So, you want to know what life is like for someone trying to make it as a writer? Well, here’s the place to find out. I’ll keep you updated with regular(ish) posts about what I’ve been up to and how I’m getting on in my quest to become a full time science fiction and fantasy writer. Check out my blog posts below.
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I’m on the BSFA Award Long List!
“The Stench of Freedom” has made the British Science Fiction Association Award 2026 Long List for Best Shorter Fiction Well, 2026 has been quite eventful already! I’m on the Long List for the BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction 2026! Fresh from the exciting news that my Writers of the Future winning story, “The Stench…
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I made the Tangent 2025 Recommend Reading List!
“The Stench of Freedom” gets a double star rating on the 2025 Tangent Recommended Reading List In super exciting news, my Writers of the Future winning story, “The Stench of Freedom”, was listed in the 2025 Tangent Recommended Reading List! Not only that, but it received a double-star recommendation (second highest) 🤩🤯 The Tangent Recommended…
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Why I love “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”
Book recommendation for December 2025: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” by Dr. Seuss A Christmas classic first published in 1957 that has a truly timeless message at its heart. Not just for kids, it is at its brilliant best when read aloud (to children or adults). What it’s about: The Grinch hates Christmas, the whole…
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Why I love “A Search in Secret India”
Book recommendation for November 2025: “A Search in Secret India” This is one of the classic works on the search for a spiritual guru that left a profound impact on me. And the story of how I came into possession of this book taught me about the wonderful potential to learn and grow when we…
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I formed a book club!
Blokes + Beer + Books = Good Times! I’ve been an avid reader for longer than I can remember, but I’ve never been a member of a book club. That changed this month! From a mental health and wellbeing perspective, it’s important for men (and women) to socialise with friends and find a safe space…
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Why I love “The Colour of Magic”
Book recommendation for October 2025: “The Colour of Magic” by Terry Pratchett The start of the iconic, and hilarious, Discworld series. It’s not everyone’s recommended starting point for the series but I fell in love with Terry Pratchett’s stories from the moment he redefined the Big Bang Hypothesis in the opening prologue. Who doesn’t need…
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A crash course in marketing for writers
Writer, editor…and sales and marketing team? While the age old advice ‘The best way to promote your book is to write a new one” is still true (so I’m told), nowadays, even traditionally published writers are expected to market, promote and sell their own books. Gone are the days of the publishers doing everything. This…
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Awards Eligibility 2025
The starting gun has been fired for the 2025 awards season, as BSFA members can now nominate their favourite science fiction or fantasy stories published in 2025 for the BSFA Awards long list. I’ve had a pretty exciting year so far and I’m delighted to now be an author with a list of published works…
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Why I love “The Broker”
Book recommendation for September 2025: “The Broker” by John Grisham John Grisham is the King of legal thrillers and I’ve read easily a dozen of his books, if not more, and this is my favourite. He is a master story teller and he has never let me down, not to mention the list of excellent…
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Beware of marketing scams
One of the things that surprised me after my story was published in Writers of the Future, was how quickly I was targeted by marketing scams. And, even in the few months I’ve been getting such emails, they are getting increasingly sophisticated. I just wanted to use this blog post to flag this as a…
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How to write a Writers of the Future winning story
Guest blog for the Writers of the Future contest I was asked by the good folks at WOTF if I would write a blog about the inspiration behind my story, “The Stench of Freedom”. I was, of course, more than happy to do so. The WOTF contest gave me one of the highlights of my…
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Why I love “A Game of Thrones”
Book recommendation for August 2025: “A Game of Thrones” by George R. R. Martin The first instalment in George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, inspired by the Wars of the Roses, it’s gritty and violent and driven by human greed and vanity, with tumultuous politics, backstabbing betrayals, and unexpected…
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Interview on The Writing Community Chat Show
A long chat about short stories I appeared on the Writing Community Chat Show (WCCS) on 6 August 2025, where I talked with the hosts CJ Aggett and Christopher Hooley about my writing journey and inspiration, what my publishing goals are, what story ending I would change, and why I chose Radagast the Brown (from the Lord…
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Why I love “The Hobbit”
Book recommendation for July 2025: “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien This is a true classic of childrens literature—though I would say literature full stop—which holds a special place in my heart because it is the book that made me fall in love with fantasy. I have reread it many times and once bought two copies…
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100 submissions in – time for a data deep dive
I hit “submit” this month on my 100th story submission. I love easy, round numbers, so 100 submissions feels like quite a milestone. And, when pulling this blog post together, I realised it is just over 10 years since my very first submission back in June 2015. This feels like a very appropriate time to…
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Why I love “Writers of the Future Volume 41”
Book recommendation for June 2025: Writers of the Future Volume 41 For over forty years, the Writers of the Future contest has found the newest and most exciting voices and visionaries in science fiction and fantasy. It has an incredible track record of finding the next generation of speculative fiction writers and I am so…
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UK Book Release: WOTF41 is now on sale!
Writers of the Future Volume 41 is now available in the UK For everyone UK based, this means you can now read my story, “The Stench of Freedom”, as well as the amazing stories from my Volume 41 cohort. Go grab yourself a copy today, you won’t be disappointed. If you don’t believe me—I am…
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The 41st Writers of the Future Awards Gala
Hollywood extravaganza! The climax of the Writers of the Future workshops in Hollywood is the annual awards gala, held in the rather grand Taglyan Complex. The whole day was very Hollywood; from the black tie dress code, the limo ride from our hotel, and arriving to an actual red carpet ceremony where we were the…
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Why I love “Dune”
Book recommendation for May 2025: “Dune” by Frank Herbert This is the most epic of epic science fiction novels and was a winner of both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award (as the inaugural winner). For me, Dune is to science fiction what Lord of the Rings is to fantasy; the pinnacle of the…
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Who’s that Joel C. Scoberg geezer in the news?
I’ve been getting my face about! Upon getting home from Hollywood I was expecting to crash back to reality after my amazingly surreal experience at the Writers of the Future workshops, but the unexpectedness continued because I was on TV! What?! That’s TV Swansea interviewed me about my trip to LA and the inspiration behind…