New web home

This site is no longer updated. Please go here for my current site: http://sarahdobbs.co.uk

Killing Daniel - now available to pre-order

The book finally has a face, a release-date and a way to pre-order it. So excited. I hope it grabs your attention... Blurb: In Manchester Fleur is drifting through life haunted by her murdered boyfriend Daniel. In Japan Chinatsu is trying to escape a passionless marriage to Yugi Hamogoshi, a man with a secret who won't let her go. Fleur and Chinatsu used to be schoolfriends. Fleur and Chinatsu had a bond. Fleur and Chinatsu had dreams. This is the story of what happens before they can be together again. A cross-cultural thriller like no other, Sarah Dobbs' KILLING DANIEL exposes the secret lives of contrasting people with unflinching insight and lyrical prose. What people are saying: “KILLING DANIEL is an assured debut novel from a young writer who sets parallel worlds in motion and burns them into the reader’s imagination. Possessing an authentic narrative voice and impressive imaginative range, she is as much at home in Tokyo as in the post-industrial North West of England where her story begins. Her writing is economical, poetic, and darkly evocative; perfectly honed to explore the violence and retribution that underpins human affairs in her work, whilst also sustaining a tenuous but unbreakable thread of hope.” GRAHAM MORT Buy UK Buy US I talk a little about the process of the novel here

Killing Daniel - out on 1 September 2012

I haven't updated this site for ages, and yet it's occurred to me that it's now massively out of date. All the extracts on this blog, and others, that have seen me playing around with this novel, Killing Daniel, have paid off. The novel will be published on 1 September by Unthank Books. I've had a little sneak preview at the cover art, and can't wait to see the finished piece. There'll be a launch and lots of readings and whatnot. Have a look at my new blog for details about this, which will be announced soon. Here's a few details, just to whet your appetite: Blurb: In Manchester Fleur is drifting through life haunted by her murdered boyfriend Daniel. In Japan Chinatsu is trying to escape a passionless marriage to Yugi Hamogoshi, a man with a secret who won't let her go. Fleur and Chinatsu used to be schoolfriends. Fleur and Chinatsu had a bond. Fleur and Chinatsu had dreams. This is the story of what happens before they can be together again. Quotes "KILLING DANIEL is an assured debut novel from a young writer who sets parallel worlds in motion and burns them into the reader’s imagination. Possessing an authentic narrative voice and impressive imaginative range, she is as much at home in Tokyo as in the post-industrial North West of England where her story begins. Her writing is economical, poetic, and darkly evocative; perfectly honed to explore the violence and retribution that underpins human affairs in her work, whilst also sustaining a tenuous but unbreakable thread of hope." GRAHAM MORT on KILLING DANIEL by SARAH DOBBS. Published by UNTHANK BOOKS, September 2012. @UnthankBooks Sarah

Drawing Alice for Kindle

Ding-dong the witch is dead. Art teacher Evie Rice never got along with her mother Alice, but is left reeling when she commits suicide. When Alice forced her to have an abortion at 14, hot-headed Evie vowed never to go back to Wigan, or to speak to her mother again. But troubled Evie is about to discover her mother's shocking secret past. Will setting the record straight about Alice finally set Evie free?




http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drawing-Alice-ebook/dp/B005IZ0L1K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314291343&sr=8-2

*If anyone would like to review the book, please send your email and I'll forward one on to you (s.dobbs"at"blackburn.ac.uk)

The Red Balloon, Litro and NAWE

Two bits of news...

Flax published The Red Balloon early March 2011. You can get a copy here: The Red Balloon

I was a runner up in Litro's ArtBelow competition. You can read the winner's story in the underground and here, as well as the four runner's up here. Mine is called Match.com

I also have an article in NAWE issue 153 on the creative PhD. You can get a copy here: Should there be a fully creative PhD?

If you don't want to do that, please add your comments to their response to having funding cut. A short-sighted and shocking move given what the organisation have accomplished over the years. You can do that here: NAWE's response to total funding cut

What are we fighting for if we're not fighting for our society? Churchill would be pissed off, I reckon.

Audio Stories

Click and listen - my new Audio Stories blog is here. I love it, have found a new way to ramble. This can only be good. It displays fictional and real-life stories.


Hopefully you can guess which is which.

If you want to get involved, there's also Your Audio Stories. Just send me your work as an MP3. See more here: Your Audio Stories

Flax Singles Launch -

Chapbooks launch from Dinesh Allirajah, Sarah Dobbs and Ian Seed.

Audio Story - 'Snow'

A sample of me reading a new short story 'Snow'

http://twaud.io/qlw7

Audio Story - 'Snow'

A sample of me reading a new short story 'Snow'

http://twaud.io/qlw7

The Red Balloon - interactive novel in progress

The Red Balloon is a new experiment in writing a novel online with input from readers. Have your say:

Voices Anthology

For anyone who has ever lived/worked/studied in Blackburn, we're compiling an anthology of short stories and poems that include some aspect of the place.

To hear me babble about what we're looking for, visit this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00b1kyg/John_Barnes_22_09_2010

Paper Planes creative writing workshop

Unthology

An extract from my second novel will be published by Unthank Books in their Unthology on December 1st. Ah, just in time for Christmas. There is supposed to be a nice little book launch in Norwich and possibly London too!

x

Game, Set Love-Match on Amazon UK Kindle

UK peoples can now download Game, Set Love-Match on Amazon UK for about £2. You don't need a Kindle either, you can view it with Amazon's free e-book reader thing.

If you do download, please review - it would help!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Love-Match-Siren-Publishing-Classic/dp/B000Q9J0JC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1281274710&sr=8-2

xx

Killing Daniel - update

And lo, after the gazillionth edit, Killing Daniel was sent out to publishers last week. I may do a list when I get the responses back e.g.:

Faber = Nuh-uh.
Macmillan = Nuh-uh.

Cross *everything* for me ;)

x

Writers' Village: spring 2010 award

That lovely man from Writer's Village, John Yeoman, just emailed me to say that an extract from my novel Killing Daniel had won second place in the Spring Competition.

You can read the extract/view the link here:

http://www.writers-village.org/10-1-dobbs.php

Sarah
x

Tyres and Lemonade

Tyres are bad things. Garages are worse things. People who put nails in your tyres because you're parking in front of their house for a few hours when there is no other place to park at work, are bad things. Mechanics who change your computer and forget to plug things back in and make your car worse, are very bad things.

Good things: Easter. A little interest in the second novel. Writing loads...

x

Welcome...

Because MySpace is so passe, I have decided to infect a new blogosphere with my writing gossip.

What's new in the world of Dobbs?

- A new job at the University Centre at Blackburn College. Exciting. I get to design a new Creative Writing degree. Fun times.

- Decided to translate Drawing Alice into a stage play. Praise the lord for Script Gold.

- Taking pro-active approach on erm, actually being a writer. Result? Writing loads.

- PhD? No comment. I will get round to this before...I die.

- Submissions out and awaiting response? 3. Am I going to win the Bridport Prize? Am I buggery. But still, you've got to be in it...

Cross those fingers!

Sarahx