2022: My Year in Books

2022: My Year in Books

I read 53 books in 2022 according to Goodreads. While I love a ‘proper book’, I also love Audible as it means I can ‘read’ while doing housework, exercising, or travelling. It’s usually what I bribe myself with when I can feel my inner sloth complaining! I don't...

Embracing the chaos

Embracing the chaos

As a stationery-lover, I love new year. The lure of a crisp new page –as perfect as a fresh snowfall – is something I look forward to every year. But this year is the first where I’ve written a daily diary. My 2021 diary is bloated with notes and to-do lists and is a...

The Undoing

The Undoing

It’s dark. I know it’s dark, but I can no longer see that it’s dark, if that makes any sense. I try to push against whatever is holding me here, because I know with utmost certainty that I am being held. When I first realised my confinement, I clawed at the unknown...

Best Books of 2021 (so far)

Best Books of 2021 (so far)

Back at the start of this year, I signed up to the Goodreads Challenge. I plucked a figure of 50 books out of the air and decided to see how far I could get. For years, I found it really difficult to read while I was writing. I'd get so into the story that the...

The Bell Pepper (Short Story)

The Bell Pepper (Short Story)

It was late November by the time I finally returned home. The sky had been the colour of damp plaster, the drizzle persistent enough to need the wipers, but not committed enough to allow them to do their job well. They had screeched incessantly across the windscreen,...

Publish and be damned

Publish and be damned

I did it. I published my novel. The First Ethereal exists in the world. It’s a thing. What lived only in my head for such a long time, is finally out there. It’s real. The truth is, I never really believed that I would do it. In fact, for a very long time, I doubted...

Preparing to jump

Preparing to jump

I’ve not blogged in a while because I’ve been editing my novel. I sent it to my editor on Friday, word-blind, exhausted and more than a little nervous. It’s as good as I can make it on my own – now I need a professional to steer me in the right direction. Handing over...