Hello, everyone!

I’m delighted to say that the Inspirations Writers Group anthology, ‘Blue’ has been published and contains two pieces from me: the 300 word prose-poem ‘Clear Blue Water’ and the 5k long short-story ‘Caught Blue Handed’.

Im particularly pleased with CBW as this is the 2nd time it has been published (previously in the literary magazine Blue Nib) and its due to be published in Paris literary magazine Le Menteur in June.

‘Blue’ should be available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats at some point in the near future and as soon as I get a minute, I’ll post a downloadable version of my stories in the downloads section.

In other news, I continue to be very busy. My focus is on the final edits of ‘Lodger’ which has turned into a 140k epic. I’m struggling with where to cut it, or whether to cut it at all. I’m fond of saying it needs to be the length it needs to be, but it will make it harder to sell. I’m unrealistically proud of this one, but its a strange beast that’s hard to pin down: the darkly humorous story of a very middle-class girl growing up with a dead French philosopher living in her head. She struggles with her family, presumed mental illness and her relationships with both the eponymous Lodger and her best friend, Charlie (Charlotte), as they go through school and then university together. It’s a dystopian tale looking at the threat of technology and what it even means to be human.

Initial readers have been very positive about the drafts, so I’m hoping this will be my breakthrough! It feels tangibly different to ‘Waterguard’—a much more challenging read for a start, but dealing with some real, rather than speculative, issues and threats.

At the same time, I’m working up ideas for the next novel, which moves me even further still from my first forays into horror and into more literary work—inspired in many ways by CBW. It’s too early to reveal any more, but I’m very excited by where it’s heading.

Stay safe, and best wishes for a fabulous summer.

Lee, 1st June 2021

Update:

‘Clear Blue Water’ can be read, for free, here: ‘Clear Blue Water‘

‘Caught Blue Handed’ can be read, for free, here: ‘Caught Blue Handed‘