apnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:29 PM
This is absolutely delightful.
Have found myself at an unexpected Renn Faire. 20somethings in face paint and cottagecore hobbit dresses mingle with dudes in kilts and elf ears and kids solemnly clutching plastic swords. Good Saturday.
November 8, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Have found myself at an unexpected Renn Faire. 20somethings in face paint and cottagecore hobbit dresses mingle with dudes in kilts and elf ears and kids solemnly clutching plastic swords. Good Saturday.
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
I think we need to stop calling it empathy and go back to calling it decency. It isn't a favour you're doing someone else, it's you proving that you aren't a fucking ghoul
November 7, 2025 at 2:09 PM
I think we need to stop calling it empathy and go back to calling it decency. It isn't a favour you're doing someone else, it's you proving that you aren't a fucking ghoul
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
This Norwegian stabbur, ca 1700, one of the oldest buildings in the region. Used to store foods & other things off of the ground, away from animals.
I'm not OK, for all the Crone reasons.
We know where her house came from! Its origins, most likely!
imma go get my evil mortar and pestle now brb
I'm not OK, for all the Crone reasons.
We know where her house came from! Its origins, most likely!
imma go get my evil mortar and pestle now brb
November 6, 2025 at 4:35 PM
This Norwegian stabbur, ca 1700, one of the oldest buildings in the region. Used to store foods & other things off of the ground, away from animals.
I'm not OK, for all the Crone reasons.
We know where her house came from! Its origins, most likely!
imma go get my evil mortar and pestle now brb
I'm not OK, for all the Crone reasons.
We know where her house came from! Its origins, most likely!
imma go get my evil mortar and pestle now brb
These days I alternate between feeling like the horned tiger griffin and feeling like the lizard, gotta be honest.
Horned tiger griffin eating a lizard at Great Palace Mosaic Museum
October 31, 2025 at 2:50 PM
These days I alternate between feeling like the horned tiger griffin and feeling like the lizard, gotta be honest.
Nero Wolfe's doorbell sounds like our doorbell, which is a source of extreme concern to the cats. The police come storming into Wolfe's stunning period apartment to shout at Archie? The cats are alert, they're poised, they're ready to disappear under the sofa until Nero Wolfe solves the murder.
October 30, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Nero Wolfe's doorbell sounds like our doorbell, which is a source of extreme concern to the cats. The police come storming into Wolfe's stunning period apartment to shout at Archie? The cats are alert, they're poised, they're ready to disappear under the sofa until Nero Wolfe solves the murder.
We are watching Nero Wolfe and I came to the sad realization that I have never in my life been in a situation where I can bellow "Tommyrot!" at a crowd of speechless bystanders.
October 24, 2025 at 12:28 AM
We are watching Nero Wolfe and I came to the sad realization that I have never in my life been in a situation where I can bellow "Tommyrot!" at a crowd of speechless bystanders.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you're writing a heist romance you can't name your con artist Sophie even if that's the RIGHT name for her, because everyone's associate her with Sophie from Leverage. (She's her own person dammit.)
October 22, 2025 at 12:46 PM
It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you're writing a heist romance you can't name your con artist Sophie even if that's the RIGHT name for her, because everyone's associate her with Sophie from Leverage. (She's her own person dammit.)
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
August 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
This is just the Common.
It's not the streets.
It's not the streets.
October 18, 2025 at 6:21 PM
This is just the Common.
It's not the streets.
It's not the streets.
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
Now that the mystery is solved, please enjoy this recipe for what is recognisably a kofte kebab from 1660.
Would anyone like to take a guess at the word before “kebob”? Which predates OED - ms is 1660
October 3, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Now that the mystery is solved, please enjoy this recipe for what is recognisably a kofte kebab from 1660.
I love this list and someone(s) writing contemporary should start working on it immediately.
gonna start making a list of cool jobs that contemporary romance main characters should have instead:
1. surrogate migratory bird parent/flying biologist www.theguardian.com/environment/...
1. surrogate migratory bird parent/flying biologist www.theguardian.com/environment/...
October 1, 2025 at 3:18 PM
I love this list and someone(s) writing contemporary should start working on it immediately.
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
Most of the power authoritarians have is freely given. We should not comply with them in advance.
Trump is far weaker than he looks. So is the GOP. We should draw them out, drain them at every opportunity, and fight for people’s wellbeing at every turn.
We have been sent here to fight for people.
Trump is far weaker than he looks. So is the GOP. We should draw them out, drain them at every opportunity, and fight for people’s wellbeing at every turn.
We have been sent here to fight for people.
AOC: I think there's two things that are happening at once: One, there absolutely is an unprecedented abuse of power, destruction of norms, erosion of our government and our democracy in order to prop up an authoritarian style of governance
However, they are weaker than they look…
However, they are weaker than they look…
October 1, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Most of the power authoritarians have is freely given. We should not comply with them in advance.
Trump is far weaker than he looks. So is the GOP. We should draw them out, drain them at every opportunity, and fight for people’s wellbeing at every turn.
We have been sent here to fight for people.
Trump is far weaker than he looks. So is the GOP. We should draw them out, drain them at every opportunity, and fight for people’s wellbeing at every turn.
We have been sent here to fight for people.
Reposted by Louisa Marchell
Pritzker: "One of the reasons Trump wants to send troops into cities is bc he wants to be able to take control of the 2026 elections...if they've got troops in cities, & it becomes a kind of norm for people, then it won't be abnormal for them when they're going to vote having troops at ballot boxes"
September 23, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Pritzker: "One of the reasons Trump wants to send troops into cities is bc he wants to be able to take control of the 2026 elections...if they've got troops in cities, & it becomes a kind of norm for people, then it won't be abnormal for them when they're going to vote having troops at ballot boxes"