Channelling emotions

Quietly, step by step, the first draft of Age of Opppression is taking shape. My goal is to finish the first draft by the end of the year – which feels like a tall order at the moment especially as the section I’m working on is particularly challenging.

It isn’t that it is especially tricky […]

Working with an illustrator – part 1

This is part one of a two part blog – as I wrote it I realised that I was going on a bit, so part two will be published next week!

The first of my charity books was released last week. Jan the Dragon was commissioned in April and written for a German boy (called […]

Guest Blog – An illustrators view

To mark the publication of Jan the Dragon my first charity book, I’ve asked Marianna Mooney, who illustrated it for me to write the blog this week.

I’m writing this to you guys on the eve of Jan’s epic release! It has been a weird week of phones breaking, replacing—the internet going faulty […]

Finding a cover – Guest Blog

No one could argue that the cover for Balance of Betrayal is my most striking to date. I am so grateful to Jonathan Rew-Dixon, my photographer friend, who came up with the concept and Clare Metcalfe who took the actual photo. This week, Jonathan has written a guest blog, to explain how he arrived […]

One week to go!

I can hardly believe it but Balance of Betrayal finally sees the light of day on 19th April. The imminent publication of one’s work is always a nervous moment, for any author. What if it isn’t as good as my last book? What if I’ve made some horrible mistake in the plot? What if […]

Ah, youth!

I did a talk at a local middle school last week. The students of year 8 (aged around 13) were just starting a few weeks of creative writing in English and I kicked it all off with a talk about how to develop plot.

I’m pretty comfortable with presenting but young people are a […]