Romeo and Juliet Fans Read Silence…

…I hope. Well, it’s safe to say that someone took the book after I left it on a ledge next to Juliet’s balcony in Verona. Not sure whether the person who took it was a tourist (like me) or a member of staff of one of the many shops surrounding the balcony, or one of [...]

I’m a Google common search term!

Searching my name on Google is a little hobby as some readers may already know from a previous post where I mentioned this. I recommend to anyone who has even the slightest web presence to try it out (unless you have an exceedingly common name in which case it’s likely to be tedious as you [...]

Bookarmy.com

My latest addiction is Bookarmy.com, here is my profile page. I’m an author-member so I get a special little B next to my name, which I think is pretty cool but then I always was easily pleased. Anyhoo, the idea of Bookarmy is that it’s a social networking site for readers so they can rate [...]

Random Allocations and Lesbian History Month

I was doing a pipl search for myself (yes I am that egotistical and perhaps paranoid as well) and saw a nice variety of references to me, not all from me, including the Guardian, Struggling Authors, Meet the Author and Queer Cymru (although the information they have about my current job is out of date [...]

Author’s Notes in Western Mail

This article appeared in the Western Mail magazine yesterday (07 February 2009). Soon after Silence was reviewed in the paper, I was invited to contribute to the Author’s Notes section and wrote this piece. Since then I hadn’t heard back so assumed it wasn’t going to be used. Luckily I have friends who read the [...]

Snowed Under

Uni was closed today but I didn’t find out till I’d driven all the way from Cardiff to Swansea! That’s about 35 miles. Got there to find the library shut and tutorials cancelled, did an hour’s work in my office and came home again. So I have a serendipitous afternoon off, which is not ‘off’ [...]

Sony E-Reader from Waterstone’s Exchanged

In case anyone else got a Sony E-Reader for Christmas like I did, check the reset button! Mine didn’t work and it was stuck on one screen from Saturday until yesterday when I took it back to Waterstone’s.
Fair play to the store, they swapped it with no quibble. I didn’t ask for the money back [...]

Bournemouth Uni on Wednesday

I’ll be in the Lawrence Lecture Theatre, Pool House, Bournemouth University at 14:00-16:00 on Wednesday afternoon 3rd December (the day after tomorrow). This is part of the Legend Press ReadGeneration campaign, whereby we travel around to various universities and give talks and have stalls to try to encourage the under-30’s to read fiction and to [...]

Thoughts On Reviews and Freedom of Speech

This month I’ve had some marvellous reviews of my book. One appeared in Writer’s Beat Quarterly which was very glowing. “…Silence is a powerful novel precisely because it is not afraid – or ashamed – to look life square in the face and report what it sees… The style is fluid and one is quickly [...]

Watch Me on TV and Vote for My Book

Tonight the Hacio program that I’ve been talking about for months is going to be aired. It’s on S4C at 11.55pm, but if you are otherwise engaged or unable to receive the Welsh channel then you can view it on the Hacio site. Welsh version here, English here. The show itself is in Welsh and [...]