That must be an old picture, my hair is much more grey now, but I’m leaving it because I like it and it’s a rare event indeed for me to find a photo of myself that I like.
Anyway. Here we go.
WELCOME TO MY PAGE!
Here’s a bit about me: Geordie lass, of which I am proud. Proud, too, that I have forged the path I have – a lapsed litigation lawyer, psychology lecturer and research professor; always a free spirit, now officially ‘retired,’ I mainly write fiction and I live on a pension. I’m a nomadic soul who likes to go where the mood takes me. Currently I am Brexiled in France for the duration. Currently living in a tiny studio (10m sq) in Paris in the Marais – in a chambre de bonne on the 6th floor (under the roof) but there’s a lift. I maintain my allegiances: to Scotland (hoping against hope that one day it will go Indie) and Northumberland where my true heart lies. Summers I often spend off-grid in a cabin in Norway.
Pic: That’s me and OH surveying the lie of the land in Norway. We always look a bit wooden in photographs.
I studied Creative Writing at the NCLA in Newcastle, and at Edinburgh University.
In 2013 I was named as one of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature‘s emerging writers.
In 2015 I won a Northern Writers’ Award for my short stories and was mentored by the awesome and amazing Carys Davies
My debut novel The Confession of Stella Moon was published in 2016 by Saraband. The novel won the Andrea Badenoch Award, was long-listed for the Bath Novel Award and the Guardian’s #NotTheBooker prize, and shortlisted for the Charles Pick Fellowship and the Dundee International Book Prize. It was picked as one of the READ REGIONAL titles for 2017 by NewWritingNorth
My short stories have appeared in magazines, newspapers, anthologies and online. I have read at numerous book festival including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and on the Edinburgh Fringe (for charity). I run workshops and do readings to raise money for charities including RNLI, Rape Crisis, Women’s Aid and Crisis.
My debut collection of short stories – what are you like –Red Squirrel Press (2019) won the 2020 Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of short stories in English. My second novel Paris Pages Red Squirrel Press was published on 2nd December 2023 was pre-launched in Newcastle at the Books on Tyne Festival, and launched in Paris, Edinburgh and Cambridge in 2024. I am currently working on a Memoir and a second collection of short stories.
My MOTTO: I’ve had this card since about 1979 …
My son, graphic artist Nico Sclater made this teeshirt for Stella (he also did the art work for the cover of -what are you like- )
This is my Author Page on Facebook I am hopeless about keeping it up to date.
BOOK GROUPS might want to use this Reading Guide to The Confession of Stella Moon
You can see all my books, including the academic ones, on my Amazon page
You can see the reviews I’ve done on Amazon for other people’s books here
And on Goodreads here
My granddaughter Maddy and I make little illustrated booklets for people. We do the artwork ourselves. Here are some of our covers.
I do most of my writing by hand into notebooks, often on-the-hoof, and then i type it up on my laptop which would be the first edit of the work and there will be several more – sometimes many more – after.
I used to be the fiction judge for the Young Writers’ Awards at the Lit&Phil in Newcastle, England, and I made these notes for the students and their teachers, being Hot Tips for story-writing. Anyone can share them if they are of any use. The main tip I gave them tho was to READ READ READ READ
Shelley Day 