Unthology 3, which features my story ‘The Monolith’, is now available here for pre-order on Amazon. The collection is described as ‘lit up tales for dark times’ and features work by writers David Rose, Philip Langeskov, Ashley Stokes, Sarah Dobbs, C. D. Rose and many more.

Here’s a little more about it: ‘Its eighteen stories describe sticky predicaments, testing choices and reluctant confessions: a publisher surveys the changing literary scene while losing an age-old mob war; a man finds himself trapped by his own perfectionism in a forbidding meat-processing factory; a strange black monolith appears in a back garden somewhere in the north of England.’

Rachel Connor

I’m interviewed by writer (and wonderful cook) Rachel Connor over here today as part of her ‘Literary Sisters’ series. I know Rachel from when I attended an Arvon course at Lumb Bank a couple of years ago (where she works) and she welcomed us all with the most delicious cakes. Being a huge cake fan, friendship was inevitable really. Anyway, have a read and leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning a copy of my book too. While you’re there have a look at the other ‘Literary Sisters’ (writers past and present) and why not buy a copy of Rachel’s novel ‘Sisterwives‘? I really enjoyed it – it’s an intriguing insight into the lives of two women who live in an isolated religious community and are married to the same man. There’s some beautiful language in the book and I found it be quite a page-turner as I wanted to know how the difficulties the women faced were going to unfold. It would be worth keeping Rachel on your radar too, if she isn’t already, as she is set to have afternoon play on Radio 4 in the future. Very exciting indeed.
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Today I’m talking to Jen Campbell, the author of the bestselling ‘Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops’ and also, now, ‘The Hungry Ghost Festival’ – her first collection of poetry, which has just been published by The Rialto.

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Many congrats to my publishers Salt, who are today celebrating their first ever Man Booker Prize longlisting with Alison Moore’s forthcoming novel ‘The Lighthouse’. This is a great boost for Salt and, I have to say, much deserved – Jen and Chris Hamilton-Emery are a great, hard-working couple, and nice to boot, so I’m thrilled for them. Alison’s novel is up against the likes of Will Self, Nicola Barker and Michael Frayn and is out in a couple of months. You can pre-order it now via the Salt website here or via Amazon here. Congratulations, Alison, Nicholas Royle (Alison’s agent) and Salt… and fingers crossed for the shortlist!

The lovely people at Salt – publishers of my collection – have just launched three new literary awards called The Salt Prizes. The prizes aim to find the best new writing from around the world with categories available for best single short story, best piece of flash fiction and best poem. The winners will receive a cash prize as well as publication in a new anthology called The Salt Anthology of New Writing (other selected finalists will also be published in the book). The prizes launched on July 1st, with submissions being accepted until the closing date of October 31st. To find out more about the prizes and how to enter click here. This is a great opportunity for all writers no matter what stage of their career they’re at, so why not give it a go? If you enter you’ll also receive a voucher for 30% off any book in Salt’s online shop – even more of an incentive. Good luck!

Me with Jen Hamilton-Emery

Many congratulations to Sarah Hall, who won this year’s Edge Hill Short Story Prize and Readers’ Prize – read all about it here. I had a very nice evening at the ceremony, which took place at the Free Word Centre in London, where I met Sarah as well as fellow shortlistees Zoe Lambert, Rowena Macdonald and Tessa Hadley. It was also lovely to meet my publisher, Jen Hamilton-Emery of Salt, as well as a couple of the judges, Graham Mort and Rhiannon Evans, Edge Hill organisers Ailsa Cox and Carys Bray and chat with writers Elizabeth Baines (a fellow Salt writer who also wrote about the evening here) and Adam Marek, who has a new collection, ‘The Stone Thrower’, out soon with Comma Press. Sadly, there was no prize or prize money to take home but it was still very nice to have been shortlisted and to take part in the evening.

I just wanted to pay tribute to the late, great Ray Bradbury, who died earlier this month, by sharing a link to one of his stories – ‘The Pedestrian‘. This is a story that was read out to us in high school, presumably as part of an English class, more than 20 years ago now. And it’s such a memorable tale that it has stayed with me ever since. As for the story, it’s very simple – a man out for a solitary walk on a dark, frosty night is stopped by a patrolling police car and interrogated. And that’s it. Yet, there is so much more going on here than just that. Judge for yourself by reading it, if you don’t already know it. And if lines like this aren’t beautiful writing then I don’t know what are: ‘There was a good crystal frost in the air; it cut the nose and made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside.’ Wonderful.

Congratulations to the three people who have each won a copy of my book via the books and reading website Goodreads. Copies will be with you soon – but please be patient as they’re travelling from the UK (and you’re scattered around the globe). Thanks to the thousand or so people who clicked to try and win a copy.

Some exciting news: my book has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. As is always the way whenever I get any nice news, I was at work – which made concentrating for the rest of the day very, very difficult. Anyway, the announcement was made here, on the Edge Hill website. And I’m very pleased to be part of a list that includes such wonderful writers as Sarah Hall, Tessa Hadley, Zoe Lambert and Rowena Macdonald. As you can see, it’s an all-female shortlist but it’s also interesting to note the number of northern writers on there as well as all the debut collections. The winners of the main prize and the readers’ prize will be announced at a ceremony in London on July 5th – congratulations everyone.

The lovely and supportive Alison Wells is celebrating the launch of her feel-good space adventure ‘Housewife with a Half-Life’ today (May 8th). Here’s Alison – or A. B. Wells – to tell everyone a little bit more about her book:

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