Jan Edwards's Blog

My father was a gardener – managing the gardens around the Heinemann’s offices in Kingswood from 1960s to 2000s. I mention this because he taught me how to prune – his mantra always being ‘If you’re going to prune the thing then prune it – don’t just tickle the top!

And why is it relevant today? Peter was off down to the allotment to help unload a compost delivery and suggested as it was quite a mild morning I prune the buddleja in the front garden back from the young crab apple tree beside it.  

The buddleja in question had got a little out of hand (a good three metres high) and cutting both sunlight and rain from the adjacent shrubs. So yes I pruned it – the way dear old dad taught me.

Father always maintained that when a Buddleja davidii has got out of hand the only answer is to cut it back to the lowest side shoot – which I duly did, down to that all important first side shoot. It  now stands at a little under one metre tall. There is new growth around the base so I have no fears that even if that lowest shoot suffers winter damage the tree itself will recover.

Pruning is one thing in the garden that Peter and I disagree on and so best not done as a team effort. I knew full well what his reaction would be as I hacked and sawed away at the thuggish shrub but it can’t be stuck back on again!

October already and busy, busy, busy.

This week I am volunteering at the Stoke Book Festival – the first in what the creators hope will be an annual event. No idea what I shall be doing but hey, its good to get out there and be a part of it all. Writing is an insular business and getting out there to network with other scribblers is not only fun but an invaluable way of making your work accessible. The festival takes place across the whole of next week 3rd Oct to 10th Oct and promises to be fun!

Details of the festival events HERE

I have been busy with both editing and writing short fiction.

On the editing front there is Weird Alchemy – an anthology from Alchemy Press being edited by Peter Coleborn and me containing (surprise, surprise) weird fiction – that is to say uncanny horror fiction that skirts around the edges of reality. Scheduled for publication early November 2026 and will showcase stories from in alphabetical order): Colleen Anderson; Gail-Nina Anderson; Simon Bestwick; Lily Childs; Gary Couzens; Elizabeth Guilt; Eric J. Guignard; Andrew Hook; Tom Johnstone; Garry Kilworth; Gordon Linzner; Malda Marlys; Stan Nicholls; Marion Pitman; Rosanne Rabinowitz; Teika Marija Smits; Sylvie Soul and David A. Sutton. Cover art Steve Upham.

Editing is such a different skill and as a duo we bring different perspectives to each piece. My writing head tends to home in on the glitches in narrative and Peter’s more scientific brain also spots those stray commas as well as those oddly constructed sentences. We don’t often come to blows

It’s been a good project and we hope readers will enjoy the end product.

Keep an eye on the Alchemy Press page for dates!

Now to writing.

Unlike times past I no longer tend to seek out markets with the bouncing enthusiasm of a truffle hound. That said I do still cast an eye over various markets and one caught my eye recently which inspired – a loosely themed anthology that set the old folk horror juices flowing. The only problem was it had a very short submissions window that I had only noticed with five days of it left!

As you already probably know I am not a fast writer but the idea had lodged in my head and I thought I may as well go for it. A tough assignment. Think Indiana Jones sliding under rapidly descending stone walls with bare inches to spare and hold that image as I edited my piece with all the cut and thrust of Captain Jack Sparrow and emailed my humble offering with bare hours to spare.

Writing and editing any piece to a state that is anywhere near completion in just four days is something of a record for me. Reading it back to myself days later I could see a few tweaks would be required before t was let lose on unsuspecting readers but it holds together reasonably well – better than I had imagined given the rush. I doubt any writer is ever 100% satisfied with what they produce – that old adage of never getting it finished it just gets taken away – but its out of my reach now. I fully expect it to boomerang back to me, but I know its something I could work on for another market another time.

In other news I have had acceptances for three stories sent out and accepted in the past few months. Two had been on my radar since the new year while the third was written over the course of a few weeks.

‘Nine’ is destined for Terror Tales of Christmas edited by the fabulous Paul Finch – out from Telos on 31st October (pre order here from Telos!) Another impressive cast: Peter Coleborn, Joanna Corrance, Raven Dane, Steve Duffy, Jan Edwards, Paul Finch, Christopher Harman, Sheila Hodgson, Keris McDonald, Reggie Oliver, Tony Richards, Rosie Seymour, Sarah Singleton, Benjamin Kurt Unsworth, Ian Whates and Gavin Williams. Cover art Neil Williams.

‘Brennivin’ will appear in the Christmas 2026 edition of Phantasmagoria edited by the superb Trevor Kennedy. Don’t have full details on that publication as yet – but Phantasmagoria always a treat for horror fans and if you aren’t a regular reader as yet – why in hell not!

‘Death and Taxes’ is to appear in the Charlie Chaplin themed anthology Tramps, Seducers and Dictators edited by the inimitable Maxim Jacubowski and is due out with Bedford Publishing in 2027. It has a stellar cast so really chuffed to be included alongside Maxim Jakubowski, Jerome Charyn, Barbara Nadel, Vaseem Khan, Rose Biggin, David Quantick, William Boyle, Christine Poulson, Tom Mead, Lavie Tidhar, Martin Edwards, Chuck Brownman, Mia Dalia, Greg Mosse, Andrew Hook, Jake Arnott, Stephen Gallagher, James Grady, Victoria Dowd, Rhys Hughes, Xan Brooks, Mike Ripley, Josh Pachte, Ana Teresa Pereira, Nick Mamatas, Stephen Volk and Colin Bateman.

My tally for short stories in print or accepted has reached 68 (excluding reprints). At the speed I write I really can’t see me getting close to 100 but you never know.

That’s about it for now – except to say that Bunch Courtney is setting out on a new course so watch this space!

I realised this morning that I had not posted anything for the whole of august. I am not sure if people in general would all see this a blessing or a curse but it’s true nevertheless.

Speaking of truth – if it be known – I also had very little to say beyond “Phew, it’s hot out there folks!” I am looking out of the window at the rain and know that for a while at least we have what many would see as  typically British weather, which reminds me of a trip to Delaware some years ago where I had been taken by an American friend to a meeting of a local women’s group. I was approached  by one rather conservative type (one among many there) who asked “How do you Brits get your washing dry – what with all the rain and fog and all?”  I suspect she gained her image of Britain from old reruns of Sherlock Holmes where London is shrouded in a perpetual miasma of precipitation.

I politely reminded her that Seattle has more days of rain per year than London and Britain as a whole less average annual rainfall than Hawaii but I could see the disbelief in her eyes. Its one of those myths about the UK – along with terrible food – that seem to live on regardless. (Though to be fair from my experience of hotel food, esp in major cities, one can see where that second one comes from. UHT milk at breakfast? Errrch.)

But I digress.

If I have any excuse for silent running at all through the last month then it comes from the twin thieves of time that are writing fiction and also editing (not my own work but an upcoming horror anthology for Alchemy Press – more of that another time).  I am not the speed writer I once was – mainly due to developing a habit of compulsive rewriting, aka editing, or sometimes (I admit) some truly world-class prevarication. I tell myself all that editing makes me a better writer but I do know that it slows my output: a lot!

Leaving aside my finally embarking on the seventh Bunch Courtney novel I have been engrossed in several short stories for anthologies; all of which were on the clock. Yes I am that odd creature who loves a deadline. The deadline has to be set from the outside, however.  I have tried many times to impose a red line on myself – but I am not that easily fooled   I need someone else to slap me with an end date to work  and I’m there – tapping away at the keyboard into the wee small hours. Between 10pm and 2 am is my preferred creation time – when the world is still and the distractions few.

You must have seen those films of submarines where the  Captain gives the order for silent running and the camera pans across the crew standing motionless, expectant, gazing up at the roof of their vessel as if to catch a glimpse of the ships above them searching for the enemy below. Its tense, its emotional.

Silent running – it’s almost how I work.

Except for the comforting white noise of the TV gabbling away in the background – the same way that my homework was achieved to the backing of Radio Luxembourg fading in and out of consciousness (if you know you know B|)

Perhaps the order from the captain of my inner ship has always been ‘almost’ silent running.

A Party to Murder : Bunch Courtney Investigation #6 had been a tough write. Bunch readers liked what came out of the struggle but it took me a while to analyse why it had felt like pushing rocks uphill.

Partly it can be traced down to the agonies many writers faced during lockdown where writing anything was next to impossible. I am sure someone will, or perhaps already has worked out exactly why that was, but even after the all clear I had felt a strong yearning for pastures new.

The other reason was  I was all too aware of how there only so many crimes a girl can investigate from a quiet Sussex village without venturing into St Mary Mead territory.  I had only ever intended to write one crime novel so penning a series of six books gone well above and beyond expectations.

I wrote some short stories for anthologies, published re-edited an urban fantasy that I had abandoned in order to embark on the doings of Rose Courtney, put added to the small string of fantasy detective series concerning Georgianna Forsythe and put Of Sands and Tides on the market, but somehow getting my head down and writing something else seemed a million miles away.

Then the DCI Wright short story Going River (hinted at in Deadly Plot : BCI #5 )  demanded publication and I wondered if that was me finishing off the loose ends.

I toyed with research for a novel about Ellen Little, a young woman at a Birmingham arms factory looking into odd goings on at the works. Still WW2 but a very different setting and social order and had a couple of chapters done before wondering how long I could sustain the story – and whether there was more than one story in her. I still have plans for that one but it needs to incubate for a while longer.

Little did I know that Rose Courtney had not finished me just yet and was sabotaging Ellen’s best efforts. Rose had plans!

Last week I wrote an opening chapter for a new series : Rose Courtney PI.  A shift in emphasis from the horse mad country girl  to crime busting woman about town – well almost. We join her as plans for the agency are falling a little short of expectations…

Reading of the first draft of the first chapter to the writing group seemed to be well received  and so it appeared that Rose was back in control.

Full steam ahead on what is either Bunch Courtney Book 7  or given that is is a reboot Rose Courtney Book 1.

Today I opened the file labelled Rose PI synopsis that I had sketched out a month ago… and found the outline for a completely different case.

Rose seems to have jump started not one but two new cases.

I really hope that readers of the Bunch Courtney series will be as excited by the new direction the series is taking as I am.

There is a moment (for me at least), a momentary hiatus, where I have just completed several large projects as well as various smaller items and everything seems to halt. It could be seen as taking a deep breath before plunging into the next. Occasionally it develops into indecision: so many choices – so little time.

Especially when there are so many possibilities – choosing just one is overwhelming.

Yes, I have several things out with editors – either as anthology subs or longer pieces awaiting the dreaded red pen treatment. Those need to be if not exactly ignored then certainly set aside as being beyond my current control.

Yes, there are several projects in hand with my own anthologist’s hat on but again I am awaiting deadlines before any real work can be done.

So this week I have turned to the back files for a new project and taken the opportunity to tidy up my files in the process – deleting duplicates and perhaps more importantly updating ancient files that reach back quite literally to the last century and which, from my current Word edition’s reaction, may as well have been written in runes.

The oldest files I have unearthed are dated 1995. Some I know for a fact originated anything up to ten years prior to that and would already have been translated from Amstrad’s Locoscript into the now equally obsolete WPS (Microsoft Works) format. All of these now require urgent re-translation before they are lost forever. Most I have turned into RTFs on the grounds that the format may stick around for a while.

These ancients were banged out on my trusty WPS Amstrad 6128 and later PC Amstrad 8512 (more translations undertaken on their long journey). Reading snippets as I sling them from one system to another I am forced to admit that some are pretty bad! The ideas that can be worked on but with original execution that is pretty dire. These are my apprentice pieces that everyone needs to produce but which should never see the light of day.

There are more positively antediluvian items lurking in the attic – possibly dating back to the great flood. Either handwritten or else hammered out on what I am certain was a hefty pre-war Remmington typewriter: one that my father had rescued for me from the skip when he worked at Heinemann’s Press, Kingswood. Of those earliest efforts I shall draw a discreet veil. Twisted into spills they would doubtless make excellent firelighters…

It has taken me a few days to complete this all but its been an interesting process. I have numerous ideas for short pieces and over 50 abandoned novels – some of which are little more than an outline and half of a tentative first chapter while others are full MSs in dire need of overhaul before I showed them to anyone. A precious few might almost be considered close to finished.

Have I decided what to do next? Ummmmmm… not yet….

I have been a little tardy – a few days in Hay on Wye rather put it out of my head – but I am back at the desk once more with news!

The paper edition has been out for a while but I am pleased to say that Fables & Fabrications is now also available in Kindle format once again. There were a few glitches involving docs during the transfer from Penkhull to The Alchemy Press – now all fixed!

“From the arctic wastes of Norway to a fun-laden evening at the fair, Jan Edwards leads us through a world where nothing is as it seems. Shape changers and ancient spirits roam, and cats play their inscrutable parts in stories that unsettle and disturb the reader’s perceptions. Fourteen tales of mystery, mirth and the macabre. Chosen from her back catalogue of horror and dark fantasy these stories, leavened with a sprinkle of verse, have been collected for the first time in this volume.”

Contents:

Drawing Down The Moon
Grey Magic for Cat Lovers
Mayday Comes Askew
Midnight Twilight
Gallery Green
Thirteenth Day
Green Tea
The Abused and Him
Damnation Seize My Soul
Princess Born
Wind Blows the Oaks
Pet Therapy
Winter Eve
Jack Jumps Out of the Box
A Taste of Culture

There is also a small scattering of poetry that I shan’t list by title.

Links to buy below

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

As promised an update of my sourdough endeavours.

There have been any number of attempts that I have not embarrassed myself with recording – remember the opening of the film About A Boy?
Exactly…

No ducks were dispatched but I put it out on the bird table and even the greedy and ever ravenous local pigeons steered clear! It sat there for several days untouched before I took pity and broke it in pieces and threw it in the food-recycling caddy.

The bread is not wheat free (I draw a veil over my attempts at GF sourdough) but made with organic spelt flour, which, like many wheat sensitives, I can tolerate – especially in a fermented bread.

This was before the heatwave and having a cool kitchen had invested in a proofing box, which made some improofment(see what I did there…) And came close to success with one loaf – as the dough was very ‘sticky’ I put it in a loaf tin and baked in hope. Dense did not begin to describe. Edible but heavy in every way.

That was when I abandoned my ‘homemade’ starter and bought one on t’internet. A 50 year old starter according to the package. The first loaf using it was another heavyweight frisbee and I wondered if I had wasted money on the starter (and all of the other sourdough kit I have acquired).

Another try – reactivating my started from the fridge and was pleasantly surprised to see that it bubbled up quickly like something between The Blob and the Quatermass Experiment. Things were looking hopeful!

I used less water than before – as the troubleshooting section of my new book advised – and the kneading process produced a dough that, though slacker than a normal bread dough, seemed to have the right consistency. Then came the proofing stage – putting the bowl in the conservatory covered with a damp tea towel had the dough almost reaching the rim of the proofing basket. The heatwave excelled in one thing at least!

Time for the final phase!

I looked at a bread making book I had acquired last week in Hay on Wye which spoke of a dutch oven to enclose the loaf for the first half of the bake…

Ah… I don’t have a dutch oven as such but do have a cast iron casserole dish. Rather deeper than was really required but (to paraphrase) improvisation is the mother of success and that casserole dish doesn’t get nearly enough use. It seemed to do the trick! (Other than a burn on my wrist getting the loaf out of such a deep vessel) and voila!

Sourdough as most would recognise it! Tastes pretty good too. Still a little denser than I’d like but hey… its a start!

When I saw that these were being sold to me as high quality GF sausages my immediate thought was HOORAH.

Having cooked and eaten (half) of one my reaction has to be BLERGH.

One of the worst sausages I have ever tried. They might be gluten free but must that also mean flavour free?

GF INGREDIENTS: Pork (85%), Water, Gluten Free Oat Flakes, Sea Salt, Pork Stock [Yeast Extract, Rapeseed Oil, Pork Extract, Salt, Dextrose, Flavouring], Yeast Extract, Black Pepper, Onion Powder, Sage, Citrus Extract, Coriander, Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite), Mace, Nutmeg, Cayenne Pepper.

This compared with ingredients for the standard Tesco finest sausages – which also has some surprising listings – bamboo?

STD INGREDIENTS: Pork (85%), Water, Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium, Folic Acid, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Rice Flour, Sea Salt, Onion Powder, Pork Stock Powder [Yeast Extract, Potato Starch, Flavouring, Sugar, Salt, Pork Powder, Extracts of Rosemary, Turmeric, Rapeseed Oil, Ground Clove, Dextrose, Black Pepper, Mace, Nutmeg, Cayenne Pepper, Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite), Bamboo Fibre, Stabilisers (Disodium Diphosphate, Pentasodium Triphosphate), Sage, Caramelised Sugar Powder, Colour (Paprika Extract)

Both bangers contain 34% fat! – which is sky high by any sausage standards – and boy can you tell.

Easily the worst sausage I have ever tried – and that includes the budget varieties made of bright pink paste that may have been driven past a pig farm at some point.

Both I and my other half (who is never a fussy eater) discarded these as totally inedible!

My personal opinion and advice on this product? TO BE AVOIDED

I shall be giving a short talk on writing historic fiction here on Friday 12th!

I had thought to wait and see how book six of the series went down before embarking on a new volume – but ideas arrive and can’t be gainsayed.

The second thought that occurred was whether this was Bunch Courtney Investigation #7 or something very different?

Rose ‘Bunch’ Courtney has changed a lot since she came galloping into frame in Winter Downs – a book that was only ever meant to be a stand alone. Five books later I am seeing her in a very different light. Less the slightly bonkers, horse-obsessed – posh girl and into an equally bonkers but far darker sort of detective.

In my mind and imagination she has become far more ‘Rose’ than ‘Bunch’.

At the end of ‘A Party to Murder’ she is left at a crossroads in life and how she moves forward will have a huge impact on how people will view her.

Hmm – which way to jump? I would love to hear your views – message me with your answers