Current Plans and News
My new book, 'Before She Was Mine' is out on 8th December 2011
Find out more through Simon and Schuster’s Author Portal link
New! Ask me anything - right now!
My latest review and intervew here:
Other News
I'm now on Twitter - Twitter name: Volewriter. Here's my Twitter homepage.
Follow @volewriterRead and article about my experience of miscarriage
... and an article about my amazing grandad here
The Academic Bad Mother's Handbook
I was delighted to hear that 'The Bad Mother’s Handbook' is referenced in this academic text, 'Family History in Lancashire: Issues and Approaches', edited by Andrew Gritt.
I met one of the authors, Stephen Caunce, when I went to speak to a group at Preston University a few years ago and he asked me then whether he could include TBMH in his chapter ‘Autobiography and Fiction as Sources for Family and Community History’.
His interest is in the way fiction can capture the domestic culture of a region or social class, and how we can use fiction to chart the changes between one period and the next.
He compares the TBMH with other fiction by Lancashire writers, but distinguishes it from earlier novels in that it portrays a more fragmented family unit, comprising individuals affected by (amongst other things) vastly increased aspirations and mass media influences.
The section concludes:
"[The Bad Mother’s Handbook] will be most useful to future historians researching the dynamic and evolving sense of conflict and change that characterizes our period. No longer do successive generations readily perceive a common purpose, or unthinkingly pursue common strategies within families."
You can learn more about the book here
Interview on 'Midlands Today'
My latest blog entry
Read an interview with me here:
The Independent
You can read a typical sort of day in the life of this novelist here.
For a peep at how filming went, have a look at some pictures from the set.
The trailer for the DVD
All my books are now available on audio cassette at your local library. The Bad Mother's Handbook is also available as a CD.
Diary
Meanwhile, these are the events at which I’m appearing in 2012:
2012
- 11th January: guest speaker at the John Osborne Arvon Centre, Clun
- 29th February: workshop at Yale College, Wrexham
- 28th March: guest speaker at Farndon WI
- 17th October: speaking to Church Stretton Inner Wheel
- 12-17th November: teaching at the John Osborne Arvon centre, Clun
... and here's where I was in 2011:
- Tuesday evening, February 8th: running a workshop at Chester Literature Festival
- Wednesday March 2nd 2011: speaking to Business and Professional Women (UK) Ltd at Oswestry
- Saturday April 2nd, 12.00pm, signing books at Waterstones Shrewsbury
- Thursday April 28th 11.30-12.30 Esquires café, Lord St, Southport, then Pritchards bookshop, Formby 1.30-2.30 pm
- 7.30pm Wednesday May 4th: Standish Library
- Friday 20th May 4.00 pm - Malpas Literary Festival, Cheshire
- Monday 13th June,Bishop's High Library, 2.00 -3.00 pm
- Tuesday 21st June - writing workshop at Booka bookshop, Oswestry
- June 28th, 2pm, Winsford Library reading group
- 19th July, 6pm, Whitchurch Library Reading Group
- Monday 1st August, 7pm, Crewe Library
- 2nd August, Burway Books, Church Stretton: Afternoon tea with Kate Long & her Desert Island Books, 4.30pm
- Weds 7th September, 7pm, Chester Library
- 26th September - 1st October 2011, Teaching at Lumb Bank Arvon Centre, 'Starting to Write'
- 1st November, Ysgol Dinas Bran, Llangollen
- 7th November, speaking to Whitchurch Inner Wheel
- 15th November, Farndon book group
... and here's where I was in 2010:
- Saturday 27th February, 11.00am, book signing at Bookshrop, Whitchurch, Shropshire
- Thursday 25th March, Hurst Library, Ashton-under-Lyne
- Saturday 27th March, 11.00am-12.00pm, Meet the Author at Nantwich Bookshop
- Saturday 8th May, signing books at Waterstones in Shrewsbury, midday-2pm
- Thursday 10th June, 7.30pm, Bridgnorth Library
- Thursday 17th June Burway Books, Church Stretton, 'Girls Night In with Kate Long' - chocolate and Pimms from 6pm!
- 16 - 21 August, 2010, Teaching an Arvon course at The John Osborne Centre
- Thursday 2nd September 7.30 Bridgnorth Music and Arts Festival
- 6th September, 8.00 pm, Bayston Hill Reading Group
- 14th October, Booka book shop, Oswestry
- 29th October, Age Concern Reading Group at Shrewsbury
... and in 2009:
- Thursday 19th Feb, 7-9pm, Bilston, Wolverhampton, speaking to the 'Women Who Write' group
- February 22nd, Wythenshawe Forum reading group
- Thursday May 7th, Workshop at Oswestry School
- Thursday 11th June, 7pm, Westminster Theatre: presenting the prizes for Keele University Short Story competition
- June 22nd, Humber Mouth Literature Festival
- September 12th, Tarporley Book festival
- October 7th, Wordpool (Blackpool Book Festival)
- Saturday 10th October, pm: fiction writing workshop at Birmingham Book Festival
... and in 2008:
- March 6th, Cleckheaton Library, 7.30pm
- March 15th, signing The Daughter Game at Bookshrop (www.bookshrop.com), Whitchurch - 11.00 am
- May 14th, Tipton Library, Dudley
- May 22nd, Ashmore Park Library, Wolverhampton, 7.00pm
- June 9th, Hale Library for WordFest
- June 23rd - 28th: teaching at Arvon
- July 1st, Filey Festival, 2.00pm
- July 8th, Bookseller for the day at Burway Books, Church Stretton
- July 16th, Working with the Wolverhampton LGBT reading group to create a short story
- September 9th, St Alban’s Book Group
- September 24th, Ellesmere W.I.
- September 29th, Bridgnorth Reading Group
- October 2nd, 6.30pm, Birmingham Conservatoire: reading of my story 'The Invisible Woman Goes Shopping', commissioned by Wolverhampton LBGT group
- October 5th, Chester Literature festival
