fiction

  • Free – For You!

    For those of you who haven’t yet read my latest book of short stories, A Walk in the Woods, you can get it free – today and tomorrow! Tempted? Here’s an extract from one of the short stories, The Dark Place: I hate this dark place. A cobweb gently glides over my cheek, its maker…

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  • Book Review: The Family

    My partner knows psychological thriller writer, Louise Jensen, and he was invited to the launch party of her latest book, The Family. He could take a guest so I jumped at the chance when he asked me if I’d like to go along. I had met Louise at the Harrogate Crime Festival earlier in the…

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  • I met the lovely, chatty Margaret at an author and blogger meet-up recently in Stoke. She talked to me about her book and I was keen to know a little bit more about it and about what inspires her to write. Q. Your book, Footsteps in the Past, was published last year. Can you tell…

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  • I’d wanted to read The Handmaid’s Tale for some time. Friends raved about it and when the TV series came out, there was a lot of talk about it and the concept. But, as many of you bookworms out there will appreciate, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to read all the books…

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  • I met the lovely Ann Biggins at the Indie Literary Festival in Bradford earlier this year. I was very interested to hear about Ann’s debut novel, especially so as it’s set in the 1970s, which was when I was growing up. Here she gives us more of an insight: Q. Your book is called Losing…

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  • Bite Size Writing Tips

    Take your time The time of day can make a difference to the type of atmosphere your readers feel. For example, you can darken a story by setting it at night. There’s always an extra sense of menace, of threat and uncertainty in a story that takes place at night. ***

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  • Bite Size Writing Tips

    Don’t overdo your ending Don’t go beyond your story’s natural ending e.g. in a horror story, it’s more effective to finish with the girl thinking she’s got away only for the monster to appear right at the end, its jaws drooling, than it is to go into graphic detail about how the monster finished her…

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  • An Interview With David Evans

    David Evans is another author I met at Harrogate Crime Festival. He was a real gentleman and I’m thrilled that he’s agreed to be my author interviewee this week. Q. Your book, Tainted, was released earlier in the year. Can you tell us a little bit about it? A. The main plotline for Tainted was…

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  • Please give a warm welcome to my interviewee this week, Tony Millington. I first met Tony at Deepings Literary Festival when he was taking part in their Read Dating event, as an author. It was great to meet him there and I also caught up with him at Harrogate Crime Festival last month. Q. Your…

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  • Markets For Writers

    The People’s Friend: This long-running magazine is primarily known for its short stories, which are character-driven, traditional, feel-good tales. The fiction team are hugely encouraging and often offer advice if you’re close to being accepted. The magazine also publishes features and poetry. They have recently given their website an overhaul and there are some useful…

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