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Did you read Shut Up/Look Pretty? You can win goodies from Tiny Hardcore! Each chapter of my contribution to the book, Local God (a novella about four boys in a terrible punk band at Stirling University), is titled with a song by a Scottish band. For example, the first chapter is ‘A Space Boy Dream’ after this song by jangly doom-mongers Belle & Sebastian: The first three people to email kirsty@pankmagazine.com with the band names for all nine chapters will each…

This summer I’ll be teaching a couple of one-day classes at Glasgow University DACE. Hope to see you there! How to Get a Literary Agent So you’ve written a novel – now what? It can be hard to catch a literary agent’s eye, but this one-day course will show how to best represent yourself and your writing to find the best agent for you. Guidance will be provided on agent research, cover letters, follow-up etiquette, and more. Don’t worry if…

This week I am debating: does fantasy have a place in literature? I aim to write fantasy in the same way that Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman and Angela Carter write fantasy. My stories aren’t as intelligent or as finely-wrought as the work of those great authors, but I have a similar aim: using the fantastical to further the story, and not the other way around. I’m usually classed as a literary fiction writer, but I have no qualms whatsoever about…

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 brilliant and dreamy Dawn West. The Story: ‘Black Wolves’ is published online in Bluestem Magazine. An extract: Madeleine forms a silent kiss with her lips at the black wolf head tattooed above Amy Harrow’s bruises, the twin of her own; tattoos they acquired the week they turned eighteen and…

Review my short story ‘Coin-Operated Boys’ on GoodReads and I’ll enter you into a prize draw to win one of the following books or literary magazines (you can pick which one): Books: Best Lesbian Erotica 2011 (Cleis Press) Girl Crush: Women’s Erotic Fantasies (Cleis Press) Let’s Pretend: 37 Stories About Infidelity (Freight) Shut Up/Look Pretty (Tiny Hardcore Press) Literary Magazines: Booth #3 Gutter #1 New Writing Dundee #5 New Writing Scotland #29 On Spec #87 PANK #4 Parcel #1 Specs #3…

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 writer/scientist Helen Sedgwick. The Story: ‘Horizon View’ is published online in Algebra. An extract: He remembers asking her if the comet was a falling star and how much he liked her reply: that it was more like a dirty great snowball hurtling through time and space. He looks up to the…