Leave The House Friday – Costa Coffee
I’ve got to admit, I’m a bit of a hermit. When it comes to leaving the house, I don’t actually like doing it. I frequently cancel social engagements because I don’t want to leave the house, even though I know I’ll enjoy myself once I’m there. So, to force myselfContinue Reading
Guest Post: My Experience of Working With Illustrators, by Nik Perring
Collaborating with Kirsty for the cover of The Flash Mob was a nerve-wracking experience. Would we like it? We absolutely LOVED it, but what if we hadn’t? I’ve known Kirsty for twenty-five years and it would have been heart-breaking to say, ‘sorry mate, hating your work’. Obviously, I needn’t haveContinue Reading
Wreck This Journal – Day 2 – Throwing Things In Sheds
Well, today’s wrecking was a bit of an adventure. Although this does depend entirely on your own personal definition of ‘adventure’. But it involved going outside and throwing something in my neighbour’s shed, so that’s quite adventurous for me. Today’s page chosen at random was this. Aarrgghh, I hadContinue Reading
Wreck This Journal – Day 1
In Waterstones a couple of weeks ago, I spotted Wreck This Journal. I picked it up, thought, ‘this looks like fun’, wondered if I’d get round to actually doing it and then remembered (well, I hadn’t actually forgotten, I’m not that bad) my friend Helen was about to add toContinue Reading
I Found an American Psycho
I had to submit a portfolio of poetry in my first year at university. Here’s one of them. It’s a found poem, based on the business card scene from American Psycho, one of my favourite books. I Found an American Psycho Cool colouring. That’s bone, I point out. And theContinue Reading
Book review on Words With Jam
I subscribe to the Words With Jam newsletter and when the editor asked for book reviewers, I thought, ‘aha, I don’t write many book reviews; if someone makes me do it, then I’ll write more’. So I emailed back and said, ‘Hello, I’d love to write book reviews for WordsContinue Reading
The New Writer Life Writing Competition – I won a prize!
Back in May, I noticed The New Writer had announced a competition for a piece of life writing. They wanted light-hearted stories, none of your misery memoirs thank you very much. Aha, I thought – I wrote a light-hearted piece of life writing for an OU assignment (called Mooning byContinue Reading
The Flash Mob: Available on Amazon now!
As I said on Wednesday when I revealed the cover for The Flash Mob, today is publication day, hurrah! You can now own your very own copy of The Flash Mob by downloading it from Amazon for just 77p – that’s almost £3 cheaper than a pint of Carling inContinue Reading
The Flash Mob – A Flash Fiction Anthology
Well, this is all very exciting. I’ve got some stories being published in an anthology that will be available on Amazon from Friday (that’s the day after tomorrow). It’s a collaboration between me and three writer friends; a real mix of sci-fi, horror, fantasy and humour. We’ve also got aContinue Reading
Article in Writing Magazine
It’s been a while since I wrote on this blog. I’ve finished my second year at university (and passed averaging a 1st which, unsurprisingly, I’m thrilled about) and have just this week started the third year. New year, new campus, new tutors. Gulp. Although I’ve enjoyed a four-month-long summer, itContinue Reading