Every month the awesome folks at Black Hare Press have a themed call for dark drabbles - deliciously disturbing stories of only 100 words. Their most recent theme was Asylums, and I’m thrilled to announce that they accepted my horror Drabble - A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste - for publication. Getting the… Continue reading Story Alert: Black Hare Press
Melissa thought nothing of the rain when she let her labradoodle, Boris, out for his morning ablutions. It looked heavier than usual, slightly greasy with a strange shimmer, but rain was rain. “Looks like someone poured baby oil and glitter into the clouds,” Sam said. She stood at the sink, coffee mug in one hand,… Continue reading Itchy When Wet
The bloganuary prompt for today is: Why do you write? The simple answer is: Because I must. When I was a child I used to describe my story ideas as if I were standing on a high mountain pass looking down into a valley. The pass was blocked, but I could peek through and watch… Continue reading Why I Write
Okay, you do scare me, but I thought I should start the year strong. This month I’m taking part in Bloganuary, which encourages regular blogging by providing a daily prompt. Today’s question is: What is something you want to achieve this year? My answer is: Publish more books. Last year I got organized with my… Continue reading You don’t scare me, 2023!
There really is no better way to test your writing than to read it out loud. Repeated and missing words become obvious, clunky phrasing stands out like a sore thumb, and over reliance on either narration or dialogue is quickly identified. Whether you read your work out loud after every edit, or only as a… Continue reading Top Tip for Editing your Writing
Iseult Murphy 