Welcome Back!
It's been over a year since I added to my blog, and although no one seems to have missed it much, I feel that I've been slacking. So, I'm...
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Jul 3, 20233 min read
Women's Fiction
When you self-publish you are asked to place your book into up to two categories or genres. There are a finite quantity of these and it...
Jul 1, 20233 min read
A touch of something odd
A few years ago someone suggested that I have a go at writing a ghost story. The person in question was of the opinion that my...
Jul 4, 20224 min read
The Significance of Characters with Disabilities in Literary Fiction
Today I am thrilled to host my first guest, Deirdre O’Grady, who was my sensitivity reader for The Cottage on Winter Moss. What is a...
Jun 30, 20223 min read
An excerpt from The Cottage on Winter Moss
My new book is set in the area where I am lucky enough to live, on the wild northwest coast of Cumbria. Walking along the dunes one day a...
Jun 29, 20222 min read
Getting ensnared in multiple story-threads
Personally, I love a book with multiple story-threads, especially when each thread concerns a different character. My ‘Widows’ books are...
Jun 21, 20225 min read
A book about writing a book
My new book, The Cottage on Winter Moss, was inspired by my local landscape. I wanted to pour into it all the colour, texture and...
Mar 30, 20223 min read
Sneak Preview - an excerpt from The Cottage on Winter Moss
My new book is set in the area where I am lucky enough to live, on the wild northwest coast of Cumbria. Walking along the dunes one day a...
Mar 25, 20224 min read
Books Recommendations
I’ve been busy since November writing a new novel, which is almost ready to go to the editor. While I am writing I like to read books...
Jan 1, 202212 min read
Many Rooms - A story of the New Year
St Quentin’s square is somewhat off the main thoroughfare of the city’s streets; traffic is admitted under sufferance and parking is not...
Dec 9, 20216 min read
Why reviews matter (and how to write good ones)
I am an avid reader and always try to write reviews for the books I read. Reading a book - like writing one - can be a solitary business....
Dec 2, 20213 min read
Work In Progress (WIP)
About this time last year, during the second lock down here in the UK, I was writing The Lady in the Veil. I was early on in the job...
Nov 25, 20213 min read
Trying to do the right thing
Eighteen months ago, upon the killing of George Floyd, there was a long-overdue upsurge in calls for proper equality and inclusion in all...
Nov 18, 20214 min read
Excerpt from The Lady in the Veil
In my book The Lady in the Veil, my villain takes the form of a woman. Lady Jane Talbot is as shrewish as possible, avid for gossip,...
Nov 11, 20213 min read
The Talbot Saga
If there are two things likely to hook me in a book it is an old house and a family tree. Norah Loft’s House books were early favourites...
Nov 2, 20216 min read
Read any good books lately?
All writers are readers, and I am no exception. I read fairly widely, but the nineteenth century classics are my favourites and I often...
Oct 25, 20213 min read
Heard any good books lately?
All writers are readers, and I am no exception. Generally speaking I am monogamous - reading only one book at a time. I wouldn’t like to...
Oct 18, 20214 min read
The Year in Review
October is an odd time to review the year, but it is the time when I set my mind to my new writing project, so I thought it would be a...
Mar 25, 20215 min read
The Difficult Child
“A number of years ago, a new trend in writing rose from some cursed tar pit filled with flawlessly cleansed ancient skeletons. So,...
Jan 15, 20215 min read
Alternative Austen Giveaway
I’ve decided to launch a competition to win a six book bundle of Alternative Austen novels. One of them will be mine, of course, but I...
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