100th Post! Celebrating Success

Back in September 2020, I posted my very first blog on my new website, explaining why I’d quit teaching to write, coach and mentor others. At the time, I promised myself I’d write two blogs a week. With illness, childcare and various disasters since then, I haven’t...

Creative Recovery for January 2022

This is an unusual start to the year for me, to say the least. For starters, I’m in the very exciting position of awaiting the release of my first novel, The Shadows We Cast, at the end of the month, and adjusting to my first year living in a new country.Slightly more...

How A Sketch Journal Changed Me

It’s fair to say I don’t have a lot of spare time. Not only am I writing books, stories and pitching ideas to publications, I’m also editing the manuscript of a memoir. And mentoring someone through writing their first book. And promoting the release of my novel in...

Debut Novelist One: Choosing a Book Cover

Recently I’ve found myself in the delightful position of finalising the front cover for my book. After all the back and forth of contracts, files, acknowledgments, summaries and all sorts of words, it’s the first time that the arrival of an actual book with my name on...

Why I Run Writing Workshops

Today marks one whole year since I started running my own writing workshops. Having produced them for teenagers, for undergraduates, for English language learners, but always for someone else, I wanted to create something I could host myself. It was also a way of...

On The Edge – How Does Fear Affect You?

At the weekend we went for a hike. There’s a (not particularly big) mountain at the back of our village, and you can usually see paragliders floating down off it in the evening. You can also see a large red and white cross, the flag of the region, painted high up on...