I was just a single mother cleaning toilets and cutting grass, trying to make sense of life in a council estate on the Isle of Skye, when I won a week on a writer’s retreat at Moniack Mhor. It changed my life. Over the course of the next fifteen years I gleaned every bit of technique, trick or insight from the best authors and poets Scotland has to offer. I was placed on the HI-Arts writer’s masterclass. I won fine mentors. I was published in literary magazines, newspapers and even Channel 4.
I self published my first novel, The January Flower. It was the first indie novel to be long listed for the Polari First Book Award. I won the Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award with a chapter from it. It has been most favourably reviewed around the world. My second novel is due in 2018.

I love to pass on all the knowledge I gained from my tutors, friends and mentors. I devised a series of creative writing workshops and am currently funded by WEA Women@Work to teach my Find Your Inner Writer workshop, which is a short course based on meditations and free writing. I also teach self publishing. I also teach privately.
I am based in Findhorn and can be found at The Bunty, helping with the World Water Watch. I am a digital warrior for alternative media and was influential in helping obtain accurate reports from Standing Rock. I established both the Skye Literary Salon and the Highlands Stand With Standing Rock movement.
About my work.
Irish by birth and by accent, I have a wealth of hilarious tales of holy Catholic Ireland which I love to regale packed halls with.
My writing is nature based. It is filled with love and passion. I can decorate pages with gorgeousness, or, with a word leave you sobbing. My characters are larger than life, rather wild people who are really just poor souls all wanting love and acceptance. I do not adhere to any genre. My work is full of raw honesty. It is accessible. I believe I can show others how to learn ways to develop their own true style. I try to write poetry but it always lacks brevity so i compose beautiful Facebook updates instead. I have represented the Highlands of Scotland at the London Indie Book Fair. I have read my work on BBC radio. I performed my work in Edinburgh to a crowd of hundreds and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. I travel anywhere. I also review literary journals, poetry and literary fiction. I write very irreverent stories for young adults. Most days, I sit on the beach with my dog, writing and dreaming. I am very grateful to the folk who plucked me from the council estate.