Monthly Round-up: February 2019

February is, of course, Women in Horror month. A chance for we women horror writers to blow our own horns and remind people that we are out here, jostling for space amongst the men. I went to a social gathering of fellow horror writers a couple of weeks ago, in London. It was a very pleasant evening, and good to chat to fellow horror hounds. Chatting to another woman, I explained to her how many times over the years I'd had people say to me some variation of, "what's a nice girl like you doing writing such horrible stories," and she nodded in agreement. Meanwhile another writer (male) involved in the conversation looked at us somewhat incredulously and said, "I keep wondering if we still need a Women in Horror month, since women in horror are so well established now. But I guess we do."

As we still need Pride parades because there are still bigots out there who refuse to accept that LGBT+ people have the right to exist, we need Women in Horror month because there is still a preconception that women don't do horror. Things are changing, slowly, but there is still work to do (in both of the aforementioned groups).

Hence, I have been busy pimping myself this month, and I have things to report.

OUT NOW

I am pleased to announce that the 43rd edition of the e-zine 'The Siren's Call' - an all-female edition for Women In Horror month - is now out. It contains my story 'Cigarette Burns' as well as lots of other stories and poems by fabulous women horror writers. The issue is available to download free of charge from The Siren's Call site now.

PUBLICITY

I had a guest blog post on Colleen Anderson's site this month, about why I write horror. You can have a read here.

WORK IN PROGRESS

More good news to report here - the sequel to OUTPOST H311 is officially underway. I haven't written too many words yet, but I have made a start on the first chapter, and I've made progress in plotting and character sketches. I feel like I am gently, but firmly, coaxing my muse out from the rock it's been hiding under, and it's starting to wake up.

I have also thought of a title for said sequel. I want to call it 'OUTPOST: ARMAGEDDON'. I'd like to know what people think of this.

And that's it to report for this month. See you at the end of March!

Monthly Round-up: January 2019

It's been a while since I posted a monthly update. Mostly because I haven't had much to report.

COMING SOON

I am pleased to announce that my short story 'Cigarette Burns' will be appearing in the 10th Women In Horror issue of THE SIREN'S CALL' e-Zine (issue #43). This is the second year I have appeared in the special WIHM issue of this e-zine.

PUBLICITY

I've really not been pimping myself of late, so nothing to report.

WORK IN PROGRESS

This is where it gets difficult. I'm still trying to get my writing mojo back. I have several works on the go, but struggling with all of them.

The fourth Shara Summers book I have recently done a bit of work on, but since I still don't know what's happening with the third Shara Summers book, and the first two really aren't selling, I am not sure if there is any point in my carrying on with this series.

The collaboration I have been working on with Hubby - a rather sweeping crime thriller set in the 1960s - I have put to one side because I think there are so many problems with it I don't know how to fix it.

And finally, there is the sequel to OUTPOST H311. Which I do want to write. The first book seems to be doing reasonably well, sales-wise. The problem is I haven't finished plotting the sequel yet, and that stage of staring at a blank page wondering where to start is even more overwhelming than usual.

Hopefully by the end of next month I will have something more positive to report. In the meantime, if you've read any of my books I would really appreciate it if you could consider leaving a review. Knowing I have a few readers out there provides more encouragement to a writer than you could ever imagine.

Best Books of 2018

Once more it's time for me to review the books I read in the previous year and blog about the ones I liked the best. My criteria for this is quite simple. I log all the books I read on Goodreads, and those I give a 5-star rating make my 'best books' list.

In 2018 I set a goal of reading 70 books. I fell a bit short of that, managing to complete 68 books before the year ended. However, there was an unusually high number of books I gave a 5-star rating to last year. Seven have made the list. In the order in which I read them, they are:

Ready Player One: Ernest Kline
Everything is Lies: Helen Callaghan
Y is for Yesterday: Sue Grafton
Cross Her Heart: Sarah Pinborough
The Roanoke Girls: Amy Engle
If She Did It: Jessica Treadway
Tombland: CJ Sansom

This list includes one science fiction book, two crime novels (both sort of historical, but one decidedly so), and four psychological thrillers. Further details on each book can be found below.

Ready Player One
The only science fiction book on my list, this is a novel that was recommended to me and when I went to buy it on Kindle I discovered my husband had already bought the Kindle version - we have linked our accounts, so we can each access books bought by the other. Someone else had recommended it to him, completely independently. We both read the book, loved it, recommended it to our D&D group and then when the film came out a couple of months later we all went to see it together.

Set in a dystopian near-future, where everyone escapes their appalling reality by spending all of their time in an idyllic Virtual Reality universe, part of what makes 'Ready Player One' so enjoyable are all the references to 80s pop culture. Anyone who grew up watching films, playing video games and playing D&D in the 1980s will recognise all the references.

The film is quite different from the book, but equally enjoyable. If you saw and loved the film, do yourself a favour and read the book as well.

Everything is Lies
In my review of 'Everything is Lies' I described it as 'a near-perfect psychological thriller'. Helen Callaghan is a member of my writing group, and it's so lovely to be able to watch an author grow and develop in their craft, and eventually produce something of this calibre.

This the first of several psychological thrillers in my list. It's a genre that is in danger of being overexploited. To be able to do one this well, in such a crowded market, is exceptional.

Y is For Yesterday
I was given this book for Christmas in 2017, and I had no idea then that it would prove to be the last Sue Grafton book ever. She sadly passed away not long after, and her family announced they would not be finishing the series on her behalf.

I've been reading the Kinsey Millhone series for decades, and I've enjoyed every single one of them. Because I had this one in hardback, therefore making it difficult to carry around with me, I read it when I was confined at home recuperating from surgery in February 2018. The fact that it was Kinsey Milhone's last case added extra poignancy, but it was an outstanding story. I have a great deal of admiration for a writer who had 25 books in the same series published, and there was never any drop in quality. Ms Grafton left us too soon, and she is greatly missed.

Cross Her Heart
Sarah Pinborough made my list last year with 'Behind Her Eyes'. This year I read the next psychological thriller she brought out, and while the twist ending is perhaps not as legendary as BHE, this is still an excellently written novel that had me gripped to the end.

The Roanoke Girls
Everyone had been raving about this book, so I thought it was about time I got around to reading it. It's a psychological thriller about a family that produces extraordinarily beautiful young women, but there's a dark secret running through it.

It's not exactly a happy read, but it stayed with me for a long time after I read it, and it's rare for books to do that. You can read my review on Goodreads here.

If she Did It
Yet another psychological thriller, this is a story told from the point of view of Hanna, mother of two daughters. Three years on from a brutal attack that killed her husband and left her disfigured, Hanna is still trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Her youngest daughter's boyfriend was arrested and found guilty of the attack. Hanna can't remember exactly what happened the night of the attack, but is fixated with finding out. Because she finds herself entertaining the unthinkable suspicion that her daughter was somehow involved.

Again, this is a somewhat disturbing read, but it had me gripped. Find my full review here.

Tombland
The latest book in the Matthew Shardlake series is the most epic yet - spanning 850 pages and dealing with the peasants' revolt in Norwich in 1549.

I really hope that this isn't the last Shardlake book, but I understand that CJ Sansom has cancer. This illness has taken far too many fine writers from us in recent years.

This concludes my list of recommended reads for 2018 - those books that I thought stood out above all the rest I read throughout the year. This year, I've once again set the bar at reading 70 books. I have high hopes that I will make my target this year.

Year in Review: 2018

This year hasn't been a particularly good year for me, for various reasons. At the beginning of February I had to have surgery for a vaginal prolapse, and although this is a fairly minor operation, the recovery time took far longer than I was anticipating. It was two months, really, before I felt fully recovered and I had underestimated how much the recovery process would take out of me.

Then, in June, I was hit by a bombshell when I found out I was to lose my job. Having been with the same organisation for nearly 13 years, the prospect of having to go back out into the job market was daunting, to say the least.

The worst part of it all is that since that day in June, when I was faced with this news I haven't written a single word. Not one.

Initially, all my energy was going into getting my CV up to date and applying for jobs, a process I hadn't had to do for so long I had forgotten how time consuming it can be. Fortunately I found another job fairly quickly, but after having been so long in one organisation, having to be the 'new girl' again and learn everything from the ground up was quite exhausting. And then by the time I'd settled into the new job and felt comfortable in it, I had just been too long away from the writing routine to get back into it.

Hence, my resolution from last year of completing another novel by the end of 2018 remains depressingly unfulfilled.

So all in all, I will be glad to see the back of 2018. 2019 is a New Year, and I am in a new job, but it's an uncertain time in British politics and I am also acutely aware of the fact that nobody's job is guaranteed in this day and age.

The wider picture is too overwhelming, so I am starting the new year with a few personal goals to focus on.

1. Get back into a healthy diet and exercise routine. I always say this every year, but I am currently facing the depressing fact that I can't fit into half my wardrobe these days. I have already made a start on the exercise routine, because I've just commenced sessions with a personal trainer. But I need to stick with it, and I need to be more disciplined with the eating regime. More fruit and veg, less chocolate. Realistically this is not going to start until all the Christmas chocolate is gone.
2. Make more time for friends. Social media makes it easier to stay in touch with people we don't see very often, but it doesn't match face to face contact with friends. There are people in my life I consider good friends, and I haven't seen nearly enough of them this year (in some cases, not at all). That has to change next year.
3. And finally, and most importantly, I need to get back into the writing routine. Back to the early-morning writing sessions in a coffee shop before work. Back to regularly scheduled writing time. I am not going to set a goal of finishing a particular manuscript this year, because at the moment that seems too overwhelming. I just need to get back to writing.

So these are the resolutions I am making as we head into 2019.

Happy New Year to all. What are your goals for the forthcoming year?

What I'm Doing At FantasyCon 2018

This year, FantasyCon is heading up North to Chester, a town I remember visiting as a child - mostly because there was a nice zoo there. That was over 40 years ago, and no doubt it's changed a lot since then.

However, this weekend I go back there again for my annual fix of all things horror, SF and fantasy. It seems I've got a rather busy programme this year, and all the cool kids are posting their FantasyCon activities, so here are mine.

Friday:

9:30pm - 'Occult and Supernatural Adventures' panel in the Edward Room. Pete Sutton moderating. My fellow panelists are Mike Chinn, Sue Tingey and Georgina Bruce.

Saturday:

2:00pm - I am doing a reading in the Disraeli room, with Ray Cluley and Rosanne Rabinowitz.

3:30pm - 'Writers and Roleplaying Games' panel in the Edward Room. Alasdair Stuart moderating. Fellow panellists are Danie Ware, Allen Stroud and Gavin Smith.

I will also have copies of both 'The Whispering Death' and 'Outpost H311' for sale on the BFS table in the dealer room, and will likely be hanging around in the bar for at least part of the time. And I might make an appearance at the karaoke on the Saturday night. I never could resist a good sing.

So, looking forwarding to catching up with friends old and new in Chester this weekend. Don't be afraid to come say hello if you see me. Don't listen to the gossip - I am quite harmless really , and I'll be wearing a prominently displayed name badge so you can identify me.

Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to be reading. And get past the customary dilemma of what to pack for a Con...

Monthly Round-up: August 2018

The last round-up was three months ago, and quite a lot has been going on in my life since then. I got made redundant from the day job in July, but fortunately managed to find a new job after just a few weeks of intense job-hunting. But now I am in the position of being the new girl, which feels strange after nearly 13 years in the same organisation, and it is quite intensive.

Hence, with all this real-life stuff to deal with, not a lot of writing has been happening.

OUT NOW:

I may as well take the opportunity to promote OUTPOST H311, which is doing reasonably well sales-wise at the moment. If you like Nazi zombies, this is a book for you. Tell your friends. There aren't enough Nazi zombie books in the world, and this one attempts to address that.

PUBLICITY

Three online interviews with me have gone up since last time, and links are included below:

21 June - Cedar Hollow
20 August - Ginger Nuts of HorrorGinger Nuts of Horror
23 August - Kendall Reviews

WORK IN PROGRESS

As already mentioned, not much writing going on. There will be a sequel to OUTPOST H311. That's all I can really say at this stage.

And that's about it for news this time. I hope to see you again next month.

Monthly Review: February 2018

On 1 February, I went in for surgery.

Since then I've been at home recovering, so February is pretty much a write-off. However, it's been very cold while I've been off, so it's not been a bad time to be stuck indoors. And by the time I go back to work, which I hope will be next week (pending doctor approval) it will be daylight when I leave the house.

That said, there are a few things to report this month.

OUT NOW/COMING SOON

I'm pleased to announce that my story 'Morgan's Father' is included in the Women in Horror edition of the SIREN'S CALL e-zine. This issue is completely free to download as a PDF and is chock full of horror stories by women, so download your copy now.

In other news, we don't yet have a release date for OUTPOST H311, but the onus is on me at the moment since I've had the edits back and I'm working through them. And it's taking rather longer than I was expecting. Partly that's due to being on sick leave. For the first two weeks following surgery I couldn't really do much except lie about reading or watching TV. No concentration for anything else. However, this week I've been making progress with the edits, so hopefully there'll be more news on this next month.

PUBLICITY

I contributed to Mark West's Stephen King mixtape, which appeared on his blog on 26 February. This was a post including a long list of writers talking briefly about their favourite King story. I chose 'The Breathing Method'.

WORK IN PROGRESS

I haven't worked on any WIPs for a while, what with surgery getting in the way and all. So the current status is unchanged. There are two current works in progress:

A WHITER SHADE OF PAIN: a crime thriller set in 1967 which is a collaboration with my husband. We plotted the book together, then I wrote Draft 1 and he started on Draft 2. The latter isn't finished yet, but I've taken it back to make further changes to the amended chapters. So I suppose it's currently on Draft 2.5.

DEADLY SUMMER is the fourth Shara Summers novel, which takes my intrepid sleuth to New York City when she gets a job in a US soap opera. I am about a third of the way through the first draft. I halted work on this when I started writing OUTPOST H311, and I haven't got back to it yet.

That's all to report this month. I anticipate that by the end of next month, spring will have sprung. But you can never tell, with British weather.

Best Books of 2017

This post is a bit late coming, given that we're already halfway through February.

Every year I set up a 'Goodreads' challenge to read so many books in a year. On average it takes me about a week to read one average-length novel. Most of this is down to my long commute - I spend the best part of 3 hours a day every working day on public transport, travelling to and from work, and I use most of that time to read. I am also quite a fast reader, especially if the book is exciting, and I find myself turning pages faster to find out what happens next.

In 2017 I set myself a goal of reading 68. Happily I exceeded that goal and a read a total of 70 books last year. Six of those books I gave a five-star rating to, and this my criteria for the 'best books of the year' list.

In no particular order, they are:

Pet Sematary: Stephen King
Heart-Shaped Box: Joe Hill
Behind Her Eyes: Sarah Pinborough
X: Sue Grafton
Bones Never Lie: Kathy Reichs
Soul Music: Terry Pratchett

No real surprises here - these are all authors whose books I enjoy, and three of my four all-time favourite authors - Stephen King, Sue Grafton and Kathy Reichs - are in this list. The only one who isn't is Sara Paretsky, and that was only because I did not read her 2017 release (though I bought it, at Bouchercon in Toronto) last year.

More details about these books and why I enjoyed them can be found below.

Pet Sematary:
 The first time I read this book was over 25 years ago. I had to re-read it last year for my horror book club, and I had forgotten just how good it is. This is an almost-perfect horror story that contains all of the characteristics of King that made him my inspiration.
Louis Creed, doctor and Ordinary Guy moves his family to rural Maine when he takes up a job as resident physician on a university campus. The road outside the house claims the lives of many pets, so many that a pet cemetery has been set up by local children. But there's something much darker lying beyond the cemetery, and Louis' descent into madness is creepy and downright disturbing.

Heart-Shaped Box:
I got to meet Joe Hill at Fantasycon in Scarborough a couple of years ago, and end up buying a few books of his which he signed. This was one of them. It involves a fading, self-absorbed rock star with a fascination for collecting macabre items who ends up buying from the internet a suit that allegedly has a ghost attached to it. The suit turns up in a heart-shaped box and the promised ghost does indeed come with the suit, but as always the story is far more complex and it soon takes a sinister turn.
Though not in the same league as his famous father, Stephen King, Joe Hill is still an accomplished horror writer in his own right, and this is a creepy and rather disturbing tale.

Behind Her Eyes:
 I know Sarah Pinborough personally through both the crime and horror convention circuits, and I am always impressed with both her versatility and her writing style. The author of 20-plus published novels, this is the one that seems to have moved her up into the big leagues, and well deserved that move is to.

'Behind Her Eyes' starts out as effectively a love triange between David, Adele and Louise. David is a doctor, Adele his apparently fragile wife, and single mother Louise his secretary. But she meets him in a bar and shares a kiss with him before she starts her new job and realise that he's her boss. Meanwhile Adele offers a hand of friendship to Louise and she finds herself getting closer to Adele, whilst feeling guilty about carrying on a relationship with David. Alternating between Adele and Louise's point of view, it soon becomes apparent that this is not a typical psychological thriller, and it has an ending that will blow you away.

X:
I was not to know, at the time I read this book, that it would be Sue Grafton's penultimate novel and she would tragically leave us before getting to the end of her 'alphabet' books. I have been with Grafton's couragious female PI since 'A is for Alibi'. Kinsey Millhone isn't married and doesn't seem to be able to commit to relationships, has no kids and no desire to have any, doesn't cook and doesn't play particularly well with others. I think she's wonderful. In 'X' Kinsey ends up crossing paths with a particularly vicious villain, and the encounter will have long-term repercussions for her.

I am aware that Grafton's writing style, and her character, has influenced my own crime series. Sue Grafton is the only one of my favourite crime writers I never got to meet, and I wish I could have
.
Bones Never Lie:
Kathy Reichs is another one of my favourite crime writer, and one I've had the privilege to meet. Forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan shuttles between Montreal and North Caroline, uncovering murders in her examination of bones, and with a long-standing on-again off-again relationship with Montreal cop Andrew Ryan. She also has a daughter, Katy, whose chronological age marks the passage of time in the series, though by now Katy is grown up and off doing her own thing.

This one was very typical of Kathy Reichs' style. But I freely admit I love the formula, and I found this one a proper page-turner.

Soul Music:
 I've been re-reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series for a while, and I expect it to take me quite some time yet, since there are over 40 books in the series and this is #16. And eventually I will get to books I haven't read before, since I didn't get through them all the first time around.

My favourite books are the ones about the witches, but Death comes a close second and this one features the latter. In this chronicle of the fantasy world, the inhabitants discover Rock Music, and the spirit of teenage rebellion it inspires. Pratchett's books are always entertaining, and are always a good thing to read when I need my spirits lifting.

So there we have it for the best books of 2017. For 2018 I've decided to play it safe and set a goal to read 70 books. Nearly 7 weeks in I have read 7, which puts me a bit behind schedule. But I am sure I shall catch up!

And if anyone is on Goodreads and wants to link up there, this is my profile page.Best

Monthly Review: January 2018

I really hate January. It has no redeeming features. It's dark, cold and wet, everyone is broke after Christmas, there is nothing to look forward to and as I never see daylight during the working week it's the month my SAD seems to hit the hardest so I spend most of it feeling depressed.

Hence, I am always glad to see the back of it. Happily, we are now out of January and there are a few things to look forward to in the coming months as there is news to report.

COMING SOON:

I am pleased to announce that my previously-published story "Morgan's Father" (most recently available in the collection SOUL SCREAMS) is to be published in the forthcoming 'Women in Horror' edition of the ezine SIREN'S CALL.

My new horror novel OUTPOST H311 is currently with the editor, and will be released later this year from KGHH publishing. I will let you know when I have more news regarding release date.

PUBLICITY:

I've been a bit quiet on this front of late, and there's nothing to report at the moment, but there are a couple of things I've been working on and I hope to have something to report soon.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

With the horror novel finished I've been trying to figure out what to work on next. I'm back at work on the collaboration with Hubby, which has been a somewhat long-running project. It's a crime thriller set in 1967, about a young woman with a dream to play bass in a band, who gets caught up in the heady world of London gangs and the rising music scene when she searches for a friend who's disappeared.

The fourth Shara Summers novel is about a third of the way through draft 1, but I have not done any work on it for 12 months. I am still in two minds as to whether to carry on with this series. I enjoy writing it, but it's not selling, and is there any point in carrying on with a series people don't want to read?

As we move into February and the days start to get lighter, things start to look brighter. Join me again at the end of this month to see what it had in store!

Year in Review: 2017

Well here we are at the start of 2018. This is a time to make resolutions to change things in the forthcoming year, and review how things went in the last one.


This time last year, I resolved to have two finished WIPs by the end of 2017. Well, I got halfway there. I finished the latest horror novel in mid-December. The novel is called OUTPOST H311 and it will be published by KGHH Publishing some time this year. Stay tuned for more info on this.


The other WIP - the fourth Shara Summers novel - remains unfinished. I am at present trying to make up my mind whether to continue with this series. The third novel is still without a publication date. Although it was accepted by MuseItUp Publishing some 18 months ago, health and personal issues affecting both my editor and my publisher there have delayed publishing schedules.


I enjoy writing the Shara series, and the few reviews that I've received for the first two books in the series have been positive, but they really aren't selling, and I'm finding this very discouraging. What's the point of writing books that no one seems interested in reading?


Since I finished OUTPOST H311 I've taken a bit of break from writing while I think about what to work on next. I have got a couple of vague ideas, but nothing concrete yet.


This year, I resolve to have at least one WIP finished by the end of the year. I just haven't made up my mind which one yet.


Happy New Year one and all, and hope 2018 brings success and happiness.

Monthly Round-up: July 2017

This month's round-up post is a week late, but this time last week I was sunning myself on a beach in France. The weather was lovely, but wifi access was appalling.


Hence, here we are now in August, reviewing July.


OUT NOW/COMING SOON


I'm hoping to promote the third Shara Summers novel, SPOTLIGHT ON DEATH, at Bouchercon in October, and hopefully I'll have a release date by then. In the meantime I'm plugging the first book the series, DEATH SCENE.


PUBLICITY


The third Goodreads giveaway for THE WHISPERING DEATH has finished. The lucky winners were Angela Paull from Hampshire and Olivia Silva from Hertfordshire. They have each received a signed copy of THE WHISPERING DEATH.


I am very excited about the forthcoming Bouchercon in Toronto, which will be my first time attending this particular conference. And I am particularly thrilled about being offered a panel. The panel is about violence in crime, and should be very interesting, though since it's on at 8:30am on the Friday, I am not sure how many people we'll have in the audience.


WORK IN PROGRESS


I am pleased to report that the first draft of the new horror novel, OUTPOST H311, is finished, and work has commenced on the second draft. At this stage I am feeling confident I will hit the 1 October deadline to submit this one. Hopefully I'll be feeling just as confident at the end of August.


Until then, if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoy the rest of the summer. And if you are in then Southern Hemisphere, you've still got summer to look forward to.

The Ten Commandments of Writing #10: Thou Shalt Never, Ever, Give Up

I get quite cross with people who imply that I write 'for fun'. Or 'for pleasure'. This generally comes into a conversation where I'm trying to explain why the writing is not my full-time profession. I'm trying to explain that I don't make enough money from the writing to do it for a living, and so they say, "oh so you do it for fun then."


There is nothing fun about writing. Yes there are moments of exhilaration, like when the WIP is going well and words are flowing, when you're in that stage when you can re-read the words you've written and think to yourself, "actually this is pretty good. And I created it." But you know this is going to be followed by a period of crashing self-doubt, when you are absolutely convinced that everything you've written is a steaming pile of turds and you should give up deluding yourself that you're a writer and go and spend your time watching TV instead. This bit of the process is not fun. Neither is the constant lurching from self-confidence to self-loathing that I am convinced absolutely every writer, no matter how successful they are, experiences.


No, we don't do it for fun. So why do we do it? It's more a need, an urge. We need to write to keep on living, the same way we need to breathe.


You need to remember this once you have accepted the fact that you are a writer, because the road will not be smooth. There will be rocky patches. There will be times when you want to crawl under the bed covers and never come out again. Every time you submit something to an editor, you will spend the next few hours, or days, or weeks, on tenterhooks. You will be checking your email every two minutes to see if you've had a response yet. When you discover there isn't one, you will experience conflicting feelings of disappointment and faint hope, because no response at least means no rejection. Yet.


And then when the email finally comes you'll be afraid to open it, trying to put off the inevitable rejection and the crashing self-doubt that follows for as long as possible.


But then one day it won't be a rejection. It will be an acceptance. And it will all be worth it. On the dark days, it can be tempting to just pack it all in. But it's important to keep on going. When each rejection comes, give yourself a few days to pick yourself and dust yourself off, and then send the story back out into the world again. And carry on working on the next one. Whatever you do, you have to keep at it, because being a writer is in your psyche and no matter how hard it can be sometimes, it will always be who you are.

Monthly Round-up: June 2017

Well, summer is here. The UK enjoyed some sweltering hot weather this month, over 30c for several days. This is pretty unusual for us - so much so that we all bake, since very few places have air conditioning. Fortunately for us, our office does. The underground does not, however, and being packed in like sardines on the Central Line in rush hour when it's so hot is pretty close to being in Hell.


But of course British weather is nothing if not unpredictable, and now we're back to rain again. I love the long days at this time of year, and there is still plenty of summer left before we're back to the long nights of winter.


Anyway. On with this month's news.


OUT NOW/COMING SOON


There's nothing new to announce, and I've got no further news on when SPOTLIGHT ON DEATH is coming out. So this month I'm just going to plug my current publications. They are all available on Amazon US and UK, so why not have a browse?


PUBLICITY


On 4 June there was an interview with me on Rochelle Weber's blog, in which I talk about the Shara Summers series.


There's another Goodreads giveaway running at present for THE WHISPERING DEATH. It's only open to UK readers, due to postage costs, but if you fancy a free signed copy of THE WHISPERING DEATH, the contest is open until 15 July.


WORK IN PROGRESS


I was aiming to have the first draft of the new horror novel, OUTPOST H311, done by the end of June. Well it's not quite done yet, but I am nearly there. I have over 60,000 words done and I reckon I've only got another 10,000 or so to the end. If all goes well I should get there in July. So, hopefully there'll be more news on this next month. Stay tuned!

The Ten Commandments of Writing #9: Thou Shalt Not Be Afraid to Pimp

Writers are, by nature, solitary creatures. We are not comfortable in crowds. So it's sadly ironic than nowadays we are expected more and more to get involved in marketing our books. To be expected to do readings and interviews. Most writers tremble in fear at the thought of facing a crowd of people.

The days of the writer holing themselves up in their garrett writing, never seen by the public, while the publisher's minions run around selling books for them, are, by and large, over. Unless you land a deal with one of the major commercial publishers who have a publicity department - and even then you'll have to turn up to signings and promotional events they arrange - you will be expected to play a proactive role in marketing. So, set aside your fear of being the centre of attention and get used to pimping yourself.

Every writer should have, at the very least, a blog, a web page and a Twitter account. Many people assume there's no point in setting up social media accounts until they've got a publisher, but there is an argument for getting yourself out there and setting up accounts before you're published, and at least by the time you've got something to sell you've built up a following of people who may be willing to go out and buy your book.

None of these things have to cost any money. You can set up a blog on Blogger or Wordpress in a matter of minutes, just by choosing a template. There are several free templates available for websites too, that don't require any programming skills (the one I use is Weebly). Set up a Twitter account and start Tweeting about things that interest you, using hashtags to connect with people who have similar interests. Never underestimate what aspects of your life that you take for granted someone else will find interesting. I take the train into London every day and shuffle around the capital with thousands of fellow commuters, and I'm half asleep when I do it. But occasionally I am reminded that to people that don't live in London, this is an endlessly fascinating city.

As a writer you obviously want to talk about your writing, but don't be that person that only ever Tweets 'buy my book' because that turns people off really fast.

My most important piece of advice for when you are published? Get yourself some business cards, with your name, your website, an email address and if possible, an image of your book cover. Take them with you everywhere you go, because you never know who you will meet. I have handed business cards out to people on mountains in Peru, and in deserts in Arizona. Every time I get chatting to strangers when I'm on holiday, if I have cause to mention I'm a writer, and the person replies, sounding interested, "oh, what do you write?" I will hand them a business card.

And I learned this lesson the hard way. In 2010, just after the first book came out, I went to the Horror Con in Brighton. I'd packed postcards, and business cards, but we headed down on the train after work, and when we reached the hotel we discovered there was a party in a bar on the pier, which had already started, so we dumped our luggage in the room and headed straight there. Then we discovered it was a free bar, so of course that's where everybody was. And I had so many occasions to hand out my cards and tell people all about my new book, but they were all back in the hotel room. I've never made that mistake since.

Once you've got that book deal, there are other things you can do to promote yourself. Host guest posts on your blog site featuring other writers, and get them to host you on their site. It's mutually beneficial to both host and guest, and it doesn't cost anything to do it. Go to conventions - as many as you can afford - to meet up with other writers, readers and publishers in your genre. When the call for panels goes out, volunteer for one. Most calls for panel volunteers also ask you to list what sort of panels you want to see, so think realistically about what you could feasibly talk about. Short fiction? Cross-genre fiction? Independent publishing? The road to publication (no matter how far along it you are)? Throw out any ideas you can - you never know what might inspire the panel organisers.


 You should also try contacting your local paper and your local book shops to see if they are interested in promoting you, but this is very hit and miss. I had some success with the former, but if you're with a Print On Demand (POD) publisher, getting your book into book shops entirely depends on the shop's buying policy. I have found that in the UK, a lot of book shops aren't interested in taking anything they can't buy on a Sale or Return basis, and that's generally not possible with POD. But still, it doesn't hurt to ask. You might discover that the manager of your local bookshop is an advocate for small presses and is agreeable to organising a signing with you.


In short, do what you can to pimp yourself, when you can. And there will be times when it all seems like a great deal of effort, and when the royalty statement comes in and you haven't sold much, you will wonder why you bother. But marketing is all part of the process of being a writer, and it's something that we all have to participate in to a certain degree, no matter how disagreeable it might be.

Doing It For Fun?

It's sometimes hard to explain, to a non-writer, why I write. The confusion generally comes when the non-writer discovers I am not a full-time writer. "So it's a hobby," they say. "You do it for fun."

I can't explain that it's not a hobby - more a need. And most of the time, it's not fun. It's not fun to experience the crushing self-doubt that arrives on a regular basis and convinces me that every word I've ever written is complete rubbish. Or that feeling of rejection that comes with every email beginning, "thank you for sending us your manuscript. We regret to inform you that it will not fit our list at this time." Or, for me, getting up at 5:20am to write before work when really I'd much rather have an extra hour in bed.

Generally when such conversations come up I have to start by explaining that much as I would love to write full time, it's not economically feasible. It doesn't help that these conversations are generally with people who are not only non-writers but pretty much non-readers. They might have read Harry Potter, or Fifty Shades of Grey. So they think 'writer' and JK Rowlings and EL James spring to mind. And they're rolling in it, so all writers must be loaded, right?

My last royalty statement was for all of £5, and that represented a year's worth of sales. I am so far away from being able to make money from the writing that it seems an unobtainable goal. Giving up the day job is simply not an option because I have no other form of income.

At times I get completely overwhelmed. I leave the house at 6:20am so I can write before work. I generally don't get home before 7pm. I have French lessons and bass guitar lessons and admin stuff to deal with like emails and blog posts. And this is before we get to household stuff - laundry and remembering to pay the credit card bill and so on. Sometimes I get to a point when I feel I just can't cope with it all any more.

Logically, the thing to give up is the writing, because I kill myself trying to do it for no apparent reason. But even the mere thought of doing so makes me die inside.

And that's really why I write. Because I need to do it to keep on living. Not writing is as unthinkable to me as not breathing.

It may be I never manage to make enough money from the writing to give up the day job. But I will, somehow find a way to fit it into my life because there's just no other option.

Monthly Round-up: April 2017

Time, as they say, waits for no one. A third of the year has already gone. However, the best thing about this time of year is that I actually see my house in daylight during the week. Technically, it's spring. But I think someone forgot to tell the weather that, as the temperature in the UK has been more winter-like the past few days. Some places even have snow. Anyway, enough about the weather. On with the news.

OUT NOW/COMING SOON

Seven years ago this month, my first novel was published - SUFFER THE CHILDREN was released in e-book format by Lyrical Press. It marked a major turning point in my life, fulfilling a dream that I had chased for thirty years. And now the book is available again, from a different publisher. If you haven't yet read the book that started it all for me, you can buy it here from MuseItUp Publishing.

Coming up to the present day, I have been in touch with my editor and the edits for SPOTLIGHT ON DEATH, the new Shara Summers novel, will be underway shortly. I'm still optimistic for a 2017 release.

PUBLICITY

I've been a bit quiet on the publicity front of late. It's now been nearly a year since anything new came out, and I always feel it's difficult to plug a new book when it's not really new at all.

I did run another Goodreads giveaway for THE WHISPERING DEATH, however, that finished on 15 April. The winners were: Rachel Sanders in Sutherland, and Adam Bradbury in Surrey. Their prizes were posted last week, and indeed should be in their hands by now. The plan is to run some more Goodreads giveaways between now and October, so if you're still interested in winning a copy of this book, keep an eye on the Goodreads page.

I'm a bit light on the convention side of things this year as well. However, that's largely because I'm going to Bouchercon in Toronto in October, and not only is that a con that requires an international trip, it also clashes with most of the other cons I generally go to (FantasyCon and Bristol Horror Con, to name two). But I've been wanting to do Bouchercon for years, and with it being in Toronto it gives me a good reason to go visit family and friends in Canada at the same time.

WORK IN PROGRESS

The new horror novel, OUTPOST H311, is going well. I've agreed a deadline with my publisher at KGHH on this one, and it's full steam ahead.

That's it for now. I've got to get on with the writing!

Monthly Round-Up: March 2017

I realise I missed February's round-up, which is a bit remiss of me. I lost quite a lot of March to a lingering virus that turned into a sinus infection. Happily, after over two weeks of feeling terrible, I am feeling good again.


OUT NOW/COMING SOON
No further news on the third Shara Summers book, SPOTLIGHT ON DEATH, which is meant to be out this year. However, if you have not yet met Shara Summers, you can pick up the first book, DEATH SCENE (in all e-book formats) directly from MuseItUp Publishing's online store.


PROMOTION
I'm running another Goodreads giveaway for THE WHISPERING DEATH. If you are in the UK and like horror, you can enter now to win a free copy of the paperback. Contest closes on 15 April.


This weekend I'm heading off to the SF Weekender in Wales for a few days of sci fi geekery. And I'm doing a couple of panels for the writers' track as well.


WORK IN PROGRESS
The virus left my brain feeling too mushy to write and I lost a couple of weeks of writing time. However, I'm back on track now and work on the new horror novel continues apace.


That's all to report for now. Catch you next time!

Monthly Round-up: January 2017

I'm a bit late with this round-up since it's now 1 February. So how have I been doing in the first month of this year? Let's see...

OUT NOW

Nothing new out, but I'll take this opportunity to pimp the existing works.

Horror
The Whispering Death
Suffer The Children

Crime (Contemporary Amateur Sleuth)
Death Scene
Dead Cool

Short Story Collection
Soul Screams

PUBLICITY

No guest blog posts to report. However, I am running a Goodreads Giveaway for THE WHISPERING DEATH for February, with two free paperback copies of the book to giveaway. You can enter here. Please note this is for UK entrants only, due to postage costs. Please promote the giveaway if you are able to - I am hoping to raise awareness of the book and perhaps get a few more reviews. There will be more giveaways over the next few months so watch this space.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Work has started on a new horror novel. Since this one is to be delivered to KGHH Publishing this year I am pressing on with it, and I have achieved nearly 10,000 words in the first month of the year. It is set in the Arctic, and it has the title OUTPOST H311.

Meanwhile the fourth Shara Summers novel is also a work in progress.

Plenty to keep me busy, then. See you at the end of February!

Best Books of 2016

Sometimes people ask me how I deal with the commute to work. I spend a good three hours a day - often four - travelling by public transport, into London and back again along with hundreds of other commuters.
The singular thing that keeps me sane on my commute is that I use the time for reading. Losing myself in a book allows me to find some pleasure in this daily ordeal.

For the last few years, I've participated in the Goodreads challenge by setting a goal for myself on how many books to read in the year. For the first time in some years, I did not complete my challenge in 2016 - I set myself a goal to read 70 books and only read 68.

Generally this time of year I list the best of the previous year's reading, which is guided by which books I gave five-star ratings to. And in 216 there were four, as follows:

Defending Jacob - William Landay
Witches Abroad (Discworld #12) - Terry Pratchett
13 Minutes - Sarah Pinborough
Try Not To Breathe - Holly Seddon

There's one comic fantasy, one crime thriller and two psychological thrillers. Further details, as well as a link to the Goodreads page for each book, are listed below.

Defending Jacob
I had to read this one for my book group, and it left me utterly gripped. The story is told from the point of view of Andy Barber, district attorney, whose life is rocked when his fourteen-year-old son is accused of the brutal murder of a classmate.It throws up an interesting moral dilemma: what is a father to do when he suspects his own child might be a murderer?

Witches Abroad
I'm still working through my re-reading of the Discworld books, and I have to admit that the books featuring the witches - Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick - are my favourites. In this book the witches have to venture to much-suspect 'foreign parts' to stop the happy ending of a well known fairy tale. Because there's so much more to the story than the one that we've heard. I love the witches and their very different but forceful personalities.

13 Minutes
I tend to run into Sarah Pinborough at most of the conventions I attend these days, and know her well enough to say hello to. Not only is she a lovely person, but she's a phenomenal writer, and one of those people that occupies a spot on the writing career ladder that's much higher up than me, and I can only look up and hope that one day I can get to the same spot.

Sarah Pinborough writes in many different genres. This novel is pegged as YA, but I really hate that label because when I see it I assume it's referring to a kids' book. The main character of this novel happens to be a teenage girl, but the genre is most definitely psychological thriller. The main character is rescued from a freezing river and revived after being technically dead for 13 minutes, and this is where the title comes from. How she got there is the main plot of the story, and it soon becomes evident that all the main characters are hiding secrets. As well as being a gripping story, this also serves as a reminder as to just how bitchy teenage girls can be. I'm so glad I don't have to go through all that again.

Try Not To Breathe
Another psychological thriller, I had to review this for Shots and I found it utterly compelling. It involves the story of Amy, who was attacked and left in a coma when she was 15. Fifteen years have passed and she is still in the coma, but the story of how she got there is gradually revealed through three viewpoint characters, one of which - disturbingly - is Amy herself, who still has active brain function within her coma although she is tragically unaware of how much time has passed.

For this year, I have set myself a target of reading 68 books - the same number I managed to read last year. However, due to the fact that there are a lot of problems on London transport at the moment and I am spending four hours a day on trains, buses and underground trains I have been getting a lot of reading time in and I am already two books ahead of schedule.

If you're on Goodreads and want to compare books with me, or even check out some of mine, connect with my profile here.

Monthly Round-up: December 2016

Well the blog has been somewhat neglected over the last couple of months. I resolve to pay it more attention next year.

We find ourselves at the end of 2016, so this post will be a reflection of my writing year, and not just activities of the past month.

OUT NOW
 
My two horror books were re-released this year. MuseItUp published SUFFER THE CHILDREN (Kindle versions available on Amazon UK and US sites).

Meanwhile, KGHH Publishing (formerly known as Kensington Gore) re-released THE WHISPERING DEATH with a wonderful new hand-drawn cover. It's available in paperback, and on Kindle UK and US formats.

PUBLICITY
 
I pledged to have at least one guest appearance a month this year. I mostly succeeded to October, but the last couple of months of the year dropped off for various personal reasons. A full list of all my online appearances can be found on my website.

WORK IN PROGRESS
 
I've made some progress with the first draft of the fourth Shara Summers book, which is entitled DEADLY SUMMER. The third book will be released next year, and I hope to have the fourth book in a state to be submitted by this time next year.

I'm also contracted to submit another horror novel to KGHH in 2017. The one I was working on at the beginning of this year I have since abandoned since it really wasn't working. I now have the plot of a new book formulated, so I need to get motoring on that one.

I have a feeling that 2017 is going to be a difficult year for many,  so I'm sending strength and positive thoughts out there into the ether, to fortify us all.