Like all authors, I tend to be paranoid about getting my books reviewed on Amazon, because so many people (not just readers, but booksellers, agents, God Almighty for all I know) judge  the worth of a book by the number of such reviews it has (quantity seems to count at least as much as quality!).… Continue reading The pain – and pleasure – of gleaning reviews

The paperback version of A SENSIBLE WOMAN is now available via Amazon! It will also be in bookshops from the end of February. Many thanks to all those who helped me get it to this stage: Helen, Lin, Leigh Anne and Jessica! 

It’s available at a special pre-order price until 7th February! The paperback version will be available soon! If you’ve read White Cranes Dancing or The Swan Widow, you’ll recognise a couple of the characters in A Sensible Woman (both human & feline!). Order now!

  My fifth novel, A Sensible Woman, is due out soon! Watch this space for updates on the publication date. It is set in one of South West Scotland’s prettiest small towns, and it takes forward the story of Fergus Learmonth, whom readers have already met in White Cranes Dancing. Suffice to say, Fergus finds… Continue reading Coming soon..

Several readers have told me they’d find a family tree of the MacKenzies of Balvaig (the family very much at the centre of both White Cranes Dancing  and The Swan Widow) useful. I have now added one – accessed by a link from the Balvaig Trilogy page. You can reach the family tree directly here.

The new novel’s now available on Amazon in a paperback version, and will be in independent bookshops around the end of this month. Don’t know about you, but no matter how much I love the convenience of ebooks, nothing beats the feel of a traditional book in the hand!! Many thanks to Leigh Anne Aston… Continue reading By Heart available in paperback

My fourth novel – BY HEART – is now available on Amazon Kindle.  It will soon be available in paperback also. Romance with a dark twist, and a tragedy which leads to redemption for the main character – and her family.

Originally posted on My Memories of a Future Life:
‘Music, the language of souls’ Once a week I host a writer who uses music as part of their creative process – perhaps to open a secret channel to understand a character, populate a mysterious place, or explore the depths in a pivotal moment. This week…

At least one of the main characters in each of my novels is obsessed by swans – our resident, native Mute Swans rather than anything more exotic. Their obsession mirrors my own. One of my earliest memories – I must have been three or four at the time –  is seeing a swan fly into… Continue reading Swan Fever

Over the past week, I’ve been running a click-based ad campaign on Goodreads. I also spent time answering the sample questions which Goodreads suggests for the author page. All of them amount to the same bottom line: why/how do you write?  – and for independently-published authors, I’m rapidly realising that the answers should NEVER include… Continue reading Why do we do it?