My collection of poems about motherhood, family, old friends, spiritual journeys and the sea entitled, ‘RISE’, is available to download for free on Smashwords. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/988694 I’ve had all my poems sitting together in a folder for a while now. I’d published them in drips and drabs on my blog, but I’d been planning to do
writing for wellness
Open call for submissions — Black Dogs, Black Tales
I am extremely pleased to announce that after a good deal of plotting and scheming, I will be working with a fantastic team of people to put together a brand new horror and dark speculative fiction charity anthology entitled, “Black Dogs, Black Tales.” This collection of short fiction will be raising money for the Mental
Don’t Self-Reject!
Have you ever felt super excited about doing a Thing, only to suddenly find yourself crippled by unexpected anxiety, uncertainty and a strong urge to run away and hide? I don’t just mean a physical Thing, but also a creative or artistic one. Self-rejection is the nasty little brother of the Imposter Syndrome Gremlin, and
Knock, Knock! Imposter Syndrome Calling…
I woke up this morning to find I had been tagged in an awesome yet terrifying tweet — a friend of mine had included me and my anthology, “Dark Winds Over Wellington,” in a list of must-read female dark fiction writers. I’ve read all of the other books she listed and they are absolutely tremendous.
My Contributory Verse
My brain is being an asshole. I don’t mind admitting that at all. Sometimes it does this, and I know it will pass, but while I’m floundering in that deep, dark hole, everything pretty much sucks. On the positive side, I’ve used it as a catalyst for some extremely dark new stories, which I absolutely
Finding My Way Back
My regular readers and followers will know that I frequently write for mental health. I’m also aware that this often turns people off too. “Oh great, she’s going on about depression again.” “Why does she always focus on the serious stuff?” “She must be pretty unstable if she has to keep focusing on all that.”
Well-Written – Writing for Wellness
I run an online blog and support group called Well-Written; a writing group which encourages women to write for positive mental health. We share our ideas and creativity, and we listen to what we all have to say. It is aimed at being an empowering and nurturing space not just to write about mental health
Zine Culture
I made my very first zine this weekend. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, and no plan. I decided that instead of trying to make it nice and pretty, I would use it as a creative brain-dump. So I cut random images from magazines (I didn’t even cut them neatly!); added a
Slowing Down and Changing Gears.
I’m tired. I don’t want to admit it, but I am. I promised myself last year to pay more attention to my ‘give-a-fuck’-budget, and by that I meant that I needed to consider whether something was really worth my time, my energy or my money. I also said that if an event I was invited
The best writing tip I ever received: Don’t stop
Writing is hard. Oh, certainly, the act of writing is easy enough; you start with a word, and you add another, and then another, and another after that. Eventually, you form sentences and paragraphs. If you keep going, you might end up with pages and chapters, and beyond that, entire stories. Just like Dr Frankenstein,