Work In Progress
Rust and Stardust, Literary Fantasy Novel, 78,000 words
Ardlussa Grey has been waiting 17 years to be rescued from the Scottish island that's slowly turning her family to stone. But on the very day that help arrives, Ardlussa falls into a coma trying to save her little brother Pup from drowning. She awakes seven years later to find that her father is a statue, her sisters are on the other side of the world, and her brother is dead – or so her mother says. Ardlussa must escape the island before it's too late, but she cannot leave as she suspects that Pup is still alive. She meets a glamorous mermaid who enthralls her with tales of travels, but Ardlussa gives up her dreams of escape when she meets an old man who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ardlussa had thought that her choice was to go with her prince and abandon her mother and missing brother, or stay with them and turn to stone – but the man seems to be giving her another option. By the time she realises how dangerous he is, it may already be too late.
This novel is represented by Francesca Barrie at Johnson & Alcock Literary Agency.
The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales, Short Story Collection
These 11 stories feature clockwork hearts, lascivious queens, nightswimming, paper men, forests, circuses, and a gracekeeper. Some are queer retellings of classic stories, some are modern-day fables, but all create an entirely new world.
With stories from this collection, I have won a 2009 New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust, the 2010 Myriad Editions/West Dean Writers' Retreat contest, third place in the 2010 Bridport Prize, and runner-up prize in the 2009 Glass Woman Prize.
The stories have been published in print in Best British Short Stories 2011 (Salt), Let's Pretend: 37 Stories about Infidelity (Freight), Sushirexia: 32 Stories about Hunger (Freight) and PANK, and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Read 'The Man From the Circus' >>
