Blog: Writing

Further evidence that genre is mostly arbitrary: My story, ‘Underskirts’, about a fancy lady who seduces her servant-girls and meets an unfortunate end, won third place in the Bridport Prize, was reprinted in PANK, and is now going to be reprinted again in Best Lesbian Erotica 2013. I’ve never called it literary fiction or erotica, but apparently it’s both! This will be the third Best Lesbian Erotica anthology I’m a part of, and my other contributions all have elements of…

This summer I’ll be teaching a couple of one-day classes at Glasgow University DACE. Hope to see you there! How to Get a Literary Agent So you’ve written a novel – now what? It can be hard to catch a literary agent’s eye, but this one-day course will show how to best represent yourself and your writing to find the best agent for you. Guidance will be provided on agent research, cover letters, follow-up etiquette, and more. Don’t worry if…

This week I am debating: does fantasy have a place in literature? I aim to write fantasy in the same way that Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman and Angela Carter write fantasy. My stories aren’t as intelligent or as finely-wrought as the work of those great authors, but I have a similar aim: using the fantastical to further the story, and not the other way around. I’m usually classed as a literary fiction writer, but I have no qualms whatsoever about…

March is already shaping up to be a slippery little fiend of a month – and I’m sure I will enjoy every moment of it. Join me… I’m in Edinburgh! 1st March: See Edinburgh’s beautiful buildings lit up with famous quotes as part of enLIGHTen. Download my story ‘Sleep Pictures’ then get yourself down to the Roxburghe Hotel at Charlotte Square to have a listen. I’m in Glasgow! 4th March: Don’t miss Words Per Minute’s Feminisms special, featuring novelists Helen Fitzgerald and Jessica…

Thievery is a series of blog posts about my story inspirations. The Story: ‘Fuck You Too, Pixie Meat’ is published in Gutter #5. An extract: Some girl was up on stage doing her thing, standing on her tiptoes to sing because it hadn’t occurred to anyone to lower the mic after the boys had played. Her band was Bitches on Acid, or Cuntfight, or Slit, and they had red glitter drumskins and Hello Kitty stickers on the bass. You know exactly how…

Thievery is a series of blog posts about my story inspirations. The Story: ‘Francis Observes How Babies Are Made’ is published in New Writing Scotland #29. An extract: Francis is watching the moon. It is white like a bowl of milk and it makes the plain outside the window look black and silver like it’s on television. Francis hopes that if he stays very still then maybe he will see the moon move. Kulowali says that a beautiful woman lives in…