One who raises demons,” the writer Shirley Jackson once said, “must deal with them.” This post isn’t an exploration of the sublime works of Shirley Jackson, or of her troubled inner life. Still, the above quote neatly sums up one of the main themes of her writing, and also (not incidentally) of a short story I wrote, The Ferry, that my publisher has submitted to the 2026 Shirley Jackson Awards.
New Year I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish you, dear constant reader, a very happy, prosperous and fulfilling 2026. Updating this blog has been on my to-do list throughout December, but Christmas and the press of my day job monopolised my attention and time. It’s been a quiet 2025 on this […]
“No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is… the nativity of our common Adam”. – Charles Lamb, New Year’s Eve I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Christmas and will have a happy New Year’s Eve tonight. I wanted to squeeze in one more post in 2024; not that my […]
Hello, constant reader! I hope you’re enjoying the late summer weather; it’s been a bit tempestuous weather-wise in the UK, and it feels like our summer skipped a few tracks, but I don’t mind; I have several reasons to look forward to Autumn and the “Ber” months.
Happy New Year yet again, constant reader! Welcome to my 2024, and to a short retrospective of my 2023 writing life, or actually, just my life. Life not only goes on, and uh, finds a way, it gets in the way now and again, and this was especially the case for me for during 2023. […]
It’s been a while since I did a promotion as a thank you for sticking around thus far. And a great way to thank someone is with a gift! My book The Battle of Watling Street is available on Kindle for free during a five-day promotion on Amazon UK between the 10th and 13th of […]
Firstly, Happy New Year to you, constant reader! I hope your Christmas and holiday season was restful and joyful, and spent with loved ones. It always feels for me like a physical and mental trudge up a steep hill at the start of a new year, but I know that some brisk walking to shake […]
…no matter what the reader fancies, as long as it’s unsettling, s/he is certain to find something melodiously creepy in Symphony of the Damned. Rebecca Rowland, Horror TREE In my last post, I announced that one of my horror short stories features in a new anthology, Symphony of the Damned. You can still pick up the […]
I signed my first actual, honest-to-god contract for a piece of fiction at the start of the month, for a horror anthology published by Savage Realms Press, called Symphony of The Damned. The book was published a couple of days ago, and I may have to frame that contract! I submitted “Shadows Under Leamouth”, my […]
I haven’t had much to say on here because I haven’t been writing much; the process of writing has been a physical and emotional slog for the last few months, and I found myself picking up other creative outlets. Finding excuses to not write is just that: an excuse.
Between 15th April and 13th May 2021, my novella, The Battle of Watling Street is part of a huge giveaway via Book Funnel and Bookspry.com; more than 30 Sci-Fi novels and quick reads with the theme “Alien Contact” can be nabbed for free for some weekend reading at the link below. The theme of the […]
It’s been eighteen months since I last visited Northern Ireland, and I doubt I’ll be able to get over this summer; as of the time of writing, the GOV.UK site still advises against all but essential travel to NI (or at least I think it does; it may be downright illegal, depending on your source). […]
I’m pleased to reveal the new, much improved cover artwork for my 2017 novella The Battle of Watling Street. The imagery really captures both the story itself, and the juxtaposition between historical fiction and science fiction that defines my strange little tale that might really be about grief and loss, with historical figures and a […]
In my July update I hoped for the best but prepared for the worst, and here we are in another year, in another national UK lockdown, with a very unprecedented Christmas behind us.
If I distilled anything palatable from the bitter brew of 2020, it was to be actively grateful – not in a wishy washy, Pinterest board way, but to frequently and actively list out on a piece of paper all the reasons to be cheerful whenever the new normal threatened to overwhelm. We are safe, we are fortunate that we can work from home, we continue healthy, we have a good broadband and Wi-Fi connection so we can connect to friends and family online, as well as buy most of what we need in the same way. We did manage to get out and about for some hiking trips in between lockdowns (pic above is from a brief trip to the Lake District in September), but I’m now doing my part as a stay-safe couch potato.
Flowers are wilting My enthusiasm, too Only weeds survive.” – Gaia Garden The weeds are not only surviving; they’re winning, and a lot of my time is taken up with tackling them; in the garden and in my writing commitment. With lockdown easing, we’ve ventured out for a few walks, but always in less frequented […]
I want to kick off with a mention that Reflex Press’s anthology Volume Two, The Real Jazz Baby, has recently won the Best Anthology Award in the 2020 Saboteur Awards. My story Let Me Be Your Fantasy is featured, together with 160 other authors, and I’m very proud to be a small part of an […]
My posts are like buses; you wait two months for one, then two come along within a day… I’ve nearly finalised my first newsletter (I’m waiting for the test email, which is taking its sweet time), and I wanted to offer something to subscribed readers as a thank you for sticking around thus far. And […]
I’ve had asthma since my teens, nearly forty years now. It lurks, ready at the lack of a coat to remind me of how it’s compromised my respiratory system. A mild cold in December mutated into a chest infection that hung around like an oblivious, unwelcome guest for nearly a month. Needless to say, I’m […]
I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Christmas and New Year break. The tone of this post was set by my New Year’s Eve iTunes playlist (mercifully for my friends and family it’s quite short, unlike my eight-hour gargantuan Christmas version). While singing along to Abba’s “Happy New Year” I realised it’s not […]
This month’s poem is inspired by both a trip during August to Northern Ireland, my journey of DNA discovery, and the depressing news cycle we watched when we (rarely) turned on the TV to catch the news while taking in the magnificent Causeway coast. I recently had my DNA ancestry traced on 23andMe and discovered that […]