Short story: Christmas Past

‘Okay, is everyone here?’ ‘Ye-es!’ said Catherine with a sigh. ‘Now can we open the presents?’ She had been moaning all morning. Anyone would’ve thought we’d been waiting all day. My face must have betrayed my feelings, because Catherine scowled at me. ‘I’ve been waiting for nearly four hours!’ ‘Then maybe you shouldn’t have woken...

Short story: Jenny

Lucas massaged the back of his neck, thankful the meeting was finally over. He was desperate to leave on time tonight and it was already ten to five. He had stayed late every day this week and hadn’t once managed to catch Jenny before she left for her shift at the pub. He missed her. ...

Book review- Rosemary’s Baby

Whoops, it's been about twenty years since I posted. Anyway, here I am! Rosemary's Baby is one of those books I had vaguely intended to read for a long time, but never really got round to it. One thing I always wonder when I'm reading a well-known older book, is how differently it would read...

The burning temptation to quit

I'm 46% of the way through my first draft (not that I used a calculator or anything), and I've just thought to myself: "Maybe I should give this one up and start something else." What? Now? Why?! I'll tell ya why. This often happens when I get a certain way into a draft - far...

No inspiration? No problem.

My writing output has been somewhat up and down lately. You know how there are some days when you just have all the inspiration? You can barely get your laptop open quick enough, and eventually you have to force yourself to stop because it’s nearly midnight and you know you’ll regret staying up late tomorrow....

Trying to be an eclectic writer (or, Why I can’t help but kill characters)

At the end of 2017, I won NaNoWriMo for the third time with the first draft of a romance novel, which I wrote because I thought writing romance would be fun. And it’s probably going to stay in its first draft forever, because every time I’ve taken another look at it, I’ve gone 'Ugh. Maybe...

Book review- If We Were Villains

I ended up with this book because my boyfriend thought I needed to read something 'different'. I was complaining about having nothing to read, and it was very much the same as when you complain about having nothing to wear- I had plenty of unread books (I always do!), but I wasn't in the mood...

Book review- Sharp Objects

I'll kick this off by admitting that I bought this book because of the hype surrounding the recent HBO adaptation starring Amy Adams. That's not to say I wouldn't have read it at some point; I've had every intention of reading Gillian Flynn's entire bibliography ever since I read Gone Girl a few years ago. But...