A Fresh Start
Hello! Welcome to the brand new site for…well, me, I suppose.
This used to be the blog where I sporadically uploaded about my self-publishing career. I don’t believe I’ve updated it since sometime in 2016. A lot has changed since then. Most notably, I have gotten older, and discovered that I like olives.
Also, I have a book coming out.
To cut a long story very short, in those missing five years I wrote several books and they were, sadly, not considered for publication. I moved from Bristol and came home to Hertfordshire to live with my family, then got stuck in to temp work and forgot about writing entirely. I also started a podcast, reviewing books and films that have to do with my favourite subject – witchcraft. Witchfix podcast was a wonderful creative outlet which I hope to keep creating.
In 2019 I knocked the temping on the head, determined to take a last stab at writing something that would take me from ‘self-published’ to just ‘published’. The result of that was my novel ‘Stranded’. I started on it just as we were getting news about this new ‘Corona Virus’ emerging in China. As I wrote the novel this virus took over the world, sparking lockdowns and fear everywhere. It was a very tense time for everyone, my family included. But it also taught me a lot about isolation and uncertainty, which informed the plot of ‘Stranded’ as it began to unfold.
As for the novel itself, I wanted to do two things with it. 1. Write something with a touch of horror to it, which meant writing about one of my own worst fears. 2. I wanted to sneak something witchy into it and get it past my agent, who hadn’t liked most of my (pretty terrible) witch novel ideas.
Obviously I wouldn’t have changed my blog if something major hadn’t happened. So yes, my long-suffering agent liked the novel (including the witch stuff) and, after some lengthy changes, it was submitted to publishers.
All of this sounds like it happened quite quickly, doesn’t it? It wasn’t while I was living it. I don’t think I’ve ever waited so anxiously for something to happen. But happen it did, and ‘Stranded’ was picked up by the lovely people at Avon – an imprint of Harper Collins.
I told myself that, if I was unpublished by the time I turned 30, I’d jack it all in. Settle down, go permanent at a terrible office job, and forget I ever dreamt of walking into a Waterstones and taking obnoxious selfies with my first novel. Fortunately, I made it, with only a few months to spare! (Although technically I will be 30 by the time the book hits shelves in September 2021. But I’m still counting it as a win.)
Here’s the blurb:
Eight strangers.
One island.
A secret you’d kill to keep.
When eight people arrive on the beautiful but remote Buidseach Island, they are ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live alone for one year.
Eighteen months later, a woman is found in an isolated fishing village. She’s desperate to explain what happened to her: how the group fractured and friends became enemies; how they did what they must to survive until the boat came to collect them; how things turned deadly when the boat didn’t come…
But first Maddy must come to terms with the devastating secret that left them stranded, and her own role in the events that saw eight arrive and only three leave.
I’ll share some more details when the cover art (!) is revealed. You can also add the book to your to-read list on Goodreads or even pre-order it from Amazon, using the link below, or in my profile.
