Kingston University Masterclass talk

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Yesterday evening, I had a fantastic time giving a talk at Kingston University as part of the MA Publishing and Creative Writing Masterclass series. The students were all so clued up and asked really great, insightful questions.

The talk focussed on neoliberalism, the ecosystem of reading and permaculture publishing. I had so much fun ‘booking about’ – a huge big thank you to everyone who came and for being such a fab audience. And an especially large thank you to the lovely Alison Baverstock for the invite!

More to come on this topic soon, so watch this space…

Lecture at City University

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I had the most marvellous time yesterday speaking at City University on the MA Publishing programme. We discussed the cold war between self-publishing and traditional publishing, and the effects that’s had on the industry. Fascinating stuff!

It’s the second year in a row I’ve been a guest lecturer at City on this course, and it was such fun – a really gorgeous university and awesome questions from all the students. Thanks so much for being so welcoming City – and particularly to Patrick Brindle, who invited me back to speak again!

Haiku at Wagamama Chelmsford

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Over the summer, I was lucky enough to run a haiku competition for the charming folks at Wagamama to help with the launch of their new restaurant in Chelmsford. I had an amazing time, and you can read my full write up of the evening over on the British Haiku Society website, here! Huge thanks to the British Haiku Society for providing me with this awesome opportunity, and to Wagamama for being so welcoming and great to work with.

If you are interested in having haiku at your event, whether a workshop, competition, or talk about the poetic form, please do get in touch, I’d love to help out…

Self-help books now available in Australia and NZ

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Big shout out to folks living in Australia and New Zealand, it looks like you can now buy my books in your country! All four of them – Stress Less, Believe in Yourself, Boost, and Don’t Panic – are available to buy from Dymocks and other lovely bookshops.

This is particularly exciting for me, because I was born in Australia, so it’s nice to have a little bit of me returning to the homeland at last… Happy reading!

‘How to end a story’ on Reedsy

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A couple of months ago, I joined the amazing publishing services agency Reedsy as an editor. Since then, I’ve got to work on some amazing books – and I just got quoted on the importance of the metaphorical Chekhov’s gun in finishing your stories! There’s lots of really great advice throughout the article from other editors too, and I’m really grateful to the Reedsy team for including me in this piece!

And don’t forget if you need an editor, I’d love to hear from you! You can find my five-star rated Reedsy profile here!

A new chapter at the UEA

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It’s official! I’m leaving Endeavour Media to go and do an MA in Creative Writing at the UEA! I am so, so excited for this next step, and am really grateful to UEA for offering me a place on this amazing course.

I’m handing over the Endeavour reins to the marvellous James Faktor, who will keep all our authors and agents in safe hands and I know has great plans for the future!

It’s been an incredible journey working at Endeavour over the past year – huge thanks to all the authors and agents we work with, and of course the wonderful team at the office, for being so endlessly bright, supportive and hardworking. You’ve made this job a joy.

There’s more info on the changeover at Endeavour over on BookBrunch.

Here’s to a writerly year ahead! x

Greenwich Book Fest: Is the Future of Publishing Digital?

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This Saturday, 16th June at 10am, I’ll be on a panel at Greenwich Book Festival with the wonderful Katy Guest from Unbound, the insightful Victoria Hughes-Williams from The Pigeonhole, and the fabulous Rosamund Davies from Creative Conversations as our chair.

We will be discussing all things digital, and where the future of publishing might be headed: “Revisiting the hard copy versus ebook debate, this panel discussion will explore how ebooks have given old books new opportunities; the democratising of what gets published and how it is funded, and facilitating reader communities and new ways of reading.”

Best of all, this event is completely FREE to attend – so come along, bring your publishing buddies and your morning cup of coffee, and let’s get stuck in!

More details here.

Hello to haiku

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I’m steeling my nerves a bit here because I don’t normally share my poetry, but I’m getting three poems published in the August issue of Blithe Spirit, The British Haiku Society’s lovely journal, which is most exciting!

I’ve added a whole new ‘poetry’ section to my website as well – click here – watch this space, I’m hoping more exciting things will be in the works soon…

Also, big thanks to all the fabulous folks who’ve signed up to my newsletter so far – I just finally had time to send out my first newsletter! If you’d like to sign up too – and get a free eBook short story into the bargain – just follow this link.

Mailing list is go – with a FREE eBook for subscribers

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A month has just flown by since I last posted, but it hasn’t been without event: London Book Fair has been in full swing this week and I’ve been there having the most fun championing backlist books with the Endeavour Media team!

With some nervousness, I have also set up a writerly mailing list, because apparently these are quite handy to have. It means I can now send you updates straight to your inbox with story publication updates and subscriber-exclusive giveaways and tales. Best of all, when you subscribe, you will be sent a FREE eBook short story, THE YELLOW MOTH, which was originally published in Open Pen in 2014. No spam, just stories.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can sign up on my new-look, updated website right here.

The mailing list is still in beta testing, so I would be grateful if you could let me know if you experience any problems with signing up, or downloading the eBook.

Happy reading! x

French translation of Boost

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The translations keep on coming thick and fast, but this one is particularly exciting because it is in a language I’ve never had a book translated into before: French!

The publisher DUNOD has done an amazing job on designing this beautiful edition, titled Boost – Faites décoller votre confiance en vous, and have even made some super cute rocket stickers that I would love to get my mitts on. Huge thanks to their whole team and, as ever, my English publishers Summersdale as well.

Stress Less and Believe in Yourself translations

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A few months ago, Believe in Yourself was released in Albanian, and Stress Less came out in Dutch – now it’s the other way around!

The lovely folks at Lantaarn have put together a beautiful Dutch translation of Believe in Yourself, called How to Feel Good, and Minerva Botime has created an Albanian version of Stress Less – Më Pak Stres.

I’m hugely grateful to both publishers, my English publisher Summersdale, and the foreign language translators, who’ve done such an amazing job – very exciting indeed!!

Fairlight Books February author spotlight

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Following the publication of The Locust Theorem and The Cloud Loom, the lovely folks at Fairlight Books have decided to put me in their author spotlight for the month – how very thrilling! While your over there, don’t forget to read both the stories as well, they’re completely free to read…

“It is probably best if we start with your body. I’d like you to touch yourself – on the arm, the face – somewhere where your hand can make contact with your skin. Feel it. Soft. Malleable. Our bodies are fantastically adaptable – fantastically adaptable – to external conditions. Well now, let’s think about that for a minute. Let’s think about external conditions. Where do external conditions start?” [READ THE LOCUST THEOREM]

“The rain begins with that soft, familiar sigh of release. No pitter-patter – not from this altitude – but a sense of falling with no confirmation of receipt. One long, diminishing descent. His heart sinks and he rolls over, hiding his face in the pillow for just five more seconds, trying to blot out the inevitable. The mean, repeating rainfall days stretch out behind, and into an imagined beyond, dreaded only because a cave of memory decades-long tells him it never used to be this way.” [READ THE CLOUD LOOM]

‘Proscenium’ is here!

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It’s been a really busy week, and I’ve only just had time to post about the fact that Proscenium was published in Fictive Dreamon Thursday.

I’ve been really touched and pleased by its reception so far – the lovely Sophie G. on Twitter said it “totally nails beautiful/sad” – which really made my day!

As with On the Last Rebellion, here’s a couple of sentences to tease, but don’t forget to read he whole story here:

Afterwards, when the shock waves had subsided, there were only a few survivors left. In side-turned, velvet-clad seats. They cried until their breath escaped, and their plaintive, mewling noises made the theatre wish it did not have such sturdy walls, that it had not performed its pain-prolonging half-protection, but had simply let the tiny particles roll in and penetrate the oozing, fleshy bodies completely.

‘On the Last Rebellion’ in Open Pen

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Happy Sunday everybody! Fantastically excited that On the Last Rebellion has been published by the lovely Sean and friends over at Open Pen!

You can’t really do excerpts for flash fiction, so here’s the first two sentence and you can find the whole 500-Word read here:

To be invaded is a penetration. If not bodily, by blade or flesh, then mentally by a wiping of history, a corrosion of culture, a banishing of the familiar. Invasion takes more than it gives, aggravates the womb of home until even the things you did not know you had are gone, after which you are left feeling empty and strangely stretched. Implanted with the residue of some other landscape.

‘On the Last Rebellion’ in Open Pen THIS WEEKEND!

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CapturePhew, it’s been a busy week all round, but particularly when it comes to short story news, as the beloved folks at Open Pen have just let me know they’d like to publish my flash fiction story On the Last Rebellion. It will be available ONLINE and FREE TO READ this weekend!

You will be able to have a look at it from 9AM ON SUNDAY over on the Open Pen website.

I also thoroughly recommend taking a look at their archives, as they’ve just had their big 20th issue celebrations and there’s a lot going on.

Continue reading “‘On the Last Rebellion’ in Open Pen THIS WEEKEND!”

One week until ‘Proscenium’ goes live!

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Taking to cyberspace on this cold winter’s day to give a huge shout out to Fictive Dream online literary magazine, who one week today are publishing my short story ‘Proscenium’ as part of Flash Fiction February!

I’m super proud have been selected as an author for this special short story month, and really recommend checking out their website all this month for new great stories every day.

Reading to warm your toes amongst this midwinter chill! x

SYP Webchat on Monday 15th January

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Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a marvellous festive season and that 2018 has got off to a great start.
AskAnExpert
 
It’s certainly been busy this end already, and I’m very excited that on Monday 15th January, from 6.30-8pm, I’ll be doing a live #SYPExpert webchat for The Society of Young Publishers members, talking about freelance journalism in publishing, building a portfolio career, and the workings of an eBook publisher. Log in to ask me all your burning bookish questions!
 
 
See you there, and looking forward to all your questions!

Happy Festive Season!

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‘Twas the night before Christmas, the office quiet as winter.
Nothing was stirring, not even the printer.
But on stroke of midnight, the pages awoke,
the protags jumped out & became party folk…!

Settings unspooled and stole the mince pies,
plots and pages danced ’til the sunrise.
The dust jackets pranced, then they stole all the wine,
and the paperbacks tried to clean up in time:

For as Christmas closed, the stories all hid,
as to be spied by a publisher was quite forbid.
But when the editors came back they all cried –
the stories were now totally different inside!

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Wishing you all a very merry Festive Season and the best of adventures for 2018. Here’s to storytellers, the brave people who hold them, and the lovely literary explorers who read their tales. x

‘The Locust Theorem’ is Story of the Week

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Fairlight ShortsExcitement levels have reached new heights, as The Locust Theorem, one of my latest short stories, is Story of the Week on Fairlight Books. If you haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, you can follow this link, or check out the snippet below…

Doctor Evans slept like the dead. She grumbled when I woke her.

‘Shh. Listen.’ I held up a hand. She rubbed her eyes, trying to make sense of the noise.

‘Where’s it coming from?’

‘The sky.’

She got up, frowning, and padded to the open window. ‘Sh*t, look at the stars.’

‘Right?’

‘Am I dreaming?’

‘No.’ I joined her by the window, both of us staring slack-jawed at the shuddering sky.

‘What is it? I know that noise, I’ve heard it before.’

‘I think it’s teeth,’ I replied slowly. ‘Human teeth. Chattering.’

Continue reading “‘The Locust Theorem’ is Story of the Week”