A Woodville Short Story Exclusive…

OUT TODAY! Of Dread, Decay and Doom is a horror anthology featuring short stories from an incredible roster of writers, and me! My contribution is Elderflower Cordial, a story set in Woodville in 1981 and featuring a character featured in The Corn Bride… and you can only read it in this anthology. Click on the image below for all the buy links you can eat…

Karen Storey on the Creative Differences Livestream

Karen Storey is the award-winning author of the brilliant debut novel THE APPROVAL OF SHEEP. Karen is a prolific short story writer, and and her memoir pieces have been published in The New York Times and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, andโ€ฆ her newsletter is written by her cat Tiffany. Weโ€™re going to discuss why you should set up a website and newsletter before youโ€™ve finished your debut novel and much moreโ€ฆ

Join us live: MONDAY 13TH APRIL, 8PM BST

Or join us on Youtube…

Start them while theyโ€™re young!

When I was a young, chubby, little bright orange haired child, I vividly remember playing in the garden with my sister. My mum would be pottering โ€ฆ

Start them while theyโ€™re young!

Me. Julie Wassmer. Staines. Live!

I’ll be chatting to Julie Wassmer, author of the brilliant Whitstable Pearl series, and screenwriter for shows likes EastEnders about her incredible career live and in person at the Staines Library Hub on Saturday 14th March from 3pm!

If you want to know about writing for TV, writing a series that gets made into a TV series (surely the Holy Grail for every novelist!) then join us before the tickets sell out! Like, now!! Click on the big picture below…

Who Am I, anyway…?

Who is this Mark Stay person, anyway? A quick hello/introduction to any news followers after that libraries vid went a bit popular…

Mysterious Murders short story competition winners announced

5 a.m. was an early wake-up for me to join the Mysterious Murders short story competition winners call this morning, but totally worth it to โ€ฆ

Mysterious Murders short story competition winners announced

Things People Say to Authors at Comic Cons, 2025 Finale…

How about a final round of Things That People Say to Authors at Comic Cons for 2025…?

Cabin at the Movies Saturday 1 November 2025

Local novelist and screenwriter Mark Stay joins me for this latest edition of Cabin at the Movies to choose his favourite horror movies. They includeโ€ฆ

Cabin at the Movies Saturday 1 November 2025

Return of the Nigerian Prince Redux: Beware Book Club and Book Review Scams

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a rising and extremely prolific marketing scam that Iโ€™ve been able to trace back to operators in Nigeria. 1,560 more โ€ฆ

Return of the Nigerian Prince Redux: Beware Book Club and Book Review Scams

Lucy Strange: How Scary is too Scary? | Mark Stay’s Creative Differences Episode 14

Lucy Strange is an award-winning childrenโ€™s author whose books feel like classic childrenโ€™s literature, but are written in a style that is engaging and accessible for todayโ€™s younger readers.

Most recently sheโ€™s collaborated with artist Pam Smy on their spooky, funny new series Lockett & Wildeโ€™s Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries! Often inspired by folklore and fairy tales, Lucy combines historical settings with touches of magic and fantasy to create utterly convincing worlds in which anything might happen.

And before becoming a professional writer, Lucy worked as an English teacher for fifteen years. Having also trained and worked as an actor, Lucy narrates her own audiobooks, winning the 2019 Audie Award for The Secret of Nightingale Wood.

WE DISCUSS:

Collaborating with illustrators

What Lucy learned from abridging Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Writer’s Block and how to deal with it

And how scary is too scary when writing for children?

And much more!



Or watch it on Youtube…



LINKS

Lucy’s Website: https://www.lucystrange.org

The Episode with GB Ralph: https://markstaycreativedifferences.com/2024/12/12/episode-5-with-gb-ralph-share-the-excitment/

What’s Giving Us Joy…

Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry: https://serpentstail.com/work/the-essex-serpent/

Instead of a Letter, Diana Athill: https://granta.com/products/instead-of-a-letter/

Once Upon a River, Diane Setterfield: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/437745/once-upon-a-river-by-diane-setterfield/9781784163631

Death at the Sign of the Rook, Kate Atkinson: https://www.kateatkinson.co.uk/books/death-at-the-sign-of-the-rook/

Buckingham Nicks: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/lindsey-buckingham-and-stevie-nicks/buckingham-nicks

Superstore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstore_(TV_series)

Robert Redford: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford

A huge thanks to Emily for production assistance, to Kai Newton for the edit, and Dominic Currie for the jingle.