I'm absolutely delighted to have been awarded First Place in the 2024 Write By The Sea Writing Competition in Ireland for my story, "After My Father". I'm only sorry that I can't be in lovely Wexford for the accompanying literary festival in late September. Looking forward to seeing my story published in beautiful literary journal, The Waxed Lemon, soon. ​https://writebythesea.ie

I'm really delighted that a 5000w section of my novel ms has been longlisted in Uncharted Magazines's Novel Excerpt Contest.

Sitting up in bed with a painful, swollen face after an unexpectedly traumatic visit to the dentist, I felt well enough to catch up on some of Simon Savidge's always excellent "Savidge Reads" book reviews on Youtube. Simon is the UK's foremost book blogger, and has praised my collection in the past. In this particular episode he was celebrating the five year anniversary of his hugely successful channel, "Savidge Reads". I got such a shock when he held up my book, THIS TASTE FOR SILENCE, and said it was the only short story collection on his five-year favourites list, and that the book was "the best collection [he'd] ever read...possibly ever."
​Wow! Horror dental trip forgotten. What a great feeling! 

​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO73F7SxiVg

Delighted to have two of my flash fiction stories make it to the shortlist of the 2022 National Flash Fiction Day Microlit Competition. It's very far from easy to tell a story in less than 100 words, so it was great that two of my pieces made it to the final 27 entries. 
​https://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/index.php/2022/02/27/national-flash-fiction-day-2022-microfiction-competition-shortlist/