The Curse of Snakes

There are a couple of books that have entirely vanished in my occasionally ropey oeuvre. One is ‘Breathe’, a small press thriller I knocked out at great speed, and the other was a YA novel updating a Greek legend. ‘The Curse of Snakes’ was truly cursed. Timing is everything, and everything conspired against me in its writing. […]

I was once on a tube train sitting opposite a young punk who was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan; ‘Mother Theresa Is A C*nt’. I was shocked, but also had to stop myself from laughing. It had been a long time since I had been surprised by someone insulting an untouchable treasure. When […]

‘The Curse of Snakes’, my first YA novel in a proposed series of six exploring old myths in a modern world, tanked after a messy edit and a disastrously mismanaged launch (it went through a variety of covers, titles, plans, an abbreviated name for me and eventually no plans at all). As an incorrigible optimist […]

I’ve been asked about certain books by a few newcomers to the site, so I thought this would be a good time to take a look at first chapters, which can be very revealing – after all, they’re the ones that make the strongest impressions on readers. I’m starting with the oddest of the odd […]

Well, this novel was the one that got away. A supposedly YA book that had the misfortune to open between two (rotten) Medusa films. Everything conspired against me in the writing of it. First, I hit the problem of readers’ ages. ‘The Curse of Snakes’ was intended as a novel that anyone at any age […]

If you have a problem with snakes, you’ll want to keep away from ‘Hellion: The Curse Of Snakes’ – my first teen horror novel now has its own website here, and there will be new bits added to it in the coming days, with an author interview and other stuff. Hiss hiss hooray!