Greetings from Japan, where my husband and I have been celebrating his birthday. We’ve visited Tokyo and Hakone where we’ve been admiring the Autumn leaves (Koyo), bathing in the onsen fed by natural hot springs and eating traditional ryokan-style meals.
It’s been a much needed break after a stressful year including being made redundant. I’ve decided to focus on writing for the foreseeable future. As Mary Oliver asked, ‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’ The answer becomes clearer the longer you live. I’ve decided to treat my life as both wild and precious, rather than jumping through any more hoops for other people. I’m in a writing group which explores creativity through Women who Run with Wolves and The Artists’ Way, and we are exploring a short story about Vasilisa and the sacred fire she brings back from Baba Yaga’s hut in a skull and uses to destroy the obstacles that stood in her way. That is the energy I’m bringing to 2026…
I did not get shortlisted for the competition I entered, the Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize, in the end, but I am extremely proud that I was one of the 50 out of 500 longlisted and the judging panel also gave my WIP a special commendation in their very kind email, mentioning it by name. I do feel in my bones that this is going to be an exciting novel so I will be going full speed ahead to finish it in 2026. It will be full of magic, lost languages and ancient goddesses. Congratulations of course to all the shortlisted writers!
Meanwhile, my wonderful publisher Rowan Prose Publishing has added a special one-off pre-order discount for my debut novel, The House of Dust and Shadows. In the US, it’s 99 cents, but it’s on special offer everywhere until the 1st December! Please do take this opportunity now if you’re interested in dark, Gothic-tinged mysteries about (very) dysfunctional families in haunted Norfolk manor houses.
I’ve been thinking a lot about fire – you’ll find it featuring in The House of Dust and Shadows. Some of the early British people used it as part of a ritual, burning the bones of dead animals. It must have symbolised warmth, home, food, light and comfort for them, but of course was also dangerous, destructive and a weapon of war. Like the old goddesses who symbolised both birth and war, fire has two aspects, creation and destruction. The House of Dust and Shadows is about creation and destruction, and how sometimes creation needs destruction to happen first, as when forest fires spark new growth.