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• What is the working title of your next book?  It’s a short story collection called The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales. • Where did the idea come from for the book? Daydreaming, sea-gazing, night-scribbling, and getting my heart broken, all over the course of several years. • What genre does your book fall under? Literary fantasy. • What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? Julianne Moore would be the seductive, sensual,…

Thievery is a series of blog posts about my story inspirations. One Thursday per month, I invite my favourite writers to share the inspirations behind their stories. Here’s one from the multitalented Jonathan Pinnock. The Story: ‘The Birdman of Farringdon Road’ was published online and in print in Litro 84, and in also in the new collection Dot Dash (Salt Publishing). An extract: “So what… I mean… how…” It’s not always easy to open the conversation with a beggar. But…

It’d be particularly po-faced not to rejoice and bump your feminist rump when have-it-all (and a little bit extra) honey Beyonce snarls “GIRLS! Who run this mother?”, but the bittersweet secret is that unfortunately we do not. Alexandra Burke can sing of how women “do it even better in broken heels” but she’d have been as well singing “for lesser pay, and while rampantly objectified by male colleagues.” Popular representations of female strength feel empowering, but it is important to…

Thievery is a series of blog posts about my story inspirations. One Thursday per month, I invite my favourite writers to share the inspirations behind their stories. Here’s one from novelist Kerry Hudson. The Story: Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma is published this month by Chatto & Windus. An extract: ‘Get out, you cunting, shitting, little fucking fucker!’ were the first words I ever heard. The midwife, a shiny-faced woman who learned entirely…

Thinking of applying for the 2012 New Writers Awards from the Scottish Book Trust? BLOODY GREAT. Not only will you get a grant of £2,000, training in press, PR and performance, and a mentorship with an experienced person in the literary world, you will also get a week-long writing retreat at Cove Park. The only way it could be better is if the award could make you coffee every morning too. I honestly can’t recommend this award enough: I won…

Further evidence that genre is mostly arbitrary: My story, ‘Underskirts’, about a fancy lady who seduces her servant-girls and meets an unfortunate end, won third place in the Bridport Prize, was reprinted in PANK, and is now going to be reprinted again in Best Lesbian Erotica 2013. I’ve never called it literary fiction or erotica, but apparently it’s both! This will be the third Best Lesbian Erotica anthology I’m a part of, and my other contributions all have elements of…