‘While you live, shine.’

In which a song Jo fell madly in love with turned out to be a very special song indeed…

A Clever Bird Thing

In which a clever bird does an odd thing, which leads to the author having a near-miss with a lorry and doing a bit of research.

Run, run, run, run, run, run away!

In which an annoying coincidence occurs, featuring a bad song and a good book.

Saddle Up for The Territories West

Incredibly proud of my eldest son today, who has just released his fifth album aged just 20 years old. He’s a musical storyteller, and goes all wild west with this one. If you’re looking for music to write your Western-themed novel to, try this one …

Satisfying Sentence: Man of War

Some song lyrics are just irresistible, and this one always jumps out at me as being so dramatically macabre. The gloriously unexpected combination of cake and the death of enemies is strangely quirky and satisfying.

Mrs Holloway’s Annual Parade of the Brightest and Best

“The brightest and best of you,” says Mrs Holloway, clapping her hands with palms flat and fingers pointing upwards, so that each clap is a prayer of thanks. And so begins the Annual Parade…

Odd Writers #9: Balzac’s Fuel for Thought

Want to be a prolific author? Worried you’re not writing enough? It might depend on how many cups of coffee you’re prepared to drink! 😳

The best modern fairy tales to make you believe in magic again

I was invited to create a shepherd.com book list, and chose magical, modern fairy tales. If you read that kind of thing, check out my page, and see if you agree with my picks. What would you have chosen instead? I was impressed with the cover versions they picked for each of my choices – my own copies are quite plain in comparison!

Satisfying Sentence: This Blue World

I could pick hundreds of satisfying sentences from Elbow songs, written by Guy Garvey. As NME magazine once said “Garvey is a poet, and one of the most creative and goddamn heartbreaking wordsmiths we have in the UK.” This is my all time favourite… 💙