Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...
Swanwick 2025
The second week in August always finds me heading for Derbyshire to enjoy all that the Writers’ Summer School has to offer. Situated in the Hayes Conference Centre with its magnificent gardens, it’s the perfect place to unwind and swap ideas with friends old and new.
The rooms in the Main House vary considerably in size and layout, but I have always chosen to be in Lakeside, built over a century later. Accommodation there is more or less standard, although this year I was given a ‘family room’. (The extra bed came in handy for packing and unpacking.) Unless a delegate has mobility issues, the allocation seems to be random, but everyone has a private bathroom with soap & towels provided, a hairdryer, plenty of wardrobe space – I always take extra coat hangers – and tea & coffee making facilities. There is also free wi-fi.
The programme is so extensive that difficult choices have to be made every year, which no doubt contributes to the fact that so many of us keep coming back. Volunteers with purple lanyards help new Swanwickers to settle in, host special tables for them at dinner the first night and are available throughout the rest of the week if needed. People may, of course, choose to be alone, but no one needs to be lonely.
As well as attending the opening session of Della Galton’s excellent course on writing short stories to make money, I ran a workshop on crafting lucrative ‘fillers’ – there seems to be a theme here – and launched my new book. The hat was only intended to be a prop, since a few chapters are set in cowboy country, but I did wear it for a photo with one buyer at her request! More later about the hat!
It has become a tradition for Jen Wilson and I to co-host the prose open mic and this year we had more people than ever wishing to take part. That meant that, out of fairness to all, we had to go into a ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine to fit everyone in and I was the timekeeper. Apologies to those I had to cut off in mid-flow, but you were all very gracious about it.
Fortunately we finished before the bar closed for the night. If ever a stiff drink were required…!
The following evening saw me taking part in the poetry open mic, which was equally oversubscribed, but the lovely Alison Chisolm was in charge of making sure that everyone got a fair shot and she did. (Probably with more charm than I managed to muster yesterday.) Beforehand, I learned a lot about poetry competitions from Emma Purshouse & Steve Pottinger, a multi-talented duo from the Black Country, and attended a talk by Dr Russell Wate, probably best known for being the lead detective in the notorious Soham murder case. Chilling stuff and I had his course on authentic crime fiction still to come.
One very popular feature of Swanwick over the last few years has been the opportunity to submit in advance a five-minute play to be rehearsed and then performed as a scripted reading towards the end of the week. The plays chosen by independent judges are handed over to a team – this year composed of Neil Zoladkiewicz, Lesley Deschner and Phil Collins – who allocate to each one a director and actors from those who volunteer to take part. The trio comprising director Bear Stephenson and actors Helen Clough and Andy Cain did a fine job of bringing my script to life. Things aren’t what they used to be, or are they? was set in ancient Rome, but that fact was only revealed right at the end. Some issues just rumble on and on, don’t they?
I was very proud of all of them and hope that we might work together in future.
The hat made a reappearance later on. A theme is chosen each year and, although it’s always optional to wear fancy dress, I find it great fun. This time, by happy coincidence, it was the turn of the wild, wild west. As well as a disco, line dancing was on offer to anyone with sufficient energy left at the end of another very full day.
Not really one for selfies, I was caught napping by Morgen Bailey at the farewell meeting. That was fine, because I had previously enjoyed her course on editing fiction and was delighted to discover that one of her clients is a favourite author of mine. A.A.Dhand, whose crime novels are set in Bradford, came to Swanwick a few years ago on my recommendation and was given a standing ovation at the end of his talk. Not only that, but he returned later on as a tutor and has been going from strength to strength ever since. Virdee, a television adaptation of his first two novels, was very well received last year.
I’m still trying to figure out how to get rid of the smell of wood smoke from the outfit I wore at the final event, singing and toasting marshmallows around the firepits in the grounds. Most other years, that would have been a chilly experience, but the fine weather has continued all week. We were so lucky!
Before we knew it, the final breakfast was over and those of us not heading for Derby railway station were waving off the coach in the traditional Swanwick farewell. Roll on August 2026!
15 August, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
My latest release!
‘From counseling in the Catskills to bagels for breakfast in the Bronx’, not to mention innocently trying to book a room in a brothel on the Mexican border! This is the book that I’ll be launching at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in Derbyshire next month and thereafter locally. Ripon launch (or launches) not yet sorted out, so please watch this space.
For anyone further afield, copies are already available worldwide on Amazon and I’d be very grateful for some reviews. It’s been a real labour of love.
20 July, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
Poetry Galore
The last few weeks have been all about sharing poems included in the recent anthology of Ripon Poets. St John’s Sharow had a wonderful afternoon of Piano, Pimms & Poetry (at which I read from the pulpit!) with afternoon tea and then it was time for this year’s Ripon Theatre Festival.
Poetry was included for the first time and I took part in events at the wonderfully named Portly Pig on Kirkgate and then at the Little Ripon Bookshop. Each attracted a good audience on what was an idyllic summer’s day.
9 July, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
Workhouse Orphan on Zoom
Look what I just found in the archives! During the dismal lockdown year of 2020, when unmasked contact with other humans was restricted to a tiny bubble, I delivered my first (and so far only) author talk on Zoom. Hosted by Canadian author and publisher Edwin Rydberg, it took place on 16th September. Edwin knew exactly which questions to ask to get me talking and the discussion was to form part of his Indie Book Showcase.
18 May, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
Judging a book by its cover!
Following discussions with several fellow writers and readers, I decided to give the omnibus edition of my short stories a new cover. (For comparison purposes, you can see the previous one by scrolling down to the photo of me selling my books last Sunday.)
The front is from my best selling collection, a mixture of grim and not quite so grim tales. They include Too Much Blood on the Axminster, which was awarded first place by the late M C Beaton (Hamish Macbeth, Agatha Raisin) in a competition connected with the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. My prize was a whole weekend pass to the event at the Old Swan in Harrogate, where I met some of my idols in the crime writing world.
The back features my two other collections, which are very different in nature. Had We But World Enough spans very different themes, from sex trafficking and illegal immigration to an aspiring novelist fulfilling her dream of settling in Key West and a young English couple experiencing their first Christmas in Australia.
The ‘twist in the tale’ stories in Swings & Roundabouts cover the widest range of topics, including a new slant on the Loch Ness Monster myth, an Asian shopkeeper’s cat foiling a racist attack and the unvarnished opinion of Johannes Vermeer’s wife and daughter about the setups for his paintings.
16 May, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
Promoting Yorkshire Authors arrives in Ripon
At my suggestion, PYA made enquiries at the Claro Lounge and got the go ahead for a book fair on Sunday, 11th May. It was a warm, sunny day, perfect for the V E Day commemorations and the installation of Ripon’s new mayor. Situated next to the Town Hall, the Lounge offered a good view of the proceedings taking place outside, so we didn’t miss out.
With seven titles to display, I was allocated half a table and very much enjoyed talking to everyone who came by.
A free copy of its prequel ‘Foreshadowing’ was on offer to anyone who bought ‘Shadows of the Past’. One purchaser was a young soldier from the Royal Engineers who had just taken part in the parade from the Market Place to the Cathedral. He told me that he was particularly interested in the history of WW2, so I hope he will enjoy it.
PYA has booked another event at the Claro Lounge for Sunday, 30th November.
12 May, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
A successful launch
The open mic night at the Claro Lounge to launch ‘This Hear This Now’, an Anthology of Ripon Poets, was very well attended.
It includes two of my poems and I chose to read ‘Elegy Written in Ripon Market Place’ (with apologies to Thomas Gray). Much as I love our little cathedral city, not everyone respects its ‘ancient charms’ and this is my reproach to litter louts.
By the way, the lighting affected the shot and seems to have added something odd to the hand holding the book. It isn’t really like that!
25 April, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
Anthology Launch
This labour of love is a great showcase for local writers, myself included, and we’re hoping for a good turnout.
10 April, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
From Austria with love!
Write-On! Ripon was in the middle of our usual Tuesday afternoon meeting this week when a surprise contribution arrived from a member currently enjoying a winter sports holiday in Austria. She’s having a great time and, of course, we had to send a photo straight back to her.
20 February, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
A good start to 2025
Happy New Year, everyone!
It is always a pleasure to speak to audiences large or small, whether about one of my books specifically or my writing/life in general.
My first booking in 2025 was with a Ripon u3a group. In the time allotted to me, I packed in as much information as I could about my experiences as a TV/film ‘extra’. There was, of course, a great deal more that I could have said, much of it contained in My ‘Extra’ Life. As with most of my other books, I carry a small stock for people who request a signed copy. (Otherwise, it is available from Amazon as either a paperback or a download.)
Networking is of huge importance to writers and I am pleased to say that a lady in the audience requested that I give the same talk later this year to another group with which she is connected.
There is no better place to make connections that the Writers’ Summer School in Swanwick and I’m looking forward enormously to my annual stay there in August.
It should coincide with the publication by SpellBound of my new book, which centres on the summer my friend Rosie and I ‘rode the Dog’ across the USA. More details to follow. Watch this space!
25 January, 2025 - Make the first comment on this story
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