September 20, 2025

First week sales rankings…why book marketing is always an unexpected surprise

It’s a weekend celebration for me this weekend as my recently released 6th novel, The Wabi-sabi Doll, is currently in the Top 10 Hot New Releases chart on Amazon US for Kindle eBooks in the category of psychological fiction. Hurray!

Additionally, it’s sitting at #38 for hardcover sales in psychological fiction through Ingramspark. Woohoo!

Why book marketing is always a mystery…

As much as I think I understand what readers want, I don’t. I’m an author, not a marketing expert, but as my own publicist, I try to gauge what my audience wants. As you might know, I wrote The Wabi-sabi Doll primarily because of reader demand; in other words, a handful of reviews mentioned that they wanted a follow up to Kimberly’s story in Japan. Most of these reviews were on Amazon UK. As a result, I was expecting to make it into the top 100 charts in the UK – but I’m not. My UK sales over the past week have not been enough to compete with all the new psychological literary fiction books released over this side of the pond. Oh well! I’m thankful to my UK readers who have bought copies regardless.

…and an unexpected surprise

I didn’t expect sales in the US to be so strong. This was an unexpected and happy surprise. It’s interesting that my psychological literary fiction books sell better in the US and my ghost books sell better in the UK. Does that mean we’re a spooky bunch over here? I’m in good company then I guess!

Posted by on September 20, 2025 in Books, Publishing and tagged , , , , , , .

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September 15, 2025

The Wabi-sabi Doll is published! The Buddha’s Bone series is complete

The Wabi-sabi Doll is officially published today! This is book 2 in the Buddha’s Bone series, but can be read as a standalone novel. It’s available from the following major online retailers:

Amazon UK
Amazon US
Foyles
Waterstones

The series follows Kimberly Thatcher, a Londoner who travels to Japan to teach English, escaping her abusive ex-fiance, and suffers a worse fate at the hands of a fellow English teaching colleague. The sequel picks up with her in a new romance, but dealing with the PTSD from her traumatic first year. If you like dark psychological literary fiction, give this book a go.

Posted by on September 15, 2025 in Books and tagged , , , , , .

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September 10, 2025

Busy reading submissions for Bindweed’s Yuletide ghost story anthology

Whew, another busy week, and it’s only hump day! My day work in secondary education has been full-throttle, meaning that even on my lunch breaks, when I normally would schedule writing time, I haven’t managed to do anything literary at all. I’m sure things will settle down soon; there are always unexpected hiccups in school life at the start of term that get ironed out as the pupils get into the swing of term. For now though, this has meant I’ve had to squeeze in writing time and editing Bindweed Anthologies after school while my son is at after-school club.

Busy, to say the least!

A backlog of Bindweed submissions

This week I have been prioritising Bindweed over my own writing, for the simple reason that our (my hubby Joseph Robert and I co-manage Bindweed) publication remains very popular indeed and we have a backlog of submissions that we need to read through. Submissions close on 1st October to give me time to typeset the paperback and format the eBook. For any readers out there who weren’t aware that we run a literary anthology, Bindweed has been in publication since 2016, starting life as a quarterly print magazine until 2018. It then switched to an online ezine for three years from 2019, before becoming a biannual anthology since 2022. Our latest Yuletide ghost story collection is the second biannual anthology of 2025, and marks our first themed anthology. Exciting stuff.

Why should writers submit to Bindweed?

Did you know that back issues of Bindweed are catalogued at the National Library of Ireland? That means, any writers we publish can proudly say that their work is stocked in a very prestigious library. We’re also listed on Duotrope, which is why, I’m guessing, we receive so many submissions. The exposure from Duotrope has led to us publishing thousands of writers and poets over the past nine years, from all over the world.

Hoping to pay our Bindweed contributors

Okay, breather. I’m going to stop with the hard sell now. My last promotional point is just to say that, although we have been running Bindweed as a not-for-profit, labour-of-love, book-baby project, simply because we’re idealistic folks who want to support fellow authors, we hope that we will soon be in a position to pay our writers a token amount of royalties in the near future, if sales of back issues will continue to increase. So, if you’re a fiction writer looking for a home for your spooky seasonal story, feel free to send it our way before the submission reading period ends on 1st October.

Posted by on September 10, 2025 in magazines, Publishing, submission calls and tagged , , , , .

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September 5, 2025

Ten day countdown until The Wabi-sabi Doll is published

The Buddha’s Bone series giveaway is now closed. Many thanks to those readers who pre-ordered The Wabi-sabi Doll eBook in exchange for a free paperback copy of The Buddha’s Bone. To those of you who entered the giveaway, hope you enjoy your freebie signed copy of book 1 in the series. I’m closing the giveaway a bit early because…I ran out of copies of The Buddha’s Bone, lol. There’s only 10 days until release day, so I won’t have time to order more before then.

In the meantime, the countdown to publication is on, woohoo! Here are the links to pre-order a copy:

Kindle eBook

Kindle UK
Kindle US
Kindle CA

Paperback

Waterstones
Foyles

Hardcover

Waterstones
Foyles
Amazon UK
Amazon US

Posted by on September 5, 2025 in Books and tagged , , , .

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August 30, 2025

Who is to blame for not writing? Nobody else but me!

A glib post on my socials on 28 August

This week I have been back to work after eight weeks off for summer break. For any new readers, I’m not a full-time author. Whilst it is nice to get a supplementary pay check every month from my writing royalties (hurray) it’s not enough to pay the bills. I rely on my day work in secondary education to keep a roof over my head.

Anyone who has a full-time day job knows how much of the week you spend at your work. If you have a family, the rest of your time is spending quality time with them.

Working in a school is great for family time. Thirteen weeks of holidays across the year maximises quality of life. During the eight week summer break, in between going on family holidays (Liverpool and Dublin), going to festivals (Belfast Pride, Feile na Habhann river festival, the Wickerman festival and Belfast Mela), day trips, playdates for my son and catch ups with my friends, there wasn’t a lot of time for other things. For the first time ever, I think, I didn’t write very much this summer.

Now, when I say that, it’s not a cause for worry. I’ve been prolific enough this year already. Love you to Death came out on 1st February and The Wabi-sabi Doll is due for release soon on 15th September. I’m also reading submissions for Bindweed Anthologies, as we (I run Bindweed with my hubby, Joseph Robert) will be releasing a Yuletide ghost story anthology in November, and I’m working on a contributory story for that too. I’ve had a busy year so far, so taking time off over the summer break wasn’t a bad thing.

Well meaning people always jump in with unsolicited advice when I say that I haven’t been writing. They mention how hard it must be to write while doing childcare. My son is no barrier to my writing – in fact he enhances it, as we often make up stories together or bounce ideas off each other. As for the time factor involved in childcare, that’s no issue either. He would love nothing more than for me to tell him to play Minecraft or watch YouTube for hours while I write – which I don’t do, btw. Over the summer I chose to spend time away on day trips with him than being at home writing. My point is, the only person responsible for me not writing is… me!

Yes, this summer I chose adventures with my family and my closest friends instead of writing. Now that I’m back into my day work routine, I’ll be back to scheduling writing time on my lunch breaks or after school ends. Eighteen days off writing barely made a dent in my novel WIP progress this summer. The story is already in my head anyway, it just needs to come out.

Posted by on August 30, 2025 in Writing and tagged , , , .

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August 26, 2025

A fun end to summer at the Belfast Mela

On Sunday we had a lovely end to the family summer fun at the Belfast Mela. I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot. Too much sea, sand and sun makes an idle brain.

As you (might!) know, Japan is close to my heart. I taught English over there for four years and I met my lovely hubby and fellow English teacher there too. My psychological literary fiction books that are set in Japan are: The Buddha’s Bone and The Wabi-sabi Doll.

This week it’s back to the day job at the grammar school where I work. I’ll be gearing up to teach creative writing to another fresh batch of sixth form students and get into the swing of my library work too. Busy, busy. Somewhere along the line, I’m hoping that getting back into a routine will help me structure my writing schedule. It really could do with it; I’ve slacked off for coming up to a fortnight now. Tut tut! Detention is a suitable sanction, I think!

Posted by on August 26, 2025 in Random stuff and tagged , , , , , .

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August 22, 2025

Author introduction and a bit about my books

It has been ages since I’ve done a post about myself and my books. I decided to make an author introduction video, not because I’ve had any new followers lately (a few) but because I’ve been reaching new readers through my videos, so I thought I’d let everyone know a bit about myself as an author and publisher and about my books.

My books and me

Of my currently published titles, I have 6 novels, 3 short story collections and 3 poetry books out in the literary world. My next novel, The Wabi-sabi Doll, is due for release on 15th September and I’m currently writing a ghost horror novel, though I’ve been lazy lately and haven’t worked on it for a week – woops!

Aside from writing my own books, I’m the editor in chief of Bindweed Anthologies, which is currently open for Yuletide ghost horror short story submissions – please send along your fiction until October 1st for an exciting Christmas horror collection to be published in November 2025.

That’s all for now. I should hopefully be back to posting more regularly since the summer holidays are almost over, so I’ll be back to a more structured schedule soon. For now, have a great weekend folks!

Posted by on August 22, 2025 in Biography, Books and tagged , , , .

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August 17, 2025

More summer adventures and more book shopping

Dublin Zoo

This week, I went to Dublin on a family holiday. Even though it’s only 180 or so kilometres away from Belfast, the vibe is completely different. Seeing a city through a child’s eyes is always a good way to highlight differences. It’s further south, so of course is much warmer; a three degree difference was great for the sunshine (I love a lot of heat) though I got bitten alive by mosquitoes, something that doesn’t happen in Belfast. Another difference is that Dublin still has trams, unlike Belfast, which got rid of its trams in the 1950s. The population is also more than double that of Belfast, so it was far busier overall. If you’re a reader from another part of the world, you might be surprised by the biggest difference; the Republic of Ireland is still part of the EU and uses Euros, whereas Northern Ireland is part of the UK so we use pounds like England, Scotland and Wales. Fun fact though: Scottish and English banknotes can be used in Northern Ireland but Northern Ireland banknotes, I believe are not valid to use in other parts of the UK (maybe Scotland, though I haven’t been there in decades to find out).

Junji Ito collection in Forbidden Planet, Dublin

Being away on summer adventures means less writing time, as my laptop stays at home while I’m travelling. It’s simply not feasible for me to manage sightseeing, spending time with family and squeezing in writing time. I didn’t neglect my reading though. I’m a glutton for book shopping. There was a huge selection of Junji Ito books, one of my favourite horror authors, so I couldn’t resist buying a couple of ones I haven’t read, or seen the adaptations of on Netflix. Have you read any Junji Ito? His stories are not only incredibly original but he has some of the most disturbing ideas I’ve ever read. If you love horror like I do, you need to read him.

Can’t choose, getting both!

Anyway, even though I haven’t managed any writing, I’m sure I’ll get back to my current WIP at some point. Travelling is always fuel for the imagination. At least I’m making an effort to keep up this blog, even if I’m not posting on a regular schedule over the summer. The snippets I do manage keep me writing in some form, which is good enough for now.

See you again in another few days or so!

Posted by on August 17, 2025 in Random stuff and tagged , , , , , .

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August 10, 2025

The Wickerman festival at Navan Fort, Co. Armagh

Yesterday I went to the Wickerman festival at Navan Fort, Co. Armagh in Northern Ireland. It was an amazing festival and fun living history event with Celtic battle reenactments that I had been wanting to attend for a number of years, but it had been cancelled due to covid and had only been brought back as of last year.

The spectacular burning of a 30ft willow and hazel effigy was a great end to the evening in a recreation of how the ancient Celtic people would have celebrated Lughnasdh, the start of harvest, in honour of the god Lugh. I made my oak and hornbeam headdress to represent summer (do you know the ancient Celtic battle story of the oak king versus the holly king?) and of course, brought along my books that include pagan rituals in the stories to share in the moment.

There was an article about the Wickerman festival in the Belfast Telegraph on Friday, which gave an interesting perspective from one of the weavers who created the effigy. It’s hard for me to imagine how it would feel to create an artwork intended to be destroyed. Even years ago, when I used to write first novel drafts longhand in a fancy notebook, I always typed up my writing after each chapter, therefore the risk of losing my work, or the notebook, wasn’t particularly high. Creating a work of art over the course of several months, only to see it burn in several minutes, would be emotional, but I suppose the satisfaction would come from the shared sense of community in an ephemeral celebration. Then again, that’s the whole point of the Wickerman festival; to recreate the community spirit of a celebration spanning thousands of years, connecting people with their pagan ancestors, and feel the collective excitement of the experience in a few minutes at sunset.

Certainly worked for me!

Posted by on August 10, 2025 in Random stuff and tagged , , , , .

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August 6, 2025

Why ‘take a book, leave a book’ is great for reading

A few days ago, I took a book I’d finished along with one of my own novels, to a ‘take a book, leave a book’ swap in Belfast. Such a book exchange is something that I wish more literary cafes or artsy establishments would do, as it’s such a great idea for encouraging reading.

One I picked and behind, two I left

Caedmon’s Song by Peter Robinson was a first for me by the author and an earlier one of his, apparently. I thought it was okay; you can read my review on Goodreads, though it has spoilers.

My review for ‘Caedmon’s Song’ is on Goodreads

Benefits of take a book, leave a book = money

As a reader who can’t resist book shopping, and admittedly spends more than my budget allows sometimes, book exchanges are a great way to swap books that I know I’m not going to read again, with ones I haven’t read; this satisfies my ‘book splurge urge’.

Benefits of take a book, leave a book = space

I don’t live in a sprawling mansion with its own library (maybe if I win the lottery). Our house really can’t accommodate all the books I’ve been buying over the past year. Lots of books are in boxes or crates, in fact, since we don’t have room for another book shelf at the moment. Exchanging books is a great way to keep reading without having to continually buy.

Take a book, leave a book for authors

Speaking now as an author rather than as a reader, it’s also a great chance to get copies of my own books out there. I have recently updated the cover of The Buddha’s Bone with the series info on the back, in preparation for the sequel, The Wabi-sabi Doll coming out on 15th September, so it was an opportunity to give away a copy I had with the old cover. You can see it next to Caedmon’s Song in the photo above.

Posted by on August 6, 2025 in Reading and tagged , , , , , .

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