Plymouth Writer's Group Anthology

Hi all,

The writer's group that I'm part of, Plymouth Writer's Group, is launching submissions for a brand new anthology! Check out more details here: PWG website.

For any writers out there that are interested, submissions opened February 14th 2026 and closes 14th May 2026. If you're sixteen or over, feel free to submit your piece!

The theme of the anthology is Endangered Species. Pick any species you like, as long as it hasn't been taken by any of our members. Please all make sure you read the submission guidelines carefully before submitting your work.

My species for this anthology is the Snow Leopard, my favourite animal! My story, The Fire Leopard, will be featured in this anthology.

If you're interested, make sure you check out the anthology and submit any stories you think might fit! Here’s the link one more time for those interested: PWG anthology.

That's it for this week, see you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles, all books are free to download!

Free Science Fiction / Fantasy Stories - March 2026

FREE Fantasy & Paranormal

My Trip to Dartmoor Zoo

Hi all,

My partner and I recently went on a trip to Dartmoor Zoo. I haven't been there in years but we both wanted to go and see all the big cats.

Both of us agree that our favourite was the tiger, with the lynx as a close second.

The longer I watched the tiger, I realised that I'd never really included one in any of my books. There's a lioness in Years and Curse of Anubis, a panther in Celestial Plague, a lynx in The Severed Pantheon and a cheetah in Curse of Anubis. But I've never added a tiger.

One day, when I find the right story, I'd love to add a tiger character in. I still don't feel like I've found a story that could include a tiger. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to write about one.

At the zoo, I loved watching the tiger, Dragan and it was amazing to see him up close. He's a good mix of fierce and elegant and I could imagine what a tiger would like in a story.

I'm hoping to plot more books this year, so maybe a tiger can fit into one of those stories. I think it's a shame I haven't written one so far.

Seeing a lynx was great too and I got a plush one from the gift shop on the way out. Now that I've seen one in real life, I can mould the lynx in The Severed Pantheon to be more realistic.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles, all books are free to download!

Free Science Fiction / Fantasy Stories - March 2026

FREE Fantasy & Paranormal

My First Dragon Book

Hi all,

The first dragon book that I wrote was not Blood and Water. I actually wrote about 30K words for a different dragon book when I was fifteen.

This book followed Russet, a dragon hatchling that escaped a petting zoo. She was born into it and didn't know anything other than it, but she always dreamed of running in the forest. One day, when she was a few months old and able to use her wings, she escapes.

At first she loved exploring the forest and all the animals there, until hunger set in. The forest was scarier at night, with predators such as foxes and badgers which attacked her for getting too close to their dens.

Eventually she went back to the zoo to start stealing food and water, which went on for months. Then she met a baby dragon called Lily. Lily was only a few days old, but kept calling out to Russet whenever she saw her. When Lily was old enough to talk, she asked Russet to help her escape. She said that she was special, and was destined to find six unhatchable dragon eggs to learn elemental powers. These elements were fire, water, air, earth, electricity and light.

Russet helps Lily escape and another baby dragon called Xerxes uses the opportunity to escape with them. From there, the three of them travel across the continent looking for the eggs to help Lily achieve her destiny. But the humans know what Lily is, and they desperately want her back. They follow the group on their quest, hoping to stop Lily before she reaches the final egg.

As I'm sure you've realised, some of the elements of this story did carry over to Elemental Dragons! Russet, although not in the main story, has her story told in the Short Story Collection. This time instead of escaping the petting zoo, she is forced into it when her companion dies.

Fire, water, earth, air, electricity and light all made it into the Elemental Dragons series as well. Air was renamed Wind and Dark and Ice were added as elements as well.

This story had the dragons as the main characters, rather than humans. They couldn't understand human speech but knew that they wanted to capture the dragons again. Along the way they meet more dragon characters, all of different types who help and hinder them on their quest.

I eventually stopped writing this book because I came up with the idea for Element Dragons instead. I borrowed a few ideas from the book and decided to write a brand new story. As much as I liked writing the initial story, I fell in love writing Blood and Water and knew that would be my first finished book.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles, all books are free to download!

Free Science Fiction / Fantasy Stories - March 2026

FREE Fantasy & Paranormal

Round Robin Stories Volume Four

Hi all,

This week I'm going to let you know how you can get an anthology that I've participated in! It's another one from Strong Women, Strange Worlds. It's the next one in their Round Robin Stories collection. This one is volume four.

This time I helped write two stories, which was extra fun! The stories in this volume are:

Family Time

The Guidance of Pigeons

Comms Down

The Mermaid's Curse

I helped write The Guidance of Pigeons and Comms Down. Last year I wrote a fantasy story, but this year I got to help with two Sci-Fi ones! It was a nice change and a genre that I probably write the least in. I'm glad that I got the opportunity to work on both stories and bring both stories to life.

If you would like to read this anthology, you’ll need to sign up to my mailing list, which you can do by clicking here. I’ll be sending out the anthology as a thank you to all my subscribers on March 1st, so make sure you’re signed up before then! In the meantime, you’ll get access to five FREE enovellas based on my books! Sign up here.

This was an amazing opportunity thanks to Strong Women, Strange Worlds. I would really recommend checking them out if you’re looking for new books to read.

That's it for this week, if you check out the anthology, I hope you enjoy it! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to support indie authors by checking out this promo:

Support Indie Authors

What I Would Tell a Child That Wants to be an Author

Hi all,

This week, I'm going to talk about children who want to be authors when they grow up. I thought I'd hand out a bit of advice for any teenagers out there who feel the pull to write books.

Practice often.

Even if it's short stories, flash fiction or fanfiction, just write. The more you write, the more your style will develop. You'll also get a good feel of what genres and stories you want to write. I started out writing stories about cats when I was younger.

Read.

Reading is a great way to learn other writing styles and pick up on new words. It doesn't have to be in the genre you want to write in.

Get feedback.

I used to write Warrior Cats fanfiction and it was a great way to get feedback on my writing from my peers. I'd highly recommend writing fanfiction as you'll meet a lot of people who already enjoy what you read and will want more of it. If you don't want to do that, you can ask family or friends about your writing. But they might not give you any negative feedback, so keep that in mind.

Research publication methods.

Look into how they published. Did they self publish or go through a publisher? Do you want to publish your own work or attempt to get through the slush pile of agents? Each method has its pros and cons, you just need to look into which will be better for you.

Write on the side.

Don't attempt to make writing your full-time job straight away. Especially if you're self-publishing, you'll need funds for editors, cover designers, ads etc. So I would recommend getting a full-time job and treat writing as a hobby until you earn enough to live off your book money.

Don't give up.

It can be daunting when you're first starting. There are so many hurdles to jump through and success still isn't guaranteed. A lot of the time you will feel like giving up. But persevere. If this what you want, then you have to make it happen.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before they disappear:

Long Live the Queen: Amazing Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)

New Year, New Monsters 6: From the Skies

Four Original Standalones Completed!

Hi all,

This blog post is a celebratory one! The four standalone books that I originally first came up with years ago are now all drafted! These are:

Street Rats

Game of Air and Lightning

The Severed Pantheon

Cloud's Core

Years ago I put up polls asking for my readers to vote which book they'd like me to write first. Street Rats won, which took a few years to complete due to my depression, but I eventually got it done.

Game of Air and Lightning and Cloud's Core were featured in my cat competition last year, and both cute winners are included in their respective books.

The Severed Pantheon was one of my writing projects from 2025 which was drafted in a month.

It feels so good to get all of these books done finally. But at the same time I'm sad to move them out of my ideas folder. They've been there so long that it felt wrong to move them all into my completed folder.

I'm hoping to fill up my ideas folder again this year, with hopefully some more standalones to add to it.

The next standalone book that I'm hoping to write will be a horror one, which I will either write in either March or July this year.

Although I like writing a series, I find that switching to a standalone is a good palate cleanser. I feel refreshed going back into a series after writing a standalone book in a completely different universe. You can dive into the head of a different character and their experiences, rather than one that feels familiar because of a series. It's exciting and I love expanding on the world for another book that I've never written before.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before they disappear:

Long Live the Queen: Amazing Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)

New Year, New Monsters 6: From the Skies

My Blogging Tips

Hi all,

As I've been blogging for seven years now, I thought I'd let you know some tips for would be bloggers!

Decide what you want to blog about.

My blog is primarily for my writing projects and tips for authors. I also post about my new releases and any competitions or giveaways I do. Before you start to blog, it's important that you decide what you want to write about. You don't want to start a blog that has no theme or direction, you'll confuse your readers.

Decide a schedule.

How often are you going to post on your blog? Weekly? Monthly? What days are you going to post? This is also a pretty important thing to decide before launching your blog.

Be consistent.

If you're going to post monthly, make sure you do your best to follow this. Of course there will be emergencies and situations where you can't, but don't commit to something you can't fulfill. Readers value consistency as it builds trust.

Length of posts.

You need to decide if you're going to write long blog posts or short ones and stick with it. Mine tend to be between 300-500 words.

Ads or no ads?

Are you going to advertise your blog or just let it grow naturally? You can have a separate budget for advertising, but you need to make sure that ad is working. Otherwise you're throwing money on things that don't work.

Guest posts.

Will you invite guests to make posts on your blog? If so, you'll need to do your research on who you're inviting and what they're planning to blog about. You may also be asked to do a guest post in return.

Images.

You might need to invest in stock photos for your blog. I use DepositPhotos, but you can use any stock image website you like. Just make sure you purchase them through the proper channels and don't just copy images you find from the Internet.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before they disappear:

Long Live the Queen: Amazing Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)

New Year, New Monsters 6: From the Skies

My 2026 Writing Goals

Hi all,

As this is the first blog post of 2026, it's time for my goals for 2026!

Write three books.

This year I'm going to write three books, and I want to get the remaining books in the Original Elementals series done. I haven't decided whether I'll write those first or if I'll get a standalone done first, you'll have to wait and see!

Finish writing the Original Elementals series.

This series has been ongoing for a while and I want to get it finished this year. I've got other books planned in the Elemental Dragons universe as well, though once Original Elementals is drafted I'll take a break from it for a bit.

Self-edit three books.

I want to get Game of Air and Lightning, Empty Skies #1: Missing Constellations and Empty Skies #2: Freezing Constellations edited. Once I'm happy with what I've done, I'll send them to my editor.

Get two covers designed.

Two covers will be getting designed by Deranged Doctor Design this year!

Publish two books.

I'm going to publish the last book in the Curse of Anubis series, The Dead Kingdom, and Game of Air and Lightning this year!

Publish the Curse of Anubis Complete Collection.

With all the books in this series released, there will also be a Complete Collection so you can buy all four books at once.

Read 100 books.

Seeing as I read 121 last year, I'm going with 100 this year. I've got a lot on my TBR list right now and I'm sure I'll find more to fill it out as well.

Run regular Facebook ads.

My Facebook ads did well for a few months last year but then fell off. This time, I want to try to keep on top of them more and expand my knowledge about how advertising works on Facebook. I'm gathering images and excerpts from my books, so this might not start until the middle of the year.

Write and send out the Game of Air and Lightning prequel.

This year I will get that prequel written! It will also be edited and then sent to my newsletter subscribers.

Plot the Empty Skies reader magnet.

I'm still not sure what the story will be for this book, and I'm looking forward to playing around with a few ideas until I find one that sticks.

Plot a Norse mythology series.

I've got the basics of this one already, but I want to expand on it further. I'd like to be able to start writing this series in 2027, so that means I need to get a solid outline done this year.

Plot a YA Fantasy series.

This one is very bare bones at the moment, but I have the characters and the magical system worked out. This one will be a massive project that will contain werewolves, vampires and eldritch beings that created magic in the first place.

Plot a horror book.

As this is one of the books I want to write this year, I need to flesh out the plot a lot more. I know where the book starts and ends, but I need to fill out all the middle bits, characters and side plots.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed my first blog post of 2026. See you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before they disappear:

Long Live the Queen: Amazing Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)

New Year, New Monsters 6: From the Skies

2025 Year in Review

Hi all,

It’s time to take a look at my goals for 2025 and see what I achieved. I wanted to push myself a little bit this year and I think on the whole it was manageable. I didn’t hit all of my goals, but that’s okay!

Write three books.

This year I wrote the first drafts of:

Game of Air and Lightning

The Severed Pantheon

Cloud’s Core

It was the year of standalone books, it seems!

Publish two books.

This year I published Curse of Anubis #2: The Blazing Serpent and Curse of Anubis #3: The Frozen Eye.

Get two covers designed.

The covers for Curse of Anubis #3: The Frozen Eye and Curse of Anubis #4: The Dead Kingdom were both designed by Deranged Doctor Design this year.

Self-edit two books.

The last two books in the Curse of Anubis series were self-edited and sent off to my editor, ready for publication.

Send all my reader magnets to my editor.

All of them were edited by her and I feel like the stories have really improved!

Read 100 books.

This year I read 121!

Write the Game of Air and Lightning reader magnet.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get this one done. I’ve had so many ideas for it that I’ve started writing and then scrapped not too far in. I’m still trying to find the perfect story to write.

Change my writing schedule.

My writing months are now March, July and November. It works a lot better now that they’re more stretched out.

Write 12 short stories.

I initially planned to write a short story a month, but I forgot about the months that I’d be writing books. So, I managed to write ten short stories this year. My newsletter subscribers have read most of them.The stories are:

Affection

Blue Once More

Fire Dragon

Neglected Vote

Red

Run-Along

The Bus

The Last Excavation

Two Paths

Unnamed

Research different kinds of mythology.

I’ve done a lot of research this year into Japanese mythology and Celtic mythology. I haven’t come up with any concrete story ideas for either yet, but I’m hoping the more I read about it, the more ideas will come to me.

That’s it for this week! Next week I’ll be posting about my goals for 2026, so you don’t want to miss it. See you next Sunday.

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before they disappear:

Brand New December Fantasy Adventures

Long Live the Queen: Amazing Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)

New Year, New Monsters 6: From the Skies

What Jobs Would my Characters Have?

Hi all,

This week I'm going to write about something that I think will be quite fun. If the events of their books didn't happen, what jobs would the main characters be doing? I'm only going to do this for books that are currently published, I might do this again in the future once I have more books out!

Hazel - Elemental Dragons

Hazel would be working in a laboratory alongside Marco. She would be working in the administration department with Aqueous, who would spend most of his days sleeping. Outside of work, she would be involved in a lot of charity work for dragon rights and to help commoners.

Cheyenne - Years

If the world wasn't constantly under threat of destroying itself, Cheyenne would struggle to find her place in life. With so many sisters, she would struggle to stand out amongst them and would feel pressured to do as well as them. After years of job hopping, she would go into the beauty sector. She would become a popular hairdresser and eventually start her own business.

Audra - Mute

Due to her anxiety, Audra would really struggle to find a job. After years of trying, she would eventually find a job in a warehouse. Her colleagues are quite happy with the fact that she doesn't speak and she feels comfortable for the first time in her life.

Shannon - Celestial Plague

Her phobia of flying would make her hard to employ in most sectors. After years of doing random cleaning, waitressing and hospitality jobs, she would eventually find a job in an animal shelter that she absolutely loves. She would climb the ranks to supervisor and advocate for animals when no-one else would.

Ashleigh - Celestial Plague

If Ashleigh weren't a part of Warren's cult, she would have been brought up in a much more healthy household. So, she would become an art teacher! Due to a much more positive mindset about her power, she'd be much happier using it and would love teaching children to express themselves.

Raya - Celestial Plague

Out of her friends, Raya is the one who would feel the most pressured to go into a good job. She would refuse to use her power for anything and would instead force herself into a corporate environment. After years of burnout, she would start her own baking business from home, mostly supplying birthday parties and weddings.

Jenna - Celestial Plague

Jenna would work in the same industry as Raya, but thrive in it. She would become one of the youngest CEOs of her time and would be known as a ruthless business woman. She would also work part-time as a diving instructor.

I won't go into Tahira as I would like the Curse of Anubis series to be fully published! I don't want to accidentally give away what she's like in later books or how her feelings might change if nothing had happened.

That's it for this week! If you enjoyed reading, let me know and I'll do another one! See you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles while they’re still available:

Brand New December Fantasy Adventures

Long Live the Queen: Amazing Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction (Dec 2025-Jan 2026)