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I recently promised (threatened?) that I would post some of my old slash fiction about Busted. Before we start: “Slash fiction is a fan fiction story containing a pairing between same-sex characters.” “Busted was a British pop rock band which formed in 2000 and broke up in 2005. The band line-up originally consisted of James Bourne, Matt Willis and Charlie Simpson.” When I was about 17, I would sit with my awesome friend Sarah and write stories about the members of Busted. It was fun….

A friend recently saw an old photo of me and said: “I enjoyed your performance in that Calvin Harris video”. This was not the first time I have heard that comment. One photo is me, one is the girl from the video. Spot the difference! I can’t even claim that as a celebrity lookalike, really. Although I do enjoy dancing around with stuffed otters. (If that doesn’t make sense, you can watch the whole video here).

Thievery is a series of blog posts about my story inspirations. The Story: ‘Imaginary Birds’, first published at Scapegoat Review, reprinted at BluePrintReview. The Inspiration: For several years, I wrote an online journal. I had journal friends whose lives I followed with interest, and we discussed our lives and our art through comments. One girl – whose name I have now forgotten – posted many photos of her social circle; she called them her adopted family. She lived in a…

Last year I finished an MLitt in Creative Writing, which involved putting together a 17,000-word portfolio. In selecting work for my portfolio, I had to read a lot of my own writing. There’s an awkward, self-conscious, masturbatory pleasure in doing this, so I tried to read it in a critical way, as if someone else had written it. This led to me noticing a lot of repetition. Kirsty Tropes Forests Islands Tea Rain Girls (always girls – unless it’s a…

Thievery is a series of blog posts about my story inspirations. The Story: ‘Storytelling’, published in Seven Letter Words. The Inspiration: I am a nerd for fairy tales. I wrote my undergrad dissertation on fairy tales. I teach a class in writing fiction based on fairy tales. I’ve written handfuls of fairy tale and mythology-inspired poems. But I hadn’t retold a fairy tale. This is because I have studied retold fairy tales, and I know how tricky it is to subvert them…

“I write about conspiracy theories and libraries and the Arctic. I write about getting drunk and being queer and travelling to Berlin. I also write about cybersex and orgasms and nipple-sucking and blowjobs and strip-shows and strap-ons and fucking strangers behind all-night garages.” The lovely Phoebe Henderson and I write about using pseudonyms for The Skinny.