About - brb, writing a novel

So, currently, this Substack is

-a newsletter where I post updates about my writing and journaling practice

-an experiment, where I work out what I’m doing next. (“It’s gonna be BIG, guys,” is what I keep telling myself)

With that in mind,

I both apologise and thank you for stopping by, and offer this explanation: I’ve been having a hard life. 4 early baby losses and 1 very late baby loss will do that to you. It’s difficult to post personal essays when there’s no ‘positive take’. I’d love to write beautifully about grief, but I don’t think grief is beautiful. I think it’s awful. I’m alone here without my 5 favourite people and it sucks. I got back to work recently and am currently writing three separate projects for publication. News on that for you soon. After that, I would like to decide what I’m doing here, because I like this platform.

Meanwhile, this autumn (2025), catch my work here, in October/November issues of Ache and Art & Type magazines, on Youtube as writer/co-host of UK politics podcast, From Below The Balcony, or in person, as resident community artist at Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation St Margaret’s House, leading workshops in journaling for wellbeing and crafts for change (my November event will seat 50 to fundraise for food aid in Gaza. Join us here).

A longer explanation of who I am,

Oh mg, do you remember me from 2013?! I had an award-winning novel out that year! We were in all the magazines—EW, O, Vogue, Glamour, every last one. Since I became professionally famous on the internet, I have had a professional bio. So annoying that it has to be updated! But I put in the time just for you (and my income):

Abby is an award-winning author, and goalkeeper, best known for Golden Boy —"a grippingly innovative" coming-of-age story with a "radical non-binary, pro-intersex message" (Hida Viloria, Autostraddle).

Golden Boy published in 9 languages, and is recipient of an American Library Association Alex Award, a Best LGBT Debut LAMBDA Finalist, Booklist Top 10 First Novel, and School Library Journal Best Book. A feature adaptation was developed by Duck Soup/BBC Films 2017-2024. Follow-up Dead Girls, a Brad Listi Book of the Month pick for The Nervous Breakdown, is a 5-star "heart stopping horror" (Foreword Reviews). My debut Flick is considered a "cult classic" (GQ).

Other past work includes: the Golden Boy screenplay for BBC Films, Arts Council-funded podcast Writing Coercive Control, creator & editor of I Hope You Like Feminist Rants zine, Books Editor at Phoenix magazine, lead singer/lyricist for Girlboy (song ‘Jennifer Lawrence’ a BBC Introducing Top Ten Track of the Year), directing music videos & shorts, plus essays for The New York Times, Guardian, Independent, Glamour, Oh Comely, and The Huffington Post. She’s been a Moviescope One to Watch actress, BIFA juror, awardee of The Authors Foundation/K Blundell Trust, and is in the Writers' Guild. Abby runs community arts practice IRL Creative Health, facilitating journaling and craft workshops for wellbeing. She documents her own journaling practice on Substack, drawing inspiration from Japanese Ehon, 90s DIY culture, and collage aesthetic.

After a career hiatus due to baby loss, Abby received Arts Council England x British National Lottery funding to write a novel (documented on Substack), which found a home with Abi Fellows at DHH Literary in summer 2025.

On a personal note,

I’m queer, British-Irish, and Grimsbearian. I play football and scrabble, crochet, build community, get coffee, love my friends & family, and worry about making rent. I’m kind, tender, and quite funny. If I were on C4’s The Dog House (as a dog), they’d say, “she’s had a really hard time, but she’s got so much love to give.” I’d love to know what dog breed you think I would be, after having read all the way down this page, because I’m umming and ahhing about it. Let me know, perhaps in a comment on a post.