Interview with Tafad Tan

An interview I did today with three Cardiff creatives (Jason Philips - musician and producer, Alrick "Ninjah" Wilson - musician and occasional drag queen, and Max Lewy - poet), on such topics as Beijing, burlesque, decluttering, writing, being transgender, and boasting a little about famous relatives. YOUTUBE LINK

Steamboat Ellie

It took a little time (bearing in mind I wrote the thing back in 2015), but with huge thanks to the wonderful Megan Pritchard (AKA fellow burlesque dancer Flossie Smalls) for her awesome cover design, my steampunk fantasy novel is at last good to go... ************ The vengeful, disfigured Gloriana - rebel fay queen and...

Pretty Gems and Paranoid Androids

My writing has really taken a back seat to my burlesque for over a year now, since my last Gothic dabbling in the world of fanfic. However, being a big fan of "Steven Universe", I've been toying with the idea of doing some sort of crossover fiction with the Crystal Gems for some time now,...

Book Review – “Ghostkin” (Ellen Mellor, 2018)

"Ghostkin" works from a premise that will be instantly familiar to fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": an inextricable collision between the otherworld and the mundane world has forced history (since the 20th century) down an alternative route in which humans have been forced to coexist with fay, demons, spirits, and various undead horrors. However,...

Lucille and the Healers

There was a time not so long ago when I wanted to distance myself from the past - and particularly from my old name - so much that I would never share my old works, but now that the end of my transition is well and truly in sight the past seems less scary than...

T-minus 24 Hours

This is just a quick but significant news update to report that as of this time tomorrow, my husband Cal - who has been waiting since early 2015 to receive treatment for his gender dysphoria - will finally be getting his first dose of testosterone. This has been long delayed by a combination of NHS...

Jumping Hoops – A Rant on the Welsh NHS

Today, as I learn that my legal caseworker is leaving her job and my MP can't be of any help in local health issues, I am far from being in the best frame of mind... Let's quickly recap... Early last year, my husband and I went to our GP to finally pursue gender reassignment, as...

Steampunk Spam Time…

This is one thing I truly hate doing, and I can assure you have only succeeded in doing through quite considerable amounts of motivational talk on the part of friends. However, I have a novel now up for a competition - with the hope of eventually finding a willing publisher - and it rather badly...

“Wolves of Dacia” – Call For Readers

Finally, I have a finished draft of the vampire novel I have been wittering on about for ages. If anyone is interested in reading it and offering me whatever feedback they feel able to, good or critical or scathing, please drop me a PM. Synopsis follows... Genre - Dark Fairytale / Dieselpunk / WW2 Pages...

Gothic Dieselpunk

...and if that isn't a mouthful of a name for a genre, I don't know what would be. I am conscious this has recently turned into a blog for my weird artistic pursuits rather than for anything directly related to my transition, but so be it. Since my fiction has for many years been a...