I thought, as I am about to go into hiding for a bit, to update my writing news. This isnāt my day job, but my goodness thereās a lot happening.
Next news we bring you will be on events for the launch of my new novel, Saving Lucia. This is an extraordinary adventure, starring Violet Gibson, the Irish Aristocrat who tried to assassinate Mussolini in 1926ā¦Isnāt this a beautiful cover? Note the bird. Itās a passerine. Note the four lit windows. I LOVE IT and pretty soon will tell you why it has this design and whose windows they are.
We have been working on final edits and book has now gone to proof. I hope that I might see you at London or Bath launches (we hope for details on these before Christmas) in April and there will be events during the year.
This is a very busy year for me. In addition to teaching, tutoring and mentoring young people, I am also a volunteer and I need to see my two eldest boys through exam years and alsoā¦in Septemberā¦my first volume of short stories is out. You can even pre-order now as part of the subscription service from Influx: https://www.influxpress.com/famished Itās wonderful to see such different cover styles; this brilliant edible plate that gets weirder the more you look at it. 18 stories: weird fiction, bit punky, lots of Welsh, terrible feats, gothic shops, killer sweets and some funny bits of consumption. Itās very different to Saving Lucia, but I will be so interested to see people make comparisons and find links. Because, there are some. To discuss later, I hope. And next year, we will bring you details of launches and maybe lascivious lunches and oooh.
I have an essay ā a memoir piece ā called āIn Order to Liveā in Aprilās Dodo Ink Anthology, Trauma: Art as a Response to Mental Health and towards summer, you can see my weird fiction, āHouseā, in a new anthology from Unsung Stories. I hope that, during the year, I will have the opportunity to write further pieces connected with the two books I have out next year.
Alongside all this, I have a further short story collection on submission ā āRavishedā ā and another novel, The Revelations of Celia Masters, which is historical fiction, waiting to be read. And I am working with my agent, Kate Johnson of Mackenzie Wolf http://www.mwlit.com/ on other things. She is in actual fact the best agent in the world. You might have noticed me tweeting questions about all kinds of things from zebra feet to The Holy Grail. I tell you no more about why. But I can say that what I am working on is Magical Realism and I was lucky enough to have a brilliant beta reader for this that Iād love to nameā¦but will embarrass at a later date. I am small fry compared to the folk this chap has worked with!
As to my first two books, Killing Hapless Ally and The Life of Almost, these are on the move so not with their original publisher and we will give you news on these all in good time.
You know, I have only been writing for four years and next week I am going to be handing in my seventh book. I rocked up, daft and loud as I am; I assumed that I could not do this, though I have spent my life around books. Reader, writer, doubter: I was wrong. Publishing and writing have, I know, got a way to go in terms of access and possibility. We hear about gatekeepers and you have to understand why. But I also want to say, consider this: is the gatekeeper YOU, mired in so much self doubt that you cannot move? Doubt is normal and healthy and proves you are self-reflective. You will be a better writer because of it.
If, over the coming years, I can encourage you to get the books you want to write out into the world, then you tell me, okay?
What I am upĀ to! I thought, as I am about to go into hiding for a bit, to update my writing news.
