I don’t just babble about metal online. I’m a freelance writer and blogger for several magazines and companies. Over 100 of my articles, stories and poems appear in print and online. Here are some of my favorites:

My Sites

Steff Metal – Heavy Metal fashion, lifestyle and kvlture

Grymm & Epic – a small business guide for creative bad-asses

Gothic Wedding Planner – advice and lots of pretty pictures for alternative wedding planning

Blogging

Aside from the three sites above, I blog regularly for these awesome folks:

My column Cvlt Status on the Lip Service Webzine covers heavy metal fashion and lifestyle. If you haven’t heard of Lip Service before, they are the number 1 worldwide alternative clothing label. If you see a goth or metalhead looking particularly fierce, chances are they’re wearing some Lip Service gear.

Green in a Grey World: I write a bi-monthly column over at Achromatopsia.info about living with achromatopsia, a rare genetic condition rendering me completely color-blind, light-sensitive and legally blind. You won’t find any “woe is me” tales. On Green in a Grey World I share the humorous stories of life with achromatopsia.

I also write a couple of posts a month for The Disabled Shop Blog on living with various disabilities.

I’m a regular contributor to Waxing UNlyrical – the communications blog of PR specialist and all-round awesome lady Shonali Burke.

I also contribute occasional articles about extreme metal to No Clean Singing, the best blog around for honest metal reviews and tips on achieving Nigerian Riches.

Writing

I’ve published over 100 articles on various subjects in print and online. My specialty topics include: music and subculture, the writing craft, disability awareness, archaeology and travel.

I’m a regular contributor to 2 for Couples, the number 1 lifestyle magazine and iPad application for modern couples in wuv. If you want to read some of my best articles, including “When Music and Marriage Collide”, “I’m Married to a Serial Hobbyist” and “Long-Distance Lovin’”, as well as some stunning and hilarious writers, I strongly advise you to check out this magazine.

I’ve also been a regular reviewer and writer for Nocturne Magazine, New Zealand’s premier print resource of dark art and subculture. My favorite article I wrote for them was ‘Aether Aesthetic: the World of Steampunk’. Nocturne Magazine. Issue 2, August, 2008.

• ‘12 Tips for Surviving your First European Metal Festival’, Matador Nights, May 2009
• ‘Your First Rock Concert’. Kiki Magazine, March 2009.
• ‘Elven Lays and Powerchords: Chaos, Revellry and Community in Tolkien-themed heavy metal’. Strange Horizons, Janruary 2009.
• ‘City of the Beast: a Heavy Metal Tour of London’. Go NOMAD, November, 2008.
• ‘Become a Band Manager’. Dabbling Mum, November, 2008.
• ‘Writers Annoymous: the 12-Step programme for recovering writers’ (reprint), Writing World, August 2010.
• ‘Promoting Your Book with Twitter’, Writers Weekly, December 2009.
• ‘Wedding Bliss and Paychecks’. WritersWeekly, Janruary 2009.
• ‘Writing for Writers Works’. WritersWeekly, December 2008.
• ‘Bio-logy: Anatomy of an Author Bio’. Writers’ News, November 2008
• ‘5 Tips for Visually Impaired Travellers’. Traveller’s Notebook. January, 2009.
• ‘Well-Stocked Larders: the food and diet of Hobbits’. Strange Horizons, Feb 11 Issue, 2008.

Fiction and Poetry

I don’t write much short fiction or poetry anymore, as I’m concentrating on my novels, but you can find some of my stories in the following magazines:

• ‘Zombie Tolkien takes in a Move’. From the Asylum. August 2009.
• ‘23 Stab Wounds’, Sinister Tales, Volume 4.1, May 2009.
• ‘Over the Edge’ (reprint), Mindflights anthology, Issue 4, 2009.
• ‘Window Eye’ and ‘Beautiful Girl’. Ilumen. Sam’s Dot Publishing. April, 2009.
• ‘She’ll be Right’. Big Pulp Magazine, Spring, 2009.
• ‘Urban Funeral’. Breath and Shadow. Volume 6, No. 2. Spring, 2009.
• ‘Court of the Litterfey’. Reflections Edge, December, 2008.
• ‘Over the Edge’. Mindflights, November, 2008.
• ‘An Open McLetter’. Big Pulp Magazine, October, 2008.
• ‘Essay’, ‘Sense of a Man’ and ‘You and You’. Breath and Shadow, Volume 5, No. 5. July, 2008
• ‘His-story’. Haruah: Breath of Heaven. Double-Edged Publishing. Issue 17. Spring, 2008.

Competitions

I don’t like to blow my own trumpet, as they say, but that’s kind of what this publication page is for.

• My novel ‘Thorn’ was one of ten novels short-listed for the War of the Words, run by Tor UK in 2008.
• My blog post, Eulogy to my Miniscope, won first place in the Disabled Shop Blog Competition, in 2010.
• ‘WACK’, a short story about zombie penguins in Antartica, was a shortlisted finalist in the Oceanview Short Story Competition in 2008.
• My short story ‘Into the Light’ won honorable mention in the Australian Slippery When Wet Short Story Competition, 2007.
• And my war poem, ”Thermopylae’ won third place in O’Rorke Poetry Competition.

Ebooks

I’ve written a few ebooks which I sell on my sites. Stay tuned for a new ebook release in the new year and an exciting collaboration in 2011!

• The Grymm & Epic Guide to Blogging, $37, from the Grymm & Epic Shop.
• The Gothic Wedding Planner, $19, from Gothic Wedding Planner.
• 33 Mistakes Writers Make about Blind Characters, $9, from the Grymm & Epic Shop.

Email me if you’ve got an idea for an article, or you’d like me to write for your company or blog. I’m always keen to work with new folks and I love a writing challenge!