About me
I write fiction. I love to read it to people. These aren’t the kind of dry events where you’re afraid to cough and afterwards you feel it was worth suffering through it to “get some culture.” I believe anybody who gets on stage has a responsibility to hold your attention and I do it by choosing my material carefully and throwing myself into its performance.
My stories blend everyday realism with a strong strain of the fantastic and bizarre. I do relationship stuff, comedy, horror, crime, and the odd tale that just won’t fit in a box. My most popular story to date is a Glasgow hard man story where the hard man is a fish. It’s based on a real fish.
I’ve played the Latitude festival, burlesque nights, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Aye Write!, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, punk gigs, a Hunter S. Thompson tribute event and a roller derby fundraiser. I feel that the performing writer should be able to hold their own with a musician or stand-up comedian. My regular mob is Writers’ Bloc.
I’ve always had a fascination for other ways to tell a story. You can see some of them on the Projects page — I’ve worked with music, hypertext, photography and immersive games.
Underword is my spoken word event. I first ran it during Fringe 2009, showcasing seventy-three writers and poets over twenty-two different shows and attracting a five star review. It was a blast and it returned in Feb 2011 for The Ghost of William Shatner. I enjoy hosting spoken word shows and am open to offers if you need a baldy ginger MC with a wardrobe of vintage clothes and a Glasgow accent.
I also teach creative writing. I try to create a supportive, encouraging environment for newcomers while cracking the whip where necessary. At the moment I specialise in flash fiction.
I don’t write poetry.
