Books old and new

My new novel which you can actually buy~!

Possibly Maybe - new romantic comedy out Tuesday 17th November

Twenty dates. One vision. One soulmate. But which one was she?

Marty Morgan’s visions tell him that one of the women he just met at speed dating is absolutely, definitely his soulmate. Now all he has to do is figure out who.

Warm, witty and fast paced, Possibly Maybe is a smart contemporary romcom about fate, dating and overcoming your fears. When you’ve let your life be guided by the universe’s whims, how exactly do you start taking responsibility for your own decisions? Even if it’s what your heart desires...?

eBook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Possibly-Maybe-witty-romantic-comedy/dp/1065481209/

Paperback: Available on Amazon and all good online retailers

Unpublished works

Elevation (1999-2001-ish)

A novel set entirely in a lift. Yes, as good as it sounds. I wrote most of this out of boredom during work placements in Munich and Strasbourg as part of my French and German degree course. (They didn’t give me internet access. I had to do something.) Elevation was almost entirely inspired by Geoff Ryman’s experimental proto-web novel 253, every chapter of which is a 253-word pen portrait of a different passenger on a doomed tube carriage. Hilariously, I did try submitting this weird, unclassifiable work with about 20 different protagonists to agents, with the help of a copy of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook I borrowed from the library. It went so well that I didn’t try writing any more novels for over 10 years.

Wrecking Crew (2014-2017)

A convoluted, multi-perspective novel (are you sensing a pattern here?) centring around the aftermath of a minor plane crash. I had the idea of writing this on honeymoon(!), after a sketchy propeller plane ride from Key West to Orlando. My wife hates flying at the best of times, so maybe in hindsight this novel was a tad insensitive?

Anyway, I decided to write this totally blind. All the useful writing tips and communities on the internet? Ignored ’em. How hard can a novel possibly be? Again, in hindsight, writing only 1.5 drafts with no outside input was not the wisest strategy.

Wrecking Crew was self-published on Amazon and duly sank without trace. I removed it from sale, however it’s still there on my KDP dashboard, a shameful reminder of my past sins. Were I to redraft it, I’d get rid of all but two of the narrators and just write it as a straight romcom. There’s a decent novel lurking in there somewhere…

Mummies and Daddies (2019-2023-ish)

Andy and Paula are having a baby… just not with each other.

Now this one, I took seriously. Although I started off alone again, someone at work recommended Jericho Writers during the pandemic. Genuinely, this was like stumbling into a parallel universe where writing was no longer a solitary activity. I learned an awful lot about drafting, editing, beta reading, redrafting, and generally how to produce a marketable novel. Out went the flashback bits and extended text message conversations at the start of each chapter, and the novel became a lean, mean, romantic comedy machine.

Dual narrators Andy and Paula meet at an antenatal class. They’re both married to other people, with whom they’re literally about to have their first children. But after some rather convoluted plot developments, they develop an undeniable, and not terribly helpful mutual attraction… The harsh truth is that the plot of Mummies and Daddies is probably a bit too wild and unfocused to be publishable, but it was a vital stage of my development as a writer and my beta readers did enjoy it. Maybe when I’m famous it will resurface as an interesting curio-slash-cash-in.