Hopping from writing weird fiction (make it up as you go along) to writing non-fiction (the scientific, bibliography-worthy kind) was the kind of challenge I both love and hate: scary, exacting, and revealing. I learned lots of things along the way, and I put them in an article that has been published by Writers’ Forum… Continue reading The secret life of non fiction
Have an apology: there’s another (slight) delay to the US publication of The Loosening Skin and instead of a publication date of 2nd February it will be available from 23rd February. The US edition has a wonderfully eerie cover by Julia Lloyd, and it includes a new piece of short fiction set in that skin-slipping… Continue reading More Skin
It’s the last days of the year: the back fence has blown down in Storm Bella, the supply of Christmassy chocolate biscuits is running low, and there’s a huge pile of washing I should be doing. That’s how I know this is the perfect time to sit around in my pyjamas and revisit my reading… Continue reading Turning the pages in 2020
Let’s sum up the year! Yes, okay, let’s not. Let’s not try. I haven’t had the kind of year that I’d want to wade through again, even in a sparkly retrospective type way, and I’m guessing you haven’t either. Leaving all the obvious things about the year aside, then, the getting published side of things… Continue reading 2020: The Year of Paper Boats
It’s no longer such a slim volume: the UK edition of The Beauty has now been reprinted with the addition of a bonus short story. It’s called Peace, Pipe and it could already be found in the US edition, so it’s good to have the matching set now. The cover even has a new purple… Continue reading Stories that keep growing
That was a wild October, filled with books – books I read, thanks to the local library in particular, and books I wrote. Author copies regularly landed on the doormat. Here they all are: Fearsome Creatures, a mini-collection of short stories about my favourite monsters, was published by Black Shuck books, as was the very… Continue reading A month of eyes and worms
The other day I went for a walk around the park, and took a seat on the bench by the river to watch the world go by. It was a grey day, filled with the background hum of bad news, and I was pretty low about the state of the world. I felt disconnected from… Continue reading The public life of fungi
Publication day for Greensmith, and I’m just so relieved to see my main character Penelope out in the universe and travelling. She was meant to make an appearance in May, but maybe she suits October better, just as all the leaves are falling off the trees for real. This book means a lot to me.… Continue reading Hello Greensmith
I got to chat to Paul Semel about my Fearsome Creatures over on his blog, so a big thanks to Paul for that. Here’s the link. Lots of other projects get a mention, including Skein Island, Skyward Inn (or my SI novels, as I’ll now refer to them), The Beauty, From the Neck Up, and… Continue reading More being fearsome in public
It’s publication day for Fearsome Creatures, my mini-collection of stories inspired by the monsters that played around in my mind when I was young. From zombies to vampires, mummies to big bad wolves, I had a blast. You can pick up a copy from Black Shuck Books or from all the usual places. (The e-book… Continue reading Release the Fearsome Creatures
