Suz Korb

I've decided to write my next comedy science fiction novel to include the current pandemic and political unrest. I'm going to write it day by day to reflect what I've seen on the day. So my book will end up getting dated, I know. But there's no other way around it for my mind at the moment. My own family life and what's going on in the world, affects my writing, even if it's fiction. No one knows how long the pandemic will carry on for, and at least this way I can have some form of documentation about these times. Because history is surely being made. It influences all things. It's unavoidable. I've shed many tears, and shouted a lot, about the murder of George Floyd. About the riots. Evil, cowardly Trump. Murderous cops. My own heritage. Not speaking to my sister. These issues and more will definitely go into my novel. Even though it's a comedy! My writing always have serious moments. We've mainly stayed positive day to day, but somethings n

AVAILABLE NOW Maiden-Mother-Murderer How dangerous is a woman with nothing left to lose? The year is 1905. London is a playground for the rich and a death trap for the poor. When Sofia Logan’s husband dies unexpectedly, leaving her penniless with two young children, she knows she will do anything to keep them from the workhouse. But can she bring herself to murder? Even if she has done it before… Emmet Vinsant, wealthy industrialist, offers Sofia a job in one of his gaming houses. He knows more about Sofia’s past than he has revealed. Brought up as part of a travelling fair, she’s an expert at counting cards and spotting cheats, and Vinsant puts her talents to good use. His demands on her grow until she finds herself with blood on her hands. Set against the backdrop of the Suffragette protests, with industry changing the face of the city but disease still rampant, and poverty the greatest threat of all, every decision you make is life or death. Either yours or someone

This morning I woke up at 5am in a pool of sweat. I heard the heater so I ran downstairs to turn it off. But to my surprise it needed to be on because the outdoors temp was zero Celsius! I was like DAMN THAT'S FREEZING. Because it is. Zero degrees Celsius is the freezing point of water. FYI. I can't believe the temperature drop. Just a few days ago it was so hot out we were able to put up our pool. Had to empty it the very next day though. Too cold. Proper April weather, but at least it's lovely and sunny! So the UK lockdown has been extended to May 7th. However, things don't look good and where schools are concerned, we are thinking this one's a bust until September. Yesterday in America Trump had a melt-down during his briefing. I seriously don't know how that man is president. He's power mad and his brain functions less coherently day by day. It's 2pm now. So far today I've done some laundry. Other than that I've been perusing Facebook

That post title may be misleading, what I mean to say is it’s been two weeks today since the start of the UK lockdown. I think I’ve gone to Tesco once per week, and every time I go it’s changed.  Today there was toilet tissue and paracetamol for the first time since this fiasco of a pandemic began! Although the meds were almost £2 for one box. Frikin rip off artists during a crisis. Also, they’ve set up a 1 in 1 out system for the whole store, and a one-way path inside. I kept forgetting to go one-way, but so did everyone else until the last few isle where most of the workers were, ready to tell people off. Even I had to go to the end with my pre-beeped groceries. But it’s all for the greater good, so I’m fine with the system. And my bf was right. The Texaco car wash was open so my car finally got cleaned a bit. Oops. I forgot to check my antenna to make sure it wasn’t ripped off. It’s in the middle of my roof, so I couldn’t reach it! Stupid design. Oh well.

Any cold that's caught is immediately assumed to be Coronavirus. Well of course it is! We now live in troubled times and this is only the first week finished of homeschooling. We went out for a walk on Thursday and by the evening my teenage daughter had a bad cold. Luckily just a cold, even though she's suffering with super runny nose and sore throat. But we've monitored her temperature daily, amongst other get-well remedies that have been put in place. I got sick yesterday. Couldn't even eat pizza for dinner. I took one look at it on the plate and had to run upstairs and go to bed. Which is where I stayed all night from 7pm - 7am, although really it was 6am as the clocks sprung forward an hour last night. Of course I googled and discovered that in some people vomiting and diarrhoea can be signs of Coronavirus infection!  I feel a bit better today though. Got some work done from home. Ate a banana and had a cup of coffee for breakfast.  Every cough +

I drive into the car park and pull my Ford Bmax into a space. For a moment I look around noticing there's hardly anyone there. The sun is setting on another clear sky day. Birds fly overhead in flocks and I swear there wasn't normally this many birds in the sky before the pandemic began. Checking the shopping list I stall for the time I have to get myself out of the car. I look at the Alexa app on my phone and add the items to my main shopping list. Finally, after snapping on a pair of disposable gloves, I'm ready to get out of the car. I feel like I'm living in an apocalypse movie. I know it's not chaos out there, but as I look through my car window I swear I can see Coronavirus germs flying up and out of each person that walks by my vehicle. "Let's do this." I motivate myself and open the door. The air is warmer than usual for this time of year in England. And it hasn't rained for weeks. In January we had so much rain there were fl

Firstly,  Sorry about all the typos. I’m having to dictate this blog entry into my phone Things are going much better today, a much more calm day. Yesterday was crazy, trying to get all the websites from schools to work properly, which they were not. Today were taking things much more slowly. Basically going at the kids’ pace. I am implementing breaks, exercise, chores, food prep, crafts, etc. But we just get to things in between alone time throughout the day in our own rooms. That’s important too. When you’re stuck inside with each other, you need time to yourself. As for my book writing, I’m currently on Supernatural, which is the last book in my super duper series Sorry about all the typos. I’m having to dictate this blog entry into my phone But yeah I’m plugging away at writing supernatural. And I’ve been able to incorporate the current pandemic into this story I’ve also got NVQ studies of my own to do for preschool, and my next module requires a block o

I realised this really is OUR pandemic. I wrote a tweet about how my newest book is inclusive of OUR current situation, and that's when it hit home with me. We really are in this together as an entire planet. And through my fiction I can use it as a sort of real-life diary. But I want to fictionalise the pandemic as a way of also escaping from the real-life panic, now and then. At the moment I'm also keeping a private journal which basically turns into a memoir the very next day. But at the start of this horrific pandemic I thought there'd be no way to keep writing fiction. I felt afraid and hopeless. As the days pass though, there are not only more deaths and infections, but there are actually positives. And I've had to allow myself to relax into those positives, in order to keep my sanity for my children and loved ones. Life is carrying on, albeit at home. I'm just glad I can escape into my fiction writing now. And the book I'm currently writing is

Available Here Edinburgh, January 1732: It's Lady Grange's funeral. Her death is a shock: still young, she'd shown no signs of ill health. But Rachel is, in fact, alive. She's been brutally kidnapped by the man who has falsified her death - her husband of 25 years, a pillar of society with whom she has raised a family. Her punishment, perhaps, for railing against his infidelity - or for uncovering evidence of his treasonable plottings against the government. Whether to conceal his Jacobite leanings, or simply to `replace' a wife with a long-time mistress, Lord Grange banishes Rachel to the remote Hebridean Monach Isles, until she's removed again to distant St Kilda, far into the Atlantic - to an isolated life of primitive conditions, with no shared language - somewhere she can never be found. This is the incredible and gripping story of a woman who has until now been remembered mostly by her husband's unflattering account. Sue Lawrence reconstructs a r

AVAILABLE NOW Fear. That's what comes to mind when Sophie thinks of her childhood. Fear. And pain. She ran away from home to protect her unborn child. Now, twenty years later, she's a woman who learned to put the past and its dark secrets behind her. To stand on her own and to build a good life for herself and her son. But the past is not yet done with her and those dark secrets rise from the grave. Her courage, and the strength of her love will be put to the test. What's on the line is everyone she loves. It's flight or fight and this time she won't run. Happily-ever-after is something Ciana believes in with her whole heart. Love may be a bumpy road and there are bound to be some perils along the way but in the end love should win. She tries to take that attitude into her writing and thinks that love, hope and laughter are some of the best medicine there is. Along with books. She loves to hear from readers and the most important thing she think

AVAILABLE NOW Guardians of The Realm 1: Aegyir Rises Reagan Bennett has always felt like an outsider. Left at the doors of a hospital at birth, her relationship with her adopted family hasn’t been easy. Especially when one of them almost killed her. Now he’s due to be released from prison and Reagan’s settled world is about to be turned upside-down. But not by him. Something else – something much older, much darker – is also about to be freed. Something that believes Reagan is an arch enemy, and is obsessed with destroying her. All of her life, Reagan has dreamed of living in another place – The Realm. Can these dreams really be memories? If so, who is Reagan Bennett? Reagan needs to figure out who her enemy is, before they slaughter everyone she loves. And to do that, she needs to figure out who she really is.  Amanda Fleet is a physiologist by training and a writer at heart. She spent 18 years teaching science and medicine undergraduates at St Andrews Univ

In an autocratic society that refuses to let her move forward, can Poppy stay ahead of the pack?As expensive steam-powered automobiles speed across the land, Poppy Orpington is trapped and going nowhere – until her father reveals his secret project, a petrol-fuelled car ready for the race track. But will they even be allowed to compete?Racing is the preserve of the wealthy elite and few will welcome a working class family onto their hallowed ground. Can Poppy overcome social prejudice and conformity, or will her one and only chance of a better life be crushed before it can even begin?Full Throttle; book one of a Steampunk motor racing adventure set in a world of division, intolerance and inequality that modern readers may find disturbingly familiar…  Jon Hartless was born in the 1970s and has spent much of his life in the Midlands and Worcestershire. His latest novels, a steampunk motor racing adventure examining the gulf between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the dis

In the aftermath of World War II, hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavia's ethnic Germans, the Danube Swabians, were expelled by Tito's Partisan regime. A further sixty thousand were killed. Seventy years later, Marie Kohler's marriage is falling apart. She's seeing someone new, an enigmatic man named David, who takes her to the former Yugoslavia to find the truth behind her grandparent's flight to America. Alternating between the late 1940s and contemporary Serbia, Marie's story is interwoven with those of Tito's victims - a young survivor who has lost his mother and his identity, a woman held captive in a sugar factory, a refugee girl living in Austria under the din of air raid sirens. Marie's journey follows the Danube in search of connection in the face of loss. Connection to the lost souls, to the memory of her grandfather, to the man beside her, to her grandmother suffering Alzheimer's back home. What Remains at the End considers what hap

AVAILABLE NOW A Modern-Day Fairytale That Will Have Readers Swooning Lily is headstrong, independent, and stuck in a loop of bad luck.  She makes fairy figurines that customers buy to bring them good luck, but her merchandise doesn’t seem to do the same for her. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t believe in them. Theos is handsome and charismatic, a kite-surfing superstar who travels the world.  So why is he drawn to Lily and the store on a California beach she struggles to keep afloat? And could she be the one to trigger the awakening of his unusual destiny?

When I start a new manuscript I often give up on it. At times like these I have to remember that I can come back to it when I realise something that should or should not be in there. For example, yesterday I got stuck writing in too much about a new character who I was basing on someone in real life. I ended up writing too much vengeful prose that went off on a useless tangent. It was changing the entire scene of my romantic comedy novel, into some kind of depressing drama! Today I realised I don’t need revenge in the form of fiction. So I just let that character go. Literally. I deleted the character and now my MS is back on track! It’s the same as in real life, if you don’t let hateful things go, it will eat away at you.  I know they say put your enemies into your books and kill them off, which is fine for a thriller, but not this book. Not in this way. So yeah. Tune in next time when I complain about getting stuck on my MS again. Writing is emotional. Even i

Opening with the shooting of Lady Virginia 'Ginie' Courtauld in her tranquil garden in 1950s Rhodesia, The Dragon Lady tells Ginie's extraordinary story, so called for the exotic tattoo snaking up her leg. From the glamorous Italian Riviera before the Great War to the Art Deco glory of Eltham Palace in the thirties, and from the secluded Scottish Highlands to segregated Rhodesia in the fifties, the narrative spans enormous cultural and social change. Lady Virginia Courtauld was a boundary-breaking, colourful and unconventional person who rejected the submissive role women were expected to play. Ostracised by society for being a foreign divorcée at the time of Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson, Ginie and her second husband ,Stephen Courtauld, leave the confines of post-war Britain to forge a new life in Rhodesia, only to find that being progressive liberals during segregation proves mortally dangerous. Many people had reason to dislike Ginie, but who had reason enough to pull

Available Now “Call The Midwife for the 17 th Century”  Lucie Smith is a respected midwife who is married to Jacob, the town apothecary. They live happily together at the shop with the sign of the Three Doves. But sixteen-sixty-five proves a troublesome year for the couple. Lucie is called to a birth at the local Manor House and Jacob objects to her involvement with their former opponents in the English Civil Wars. Their only-surviving son Simon flees plague-ridden London for his country hometown, only to argue with his father. Lucie also has to manage her husband’s fury at the news of their loyal housemaid’s unplanned pregnancy and its repercussions.   The year draws to a close with the first-ever accusation of malpractice against Lucie, which could see her lose her midwifery licence, or even face ex-communication. Dr Sara Read is a lecturer in English at Loughborough University. Her research is in the cultural representations of women, bodies and health in the early

A few years ago I once again undertook the monumental task of completely clearing out my garage. I should start by saying most British size home garages, in comparison to American size garages, are like very small sheds. I'm pretty sure British garages were built back when cars were minuscule in this country, due to the roads being super narrow and winding. Well, they didn't improve on garage sizes and still to this day new houses are built that won't hold a compact car, let alone the 4x4s / SUVs that are now popular to drive in the UK. Also, the roads have not been widened either, so fitting huge vehicles on winding country lanes is still a wonder as to why? Just why?! So anyway, there I was clearing out my garage with my eldest daughter. It was packed with stuff all the way to the door that would barely close. It took a whole week to clear out and at one point my daughter came across an A4 plastic envelope folder, from which she pulled out a manuscript and told me tha

Available Now The intrepid librarian Shona McMonagle, erstwhile Marcia Blaine Academy prefect and an accomplished linguist and martial artist, finds herself in an isolated French mountain village, Sans-Soleil, which has no sunlight because of its topography. It’s reeling from a spate of unexplained deaths, and Shona has once again travelled back in time to help out. Forging an uneasy alliance with newly widowed Madeleine, Shona is soon drawn into a full-blown vampire hunt, involving several notable villagers, the world-renowned soprano Mary Garden – and even Count Dracula himself. Will Shona solve the mystery, secure justice for the murder victims and make it through a deathly denouement in the hall of mirrors to return to present-day Morningside Library? Olga Wojtas is an unconventional – and very witty – writer of postmodern crime fiction whose surrealist humour has been compared to the likes of PG Wodehouse, Jasper Fforde and the Marx Brothers. Her debut novel, Miss Bl

Available Now on Goodreads & Amazon Two vicars, their marriage in tatters with wounds reaching far back into the past, set out on a journey to find healing and restoration. Their route will take them from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, but will it help them find their way home? Along the 320-mile route across rural France, burdened by backpacks and blisters, Kim and Penelope stumble across fresh truths, some ordinary, others extraordinary. But will they be defeated by the road ahead or triumph over the pain of the past? Is there a chance they'll find themselves in France and walk back to happiness? In this simple but enchanting book, part travelogue and part pilgrimage, Penelope invites you to walk with her and her husband on their epic journey as they encounter new faces and new experiences, and reconnect with each other and with God. Every step of the way, you'll discover more about yourself and what's really important to you. Penelope is an avid walk

Available Now Many people understand that, at the end of all things, Christ returns, God will create a new heaven and a new earth where those who have trusted in Christ will live with him forever. But what about those who have 'passed on' well before this? Where are they now? What does heaven look like? What will occupy us there? When David Oliver faced the death of his son Joel, at the age of 38, following a short and brutal fight with cancer, he set about researching and writing this powerful short book on heaven and committed to write whatever he discovered. Through a thorough examination of the relevant Bible texts, David provides us with a thrilling view of the future and a destiny well worth preparing for, which will enrich our vision and faith. David Oliver is the founder of Insight Marketing, an international trainer, speaker and author of 13 books in 29 languages, including ‘Work Prison or Place of Destiny?’ He is married to Gill and they live in Hampshir

A spectre has haunted Netherton for generations. Everyone has a theory, no one has an answer. The woods that frame the housing estate uncover a series of heinous acts, drawing onlookers into a space of clandestine, queer sexuality: a liminal space of abject and uncanny experience. A question echoes in the odd borderlands of being, of fear-fascination, attraction-repulsion, of sex and death… Who put Bella down the Wych-Elm?  R. M. Francis is a writer from Dudley. He completed his PhD at the University of Wolverhampton for a project titled Queering the Black Country and graduated from Teesside University for his Creative Writing MA. He's the author of four poetry chapbooks, Transitions (The Black Light Engine Room Press, 2015), Orpheus (Lapwing Publications, 2016), Corvus' Burnt-Wing Love Balm and Cure-All (The Black Light Engine Room Press, 2018) and Lamella, (Original Plus, 2019).  Follow Rob on Twitter @rmfrancis

Family feuds just got bloodier… A gripping thriller, and a great story of death, revenge and vodka. To save glamorous Kat White’s life, Ben Halloran killed his gangster father.  Now his brother wants to even the score. The gripping Trail series of British crime thrillers reaches its dramatic conclusion in this compelling page-turner.    https://amzn.to/2BJmoHg    @AAAbbottStories @LoveBooksTours

Alex Nye is the award-winning author of  Chill  and  Darker Ends . Hani is 12 and invisible, and yet everyone wants to capture him. After escaping from Syria with his sister, he finds himself working in atrocious conditions somewhere in Scotland. When his sister disappears, he begins a perilous journey to find her, across some of the wildest terrain in Scotland. Mia is also on the run, and sometimes it feels as if she will never stop running. When she helps Hani escape from his captors, the two become inseparable. Her dream is to reach the island where she was last happy, when her parents were alive, and find the little house she believes they still own. Once we reach the island, she tells Hani, everything will be okay. But their journey takes them into dangerous landscapes, hunted by dangerous men, chased through a system of underground flooded caverns while a great storm sweeps the coast. Whatever happens, Mia knows that she must help Hani to find his sister. What they w