AUTHORS: O-Z
Tony O'Reilly
Tony O’Reilly runs a small graphic design company. He lives and works in the seaside town of Dalkey, Co. Dublin. His hobbies include swimming, eating and people watching, which makes him a bit of a goldfish if you think about it.
This year he came 2nd overall in the Yeovil Short Story awards. He was shortlisted for the William Trevor Short Story Competition and the George Bermingham short story competition. One of his first short stories won the Emerging Writer competition in The Sunday Tribune Hennessy Literary Awards. His first book, Sentinel, came first in the Discovered Authors competition for the Republic of Ireland and 2nd overall in the UK and Ireland.
These days he is working on a novel, The Monto, a thriller set in Dublin in the days following the 1916 Easter Rising.
Bella Osborne
Bella Osborne’s stories are about friendship, love and coping with what life throws at you. She has written four romantic comedies and been shortlisted twice for the RNA Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year Award. Her fifth novel, A Walk in Wildflower Park, will be out summer 2019.
Bella lives in The Midlands, UK with her husband, daughter and a cat who thinks she’s a dog. When not writing Bella is usually eating custard creams and planning holidays.
Evan Ostryzniuk
Evan Ostryzniuk is the author of a historical fiction series, featuring wannabe knight Geoffrey Hotspur, published by Endeavour Media.
Evan grew up in Canada and attended Cambridge University, where he earned a PhD in History. He currently works for the BBC. Evan is working on a new series of historical detective novels set during the early years of the Spanish Inquisition, following special papal investigator Serafino Tucci di Salerno
Samantha Pennington
Originally from Northamptonshire, Samantha now lives in North Essex with her family. An aspiring author from a young age, she only recently stopped procrastinating and is writing in earnest her debut novel, a romcom. When not reading or writing, she can be found making excuses not to run, sipping gin with the girls and planning city breaks.
J. T. Ridge
J. T. Ridge is a fantasy author whose work is heavily influenced by his interest in world religions and cultures.
He teaches philosophy and religious studies in Oxfordshire, writing and travelling when time allows.
Alex Shaw
Alex Shaw is a member of the International Thriller Writers organisation and the Crime Writers Association. His bestselling Aidan Snow SAS thrillers Cold Blood, Cold Black and Cold East are published by HarperCollins UK (HQ Digital) in English and Luzifer Verlag in German. Alex has also written numerous short stories and novellas.
Alex and his family are currently expats dividing their time between homes in Ukraine, England and Qatar.
Angie Spoto
She is editor of the collection Disclosures: Rewriting the Narrative About HIV published by Edinburgh indie press Stewed Rhubarb. Her poetry, essays and surrealist and horror stories have appeared in numerous publications around the world.
Cailean Steed
Cailean Steed is a writer, teacher and aspiring dog owner. Cailean lives in Glasgow with their husband and son. They have also resided in Aberdeen and Dublin, and hope one day to live somewhere with less rain.
Cailean’s work has been published by New Writing Scotland, Boudicca Press and Barren Magazine. Their mother would like them to write something more cheerful.
Maggie Sullivan
Manchester born best-selling author Maggie Sullivan has so far published two Coronation Street prequels following the early lives of the much loved Corrie characters.
Maggie also writes non fiction, romantic fiction, sagas and heartwarming short stories. She loves to travel and is an avid reader, never going without her Kindle. She is a long standing member of Romantic Novelists’ Association. After living abroad for several years, she settled in London where she still lives.
Georgia Summers
Georgia Summers writes fantasy and speculative fiction, and loves a fairytale twist.
She is half-British, half-Trinidadian, and spent most of her life living across the world, including Russia, Colombia and the US.
She currently lives in London, where she works in publishing.
Laura Sweeney
Laura Sweeney writes contemporary romantic fiction with a healthy does of wit.
She lives in Wiltshire. When not writing, she enjoys supporting her favourite cricket, football and rugby league teams and singing along to show tunes.
Rose Taylor
Rose Taylor is a fiction writer who enjoys bold narrative voices and playful form.
She has an MSt with Distinction in Creative Writing from Oxford University and is a Creative Copywriter for Rockstar Games.
She lives in Edinburgh.
Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang
Rhiannon was born and grew up in Yorkshire, read Oriental Studies (Chinese) at Oxford, and is a non-practising lawyer. Her work focuses on historical and cultural fault lines, and contains strong international themes.
Her latest novel was The Last Vicereine, was published by Penguin Random House in 2017. She is the 2018 winner of the Nottingham Writers’ Studio Writer of the Year award.
Helen Watts
Helen Watts writes historical fiction for children. Her debut novel One Day in Oradour (Bloomsbury, 2014) was nominated for the 2014 CILIP Carnegie Medal for an Outstanding Book for Children.
Helen regularly runs creative writing workshops in schools and libraries and, when she is not working, loves walking in the Vale of Evesham where she now lives.
Kerry Watts
Kerry Watts is the author of crime thrillers which often have mental health issues at the heart of the story. This comes from her experience of working with people with mental health problems in acute and community settings. When she’s not writing she devours true crime books and TV shows which has given her an unsettling amount of knowledge on serial killers and their lives.
She is the author of the Detective Jessie Blake series, set in Perthshire, published by Bookouture.
@kezzawattsbooks
Joma West
Joma West is a third culture writer whose work straddles both fantasy and science fiction.
Growing up bouncing between countries has given her work a certain displaced flavour and you can see many African and Asian influences in her writing.
Joma’s novella, Wild, won the 2016 MMU novella award, and was published by Sandstone Press. She has had short stories published in various anthologies. She lives in Glasgow.
@JomaWest
Simon Whaley
Simon Whaley is a writer, author and photographer. He is the bestselling author of One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human. His crime caper Dead Heading in the Borders is currently out on submission.
In addition to writing several books, Simon regularly has articles and short stories published in various publications.
Kathryn Whitfield
Kathryn loved reading from the moment she got a library card and soon began to fill notebooks with stories of her own. A career in Audiology took over, until she began scribbling down words during newborn naps on her maternity leave. She lives in Staffordshire with her husband and two young children and is working on her debut novel.
Emma-Claire Wilson
Born in Scotland, Emma travelled the world as the child of military parents. Finally she settled in Southern Spain with her husband, daughters, and rescue dog Pip. Emma works as a journalist for English language magazines and newspapers in Spain and in 2015 launched The Glass House Online Magazine. When not writing emotional book club fiction, you can find her by the sea dreaming up new stories, or wrapped in a blanket with a book in her hand.
Manyara Woolhouse
Manyara Woolhouse is a visual artist and nonfiction author whose work looks at themes of belonging, cultural inheritance and hybridity, and the value of heritage. She lives in Edinburgh where she works as a specialist in global health
Janet Woods
Janet Woods was a popular author of historical women’s fiction. Born and raised in Dorset, she emigrated to Western Australia. Janet was the author of Daughter of Darkness which won the mainstream section of Romantic Novel of the Year in Australia in 2002.
Janet was a life member of The Society of Women Writers, Western Australia, and was nominated for the ‘Alice’, an award in recognition of outstanding achievement. She has been published by Robert Hale, Simon & Schuster, and currently, Severn House.
Helen Yendall
Helen Yendall is an author of historical fiction, often with an unique setting.
She’s has dozens of short stories published in women’s magazines such as The People’s Friend, Take a Break and Woman’s Weekly.
She’s a proud member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.