Never look back… until you want to

I never considered myself the type of author who would return to previous projects. Done and dusted, move on to the next thing. Sorted. Until I started thinking about filling the gap between now and my next novel with Vine Leaves Press in 2024! "I know!" I thought, and possibly shouted out loud in a …

Interview with… J.S. Watts

Welcome to another Interview with... Yes, I'm a week early this month, but for good reason (which you can read about at the bottom of the page). Today, I'm talking to J.S. Watts who I met - in the internet meaning of the word met - when we were both published by Vagabondage Press. I've …

The Business of Short Stories

Short stories are my first love - reading them, writing them, they contain so much in such a small space - they are the TARDIS of fiction. So when Shannon Lawrence asked for people to share her new release, The Business of Short Stories: Writing, Submitting, Publishing, and Marketing, I couldn't refuse. And then she asked …

Merry Christmas, everyone

Another interesting year is coming to an end. I started it with three months of furlough, returned to work, finished a novel, published a novel (you might have heard?), had a lockdown-themed short story published (All the Magpies Come Out to Play @ Fairlight Books), worried I might lose my job, heard my job was …

A couple of offers for you!

The nights are drawing in, it's frosty in the mornings, and people insist on telling me how long it is until Christmas. So, what better time to pull on your fluffiest PJs and settle down with a good book. Luckily, I've got a couple to offer you! Small Forgotten Moments is on sale for just …

Interview with… Anne Goodwin

This month, it's my pleasure to invite Anne Goodwin to my blog - my first non-Vine Leaves author. Over the past year or so, Anne has been hugely supportive of my novels, and I was recently a guest on her blog. As my mum always told me, when someone invites you to their place, it's …

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 …