New Book Out This Year!

Happy New Year! This isn't a New Year post, I did that last week - it's the first Monday of the month, so this is a post about my writing projects. This time last year I was preparing for the release of Grace & Serenity. And oh, what plans I had for books signings and …

Interview with… Tom Gillespie

For my final interview of the year I'm delighted to be joined by Tom Gillespie, author of The Strange Book of Jacob Boyce. Tom is a novel and short fiction writer. His stories have been published worldwide in journals, e-zines and creative anthologies including East of the Web, Linden Literary Review, The Ogilvie. His work …

Interview with… Carolyn R. Russell

It's interview time again, and today I'm introducing Carolyn R. Russell. Carolyn is the author of The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen, published by McFarland & Company in 2001. Her humorous YA mystery, Same As It Never Was, was released in 2018 by Big Table. Carolyn’s new YA dystopian thriller, In the Fullness of …

Stuck in Covid

I've got eleven days to write, edit, polish and submit a short story to a very prestigious short story competition, the Manchester Fiction Prize. Well, I've got something written, but I'm not sure it can actually be called a short story - it's currently a jumble of words with the Covid pandemic as its central …

A few places to find me this week

Every so often, several things converge - by happy accident rather than design - and this week is one of them! Grace and Serenity has received this incredible 5* review from the Book Reviewing Mum. I'm absolutely overwhelmed by it! Anne Goodwin has also reviewed it on her Annecdotal websiteI've been interviewed by author Camilla …

To write a novel, don’t write a short story instead!

  This month, I have mostly been side-tracked by the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize, which is a huge international competition that I've entered for the past couple of years. Normally, I've had a story that I can refresh for this, and send off without too much fuss. But this year I had nothing. At …

The nature of short stories

Some bloggers excel at sharing with guests who bring their extensive knowledge with them, while others dive into the deep and meaningful, with carefully researched quotes to back up their argument. When I decided to start a blog, I had no contacts, no author friends at all - I was a complete writing loner - …

Just a quick update, while I wait…

It's been almost four weeks since I finished my novel and sent it to my beta readers. I've had one come back, and one giving intriguing updates. As hard as it is, I haven't looked at those first comments, and I haven't opened the ms at all in that time. I'm quite proud of myself …

M.B. Feeney: an interview

Welcome to another interview with one of the authors featured in the Where Words Fail Music Speaks anthology. You can find the anthology on Amazon, on Kindle and in paperback. I hope you're enjoying the series so far. I'm meeting lots of new writers, which is really cool. Today, please welcome M.B. Feeney to my blog! …

Clare Dugmore: an interview

Welcome to another interview with one of the authors featured in the Where Words Fail Music Speaks anthology. Have you bought your copy yet? How many of the authors have you read before? You can find the anthology on Amazon, on Kindle and in paperback.   Today, I'd like to welcome Clare Dugmore to my blog... …