When everything converges

Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com This is me right now. Well, obviously not actually me, I don't look like this - but I'm too knackered to look good in a photo right now! This week we helped Eldest Child move to Bristol - emotional exhaustion.We stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights …

Interview with… Adam Byatt

Today it's the turn of Adam Byatt to sit down and share his writing with us. This is my 13th interview, and there are still some wonderful authors to come!. Adam is a high school English teacher sifting through the ennui, minutiae and detritus of life and cataloguing them as potential story ideas. Hi Adam, …

July (so far) round-up

A few weeks ago I spoke about being busy. Well, what happened next was I signed up for a sponsored step challenge in aid of Diabetes UK, and started taking very long walks with Artoo. As you can see, he's loving it! My aim is to walk 1.7 million steps over the course of July, …

Happy birthday, Grace!

I'm a slow writer. It probably has something to do with the fact I don't plan my novels so I can happily write a whole book before deciding I don't like the direction it's taking and have to go back to the beginning! One day, maybe, I'll learn how to write the right way. So, …

Guest Post: Sandra Cox introduces Keeper Tyree!

Today, I'm doing something a little different - I'm handing my blog over to Sandra Cox, whose latest novel Keeper Tyree is out now. Before I took my extended hiatus, sharing books by my author friends and having guest posts was one of my favourite things, so now I'm fully back into the swing of …

Interview with… Gina Troisi

Hey, it's the third Monday of the month... again! And this month, I've invited Gina Troisi to the Fountain Pen to share her writing with us. Gina is the author of the memoir, The Angle of Flickering Light (Vine Leaves Press, 2021). Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Fourth Genre, The Gettysburg Review, …

Links and pre-orders!

If you don't mind, I'm just going to take a moment to relax. Ah, that feels good. It's been a busy couple of days in my neck of the woods. Yesterday, I received my copies of Small Forgotten Moments just as I was getting ready for work. And obviously, I wanted to share it straight …

Dancing a jig – and a bit of housekeeping

2021-08-31T00:01:00  days  hours  minutes  secondsuntilit's published! So, yep, it's less than a hundred days until Small Forgotten Moments is published, and - as usual at this stage of the process - I'm twiddling my thumbs, somewhat. The proofs have been read and changes agreed, some wonderful authors have provided quotes for the cover, and until …

Interview with… Amie McCracken

Today, I've invited Amie McCracken to my blog. Author, editor and designer, Amie's the publishing director and Vine Leaves Press and helping to whip my latest novel, Small Forgotten Moments, into shape! Amie edits and typesets novels for self-published authors and helps writers polish their work. She is an imaginist, with a lot of ideas …

Wasting time with Google

I've got half an hour before I have to go out for my first haircut of the year - well, first haircut since the beginning of December - so here I am, wasting time. Although I don't actually have anything to say... I had to Google how long it would take to dig a six-foot …