When a reader doesn’t only get your book but takes the time to write about it with care and generosity, it becomes its own kind of gift. I’m deeply grateful to Michelle of Intimately Worded with Michelle for this thoughtful review article on Distorted Is The View.
Her reflection honours the quiet layers of the novel, the silences, the tenderness, and the difficult work of seeing a family beyond the fracture. Please read the full article, Distorted Is The View: When a Story Invites You to Stay, on her blog.
Image: A floral background behind a book cover
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Music, much like stories, has always been woven into the fabric of my experiences. Though not for a living, I can sing. I sang in the high school choir. I sang in the church choir, back when it was still one of my hangout places. These days, I try to sing in my poetry and prose.
Anyway, music is my mind’s sanctuary. After a writing session, I put something on and let it do what words, for a moment, cannot — dissolve the residue of the work. There are songs that just keep me going, entertain or make me think. Sometimes a song gets stuck on a loop in my head, and I let it. There’s usually a reason.
In no particular order, here are the top three songs that have been on continuous replay lately:
Mostly, I write in complete silence. But every so often, in the middle of a scene, a song would surface unbidden — rising out of some interior place I hadn’t been consciously tending. That’s when I understood that music wasn’t separate from the writing. It was doing something underneath it.
With DISV, certain songs became almost cinematic for me. I could see the characters move to them, or go still. I could feel how a particular chord change would catch a character off guard, the same way a revelation might. Music didn’t just accompany a moment but unlocked it in my mind as I wrote.
Now, as I ease into summer, I’m slowly working through character and song pairings for specific chapters. I’m letting the music annotate the story in a different register. I’ll be sharing these via the newsletter, where I write earnestly and honestly about both the work and the life around it. In the meantime, check out the playlist — take a listen and take a guess!
In my newsletter, I’ve also written about why I’m not having a formal book launch. Let’s just say my word for 2026, flexible, has been earning its keep in ways I didn’t entirely expect. So I’m having a quiet celebration, and perhaps this feels right too for a book that began in silence.
So, here’s to music, solitude and a little summer wildness. 🙂
It IS come. My first novel told through overlapping perspectives, Distorted Is The View explores how distance and silence bend our understanding of love, trust, and belonging.
It carries the inner life of a family living with silence, longing, fracture, and love. It carries questions of what children understand, what care asks of us, and whether truth, once named, can still make room for tenderness, repair, and forgiveness.
And now, at last, here it is...
Image: Distorted Is The View
PS. For publication week, I’m making the ebook edition gently accessible: from 9–16 June 2026; Distorted Is The View will be available at Kindle Books for €4.99 / $4.99 / £3.99, before moving to its regular price. For more buying options, see the book page.
PPS. For readers who prefer the paperback: The physical book will follow shortly. I had to make one final adjustment to the paperback proof. Thank you for your patience.
