I am very pleased to announce that Perfect Ten has now been published in paperback and ebook. I would like to thank my agent Judith Murray and everyone at Greene and Heaton for their support. Also my editor Sara O’Keefe and Susannah Hamilton, Kirsty Doole and Jamie Forrest and everyone at Corvus Atlantic Books for their […]
A while ago I saw an invitation to submit a short story to Women’s Words Manchester as part of an archive of women’s stories about Manchester. The stories were to be archived to celebrate 100 years since some women got the vote, and was supported by the Pankhurst Centre , Manchester Libraries.Archives+. Soroptomoists Europe and the Arts […]
I went to see the Rolling Stones last week at Old Trafford Football Stadium. I have been a huge fan of them since childhood when my father gave me a record player and some old records. Amongst them was Little Red Rooster and my introduction to blues and rock. It s no secret that I […]
There are a lot of questions lately about where all the working class writers are; I am here. I was born in a deprived area to parents who worked in factory and trade jobs and who had not attended university. They lived with relatives in the 1960s and saved for a house deposit. When I […]
To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, from today until the end of March I’ll be writing articles about ‘flawed’ women in fiction. As a psychologist and as a woman, I have never warmed to passive women in fiction. I see them as a foil to the ‘bad man’ and isn’t that too easy? […]
Last weekend I spent three days at Whalley Abbey in Blackburn, Lancashire with Scriptwriting North. Fourteen of us arrived fresh for writing, table reads and some lovely food. But what we got was much, much more. We started with a workshop in character, which was very useful, particularly when it got practical. I mapped out […]
So what does Adele’s song ‘Hello’ have to do with writing a novel? Apart from the fact that her music is fabulous and that she collected her MBE two people in front of me, I don’t know much about her. What I do know is that her song ‘Hello’ achieves what all writers want to do: identify […]
Late September I went to the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester to watch Margaret Atwood in conversation with Erica Wagner. Flashback to six months previously when I had seen the tickets go on sale and hovered in excitement over the ‘buy’ button until exactly 10am and then feverishly filled in the space in my diary, and […]
I have been asked to give my reaction to Ian Brady’s death and I would just like to say that after all the research into his disgusting crimes I thought I would be glad, but now all I feel is more sorrow for the families of his victims, especially those who will never know the […]
It’s Christmas 2016 and I’m making list and checking it twice – a list of literary agents. It’s taken me two years to write my latest novel Perfect Ten and now, after much polishing and reading, it’s time to send it out to try to get a book deal. I’m no stranger to submitting novels […]