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Well now! It's been a while since I posted on my site and New Year felt like an appropriate time to give an update on what's been going on with my writing. My debut novel, The Awakening, through Rowan Prose Publishing, is due out in April 2027. It feels like a very long way away but I'm sure time will speed up once I receive my first edits toward the end of this year. My front cover is confirmed and signed off which makes it feel very real (and very exciting). Beyond that it'

By Neil Bailey If you’re a writer who hangs around on X (or any social media site), you’ve probably seen this message pop into your DMs at least once a week: “Hello [your name], I came across your amazing profile! What are you currently working on?" Soon followed by, "I can connect you with my agent who’s looking for new authors!” Or maybe: “I’m a professional editor who’s worked with bestselling authors. I’d love to help polish your manuscript!” And for about half a second,

By Neil Bailey Weaving ideas together So here I am again. Another idea. Another shiny, exciting, completely unplanned story that’s marched into my brain shouting, “Write me next! You know you want to." Sound familiar? You try to ignore it. You tell yourself, “No. I’m busy with my current work in progress. I will not be distracted.”  You scream to your new shiny idea like Gandalf, "You shall not pass!" But before you know it, you’ve opened a new document. You've spent hours co

Let’s be honest. Rejection hurts. Especially when it’s rejection for something you’ve poured your heart, caffeine, and late-night sanity...

Many a writer has been there, including myself. You start with a brilliant idea. The opening sings, the characters feel alive, the...

White horses gallop free manes of spray whisked away in the wind Wave upon wave of equine splendour speeding by mouths foaming fountains...

Puffs of pink. Rolling balls of cottonwool float in the distance, in the early morning sky; the sun not yet up. But its presence is felt...

and how I make it work for me Writers love to argue about tools. Scrivener versus Google Docs, notebooks versus apps, even typewriters...

Lost in the world around me, as if detached from everything; a ghost among the living. No sensations. No breeze can be felt,...

Broken bricks and masonry, old slates and slabs; smashed and discarded, left behind. And yet... What stories do you hold? What lives have...

Where are you sleep when I need you? Lying in the dark: waiting, wishing. Awake despite the late hour. Tossing and turning, twisting,...

As I sat yesterday  In a queue of cars  A woman caught my eye  Late fifties  At a guess.  Not a beauty  Not in bright clothes  Not...

There’s a special kind of panic that comes when you realise your own story has outsmarted you. This happened to me mid-way through...

Lined  Lived in  Lived  Experiences  triumphs  failures  learning  etched on our bodies.  A map of our past  no key  but a picture  of a...

Why couldn’t you see me  For who I was?  For who I was trying to be?  For the me I was offering  The me that was yours  The me who stood...

Making friends with the blank page

Stars in the sky Black turns  to a deep blue  as dawn  peeps over the horizon.  The silence of the night  left behind  as the chorus...

There’s a piece of writing advice you hear all the time: Write every day. And it’s good advice. For some people. But I don’t follow it. I...

Big droplets.  Falling almost lazily  from the pregnant clouds.  Imagine if you will,  that you can slow the flow.  Not lessen.  Not...

Writers often get asked: where do your ideas come from? It’s a fair question. And also a tough one to answer. Ideas, for me, come from...