I have slowly been getting back to work on my third novel The Right Place, and for some reason I have been thinking about my journey as a writer so far.
2010-2015 were really the best years as far as my fiction work is concerned: I planned, wrote, edited, published and promoted two novels, I launched Arcane Publishing and I planned and started work on a third novel. 
Since then, it's been very stop/start and I have never found my mojo again as I tried and failed to find a balance between paying the bills and writing/developing my imprint. To say I am disappointed in myself is an understatement! I was on such a roll! 

I moved to Dorset to write a couple of novels inspired by the county but the house hunting, the move and the necessity to pay the bills after the move away from London have actually prevented me from writing and dedicating my time to completing my two projects. I will admit that I also became distracted by the pre-loved/vintage and rare book side of Arcane. But then, alongside writing, having my own bookshop has been another dream of mine! 

And so here we are, ten years later and still no books 3 and 4 to show for it. And things have shifted once again. 
Not only am I getting impatient, but I now struggle to get inspired by the county (I haven't really managed to get out in the countryside properly since spring 2025 - a mixture of having a lot of work, catching a virus and more recently being defeated by the awful weather we've had for several weeks!).

My mindset has switched back to finding inspiration in urban environments where I can get the cultural stimulation I need. We have some idea of the area we want to go to next, but the bonkers housing market is preventing us from moving at the moment, and therefore, I need to ignore my longings for another place and make the most of my time here. I am determined to at least complete book 3 here in Dorset!  
 
Writing books has been a dream of mine since I learnt to read and write (aged 5!) and my passion has always been English literature - I got hooked on Agatha Christie at around 8 or 9 and haven't stopped reading and studying ever since. I have always considered being a writer the best job in the world! 
As a teenager, I wrote (and drew) countless first pages of comic book stories, and I actually completed two full short stories (The first one inspired by the movie Dead Poet Society; the second one by the superheroes comics I used to read and by the classic Hollywood movie Cat People). 

2001 was probably the worst year of my life for reasons I won't go into here. During that period, I wrote many strange and dark texts/poems in the English language which I still have on my hard drive (what to do with them? Anything? Nothing?). Later on in 2005, I had another look at them and did a little bit of editing: I discarded some of them and they got banished to their own lonely Word document. Then I kind of organised the rest of them, not changing anything to the actual poems as their only merit was their rawness and the way they were reflective of spontaneous bursts of rage and creativity usually in the middle of the night (I think I barely slept for about three years between 1998 and 2001, but that's another story...). I named this weird little collection of texts "Dysfunctions". 

Also during that period, I did start writing a book which reflected my lifestyle at the time: chronic insomnia, dodgy flat sharing in London and one foot and a half firmly in the alternative culture of the capital. I had just started writing music reviews for an online French magazine (in both French and English) but hadn't completely found the confidence to write 100% in English, something that would suddenly happen the following year as I developed my freelance music journalism career and started writing for English-language only mags (I did this until 2011). 

So the as-yet untitled novel was written in French and I only committed three chapters to paper (now to Word Doc file). Reading it again this week, I am astonished at my fluency in the French language (this has now faded as I don't really speak or write in French day to day) and I can see the seeds of what will probably become my fourth or fifth novel. I could basically translate the chapters into English and use sections of this long-aborted manuscript... 
I admit that I had completely forgotten about this attempt at writing fiction! 

For more updates on fiction writing, book buying and selling and more... Go to @Arcanepub 
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Today, work is starting again on my third novel, The Right Place.
It's really been too long...
If everything had gone to plan, this book would have been published in 2018 or 2019 latest, and I would be near completion with my fourth novel, Hell Lane: A Barton Stacey Mystery.
You see, since 2010, I had been on a roll: launching a small imprint, writing, editing, publishing and promoting two novels. 
Then I got into my head that the best way to write my Dorset-based novel was to MOVE to Dorset, which completely changed our way of life... 
The problem is, writing books doesn't pay the bills and I've had to prioritise the day jobs... 

But in 2026, I have decided to prioritise my own projects (my novels and my burgeoning bookselling business with ARCANE PUBLISHING). 
When I started working on this novel back in 2012, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do with it (you can find all the details on the page dedicated to the novel on this very same website HERE.) 
I believe it's going to take a little bit of time for me to regain 100% confidence in the premise of the novel. All I need to do is immerse myself in it once again and reacquaint myself with the characters. 

I will keep track of my progress in this blog as I did with my previous books. 
Watch this space!  

It's the last few days of 2025 and I am not completely up and running - I have a lot of freelance work to do still and in spite of being on deadline, I somehow cannot face getting back into it fully. I suspect that because I've been working so much since late June, I am suffering a mini-burnout! I haven't really been able to dedicate any time to my own work (Arcane Publishing, writing my own books, planning the next phase of my bookselling business).
To be honest, I'm at my happiest when I can focus 100% on my own work, be it planning and writing novels, looking for/researching vintage and preloved books or working on Arcane Publishing-related things. The other stuff (which sadly pays the bills at the moment) basically comes in the way and slows me down... 

I foresee 2026 to be very different, though, and I intend to make the most of being able to concentrate on my own creative and business endeavours this year - although life has had a tendency to throw unforeseen obstacles in my way recently, so I am more and more of the "take it one day at a time" school of thought.  
Let's proceed slowly but surely. 

I will be using this website and the Arcane Publishing one more often in 2026, so watch this space! 

I have had a very busy 2025, but it wasn't about book writing or selling... 

I can now announce that I will be back in 2026 as a writer and bookseller. 
I will be using this blog and that on the Arcane Publishing website more in the future as I don't think soial media is working. 

So watch this space, things will start moving from the end of January onwards! 

In the meantime, please check Instagram on @arcanepub

Following up on my previous post - independent publishing is in a difficult place right now. 
The world is changing and costs have spiralled. 

There is a good article in the publishing industry's magazine The Bookseller about the situation for indie presses. 

In 2026, I will be concentrating on developing the bookselling side of Arcane Publishing and my writing has been put on hiatus. I hope to come back to it when the time is right. 

In addition to this, I need the money I would have used to print/publish a book for something incredibly important and cannot justify spending it on publishing a book which will remain mostly unread. 

Please follow ARCANE PUBLISHING on Instagram, for regular updates on books, art, live music and more... 

It's been a while... This place has been neglected and I have many times thought about getting rid of my two websites (Miss Gish and Arcane Publishing) because nobody really have a look at websites nowadays, right? Everything's happening on social media (apparently). 
The thing is, I just cannot bering myself to delete the websites because they go back to 2010 when everything started. These websites have accompanied me as I worked on my novels and started Arcane Publishing. They basically have recorded the trials and tribulations of someone who has always dreamt of being a writer and work with books. When I started my websites, I was at the tail end of my career as a music journalist but still wrote about music on my blog. 
On here as well, I have recorded the way I fell in love with Dorset in 2011, and wrote about starting work on a book set in this beautiful county. 
And you know what? 
Things have happened and the book is still not finished. Work on it stalled during the pandemic and I haven't really managed to start again working on it properly. 
I have recently realised that a whole chapter needs to go NOW. That I need a huge amount of work on some of the chapters because they do not work as they are. 
And sadly, I haven't had the headspace necessary to resume work on The Right Place. 

It also happens that since last autumn, I have started to feel myself being drawn back to the things that I had left behind when I moved to Dorset back in 2017. I crave culture, music, exhibitions, buzz and urban architecture. 
This shift in mindset has taken me by surprise and shaken me a little. But I have always been one to follow my instinct, and therefore I have been back in London quite a bit over the past six months or so. 
I am not too sure at the moment about how this will impact my writing. I am still determined to complete and publish The Right Place, but I know that I will be going back to it a somewhat changed person, and therefore, a changed writer. It might just be what I needed to get back to it: I have become even more daring recently, and much more devil-may-care... 

My focus over the next few months of autumn and winter will be to launch my online bookshop to sell my novels as well as my stock of pre-loved, vintage and rare books. Once that has been done, and only then, will I return to writing... 

I will try and record the progress I make on this here and on the Arcane Publishing website. 
Watch this space! 


In the meantime, find me helping Matt ArtPix on his stall (with a small stock of preloved books!) at the following two events in September:

 I am now back in Blighty after three weeks in France, including two blissful weeks in Normandy. 
I will post about it at some point, but it's already incredibly busy here at ArtPix/Arcane towers, so I will leave a longer update for later in June... 

Arcane and ArtPix will be in London this weekend for the Lazy Flea at Chiswick Town Hall!
​Come and say hi! 
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