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In July, I’ll be leading 2 short courses for Nottingham Trent University’s Summer School.

Start Writing Your Novel will run over 3 packed days from July 17^th, and we’ll be playing with Short Stories on July 20^th and 21^st.

Come along. Write loads. Have fun.

Yay!

To celebrate, the kind folk at the Horror Tree invited me to write about my horror heroines. If you’d like to read my gushing about Mariana Enriquez, Joyce Carol Oates, Shirley Jackson and the rest of my top ten (plus a few sneaky more), please visit my Horror Tree post.

Also, for Women In Horror Month, We Wait is available on Kindle for just 99p!

Only a few days until the UK Ghost Story Festival kicks off at the Museum of Making in Derby! I’m very excited about attending a long weekend of spooky author events and panels, and delighted to be taking part too, offering a writing workshop, Tapping into Your Ghosts, on Friday, February 17th.

In the run up to the Festival, the good folk at The Horror Tree took the time to interview me, and I had a lot of fun chatting about zombies, snakes and cheese on toast. I’m very grateful to Willow Croft for the great questions and to Alex Davis for doing such a wonderful job bringing the Festival together.

Having recently returned from an exhilarating week tutoring Writing Into the Dark, a Halloween residential retreat at beautiful Write South West Scotland, I’m very pleased to have more courses lined up.

This Sunday, I’m taking part in the Other Worlds Weekend at Nottingham Writers Studio, providing a workshop on Haunted Places, and there’s more eerie stuff to come.

From February 4^th at Nottingham’s marvellous Malt Cross, I’ll be running a brand new 4-week course, Thrills and Chills, for Writing East Midlands, where we’ll be crafting crime, suspense and horror – I’m obviously thrilled 😀

Gone, a crime anthology, has just been released from Red Dog Press. I’m delighted that my short story, In Barcelona, has been included among such a variety of great writing, and incredibly grateful to the publishers and to its wonderful editor, Stephen J Golds.

I’ve recently learnt that my short story, Your Neighbour’s Packages, has been reprinted in in the World Goedam Collection of Spooky and Strange tales, a collaboration between UNESCO Cities of Literature and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. Published in both Korean and English, the collection is available to read online.

…is out now from Undertow!!! Overjoyed to have my short story, The Invitation, included in such a spectacular magazine

 

I’ve managed to rescue my girls and ghosts! After Eyrie Press closed at the end of May, I wasn’t ready to give them up. For the first time in my life, I considered self-publishing, and with the support and encouragement of some very great people, I’ve gone for it.

We Wait is back in the world on Kindle. I’d wanted to release it during Pride month, and though I didn’t manage that, it was close (and, of course, Pride’s a forever-thing, not just a June-thing).  As an introductory offer, the novel’s currently on sale for just 99p!

If you’d like a copy, you can find it here.  A new paperback will be available soon.

I’m incredibly grateful to We Wait’s incredible editor, Jane Spencer, for her practical help, kindness, and patience, to the talented artist, Nick Denton, for allowing me to hold onto that wonderful haunted house cover, and to all the friends who have provided such excellent advice.  Ghosts always find a way.

Thrilled to announce another incredibly exciting acceptance! My short story, In Barcelona, is to be published in Gone, a new crime anthology from Red Dog Press 😀

Still lots to get excited about…

I’m absolutely overjoyed that my short story, The Invitation, is to be published in this autumn’s issue of Weird Horror!

Although I’ve now returned to the second draft of my current novel-in-progress, it’s been fabulous taking a brief break back in Short Story Land, and it’s also been wonderful providing workshops in real life again. I had a great evening discussing editing with Fosseway Writers, as well as a fascinating afternoon creating unsettling characters at Bromley House Library. I’m very grateful too to Mike Cambridge for his incredibly kind comments about We Wait for Bromley House Book Reviews.

And there are more workshops in the pipeline. In addition to the incredible Halloween Writing Retreat that I’ll be co-hosting with Anstey Harris, I’m excited to be playing with Haunted Locations as part of the Other Worlds Writing Weekend on July 17^th, at Nottingham Writers’ Studio.

If you’re interested in writing more intensively, I also have two summer courses coming up in August, with Nottingham Trent University. Start Writing Your Novel will be running over three days beginning on the 22^nd, and Short Story Success will take place on the 25^th and 26^th.

It would be great to see you there (please follow the links for booking info)