So you entered a writing competition and received your first ‘honourable mention’. Is that worth mentioning? Find out what authors think in this blog.

If you’ve recently discovered the lovely ‘Bookstagram’ community of readers, writers and bloggers over on Instagram, you may have spotted some unfamiliar words cropping up regularly in posts.

Here’s a quick lowdown of the most popular terms, and what they mean…

Podcasts. Eeek! For many writers, the idea of being a guest on a podcast is a terrifying thought. If you’ve never podcasted before, here are 5 tips from my own personal experience that just might help…

Let’s address the elephant in the room. I’m not going to sit here, as an unpublished author (but not for long!) and claim I’m an expert in building a social following that will sell millions of books and make you the next Elon Musk. I’m still, very openly, figuring this thing out as I go. But having spent years working in the digital marketing world by day, I do know a thing or two about how to connect with people.

In the height of the November lockdown in 2020, I wrote a short story called The Man Upstairs. Other than the odd pieces I penned at school to get good grades in English - and please my beloved teacher, Mrs Mason - this was my first official crack at a short story worth publishing.

And let me tell you - it was cathartic.