Regarding the challenges of a short story – the biggest one had to be length! Plan as I might, the words just didn’t want to stay contained within the 3000 word limit. Then there was research – these were the first stories I had written set in medieval London, so the research I needed to do was completely disproportionate to the word count. Just finding out that goldsmiths and the like usually set up shop on Cheapside or Friday Street took a whole load of discovering. Still, it’ll all come in handy later on.

Regarding tips for short stories, I’m really not sure I’m the right person to give them. These were the first I had written pretty well since high school. But I’m definitely a plotter. I suppose my tips might be: keep the number of characters to a minimum, the plot relatively simple, and plot first to make sure the story is do-able within the length.

Seeing as I have two stories in the anthology, I’m going to be greedy and give you two excerpts, one from each:

From ‘The Diamond of Friday Street’:

‘We have other stones, my lord. Amber a-plenty, ruby that dropped as dragon’s blood from the skies, a handful of pearls from seas warm as bath-water …’

‘No, I want no other stones.’

‘But … we are lapidaries, my lord. We have no other stock. So … your business with us is done.’

Her eyes were upturned to his now, pools of grey light sparking with a million tints. Like Adela herself – seemingly colourless at first, but threaded with all the richness of the meadow.

And from ‘The Nun and the Thief’:

The man lounging beside her might be low-life scum – attractive in a lithe and cocky sort of way, admittedly – but still first-cousin to the slime that rimmed the Thames at low-ebb. But he was not stupid, and he would take her diamond if he could. The liripiped man had known what he was about: two thieves made an honest man.

The theme of diamond, of course! I was determined to remain within the Middle Ages, and diamonds were not particularly well known then. Engagement rings were unheard of, and the cutting of stones was still pretty rare. I had lots of fun in ‘The Diamond of Friday Street’ with incorporating ancient beliefs about the diamond or ‘adamant’ as it was sometimes called. Then in ‘The Nun and the Thief’, I was inspired by a historical robbery in medieval London, although the details are quite different.

My first project was a full length historical romance featuring Vikings, entitled Enslaved. I’m currently on tenterhooks waiting to hear back from 2 publishers on that score. But for the future: writing short stories has proved to be so satisfying that I’ve decided to try my hand at novellas for a bit. I’ve just finished an erotic novella with a Viking setting, and now I’m trying to psyche myself up to beginning another – set in medieval London. With the boom of e-books, short stories and novellas are suddenly a lot more marketable!

Absolutely! Would I miss the chance to catch up with the most interesting and inspirational ladies (and occasional gents) in Australia? No way. I’ll see you there.