Astra at the Festival of Chichester
Over my five years teaching at Chichester University, its been a pleasure to get involved in West Sussex literary events, including the annual Poetry & Jazz cafe and the Havant Literary Festival, where I will be appearing again this autumn. Poetry audiences in the region, I’ve discovered, have been keen, Green and open to a wide range of verse from…
My Writing Process: Blog Tag Tour
So here we go, one of those writer’s tag games. The multi-versifying poet, performer, celebrant and sailor Sarah Hymas has asked me to share a little about my current writing project, and then pass the baton along. I’m going to keep this brief-ish, because really I ought to be working on my current writing project! Which is the second novel…
Seoul Survivors: We Have Lift Off!
My heartfelt thanks again to everyone who came to the Feb 28th Brighton launch of Seoul Survivors – publication day itself, and also my birthday party. The omens were all good – as guest of honour Julie Lee told me en route from Edmonton, to have both a flood in my flat and a gas leak the day before the…
Birthday Buckets of Books!
Congratulations to Romeo Kennedy, winner of THE SILVER BOUGH. It appears that Romeo’s wild strawberries left the competition stranded in a Bergmanesque void, and for that act of magical conquest alone the prize is highly well-deserved! This week’s competition announcement falls on a Day of Cosmic Potency – well, my birthday – and to celebrate I am giving away two…
The Great JFB Book Bonanza: The Silver Bough
Congratulations to Leo Elijah Cristea, winner of last week’s book prize, The Snowmelt River by Frank P. Ryan, a work of classic fantasy steeped in Irish mythology. I enjoyed all the entries, which presented four eclectic portals into the realms of otherworldliness – Leo’s metamorphosing pathway, Romeo Kennedy’s secret tree trunk, Tina Lawton’s cheerful toilet, and Chris’s whalebone arch at…
Seoul Survivors: The Fab Feb Countdown Competition Begins!
February gets short shrift in most people’s books – and in everyone’s calendars, even in Leap Years. But it’s always been one of my favourite months – okay, possibly because it contains my birthday, but also because of snowdrops, the subtle phonics of an ‘f’ and semi-silent ‘r’, and the way the lengthening grey days begrudgingly promise spring but still…
Announcing Seoul Survivors – Plus Playlist!
Novelist Bridget Whelan and poet Sarah Hymas have both invited me to join ‘The Next Big Thing’, a game of blog-tag in which I interview myself about my next book, and introduce my readers to five more writer friends. Well, the next big thing for me (after my Christmas card list) is the Feb 2013 publication of my first novel,…
Or Daughter comes out to play
For a poet, used to fretting over lines and images for months, writing a novel in a year is a fascinating, not to say teeny-tiny bit terrifying challenge. I am enjoying it, though, and starting to really trust the process – there’s something immensely reassuring about the way the words flow onto the page, and one chapter springboards into another. …
A Small State in Hot Water
To conclude my travel research for my second novel, Astra, I visited Iceland for a week. Astra is set in Mesopotamia in a new nation called Is-Land, a small state formed in the aftermath of a global environmental and economic collapse (we all know it’s coming, don’t we?). In Icelandic, Iceland is called Ísland, but…