Kickstart Your Writing in 2026 – Beginning Saturday, January 10th! New year, new goals—why not make writing one of them? Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just getting started, sometimes we all need a little push to get back into the groove. If you’re looking for that extra boost to get your creative ideas flowing and your…
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Perfect Victims: Six Suspense Stories
I’m really excited to see this lovely anthology become available for sale. This is a collection of short suspense stories which evolved from the lovely work of the writers who took my Comma Press Writing Short Crime Fiction Course in Summer 2024. Six perfect victims are pushed to their limits, but are they all as…
New Short Fiction
I’ve been reading and writing a lot of short fiction recently. It helps that I’m teaching an MA course on short stories at the moment, so all the inspiration is right in front of me. I often choose a short story to read over a novel, partly because of the familiar truism that you can…
Edinburgh International Science Festival
I had a marvellous time taking part in a panel event at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. There were so many interesting things going on, a great deal to see and hear. I was invited to talk on a panel discussing ‘Early Automata, Artificial Intelligence and Frankenstein’. After giving our individual talks, the panellists enjoyed…
An Interview With Mary Shelley
It was an honour and an all-round wonderful experience to be asked to judge the Dead Romantic Interviews writing competition for Edge Hill University’s Romantic Lives Conference. There were a lot of terrific entries and it was difficult to choose a winner. You can read the winning entries here. To kick-start the competition, I wrote…
Frankenstein Documentary
It was a privilege and great fun to be interviewed by French director Jean-Baptiste Péretié for his upcoming documentary about Frankenstein. Jean-Baptiste, whose other films include La Revanche des Geeks, La Galerie France, and Moi, Candidat, wanted the interview to have a gothic vibe. Luckily, my husband John’s photographic studio was near at hand, replete…
Korean Translation of The American Girl
I was excited to find out that my novel, The American Girl, was going to be translated into Korean by the lovely people at Tomato Publishing. I’m even more thrilled now that I have my hands on the book. It really is the most gorgeous-looking cover… I’m also intrigued by all the footnotes explaining Twin…
Recent Interviews
Here are a couple of recent interviews from the publicity for The American Girl. I really enjoyed doing these. The Killer Inside My Holiday Killer Reads Interview When Life Is Creepier Than Fiction The Strand Magazine
Bouchercon: Blood on the Bayou
I’m so thrilled to have been invited to take part in a panel event at Bouchercon, which is happening in New Orleans this year! I’ve always wanted to visit New Orleans and I couldn’t be more excited to be discussing strong lead characters with wonderful authors Karin Salvalaggio, Rachel Howzell Hall, Kristi Belcamino, Ysra Sigurdardottir and the…
Girls of Summer
My new novel, The American Girl, comes out soon and I’m getting excited (and a little bit nervous!). I’ve been lucky to have some lovely feedback from some authors I really admire, including Megan Abbott, Lori Rader-Day and Hilary Davidson. It meant a lot to me that writers who have inspired me were generous with…









