Best of British

New Year status report 2020

This is my seventh year of writing up the status of my books – see 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. After my retirement from writing children’s books last year, this was (not unexpectedly) a quiet year. In August, my short story “The Whisperer” was included in the Best of British Science Fiction 2018, which… Read More

The Wreck of the Argyll

New Year status report 2019

This is my sixth year of writing up the status of my books – see 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. In February, my first novel, the WWI spy adventure The Wreck of the Argyll, was re-released by Cranachan, who’d previously published my Pictish adventure The Beast on the Broch. In June, my sci-fi short story “The Whisperer”… Read More

Historical Novel Society Conference

Yesterday I attended the Historical Novel Society Conference in Cumbernauld to talk about children’s historical fiction. My fellow Cranachan author Barbara Henderson shared the session with me, and it was great to hear about her experience and advice for writing historical novels for children. We decided we’d give a short presentation on how we wrote… Read More

Under the Mountain cover

Under the Mountain and Other Stories

I’m delighted to announce that Under the Mountain and Other Stories, my collaboration with artist Anh Diep, is now available from Amazon. This is a collection of eight science fiction and fantasy short stories, including all three of my previously-published stories, along with five never-before-seen tales. Complementing the stories are illustrations by my friend Anh. He’s… Read More

Leicester Writes Short Story Prize

Back in January I entered three of my short stories for the Leicester Writes short story competition. Leicester Writes is a local literature development project; they run workshops, a writing group, competitions, and a literature festival, and are enthusiastic about supporting writers in Leicester and beyond. The competition was open to all writers across the… Read More

Scottish History Network: Growing up with Scottish History at Tarbat Ness

I’m delighted to have an article on the Scottish History Network blog today. It describes the effect of growing up at Tarbat Ness Lighthouse, with its centuries of history right beneath my feet. I write about a grassy mound just outside the lighthouse complex that I thought might be a Viking burial mound, but was… Read More