June Update: Motherhood, transformations, rabid dogs and author interviews.

Reviews, interviews and thoughts on this month. Want to Beta read BTW?

As I melt beneath a heat dome in western Europe, I write some weekly thoughts to you.

Blogs didn’t go anywhere.

I’ve been spending a lot more time on my blog this month. I bit the bullet and purchased a blog package about a year ago, as I started feeling a shift in this app and where it was going. I love what I have here, and it’s great getting to share fiction and read so many wonderful posts, but something in the back of my mind made me want to ensure I owned some online real estate somewhere. Substack will remain the HQ of newsletters for me, but stepping outside of here into a quiet, cosy corner of the internet may well have been just what I needed this month. My website and blog are mine and when I work there I am free from the like button, the fiction bestseller leader boards and the nonsense that can be Substack notes. Bots still try and talk to me in my blog comments section, but it’s not so bad.

While away in my blog-cave, I was able to reflect on post-launch fatigue (happens every time, but debut authors should watch out for it), books I’ve been enjoying, posts I’ve been writing and what I want to do next with this newsletter.

A Work Of Fiction is having a restructure:

Each month I’ll send out 4 emails (they’ll also become posts on the app/site) and I’ll alternate the content of them each week:

• two will be news, hence newsletter.

• two will be another chapter of Salome until it has finished its run, and then it will be some short fiction or field notes from Muldoon! I know you’re missing him.

That reminds me…

Beta readers wanted!

I’m looking for 2 or 3 people who would be interested in beta reading Salome ahead of its release this autumn. If you’ve already been reading the serial and/or are familiar with the world of Daniel Muldoon, you’d be perfect for this role. If not, I’m still open to a test run from someone who likes to read Gothic horror, supernatural thrillers, urban fantasy and mysteries. Leave a comment or reply to this email if you’re up for this!

Author Interviews:

This week I published my interview with A.P. Murphy : it was a delightful exploration of books, inspiration and general thoughts on the human experience. I loved interviewing Murph and I hope you’ll enjoy this thought-provoking post.

Interview with AP Murphy

There are some other author interviews already on the blog, and there are more to come!

Book Reviews:

This week I finished Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder. I saw the trailer for the film on Instagram and the moment I saw ‘she thinks she is turning into a dog’ I ran to Libby and started reading. This book was an adventure.

There is no loneliness like motherhood, and there is no transformation like motherhood. This book was an excellent read and if you have found yourself navigating the starless skies of motherhood with nothing but a map of a world that doesn’t exist any more, you need to read this.

Publishing: Why it never gets easier.

Last week I released the second edition of Oceanus with Tiny Worlds Publishing. I have been marketing the hell out of this book and when release day came, I collapsed into a heap of mental exhaustion. This happens to me with every book I publish. It’s a huge project, and it requires a lot of emotional investment, strategic patience and effort.

I published a blog post about it with first timers in mind. It’s a fatigue that nobody really talks about and I wish more authors did. I struggle with it terribly and every single time I believe I can’t write another book again. If you’ve just released your first book or you’re releasing soon, please do have a read of Six Things No One Told Me About Releasing A Book. You’re not alone.

Oceanus: Thank you for ordering a copy.

Thank you so much to everybody who ordered a copy of Oceanus last week. It will never not be surreal seeing it land on doorsteps all over the globe. I’d like to say a massive thank you from the bottom of my struggling, overheated heart.

This is the first launch I’ve had with Tiny Worlds, and every purchase sent their way shows that we can do something about where we shop and who we support when it comes to books. This story means a lot to me and getting the chance to publish with Tiny Worlds was a wonderful experience.

Oceanus is a science fiction mystery thriller novel loosely inspired by The Tempest. Some of you may remember that this was my debut novel, originally self-published in 2024 after running the serial on Substack. Now it has a second edition with publisher Tiny Worlds

Read this book already? Don’t forget to leave a review on Goodreads.

Available as a paperback or ebook.

Currently/Just finished reading:

• Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder (omg, please read the review, it was a wild ride).

• Isla by J Curtis. Anyone who loves the 80s will love this book. That’s all I can say at the moment (but it’s coming out this summer. Yippee!)

• Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. Ian Barr got me into this after he read all of my Muldoon books (I say all, there are only 3 so far). I am enjoying it, although I have been warned that the earlier books are quite cheesy/horny. He wasn’t wrong about that.

• The Queen Of The Damned. Since I’ve been posting Pinterest pins about The Shade In The Sands And Other Stories, a few people have mentioned this book and that it ties in with Egyptian horror. I’ve started it!

• Seventh Daughter by Ian Barr. Arthurian fantasy partly reminiscent of A Midsummer Night’s Dream but imagine demons and dragons too. Currently running as a free serial on The Word Dump.

• The Exorcist. This is a re-read because I’m currently loving the idea of a series of essays about it for my blog. I have a lot to say, and I am making notes.

That’s all for this week. Have a great weekend and I will see you soon!

---