This is a hot topic at the moment with many readers wanting to boycott a certain outlet. It has been pointed out by many other authors (and some readers) that this will only hurt the little people…ie. independent authors and ..read more

Writing a book is hard work. For me, anyway. So when it’s finally polished off and released into the world, there’s an anxious wait for acknowledgment that I might have achieved something worthwhile. A book that will garner glowing reviews ..read more

With the cold weather, both before Christmas and now, my outdoor activity is somewhat limited. But it’s a great time to indulge in binge-reading. I tend to do that, rather than binge-watching TV shows. Although I have to confess to ..read more

Always fun to see all the Christmas stories promoted at this time of year…ranging from short stocking fillers to full on season-long romance. My Christmas offerings are a few years old now, but I think they stand the test of ..read more

A Wild Moon Rises has been out for two months now. Getting a good reception with comments from readers like these makes the writing journey worthwhile: it reads like a film script­­ ­– I can see the scenes in my ..read more

My latest book, A Wild Moon Rises, came out on 1st August and not long after that I took part in a podcast with two other Affinity authors. If you want to hear me reading from the book and answering ..read more

Ten days to the release date of my new book on August 1st.  Number thirteen, lucky for some. Or should I count in my novella, Three Mile Cache, and call it number thirteen and a half to be on the safe side. I’m not superstitious, really. Am I? Releasing a new novel always brings on a bout of imposter syndrome. Is the story any good, etc. No matter how times I’ve been in this position, it’s still nerve-wracking. Like my other books, this one is a romance. The main setting, after the prologue and first few chapters, is the north of England at the seaside. Family history is also a feature, a ..read more

I’ve never written ‘The End’ on the final page of any of my novels. My feeling is that it’s not the end of the story unless all the characters have died. As I’m writing romances there is always a happy ever after, or at the very least, a happy for now. Both of those options leave the story open for a continuation. In March I joined two of my Affinity colleagues on their podcast…Triple A Storytelling…to discuss series and spin-offs. Both Annette Mori and Ali Spooner have written many more of these than I have. But we had a good discussion and I talked about The Starling Hill Trilogy, which bega ..read more

Large parts of Britain were once covered with temperate rainforests. Remnants can be found in the Lake District and I always feel that’s possibly evident here on the eastern edge of Lake Windermere. On arrival, I’m captured by the clearness of the air, the beauty of the surroundings. I wander down to the lakeside and breathe it all in. Calm and soothing, listening to the gentle movement of the water, the rustling of the leaves, and somewhere the silence broken by the strident calls of wild geese (although the two in this photo are serenely moving along). Back to the primeval elements: what i ..read more

The latest series of Digging for Britain was as fascinating and informative as usual, but I think the one item uncovered that generated the most interest for a lot of viewers, including myself, was the dodecahedron. 33 of these objects have been discovered in Britain with a number of others throughout Europe. But no one knows what they were used for. Theories abound with no idea why they were created. Perhaps it was an early version of a Rubik’s cube. Vindolanda…site of ongoing excavations near Hadrian’s Wall I’ve always been interested in British Roman history. So, it was a natural choice to ..read more