A bit about me

A graphic designer and copywriter by trade, I came to live in beautiful rural Herefordshire nineteen years ago with my husband, son and various pets. My first attempt at writing was a novel, Neighbourhood Watch, inspired by some strange events in our village. Since then I have learned much more about the craft through such peer review sites as youwriteon, The Writing Asylum and The Bookshed and realise my baby needs a lot more work if it is ever to see the light of day.

My next piece was a short story, and the next, and the next… Fifteen of these were published in Triclops, a joint anthology with two extremely talented writers I met on youwriteon. The book contains forty short stories and is still available to order through Amazon although, since most of the stories have now been published elsewhere and we are all immersed in other projects, we have decided not to renew our contract with the distributors.

I have won Flash500 twice and had stories placed third, and fourth (twice each) and won Circalit Story of the Month with The Beast Next Door. It has also been made into a podcast by Words with Jam and and is now a short feature film by Bugger of a Kid Productions and was screened in New York in June 2014. It won an award for being the most downloaded story at Ether Books, who have now published eight of my stories on their free app. Footprints, Never Too Late and The Seventh Christmas are currently available from Alfie Dog.

Between May and September 2010 I wrote nearly a hundred twitter-length stories, some of which are now forming the basis of longer pieces. I particularly enjoy writing in short formats, flash fiction being my current favourite.

As part of National Flash Fiction day in May 2012 I had two wonderful new experiences. Firstly, I was one of the selecting editors for FlashFlood and secondly, I read my prize-winning story ‘Mother’s Pride’ to an audience in Oxford, which was scary but exhilarating. I wouldn’t mind doing it again! I’m also currently lined up to judge a couple of flash fiction competitions for Southville Writers. If anyone is in the Bristol area, their events are lots of fun.

Many thanks for reading and following my blog. All comments on posts and work are very welcome!

Sue