I have been a reader and writer for as long as I can remember. Long car journeys from North West England to South East France would be spent with my head in a book, or my pen in a notebook. The quintessential millennial child that I was, I was a massive Harry Potter fan and this quickly spilled over into my writing – fan fiction was a (not-so) secret hobby of mine in my teens. I’ve since written hundreds of short stories, flash pieces and started several novels… culminating in me gaining a First Class BA in Creative Writing and English Language. MA of Creative Writing coming soon…
I won my first writing competition when I was 11 years old, for a poem called “Love is…”. I still remember lines from my winning entry all these years later, I was so proud of myself! Since then, I have gone on to be longlisted, shortlisted and won several competitions (though, none for poetry – I peaked at 11 in that regard!) and been published in various anthologies or magazines.
Here you will find a small selection of my work from over the years, as well as updates on what I am working on.
The bang from the landing is not loud enough to be catastrophic, but it is deliberate. It has shape. It lands in the quiet of the house like punctuation at the end of a sentence I didn’t know I was writing. I pause the film mid-scene, Kate Hudson frozen in glossy indignation, and the sudden…
As I watched the last surviving marshmallow melt to cream in my now tepid hot chocolate, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself, the perfect visualisation at the end of this hellish year. I’d lost all that brought me happiness and even the sodding marshmallows couldn’t wait to escape my glare. This was the first…
When Dorothy was 25 years old, her husband was called by the Army to serve his country in the second world war. The situation mirrored that of her mothers, 25 years earlier. A young mother, saying goodbye to her husband, unsure if she would ever see him again. A young father, saying goodbye to his…
This short story is one I loved writing and went on to be shortlisted in a writing competition back in 2023. It focuses on a woman and her experience supporting her mother with dementia. I worked in dementia care for a while, and I have many memories from that time I will hold with me…
The Shortlisted Story This story was entered into a monthly open competition – the only requirement was for the story to be under 1500 words. This comes in at 1246. This is based on a true event that happened to me, but dramatised with names and people changed. It isn’t perfect, and reading it now…
Another 300 word story, with a prompt. The Competition This was another flash fiction competition; having a limit of 300 words, and giving dialogue prompts (one must be included in the story). The dialogue prompt I went with was: “You’re not going to believe this.”. I had quite a few ideas for this one –…
The competition that I won with the below piece had a word limit of 300 words. It also gave three short pieces of dialogue; one of which must have been included in the story. The Origins of Love Thy Neighbour I wanted to write a short story that focused more on character, than plot. Given…
The Idea I worked for an adoption agency, so adoption was going to appear in a story of mine eventually. This story was originally written for a university assignment, another which I scored well on. I made some further edits when I got my feedback and grade, then entered it into another writing competition. This…