Ready for the chop?  Emily and Poppi offer encouragement.    On Saturday evening, Richard suddenly announced that he wanted his hair cut short.  His naturally curly, thick dark brown hair had been long since his teens.  When we first met, he had what is now called a mullet but at the time the style was simply described as long-at-the-back-and-short-at-the-sides.  Very 1980s.  Which was fine when you were actually in the 1980s.   He'd had enough of total strangers assuming they were both witty and innovative by telling him, often loudly, that he looked like a particular ageing porn star or Frank from Shameless.  And he'd had enough of getting his long locks tangled in the head-straps on his sleep apnoea mask.   He'd mentioned his intention to Ted, when they were in their usual pub on Saturday.  Ted apparently said Richard would never go through with it.  Ted would buy him a pint, (of non-alcoholic, as Richard can't drink), if he carried it through.  I s

When I was a child, I read and re-read a novel called Chia , which was about the life of a Scottish wildcat.  I think I wanted to be a wildcat, as Chia's life sounded much more fun than junior school.  Or should I have been a lion?  Elsa was read to death, also.  And don't get me started on Jonathon Livingstone Seagull.   I didn't fancy being a seagull, though; I'm still not a fan of sushi.   Enjoy this fabulous slide show depicting Scottish Wildcats. According to the Scottish Wildcat Association's website, it is now believed that maybe only 100 wildcats now survive. I think it would be a crying shame if this beautiful, magnificent creature was to vanish altogether - and yet this looks likely to happen within the next ten years. There is a captive breeding programme, which seems to have had mixed success.  Part of the problem, apparently, is due to cross-breeding with feral cats.  The familiar moggy and the wildcat are two distinct breeds - or s

Here's the new ebook cover for Tamsin.

Romance, heartache, treachery and death! Eighteen stories and poems inspired by the sea, from a group of imaginative writers who live surrounded by water on the Wirral peninsula in England. Featuring: Tim Hulme * Andy Siddle * Adele Cosgrove-Bray * Peter Caton * Nikki Bennett * Ruth Ann Titley ISBN: 9781301150069; published 2nd October 2012. FREE from here! This ebook was first mentioned at a Riverside Writers meeting early this year.  We had produced a paperback anthology in 2010, and fancied doing something similar.  It had been a fun project for our group to work on together.  This time around we wanted to be certain of a much wider distribution, and so an ebook was suggested.  And here it is!  Enjoy!

The new ebook cover for Rowan ....