My flash, Unrequited, will appear on the FlashFlood journal at around 2:20 a.m. (BST) on Saturday, the 24th of June 2023 (National Flash Fiction Day 2023). I’m letting you know so you can set an alarm. Or you can do what I’ll be doing and catch up and have a look later in the day. To be … Continue reading Flash fiction in FlashFlood
#30Wordsin30Days ran on Twitter during April 2023. A prompt a day - you can probably guess the rest. It was a fun, low stakes way to write every day and I learnt a surprising amount about myself and writing during the month. I've put the stories beneath the observations - I'd love to know what … Continue reading Things I learnt during 30 Words in 30 Days
Delighted to have this short story published today. Love the image that goes with it too https://freeflashfiction.com/fiction/the-mural-on-the-playroom-wall/
Looking through my phone’s notes and found this poem. Did I write it? Why else would it be on my phone? It’s from February 2020. Usually I note the writer if I save something. This is a strange sensation. I quite like it. How odd. Maybe it isn’t mine. I’ve googled the first line and … Continue reading Poem: Did I write this?
Last year I wrote a summary of my experience of sending work out to be judged and found wanting. Here’s an update 14 months on … I didn’t send much off in 2021. I was too busy reading and writing for the MA (and still being found wanting - justifiably). However, I did send off … Continue reading 2021: Walking the writer’s walk, an update
I was in a play last night. That’s a photo of me in rehearsal, which is why there’s a massive telly. In real life we performed in the very beautiful Clandon Woods. Bombshells, by Australian Joanna Murray-Smith is a set of six monologues about women at bombsell moments of their lives. I did two, my … Continue reading Bombshells
Other people’s dreams are boring, aren’t they? In direct inverse proportion to how intensely interesting our own are. Don’t worry, I’m not going to detail mine, partly because I can’t remember them in the cold light of the grey January day that is today. But oh boy. They were vivid. And awful. I do remember … Continue reading Dreaming in fiction
My online friend Jupiter Jones tells me there are not one but three different dashes that can be used in publishing. Intrigued? I certainly was! I mean - that's niche, right?* I've had a very entertaining half an hour finding out all about them. Nerdy? Me? Here, be enlightened ... or did you all know … Continue reading H to the En to the Em
Re-blogging this. Love the comment about ‘white male’ fiction being a genre. I wrote a story based on Shirley Jackson, I find her life and her work fascinating. https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=LIT6638550199 Welcome to Lit Century: 100 Years, 100 Books. Combining literary analysis with an in-depth look at historical context, hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols choose one … Continue reading Can We Stop Underrating Shirley Jackson Now? — Literary Hub
In first lockdown, all those years ago in the UK, I decided to learn to crochet. I’m a 51 year old woman, it’s allowed. It’s practically mandatory. To start with every square took a long time, many mis-steps and looked liked a deformed dishcloth. Then, when I read the instructions and concentrated really hard, I … Continue reading Running v writing v crochet
Just waving 