I’ve now heard three different people saying how silly it is to ‘kill your darlings’ when you’re writing. “Why would…
How to slay self doubt and write that novel
Do you have a half-finished manuscript saved in the bowels of your computer? Do you dream of starting/finishing…
Today I crave curried books
I used to read whatever took my fancy: a history of witchcraft, a novel about a Japanese student’s…
Balancing hope
It’s done. Salt Magic, Skin Magic – my m/m fantasy romance set in Yorkshire in 1851 – is finished and…
The Tudor Hogwarts
Before Hogwarts, before Ursula Le Guin’s school for wizards on Roke, did you know that a real academy that taught…
Hot gin and sugar with Oliver Twist
Recently I read Christina E. Pilz’s historical m/m romance Fagin’s Boy in which a now grown-up Oliver Twist…
Putting a name to a gibus
I knew Victorian men wore collapsible top-hats to the opera, but I never cottoned on to the fact…
Victorian men and the myth of the stiff upper lip
The Victorians: sentimental and mawkish? Or inventors of the stiff upper lip? Lots of men nowadays feel they…
A Libertine Leech and an Edwardian Elvis
Don’t you love charity shops for books? All sorts of unexpected treasures and out-of-print gems – and all costing…
Victorian history book lust
Today I went to the dentist, which means afterwards I get to buy books. The moment I saw the spine…
Welcome
I’ve been writing stories most of my life, starting with a pastiche of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe…
