Winner of the Beryl Bainbridge First Time Author Award
I’ve just learned that I’ve been selected as the winner of the Beryl Bainbridge First Time Author Award 2021. I feel so incredibly honoured.
I’ve just learned that I’ve been selected as the winner of the Beryl Bainbridge First Time Author Award 2021. I feel so incredibly honoured.
My book is on sale now!
You Have to Make Your Own Fun Around Here tells the tale of two precocious girls, Katie and Evelyn, who have grandiose dreams of becoming filmmakers and artists, but an all-consuming rivalry overshadows their friendship.
Fraught, complex, and often just as anguished as romantic relationships, friendship serves a fundamental need, but it’s not always for the faint-hearted.
I’ve selected three of my favourite creative works to share with you. Each of them is enigmatic and thought provoking in their own way.
2019 has been an incredible year during which everything happened at the same time. I sold a book, we sold our house, and we have a gorgeous new baby girl!
In an extraordinary and unlikely turn of events, my and Doug’s schedules aligned in October and we booked a six week trip to Hawaii. It still doesn’t quite seem real, but it really happened. We strolled the sandy white beaches. We snorkelled in turquoise waters. We marvelled at pastel sunsets. We hit up the luau, and sampled the Mai Tai.
I’ve just returned from a short trip to Cornwall, a county in the south west of the United Kingdom. Cornwall is renowned for its breathtaking coastline, blond beaches, and picturesque towns and villages. I flipping loved it.
The lure of the tragic, charismatic star is hard to beat, at least for me. I’ve been reading lots of books about dead celebrities; the kinds of people who made quite the impression in their lifetimes and have become all the more fascinating in (tragic) death.
It’s natural to desire feedback on your writing. You want to know that you’re on to something. You want to feel validated. But tread carefully, writers.
When I find new music that really appeals to me, I always ask myself, “Would it fit my selection for Desert Island Discs?” It’s been an incredibly difficult exercise to whittle down my favourite music to just eight tracks but I’ve given it a bash.
I’ve been thinking about plot. A lot. Is plot essential? I believe so. Story is plot. Plot is inherent in story. When readers complain about the books they haven’t enjoyed, they will often say, “It just didn’t go anywhere. I got bored.” Readers want to dive in to story. As in life, we want to be enchanted, entertained, and most importantly, to be taken on a journey.
Never again shall I sweat over bibliography formats and citations, or suffer eyestrain that felt like someone was tightening a rope around my forehead. Never again shall I sit on Amazon for hours on end, attempting to source the cheapest reference books, swearing profusely at the cost of postage and packing.
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