There’s a supernatural serial killer on the loose… Elliot Cross didn’t believe in monsters. At least, not until his brother died at the hands of something unnatural. Four years later and a string of impossible deaths leave the police baffled. Consumed by a desire to shine a journalistic light on | Read more...
A TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE NOVELETTE It’s 2012. According to the Mayans the world is about to end… they might be right. When local science reporter Ruth Anders attends a press conference for the Kepler project, she knows it’s going to be a memorable experience but she never expects to be | Read more...
Welcome to the Graveyard—Where the worlds of the living and the dead overlap. North Bristol Writers present a third anthology of 16 enthralling tales. A boy encounters a mysterious groundskeeper; two students unearth an ancient terror; and in the wilds of Africa, a hunter stumbles into danger. Corpses rise, creatures | Read more...
As I gear up for the Kickstarter and launch for Mime, I find myself reflecting on how I got to where I am – a debut novelist with a book about to be published. Here are 10 books that have shaped my writing journey, from my early teens to now. | Read more…
So you’ve written and published a book, now you need to find some people to read it. You might think you need a marketing budget, but while paid ads are often successful, there’s loads of things you can do at no cost at all! 1. Write more books The single | Read more…
It’s an exciting time for me as I prepare for the launch of my debut novel, “Mime”. Writing this book has been a 10-year long journey of learning the craft and discovering the story. I must admit, in all the planning over the years, trying to launch a book during | Read more…
At the end of February, I attended my first ever writers’ retreat. I joined six other writers in a large house on the edge of the Brecon Beacons for three days of intensive writing and discussion. The organisers of the event were Jo and Roz from MeddwlCoed. A couple of years | Read more…
It has been an age since I did a personal update, so this could be a long one. Mime – Releases 28th June[UPDATE – new release date is 28th July] 2019 was a big year for me. I finished my debut novel, Mime. I. Finished. A novel. That’s big! Huge! | Read more…
In this post I’d like to share some experience of my beta read process – some examples of the feedback I received and what I did to address it. | Read more…
Editing is difficult because it involves change. While self-editing can be relatively painless, integrating external feedback into your edits can be excruciating. There’s lots of advice out there saying you should get feedback, but less about what to do when you get it. I’m certainly no expert, but here’s my take on | Read more…
Creating an ePub Navigation TOC when you don’t have chapter headers to use If you make your eBooks with Indesign, you’ll know the Table Of Contents tool is super handy, except for when your chapters don’t have headers. This might be the case if you want to include a rasterised | Read more…
I’m in the process of working through my line editor’s comments on Mime and I thought I’d share a little glimpse into the evolution of one of my scenes. We join Elliot, armed with a fire extinguisher, in the middle of a very improvised rescue… 1st Draft White fog erupted | Read more…
My (long) short story Gravewatcher appears in the newly released Tales from The Graveyard from North Bristol Writers. Here’s a sample from the opening. Carina watched from the cemetery gate. Her new arrival tried to shove the gardener’s shoulder, passed straight through, and stumbled to his knees. Those who died | Read more…
“I can’t die.” Even before I say it I know you’ll never believe me, but it’s true. “I can prove it.” I turn the knife over in my hand and watch your eyes slant towards the door behind me. You know you can’t get past me, which is why you | Read more...
Between the pale green, silver-spined fronds, round stems probe the air with tiny explorers at their tips. It’s pointless. The plant sits on top of a filing cabinet in an executive office on the fifth floor of a concrete box, yet it dangles its babies over the carpet in a | Read more...
The food was at the back of a small, white box. Mushkin put her foot on the smooth surface and tested it. Nothing bad happened. She sniffed and felt with her whiskers. Strange smells mixed with the tempting aroma of wheat but none that she recognised as dangerous. She stretched | Read more...