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UnLocked: short stories from 2020 debuts


I'm so pleased to announce the publication of UnLocked: a new short story anthology featuring sixteen stories from The D20 Authors, a group of professional novelists (including me!) whose debuts were published in 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns.


In the words of the excellent Philippa East, who was instrumental in pulling this collection together: the stories in UnLocked cover “everything from love to loss, murder to magic, and everything in between.”


All profits from this anthology will be donated to the Trussell Trust, a charity which supports a nationwide network of food banks, and together provide emergency food and support to people facing hardship and campaign to end the need for food banks in the UK.


#UnLocked will be officially released in e-book and paperback on Wednesday 23rd November (just in time for a great Christmas present!) — and you can pre-order the e-book version now! Click here to buy on Amazon.


Rosie's story in the collection

If you enjoyed my second novel The House Fire, you'll love the story featured in Unlocked, which I originally drafted a decade ago during my Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. The story was inspired by the story of Thomas Sweatt, a convicted arsonist who wrote long letters to a journalist, describing his crimes from his jail cell.


His rambling fire-fuelled letters inspired the character in my short story, and eventually led to the story in The House Fire! Read more about the inspirations behind my second novel here.


Who else is featured?


Getting published as a debut author in 2020 during the pandemic was really hard: bookshops were closed, events were cancelled, and few people were in the mood to read books. I was lucky enough to find a group of fellow 2020 debuts, and together we commiserated, celebrated and chatted together on Facebook throughout the pandemic. Now, two years later, we've come together to produce this collection of stories. Here are the amazing authors featured in the anthology:

Debra Barnes

Tom Benjamin

Caroline Bishop

Emma Christie

Catherine Cooper

Polly Crosby

Victoria Dowd

Philippa East

Tim Ewins

Gillian Harvey

Nydia Hetherington

Anna Jefferson

Penny Jenkins

Louise Mumford

Holly Race

Rosie Walker.


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